His meeting with Niguma came about in this fashion. After he had
received teachings from many great Siddhas, Khyungpo Naljor again
searched for highly realized teachers from whom he could receive more
advanced instruction. The most realized teachers he encountered told him
that one with his qualities should seek the great Bodhisattva who was
not separate from Dorje Chang in her realization and in the profound
teachings she could skillfully transmit.
Khyungpo Naljor asked where he could meet such an enlightened being and
was told that her presence could manifest anywhere to highly purified
beings. Unfortunate beings, those still caught in emotional afflictions,
would find it very difficult to encounter her at all, since she had
dissolved her physical form, attained the rainbow body, and achieved the
level of Dorje Chang. Every now and again, however, she would visit the
most sacred cremation grounds and, leading a host of dakinis, would
preside over great ritual offering feasts (ganacakras). There someone
might have an opportunity of seeing the great Niguma.
As soon as Khyungpo Naljor heard the name of the great dakini, he felt
such devotion, like an electric shock, that tears swelled up in his
eyes. Immediately he set out to find her at the great charnel ground
called Sosaling. As he traveled, he continuously made supplications to
the Three Jewels. When he reached the cemetery, he saw above him in
space at the height of seven banana trees, a female deity bluish in
appearance, who wore elaborate bone ornaments and held a trident and a
skull. As he gazed at her, he sometimes saw one deity, and sometimes
many; some were in meditation posture, and some were dancing or making
graceful gestures. He felt sure that this was the great Bodhisattva
Niguma, and began to make reverent prostrations to her, sincerely
imploring her for transmission of the teachings.
On the day of the full moon, Niguma gave Khyungpo Naljor the empowerment
and transmission of the teachings of the profound Dream Practice. In
the middle of this, she said to him: "Son from Tibet, arise!"
Suddenly Khyungpo Naljor found himself in midair at the height of three
banana trees. Looking up towards Niguma, he saw that the great being was
on top of a golden mountain, surrounded by a vast retinue of dakinis.
Down the four sides of the mountain, rivers fell. Khyungpo Naljor
wondered out loud if this amazing mountain was truly there or whether he
was witnessing a miraculous performance by the dakini.
Niguma answered, "When the ocean of samsara is turned over, when all
attachment and ego-clinging are totally uprooted, then every place and
every thing is covered with gold, forming a golden field of
non-attachment. The actual nature of samsara, this phenomenal world, is
like a play of dreams and illusion. When you have realized
experientially that the play of the phenomenal world is nothing but a
dream, or is like the illusion created by some magician, then you have
gone beyond the ocean of samsara. This requires the greatest devotion to
your Lama. Understand this. Now you must leave here. Go and grasp your
dream.”
Khyungpo Naljor understood her instructions and entered the dream as he
had been taught. In the dream state he was given full empowerment for
the Five Golden Dharmas of Niguma. Three times in the dream he received
the empowerments, including those of the Six Yogas of Niguma. At the
end, Niguma told him this: "In this land there have been no other beings
except yourself who received the total transmission of these doctrines
three times in one dream.”
On the following day, Niguma once again gave him three times the
complete transmissions, with the detailed explanations of these
doctrines; this time the transmission took place in the waking state.
One commitment she asked him to keep was this: only he and another
Mahasiddha, by the name of Lavapa, had the transmission into the six
doctrines of Niguma; the teachings should be kept secret until seven
generations had passed in an unbroken line of transmission from one Lama
to one chosen disciple in each generation. After the seventh
generation, it would be appropriate to give these teachings more widely
for the benefit of all beings.