The Gyalwang Drukpa

I was thinking of keeping this news until very much closer to the First ADC but then I thought it would be very difficult for the organising committee to remake the schedule of programs, if I don't say something now.

For those of you who have been following the news and also reading The Dragon magazine or watching our DVDs, or those who are doing  your Ngondro practice and the lineage prayer of Sengey Tsewa, you must be knowing that Drukpa Yongdzin Rinpoche is one of the most important lineage masters of the Drukpa Lineage. The First Yongdzin Lhatsewa Ngawang Zangpo was a great and enlightened disciple of the Fourth Drukpa Pema Karpo. Then later the Second Yongdzin Kunga Lhundrub became the beloved guru of the Fifth Dalai Lama who offered him a huge property, on which the Second Yongdzin founded one of the most important monastic centres for our lineage, Dechen Choekhor Ling Monastery. The Drukpa Yongdzins and Drukpa Choegons have always enjoyed a very close guru-disciple relationship over the past few centuries.

As you know we have two Choegon Rinpoches and two Yongdzin Rinpoches. We also have two Dechen Choekhor Ling in India, one in Dehra Dun, established in 1966, and one in Kullu, established in 1996. Both are actively managed by our beloved and most respected Drukpa Choegon Rinpoches who are living examples of our yogi lineage masters, dedicating their entire life for the sake of all sentient beings through spreading the teachings of our enlightened masters of the Dragon Lineage.

We are also very proud that we have all these great masters who are helping each other and supporting each other harmoniously and sincerely through all the different ways and gestures, which are really inspiring for not only masters and followers in our lineage but also those in other Buddhist lineages and other spiritual traditions. This is truly a yogi spirit that is beyond dualism. I am so proud to be their colleague.

Similarly, we have two Drukpa Yongdzin Rinpoches. One of them presently lives in America, and the other one passed away in 1995 sadly in a car accident on the Indo-Nepal border. I recently discovered his reincarnation and he is now staying at my monastery. He would be enthroned as the Ninth Drukpa Yongdzin Rinpoche during the First ADC.

I am so relieved having found him, because so many people who loved and were devoted to his previous life have been requesting me to look for him. He was also a very dear friend of mine and I can still remember how badly his death affected me. We grew up together at Druk Sangag Choling Monastery in Darjeeling. Compared to the Ninth Drukpa Yongdzin Rinpoche, I was so ignorant and extremely dumb. He was such a fast learner and he was such an amazing person. He went for only a few karate classes with Lodo Gyatso, and he could break many layers of wood at one go. He could learn foreign languages within a short time and he was constantly encouraging me, giving me moral support in whatever things I was doing. So, when he left us, I was so sad. It's no wonder I felt that way, if you believe in karmic connection, we have actually known each other for a few hundred years at least.

The Eighth Drukpa Yongdzin, born in 1960, was recognised very precisely by the Eighth Drukpa Choegon and the Sixteenth Karmapa. Drukpa Choegon Rinpoche performed a divination in front of a Guru Rinpoche statue, which was a treasure revealed by Terton Zhigpo Lingpa, and he reached definite conclusion. The Eighth Drukpa Choegon Rinpoche immediately sent monks from Kinnaur to Kalimpong to invite the young reincarnate and enthronement ceremony was performed at Khampaghar, the seat of Khamtrul Rinpoche in Tashi Jong. Later he was taken to Lippa and stayed at Rarang and other parts of Kinnaur. He received all the empowerments, transmissions and teachings of the Drukpa Lineage mainly from the late Ga Rinpoche Shedrub Choekyi Nyima. He learned the ritual practices from Rigzin Chodar, ex-teacher of Dechen Chokhor Monastery. He also received lessons in literature from the late Trijang Rinpoche. He received teachings on the philosophical view as expounded by Kunkhyen Pema Karpo, the Fourth Drukpa, from the great abbot Khenpo Noryang at Druk Sangag Choling monastery in Darjeeling together with myself. He studied Buddhist dialectics at Sera Monastery in South India. He later took Khandro Dekyi, daughter of Terchen Chogyur Lingpa, as his consort. As mentioned, he died in a car accident on the Indo-Nepal border in 1995. This is a short biography of the Ninth Drukpa Yongdzin Rinpoche, my old friend and one of my best friends.

As I said many times, it's important to have many enlightened masters in this troubled time. But unfortunately, due to my conservative nature, I have not been actively or rather simply recognising many of them. Well, it is actually not unusual for us to take that long to find an authentic reincarnation of an enlightened master. Sometimes, you can't even find the reincarnation, just like one of my own root gurus. I don't think he has returned to this human realm, but I may be wrong. I am still in the process of searching. There are records of masters taking more than 20 years to return to our world, even though they may be constantly helping some other beings on some other planets in this universe. But we are here talking about reincarnations in human form in this particular world, on this particular planet, with particular favourable conditions. Between the first and the second Drukpa, there was a gap of 200 over years. Between Gyalwa Lorepa and Lore Tulku that I have recently discovered, there was a gap of more than 700 years.

Generally and traditionally, we have peculiar way of choosing reincarnations. If the reincarnation is in the form of female or some other unfavourable forms, I don't think we would accept her simply due to our culture in the past. Basically, all the great masters will choose to reincarnate in the forms that the current world will respect and accept. They have their own choice to decide what to do and where to go, we don't have to worry and fabricate that much, I guess. In fact, Gyaltsen Tulku Rinpoche will be sending a female tulku to Druk Amitabha Mountain soon, so I think also that this is a favourable time for masters to take female forms to encourage female practitioners. Hopefully, we will also be able to meet her during the First ADC.

I don't believe in the way some of the tulkus have been recognised by some masters. They may have their reasons for easily recognising of course, but I too have my right not to agree, because I strongly believe that finding the authentic reincarnation is a very serious responsibility that will have implications to the lineage, not only to the individual lineage, but also to the entire Buddhist lineage or the entire spirituality, and therefore to the sentient beings living in this world. Recognition based on political reasons or self-interests will definitely degenerate the spiritual lineage.

Very unfortunately, when I went to Nangchen in 2007, I was very shocked to learn that some of the late Drukpa Masters in Kham area that were supposed to be discovered and recognised by me were already "discovered" and enthroned by masters of other lineages, without even informing any one of us. Honestly, I don't know about their authenticity. Some I have confirmed their genuine identity, many of whom I don't know and I am not sure. So it is difficult for me to give my support letters also, and eventually this becomes an issue and I think whoever recognised these masters' reincarnation was exactly planning to give us headaches and eventually to create disharmony. I am just taking this opportunity to say this very clearly and precisely.

I was saying "recognised by me" and although this may sound egoistic, this is a part of my responsibility, especially when these late masters' monks and followers have been requesting me to look for and recognise their masters' reincarnations about ten or more years ago. But it is not an easy job, and since this is a very serious issue, it is very important that everything is right.

I do not believe if some of the young boys who look good or are said to be well-behaving, smart looking, born in good and politically influential family, we should pick them up and recognise them as reincarnations of so and so, some of these reincarnations were even made up and that we could not even trace their histories. I have come across with people saying that this baby is very cute, maybe we should recognise, which I feel very disgusted. If this is so easy, this will degenerate the Buddhist teaching and will not benefit all sentient beings. If I do not have at least a sign in dream that makes some sense to me, I would rather not to even think of it, no matter how long it takes.

When I was in Nangchen hearing how the discoveries and recognitions took place, I was amazed to know how easy for these masters to recognise reincarnations of enlightened masters, especially masters who did not even come from their own lineage. I was told some of them recognised dozens of baby boys per day as reincarnations. They just simply picked these babies up as reincarnations, as I was told. That really is amazing for me! But for me, I would not feel contented if I do it that way maybe because of me being so conservative and too cautious. Some of my very close colleagues told me that I should not be that traditional as per the system of recognising reincarnations is concerned. But I did not manage to change my narrow minded style of recognising masters yet. I believe these reincarnations have such great responsibilities to serve all the beings through keeping their own lineage of vows and blessings of practices, so if they are not real reincarnation of Bodhisattvas, it would be so deceiving for the rest of the devotees and eventually for all the beings.

If these few Buddhist masters continue to play this kind of tricks, very soon people will not respect and believe in reincarnate masters and by not believing in it, the lineage of reincarnations that is so precious to our Tibetan Buddhist tradition will finally be stopped due to such kind of corruptions. I may sound very sectarian when it comes to topics on lineage, but actually to be genuinely non-sectarian, you have to be reaching to some levels of enlightenment, otherwise non-sectarianism becomes only a marketing gimmick. You only have 24 hours, to be non-sectarian, you have to be able to understand and practise all the spiritual beliefs, not only this lineage or that lineage, not only this yana or that yana, but the entire spirituality which is formed by different spiritual beliefs. To me, only an enlightened being can do that. And to be genuinely enlightened, you have to understand and follow one lineage, because even within one lineage, there are so many practices and steps that you have to master. Even if you don't sleep and you engage full-time in spiritual practice, do a crash course, I don't think you will be able to make it. It is just like you want to go to India from your country, at the same time you are going to take train, flight, ship or walk with your two legs, so how is this possible when you are just one person? Unless you can emanate so many bodies, it would be impossible.

It is very good to have the non-sectarian attitude, that is to respect and treat all spiritual beliefs as equally great and equally important, and to respect and treat all spiritual masters of different spiritual beliefs as equally great and equally important. This attitude is very important, but when it comes to practice, you need to follow one lineage. I am being very honest with you, although putting this here may invite a lot of criticisms, I am being daring, honest and practical, maybe too much for some people.

Anyway, for those of you who have been following my teachings for a number of years, you know what to expect. No pain, no gain!

I want to share some photos of my nuns here in Druk Amitabha Mountain. They just had their exams and 36 of them did so well that we gave them different prizes and certificates to encourage them. A few of them like Jigme Tenzin and Jigme Migyur Palmo not only do very well in their studies, they are also very hardworking at my office here. They are the role models for their peers.

Khen Rinpoche who has been teaching my nuns for a few months were given to me by my living guru. I am so fortunate to have him here. He is truly a great Khenpo, that means a learned teacher of philosophy and he could manage to teach different levels of students. He always says, "I don't know anything" because he has no pride, in fact he knows everything that a great philosophy master needs to know.

The funny thing in this world now is that we tend to believe whatever people say or whatever they present externally. When people say, "I know a lot", "I know everything", "I am the best" or "I can teach you",  we become so impressed that we follow what they say and we respect them. When we come across a master who is very humble and has no showy presentation, we think they are not very special. We are very stupid in this case. These days, smart people know how stupid we are and so they can cheat us very easily.

Therefore, I want to thank my Guru for sending me Khen Rinpoche indirectly. On behalf of all the students, I also want to thank Khen Rinpoche for taking care of their Yonten or educational life. I feel so proud of my nuns when they can write and speak good Tibetan, because we are practising Tibetan Buddhism, all the Dharma scripts are in Tibetan, if you want to learn something very precisely about Buddha Dharma through Tibetan Buddhism, you must learn Tibetan well. If you don't know Tibetan well enough, it is very difficult for you to progress in your philosophical studies. You know little Tibetan, you learn little. You know great Tibetan, then you become a great student too. Of course, I also feel great to hear them talk sometimes in good English, because English is internationally used and it is very useful to know English if you are interested to spread teachings of the lineage in order to help those less fortunate beings.

Overall, I wish for all my nuns, my monks and students to be descent and good human beings so that their activities can bring benefits to all others. The last thing I want is for their ego to be boosted in the name of Dharma or Buddhist philosophy or any sort of education. Any kind of knowledge should always be helping you to be a proper person, which actually means to be a descent human being. If it doesn't work that way, I am telling you that it's better off not to have any education, which brings too much fabrication. This way, you can at least give yourself a chance to develop your own spirituality. Whether or not this will happen fully depends on the spiritual masters that you follow. An arrogant master will sooner or later make all the students arrogant, egoistic without respecting any other masters or friends even if other masters or friends are more accomplished and knowledgeable. What a waste if a student become this way, how unfortunate this is for a student. This is the reason why I always advise that you have to be very careful when searching for a spiritual master.

Many people have wondered and asked me why I have not permitted my monks and nuns to have normal sessions of debate and other common studies. I think they do not understand why and specially when they know that I myself have gone through all these outer learning (Common Studies) for more then ten years very diligently. My great and kind Gurus who are truly living Buddhas had told me about how damaging this can do for some unfortunate ones, and I recently came to understand this.

Most of the beginners like us have very high risks to be caught up with our egocentric game in the name of Dharma which can be very embarrassing without knowing that it is. Therefore, I cannot take this risk for my own monks and nuns who have left their entire life in my hands from the depth of their hearts. I know it is more prestigious for me or even for my monasteries to have this kind of learning activities and schools for monks and nuns. But I do not want to throw my beloved ones into the ocean before learning how to swim properly just for the sake of my or my communities' fame. I hope my colleagues will eventually understand my intentions.

Talking about koi, here are a few photos taken by Philip Senge recently. After 3 female left us, there are now 6 female and 2 male left. For the time being, they are very happy and healthy, looking so beautiful. I am so touched by their beauty and loving nature. The sight of them swimming freely really makes me so happy.