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Guru Rinpoché

During the latter part of 1987 I was fortunate enough to be able to travel freely throughout Tibet, after which I made my way to Dharamsala, a Tibetan refugee town in Northern India. where during the Tibetan New Year Celebrations in February 1988, I received the blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

A few days after this inspiring event I met up again with a New Zealand guy with whom I'd recently spent a morning discussing Buddhism on the ghats by the river Ganges in Baranaras. He now told me about a nearby monastery which was run by a Tibetan teacher whom he said was the Dalai Lama's weather controller. Intrigued by this I took a walk to the monastery the following morning to see if I could meet this teacher.

Ngakpa Karma Lhundrup

There's a short but steep climb up to Zilnon Kagyé Ling the object of this mornings modest expedition. At the top of the steep winding track I came to an open courtyard surrounded by several white, two storied buildings and a small Gompa - a Tibetan style prayer hall.

A young and rather round Tibetan monk came up to me and speaking in good english asked me what I wanted. Karma Lhundrup was wearing white robes instead of the traditional red ones that ordained monks and nuns wear in Tibet, and as it turned out was not a monk, but a Ngakpa.

We drank some chang, a type of barley beer brewed in the Himalayan regions. In all of the Tibetan monasteries I had stayed in, this was the first where I has seen alcohol, but then Karma Lhundrup went on to tell me where it was that I had walked to that morning:

This was a small retreat center belonging to the Nyingmapa, the oldest school in Tibetan Buddhism and where the full time practitioners were not just monks and nuns, but Ngakpas - members of the White Lineage which was founded in the 7th century CE at the time when the King of Tibet, Tritson Detsum, was converting the Tibetans to Buddhism.

At that time the King had invited to Tibet the great India teacher Guru Rinpoché whose magical powers he had been advised, would help him succeed in spreading the Dharma. The King became a student of the Guru and created the White Lineage of house-holder practitioners who lead their lives according to the conventions of society while at the same time being completely immersed in the practice and teachings of the Lord Buddha.

These Ngakpa (meaning literally one who says prayers to protect the mind) were officially recognised by the Tibetan King Ralpachen in the 9th century CE, who conferred upon them the "Four Rights" to wear white robes, drink alcohol, marry and grow their hair, so as to distinguish them from the ordained community who wear red, abstain from drink and sex and shave their heads, and who in Indian Buddhism are the sole upholders of the Buddha's teachings.

Ngakchang Yeshé Dorjé Rinpoché

I spent the following ten days visiting the monastery and attending prayer services there, during which time I knew that I would have to speak with Yeshé Dorjé. the head of the monastery and whose job as the Dalai Lama's weather controller had sparked off my curiosity.

I had studied a little of Buddhist philosophy while traveling, and at a course in Kathmandu. But now I really wanted something to do: a prayer, or a meditation. Something that would cement the bond that I had felt grow between myself and this remarkable culture and it's religion.

During the interview that I had managed to arrange with him, he explained that he only practiced Tantric Buddhism and that I would have to commit myself to him if I wanted to practice according to his instructions. This seemed too advanced to me, but he told me it was suitable because I had attended the services he had given, and that I was now there in front of him. He said, "You are here".

He went on to explain the relationship between the Sutras and Tantric teachings. That the Sutras are akin to the soil that the crops (the Tantric teachings) grow in, an explanation I had heard before. Yet at that moment a crystal clear bell went off in my head and I thought to myself "I've always wanted to hear this" and knew in that instant that I had reestablished contact with my Guru.

His Holiness
Dudjom Rinpoché

H.H. Dudjom Rinpoché, one of Tibet's greatest yogi's and former head of the Nyingmapa, transmitted the practice of the Wrathful Black Mother to Yeshé Dorjé that he in turn passed onto me.

He wrote this prayer to point out the essential nature of the teachings passed down to him through the centuries: