Every Guru Rinpoche day for the last 12 years or so, Phakchok Rinpoche has been sending out letters to remind his students to be mindful, and to bring them back on the path.
Rinpoche has already recounted an array of visionary journeys of great practitioners to Copper-Colored Mountain (check out News for past stories), and Nekhor continues to share these Guru Rinpoche day messages. This, the eleventh of the year’s series, recounts Samten Gyatso’s journey to Copper-Colored Mountain:
Dear friends near and far,
As always, I hope this message finds you well, healthy and happy. For this Guru Rinpoché day, I would like to share the account of a visionary journey to Zangdok Palri undertaken by one of our own lineage masters, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoché, reincarnation of Chokgyur Lingpa himself.
My grandfather and guru Tulku Urgyen Rinpoché told this story in his memoirs, Blazing Splendor (p.206):
“Tsikey Chokling told me many stories in his own down-to-earth style-no exaggerations, just the plain facts.
Apparently, he had many visions as he told me several stories from his visit to Padmasambhava’s pure land, where he even met the Lotus-Born master in person.
Once when we went for a picnic by the river, he told me, ‘They say Samten Gyatso is an emanation of Four-Armed Mahakala, and I think that is quite apt.’
‘Why do you say that?’ I asked.
Then he told me about a vision in which he visited the Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain, the pure land of Padmasambhava; he even described the layout of the outer and inner walls. In each of the four directions of the central palace, there was a stupa and one of them contained an amazing stone with a naturally formed mandala depicting the forty-two peaceful deities carved on its surface. Anyone entering the Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain had to walk through the base of this stupa, hence purifying their cognitive obscurations.
As Tsikey Chokling approached the stupa, he came to the boulder with the imprints of Padmasambhava’s hands and feet. As he was leaving, he noticed that to the right of the stupa there was a cave in the face of the mountain and he asked the gatekeeper whose cave it was.
‘This is the cave of Four-Armed Mahakala,’ the gatekeeper replied.
‘I must meet him,’ Tsikey Chokling said, but he was told that Mahakala wasn’t there, though his consort Düsolma was. In the cave he saw Düsolma, the female guardian of the teachings; beside her was a vacant lotus seat.
When Tsikey Chokling looked down at the lotus seat, he saw Samten Gyatso’s knife lying there. Throughout his life, Samten Gyatso carried this particular knife. Since he was a vegetarian, it wasn’t the normal dagger Khampas wear to cut up meat, but a small knife he always kept on his belt.
‘Hey!’ Tsikey Chokling exclaimed. ‘What’s Samten Gyatso’s knife doing here?’
‘Why don’t you just look down and see?’ Düsolma replied.
As Tsikey Chokling turned around and looked down upon our world—which he could do since this was a vision—he zoomed in on Kham and saw Samten Gyatso’s shining bald head there in his monastery.
‘The Four-Armed Mahakala is right down there,’ Düsolma continued. ‘Can’t you see him? Don’t you know who he is?’
Tsikey Chokling scanned throughout the entire region of Tsikey and the rest of eastern Tibet. Finally he said, ‘I don’t see any Mahakala, only Samten Gyatso, Chokgyur Lingpa’s grandnephew.’
‘That’s him,’ Düsolma said. ‘Don’t you know that knife is Mahakala’s curved cleaver?’
Tsikey Chokling thought to himself, ‘Now I know why he always carries that little knife.’”
May we always recall the fortune we have of being connected to an authentic lineage, and aspire to meet with such precious masters again and again throughout all our lifetimes.
Sarva Mangalam,
Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche