Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche teaches a vajra song

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche was once asked to teach in Bodhgaya by Robert Pryor from Antioch University in Ohio, and he has been giving annual fall teachings there ever since. The teachings occasionally took place somewhere outside, such as under the sacred Bodhi Tree or inside the Burmese vihara where we stayed.

On the last day of the seminar, there was always an opportunity for people to take refuge and the bodhisattva vow to help all beings attain enlightenment. The food in the Tibetan kitchen tents was usually awful, but Robert arranged for delicious vegetarian meals for all the participants of the seminars and so we ate like kings. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche would also allow anyone who happened to be in Bodhgaya at the time to attend the teachings for free if they so desired.

While there he began to write some vajra songs. I don’t know how many he has composed so far but they float spontaneously out of his mind. He had received a transmission from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche which caused some sort of change within him, he told me. He became very free and playful, yet deeper in his teachings at the same time.

This year his younger brother Tsoknyi Rinpoche had accompanied my teacher on this pilgrimage. He requested that his older brother give teachings on one of these songs, over near Sujata’s stupa on the other side of the river. About forty people attended the teaching which took place in open air near the sister Bodhi Tree. As usual I sat to Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s left in order to translate for him, while Tsoknyi Rinpoche sat to his right.

As he started to give teachings something strange started to happen. While I continued to translate my perception altered completely. Everything became like a hologram: completely transparent. I began to see into what it was that was speaking, what it was that was translating, what it was that was perceiving and there was only space in all directions. However, everything still remained clear and distinct—what Rinpoche was saying and the English translation still came out of someone’s mouth, obviously mine.

At some point, Tsoknyi Rinpoche looked over at me and poked Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche in the ribs and said something to him. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche then looked at me too. Either I looked very strange or they could sense that I had somehow changed. This experience of not really being there continued for the entire duration of the teachings, yet I was able to function completely unrestricted. I have no idea how or why it happened, but I like to believe that perhaps it was due to the blessing in that first vajra song that he taught.

Later, when we returned to Nepal, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s friend, mentor and teacher, an outstanding character himself who lives in Canada, Karma Trinley Rinpoche told him, “You should be very careful about sharing your innermost realization too early. Doing so could impair your health, so please be careful.”

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche took this warning to heart and didn’t teach on these songs again. He may have avoided some health problems, but personally it has made me a little sad. Still every now and again a song would be delivered to me in my monastery office and I would translate right then. I experienced that the translation of them would come very smoothly, almost directly, much like I imagine they had originally come to Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche himself. As he was fond of saying, “First thought, best thought.” So I would just let them flow like that.

These verses were similar in style to those found in the collection The Rain of Wisdom: The Essence of the Ocean of True Meaning, containing The Ocean of Songs of the Kagyu Masters and I think they really do belong there, or they could also be comfortably included with the Treasury of Songs of the Nyingma Masters which Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche has asked to be translated one day.

Meeting Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Orgyen Kunzang Chokhor Ling,
the monastery of Kangyur Rinpoche.

The first time I heard mention of Chokgyur Lingpa was in 1976 when Dilgo Khyentse visited Europe. When I heard that he was in Europe, even though it was the dead of winter I immediately set out hitchhiking to the south of France where he was at the time. It’s actually a quite funny story, so perhaps I should backtrack a little.

During my first trip to India and Nepal I stayed in Darjeeling as I mentioned earlier. I stayed in a room at Gandhi Road No. 54. My travel permit would only allow me to stay for two weeks, but Tulku Pema Wangyal, who spoke English, had agreed to teach me. During that short time they were doing special pujas everyday because Kangyur Rinpoche had recently passed away. One day, I heard that some lama named Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was coming to visit from Bhutan, and I noticed that when others heard this they just lit up and appeared quite thrilled at the news.

Though I had never heard of this lama before, I concluded that whoever he was he must be quite special. So when his jeep arrived I ran down to the gate with everyone else to see him. The door to the jeep opened and out stepped this tall magnificent figure. He was a good foot and half taller than anybody else. He seemed completely unaffected by all the commotion. Later when I got to know him better and had spent some time visiting him, I discovered that he was always like that: completely at peace and stable. No matter where he was, who he was with or what was happening around him he always remained the perfect picture of total stability in samadhi. It was readily apparent that, if he hadn’t already been stable, then he certainly had become so during the many years he had spent in retreat.

Upon that first glimpse of him my mind just stopped. I saw photos that Ravinder Rai had taken at the time, and I am simply beaming with a grin from ear to ear. I remember I was allowed to hold his hand as he stepped into the building, he didn’t say a word and I was utterly tongue-tied and couldn’t speak. I didn’t really receive any teachings from him, except for when he explained about prostrating and a couple of other general things.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche holding my hand at
Orgyen Kunzang Chokhor Ling, 1975. (c) Ravinder Rai.

Nonetheless, his very presence had a profound effect on everyone—it was truly liberation through sight, as is readily apparent even by those who have seen a photograph or movie clip of him. He was a beautiful, beautiful man. If the sun and moon were to take human form then it would be as the 16th Karmapa and Dilgo Khyentse—they shone so bright that they were simply impossible to ignore. When either of them walked through a crowd, the sea of people would just part. People wouldn’t just turn their heads they would turn their entire bodies and even their minds would turn in a new direction permanently. I was so happy. Only a week before I had met the Karmapa and now I had met Dilgo Khyentse whom, it would turn out, I would become much closer to. I don’t know if my bliss was due to my naiveté or simple stupidity but whatever the cause it felt wonderful. Just seeing him I thought, “Wow! Now there is a real guru.”

I later discovered that he was the guru to the royal family of Bhutan and many of the important lamas that we know today. He was nonsectarian and received teachings and empowerments from almost all the schools and lineages available in Tibet. At one point, it came to be that no one in the Kagyu school held the transmission for the dohas by the great siddhas of India. Hearing this the 16th Karmapa said, “Call the old lama from Bhutan!” So they sent a request to Bhutan and Dilgo Khyentse went to Rumtek and transmitted the songs of realization of the great masters of India as passed on through the Kagyu school. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche was there studying at the time and received them as well.

At Orgyen Kunzang Chokhor Ling
in Darjeeling, 1975.

Even when he died, everyone wanted to host his body at their monastery if only for a few days so that they could all honor him and pay their respects for all that they had received from him. Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche once said, “We are so lucky that everyone thought that he was Nyingma, as this allowed us to spend more time with him.” However Dilgo Khyentse himself never said that he was a Nyingma lama, he was just who he was and simply agreed to give any teachings or empowerments that were requested of him. He had spent so many years in retreat, that he had not only received a great number of teachings but practiced them as well. This is quite rare, for many people receive all kinds of teachings but then don’t take the time and dedicate themselves to actually doing all the practices.

Because Dilgo Khyentse had actually practiced however whatever he taught or passed on seemed to have incredible weight behind it.

One thing is the most important to know

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche with Dzongsar Khyentse
and Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche, ca 1977

Chokyi Nyima had already taught me quite a few times by now. When I was leaving for Darjeeling near the end of May, I went to pay my respects. As I was walking out the door he said to me, “Erik, one second! One thing is the most important to know.” 
“Thank you, Rinpoche,” replied.
Then I turned and left. 

Nonetheless, it stuck with me and I decided that from now on I would ask every good lamas that I met what was the most important thing one should know. Even though I asked many people over the years, and heard the answer over and over again, I believed I still had not experienced it. I knew the Tibetan words for it, and could translate them into Danish or English, but still they seemed just more words and ideas. I had only managed to fabricate a few more preconceived notions on top of all the others I already had. So I was no closer to the actual experience, in fact I was closer to it back in Denmark when I was seventeen. 

After eight years of being a Buddhist I was now further away from it than when I had started out on this path. It is strange, and more than a bit sad, that studying the Dharma can take you further away from what is most natural and simple. Nevertheless such was my journey. I had done several retreats, the preliminary practices etc. and yet there I was.