Blazing Splendor. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Blazing Splendor - Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche страница 25
Название: Blazing Splendor
Автор: Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Здоровье
isbn: 9780990997818
isbn:
At Tsurphu, in the inner chambers, there were forty boxes containing amazing representations of enlightened body, speech and mind given to him by the guardians of various termas. When showing these spiritual treasures to my uncle Samten Gyatso, the Karmapa once again emphasized, “There were teachings to write down, but I didn’t—there is no way I need to compete with the three great tertöns. I find their termas neither incomplete nor in need of correction.”
Samten Gyatso told me, “Khakyab Dorje was an inconceivably great master. I felt sure that he could perceive the three times as clearly as something placed in the palm of his hand.” This remarkable clairvoyance made it possible for the Karmapa to identify close to one thousand tulkus during his lifetime.
Since Samten Gyatso and Khakyab Dorje were very close, my uncle had no qualms about asking even very personal questions. Once he asked the Karmapa how he knew where tulkus would be reborn. Although he had unimpeded clairvoyance, the Karmapa explained that he did not always have complete control over it. On the one hand, sometimes he would know when a lama was going to die and where he would be reborn without anyone first requesting this information. Then, when the disciples responsible for finding the tulku would come to inquire about the lama, he would already have written down the details of the tulku’s death and rebirth.
In other cases, he could only see the circumstances of rebirth when a special request was made and certain auspicious circumstances were created through any of a number of practices. And in a few cases, he couldn’t see anything, even when people requested his help. He would try, but the crucial facts would be “shrouded in mist.” This, he said, was a sign of some problem between the dead lama and his disciples. For instance, if there had been fighting and disharmony among the lama’s following, the whereabouts of his next incarnation would be vague and shrouded in haze.
“The worst obstacle for clearly recognizing tulkus,” he explained, “is disharmony between the guru and his disciples. In such cases, nothing can be done, and the circumstances of the next rebirth remain unforeseeable.”
The Karmapa was supposed to be a major tertön, so there was good reason for him to take a consort, which is necessary to “unlock the treasure chest” of the termas.57 However, the Karmapas were usually monks, and so taking a consort was not readily accepted; in fact it was considered highly inappropriate. His reluctance to reveal termas or take a consort caused him to become seriously ill. Some say this was a punishment meted out by the dakinis to potential tertöns who fail to fulfill their mission.
Whatever the case, in the end, many great masters persuaded him to take a consort; if he didn’t, they pleaded, he would die prematurely. His first consort was the eldest daughter of a noble family from Central Tibet. As predicted by Padmasambhava, she was to be his consort for revealing termas. Afterward, he also married his consort’s younger sister.
Later still, when the Karmapa again fell ill, a prediction by the Lotus-Born appeared in a terma revealed by a tertön from Surmang.58 It stated that if the Karmapa accepted a particular young woman, who was a dakini in human form, his life would be extended by three years.
The Karmapa sent out a search party, who identified her and invited her back to Tsurphu. She became known as Khandro Chenmo, which means “the great dakini.”59 He took her as his consort, and she did indeed seem to extend his life for three years. Any time the Karmapa fell ill, she was invited to visit him, and within a couple of days he would recover. This went on for three full years. The value of extending the life of the Karmapa is immeasurable.
Khandro Chenmo was very beautiful and she became a remarkable practitioner. She was loving and compassionate, full of devotion, and with an unfathomable spiritual depth. I knew her quite well in the last years of her life. We first met in Tsurphu when I was twenty-six, then again three years later and then later still in Rumtek, where she finally departed for the invisible realms two years after fleeing Tibet. She was a very special being, a true dakini. She spent almost all her time in retreat practicing sadhana and reciting mantra, and reached a profound level of experience and realization. This is not hearsay; I can bear witness to it myself.
16. The Great Dakini of Tsurphu
Samten Gyatso had immense respect for her and once told me, “When I went to visit the Karmapa, she was often there. It felt like meeting the female buddha Tara in person. She is Noble Tara among us in a human body, an authentic dakini.” She, in her turn, was very fond of my uncle and each year would send a present to him in Kham.
Khandro Chenmo was treated with immense respect, as though she were a great lama. Word would spread wherever she went and thousands of people would go to meet her. She traveled to Bhutan at the invitation of the royal family and when she came to visit Dzongsar Khyentse in Gangtok, he personally came out to greet her. At special ceremonies she was usually placed on a throne as high as Khyentse and Kongtrul. But she never made a big deal out of herself.
The great scholar Tashi Özer was Kongtrul’s attendant for a time, and he told me about the Karmapa’s last meeting with his teacher Kongtrul. The meeting took place at Kongtrul’s retreat place above Palpung.60
“I have come here to pay my respects upon my departure,” the Karmapa said.
“Well, well. If you are leaving, I may come and live for a while in your house,” replied Kongtrul. The Karmapa thought Kongtrul might be implying that he would come back as the Karmapa’s child, though he didn’t say anything.
As I mentioned, according to tradition, a senior monk is dispatched from the monastery of a deceased lama to inquire of the Karmapa (or another highly realized master) where the tulku might be found. After Kongtrul’s passing, this task fell by coincidence to Tashi Özer, who traveled all the way to Tsurphu to ask the Karmapa where Kongtrul’s reincarnation was.
“Please give us some indication of where the tulku has been reborn,” he requested.
Khakyab Dorje kept silent, so Tashi Özer tried again, “I’m one of his chief disciples—you must tell me! I am sure you know.”
The Karmapa still said nothing, but this didn’t dissuade the great scholar.
He kept insisting, until finally the Karmapa admitted, “Very well, the great Kongtrul has been reborn as my son. I cannot and do not dare send back the message that the rebirth of my root guru is my own child!”
Tashi Özer objected, “Don’t you remember? I was present when our great vajra holder explicitly said he would ‘come to stay at your house.’ Didn’t you hear that with your own ears? And isn’t it true that you call Kongtrul your root guru? So tell me, are you going to go directly against his word?”
This was typical of Tashi Özer’s persuasive, hard-to-refute manner. I don’t know how long the argument dragged on. But in the end he succeeded in bringing the Karmapa’s son back to Palpung in Kham where he was enthroned as the reincarnation of the old Kongtrul.