Chapter 2: Practicing black magic and casting hailstorms

The deed of practicing black magic and casting hailstorms

Three.  Again Rechungpa asked Jetsun. “[You] said that first you committed black actions – tell us, how did you perform them?” “What kinds of circumstances led the Jetsun to train in black magic and casting hailstorms?” “When I was studying reading, there was a great wedding feast in the lower valley of Tsa and to preside over that, Master was invited, and I also went as an attendant. On that day a singer had captivated me, and I had the desire to sing, and I was on the path in front of our house, and as I reached the front of the door I was singing, and Mother heard. “This is like the voice of my son. There is no suffering on earth [worse] than ours, so he can’t be he singing,” she thought. Not believing it, she looked, and she was astonished to recognize that it was me. Carrying a stick in her right hand and a handful of ashes in her left, she appeared outside. She threw the ashes in [my] face and struck me on the head several times with the stick. Mother fainted once, and while she was collapsed there, . With her teary face she looked at me, staring. “Boy, when compared to us, mother and child, there is no suffering on earth [worse] - can you actually think about singing?”, she said. Wailing, the three of us, I, my mother and sister, cried.

Then, “I’ll see if I can. Mother, make ready the lama’s offerings and whatever you can afford for my own provisions.” To facilitate [my] study in black magic, Mother sold half of the field Trepe Tenchung for the price of a Karchen turquoise and a white horse and two bags of dye. I rested a few days at a place called Lhundrup Guesthouse and looked for traveling companions. Five amiable men who said they going to study religion and black magic in U Tsang arrived, and I suggested we go together since I was also going to study black magic. They said ok. Then with the horses loaded with two bundles of dye and the turquoise kept on my body, we set out to go. Son, if you return without showing signs of black magic in our region, I, Old Mother, will kill myself in front of you and remain dead.”

Then, we went to a place called Yakde, selling the horses and dye, and carrying that which was gold payment on my body. At Tonlug Raka I met many monks and nuns. I asked them for the name of a master in the three, black magic, curses, and casting hailstorms, in the vicinity of U, and one of those monks said, “In the village called Kyorpo in Yarlung, there is a lama called Yungton Trogyal of Nyak who is an accomplished master of wrathful mantra practices such as black magic and curses.”