12Planting Roots of Virtue

INVITATION TO SWITZERLAND

KYABJÉ LING RINPOCHÉ and I had received repeated invitations from Mr. Kuhn, the owner of the metalware factory at Rikon in Switzerland, to inaugurate and consecrate the newly constructed Tibetan monastery there. Having received His Holiness’s consent to the trip, I visited His Holiness on the twenty-third to take my leave. At the same time I presented His Holiness with a complimentary copy of the Middle-Length Stages of the Path published with the enhanced outline.

On the twenty-fifth, I left Dharamsala with my attendants Palden and Norbu Chöphel. When we reached Pathankot, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and his entourage had also arrived there. We left by train together and arrived the next morning at the old Delhi railway station. There we were met by His Holiness’s elder brother Gyalo Thondup, the representative and the staff of the Bureau of the Dalai Lama in Delhi, the director and the staff of Tibet House, and many other Tibetans. We stayed at Tibet House and left from the Delhi airport via Air France at ten in the evening on the twenty-seventh (September 20, 1968).

After brief stops at Cairo and Tel Aviv, the capitals of Egypt and Israel, respectively, we arrived in Paris at seven in the morning on the twenty-eighth. There we changed to another plane and flew to Zürich, Switzerland, where we were welcomed by the Tibetan representative Mr. Phalha, Mr. Kuhn, Geshé Ugyen Tseten of Sera Jé, who was the abbot of the new monastery, and many other Tibetans. After a brief rest in the VIP lounge, we left for the monastery in Rikon, where we received a traditional ceremony of welcome before settling into our quarters.

On the first day of the eighth month, Mr. Kuhn invited all of us on a sightseeing trip up the slopes of Mount Rigi. We traveled to the top of the mountain in a large electric cable car that could transport twenty people. We rested and had a meal in a grand restaurant. After touring clockwise around the mountain, viewing the vast and picturesque Swiss towns spread out below and the diverse landscape, we returned by cable car. Then, while touring the surrounding area, we visited a large Christian church where we saw many people attending a religious service.352 That day we were out from about eight in the morning to ten at night. Except for the stops at the mountaintop and in the church, we traveled in vehicles along winding roads for long distances, which made me tired and nauseous. The kind and generous hospitality of our patron became my suffering!

The opening ceremony of the monastery took place on the seventh day of the eighth month and was attended by most of the Tibetans in the area and many Swiss people carrying colorful banners. With people playing musical instruments on either side of the road, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché, myself, and the resident monks processed. All of us monks wore our three sets of yellow monastic robes and walked slowly and peacefully in the manner of Ārya Aśvajit.³⁵³ When we reached the entrance of the monastery, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché inaugurated the opening ceremony by cutting the ribbon. After taking our seats in the prayer hall, we performed the blessing of the site and the facilities as well as invocation and purification rituals, the seven-limb prayer, and so forth. We all then presented scarves to the main Buddha image. Panglung Tulku read His Holiness’s message in German, and Mr. Kuhn gave an address about the monastery. I then spoke about Buddhism’s unique qualities, its culture, and its extensive spread in Tibet. I emphasized how Buddhism in Tibet was genuine in its teachings and practice, no different from what was taught by the Buddha himself; it was not a spurious creation with no framework. The ceremony was then concluded.

On the morning of the eighth, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché gave a long-life initiation of White Tārā, and I gave permission to practice Avalokiteśvara Who Liberates from All Lower Realms, with brief advice on religious and worldly matters, to the people. In the afternoon, the Office of Tibet hosted a banquet in honor of the Kuhn family, Dr. Lindegger, and ourselves, and it was attended by many guests.

At the wish of Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché, I gave him a teaching and oral transmission of the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path in the lineage of Kyabjé Phabongkha Vajradhara. Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché told me that he had received the lineage of the teachings from His Holiness the Thirteenth Dalai Lama but had been very young at the time. He had not been able to receive the complete teachings from Phabongkha Vajradhara, so I fulfilled his wish by giving him this teaching. Beginning on the seventeenth day of the eighth month, I offered this teaching to Rinpoché alone. In doing so, I did not bother to repeat points or elaborate unnecessarily. It was a concise, symbolic discourse meant to transmit the lineage. I was like a firefly in the presence of the brilliant thousand rays of the sun.

Ling Rinpoché and Trijang Rinpoché exchanging teachings during their visit in Switzerland, 1968
COURTESY OF PALDEN TSERING

At the request of the Tibetan settlement in Rikon, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché gave the permission of Green Tārā, and I gave a long-life empowerment of Amitāyus in the system of Drupgyal. On the morning of the twenty-third, a doctor gave me a complete physical exam, testing my heart in particular. He told me I had no health problems.

On the twenty-seventh, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I along with Geshé Ugyen Tseten and three monks performed the ritual of blessing the relics and the printed prayers to be placed inside the main statue of the Buddha. Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I then carefully inserted the relics and the prayers into the statue.

On the twenty-eighth the doctor came to see me to again check my health. He said that my blood pressure was only 100, which was below the recommended pressure of 140. He advised me to increase my protein intake and to include more milk, yogurt, and vegetables in my diet.

At the invitation of the director of the Pestalozzi Children’s Village and the Tibetan school in Trogen, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I visited the village on the second day of the ninth month. When we arrived at the Yumbu Lagang Tibetan home, we were received by the Tibetan students, who held flowers and incense and religious banners. After a brief welcome ceremony in the chapel, we settled into our rooms. To fulfill an earlier request made by Trethong Rakra Tulku, I gave Rakra Tulku and Mr. Phalha a concise teaching on the exclusive practice of the Hundred Deities of Tuṣita compiled by Phabongkha Vajradhara.

Ling Rinpoché and Trijang Rinpoché visiting Tibetan students at Trogen, Switzerland, October 23, 1968
COURTESY OF YONGZIN LINGTSANG LABRANG

On the sixth, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché gave the permissions of Yellow and Red Mañjuśrī and of Green Tārā, and I gave the permission of White Sarasvatī, to the Tibetan students of Yumbu Lagang and Luksang Ngön-ga along with their principal, Trethong Rakra Tulku, Trethong Söpal, the Tibetan teacher Shödrung Rapgang, Mr. Phalha, and others. As I did not have the text for the permission of Sarasvatī, I recited the rituals of the self- and front-generations according to the system found in kriyā tantra. For the actual permission, I followed the usual format for granting deity permissions, and during the recitation of the mantra, I supplemented it with the emanation and dissolution based on the diagram wheel of Sarasvatī. Thus I tried to follow the procedure correctly, in accordance with reliable sources, so as not to be like those who are careless and ignorant and, without any valid references, perform the rites however they please in order to deceive others.

On the seventh, at the invitation of Arthur Bill, the director of the Pestalozzi Children’s Village, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I visited him at his house. We presented him with token gifts. Mr. Bill had a genuine sympathy and love for the Tibetans. He was not only concerned with reducing the temporary difficulties of our people; he gave valuable suggestions and assistance to aid the Tibetans over the long term. He asked why the Tibetans use the symbol of the dragon on Tibetan rugs and so forth. In our reply we told him that this design was auspicious, symbolizing prosperity and renown, like the sound of a dragon’s roar reaching far and beyond. We explained that the Tibetan use of the symbol differs from that of the Chinese.

The next day I gave Rakra Tulku the permissions of Nīlagrīva Vajrapāṇi, Five Wrathful Garuḍa, and Vajrapāṇi Mahācakra.

On the morning of the ninth, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I went to the village chapel, where we performed a consecration and made offerings. In the afternoon we went to the monastery in Rikon. Professor Palos, who is a German citizen of Hungarian origin, repeatedly asked me to give him the prenovice, novice, and full ordination vows. After checking to see whether there were any negative indications, I conferred ordination on him in the presence of five monks, including Geshé Ugyen Tseten and Lodrö Tulku. I gave him the name Tenzin Chöphel.

Apart from the Tibetan children in the Swiss settlements and those at Trogen, the Tibetan children who have been adopted into Swiss families have forgotten their native language and will soon forget their national heritage, despite their excellent living conditions. Given the serious threat that many of them will be lost, Mr. Phalha had previously tried to arrange for these adopted children to gather together at the annual commemoration of the March 10 uprising, but so far his wishes had not been realized. Therefore, at Mr. Phalha’s suggestion, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I invited the children and their adopted families to a tea party at the Rikon monastery. About sixty children and their families attended the party, where tea, cookies, fruit juices, and other snacks were served. Both Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I thanked the parents for caring for their children and asked them to make efforts to ensure that the children did not forget the Tibetan language and customs. We gave the children advice on how to behave properly and on how important it is for them, as Tibetans, to know Tibet’s language and customs. We asked them to gather at the monastery each year at His Holiness’s birthday celebrations. We both gave a token sum of a thousand Swiss francs toward their annual gatherings. Then Dr. Aeschimann, who was the first to adopt Tibetan children, announced to those present his full agreement to do this. The children and the parents with their voices and gestures exhibited great pleasure and enthusiasm.

The next day, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I hosted a dinner for the members of the Kuhn family; Dr. Lindegger, president of the monastery; Mrs. Vischer, vice-president of the Swiss Red Cross; Mrs. Chöden Bar, director of the Tibetan settlements; and Dr. Aeschimann. In addition to those dignitaries, who all played significant roles on behalf of the Tibetans, we also invited Mr. Phalha and His Holiness’s elder brother Losang Samten. At the dinner we thanked everyone for their efforts and appealed to them to continue their assistance.

On the fifteenth, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I, along with Geshé Ugyen Tseten and three other monks, performed the intermediate version of the consecration called Sheaves of Auspiciousness354 after doing the sādhana of single-deity Vajrabhairava. This was to consecrate the temple as well as the statue of the Buddha and so forth. Supplementing the ritual of consecration, we performed the ordinary ritual of purification and the supramundane ritual of purification in an elaborate manner. During the ritual of consecration, at the section for honoring the patrons, the symbols of the eight auspicious substances were passed around to the members of the Kuhn family and Dr. Lindegger.

On the eighteenth, at the invitation of the Dzarong family and Trehor Draksé Tulku’s family, I went to Ebnat-Kappel with Palden and Norbu Chöphel. I enjoyed their generous hospitality for three days. On the twenty-second, at the invitation of the Tsāriwa Phuntsok family, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché gave the permission of the Three Wrathful Forms Combined, and I gave an Amitāyus long-life initiation in the system of Drupgyal, to about a hundred people at the Rikon temple. In the afternoon the Phuntsok family sponsored a Guru Puja with a tsok offering, which everyone attended.

At the invitation of twenty-one Tibetans who had recently arrived in Switzerland, I went to the settlement in Bauma. I performed purification and consecration rituals in their quarters and gave general teachings and advice. Following that I went to Wald and had lunch at the house of Trehor Losang Nyima and my niece Tashi Drölma. Then, at the invitation of Dagyab Rinpoché, Shakor Khentrul, and Yiga Tulku, I went to Landquart, where I stayed for a week enjoying their generous hospitality. I gave experiential teachings on the two stages of Kurukulle to Dagyab Rinpoché alone for three days. This teaching was based on the teachings of Dergé Shar Lama. The other tulku had brought a large tape recorder and asked me to record some spiritual songs, so I recited what occurred spontaneously to me.

Mr. Phalha and Dr. Lindegger had arranged for Palden and I to stay in a big state-run hospital in Winterthur to rest and improve our health for two weeks beginning the sixth day of the tenth month. The furnishings and the facilities, such as telephones, were excellent. We were examined by various specialists, and all parts of our bodies were tested with electronic equipment. They also repeatedly tested our blood, urine, sputum, and so on. In the meantime, I sent Norbu Chöphel to Bonn with Dagyab Rinpoché to do some sightseeing. At the end of our hospital stay, on the twenty-sixth, the doctor told me that I had tuberculosis in a small area of my lung but that I had nearly recovered from it. He advised that I should get further treatment for it at the hospital in Wald.

At his direction, Palden and I stayed in a private room at the hospital in Wald. Norbu Chöphel returned from Germany and stayed at the house of Losang Nyima and my niece near the hospital. Norbu Chöphel came to see us at the hospital frequently. The hospital, situated on a lush green hill, was several stories high. The ground floor contained recreation facilities and a television lounge for the patients. There were also large gardens for walks and outings. The meals were clean and excellent. The doctors performed medical tests with x-rays and injections.

I took two days’ leave from the hospital and went to the monastery to give the blessing of the four sindūra initiations of Vajrayoginī to twenty-one people on the twenty-fifth day of the eleventh month at the request of Ratö Losang Jamyang. The next day I gave the oral transmission of the texts of Cittamaṇi Tārā to Lodrö Tulku. I gave instructions on the ritual of “reviving the lost vital life energy”355 to Geshé Ugyen Testen. In the afternoon I returned to the hospital. Lodrö Tulku brought me a book on the life of the Buddha composed by Jampa Kalsang Gyatso and printed in China, which I read daily. On the fifth day of the twelfth month, Dr. Barun, a well-known psychiatrist who lived in Zürich, came to visit me. He asked questions about the transition from one life to the next, about the process of reincarnation, as well as about the methods for attaining enlightenment and meditating on emptiness. I responded to each of his questions. On the thirteenth, my doctor told us that the tuberculosis in my lung had responded well and Palden’s sickness in his left side was completely cured.

On the sixteenth, I sent New Year greeting cards to His Holiness, Tutor Ling Rinpoché, Sakya Trichen, Karmapa Rinpoché, and other high lamas as well as to old Tibetan acquaintances. The cards had a color picture depicting the life of Atiśa. On the back of the cards I wrote the following verse of greeting:

In the garden of the thousand-petalled lotuses of prosperity,

the melodious song of the strutting celestial peacock

rings out from the Turquoise Leaf realm of happiness

to invite the guests of the goodness of the three worlds.

When I left the hospital on the twenty-fifth, I gave a square Tibetan carpet and various drawings of yaks to the doctor who was primarily responsible for my treatment, as token of my appreciation for his excellent care. He said that both Palden and I had no health problems. Rikzin Jikmé Lingpa said:

Except for those who see the truth,

of all those called bhikṣus, brahmans, and lamas,

there are none who are not tied and bound

by the eight worldly concerns, such as gain and loss.

Bound tightly in this way by the eight worldly concerns, I received the doctor’s assurance with pleasure and satisfaction. We were given a supply of medicine to be taken regularly, and we left the hospital. I then stayed with Losang Nyima and Tashi Drölma and made the tsok offering of the twenty-fifth on that day. From there, we departed for Rikon and stayed at the home of Gyaltsen Namdröl.

ENGLAND AND FRANCE

At the insistent invitation of Özer Ngawang and his wife, who were the house parents of the Tibetan house at the Pestalozzi Children’s Village in England,356 and also Geshé Tsultim Gyeltsen, the religious instructor there, I left Zürich for London by air on the twenty-ninth at eleven in the morning. When I arrived at London airport, some staff members of the UK Tibet Society, Rechung Tulku and his wife, Özer Ngawang, and others were there to greet me. We all boarded a train and arrived at the Tibetan house at four in the afternoon.

In 1969, my sixty-ninth year, on the first day of the first Tibetan month in the earth-bird year, all of us, including the staff and students of the Tibetan house Trisong Ngön-ga, celebrated Tibetan New Year with the traditional ceremonies in the prayer hall. We all recited the verses of refuge, generating the mind of enlightenment, the Gangloma prayer to Mañjuśrī, and the long-life prayer for His Holiness. That day, many Tibetan boys and girls from London and other places came to see me. Extending my greeting to them, I advised them on the importance of faith in the Dharma and of maintaining our customs and our cultural heritage.

After the New Year, I gave the initiation of Cakrasaṃvara body mandala to Geshé Tsultim Gyeltsen alone and the blessing of the four sindūra initiations of Vajrayoginī to Geshé-la, Öser Ngawang, and his wife. I gave an Amitāyus long-life initiation in the system of Drupgyal and the oral transmission of the Abridged Stages of the Path and the Song of Spiritual Experience to the staff and students. I told everyone there that they should make efforts to increase their knowledge of both the religious and worldly arenas and that they should observe good conduct in order to support the prestige of the Tibetans.

One day I was taken to Hastings, where we walked on the pier and visited the shops, some restaurants, and various amusement facilities.

I threw a dinner for about fifteen dignitaries, including the chairman of the Pestalozzi village, and expressed my appreciation for their past assistance and care for the Tibetan children and requested their continued help. On the sixteenth I left Trisong Ngön-ga and went to London, where I stayed in a hotel. In London I visited the planetarium, where I watched a fascinating show about the planets and the constellations accompanied by narration. The planets and stars were projected on the ceiling of the dome and gave an illusion of the vast space at night. They showed the progression of a lunar eclipse as if it were actually happening.

In the afternoon I gave instructions on how to practice single-pointed concentration to a British friend of Rechung Tulku. I went sightseeing around a famous ancient royal palace [the Tower of London] where many precious crowns of the British rulers along with many regal vestments were on display. In the palace was a garden with a variety of birds and animals.

On the eighteenth I was invited by the UK Tibet Society to attend a March 10 commemoration organized by the society. This was attended by over two hundred British nationals and fifty Tibetans. At the meeting, I read His Holiness’s personal message and gave a brief talk, which was translated into English by Mrs. Rinchen Dolma Taring.357 The Tibetan children sang the Tibetan national anthem and performed Tibetan songs and dances, which was a token demonstration of our Tibetan heritage.

On the nineteenth I left London by air for Paris, where I was met by the incarnation of the Most Venerable Dakpo Bamchö Jampal Lhundrup Gyatso and Shödrung Norgyé as well as some Kalmyk Mongolians. I stayed at Dakpo Rinpoché’s house. There I met Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché, who was there for medical treatment. Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I exchanged news of recent events and discussed the date of our return to India.

Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I were invited by the Mongolian community to their New Year celebrations. Extending our greetings to them, we expressed our view that the younger generation of the community should preserve the Dharma and maintain the good customs and traditions of their elders and past generations. The next morning I escorted Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché to the airport as he left for Switzerland. The next day I gave a brief teaching and oral transmission of the Three Principal Aspects of the Path and the first few pages of the Great Exposition of Secret Mantra to Dakpo Bamchö Rinpoché, Thupten, Ngawang Drakpa, and their two landladies.

One day I visited a museum presenting the history of humankind’s evolution from monkeys.³⁵⁸ I saw the gradual changes in the bone structure. There were also exhibits of various tools from the Stone Age, through human history, up to the modern scientific instruments. A great variety of costumes was also on display.

On the twenty-seventh, twenty Tibetan students and their house parents, Shödrung Norgyé and his wife, invited me to visit them in Bléneau; I went and spent one night there. I gave teachings and oral transmission of the Hundred Deities of Tuṣita and the Gangloma prayer to Mañjuśrī as well as advice to the students. The students performed some Tibetan songs and dances. Their Tibetan writing, drawing, and conduct were excellent in every respect.

RETURN TO INDIA

On leaving Paris, I traveled to Geneva, where I stayed at the home of Mr. Phalha. On the eleventh day of the second Tibetan month, I visited the Tibetan settlement in Reitnau, spending a night there and giving teachings and performing consecrations. En route, I stopped over at the settlement in Oetweil am See, where I gave the permission of the Three Wrathful Forms Combined, before returning again to Rikon, where I stayed at Gyaltsen Namdröl’s house. There I met Tutor Ling Rinpoché, and on the thirteenth, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché left for Paris ahead of me, for further medical tests. I left for Paris myself on the twentieth from the Zürich airport and met up with Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and his entourage in the airport in Paris. I saw Dakpo Bamchö Rinpoché there briefly, and at nine at night, we flew out of Paris on an Air France flight.

On the twenty-first we arrived at the Delhi airport at noon. We were met by the officers and staff of the Bureau of His Holiness in Delhi and Tibet House, Bakula Rinpoché from Ladakh, Nyakré Khentrul, Mongolian Lama Guru Deva, and others. We stayed at Tibet House. At the request of Nyakré Khentrul, I gave a brief teaching and oral transmission of the Abridged Stages of the Path and the Song of Spiritual Experience to about a hundred people at Tibet House.

On the twenty-third I left Delhi for Dharamsala, where I settled into my house. Some days later I went to visit His Holiness with some offerings to pay him my respects and had the pleasure of receiving his words. At the request of Nepo Ngödrup I gave the blessing of the four sindūra initiations of Vajrayoginī to a large gathering in connection with the tenth-day offerings in the third month.

I contributed five thousand rupees toward the silver statue of Avalokiteśvara and the gilded bronze statues of Guru Rinpoché and Buddha Śākyamuni that were being created at the wish of His Holiness. His Holiness placed the heads of the statue of Avalokiteśvara destroyed by the Chinese in Lhasa inside the new silver statue. I dedicated this contribution to the welfare of all the beings connected with me.

On the tenth day of the fourth month, His Holiness was to start his discourse on the Great Exposition on the Stages of Tantra to the monks from Dharamsala as well as the Gyütö and Gyümé Tantric College monks and others who came from different places. For this occasion I presented His Holiness with a true Ganden edition of the text. The woodblocks of this particular text were sponsored by Pön Shizom, who was appointed governor of Lhokha Gongkar by Nedong Desi Drakpa Gyaltsen. Woodblocks were made at the requests of Gyaltsap Jé, Tokden Jampal Gyatso, and Sempa Chenpo Kunsangpa. Work on the woodblocks began in the earth-pig year, six years after the parinirvāṇa of Jé Tsongkhapa (1425). The woodblocks were presented to Ganden during Gyaltsap Jé’s seventh year as Ganden Throneholder. I presented a copy of the text to His Holiness and wrote the following verses on the first page of the text:

This meaningful work bringing joy to the fortunate,

which lays out the stages to be traveled

within the quick path of extraordinary yogic practice

leading to the place of the all-pervading, glorious Vajradhara,

is presented to the supreme guide of samsara and nirvana

by an old man whose mental ability is far too low

to practice the unmistaken path to enlightenment,

so difficult to encounter even within a billion eons.

On the twenty-fourth, seventy monks including the abbot and chant master of Gyütö Tantric College, who had come to attend His Holiness’s discourse on the Great Exposition of Secret Mantra, came and presented me with a scarf and a token sum of money to symbolize the enlightened body, speech, and mind and recited prayers for my long life. To fulfill the requests of both tantric monasteries, I gave the initiations of sixty-two-deity Cakrasaṃvara in the tradition of the mahāsiddha Luipa to over a thousand monks, including the monks of the tantric monasteries and the three seats as well as to monks from Ladakh, Kinnaur, and Spiti. This initiation was given for two days after His Holiness’s discourse on tantra in the hall of the Tibetan Children’s Village.

On the twenty-ninth I gave the life entrustment of the protector Shukden to two monks of Sera Mé and one monk from Ganden Jangtsé in conjunction with my monthly propitiation offering to the protector. Just as I started to do the propitiation rituals, the monk Losang Dorjé of Dromo, who had come from Gangtok, brought me the first copy of the commentary to the biographical praise of the protector that I had composed. It was a very auspicious coincidence.

On the first day of the fifth month, a hundred monks from the Gyümé Tantric College came to my house and offered me a scarf and a sum as a token of the three representations. They recited the prayers to the sixteen arhats for my long life and asked me to make a strong intention to live a long life. I replied that I would offer prayers to live long and advised the monks that they should observe the traditions of the lineage of the great masters of tantra.

On the ninth, I met the incarnation of Gangkar Lama of Seudru Monastery, who had come to Dharamsala once he had been recognized beyond doubt. The day he came to see me, the monks of Seudru Monastery invoked the presence of the Gadong oracle in a trance. Although the tulku was only five, he showed no apprehension or shyness in the presence of the oracle. The oracle gave him sips of his tea and a scarf and then picked him up to hold him in his lap, telling those present including Tārā Tulku, Geshé Yeshé Thupten, and other monks of Seudru Monastery that they should sever all their doubts about the incarnation and should make efforts to ensure the tulku’s longevity.

Dakpo Bamchö had come from France and was staying in Dharamsala. At his request I gave the initiation of Cakrasaṃvara body mandala for two days to Rinpoché, Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché, and seven others.

Beginning on the first day of the sixth month, I presided as vajra master over the fulfillment and confession ritual, together with an accumulation of tsok offerings, to the fivefold Dharmarāja Dorjé Drakden with the Nechung monks at their monastery. The rituals were made for seven days for the benefit of the religious and secular affairs of Tibet at the wishes of His Holiness.

On the fourth day of the sixth month, I gave novice ordination to a German man named Roland and to six Tibetans. I gave Roland the novice name Losang Kalden. When Losang Kalden left for Varanasi to study Tibetan Buddhism, I gave him a copy of the Fifty Verses on Vinaya on the vows and conduct of novices.359 From the tenth I gave experiential teachings on the two stages of Vajrayoginī secretly to Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché, Dakpo Bamchö Rinpoché, and Palden for seven days at the wish of the two Rinpochés.

Drakpa Samdrup was the son of the late Panglung Gyalchen Shukden medium, and at the urging of those monks from Pomra House of Sera Mé who were caretakers of the protector, I invoked Gyalchen in my residence several times in the hope that the protector would enter Drakpa Samdrup. There were a few signs that he had entered. After that I invited the local protector of Panglung, Tsengö Khaché Marpo. The signs were more evident than before, but he did not stay long, probably because the oracle had not been trained. I left it at that for the time being. It seemed that the protector would appear with further practice.

At the request of Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché, I gave a White Tārā long-life initiation to Rinpoché and his attendants. Then, in the afternoons over a period of eight days, I gave an explanation of the Middle-Length Stages of the Path with my expanded outlines to Tsenshap Rinpoché, Dakpo Bamchö Rinpoché, Ratö Chubar Rinpoché, Thepo Tulku of Ganden Shartsé, Lati Rinpoché, and Geshé Rapten — eight of them all together. As all of them were very learned, I did not bother to explain the text word by word, as I would for beginners. Instead I explained the main points briefly and gave detailed instructions on meditation on certain points from my personal experience.

On the fourth day of the eighth month, I visited His Holiness at his request to offer the White Heruka long-life initiation according to the teachings of Mañjuśrī. From then on in the afternoons, over a period of fifteen days, I offered the experiential teachings and oral transmission of the Middle-Length Stages of Path, the Easy Path, the Words of Mañjuśrī according to the southern lineage, and the explanation of the notes on Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand simultaneously. After that I gave the initiation of the close lineage of longevity practice, the Vajra Life-Tree of Immortality, to His Holiness. This practice was given to the Third Dalai Lama, Sönam Gyatso, by Drupchen Palden Dorjé.

From the twenty-third, for three days, I completed the explanation and oral transmission of the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path that I had previously begun giving to Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché.360 Tutor Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché is a master of all the teachings of sutra and tantra and remains a teacher continuously giving teachings, which he has thoroughly perceived, to his disciples, and when I gave him this explanation, I added nothing new to his knowledge. Therefore, instead of explaining the words, I offered him an explanation for the methods of meditating on the points of the teachings. With this brief explanation, I made offerings to please him.

At the wish of Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché, I gave the transmission of two chapters from the Iron Fortress cycle found within the sealed writings of Paṇchen Chökyi Gyaltsen, which included the ritual of the sixty-four-part torma offering known as the Magical Wheel of the Blazing Weapon of Death, and so on, as well as a work composed by myself on a site ritual known as the Iron Fortress Sixty-Four-Part Ritual with Reliance upon External Dharmarāja,361 together with the recitations.

MUSSOORIE AND DELHI

At the invitation of the Central School for Tibetans and the Tibetan Homes Foundation, I left Dharamsala for Mussoorie on the seventh day of the ninth month. The next day I arrived at the Tibetan monastery in Mussoorie. The following morning, on the tenth, Sakya Dakchen Rinpoché of Drölma Phodrang came to visit me and asked me to come to visit the center in Rajpur on my return to Dharamsala. In the afternoon, at the wish of Gomo Tulku, I gave the blessing of the four sindūra initiations of Vajrayoginī to about a hundred people in the assembly hall of the monastery. The next day I paid a visit to Dakchen Rinpoché. Although Rinpoché was very young, his learning and behavior revealed the true nature of this lineage inherited from Khön Mañjuśrī. I was very pleased and was moved with respect.³⁶²

Thereafter I gave a White Tārā long-life initiation and the oral transmission of the Three Principal Aspects of the Path to the boys and girls of the school and the homes as well as to a large crowd from the Mussoorie area. At the end I advised the students on the importance of their religious and secular studies. I gave lay, prenovice, and novice ordination to sixty-two boys and one girl and presided over the monthly confession ceremony. Each day I visited the school and the homes and performed consecrations. On the seventeenth I left Mussoorie and was seen off by the principal and the director of the Central School for Tibetans and the Tibetan Homes Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Taring, along with the teachers and the students.

On the way I went to Rajpur to visit the Sakya center as Sakya Dakchen Rinpoché had requested. All together there were over fifty monks of all ages. I presented a sum of money with which to make offerings to them. I expressed my hope that they would uphold the pure Sakya tradition of sutra and tantra while living in perfect harmony. On the way back I spent one night in a hotel in Ambala and arrived in Dharamsala the following day.

On the twenty-eighth at the wish of Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché I gave Rinpoché, his attendants, and Chokteng Ta Lama the blessing of the four sindūra initiations of Vajrayoginī and the oral transmission of the wrathful fire offering of Vajrabhairava in the tradition of the Gyümé Tantric College, which I had composed, along with the burial ritual.

On the first day of the tenth month, I participated in the blessings of the relics and printed prayers that were to be placed in the statues of Guru Rinpoché and Buddha Śākyamuni. This took place in His Holiness’s residence. I gave a White Tārā long-life initiation and the oral transmission and some instructions on the practice of the Mahākāla prayer composed by Khedrup Jé, Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, to a few monks of Gyümé Tantric College, including the abbot and the chant master. I also gave instructions on the five points of protection and repulsion by the ten wrathful deities and offered instructions on the visualization of the rituals of protection, repulsion, and destruction to nine monks of Gyütö Tantric College, including the abbot and the chant master, who had come to do some ritual prayers for the success of religious and secular pursuits.

At one point, I offered His Holiness the initiation of Secret Hayagrīva in the system of Kyergang based on the text by Gyal Khenchen Drakpa Gyaltsen.363

Bakula Rinpoché from Ladakh came to see me and insisted that I should attend the annual twenty-fifth day of the tenth month commemoration that was to be held at the Ladakh Buddha Vihar in Delhi and would be sponsored by the Geluk Buddhist Cultural Society.³⁶⁴ I left for Delhi on the twenty-second. At the meeting on the morning of the twenty-fifth, I delivered a lecture on the principal deeds of Jé Tsongkhapa, such as his discourses, dialectics, and compositions, and his pursuit of studies and learning. This was translated into English by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa. At the meeting Dr. Suni Sahib and Dr. Rao asked me questions concerning the deeds of Jé Tsongkhapa, and I replied accordingly. Attending the actual celebration of the event in the evening were the cabinet minister Dr. Karan Singh, ambassadors from countries such as Sri Lanka, as well as both foreigners and Tibetans. At this large gathering Dr. Singh, Bakula Rinpoché, and other dignitaries gave talks. I also gave a talk on the life of Jé Tsongkhapa and how the followers of the Geluk tradition combine study, contemplation, and meditation with scholarship, ethics, and compassion all as complementary to one another without any contradiction. This was again translated into English by Lobsang Lhalungpa. I left for Dharamsala on the evening of the twenty-seventh.

AVERTING HINDRANCES TO HIS HOLINESS’S LONG LIFE

From the sixth of the eleventh month I gave experiential teachings over the course of three days on the Seven-Point Mind Training to Barshi Phuntsok Wangyal, the instructor of Tibetan medicine and astrology at the Astro-Medical Institute. Mr. Barshi had a profound and vast knowledge of this science of learning.

At the request of the nyungné fasting group, I gave a White Tārā long-life initiation and oral transmission of the essence of dependent origination mantra to a large gathering of people in the Avalokiteśvara temple in upper Dharamsala.365 As part of my explanation of this four-line verse, which starts with the line “All things originate from causes,” I presented the meaning of the four noble truths in both their forward (evolution) and reverse (involution) order. I also explained the meaning of the six-syllable maṇi mantra.

Trijang Rinpoché blessing a hospital patient in India, date unknown
COURTESY OF PALDEN TSERING

On the nineteenth, His Holiness came to visit me and gave me some long-life pills and other substances from his retreat practice of long-life White Heruka. He related to me his auspicious dreams during his Vajrabhairava retreat. His Holiness discussed with me some points of interpretation he was not clear about after reading Jé Tsongkhapa’s Great Commentary on Fundamental Wisdom, Clarifying the Intent of the Middle Way, and Essence of Eloquence. I was deeply moved with faith and truly impressed with his understanding, which was a manifestation of the qualities of the supreme masters.

On the twenty-fifth day of the eleventh month, I gave the blessing of the four sindūra initiations of Vajrayoginī to Sherpa Karma Wangchuk, the Dromo monk Chödar, and others. As His Holiness’s thirty-seventh year, considered year of obstacles, was approaching, I proceeded to perform the long-life retreat of White Tārā starting on the fifth day of the twelfth month. On the eighth I attended the auspicious confession ceremony at the completion of the statues of the Buddha and Guru Rinpoché installed at the Thekchen Chöling temple. I presented His Holiness with 320 different types of sacred relics of Indian and Tibetan great realized masters. As mentioned earlier, I had received some of these relics from the Tibetan government’s relics box when I was engaged in the task of making His Holiness the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s golden memorial stupa. Others were relics I was able to accumulate from most reliable sources during my pilgrimages to holy places. I presented these to His Holiness in separate yellow brocade bags of the relics divided into Indian, Sakya, Geluk, Kagyü, and Nyingma sources along with a catalog of their contents.

Beginning on the tenth, I attended the elaborate three-day consecration performed in conjunction with the Cakrasaṃvara ritual with thirty-two monks, including the abbot and the chant master of Gyütö Tantric College. This was presided over by His Holiness, and all stages — the preparation, the actual consecration, and the conclusion — were performed in the most effective manner so that the wisdom beings should become indivisible with the statues — the commitment beings.³⁶⁶ On the thirteenth, I invited the monks of Gyütö Tantric College to my house, where they performed purification and consecration rituals. In the afternoon I gave instructions on the purpose and the significance of the mundane and supramundane purification and elimination rituals of the elaborate consecration. I also explained the meaning of the Iron Fortress of the sixty-four-part torma offering and the significance of the number of tormas in these rituals according to the instructions and traditions of past lamas.

On the twenty-third, Tsurphu Karmapa Rinpoché along with the Shamar, Kathok Situ, Drungpa Gyaltsab, and Kongtrul Rinpochés367 came to visit me, and I offered a dinner in their honor. Karmapa Rinpoché asked me to compose a long-life prayer for His Holiness because His Holiness was approaching his perilous thirty-seventh year. At his wish I composed a prayer in conjunction with supplications to the sixteen arhats. It was entitled the Long-Life Prayer of the Melodious Words of Truth.³⁶⁸

In 1970, the iron-dog year, I entered my seventieth year. On the ninth day of the first Tibetan month (February 13), I presided over a long-life ceremony of the five secret deities of Amitāyus with the Halting the Ḍākinī’s Escort ritual offered to His Holiness by the staff of the Central Tibetan Administration, representatives of the four lineages, and the Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies. This long-life ritual was based on the divine visions of Takphu Garwang.³⁶⁹

On the fifteenth, at the request of Kachen Losang Gyaltsen, I composed a biographical supplication to Lochen Tulku of Tashi Lhunpo. I based this supplication on a previous edition of the biographies of the Paṇchen Lamas. I presented the text to Lochen Tulku with a scarf.

I gave the permission of Secret Hayagrīva and a distant lineage of Amitāyus long-life ritual to Rikya Rinpoché and his attendants from Sera Jé. At the request of the monk Losang Dorjé of Dungkar Monastery in Dromo, I gave the initiations of the Cakrasaṃvara body mandala in the Ghaṇṭāpāda tradition to Losang Dorjé, Ngakram Tsering Wangdü of Tashi Lhunpo, and the three others. As Losang Dorjé was to do a retreat of the Cakrasaṃvara body mandala, I gave him detailed instructions on the retreat procedure.

For some time I had been having persistent disturbing dreams due to certain spirits. I therefore asked Song Rinpoché and two monks who had done the retreat of Hayagrīva to perform remedial rituals. On the ninth day of the second month, after three days of rituals, an effigy with various types of gifts was sent away to pacify the spirits. I also recited the Heart Sutra many times and meditated on the ultimate lack of inherent existence of the disturbances and on how their nature on a relative level is as illusory and deceptive as a dream. As I did this contemplation to dissolve the effects of the harm, my unpleasant dreams ceased.

Over one hundred people from the Chatreng area were gathered in Dharamsala for the Kālacakra initiation to be given by His Holiness around the fifteenth day of the second month. At their insistence, they offered me a long-life ceremony, which was performed with a Guru Puja and tsok offering conducted by some monks and presided over by Song Rinpoché. The group offered me a sum of 2,100 rupees as a gift. I kept 600 rupees and offered 1,500 rupees to the general fund of the Chatreng association, supplementing the 2,000 rupees I had given previously.370

At the request of the Kālacakra sponsors Amdowa Jinpa Gyatso from the Tibetan monastery in Bodhgaya and Pasho Thupten, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché gave the permission to practice Avalokiteśvara Who Liberates from All Lower Realms one morning, and then I gave the permission of the twenty-one Tārās in the system of Atiśa. These were attended by over twenty thousand people who had come for the Kālacakra initiation at the Thekchen Chöling temple.

On the thirtieth, at the request of the nun Ngawang Paldrön, I gave Mahayana one-day precepts to a large gathering at the temple.

SEARCHING FOR THE REINCARNATION OF KYABJÉ PHABONGKHA RINPOCHÉ

On the eighth day of the third month I invoked the protector Shukden through the medium of Lhokha Riwo Chöling Monastery for prophetic advice on the discovery of the new incarnation of the late supreme incarnation of Kyabjé Phabongkha Vajradhara. The protector said the indications would be revealed but did not give specific details. Early the next day I had a dream of the late regent Takdrak Rinpoché sitting in a ceremonial hall flooded with sunlight. He seemed very pleased to see me and advised me that I would live long and work for the service of the Dharma. In my reply I told him that due to my old age I did not hold out much hope of serving the Dharma. I also told him that the late supreme incarnation passed away suddenly even though I had had great hopes in him, as he had acquired the qualities of learning, ethics, and compassion. Other young incarnations have not become mature in their learning, and therefore the state of the upholders of the Geluk tradition is grim. I told him this in great despair. In reply he said, “The verse of your poem — ‘The mai-na-ka manifested by the might of the ten forces’ — was excellent.” He said this emphatically so that even in the dream I repeated the line “The manifestation of ka-da-ka by the might of the ten forces” again and again. Later it turned out that these syllables formed part of the name of the new incarnation’s mother.

On the twenty-second I invoked Shukden through the medium of the Ganden Chöphel Ling Tibetan monastery in Nepal. He said that the incarnation had been born the previous year and he was nearly twenty-two months old. Now we know that this corresponded to the date of the birth of the young incarnation, who was born on the fourth day of the seventh month of the bird year.

Starting on the twenty-third, I gave experiential teachings to His Holiness and Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché on the generation and completion stages of the controlling force of the Jetsun Kurukulle based on the writings of Dergé Shar Lama Kunga Palden.371 I gave these teaching in the manner of the fourfold explanations in accordance with the traditions of the lamas. At the same time I offered them the oral transmission of the Flow of the River Ganges on the permissions of the Thirteen Golden Dharmas of Sakya formulated by Takphu Garwang Rinpoché.

From the third day of the fourth month, I stopped receiving visitors so that I could perform a retreat on the sixteen drops of the Kadam lineage at the instruction of His Holiness.³⁷² Subsequently I did a retreat on the White Tārā longevity practice for His Holiness’s long life. I concluded the retreats on the twenty-fourth of the second fourth month.³⁷³

At the wish of the monk Tenzin Chöphel from Hungary, I gave him and a few others the initiation of single-deity Vajrabhairava and the blessing of the four sindūra initiations of Vajrayoginī. On the fifteenth day of the sixth month, I offered the initiation of the sixteen drops of the Kadam lineage based on the writings of Kachen Yeshé Gyaltsen and Ngulchu Dharmabhadra.

Beginning on the sixteenth, I gave experiential teachings for six days to Dzemé Rinpoché on the generation and completion stages of Jetsun Kurukulle based on the writing of Dergé Shar Lama. In this teaching I followed the tradition of “letting go of mental fixation” and so forth.³⁷⁴ Subsequently I gave Dzemé Rinpoché explanations on the following teachings: the Amitāyus root text Life Accomplishment of Kurava by Jé Tsongkhapa,375 the Life Accomplishment in Verse by Phabongkha Vajradhara,³⁷⁶ the Amitāyus life accomplishment based on the two commentaries by Jé Sherap Gyatso,³⁷⁷ meditation and recitation of Samayavajra from Twenty-One Short Works on Guhyasamāja by Jé Tsongkhapa, teachings on the Vajraḍāka fire offering, teachings on Avalokiteśvara according to the Nyen Tsembu tradition³⁷⁸ by Changkya Rölpai Dorjé, teachings on the Mitrayogin system of Avalokiteśvara using the Three Essential Moments explanation of Jamyang Shepa Jikmé Wangpo,³⁷⁹ as well as teachings on the blessing of speech by Jé Sherap Gyatso.

At the request of the Hungarian monk Tenzin Chöphel and the German monk Losang Kalden, I spoke to them before they returned to their countries on the need to regularly apply the opponents to the three poisons, on the way to examine one’s body, speech, and mind, as well as on a brief introduction to the Middle Way view. These were recorded on tape.

From the first day of the seventh month I gave Ratö Chubar Rinpoché, Dzemé Rinpoché, Lati Rinpoché, and my attendant Palden long-life initiations with the blessings of the four initiations of the twenty-three deities of Secret Wrathful Amitāyus in the system of Drupgyal, the nine red deities in the Very Secret Instructions of Rechungpa, and nine deities of Amitāyus.

At the invitation of the commander and the troops of the defense training establishment in Dehradun, I left Dharamsala on the twelfth day of the eighth month, and traveling by various modes of public transport, I arrived at the base camp in Chakrata the next day. On the fifteenth, four thousand Tibetans, including the officers and the trainees of the 22nd Establishment and some students, gathered in the training camps. There I gave them the permission of Avalokiteśvara Liberating from All Lower Realms. The next day I gave them an Amitāyus long-life initiation in the system of Drupgyal.

On the following days I met some high-ranking Indian military advisors. I visited the chapels of the individual companies and gave teachings and oral transmissions. I also visited the army school and the hospital and gave appropriate teachings and advice. I left the establishment on the twentieth, and on my return trip I visited with disabled servicemen and with some wives of the personnel at the handicraft unit. There I gave teachings and performed a consecration and the like. Then, leaving via Saharanpur and so forth, I arrived in Dharamsala the following day, on the twenty-first.

MORE TEACHINGS TO HIS HOLINESS

Beginning on the first day of the ninth month, I offered His Holiness experiential teachings for three days on the root text of the “close lineage” of Takphu’s divine visions of the practice of Cittamaṇi Tārā combined with Phabongkha Vajradhara’s writings on the generation and completion stages of the practice. I offered him experiential teachings on the two stages of Vajrayoginī using the Vajrayoginī sādhana called Quick Path to Great Bliss380 as the base text and giving oral transmissions of the commentaries on the two stages by Takphu, Ngulchu, and the Shalu Trisur Losang Khyenrap. With these four used for a single purpose, I gave the explanation from memory. I offered these teachings for seven days with the wish to “cut fabrications” and “let go of mental fixation” in accordance with the Sakya tradition. I offered His Holiness the permission for the mantra extraction of Vajrayoginī and the oral transmission Causing the Rain of Goodness to Fall and other ritual practices of Cittamaṇi Tārā. Following this, when Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché offered His Holiness the performance-tantra initiation Vairocana Abhisaṃbodhi, I also had the great fortune to attend the initiation to enforce the fruition of liberation.³⁸¹

I offered a contribution of five thousand rupees and a set of gilded bronze statues of Jé Tsongkhapa and his main disciples complete with pandit hats and robes for the main assembly hall being constructed at Ganden Monastery. The statue of Jé Tsongkhapa measured two feet eight inches including the lotus seat, and the statues of the two disciples measured two feet and five inches including the cushions.

Mongolian Lama Guru Deva came to visit me on the twenty-fourth. He had just returned from a trip to Ulan Bator, where he had attended a religious conference. He gave me the collected works of Chahar Geshé Losang Tsultrim in ten volumes, a definitive clarification on the stages of the path by the Mongolian Losang Dorjé, a book comparing the establishment of the two truths in the four tenets schools, a definitive clarification of the Treasury of Abhidharma written by Palden Chöjé, biographies of Paṇchen Sönam Drakpa and Shukden written by the hermit Lhawang Gyatso and others, and a volume on the stages of the path by Thoyön Lama Döndrup Gyaltsen. He also gave me a pair of large vertically played cymbals. I was delighted to receive the invaluable books, more precious than gold.

By this time, novice monk Thupten Phelgyé [a.k.a. Drakpa Samdrup], the son of the late medium of Panglung Hermitage, was reliably receiving Shukden and his retinue in trance. On the twenty-sixth we invoked Shukden, Setrap, Chingkarwa, and Yumar Tsengö in succession. I requested of them their dutiful protection, bound them to their oaths, and formally accepted the new medium in the presence of the incarnation of Dromo Geshé Rinpoché, Ratö Rinpoché, and others.

EXCHANGING TEACHINGS WITH KYABJÉ LING RINPOCHÉ IN BODHGAYA

On the fourth of the tenth month I left for Bodhgaya. On the sixth Tutor Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché’s labrang sponsored a long-life ceremony for me. This was held in the assembly hall of the Tibetan monastery, and the monks performed the tsok offering ritual. At the ceremony, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché presented me with the eight auspicious symbols and substances along with melodious, descriptive verses.

In fulfillment of my previous request, the incomparable and dauntless master of the profound meaning of secret tantra, Tutor Kyabjé Ling Vajradhara, on the eighth began giving me alone teachings on and the oral transmission of Jé Tsongkhapa’s Great Exposition of Secret Mantra. He gave me the teachings every day from two in the afternoon until late in the evening without any breaks. Remembering the essential benefits of making offerings to the Three Refuges, I made daily offerings of over ten thousand butter lamps at the stupa. On the fifteenth I made offerings to the monks for the entire day and contributed a thousand rupees for the new murals on the inner walls of the monastery’s assembly hall. In the afternoon I requested Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché to preside over the thousandfold offerings I made at the Mahābodhi stupa on behalf of all those connected with me, both living and dead. The teaching on the Great Exposition of Secret Mantra concluded on the sixteenth. Maintaining the form of even a mere human being becomes very meaningful when that form becomes the vessel in which to receive the nectar of the great secret teaching that is the life-sustaining essence of peerless liberation.

The next day at the request of the monk Tsöndrü Gyatso of the Tibetan monastery in Bodhgaya, I gave the blessing of the four sindūra initiations of Vajrayoginī to fifty monks. On the eighteenth and nineteenth, I offered the initiations of the single-deity and thirteen-deity Vajrabhairava in the cloth-drawn mandala to Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché alone. As Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché is a master of the twenty inner and outer qualities of a vajra master, I did not bother to give elaborate explanations of the initiations and offered the initiation in a brief manner.

On the twentieth, I invited Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché to preside over a long-life ceremony in conjunction with a tsok offering conducted by the monks in the assembly hall of the monastery. I made sincere requests to Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché to firmly plant his feet on the ground throughout existence and made some material offerings. On the twenty-first, at the wish of Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and the request of the monks, I gave teachings and the oral transmission of the Hundred Deities of Tuṣita and the Foundation of All Good Qualities to over two hundred disciples.

The following day I departed for Varanasi. On the twenty-fifth, at the request of Ama Mikmar Drölma, I gave the blessing of the four sindūra initiations of Vajrayoginī at the Tibetan monastery to over two hundred disciples, including tulkus and geshés who were students at the Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath. In the evening I made the thousandfold offering at the holy stupa. The next day I gave the oral transmission of my commentary to the biographical praises of Shukden to Song Rinpoché, Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché, Chamdo Gyara Rinpoché, and Doboom Tulku of Trehor’s Dargyé Monastery. On the eighth day of the eleventh month, I returned from Varanasi to Dharamsala via Delhi.

HIS HOLINESS’S RETREAT

To avert any obstacles to His Holiness’s long life during his thirty-seventh year, I did a retreat of the thirty-three peaceful deities of inner Amitāyus in the system of Drupgyal beginning on the twenty-seventh of the eleventh month. During this time I did not receive any visitors.

On the tenth day of the twelfth month, His Holiness sent me a letter informing me of his wish to do daily practice of the completion stage in conjunction with the yoga of inner heat (caṇḍālī, Tib. tumo) in the six Dharmas of Nāropa, and he sent me 1,125 rupees for offerings on the tenth of every waxing and waning moon from that day forward, for three years and three half months. He told me to have a special lunch with this money on those offering days. In response to his great regard for me, which is like seeing a clod of earth as gold, I composed the following poems.

The wish-granting jewel of the three realms

has seen this lump of brass as gold,

and when this compassionate letter of generosity arrived,

joy, faith, and reverence all strove to surpass each other within me.

If this rotten old dog is granted a holiday

for a while by the messengers of death from the south,

the tenth-day meals granted to me for three years

will be devoured with tongue-smacking relish.

Inner heat’s short a vowel is the cornerstone of the completion stage,

the mental sustenance of the siddhas of India and Tibet,

and the hook to gather emptiness and wind in the central channel.

Your embarking on such a practice is the way of supreme beings.

The inner woman Rati plays within the central channel,

and with the lightning-flash movement of her noose,

all proliferation is at once bound within the dharmadhātu.

Such a performance strikes me as truly wondrous.

This profound yoga of the completion stage

is weighted down by the essence of bliss and emptiness.

If sustained in a well-balanced way, without laxity or intensity

but consistently, it will definitely bring results.

These beautiful words, though colorful as a rainbow,

are not found upon examination; they are in nature emptiness.

This life wasted in deception and superficial activity

moves me to sorrow.

In 1971, the Tibetan iron-pig year, I turned seventy-one. On the second of March, the sixth day of the first Tibetan month, I performed the amending ritual fire offerings on the successful completion of the long-life retreat. On the thirteenth the ministers and the staff of the Central Tibetan Administration as well as the Tibetan People’s Deputies offered an elaborate long-life ceremony with the ritual of White Tārā to His Holiness in order to pacify and eliminate the obstacles to his thirty-seventh year. After attending the ceremony, I visited His Holiness at his residence and paid my New Year respects to him.

Nyakré House of Ganden Shartsé Monastery had previously requested me to compose new rituals of propitiating, wealth gathering, and tsok offering to their protector Red Spear Vaiśravaṇa and his retinue.382 This had been put off for several years, but now, due to definitive indications in my dreams of the protector’s wish that I quickly write the rituals, I composed the rituals of propitiation and wealth gathering. I compiled the tsok offering from the writings of Thuken and sent the texts to Nyakré House.

Thepo Tulku, Lati Rinpoché, and others residing in Dharamsala received a letter from Ganden Shartsé Monastery asking them to make arrangements to offer me a long-life ceremony. Therefore, on the fourth day of the second month, forty tulkus and geshés, including Thepo Tulku and Lati Rinpoché, and other Shartsé monks on break from the Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, offered me a Guru Puja with tsok offering and recited prayers for my long life.

At the wish of Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché, I gave the initiation of the five-deity Cakrasaṃvara to a select group of nineteen tulkus and geshés, including Lochen Tulku, beginning on the nineteenth. At the request of Mongolian Lama Guru Deva, I gave experiential teachings on the Easy Path to seventeen senior tulkus and geshés. As this group was already well versed in the teachings and was learned, I did not elaborate on the general points of the teachings and gave instead a rather extensive discourse to draw meditational experience from visualizations. To conclude I performed the ceremony for generating bodhicitta. Lama Guru Deva sponsored a tsok offering and, as an offering for the bodhicitta ceremony, presented me a copy of the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path written in gold.

On the tenth day of the third month, I gave the blessing of the four sindūra initiations of Vajrayoginī to Barshi Jampa Tenkyong before he emigrated to Canada. Following that, for four days I gave experiential teachings on the six Dharmas of Nāropa, based on the writings of Trehor Naktsang, to the monk Losang Dorjé of Dungkar Monastery in Dromo. On the second day of the fourth month, at the request of Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché, I gave the permissions of Garuḍa and of White Tārā Endowed with Nine Lineages³⁸³ to a few tulkus. This was followed by teachings on Samayavajra from Jé Tsongkhapa’s Twenty-One Short Works on Guhyasamāja and the ritual fire offerings of Vajraḍāka.

Jamgön Sakya Dakchen Rinpoché came to Dharamsala to offer a long-life ceremony to His Holiness. During his stay, we called on each other. I also met Chogyé Trichen Rinpoché of Nalendra and questioned him about the custom of preliminary meditation retreats as preparation for conferring initiations of the Compendium of All Tantras.384 Rinpoché told me that when the initiations of the Vajrāvalī and Mitra Hundred are conferred separately, the mandala they have in common does not suffice to have one general initiation. He said that there are elaborate and abbreviated methods of doing the retreats of the deities, and they can be performed either individually or by combining groups of deities.

In the fifth month, I gave the permission to practice Avalokiteśvara Who Liberates from All Lower Realms at Namgyal Monastery to the abbot, the chant master, and the monks. I gave the permission of [an aspect of Avalokiteśvara called the] Black Liberating Standing Lion to Thubten Yeshe of Sera Jé’s Tsawa House, his American student Losang Chökyi, and others. At the request of Thepo Tulku, I gave a permission of Four-Faced Mahākāla Time of Approximation.³⁸⁵

On the eighth of the seventh month, at the wish of Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché, I gave the permission of Jé Rinpoché as the triple deity and teachings on the Hundred Deities of Tuṣita based on the commentary by the Seventh Dalai Lama Kalsang Gyatso, Source of All Attainments, to thirty tulkus and geshés. In the days following, at the wish of His Holiness, I gave various long-life initiations to His Holiness, Shakor Khentrul Nyima Gyaltsen, the abbot and chant master of Namgyal Monastery, Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché, and other tulkus and geshés including hermits and the senior monks of Namgyal Monastery. These initiations included the preparation and initiation of the thirty-three peaceful deities of inner Amitāyus in the Drupgyal system, which was passed from Machik Drupai Gyalmo to Rechungpa. This initiation, in conjunction with the long-life empowerment, comes from the rituals of Amitāyus explained in the Blue Book of Synonyms of the Cakrasaṃvara explanatory tantras.³⁸⁶

Other initiations were the long-life empowerment in conjunction with blessing of the four initiations of the twenty-three wrathful deities of Secret Amitāyus, the nine red deities of Extremely Secret Amitāyus of Rechung, the long-life empowerment of nine white deities of Amitāyus, the long-life empowerment in conjunction with the blessings of the four initiations of the exclusive one deity and one vase of Red Amitāyus, and the permission of Samayavajra and consort as explained in Guhyasamāja. Each day after giving the long-life empowerment I gave teachings on and the oral transmission of the root text of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons Mind Training. As Dza Paltrul said:

These days when I give teachings,

it is an experience of narrating my own faults,

like a ghost hypnotized by a mantra.

How shameful is that!

This is how I also felt.

At the wish of His Holiness I also gave the preparation and initiation of the thirty-seven deities of the root Sarvavid tantra deriving from the ritual that removes negativities called Victorious over the Three Realms, which is the second section of the yoga tantra Compendium of Reality (Tattvasaṃgraha). This initiation was given in accordance with Illuminating the Meaning of the Sarvavid Tantra387 by Dulzin Drakpa Gyaltsen and was attended by seven hundred people, including His Holiness, various tulkus and geshés, the Namgyal monks, and other monks and laypeople from Dharamsala and elsewhere.

At the request of the nun Losang Wangmo, a member of the staff of the Tibetan Children’s Village, I gave the blessing of the four sindūra initiations of Vajrayoginī to three hundred disciples, including lamas, monks, and laypeople, in the Avalokiteśvara temple in upper Dharamsala.

One day I offered the oral transmission of Guhyasamāja texts such as the Vajra Garland Tantra (Vajrāmālātantra), Explanation of the Intention (Sandhivyākaraṇa), the Vajra Wisdom Compendium (Vajrajñānasamuccaya), and the Tantra Requested by the Four Goddesses (Caturdevīparipṛcchātantra).

On the seventeenth day of the eighth month, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché and I, as part of a tsok, made extensive offerings to five hundred monks, including the monks of Gyütö and Gyümé tantric colleges who had come to receive his Holiness’s teachings on four interwoven commentaries on the Guhyasamāja Root Tantra.³⁸⁸ On this occasion I made material offerings dedicated with prayers that the presence of His Holiness’s three secrets³⁸⁹ be as solid as a vajra and that no negative circumstances arise in his obstacle year.

After His Holiness’s discourse, at the request of Jangchup Gyaltsen of Markham, I gave the initiation of the sixty-two deity Cakrasaṃvara in the system of the mahāsiddha Luipa. This was attended by His Holiness and seven hundred others, mostly monks, including the monks of Gyütö and Gyümé tantric colleges. During the initiation I gave full explanations of the stages of the initiation, even though I do not have even the complete qualities of a disciple let alone the qualities of a vajra master. In this present degenerate age, I am simply looked up to as a master like a nomad who reaches the front row because he is chased by dogs. I merely followed the traditions of the lineage of kind lamas.