The Gyalwang Drukpa

Gyalwa Lorepa was born in 1187 and passed away in 1250. His parents had no children, after making offerings to a very holy statue of Avalokiteshvara in Lhasa, his mother had very auspicious dreams when he was conceived and as usual, many auspicious omens appeared at his birth. Even at a very young age, he had clear visions of Tara and by 6 years old, he was already very familiar with Prajna Paramita and many other holy texts. At the age of 16, Gyalwa Lorepa and his father who was a Nyingma yogi, received many profound teachings and empowerments from Tsangpa Gyare himself. Gyalwa Lorepa wanted to renounce and become a monk, but his parents were opposing to this and had arranged marriage for him. So he hid himself in Namdruk, stayed with Tsangpa Gyare so that he could receive teachings and practised under his beloved guru's guidance. He was such an expert in the practice of tummo which helped him to keep his body heat all the time that he only needed to wear a thin piece of cotton cloth, no matter how cold the weather was. For those of you who have been to Namdruk in the winter or even in the summer at night and in the morning, you would know how cold that can be. So Gyalwa Lorepa was able to wear only a thin sheet of cotton and because of this, he became known as "Lorepa" or "the cotton clad of the Lo clan"

His parents and relatives never stopped asking him not to become a monk and they wanted him to get married. Some of them even became very angry with Tsangpa Gyare. Gyalwa Lorepa told his angry parents and relatives that even if one owned the greatest wealth in the world, at the time of death, the wealth would not be of any use, and since even the beloved ones could not prevent death from happening, Gyalwa Lorepa would not even disrobe if he was faced with the threat of death. His teaching moved everyone and even his father accompanied him to receive teachings and empowerments from Tsangpa Gyare in Namdruk.

Gyalwa Lorepa became a very close disciple and attendant to Tsangpa Gyare when his guru was falling ill. During this time, he received many prophesies from his guru. When Tsangpa Gyare passed away, he performed all the rituals for his guru. After his guru passed away, he went everywhere to meditate. In Mount Kailash, he meditated for 13 years. After that, his activities blossomed and he built many monasteries in Tibet and founded Tharpa Ling monastery in Bumthang, Bhutan.

The great yogi master, Gyalwa Lorepa, passsed away at the age of 63, after giving a major Chakrasamvara initiation. When his health became worse, he sent back all his belongings to Namdruk as his offering and passed away in the middle of many auspicious signs. The followers of Gyalwa Lorepa later became known as "Lower Drukpas".

I can only remember this much about Gyalwa Lorepa's biography as most of them are in Tibetan, my English is not good enough to put everything here. But I thought it's better for me to say something about Gyalwa Lorepa, otherwise most of you wouldn't know why I said the meeting was a "Tendrel" and why it was so important for us to look for Lore Tulku.

In fact, recently many Tendrels have been happening. One of them also just happened, but I don't want to tell everything now, then you will be so confused with all the great masters that we have in our Yogi Lineage. So I thought it's better that I disclose one by one, firstly it would be less confusing for you, secondly it's easier for me to try to remember the biographies of all these great masters and old connections.

Regarding the Ladakh event in February and the walking pilgrimage, many people have been writing to my office asking about the possibility of joining. Most people seem to be very afraid of the cold weather of Ladakh in February, I think it should be fine if you have the mind to join together to recite hundreds of millions of Guru mantra to benefit all beings, this kind of motivation that only thinks about benefiting others will make anything possible. I am very interested to see finally among those friends and students of mine, who will have a strong mind and commitment to come. That is definitely a great news for them and an encouragement for me.

About the walking pilgrimage between 19th May and 2nd July, I think those few lay followers of mine who joined us in the last 2 walking pilgrimages should try their best to join again. They should not try to avoid because I think it would be a great achievement for them not only for this life, but for lives to come. For those who are getting ready to come, if they can spare the time, I will have to ask my office in Delhi to help with the registration, since I will be very busy back in Kathmandu to continue teaching the nuns and monks there. So we should give the office staff a few days to design something and calculate the cost so that they can put on Drukpa Publications' website.

There is very little news to share. Whenever I have something in mind, I will write again.