Blazing Splendor. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Blazing Splendor - Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche страница 26
Название: Blazing Splendor
Автор: Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Здоровье
isbn: 9780990997818
isbn:
As these arrangements were needed for extremely important and profound termas, Samten Gyatso requested the Karmapa to compose these texts. The Karmapa kindly agreed and dictated them to his close disciple, the outstanding lama Jampal Tsultrim.
While the Karmapa was giving the empowerments, everyone lodged at Lotus Garuda Fortress, the retreat center nestled on the cliff high above Tsurphu. Often they all stayed up talking until midnight, when Uncle Tersey and Samten Gyatso would go back to their own rooms.
At that time, the Karmapa had already written a letter predicting his own future reincarnation. But as his life had been extended for three years with the help of his third consort, he needed to write another.
One evening, they were engaged in conversation when Samten Gyatso suddenly asked, “In your prediction about your next incarnation, you stated that you would take rebirth in the area of Denkhog, in the Dilgo family. You were ill then, but you didn’t die and have in fact recovered. However, you will die one day, so when you do, will you still be born in that same place? If not, where will you take birth?”
Uncle Tersey was sitting next to him and was quite upset by the question. He later told me, “He actually asked that! Such an inauspicious question! I got really upset, thinking, ‘Why does he have to ask a question like that while the Karmapa is still alive? What is he thinking? What got into him? This is so inappropriate.’
“The Karmapa became totally quiet; the silence grew longer and longer. I thought he was angry, and why wouldn’t he be? At that point, I felt really scared. We were just sitting there and the Karmapa had stopped speaking to us. He just sat there for the longest time, not saying a word.
“Finally, the Karmapa broke the silence: ‘The previous coincidence of time and place has vanished. I will not be born into the Dilgo family.’”
Samten Gyatso’s response to this was to simply join his palms and say, “Lasoh! I see!” Then he remained quiet, too, for a time. But then he asked once again, “Well, if that’s the case, where will you be reborn?”
Uncle Tersey had tried to nudge Samten Gyatso’s thigh to stop him from asking such an impertinent question once again, but it was too late. “How inauspicious to ask the Karmapa about his own death!” he thought.
But the Karmapa seemed unfazed. He answered matter-of-factly, “I will take rebirth to the east not far from there. If you know the area of Denkhog, you must also know that to the east of the Dilgo estate lies that of the influential Ado family. I will be born into that family.”
Uncle Tersey just held his silence, but he kept the information in mind.
That was the kind of master the Karmapa was.
After Samten Gyatso left Tsurphu, the Karmapa summoned his close retinue: Jampal Tsultrim, Khenpo Lekshey and his main consort, Khandro Chenmo. He held up an envelope and told them, “One of you three should take care of this prediction letter. There will come a point when it will be indispensable. At that time, read it, but before then, just hold on to it.”
“I can’t take care of this. I’m too young for this responsibility,” Khandro replied as she was only nineteen at the time.
Khenpo Lekshey said, “I don’t dare to either.”
The two of them turned to Jampal Tsultrim and said, “You keep it!”
So Jampal Tsultrim put the letter inside the reliquary box he wore around his neck and kept it there.
A year or so later the great Karmapa finally left his body. There were many ceremonies during the first forty-nine days. Jampal Tsultrim was subsequently invited to Mindrolling to give the reading transmission of the Collected Works of Khakyab Dorje. Afterward, he went straight to Golok, his home region far away to the northeast, for four or five months.
In the meantime, the government in Lhasa had sent a representative to Tsurphu asking to be shown the prediction letter, “According to your tradition, the Karmapa always leaves an exact description of where he will take his next rebirth. We would like to see it!”
They found the earlier prediction letter but noticed that the Karmapa had added a sentence at the bottom, “The coincidence for this has dissolved.” A frantic search for another letter began.
Jampal Tsultrim was gone; Khenpo Lekshey, having entered strict retreat, was incommunicado; and Khandro Chenmo was devastated. Nobody thought to even ask her about the letter. The search team rifled through every single one of Khakyab Dorje’s books. They even tore open his mattress. But, of course, they came up with nothing—Jampal Tsultrim was unsuspectingly wandering about in distant Golok with the letter in the box around his neck.
Finally, the Tsurphu officials were forced to admit that they had no letter. Soon after, the thirteenth Dalai Lama’s office issued a formal statement that the Karmapa’s reincarnation had been born as the son of one of the cabinet ministers in Lhasa.
This news reached all the way to Golok. Hearing it, Jampal Tsultrim cut his stay short and hurried back to Tsurphu. As soon as he arrived, he exclaimed, “What do you mean there is no prediction letter? I have it right here!” And he opened his reliquary box and showed it to the general secretary at Tsurphu.
“You enemy of the Dharma! How could you do something like this?!?” exclaimed the general secretary angrily. “You should be immediately tossed into prison!”
“Throw me into prison if you like, if it will help in any way. The letter, however, is right here in my hand. There is no mistake.”
“This is a disaster! The government of Tibet has already nominated another tulku. What are we going to do?” the general secretary asked, perplexed.
A messenger was immediately sent at top speed to the great Situ of Palpung in faraway Kham. And as the Karma Kagyu and Drukpa Kagyu were enjoying very harmonious relations at the time, another messenger was sent to the Drukchen Jamgön to ask his advice. The counsel of other respected lamas was also sought.
One lama stressed the importance of being in harmony with the Tibetan government. But the Drukchen reportedly differed, saying, “If the Karmapa is not the right one, then the chances are nil that future Kagyu tulkus will be accurately identified.”
So he suggested that all the monasteries perform extensive ceremonies petitioning the Dharma protectors for their blessings. At the same time, a delegation was sent to Lhasa informing the government of the newfound letter, with the message, “We have found the Karmapa’s prediction letter and it is authentic.”
The officials at the central government replied, “First you say there is no letter and now you say there is. The office of the Dalai Lama has already issued a position. It cannot be changed.”
The petitioning and refusal went back and forth for an entire year. Then one day, while playing on a rooftop near the Potala, the cabinet minister’s son fell and broke his pelvis. In those days, such injuries were very serious and the boy soon died of complications. СКАЧАТЬ