Searching for the Lotus-Born Master (Ⅵ)

Editor's note: Laurence Brahm first came to China as a university exchange student from the US in 1981 and has spent much of the past three and a half decades living and working in China. He is a lawyer, an economist and founding chairman of the Himalayan Consensus. He is also an award-winning documentary film director specializing in extreme Himalayan expeditions. His latest film Searching for the Lotus-Born Master (2018) has received a dozen international film festival awards and accolades.

Starting Nov 14, China Daily is publishing behind-the-scenes stories about the documentary every week, with nine episodes total. Please stay tuned and join this incredible journey.

As the fifth manifestation, Sengye Dradrok, "The Lion's Roar", the Lotus-Born Master dispelled black magic by using white magic. Historically this event happened at Bodhgaya where Buddha achieved enlightenment. So our expedition team drove back from the cool mountains of Himachael Pradesh to the hot plains of Bihar where Bodhgaya is located. We wanted to follow the route that the Lotus-Born Master took when he heard the call of monks in Bodhgaya asking him to come back to protect them from black magic. This invocation would become known to the world as the seven line prayer, calling upon the Lotus-Born Master.

作為第五個化身，僧給扎卓，“獅子吼聲”，蓮花生大士通過使用神通白法驅除了黑暗魔法。歷史上，這種驅魔事也發生在菩提迦耶，即佛陀證悟成佛之地。因此，我們的探險隊從喜馬偕爾邦清涼的山脈開車回到菩提伽耶所在的炎熱平原：比哈爾。我們想追隨蓮師在聽到菩提迦耶僧侶召喚時，要求他回來并保護他們免受黑魔法殘害的路線。這頌文就是著名的蓮師七句祈請文，用來遙請蓮花生大士的。

The story is that a fierce debate broke out between Buddhists and non-Buddhist scholars. It is said that the non-Buddhists used black magic to win the debate. The Lotus-Born Master used the white magic to appear as the fierce lion, Sengye Dradrok, to reverse the black magic and saved the Buddhist scholars. Our expedition team wanted to understand how you can stop black magic with white magic. We learned from both practitioners, scholars and quantum physics experts.

傳說佛教與外道學者之間發生了一場激烈的無遮辯論。據說外道使用黑魔法贏了那場辯論。蓮花生大士使用神通白法力，現化成憤怒獅子吼聲，僧給扎卓，打敗了黑魔法，拯救了佛教徒學者。我們探險隊為了理解如何以神通白法戰勝黑魔法，便請教了修行人、學者與量子物理學專家。