The library
Stories
Ancient accounts, lineage histories and the stories of practitioners today, each told like a picture book, a passage and an illustration at a time.
The Lotus-Born
A lake at dawn, a lotus on the water, and a child at its heart: how the traditional accounts remember Guru Rinpoche's birth in Oddiyana.
From Prince to Yogi
The lotus-born prince of Oddiyana gives up a throne, goes into exile, and finds peace among the cremation grounds.
Mandarava and the Lotus Lake
A princess of Zahor who chose the Dharma over every crown in India, a king's fire that the old accounts say became a lake, and a woman remembered as a master in her own right.
The Building of Samye
A king's wish, an abbot's humility, walls that would not stand, and the master who came over the mountains to help build Tibet's first monastery.
Yeshe Tsogyal, the Woman Who Became a Buddha
A noble girl who refused the marriages arranged for her, a queen who became Guru Rinpoche's closest disciple, and the teacher who kept his words for the future.
The Hiding of the Treasures
Before he left Tibet, the tradition says, Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal hid teachings in rock, lake, temple and heart, for people who had not yet been born.
The Dakini and the Origin of the Seven-Line Prayer
Scholars who had run out of answers, a dakini in their dreams, and seven lines sung on a temple roof: how tradition remembers the first time the prayer called Guru Rinpoche to come.
Guru Chöwang and How the Prayer Spread
A lay master in a hidden valley of southern Tibet, a treasure that named its own finder, and how the Seven-Line Prayer traveled from him to the world.
Nyangral Nyima Özer and the First Biography
A poor hermit on a bare mountainside in southern Tibet, a cave beneath a rock, and the book that gave Tibet the story of the lotus birth.
Jigme Lingpa's Visions and the Longchen Nyingtik
A boy who preferred play to study, a casket of yellow scrolls at the great stupa, three visions of Longchenpa in a cave above Samye, and a treasure kept secret for seven years.
Patrul Rinpoche, the Wandering Teacher
A nomad's son who gave away everything, walked eastern Tibet in a sheepskin coat, and wrote the book through which many people first meet the Seven-Line Prayer.
Mipham and the White Lotus
A boy blessed by the bodhisattva of wisdom, thirteen years in a cliff retreat, and a lost draft found by a devoted attendant: how Jamgön Mipham wrote White Lotus, his explanation of the Seven-Line Prayer.
The Tiger's Nest
On a cliff above Bhutan's Paro valley, the tradition says, Guru Rinpoche arrived on a flying tigress in a fierce form of flame, and made a wild place peaceful.
Longchenpa, the Vast Expanse
A brilliant student who left the great college, a sack in the snow, a teacher who kept moving camp, seven treasuries written on a white mountain, and an exile in Bhutan.
Pema Lingpa and the Burning Lake
A blacksmith's son from Bumthang, a ragged monk with a scroll, and a pool in a river gorge where, the story goes, a butter lamp kept burning under the water.
The Treasure Friends of Kham
A Sakya scholar, a Kagyü monk and a doubted young visionary became friends in nineteenth-century Kham, and together they brought Guru Rinpoche's hidden treasures into the light.
The Eight Names of Guru Rinpoche
A lake-born child, a monk, a scholar, a king, a yogi, a lion's roar, a great teacher and a wild wrathful flame: the eight forms tradition remembers, and why one teacher needed so many.
Karma Lingpa and the Book of the Dead
A boy of fifteen on a mountain in Dakpo, a teaching kept secret for three generations, and the book the West came to call the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Rigdzin Gödem and the Hidden Valleys
A boy with three small feathers in his hair, a mountain that opened at midnight, two beloved prayers to Guru Rinpoche, and a hidden valley beneath Kangchenjunga.
The Lamp in the Window
An original story: after her grandmother dies, a woman spends a winter in the old house in Minneapolis and finds herself lighting the lamp in the window again.
Dudjom Lingpa, the Visionary of Golok
A poor nomad boy from Golok who, the tradition says, was taught by Guru Rinpoche and the dakinis in visions, and whose New Treasures are now practised around the world.
The King and the Twenty-Five
A small circle of Tibetans sat around Guru Rinpoche in the eighth century. The tradition says they never quite stopped coming back.
Seven Lines to the Summer Pasture
An original story: on the seven-day walk to the summer pasture, a nomad girl's grandfather teaches her the Seven-Line Prayer one line a day.
Shabkar, the Singing Yogi
A yogi from Amdo who lived three years on a tiny island in a great lake, sang his teachings to anyone who would listen, pleaded for the animals, and, his autobiography says, saw Guru Rinpoche's face at last.
Princess Pemasal and the Promise
A king's young daughter, a teacher who called her back for a little while, and a gift placed in her mind to be found again in later lives.
Vairotsana, the Translator in Exile
A young monk crosses the Himalaya to find a hidden teacher, brings the Great Perfection home, and is sent into exile for it.
Thangtong Gyalpo, the Bridge-Builder
A white-bearded yogi with iron in his hands: the King of the Empty Plain, who hung chains across Tibet's rivers, sent singers out to pay for them, and left prayers for hard times.
Jetsün Mingyur Paldrön of Mindrolling
A treasure revealer's daughter who fled war on foot, taught in Sikkim, came home to ruins, and helped rebuild Mindrolling and keep its teachings alive.
Do Khyentse, the Wild Wisdom of Golok
A nomad's son from Golok who, the tradition says, met Guru Rinpoche's retinue at two, roamed as a hunter-yogi, and woke Patrul Rinpoche by calling him an old dog.
The Tenth Day
An original story: a Kathmandu engineering student takes his grandmother to the cave at Pharping on Guru Rinpoche's day, and on the bus home finds he still remembers the prayer's first line.
The Copper-Coloured Mountain
Where is Guru Rinpoche now? The tradition answers: on a copper-coloured mountain across the sea, in a palace of lotus light, among dakas and dakinis.
Lhatsün Namkha Jigme and the Hidden Land of Sikkim
A yogi of fifty walks over the snows into Sikkim, meets two other lamas at Yuksom, and helps a hidden land become a home for the Dharma.
The Caves of Yangleshö
A cave above the Kathmandu valley, a Nepali princess, three years without rain, and a dawn: where tradition says Guru Rinpoche reached the great seal.
Rongzom, the Scholar Who Defended the Old Teachings
A rowdy boy who recited his lessons at play, a word of praise from Atisha, and a gathering of critics who came to censure a lay scholar and stayed to become his students.
A Lotus for the Stone
An original story: a Bhutanese girl who wants only to leave for the city spends one monsoon helping an old carver of mani stones, and carves her first lotus the week her sister's baby is born.
Garab Dorje and the Lineage from Oddiyana
A child once hidden in ash becomes the first human teacher of the Great Perfection, and his last words travel from hand to hand toward Guru Rinpoche.
Sangye Lingpa and the Gathering of the Guru's Intentions
A grieving boy from the forests of Kongpo, three scrolls in the night, and a great cave that gave Tibet a vast treasure centred on Guru Rinpoche.
Why the Tenth Day Belongs to Guru Rinpoche
Why the tenth day of every lunar month is Guru Rinpoche's day: the promise the tradition remembers, the twelve deeds linked to its twelve months, and how the day is kept, from a lamp at home to a silk image the height of a building.
Jomo Menmo, the Treasure Revealer
A herding girl who heard a sound from the rock, was mocked as possessed, became Guru Chöwang's partner, and is said to have left the world from a mountaintop with two women companions.
Terdak Lingpa and the Island of Liberation
The treasure revealer who founded Mindrolling in 1676, gathered the Nyingma teachings with his brother Lochen Dharmashri, and set the tenth-day offering of the cycle that holds the Seven-Line Prayer.
Jatsön Nyingpo and the Union of the Precious Ones
A Kongpo boy who met Guru Rinpoche in dreams, seventeen years behind a clay-sealed door, and a treasure centred on the Guru that travelled to Katok, Palyul and the Kagyu schools.
The Hundred and Eighth Bead
An original story: in a hill house above a Darjeeling tea garden, a widowed schoolteacher sets out to restring his late wife's broken mala, and finds her prayer already in his mouth.
Jigme Gyalwe Nyugu in the Valley of the Wild Asses
A nomad's son who slipped away from home rather than marry, met Jigme Lingpa with tears of joy, lived for twenty years under a rock in a high valley, and taught the young Patrul the words that became The Words of My Perfect Teacher.
Ratna Lingpa and the Hundred Thousand Tantras
A treasure revealer who asked for all three scrolls, heard a four-line prayer on the Copper-Coloured Mountain, and gathered the scattered scriptures of the Old School so they would not be lost.
Nubchen Sangye Yeshe and the Dark Years
When the Tibetan empire fell and the temples went quiet, a lay yogi of the Nub clan kept the teachings alive, and the tradition says even a king stepped back.
The Cave of Long Life at Maratika
A cave in the hills of eastern Nepal whose name means "the end of death": where the accounts say Guru Rinpoche and Mandarava met the Buddha of Boundless Life, and where Hindus and Buddhists light their lamps today.
Kunzang Sherab and the Founding of Palyul
A Kham lama, three teachers, a boy who received teachings from the sky, and the monastery of Palyul, founded in 1665 and carried into exile three centuries later.
Pema Rigdzin and the Valley of the Great Perfection
A craftsman's son from Kham who came to be called "the Great Perfection," a prophecy of a valley, and the hermitage in Rudam that became Dzogchen Monastery.
Nine Rows of Twelve
An original story: a homesick novice monk in a south Indian monastery helps an old shrine keeper prepare 108 butter lamps for Guru Rinpoche's day.
One Word in the Fourth Line
An original story: in a rented room in Boudha, a young translator spends nine days on a single word, Guru Rinpoche's name, until an old lamp-seller at the stupa shows her what she has never done with it.
Dampa Deshek and the Founding of Katok
A monk who studied with a hundred teachers, a choice between the rainbow body and a monastery, and Katok, the oldest of the great Nyingma monasteries, founded in 1159 and revived five centuries later.
Shechen and the Rabjams
A runaway scholar, the boy recognized as his rebirth, and the Kham monastery of Shechen that they began, with its many founding dates.
Seven Stops Before Morning
An original story: over one winter of night shifts in a Toronto care home, a nurse learns the Seven-Line Prayer from a ninety-one-year-old Tibetan resident, one line at a time, so she can hold the lines for her when she loses her place.
Jamgön Kongtrul and the Jewel Cliff
A boy from a Bön family in Kham became the monk-scholar who gathered Tibet's scattered treasure teachings in a hermitage on a cliff, and called on Guru Rinpoche all his life.
Orgyen Lingpa and the Chronicle of Padma
A young man, a west-facing cave above the Yarlung valley, and the life story that taught generations how to picture Guru Rinpoche.
The Dharma King
A boy crowned at thirteen, an emperor who waited for a bow that never came, and the disciple who spent his life making room for the Dharma in Tibet.
The Bakery at Dawn
An original story: in a small bakery in Queens, a Sherpa baker says the Seven-Line Prayer under her breath every morning while the oven heats, and a restless seventeen-year-old apprentice starts arriving earlier and earlier.
Tertön Sogyal, the Treasure Revealer of Nyarong
A young hunter from Nyarong put down his rifle, became one of the great treasure revealers of Tibet and a teacher of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, and spent his life opening doors Guru Rinpoche had closed.
Namkhai Nyingpo, Who Rode the Rays of the Sun
A monk of the Nub clan studied with Humkara in India, came home to exile, and practised in the caves of Lhodrak Kharchu, where the traditional accounts say he rode on the rays of the sun.
The Lotus Pond
An original story: in a Dehradun garden, a newly widowed biology teacher brings her late husband's lotus pond back from the mud over one spring, while a Tibetan neighbour walks past each morning saying the Seven-Line Prayer.
Shuksep Jetsün Lochen Rinpoche
A poor girl who told the stories of compassion in market squares became a wandering yogini, and then the beloved teacher of three hundred nuns on a mountain south of Lhasa.
The Long Haul
An original story: over one winter of night runs across Kansas, a Tibetan-born truck driver who has never seen Tibet starts saying the Seven-Line Prayer a line per mile marker, and a night dispatcher with her own grief keeps him company on the phone.
Atsara Salé, the Companion Set Free
In Nepal, the life story says, Yeshe Tsogyal paid the price of a young servant's freedom, and he walked beside her on the path for the rest of her life.
The Lion of the Tiger's Nest
Langchen Palgyi Sengé, the "Glorious Lion" of the Lang family, translated for a king and then made his home in the cave of the Tiger's Nest.
The Schoolroom
An original story: a homesick young teacher from Kathmandu spends a year in a village school in Upper Mustang, where an eight-year-old teaches her the Seven-Line Prayer, one strict correction at a time.
Tsele Natsok Rangdröl and the Lamp of Plain Words
A boy of the Kongpo borderland who drank from both the Kagyu and Nyingma rivers, kept his vows down to a cup of sweetened water, and wrote short, clear guides still read today.
The Great Stupa of Boudha
A poor woman who kept chickens, a king who could not take back his word, and four brothers whose wishes at a great white dome are said to have shaped the coming of the Dharma to Tibet.
The Night Before Losar
An original story: a scattered Tibetan family gathers in a Zurich flat for the last two nights of the Tibetan year, with a week of cleaning, a soup full of jokes, a Scottish guest meeting everyone at once, and a grandmother who cannot sleep.
Lochen Dharmashri, Eye of the World
The great scholar-monk of Mindrolling who kept the Nyingma's spoken-word and treasure lines alive, taught without a break for sixteen years, and lost his life in the war of 1717–18.
The Repair Shop
An original story: over one Delhi semester, a burnt-out PhD student keeps bringing broken things to a taciturn Tibetan repairman who murmurs the Seven-Line Prayer while he works, one stitch at a time.
Machik Labdrön, the Lamp of Lab
A girl who read scripture faster than anyone in Tibet became one of its most loved teachers, and the tradition saw in her Yeshe Tsogyal born again.
The Hidden Valleys
Valleys sealed by mist and snow, guidebooks hidden in rocks, and the seekers who went looking: what the tradition says about Guru Rinpoche's hidden lands.
The Pilgrim's Path
An original story: a Chilean botanist, recovering from a long illness, walks for three days through the hills of Nepal to a cave of Guru Rinpoche, saying the Seven-Line Prayer so badly that her young guide has to sit down.
Ngari Panchen and the Three Vows
A boy named Lotus from the walled kingdom of Lo, a strict monk who remembered being a king, a treasure hidden in the back of an image at Samye, and a book on keeping three vows in one life.
The Second Language
An original story: over one summer near San Francisco Bay, a Deaf Tibetan American teenager and her grandmother, who knows no sign language, invent their own signs for the Seven-Line Prayer, with a hearing cousin who interprets badly.
The Rakshasa Land
Guru Rinpoche left Tibet for the land of the rakshasas, the tradition says, but his farewell was mostly about coming back.
Chökyi Lodrö, Pilgrim of the Lotus-Born
The great non-sectarian master of Dzongsar left Kham in 1955 and spent his last years walking to the places of Guru Rinpoche's deeds, leaving small prayers of longing wherever he stopped.
The Ferry
An original story: on the night ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki, a young horn player too frightened to sleep before an audition meets an old Bhutanese cook on deck, saying the Seven-Line Prayer to the dark water on his way home.
Sera Khandro, the Dakini from Central Tibet
A noble girl from Lhasa who ran away at fourteen to follow pilgrims to Golok, lived there as a poor servant, and became a revered treasure revealer who wrote the story of her own life.
The Shape in the Red Rock
A grieving king, an offended mountain spirit and a cave in a red cliff in Bhutan, where, the tradition says, Guru Rinpoche's body left its shape in the stone.
The Garden Plot
An original story: over one growing season in a Seattle community garden, a gruff retired engineer argues about tomatoes with the cheerful Tibetan night cleaner on the next plot, who says the Seven-Line Prayer while she weeds at dawn.
Dorje Lingpa and the Golden Needle
An orphan who found his first treasure at thirteen, a dream that pointed south to Bhutan, and a revealer who honoured both Buddhism and Bön.
The Twelve Sisters of the Snows
On his road into Tibet, the tradition says, Guru Rinpoche met the goddesses of its snows, lakes and passes, and twelve sisters became guardians of the teaching.
The Moon Cave at Yerpa
A cliff of caves near Lhasa where, the tradition says, a king prayed, Guru Rinpoche sat for seven months, eighty disciples reached accomplishment, and people have come to sit in silence ever since.
The First Snow
An original story: over one desert winter, an eleven-year-old Tibetan-Mexican boy in Phoenix learns the Seven-Line Prayer from his grandfather in Dharamsala on Sunday video calls, mixes it up with his Spanish homework, and finally says it in his first snow.
Dodrupchen, the Great Siddha of Do
A nomad boy from Golok, a prayer spoken at Tsari, a bowl of yogurt at a snowy cave, a book that sent him across Tibet to its author, and the teachings he carried home.
The White Lake
A great lake beneath Mount Kailash, held sacred by many traditions, and a small monastery on a bird-shaped hill where a cave of Guru Rinpoche is remembered.
The Lamp Carrier
An original story: over one long night shift in Cape Town, a nervous rookie notices that his Tibetan paramedic partner murmurs something for twenty seconds before every call, and at dawn by the Green Point lighthouse she tells him what it is.
The Mother Who Stayed: Yeshe Tsogyal's Later Years
When Guru Rinpoche left Tibet, Yeshe Tsogyal stayed: teaching princes and herders, hiding treasures, and at last, the accounts say, departing in light with a promise to come when called.
The Turquoise Lake
A scorpion-shaped turquoise lake said to hold the life of a people, its guardian goddess, and what the tradition remembers of Guru Rinpoche among the lakes of Tibet.
Taksham Nüden Dorje, Who Found Her Story
A wise eccentric from Kham, remembered as Atsara Salé reborn, who brought the best-loved life of Yeshe Tsogyal and treasures of Guru Rinpoche to light in the seventeenth century.
The Weavers' Loom
An original story: over one autumn in a Tibetan settlement in Nepal, six women at a carpet loom weave a stranger's order, gossip about who R. Okafor might be, and fall into the Seven-Line Prayer whenever the oldest of them starts it.
Gyalsé Shenpen Thayé and the College of Shri Singha
A nomad boy who lost his father became the scholar who rebuilt Dzogchen Monastery after an earthquake, founded its great college and gathered the old texts of the Kama.
Plain Words on the Mountain
At Chimphu above Samye, the tradition says, Yeshe Tsogyal kept asking Guru Rinpoche how to live, and wrote down his plain answers for people of the future.
Adzom Drukpa and the Camp by the River
A long-haired yogi of Kham, taught by Patrul Rinpoche and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, revealed a treasure of his own and gathered a great camp of monks, nuns and householders on the bank of the Dzing river.
The River Crossing
An original story: on a rainy monsoon afternoon in Dharamsala, with the power off, a Tibetan grandmother tells her bored eleven-year-old grandson how, at seven, she crossed the mountains from Tibet in 1959, saying the Seven-Line Prayer one line to each step.
Nanam Dorje Düdjom, Unhindered Like the Wind
The minister who went to bring Guru Rinpoche to Tibet, watched the king's gold blow away on the wind, and was later remembered for passing through rock.
The Naga and the Scriptures
The water spirits who guarded the Buddha's sutras, resisted the building of Samye, and became, the tradition says, its friends and keepers.
The Hospital Chaplain
An original story: before dawn in a Chicago hospital, a Jewish chaplain sits with a frightened Tibetan mother whose son has to go to work, and learns from her, by ear, the last line of the Seven-Line Prayer to say with her at the surgery doors.
The Story of the Prayer
A dakinis' song, a treasure found in a valley of southern Tibet, a commentary called White Lotus, and voices in many countries tonight: the life story of the Seven-Line Prayer itself.
Nyala Pema Dündul, the Old Beggar of White Rock
A boy who begged at the edge of his village spent nine years in the caves of the White Rock, gave away every gift that came to him, taught the yogis of Nyarong, and, the tradition says, left only his hair and nails behind.
The Dog Walker
An original story: a young Tibetan dog walker in Paris secretly names the dogs she walks after the forms of Guru Rinpoche, until a stressed lawyer whose grumpy old bulldog will only walk to the hum of the Seven-Line Prayer asks what the names mean.
The Return to Oddiyana
Years after his exile, the old accounts say, Guru Rinpoche came home to Oddiyana as a beggar with Mandarava, met a second fire, and stayed thirteen years to teach the land that had sent him away.
Khenpo Ngakchung and the Hundred-Year Promise
A boy of the Nyoshul family, a teacher who had waited for him, and the great scholar-yogi of Katok whom the tradition remembers as Vimalamitra come back, and who sent his students back to the Seven-Line Prayer.
The Night Sky
An original story: through two weeks of cold, moonless nights at a Himalayan observatory in Ladakh, a Tibetan astronomer who begins each night with the Seven-Line Prayer and a sceptical, kindly Scottish visitor talk about galaxies, sky-goers and being small.
The Great Lama of the Lake
How a small lake in the Himachal hills, where the tradition says a pyre became water, drew winter pilgrims, three faiths, cave yogis and Tibetans in exile for century after century.
The Kitchen Radio
An original story: every night in 1980s Kathmandu a Tibetan restaurant owner switches off the radio and says the Seven-Line Prayer over the wiped tables, to his teenage daughter's horror, until thirty years later, in her own kitchen in Melbourne, she hears herself do the same.
The Tshechu: Bhutan's Festival of the Tenth Day
How Bhutan keeps Guru Rinpoche's tenth day: masked dances that purify, teach and bless, the masters who shaped them from Pema Lingpa to Tenzin Rabgye, and a great silk image seen for only a few hours at dawn.
The Thangka Painter
An original story: in the Bir Tibetan Colony in northern India, an impatient young apprentice spends a whole year on one painting of Guru Rinpoche, from grinding the stones to painting the eyes last, and slowly comes to know the face behind the name she says every morning.
Shri Singha and the Teachers Between
A scholar hides his teacher's words in a boulder, and a seeker from the far east walks for nine days to find him: the hands that carried the Great Perfection toward Guru Rinpoche.
The Ferryman of the Tsangpo
An original historical story: in 1930s Tibet, a coracle ferryman who knows only one prayer rows pilgrims across the Tsangpo to Samye for a whole season, and says the Seven-Line Prayer at the start of every crossing.
Tulku Zangpo Drakpa and the Prayer in Seven Chapters
A prince hides a prayer in a temple wall, a mountain hermit finds it five centuries later, and gives it away to the one it was meant for.
The New Baby
An original story: at three in the morning in a Perth flat, an exhausted young Bhutanese father walks the floor with his colicky five-week-old daughter, and finds his grandmother’s Seven-Line Prayer, the lotus line especially, coming back to him as something to walk to.
The Yarlung Valley
The valley where, the old stories say, Tibet's first king came down from the sky, and where Guru Rinpoche tamed a mountain god and sat in a cave facing the morning.
The Beekeeper
An original story: on a hillside above a small town in mid-Wales, a postwoman inherits six beehives from the old nurse who taught her beekeeping, and a swarm in May leads her back to the few quiet lines her teacher said each morning before lifting the first lid.
The Library Book
An original story: a city branch librarian finds a worn card of handwritten Tibetan tucked inside a returned book about Nepal, tries for weeks to return it to a reader she cannot look up, and says the Seven-Line Prayer once for a stranger whose name she will never know.
No illustrated stories match these filters yet. More are in preparation, listed below.
In preparation
Stories to come
Each story is researched from at least three sources and read by a knowledgeable practitioner before it is published.
AncientThe life of Guru Rinpoche
- Yeshe Tsogyal, the woman who became a buddhaTraditional account
- The hiding of the treasuresTraditional account
- The Dakini and the origin of the Seven-Line PrayerTraditional account
In betweenThose who carried the prayer
- Guru Chöwang and how the prayer spreadLineage history
- Nyang Ral Nyima Özer and the first biographyLineage history
- Jigme Lingpa's visionsLineage history
- Patrul Rinpoche, the wandering teacherLineage history
- Mipham and the White LotusLineage history
NewPractitioners today
- Coming BackThe site owner's own story
- Readers' storiesPractitioner stories, shared with consent
- Tales inspired by the prayerOriginal fiction, always labeled as such
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