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.

作为第五个化身，僧给扎卓，“狮子吼声”，莲花生大士通过使用神通白法驱除了黑暗魔法。历史上，这种驱魔事也发生在菩提迦耶，即佛陀证悟成佛之地。因此，我们的探险队从喜马偕尔邦清凉的山脉开车回到菩提伽耶所在的炎热平原：比哈尔。我们想追随莲师在听到菩提迦耶僧侣召唤时，要求他回来并保护他们免受黑魔法残害的路线。这颂文就是著名的莲师七句祈请文，用来遥请莲花生大士的。

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.

传说佛教与外道学者之间发生了一场激烈的无遮辩论。据说外道使用黑魔法赢了那场辩论。莲花生大士使用神通白法力，现化成愤怒狮子吼声，僧给扎卓，打败了黑魔法，拯救了佛教徒学者。我们探险队为了理解如何以神通白法战胜黑魔法，便请教了修行人、学者与量子物理学专家。