Book Excerpt
The Black Protection Cord
I recited Padampa Sangye's mantra on black protection cords, imparting blessings that would help the students to avoid having any obstacles. Everyone wore this cord, and even when they were older, and went away to college, I gave them each a cord. They felt more protected and happy. Wherever they went, to Dharamsala or Mussoorie, they would always receive this sacred kind of amulet. If the children traveled on a plane or bus they would ask each other if they had Popo Lama’s protection cords. Several told me that even if they had trouble sleeping, by wearing this cord at night they would have a restful night.
However, one teacher in Dharamsala told a student, "You shouldn't wear a black cord, it may be bad, as this is from the Chinese tradition." Whenever the student, whose name was Thundrup, wore the black protection cord, the teacher would scold him. The boy thought to himself,"I'm not allowed to wear this, but if I don't, I don't sleep well and I will have other obstacles." So the young boy went into the bathroom, cut the cord into small pieces and swallowed it! He thought that in this way he would have the cord close to his heart. When Thundrup sent this story to his father in a letter, the father asked for my advice. I told him, "This teacher may have a lot of knowledge, but he doesn’t know the dharma. According to Buddhist tradition, a protection cord may me red, yellow, blue or black. If he ate this cord, it will still benefit him and he will feel protected. There is no problem."
After some time, several young girls fainted at the Songtsen School in Boudha, one after the other, and other strange things started happening. The school had many pujas performed in order to remove these obstacles but it didn't help. More students were passing out every day. Finally, they invited me to try and solve the problem. The morning I arrived, the principal asked me to give a lecture on education. All the students of various ages, along with all the teachers, gathered in the yard and I took the opportunity to give a lecture on the black protection cords:
"The Buddha taught 84,000 teachings, each according to one'’s own capacity, sometimes gentle sometimes wrathful. For every illness there is a cure, but when karma runs out, death comes. You are students and don't have much time for this right now, so don't worry about all the different deities in Buddhism. But at least, know about the four directions: east, west, south, north, and center. The sun rises in the east, to our front. To our right is considered south, the back is west and the left is north. The five colors apply to these directions, east being white, south is yellow, west is red, north is green and the center is dark blue. Our whole physical being arises from these five elements of the five colors. The white Water in the east, is expressed as the fluids and blood of all sentient beings. The yellow Earth in the south comprises the flesh and bones of beings. The red Fire in the west gives beings energy and warmth. The green Wind in the north is how we derive breath and motion. From the blue Space in the center comes mind, consciousness."
"Sentient beings come from these five elements and at death they all separate. When these five directions are seen in the form of deities, east is white Vajrasattva, south is yellow Ratnasambhava, west is red Amitabha, north is green Amoghasiddhi, and finally space is blue Vairocana. Each is in embrace with their consort, so they are the duality of male and female. If you practice with the yellow deity, you get the blessing of the earth element, and so on. This is how the deities function and that is why there are different colored protection cords."
"One can also see our being as divided in three. The body or form is allocated the white color and the letter Om, situated at our forehead. The power of speech is considered to be a red Ah at our throat. And the quality of mind is seen as a blue Hung in the heart area. Each represents a different deity-Manjushri, Chenrezig and Vajrapani. All three are condensed into Padampa Sangye. His color is very dark and rich. Dampa's deity is the black Vajrayogini or Troma Nagmo. For that reason the mantra is also black."
"Thus the black cord is actually a deep dark blue and represents the Buddha'’s mind. It has nine sacred knots in a row, and protects from nine harmful things: weapons, wild animals and other physical harm, formless beings like demons, ghosts and so forth. In the case of ghosts there are also different kinds. The Tsen are red, Du are black demons, Lha or god-like entities are white, Za or astrological demons are multicolored, Nyen is yellow and Nagas, demons of water and earth, are green. The mind of all the Buddhas must be evoked to expel the harm from these formless beings. This invocation happens through the black color and the deity Vajrapani, and the black seed syllable Hum. When the nine sacred knots are tied, the mantra Hum is chanted to impart this powerful purifying effect to the protection cord."
"So it is directly from the Buddha's teachings that I made these black cords, and not from any Chinese tradition. It may have been due to ignorance about Dharma or jealously that some people have the mistaken idea that protection cords are only red and black ones must be from the Chinese. The truth is, I have only met two Chinese people in my whole life-and that was in Nepal, not Tibet!"
I explained this to the teachers and students at the Songtsen school. I did a chod practice and chased away the negative entities, using a dough effigy or "ransom torma". Then I taught the students how to recite all the appropriate mantras. Afterwards all sickness and strange occurrences ceased.
