ON THE HISTORY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF THE 'DAS-LOGstrength. To all the people they told the good news that I'd returned and
all became faithful and pious. Then I wished to go abroad and deliver
Dharmaraja's message, but a few persons spread hateful gossip about
me, saying I was of evil caste and, having left my body for seven days,
my mind had gone to Central Tibet to gather peoples' breath, and that
now I'd come back. All the others listened to that talk. Some said, "If
that's the case, she's indeed a witch," and the country was filled with
such gossip. Then the elder Sde-pa said it was like the expression
'Instead of the fame of circumambulating Rtsa-ri, one gets the gossip of
having stolen Mgon-po' s yak', and that I should stay awhile and keep
my experiences secret.
One day Khra-phu dpon-slob Rje Rinpoche comes and Karma-
dbang-' dzin asks for teachings. Thereupon a servant of hers says that the
teaching should be easy for her inasmuch as she had gone to the land of
the dead and returned. The lama says that he has had the same
experience three times and they compare notes. Karma-dbang-'dzin tells
him the entire story and gradually people gather around to listen. They
see the lama cry. He decides to postpone his teachings and asks her to
tell her story and deliver the messages from the dead. Offering her a
horse, mule and a servant to accompany her, he then requests that she
travel far and wide to work for the salvation of beings, saying that she
will have more disciples than himself and praying for her enlightenment.As a motif in the literature of popular religion, the spiritual journey is often
connected to the attainment of special powers, charisma, or used as a metaphor
for spiritual growth and development. In traditional Tibetan culture, the ability
to "travel" to another realm or time, invisible or inaccessible to other men, is
also a source of sacred authority and is among the constituent factors of building
personal charisma. Other sources of charisma in Tibet-both Amtcharisma, as in
the case of high ecclesiastical officials, and Gentilcharisma, as in the case of
membership in a reincarnation or teaching lineage-are often modified by the
"personalities" which fill these institutional slots. Personal achievement, meas-
ured by such things as scholastic or mystical skill, adds weight to the legitimacy
of the occupant of such positions. The criterion of "travelling" is shared by
several charismatic specialists in Tibet. Curiously, it is not necessary as a major
component in the background or personality of the archexample of personal
charisma, the lama. By virtue of the fact that they are worldly manifestations of
the unconditioned or noetic, lamas are charismatic by ascription. No other being
can bestow or transmit to others divine blessings, which are thought to confer
upon the recipient salvation, good health and other desiderata. In the words of
one savant, lamas are the symbol of all good things:
The lama is that very self that aggregates all the Buddhas of the three
times. His body is the monkhood, his speech the pure law, his mind the