GESAR

See Also: Some Nyingma Lineages: Dudjom Tersar | Longchen Nyingtig | Namcho & Palyul
Guides to Other Important Nyingma Figures: Rongzompa | Longchenpa | Jigme Lingpa | Patrul Rinpoche | Mipham Rinpoche | Gesar

"Today’s world moves so fast. Joy, sadness, or simply reading a short email can open the door to emotional volatility and uncertainty more quickly and intensely than ever before— it’s why the tsunami of human emotion is so out of control. Now more than ever before, we need to develop our ability to remain strong and kind within the fortress of who we really are. If someone like Mip-ham Rinpoche had no qualms about using Gesar— the king, the legend, the protector, the guide, and the guru— as a path to accomplishing authentic presence and emotional stability, why shouldn’t we make use of this extraordinary path too?
—Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, from the foreword to Gesar: Tantric Practices of the Tibetan Warrior King

We can regard the entire story as a display of how the warrior’s mind works. Gesar represents the ideal warrior, the principle of all-victorious confidence. As the central force of sanity, he conquers all his enemies, the evil forces of the four directions, who turn people’s minds away from the true teachings of Buddhism, the teachings that say it is possible to attain ultimate self- realization. These enemies of the four directions represent quite graphically the different manifestations of cowardly mind, which the ideal warrior subjugates through the power of his unconquerable confidence.
—Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, from the foreword ofThe Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling