Creation

In the beginning, before time, before the first star, there was only vast nothingness. It was Namkha Togden Chosumje, the infinite empty space, silent and without form. Yet hidden in that silence lay the five causes, seeds of creation, waiting to stir.

From this stillness arose Trigyal Khugpa, the forefather of light, virtue, and existence. He gathered the five causes into himself and released a single sound, a breath of “ha.” From this breath, the first winds were born. They spun into a blazing wheel of light, circling swiftly through the void. From their turning came heat, and fire was born. Where the cool winds met the fire’s blaze, dew formed and became water. The winds churned this water, drawing earth particles to it, and they spread far and wide until mountains rose and ground was laid beneath the sky. Out of this weaving of the elements came two great eggs: one cubic and filled with light, the other pyramidal and filled with darkness.

The egg of light burst open by its own power. From its upper rays were born 360 shining deities, who filled the heavens with brilliance. From its lower rays came spirit hosts, thundering across the skies with their steeds. And from the heart of the egg emerged Sidpa Sangpo Bumtri, a radiant man of white light, his hair woven in seven turquoise plaits. He became King of Existence and father of the Lha, the gods of the sky.

The waters of the newborn world swelled into oceans, and from their bubbling surface rose a blue egg. It cracked apart, revealing a turquoise woman with seven shining plaits. She was Chucham Gyalmo, Queen of the Waters. Sangpo Bumtri took her as his consort, and from their union came Nine Brothers and Nine Sisters. By the force of their intention, each called forth a partner, and from these eighteen couples arose the races of gods and of humankind. They gave birth also to the wild animals that roam the forests and the birds that wheel through the skies.

But in the shadows, the egg of darkness also stirred. It split, and from it poured black light, spilling upward as ignorance and pollution, spilling downward as madness and distortion. Out of its core stepped Munpa Zerden Nagpo, the King of Non-existence, his hair braided in three black plaits. He became the father of the Düd, the demons of the sky. From his union with the Queen of Darkness came a poisonous egg, which cracked with a roar. Steam rose into the heavens, birthing storms, thunder, and calamities. Its albumen soaked into the earth, spreading disease. Its shell became weapons and plagues. And from its yolk leapt a being of terror, Chidag Nagpo, the Black Life-Stealing Fiend, with bulging eyes, tangled hair, and gnashing teeth. In his right hand he held a black cross of power; in his left, a lasso of disease. At his side gathered demons of jealousy, attachment, hatred, pride, and ignorance. Together they unleashed birth, sickness, old age, and death upon the world.

Yet humankind was not abandoned. From the heavens descended a protector, fierce and radiant. He came as a flaming wild yak, falling to earth in the land of Zhang-zhung. He entered Mount Kailas, the mountain at the world’s center, and made it his dwelling. This was Gekhöd, the fiery mountain god, whose body became one with the sacred peak. Legends tell that when demons rose to overwhelm the earth, Gekhöd hurled a flaming boulder of gold into the sea, boiling the waters until the demons fled in terror. From that day he was guardian of gods and men.

In his Meri form, Gekhöd is vast beyond measure, his golden body crowned with nine heads, his eighteen arms flashing with weapons of fire, his six legs striding like a storm. Thunder swirls around him, lightning leaps from his gaze, and sparks of flame cascade from his armor. At his side stand the Mamo goddesses, wild spirits of nature who punish human arrogance and the desecration of earth. They are the fierce immune system of the world, yet under Gekhöd’s command they protect those who live in harmony with the land. Meri’s body blazes with the fire of wisdom, yet out of his turquoise smoke flows the energy of compassion.

So the world became the frontier of two eternal powers. Ye is the order of light, being, and existence. Ngam is the order of darkness, chaos, and non-being. Once they were separate. When they touched, our universe was born, a place where their forces contend. From the Lha we humans inherit light, yet from the Düd we also carry shadow. In every moment, the battle is waged within us as well as around us.

The poisons of Ngam entered the world as pollution. They clouded the air, tainted the waters, weakened the earth. When space is polluted, minds are disturbed. When fire is polluted, the body’s warmth falters. When waters are fouled, blood is corrupted. When the earth is spoiled, the body itself suffers. To heal requires making peace with the spirits of the five elements, honoring the mountains, trees, and rivers, and remembering the covenant of balance.

The struggle is not only in the world but within each heart. Every person is born with a god and a demon bound together. They whisper opposing words in the mind, pulling toward kindness or cruelty, clarity or confusion. They are the source of human suffering, unless they are transformed through spiritual practice. Rituals can appease them, but only the highest teachings can dissolve their quarrel entirely. Dzogchen tells us that when we forget the natural state of mind, duality arises. From duality come the passions, and from the passions, sickness and strife. But when the natural state is remembered, the quarrel vanishes, and the god and demon are revealed as one essence.

Thus the myths tell of an eternal war. Yet Yungdrung Bön speaks of a deeper truth. Beyond light and darkness, beyond being and non-being, is Namkha Tongdän Chyödsumje, the infinite expanse, the great space from which both arise. It is the womb of all, the Dharmakaya, Kuntu Zangpo. From this single ground spring two paths. One path leads to distraction, suffering, and samsara. The other leads to awareness, liberation, and nirvana. Both emerge from the same foundation, the nature of mind.

So the epic of light and darkness is not only the story of the cosmos. It is the story of every being, every heart, every breath. For in the end, the battle is not outside us, but within us. And the victory lies in awakening to the truth that the two are one.