Chokgyur Lingpa then returned to see Kongtrul at his residence, located at the famous Tsari-like Jewel Rock, on the slope above the Palpung monastery in Kham. Kongtrul had fallen seriously ill and was unable to see. Chokgyur Lingpa gave him the empowerment for the deity Vajrapani from his terma treasure called Vajra Club of the Lord of Secrets and told him to do some recitations of the mantra. That was their first Dharma connection.
Chokgyur Lingpa insisted, “You must do this practice—nothing else will help you regain your eyesight!” After Kongtrul had completed a retreat reciting the mantra of this tantric deity, he fully recovered from his disease.
When Kongtrul recounted the story of his recovery, Chokgyur Lingpa responded, “Of course you recovered. In your past life as the great translator Vairotsana, you put a curse on the infamous Lady Margyenma, that troublemaking queen of King Trisong Deutsen.49 Now you had to suffer the ripening of that karmic deed. In keeping with the severity of your former action, the karmic ripening corresponded to the seriousness of the disease with which your retinas were afflicted. This disease was influenced by the naga spirits. Accordingly, Padmasambhava designed this special sadhana of Vajrapani to cure you. That’s why I gave you that particular empowerment.”
From then on, Kongtrul and Chokgyur Lingpa gained even stronger confidence in each other, further fortified by several auspicious dreams and visions.
Khyentse, Kongtrul and Chokgyur Lingpa went on several journeys together, during which they discovered many terma teachings. The most famous of these was the Light of Wisdom, which later played an important role in my own education.50
Khyentse was born in the kingdom of Derge in Kham. The name Derge means “virtue and happiness.” This area was traditionally saturated by the practice of Buddhism, a virtuous and perfect place for the Dharma ruled by kings in accordance with spiritual principles. Over the centuries, these kings had promoted the most favorable conditions for the Buddha’s teachings. For example, they saw to the carving of woodblocks for printing the entire vast Buddhist canon—consisting of the many hundred volumes of the translated words of the Buddha, the Kangyur, and the translated treatises, the Tengyur—a task that had until then proved insurmountable even for the government in Central Tibet.
Here’s how that enormous task began. One day, while King Tenpa Tsering of Derge was walking to his bathroom, the thought suddenly arose in his mind, “Maybe I could get woodblocks carved for the entire body of the Buddha’s teachings.”
Later, when the king was visiting with his guru Situ Chökyi Jungney, he felt he should bring up his new idea. So he said, “Today I had a thought.”
“What was that?” the master asked.
“I formed the wish to carve blocks for both the Kangyur and Tengyur. What do you think? Will it be successful?”
Situ Chökyi Jungney replied, “Don’t ever give up this thought!”
“Very well,” the king agreed, “If I arrange for the carving, can you do the proofreading?”
“I will take care of the proofing,” the great Situ promised.
No more conversation than that took place. Eventually, the king did have the entire Buddhist canon carved and printed. Situ, who was renowned as a great scholar, proofread the woodblocks thirteen times—a gigantic task in itself. This is why even today we regard the Derge edition of the canon as being of the highest standard.
It was in such a spiritual environment that the great Khyentse took birth.
Old Khyentse was the combined reincarnation of Vimalamitra, King Trisong Deutsen, Longchenpa and the omniscient master Jigmey Lingpa—all in one body. Like Chokgyur Lingpa, he was renowned as the lord of seven transmissions. Yet Khyentse didn’t start out as the head of a large monastery, but as an ordinary monk at a Sakya monastery in Derge.51
13. Longchenpa—the great Dzogchen master
In the early part of his life, Khyentse went to Central Tibet, where he received a vast number of teachings from numerous masters. Slowly his talents led him to become a teacher, then vajra master, then shabdrung and finally abbot. During his second visit to Central Tibet, he transmitted most of these teachings back to others. And so people said, “Before he was a disciple; now he is a master!”
At one point, Khyentse had a deep spiritual experience involving a vision of the great master Chetsun Senge Wangchuk, after which he put in writing the precious teaching known as the Heart Essence of Chetsun. At the main Sakya monastery in Central Tibet, he did a retreat on Manjushri and had the experience of dissolving into the heart of his yidam so the “great treasure mine of courageous eloquence” overflowed from within his state of realization. Thus, he became like a king of all learned and accomplished masters.
Old Khyentse later built a hermitage, which he gave the splendid name Gathering Palace of Sugatas. He lived there in the latter part of his life.
Old Khyentse had developed unimpeded clairvoyance. Tashi Özer, the great scholar of Palpung monastery, was one of his main disciples, and he told one of my teachers many stories about the great Khyentse. Here is one of them:
“One day,” Tashi Özer recounted, “Khyentse exclaimed to me, ‘Oh, my, Khenpo, what trouble you have! From morning until night, you have to do all these tasks.’ He started mentioning all the different things I had to do. He knew everything, every little detail—including things no one else but me could have known about. ‘You are really burdened by all these demands; you have no free time at all.’ It was true, I was busy from morning till evening.
“Another day, Khyentse Wangpo, as he was known at the time, suddenly cried out, ‘Oh, no, how terrible!’ I asked him what was wrong. ‘Far away a bald monk just fell over the side of the cliff. While he was falling, I heard him shout my name. Then, while I was thinking about this, somehow he became stuck in the branches of a tree. Now the other monks are trying to pull him up with ropes. Yes . . . now they got him up.’
“The next morning, a bald-headed monk came to visit Khyentse. ‘Last night I had a strange accident,’ he said. He went on to explain that as he was walking with a stick and a load, he fell over the side of the cliff, at which point he shouted out, ‘Khyentse Wangpo! Khyentse Wangpo!’ He didn’t fall all the way down but became caught in some branches and was then pulled up with a rope.
“One night, I wanted to see for myself how Old Khyentse slept. So I hung around outside his door and took an occasional peek throughout the night. Khyentse did not seem to go to sleep at all. But late at night he loosened his belt, relaxed in his seat and exhaled. Then he just sat there with wide-open eyes, still breathing deeply. He might have been asleep or not, but he didn’t move for an hour, still with open eyes. Then he cleared his throat loudly and his breathing went back to normal. The sound was enough to signal his attendant to prepare morning tea. That was how Old Khyentse passed his nights.”
Near where the great Khyentse lived was a Sakya monastery, and it happened that one of their lamas passed away. The monks of the monastery trusted that Khyentse truly could see past, present and future as clearly as something placed in the palm of his hand—without a flicker of error or confusion. He was consulted