December Twilight

Returning from a late afternoon walk we stopped to look at the sky in the west. Above the hills, luminosity pouring through a network of bare trees like stained glass, a few dense clouds hovering in the upper branches of the hickories glow fiery orange, soon burnishing an intense bronze before cooling to purple. Padmasambhava's Copper-Colored Mountain is said to be somewhere in that range of light to the southwest.

One day the three masters decided to have a horse race and see who would win. Chokgyur Lingpa, on a dappled horse, came first, followed by Jamyang Khyentse on a dark blue horse. Kongtrul finished last and arrived crying like a child. “I am so unfortunate,” he wailed. Some people said, “Jamgon Kongtrul is usually a great lama, but he weeps when he loses a horse race.” Others said it was because he was the oldest. The real reason was they were seeing who would first reach the Copper-Colored Mountain.

-from The Life of Chokgyur Lingpa as spoken by Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche