A Grand Lama had passed his whole life in idleness. Although he was surrounded by men of learning, had had excellent tutors in his youth, and had inherited an excellent library from his predecessors, he scarcely knew how to read. One day, this lama died.

Now, in those times there lived a man called Dugpa Kunlegs, a miracle- worker and rough-speaking philosopher, who travelled the land under the guise of a vagabond. Not long after the lama died, he arrived at the bank of a brook, and saw healthy young girl who had come there to draw water.

Without warning he suddenly attacked her, and tried with as much force as he had to violate her. However, this young girl was strong and Dugpa Kunlegs was already elderly. She defended herself vigorously and she escaped him, running back to where she lived in the nearby village.

At once she told her mother what had happened. Her mother was astonished. The men of the country were well behaved and none of them could be suspected, so the guilty man had to be a stranger. She made her daughter describe the wicked wretch in detail. As she listening to her daughter’s description, the mother wondered. The description corresponded in every way to that of Dugpa Kunlegs, an eccentric and saintly lama whom she had once encountered during a pilgrimage.

There could be no doubt. It was Dugpa Kunlegs who had wished to abuse her daughter. She began to reflect on the strange behavior of the holy one. She thought, “the moral principles that rule the conduct of ordinary men do not apply to men of extraordinary wisdom.

Such a man is not bound to follow any law. His actions are dictated by superior considerations which escape the vulgar observer.
So she said to her daughter, “The man you have seen is the great Dugpa Kunlegs. Whatever he chooses to do is well done. Therefore, return to the brook, prostrate yourself at his feet and consent to anything he wishes.”

The girl went back and found the saintly one seated upon a stone, absorbed in his thoughts. She bowed down before him, excused herself for having resisted him when she had not known who he was, and declared herself to be entirely at his service.

The saint shrugged his shoulders.

“My child,” he said, “women awake no desire in me. However, the Grand Lama of the neighboring monastery has died in ignorance, having neglected all occasions of instruction. I saw his spirit wandering in the Bardo, drawn towards a bad rebirth, and from compassion I hoped to procure him a human body.

But the power of his evil deeds has not permitted this. You escaped and while you were at the village, the asses in that field near by coupled. The Grand Lama will soon be reborn as a donkey.”

~ Alexandra David Néel