For most Tibetan Buddhists, Padmasambhava is regarded as a second Buddha. When the king, Trison Detsen and his ministers found Padmasambhava in Nepal, he invited him to Tibet in the propagation of Buddhism. Accepting the king's offer, he had to, first of all, remove many obstacles facing the local people. Thus, on the way to central Tibet, he overcame the challenges of the local native Tibetan deities by the force of his magical power, and converted the Tibetan demons and gods, who were bound to become the guardians of Buddhism in Tibet.
Arriving at Sampe, Padmasambhava was greeted by the King and his court. Later, Shantarakshita ordained the first Tibetan monks, a group of seven selected young men known as the 'seven probation monks'.
He further bestowed the Vajrayana teachings and Tantras upon a group of 25 disciples, including the king and various scholars, such as Vairocana and Yeshe Tsogyal (a young Tibetan woman). The teachings comprised of three sets of practices, namely, Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga. Padmasambhava first initiated each of the 25 disciples into one of the 'eight major deities' of Mahayoga. Yeshe Tsogyal herself became an adept of the deity Vajrakilaya. Accompanying these initiations, Padmasambhava also gave some instructions on Anuyoga, and Atiyoga, the climax of all teachings. Atiyoga introduces the devotees directly to the primordial state of enlightenment, which was the greatest of all spiritual teachings that Padmasambhava had brought with him from India.
Apart from the conversion of the local demons and gods and the transmission of the Tantric teachings to his disciples, another great act of Padmasambhava was the concealment of a multiplicity of teachings intended for the benefit of future generations of the Buddhist devotees. These teachings, subsequently known as 'Terma' (means treasures), comprised spiritual instructions, which were to be discovered and decoded in later centuries by masters whose minds had been blessed by Padmasambhava himself. These masters were later known as 'Tertons' (means treasure revealer). The preservation of his teachings as Terma is still influential in Tibetan Buddhism at a later time, even nowadays.
Eventually, Padmasambhava left Tibet to work for beings in other lands. However, he assured his followers that he would never truly be apart from them as his compassion was beyond near and far. He told them that on the holy tenth day of each month, he would come riding on the sun's rays from the Palace of Lotus Light to bless his faithful followers. His promise has remained unbroken down to the present days.
