The Iron Eagle

In 1991, the Berlin-born, Sri Lanka-ordained Buddhist nun Ayya Khema published a book entitled "When the Iron Eagle Flies: Buddhism for the West."

Explaining the the reason she chose this title, she wrote:

The title of this book is taken from a prophecy of the Indian sage Padmasambhava, who lived in the eighth century A.D. and traveled to Tibet to help establish Buddhism there.

The whole prophecy goes like this: "When the iron eagle flies and the horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered over the earth, and the Dhamma will go to the land of the red man." (The "land of the red man" is considered to be the West, as our skin color looks reddish-pink to Asians.)

Horsepower on wheels and "iron eagle" airplanes are part of our society today, and the Tibetan people are indeed scattered over the earth. Buddhist teachers and teaching (Dhamma) have left the mountain strongholds of Tibet and the jungle monasteries of Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, so that Buddhism is now being propagated, assimilated, and made to flourish in the West, thereby infusing Western religions with a new zest and energy.