Observations placeholder
Tibetan Buddhism - Messages on the wind
Identifier
003851
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Alexandra is attempting to visit a famous magician and has ‘captured’ his ngagspa.
A description of the experience
Alexandra David-Neel With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet
I replied that I did not harbour any evil intention against his master and only wanted to have a talk with him for the sake of enlightenment. I also commanded my servants to keep a still closer watch on our companion. The ngagspa could not but be aware that he had become a prisoner. But as he also understood that no harm would be done to him and that he was well fed - a thing to which Tibetans are keenly alive - he took his adventure good humouredly.
"Do not fear that I shall run away," he said to me. " You may bind me with ropes if it please you. I need not go ahead to inform my master of your coming. He already knows all about it. Ngais lung gi teng la len tang gtsar “ (I have sent a message on the wind).
Ngagspas are in the habit of boasting of so many and such various miraculous powers that I did not pay any more attention to his words than to those of his colleagues in the black art.
This time, I was wrong.
When we had crossed the pass, we entered a region of pasture land. Robbers were not much to be feared on these wide tablelands. The Chinese traders, who had clung to us day and night while in the forest, recovered their assurance and took leave. I still intended to follow the ngagspa, when a troupe numbering half a dozen riders emerged from an undulation of the ground. They rode at full speed toward me, then dismounted, saluted, offered 'kha-tags" (complimentary scarves) and a present of butter. After the polite demonstrations were ended, an elderly man told me that the great Bonpo ngagspa had sent them and begged me to renounce my intention of visiting him, for no one but an initiated disciple ought to approach the place where he had built his secret magic kyilkhor.
I had to give up my plan. The ngagspa, it seemed, had really informed his master by "sending a message on the wind." To persist would have been useless.
…. So, I gave a complimentary scarf and some silver to the ngagspa to be presented to his master. I congratulated the Tibetans on their good luck in having secured the service of a first-rate magician and we parted on friendly terms.