The short biography of Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje, one the 25 Disciples of Padmasambhava.

Pelgyi Dorje will be always remembered as the one, who assassinated the demon-king, Langdharma.

In Hinayana Buddhism, killing is always consider to be negative. But in Mahayana, and especially in Vajrayana, in some rare cases, it is acceptable.

In Mahayana, for example, there is the famous story of a person on a boat, who, in order to save all the passengers, had to kill a man who tried to sink them. Mahayana accepts this, because they consider “intention” and “compassion” more important then “a rule.”

If one has possibility to help both, the victim and the oppressor, one should not remain indifferent.

And this is exactly the story of Pelgyi Dorje, who killed one, saving many lives and even the whole religion. But at the same time, he helped also Langdarma himself in two different ways:

First, by stopping him from accumulating more of a terrible karma.

Second, by connecting him with the path of liberation from samsara (Pelgyi Dorje, as a realized master, had possibility and knowledge how to do this).

Pelgyi Dorje’s action were motivated simply by pure compassion.

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