05/15/2026
The Courage to Awaken: The self we defend so carefully may be exactly what stands in the way of freedom
You can find Coral Flower here.
Padmasambhava has many titles, including by not limited to Lotus Born, White Lotus, Lotus Sovereign, Lion of the Shakya, Embodiment of the Three Jewels, Wrathful Guru, and Vajra Subjugator. For the purpose of telling the story, I choose to call him “Padma.”
Traditional tellings of these stories begin with an eight-year-old boy being discovered, floating upon a giant lotus in the middle of a lake. Traditionally, the boy magically appears upon the lotus, emanating the compassion and power of the Buddha. The boy appears with no history or background beyond being descended from the realms of the Cosmic Buddhas.
My first challenge as a teller of tales was to answer the questions, how does the boy get to the lotus, and how did he come to be called Padma? Having him magically appear, as a fully embodied eight-year-old boy, was a stretch too far. if Padma had a human life before he was “found” on the lotus, then what happened to his parents and family? Did they call him Padma? Did he have a name before that?
A second challenge was to tell the tale of Padma’s killing the minister’s son. It feels too convenient, dare I say unbelievable, that Padma ‘dropped’ his vajra by accident to liberate the young man’s consciousness from looming unfortunate karma. If our hero sees misfortune approaching, how does he know? What does he know? How does he bring himself to murder someone to save them? (This is a core element of book 1: Whte Lotus: Secrets of the Silk Road.)
A third and most challenging part of this tale involves Padma’s adventures within the charnel grounds. The burial grounds of eighth century India lay beyond the boundaries of acceptable society. Imagine bodies left in the open to decompose. Vultures, jackals and other carrion eaters devour the flesh of the dead. Bones and decay are scattered everywhere.
Outcasts and outlaws, such as the convicted murderer, Padma, gather there to practice and meditate. They are naked or nearly naked. They smear their bodies with the ashes from cremations and let their hair grow long and wild. No one respectable goes to the cemetery grounds except to leave their dead and return as quickly as possible to normal life.
By the eighth century of our era, Buddhism was flourishing throughout northern India. Monastic and scholarly Buddhism dominated religious life. Lord Buddha’s call to a life of radical transformation now wore the familiar saffron robes and spoke in cultured and learned tones.
The ancient practices of yoga and the devotees of the older gods, especially Shiva, found refuge in the burial grounds. A new type of Buddhist practice arose. One which combined the powerful practices of yoga with the non-dual traditional wisdom of Indian and the original, liberating teachings of Lord Buddha. Today we call those practices Vajrayana or Ta**ra.
Within Buddhism, the teachings that stream from those burial grounds are sometimes called the Great Seal of Awareness (Mahamudra) or the Great Perfection (Dzogchen). These teachings, Mahamudra and Dzogchen, take you beyond the reach of historicity into the realms of deep meaning and powerful transformation. The charnel grounds offer a design-perfect setting for letting go of everything that holds you back. The spiritual hero’s journey requires that you visit the ground of ashes, where you let your cherished life fall apart to allow space for something new.
If you seek full liberation within one lifetime, and are both brave and desperate enough to do what it takes, these teachings might take you there.
If you seek a safer story of a nicer transformation, look elsewhere.
Finally, the tale of Padma’s encounter with Princess Mandarava requires you to regard human sexuality as a sacred door to transformation.
In my tale, Padma and Mandarava (Coral Flower) encounter each other as equals. The fates bring them together to deepen their individual transformation. Together, they find a truer, more human awakening. Although “White Lotus” is Padma’s tale, I have tried to pay homage to Mandarava as a Buddha, fully awakened on her own.
To avoid the sexuality of the story is to avoid being fully human. To obscure Mandarava’s power and enlightenment falls into the trap of duality. Duality is precisely what their encounter liberates from.
I am afraid I will disappoint any reader who desires to read only what they have already learned. Details such as how long Padma stayed in a particular charnel ground, the names of precise teachers, or specific practice instructions have been omitted or changed to serve the story.
The story itself is told to serve one point.
It is possible to achieve full awakenment within one lifetime, if you are brave and desperate enough, and if you are lucky.
You can find Coral Flower here.
I hope you enjoy the read.
