Lama

Biodata

Power Progression

The following records Lu Feng’s entry into the Lama ranks and his initial advancement afterward; it is not a universal sequence for every Dharma lineage.

Qualifications and Initiation

Degree and Great Offering

• Student monks normally advance through scripture debates, examinations, and a Great Offering before obtaining the Kalyāṇamitra degree and becoming eligible for initiation 1.
• A Great Offering costs approximately one to two thousand taels of silver. It includes distributing highland barley porridge and copper coins to the temple’s monks 1.
• At the Endless White Pagoda Temple, the final examination involves questions from senior monks occupying the temple’s principal Dharma seats 11.
• Patronage can alter the examination route: Zhiyun’s support allows Lu Feng to bypass the preliminary debates and enter the final debating courtyard directly 18.
• Temples possessing a college can confer the lowest Kalyāṇamitra degree; Ganye Temple once had both a complete college system and a Lama capable of empowerment 2.

Precepts, Yidam, and Transmission

• Formal admission includes receiving precepts, registering a Dharma name, and wearing red monastic robes 11 13.
• A disciple’s Yidam may be selected according to birth information, sex, temperament, or disposition. The appropriate Lama is then chosen according to that Yidam 19 23.
• Empowerment and the Yidam Lama’s teachings normally take place within a mandala, which may appear as a Thangka, mural, or three-dimensional sanctuary 28.
• The Sixth-Stage degree is an entry permit for cultivation. Further progress requires repeated empowerments, offerings, study, and sufficient wealth to sustain them 30.
• Esoteric texts remain restricted: Lu Feng gains permission to read certain scriptures only after reaching the appropriate realm and receiving empowerment from a Lama 46.

Abilities and Skills

Secret Mantras and Visualization

Lamas can practice teachings unavailable to ordinary student monks.

• Mantras provide a means of self-defense against Malevolent Ghosts; student monks normally lack comparable protection 2 7.
• Formal qualification permits visualization and mantra recitation, with higher methods restricted by degree and cultivation realm 1 11.
• Mantra holders possess a lingering aura that can exert pressure even when they are not actively chanting 13.
• Advanced doctrinal debates can have lethal supernatural consequences. Mingfa’s defeated opponents have become Malevolent Ghosts or outer gods after their Buddha-nature shattered 15.

Empowerment and Dharma Transmission

Lamas transmit cultivation methods and enable disciples to practice them.

• Zhuogedunzhu refuses to give Lu Feng full empowerment before he earns the Kalyāṇamitra degree, but temporarily grants him an incomplete Dharma-protector path during the Gaqila crisis 3.
• A Lama’s available transmissions depend on the lineage and methods he possesses. At the Endless White Pagoda Temple, multiple Lamas can teach Vajra Bodhi Mahā Mahāmudrā, while Lu Feng’s first King Mingzhu empowerment must come from Mingli 31 34.
• In the empowerment described at Sunrise Temple, the disciple is meant to visualize his Lama, transform that image into the Yidam, follow its teachings, and ultimately become the Yidam 42.

Subjugation of Supernatural Beings

Some Lamas bind dangerous entities and employ their power.

• Powerful monks can subdue Malevolent Ghosts and outer gods as temple Dharma protectors 12.
• A teaching circulating among attendant monks holds that a Lama’s mount is a subdued Malevolent Ghost 10.
• Subjugating an Obstacle Mara represents overcoming an obstruction on the path to Buddhahood. Mingli instructs Lu Feng to subdue one and use it as a mount 45.
• An Obstacle Mara need not be a Malevolent Ghost: the category includes anything that prevents a monk from becoming a Yidam 46.

Authority and Social Standing

Temple Offices

• The title does not imply equal rank. Degree, education, monastic office, resources, and connections distinguish Lamas from one another 3 30.
• A qualified monk from Pingzan Vajra Temple’s tantric academy can immediately serve as a Leading Sutra Master or Abhisheka Lama at the Endless White Pagoda Temple 3.
• Within the same temple, an officeholding Lama enjoys substantially greater standing than one without an appointment 30.
• Temple Lamas mediate disputes between chieftains and Dzongben nobles. An accusation of harboring an Outer Dao practitioner can also bring a chieftain under temple adjudication 9.

Offerings and Dependents

• Qualified Sixth-Stage monks can accept offerings and acquire retainers, estates, servants, and slaves 25.
• Access to a Lama is commonly controlled by yellow-robed attendant monks. Student monks seeking an audience must provide an offering, from which the attendant may take a share 9.
• Villages seek resident Lamas for protection against supernatural dangers, offering children, livestock, butter, tsampa, and other resources in return 16.
• Patronage creates obligations in both directions: even powerful monks can be constrained by those who support them 26.
• Public reverence does not establish benevolence. Some Lamas restrain exploitation to preserve the population and resources required for Dharma assemblies 45.

The Lama–Disciple Bond

• An Abhisheka Lama is described as holding authority over a disciple’s life, death, possessions, and required offerings 9.
• A disciple must honor the Yidam Lama as the Yidam, obey his instructions, and conceal nothing from him. Disaster affecting the teacher can implicate the disciple as well 34.
• The bond can convey material benefits: Mingli tells Lu Feng that he may inherit part of his authority, estates, and cultivated influence 34.
• Succession carries responsibilities. Mingli expects Lu Feng to continue his Dharma lineage and shelter his descendants 34 39.
• Attendants face particularly severe dependence. Secret Mantras prevent disclosure of a Lama’s affairs; Zhiyun uses one to erase an attendant’s memories after he overhears confidential information 9.
• Lu Feng’s empowerment is exceptional: afterward, Mingli’s words carry none of the binding force normally associated with the relationship 42.

Appearance and Ritual Implements

• Red monastic robes distinguish formally qualified practitioners from lower-ranking monks 11 25.
• Ordination does not involve burning scars into the scalp. Clothing, implements, retainers, and privileges instead mark differences in standing 25.
• Zhuogedunzhu appears wearing a cockscomb hat, carrying prayer beads and a prayer wheel 2.
• Ritual implements have distinct uses: a Damaru can soothe Malevolent Ghosts, a Dharma Conch transmits sound, and a special butter lamp can conceal its user from ordinary Malevolent Ghosts 29.

Limitations and Risks

• Lama status does not guarantee safety. Ganye Temple declined despite having an empowerment-capable Lama, and Lu Feng recognizes that insufficient cultivation could leave him equally vulnerable 2 14.
• Maintaining supernatural protectors is dangerous. Insufficient offerings or incorrect timing can endanger the supporting Lama’s life 7.
• Empowerment itself can be fatal: Mingli’s previous six disciples became Malevolent Ghosts during their first King Mingzhu empowerment 34.
• Magical power does not ensure longevity. Lu Feng knows of monks dying unnaturally in their forties and an Abbot Dharma Venerable unable to live beyond a hundred 12.
• Temple authority has political limits. The highest-ranking Tusi and nobles maintain their own shamans and Lamas and may resist temple judgment or persecute monks 4.

Notable Holders