Tulku Dawa Gyalpo

Migyur Dorje Passes Away

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“The following is an excerpt from a teaching offered by Tulku Dawa Gyalpo at Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland. Future posts will continue with the teaching on the Life of Migyur Dorje.

Now I think it’s time to tell why he passed away so fast. Karma Chagmed explains one reason very clearly in Tulku Migyur Dorje’s life story. He said that it is very obvious. I think there is also one other reason that is not so obvious, but it isn’t described as another reason. One reason he gave I also heard very clearly from our late Holiness. There is a pure realm called Metok Tram [Tram means distributed all over], Metok Trampa. Metok Dronpi. Karma Chagme wrote that in the Buddha field of Metok Tram, which literally means June flower, the Buddha Metok passed away. They needed somebody to take care of that pure land. They said that Tulku Migyur Dorje had to go there and take his place. Tulku Migyur Dorje didn’t want to go there, but he had no choice. He had to go there. That’s why he changed his life. This reason is very clear. His Holiness also mentioned it.

This, I think, is another reason. In our refuge field there are the five Gonpos. One of them is Gonpo Ma-Ning. During his second retreat, Tulku Migyur Dorje revealed a treasure to Karma Chagme in which he experienced that Gonpo Ma-Ning was kind of eating Tulku Migyur Dorje’s body.  Through that sound, he received one of the sadhanas of Gonpo Ma-Ning. Tulku Migyur Dorje asked Karma Chagme, “Do you want to write this down?” Karma Chagme replied to him, “No!” He was kind of scared. He said, “Alas. I don’t want to write the sadhana which comes from eating your body!” And he didn’t write that. Tulku Migyur Dorje said, “OK. If you don’t write it down, then I have to give it back.” Tulku Migyur Dorje said, “Take it back.” And they did. During that night, Tulku Migyur Dorje was a little bit upset and he looked at Karma Chagme and he said, “This is how these samsaric people act. They get unnecessarily scared.” He said also, “This is the sadhana that will get rid of my big obstacles, but you don’t want to write this.” In his story, it is not mentioned clearly that this is one reason, but I think that it is.

However, the first reason which I gave you is obvious. His life changed like that when he was very young. Later, Karma Chagme started investigating what would happen next: where Tulku Migyur Dorje was going to be. Maybe some of you heard that he went down to the hell realm and liberated many beings from there. After sometime, he got tired because there are so many living beings there. He took some fine sand. After reciting a lot of mantra, he blew on the sand and threw it in those fires. By just throwing the sand, it cleaned all those fires. Still in the intermediate state time, he was there for others.

Karma Chagme wanted to know where Tulku Migyur Dorje was going. In his own experience, he heard very clearly that Tulku Migyur Dorje would take another 21 lives. Within those 21 lives, during two of them he would not do anything, would not benefit others, would not reveal treasures. It seems like he would be resting. That’s what Karma Chagme heard. During the other 19, he would complete whatever treasures were not revealed.

That’s the life of Tulku Migyur Dorje. Right now we have the same profound, precious teaching; and right now we have great masters like Holiness Karma Kuchen that we can rejoice in, and likewise so many other great masters. Mugsang Kuchen Rinpoche is also considered his reincarnation. We Palyul have great masters like Tulku Thubsang and Gyangkhang Rinpoche, all three heart sons as we know. Not only do we have them, we have so many others as well. All of them keep this profound teaching, unconditionally, but not with blind faith. We are trying to keeping this with wisdom. Understanding like this.

Now I think I have completed. Thank you so much once again to everybody for giving me this opportunity to talk about it. And also to Jetsunma Akhon Lhamo. I enjoyed it so much. Yes, I will stop here.

Dedication now.

Today we are specially related with this topic, so I want you to dedicate and make an aspiration. After dedication, making an aspiration is important. Dedication is just giving up. You are just letting go of whatever merit you accumulated from 7:30 to now. You are just offering. Offering is kind of like giving up. Let it go. From there, it’s not yours. Right? Once you offer it means tit does not belong to you. You already offered it. After we offer, then we have to make aspirations. “Through this merit then may I get” that-that-that whatsoever. So specially today I want all of us to make aspiration. After understanding this history, may I have confidence in it and put into practice the generation and completion stages. May I also achieve the same as Tulku Migyur Dorje. Make that aspiration. And after that, make aspiration for whatever circumstances you would like. “May I be healthy. May I get a good job. “May I get” whatsoever. Yes, I’m serious. You can make these aspirations. They work. If you look in history, they made aspiration that way; they achieved that way.

Sometimes we don’t know how to make aspirations. That spoils our merit. We make aspirations for the first purpose, which is to become enlightened. But we also need circumstances. So this is the second purpose for aspiration. So please, dedicate and make aspirations together.

Tulku Migyur Dorje Blessings for Palyul

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“The following is an excerpt from a teaching offered by Tulku Dawa Gyalpo at Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland. Future posts will continue with the teaching on the Life of Migyur Dorje.

Tulku Migyur Dorje organized many of these great sadhanas, and retreats. He made great sadhanas for doing Vajra Guru mantra, BENZAR GURU PEDMA SIDDHI HUNG mantra and OM MANI PEDME HUNG mantra. He made a 1.3 billion BENZAR GURU mantra retreat.

Whatever money he got from the teachings he gave while traveling, he spent for that purpose. Like now here also Jetsunma is doing. It’s a good thing. We appreciate that. I know this from two years ago, but sometimes appreciation is not coming so openly. That shows that whatever Tulku Migyur Dorje does, he does only for others. Even whatever wealth he received, he spent for others, giving teaching, empowerment, instruction. He didn’t need it. He had already accomplished by doing retreat.

Then he turned twenty-three which was the end of his life. Let me tell it briefly. When he was about to die, he got very bad diseases. Bad diseases. He was very ill. At that time, he wrote a letter to Karma Chagme, and he sent some Dzambhala statues made in Nepal, not from India. India doesn’t make the kind of metal [lima?]that these statues were made from. In Tibet, lima is considered very precious because they don’t have it there. However, when Tulku Migyur Dorje was very ill, he sent a Dzambhala statue made from li, this kind of metal, and also some other things to Karma Chagme. In a letter, he wrote, “I’m really very ill and struggling far away from you. I have nobody taking care of me like you.” He did have somebody taking care of him, but he was saying that when he was with Karma Chagme, he was very comfortable. When he left Karma Chagme, even though he had somebody serving him, it seemed that he didn’t feel so confident as he did when he was with Karma Chagme. He wrote this letter to Karma Chagme that he was very ill and in a difficult situation. Karma Chagme got very sad and from his retreat, he did lots of prayer for him, long life prayer and so forth.

Now I will go to the end. When he was about to pass away, about to change his life, then he became more weak. During the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the lunar calendar, he was feeling very strange. He had someone who was taking care of him at that time. His name was Khyentse, but not Dilgo Khyentse. Khyentse became his very close assistant at that time. Tulku Migyur Dorje asked him to read some prayers so he could meditate even in that very painful situation. He asked Khyentse to read what we are reading right now, the Nam Cho lineage masters invocation. He asked him to read that while he was meditating. While he was meditating, Tulku Migyur Dorje spoke out to him that,… “some kind of white things are coming to me and taking me toward the eastern direction. At the same time, many monks are flying with me, and Khyentse, you are also flying with me.” He said that. Right after, he said, “But don’t worry. Don’t think anything.” He was saying you are not going to die. It seems that you are coming later. He’s saying, “Don’t worry, but don’t worry. Don’t think anything. Just let it be.” The hundred deities mandala appeared. During that very painful time, still that kind of experience happened to him. On the night of the sixteenth day, the last day of his life on this earth, he sat up and crossed his legs in meditation posture. Khyentse and many other lamas surrounded him. All of them expected that he would get better. They requested him to live long, but he just sat in Vajra posture and meditated.

A little bit later, there was a very strong thunderstorm. It felt like the whole earth was shaking. The ground and the mountains were trembling, shaking. Khyentse, his assistant, said that. Karma Chagme wrote in accordance with what Khyentse said. Right before Tulku Migyur Dorje also wrote a letter. It seems that he didn’t give it to anybody, but nobody knows what happened to it. Some people said that he himself hid the letter for the future. Somebody else said that during that time there were so many lamas, maybe someone took the letter from him. Karma Chagme said, “We know that he wrote a letter, but we don’t know right now what happened after that.” This is lost information. At the end this very strong thunder happened. Everybody felt like everything was shaking. Then Tulku Migyur Dorje asked Khyentse to give him two cups of nectar. After consuming the two cups of nectar, he straightened up his body. In his left hand, he was counting with the rosary, but his voice could not be heard.  He couldn’t talk anymore. Then he was just silent, totally silent in meditation. At that time, Khyentse and the other lamas asked him to please come back again for them. Khyentse said he shook his head three times then he went.

Everything seems very important in this history, particularly how Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab received all the teachings that we are practicing right now from him; also whether those treasures are authentic or not. We can understand from his history and we can also understand by looking back to our Palyul lineage history too. People like our late Holiness become that kind of person because the teachings are authentic. These teachings are the one idea, the method, that make that kind of person. Likewise if you go all the way back [to the beginning of the] lineage, back, back, back, we are only talking about lineage masters, because obviously these are important persons; but there are so many other great practitioners, whose history we don’t keep because they did not become important persons. Our late Holiness also used to tell us about these histories of the time of Palchen Dupa, before Palchen Dupa, and all of Karma Kuchen’s incarnations, the previous Karma Kuchens, taking care of the Palyul lineage: How Palyul retreat was famous in the Kham region. Even Paltrul Rinpoche came to Palyul retreat center and took the siddhis from the Palyul retreat center. Do you know how he took the siddhis from Palyul retreat center? He took siddhis from the retreat center sewage. He took the siddhis from the sewage. That’s how they showed this retreat was profound. He actually drank the sewage because it came from those practitioners inside. Patrul Rinpoche is considered a very great master, a dzogchen practitioner, and he’s appreciated that retreat. Likewise Mipham Rinpoche praised the Palyul retreat center and the previous Dodrupchen Rinpoche, and the previous Situ Rinpoche. Those great masters also recommended that people go there and practice. So many lamas achieved siddhis from their retreat. Therefore others came and took the siddhis. Otherwise they would not come. They are not fools. They are very wise.

During their own time, those persons, like Paltrul Rinpoche and Mipham Rinpoche, are kind of like one person in Tibet. They are like that. One piece, scholar. These histories also show that what we have right now is authentic and profound. Precious. Our late Holiness said there is a prophesy that through this practice that Tulku Migyur Dorje revealed, there will be ten million great masters. Through these teachings, this practice. Now among the ten million, some have already come. It has been over three hundred years. Still there are many chances. We, I, also could be one of them. There are prophesies. That’s what our late Holiness used to tell us. During Tulku MIgyur Dorje’s short time, what he achieved was so immeasurable. Still today his blessing remains here for us.

The life story of Migyur Dorje will continue in future posts.

If you are inspired by these stories and wish to engage in the profound practices revealed by Tulku Migyur Dorje, there is an opportunity to receive these teachings and empowerments directly from Palyul Masters in New York each summer. To register for Palyul Retreat in New York in July 2017 please click here: http://retreat.palyul.org/registration

Migyur Dorje and the Beginning of the Palyul Lineage

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Vidyadhara Kunzang Sherab

The following is an excerpt from a teaching offered by Tulku Dawa Gyalpo at Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland. Future posts will continue with the teaching on the Life of Migyur Dorje.

Some other prophesies happened to Tulku Migyur Dorje, saying he must go to Kham and open some sacred place, a holy place. He can’t go in [to Karma Chagme’s retreat], but he wrote a letter, asking can I go or not? Karma Chagme gave back the letter telling him, “said everything to you. Now this is your time to make decision. Please make sure that you write down whatever kind of special things happen to you and send it to me.” That’s what he said. “Please this is very important. Write down everything that happens to you during those times and bring those letters to me” is how he collected all the letters even after Tulku Migyur Dorje was not with him.

After that, Tulku Migyur Dorje started to teach again, giving empowerment and giving those instructions again. Many different monasteries invited him and requested him to teach, give empowerment, instructions. He went to so many different monasteries. I have the name of one monastery, [Tibetan name]. He went back to Kathog monastery. Also he went to some Kagyu monasteries; Kagyu monks, Sakya monks, even the Bon practitioners were inspired by him. They also requested teaching from him. He all gave empowerment, teaching, instruction, and everything to whoever requested it. Then, especially in that monastery, [Tibetan name], he did the one sadhana that we do in Namdroling, the eight day Drupchen, the great sadhana, that all the monks together continuously recite mantras day and night. He did it in accordance with Sky Treasure [Tibetan]: the collection of one hundred thousand MANI mantra and also [Tibetan] the sadhana of reciting one hundred thousand MANI and another sadhana called Do Drup, kind of like mendrup. We make this medicine. Medicines are actually made this way. It is a blessing, not just collecting all the herbs. After collecting all the herbs, then we make sure everything is balanced. After that, we do sadhana. Also during the sadhana, there has to be some sign of accomplishment. Otherwise, we won’t use this mendrup. Our late Holiness also used to do that in Namdroling. After Tulku Migyur Dorje was nineteen, he did that in that monastery particularly. In those eight days, so many signs appeared as the success of this mendrup. They made pills and they had the signs of kind of flying up. This was not something just seen by him, but by everybody in the mandala.  There were other signs like very sweet scent pervading all around the mandala, and also some sounds came up, and those small pills increased. There were common signs like rainbows and flowers raining down. The signs continuously happened until the sadhana was finished.

After that, he gave all these special teachings that we are practicing during our summer retreat. He started giving those teachings then. At that time, our first lineage holder, Kunzang Sherab was there, and also many others. I think it is important that we know he was there because that was when our lineage started. There were many other disciples as well, not just him. Then Tulku Migyur Dorje started to give the Ngondro, and the togyal and the threkchod teachings that we practice every summer. Also the tummo. He gave all these dzogchen teachings from Ngondro to the threkchod togyal two times. During those two times, Kunzang Sherab was there; and he gave the tummo teaching which we practice many times. During that time also, Kunzang Sherab was there, receiving all this teaching from him. Likewise he gave the P’howa which we do to many people. If somebody asked him to do P’howa for their dead person, he did it for them. He gave teaching so people could practice P’howa as we continue to do today. These same practices that we are doing today started then. He traveled and gave these teachings.

At that same time, he opened some important sacred places as well. He gave the introduction. The sacred palace opening already existed there, but people like Tulku Migyur Dorje introduced the place, told who came there before, what blessing they gave, and what retreat to do there. These are the places where if you do retreat, there is more potential. He opened that kind of sacred place. Through that and by giving teaching, he got so much wealth and money and so forth. All of the things that were given to Tulku Migyur Dorje, he just gave or used for the purpose of the Dharma. He didn’t keep anything for himself. What it says literally here is whatever he got he used right away. He purely used everything for the sake of Dharma.

Our late Holiness was also like that. Whatever he got, he spent for the Dharma. He didn’t waste any money. Therefore it becomes worthwhile to offer. Your offering is not going to be misused.

Migyur Dorje Leaves Retreat

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Rigdzin Dudul Dorje asked him to go back into three year retreat again because if he didn’t go, there would be obstacles when he was seventeen and eighteen. That was why he went back into retreat again. When he turned nineteen during the time of his second retreat, Karma Chagme was getting a little bit tired of teaching and serving him. Karma Chagme said to Rigdzin Dudul Dorje, his master, the treasure revealer, “I want to do my own personal retreat. You two are actually like a father and son, you two have a long karmic connection, so please take this from me, I am tired now.” Rigdzin Dudul Dorje said, “Well, you are old and you have done so many retreats already. Now it seems you don’t need to do retreat anymore. Treat this kid well, serve this kid well. Just by doing that,” he said, “you are also doing a great service to the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha as well as to the teachings of Guru Padsambhava. Just serving that kid, you are spending all your time and energy to practice the Buddhadharma. This is itself called Buddhadharma or you can call this itself following the path of Guru Padsambhava.” He was encouraging him, but at the same time he was telling the truth.

After that Karma Chagme took him back to retreat again. They both started retreat again when Tulku Migyur Dorje was seventeen. Karma Chagme took care of him again. Then when Tulku Migyur Dorje turned nineteen, Karma Chagme said to him directly, “Now you are already an adult. Now you know what you have to do, and also you know what to think, what to avoid and everything.” Let me just say it exactly. He said it very beautifully. When Tulku Migyur Dorje turned nineteen, Karma Chagme said, “Although you are the mind of the Buddha, you are also a child. I have tried to teach you the Dharma as well as the mundane life so far.” Both kinds of education he provided: the mundane education and the Dharma education. “In both ways, I am taking care of you so far. Now you have to make your own decisions. Whenever you have difficulties, just invoke Guru Padmasambhava. I know that you have this clairvoyance and I know that you can see all these deities. Now you are able to make decisions by yourself. Don’t ask me anymore what you have to do or not.” From then, Tulku Migyur Dorje becomes free. After that, Karma Chagme went to his personal retreat. Tulku Migyur Dorje was not with him after that.

The life of Migyur Dorje will continue in future posts.

 

Migyur Dorje Accomplishes Siddhis

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Palyul Nam Chö Refuge Visualization

The following is an excerpt from a teaching offered by Tulku Dawa Gyalpo at Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland. Future posts will continue with the teaching on the Life of Migyur Dorje.

Actually when we look to the Tantric teachings, you will see so many references to this kind of treasure revealer. It’s possible. More or less, Buddhists ask, “Does Buddha say that or not?” Actually, yes. This was already told when Nagarjuna clarified in Mahayana teachings. Also there is argument: This is not what Buddha taught when Buddha was alive. The Hinayana practitioners agree that it didn’t happen. I will tell here exactly what Buddha Shakyamuni said in the sutra, The Collection of Pure Dharmas. In that sutra, it says that some bodhisattvas who have pure motivation, pure bodhicitta, even though Buddha is not alive, Buddha is not there, will still hear the Dharma from the space, from the sky, or from the wall, or from other things. You can also receive the teachings from the trees. I know some of them they took from the wall. The history is there. Actually there were treasure revealers like this before Shakyamuni, but they are not called treasure revealers. This kind of name is not there. They would just take it and practice it. If it made sense, they kept it. If it didn’t make sense, they let it go.

During this three years, Tulku Migyur Dorje revealed all the treasures that we have right now. He started revealing all these different things. Then they completed three year retreat. From fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and half of seventeen, he was out of retreat. Then he started to teach. He traveled. During those years, he also revealed some of the Earth Treasures, and also opened some of the sacred places. Also within those three, almost four years, he taught many people the Sky or Space Treasure Dharma. Especially there are 13 karmically connected people. Although in his lifetime, he taught many people, these thirteen are the main disciples. They’re called the 13 main karmically connected, or fortunate, people.

There are so many people’s names in that history. Let me give you one, Nyemba Tulku. Nyemba Tulku is one among the 13. There are so many people. It seems that during that time, Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab was not there. Tulku Migyur Dorje was giving teachings to all these other karmically connected great persons. When he was seventeen, again he went back to retreat with Karma Chagme. When they did retreat, there were so many signs of siddhis. I will tell you about one when they were practicing in accordance with Sky Treasure, doing the Heart Sadhana of the Bishuddhi, Yangdak, one of the eight Herukas.

During that time, this was a sign of the achieved siddhis during this sadhana that occurred. In the front, there was a red and yellowish lotus flower and upon that was a golden wheel with a thousand spokes. That wheel was turning toward the right, clockwise, for a long time, adorned with the wish fulfilling jewel, which is mostly benduria, blue in color. That wish fulfilling jewel had a wooden handle. Tulku Migyur Dorje had the experience of being given these kinds of things in his hand. This was one sign when they were doing this sadhana in their retreat time. It continuously happened all during these three years. Whenever he started some new sadhana, some sign like this appeared.

Migyur Dorje Receives His Name

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching offered by Tulku Dawa Gyalpo at Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland. Future posts will continue with the teaching on the Life of Migyur Dorje.

In that way, the years passed. He went to Karma Chagme’s cave one time when he was seven. He liked staying there, but he was very shy and scared of his grandpa. His grandpa and his father would not let him stay over in a cave with Karma Chagme. At that time they met and they separated. And from there for three years, nothing. I think his grandpa was now drinking alcohol. He was always drinking, not taking much care of his grandson. And there’s another reason too. However, when he turned ten, he was able to go to Karma Chagme. Then they allowed him teach. Now it was time to study. Fortunately, it seems like grandpa didn’t know how to teach. Otherwise, he would teach. Then they passed Tulku Migyur Dorje to Karma Chagme to teach. Karma Chagme started teaching basic needs and all that, and about the spiritual path, too. From refuge, Karma Chagme started with the Dzogchen tradition.

He started teachings, then gradually he gave empowerment to that ten year old boy. The first empowerment he gave was the Amitayus empowerment in accordance with Ratna Lingpa’s treasure, and he gave Peaceful Guru Rinpoche and Wrathful Guru Rinpoche empowerments. Before giving empowerment, he checked karmic relations, which kind of deity or buddha was more akin to him or which he had his karmic relationship with. Throwing the flower, checking which is more suitable for you, to determine during the empowerment what kind of deity you have to visualize yourself as. In all three of those empowerments, whenever Tulku Migyur Dorje threw the flower, it either fell in the middle or in the east, always these two. Then Karma Chagme thought, “Now I will give him a name. He is always throwing in these two, so I’m going to name him Orgyen Migyur, Orgyen Migyur. Actually Karma Chagme said, “The east is Vajra and the center is Migyur. Migyur Vajra, Migyur Dorje. But he thought, “No, maybe I’ll give Orgyen Migyur.” And he gave him Orgyen Migyur, and that boy did not accept that name. That boy said this is not my name.

Now this is amazing. He said, “This is not my name.” Karma Chagme went back to his first thought. He said, “Well, I will give you Migyur Dorje,” and the boy was happy. He loved that. “Yes, this is my name.” That’s what he said when he was ten. From there on, he was cared for by Karma Chagme. Karma Chagme provided all the teachings and whatever he needed. The first year, when Tulku Migyur Dorje was ten, Karma Chagme gave teaching, empowerment, everything. The second year when Tulku Migyur Dorje turned eleven, then Karma Chagme started his retreat. At the same time, he let Tulku Migyur Dorje stay in retreat with him. So Tulku Migyur Dorje started three year retreat when he was eleven. He was receiving teaching and practicing. All this. Just two of them in a cave, in retreat. Right after he turned twelve, within this three years actually, he began to reveal the Sky Treasures, for which we have the sadhanas and the teachings we do in summer retreat. He revealed all this teaching during those three years. Some of them were revealed in a dream, some of them were revealed in his experience, some of them were revealed in actuality. That’s why it’s called [Tibetan].

The Birth of Tulku Migyur Dorje

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Tulku Migyur Dorje

The following is an excerpt from a teaching offered by Tulku Dawa Gyalpo at Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland. Future posts will continue with the teaching on the Life of Migyur Dorje.

After nine months, Tulku Migyur Dorje was born, in the tenth lunar month and seventh day. When he was born, he was related to Karma Chagme. At that time, Karma Chagme was not checking about him. Karma Chagme sent just one profound protection cord, which was normal.  In Tibet, the Lama used to give to everybody. Especially when a son or daughter was born, they would give that. So Karma Chagme was an uncle now. He heard that his nephew was born, so he sent that red cord that we are put on our neck. He himself was doing retreat. He didn’t come out. He sent some sumdi for his nephew. I think that was the first connection with him, the first connection between Karma Chagme and Tulku Migyur Dorje. Tulku Migyur Dorje got his first things from Karma Chagme.

Later, Tulku Migyur Dorje’s sibling was born. His brother’s name was [unintelligible] Tashi. When his brother was born, his mother could not take care of him anymore. He was mostly cared for by his grandpa. He had two grandpas, one from the father’s side, one from the mother’s side, but seems like among the two, he would be cared for by one. He didn’t go one day here and one day there. One grandpa’s name was Tsering Bum and the other one was Adrup. Adrup and Tsering Bum. When Tulku Migyur Dorje started to speak, he said amazing things. He said so many different things, but they didn’t care. The grandpas, the parents, they didn’t care about what he was saying. Actually they didn’t know what he was talking about. He was saying things that every child does not commonly say, but they had no idea what he was saying. He said so many things at that time. It says in his story. Our Holiness also used to say that. At that time, he actually taught, but nobody listened to him.  

Among those two grandpas, Tsering Bum was a good person, with a good nature. Adrup had a very bad nature. His grandpa Adrup didn’t like Dharma so much. He didn’t practice Dharma so much, and he liked to hunt. He had an arrow and bow, bow and arrow and everything, those weapons which can kill deer and those things. His grandpa, Tsering Bum, was kind of a spiritual man. He practiced; he meditated. He recited MANI mantra and all those mantras. When he did those things, his son, not Tulku Migyur Dorje, his son came to him saying, “You are very good. You are making very good your way.” He appreciated what he was doing and he said all those things. Mostly Tulku Migyur Dorje lived with Adrup. Adrup was the more powerful. He wanted to take of his grandson. He didn’t want to give him to Tsering Bum. Unfortunately, he mostly was taken care of by Adrup. Adrup’s nature was not so spiritual. He did not do meditation. He did not recite any mantras, and he didn’t practice at all. Whenever Tulku Migyur Dorje saw his grandpa Adrup, he felt very sad, and he said that, “You are making a very bad way for your future.” He used to say that at that time, but they just ignored him. Let the kid say whatever he says. They didn’t care much. This really happened. If some kid two years, three years, four years said this kind of strange things, nobody cares, right? Just let him. Let him say. Grandpa was not caring what he said. Also it is said that when he was a kid, he liked to wear clothing of monk’s colors. He did mudras and recited mantras naturally from his mouth. These kind of things happened with him, but nobody cared at that time.

When he was seven years old, he saw the Loden Chogsed, Guru Loden Chogsed. Guru Loden Chogsed is among the eight manifestations of Guru Rinpoche. Guru Loden Chogsed tried to teach him the vocabulary at that time. He also saw the Dharma protector, Nechen Shenphen Marnak. Actually Nechen Shenphen Marnak was the Sky Treasures protector. Nechen Shenphen Marnak appeared to him and he also tried to teach some more vocabulary. He said, “From Kathog [monastery], some monks will come to look after you,” because he was the reincarnation of Wangdruk Jatso, who was Kathog’s lama. This happens normally in Tibet. Still today, no matter where you are from they will take you. As you can see now with our little Holiness, it is very obvious. Our little Holiness was born in Phakpo, in the center of Tibet, but he was grabbed by Kham. Now he’s in Kham, Palyul. This really happens. Nechen Shenphen Marnak told Tulku Migyur Dorje when he was seven, “They are coming to look after you, but they won’t get you. Karma Chagme will come and he will get you. He will teach you very well.” When Nechen Shenphen Marnak said that to him, he was seven. At that time he was still not Migyur Dorje. I don’t know what his name was.

The Kathog lamas came to [unintelligible]. They heard about this family and a child born there. Also the letter that Wangdrup Jatso wrote was possessed by them, not Karma Chagme, and according to that letter they came to find their master. Three monks came to his house. What can I say? This is fortunate or this is unfortunate. I don’t know. If you look from one hand, it seems fortunate, but if you look from the other hand, it looks unfortunate. When those three monks came to look for him, he was staying with his bad grandpa. When those monks talked about him, grrrr, grandpa was angry. He didn’t want to listen to anything about that, and they couldn’t get the boy from him. He kicked them out. Later again, other monks came from Kathog. At that time, he was with his father, but his father scolded them instead of accepting them, and let them go away. He didn’t give his son to them. Normally it is very difficult to give. If somebody came to you that you didn’t know asking for your son, how could you give? It’s very difficult. However, they couldn’t get him in accordance with what Nechen Shenphen Marnak prophesized.

The story of the Life of Migyur Dorje will continue in future posts.

The Prophecy Of Migyur Dorje’s Birth

by
Karma Chagme

The following is an excerpt from a teaching offered by Tulku Dawa Gyalpo at Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland. Future posts will continue with the teaching on the Life of Migyur Dorje.

Maybe you have no idea what I am talking about here. If I talked about New York and Washington, D.C., then all the locations would pop up in your mind. In my mind, this location is also very blurry. Probably most of us know the Kham region, close to China, in eastern Tibet. That location we can imagine easily. Actually it’s in the praise or the invocation in Tulku Migyur Dorje’s stanza.

They’re describing about why it’s named Nhom. They describe so many different meanings. When they praise their own land, they say it’s named Nhom because there is very fertile land there. Actually, Nhom is show, you know? Show off. Yes, Nhom is show off. The meaning of the name is like that. When they describe why it’s named show off, then they will say, “Oh, there’s a fertile field there, and there’s a great person which we can show off to other regions; and we have very good land that we can show off to others.” They give so many reasons, but this is not necessary. This is not important. Just let it be. Maybe it is not appropriate for me to say that because my region is the U-Tsang, which is poorer. He was born in Nhom.

Guru Rinpoche prophesized, that Tulku Migyur Dorje’s previous lama, who’s named Wangchuk Jatso, was a monk in Kathog monastery. He spent most of his lifetime in retreat. When Wangchuk Jatso was about to pass away, then he himself prophesized his next life. Wangchuk  Jatso said that his reincarnation would be born into the land between Karma and Riwoche. The old tradition also mentions this in the writings. That shows that Tertön Migyur Dorje is the reincarnation of Wangchuk Jatso.

Karma Chagme also mentioned that it wass said that Wangchuk Jatso’s reincarnation would be born bordering Riwoche and Chamdo, exactly where Tulku Migyur was born. Karma Chagme checked, analyzed, whether this was the exact person he was looking for or not. He checked all these things. Normally this is one way that we recognize the tulku. This shows how we recognize a tulku. Also I think that this is Karma Chagme’s own master. That master, whose name is Rigdzin Dudul Dorje, is also very much related with Tertön Migyur Dorje. It seems like he’s from the center of Tibet, not from Kham. However, it seems that Karma Chagme, himself respects that person very much when we look to the history later. Rigdzin Dudul Dorje was also a tertӧn. Before Tulku Migyur Dorje was born, he prophesized is the Lama called Shupal Palgyi Senge… Who is Shupal Palgyi Senge? Shupal Palgyi Senge is the one great disciples of Guru Padmasambhava, one of the 25 great mahasiddhas. Shupal Palgyi Senge, Lochen Berotsana, Longdrol Konchok Chonyi, these three are related with Tulku Migyur Dorje, especially Shupal Palgyi Senge.

Lama [Lama’s mother?] had been [blessed?] by the mandala of the Precious Jewels, which means kind of like Tulku Migyur Dorje went in their womb. Tulku Migyur Dorje who is called the precious mandala of Dharma got into the womb of the mother and received the empowerment of the Rigpe Tsalwang. He also has been empowered through the yidam deities practice or experience or empowerment through this phak. He can experience or receive the teachings from the yidam deities either through actual experience or through dreams. He was actually named by Tertӧn Rigdzin Dudul Dorje. His secret name was Pema Totrentsal. The common name was Migyur Dorje in the future in the place close to Riwoche in the Dokham area. His name will be the name of Dorje. To represent the spontaneous achievement of the three kayas, his body was marked with a blue mole. In order to represent that he had achieved the three kayas, he had a mole on his body. In some texts, like Pema Khatang, it says that in order to be an authentic tertӧn, these moles will be in certain spots like at the forehead, the throat, the navel and heart, those special spots. That’s why at the beginning, Karma Chagme is saying I know how to check the treasure revealers. Whoever he teaches or sees his face will be free from birth in lower realms.

He prophesized that kind of person is coming in the future. Also Ratna Lingpa’s treasure, that Ratna Lingpa’s treasure is very clear that Chöying Dorje was also one person’s name and Migyur Dorje was his name. He said Chöying Dorje was another great master’s name during that time. Karma Chagme was saying that when Tulku Migyur Dorje was born, Chöying Dorje was 42 years, but Ratna Lingpa had already prophesized Tulku Migyur Dorje’s birth before that. Ratna Lingpa had already passed away long before. He prophesized the future and he prophesized that Tulku Migyur Dorje would come during the time when a great master named Chöying Dorje was on this earth. Karma Chagme put together all these prophesies from the different treasure revealers and masters. He did this to show that he analyzed all of this to see if it matched with Tulku Migyur Dorje exactly or not.

Actually, Migyur Dorje was not his name when he was born. Migyur Dorje was not born. Somebody had to name him that later. This was prophesized before Tulku Migyur Dorje was born in Nhom region. Migyur Dorje was conceived in the womb of his mother during the first month of the wood female rooster. Karma Chagme heard from his mother that when that baby was conceived in her womb, she had a dream.  She saw a very beautiful pond or a lake, full of blue water, very clear water. In that water, there was one golden turtle, shining. Everybody, all of us [in her dream] were just looking at it. How beautiful it was! Everybody lost themselves just looking at it and enjoying it. Suddenly, one strong man showed up and grabbed that gold turtle and gave it to her. That was the sign or dream that Karma Chagme heard from Tulku Migyur Dorje’s mother.

The Life Story of Migyur Dorje will continue in future posts.

Life of Terton Migyur Dorje: What is a Treasure Revealer

by
Migyur Dorje

The following is an excerpt from a teaching offered by Tulku Dawa Gyalpo at Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland. Future posts will continue with the teaching on the Life of Migyur Dorje.

It is very important to understand about the history because if you don’t know the history of these secret Vajrayana things then people might have doubt because they don’t know the original source of such things. Tulku Migyur Dorje’s whole life was spent practicing the secret Mantrayana path. Is this Vajrayana path in accordance with tantra or not? If the treasure revelation of Tulku Migyur Dorje is not in accord with the tantra then it is hard to believe that it is authentic treasure. Any kind of treasure has to be in accord with tantra. So if we look at the history, then we will know whether the treasure revealed by the Tertön is in accordance with tantra or not. If we don’t analyze the history of the Tertön and the treasure revealed, then we won’t know whether that treasure is in accordance with tantra or not. If we don’t know that, then we won’t have confidence in this treasure. In that way, it might be doubtful that we will be able to receive the blessing. For general purposes, this is the case. If there are certain people who have no doubt at all whatsoever and who believe in this treasure and then practice it accordingly, then for that kind of person, for sure, there are blessings. Normally we people have so much doubt. Therefore, in order to remove that doubt, studying the history is important.

Now let me begin the history of Tulku Migyur Dorje. Most of his history was written by Kyedup Karma Chagme. Kyedup Karma Chagme was actually his uncle. Kyedup Karma Chagme himself was a great practitioner before Tulku Migyur Dorje was born. He was always doing retreat. He spent most of the time in retreat. Before he started to write about Tulku Migyur Dorje’s life history, he said—this is very important—“I myself learned so many things, so I know how karma works. I learned what the virtuous and non-virtuous actions are. I learned what virtuous action does, and what non-virtuous action does. I myself practice the path of the Bodhisattva. I know and have confidence about looking at all sentient beings as the mother, and as such I look at every single person as the mother. I know how to practice the Bodhisattva’s path.” Another thing he said before he started to write [the history of Tulku Migyur Dorje] was, “I started to receive all the tantric teachings, and I have all this knowledge. I know how to check an authentic treasure-revealer. I also know that Guru Rinpoche prophesized that there will be fake treasure-revealers and deceiving persons. I know how to check that too. I am a fully ordained practitioner.”

There is one history, also related with that, in the Gonjo region. Maybe like me, you don’t know about the Gonjo region, but I know where it is located. I know there is Kham, and Dege. Our Palyul monastery is located in Dege. Khamdo, Riwoche, Ganze, Amdo. I belong to central Tibet, U-Tsang, which is close to the Nepal border. My father’s village, is called Nya-dham. It borders with Dham. I am from there. It is considered the worst place in Tibet, actually. That’s what I have heard. I have never been there. Some of my friends came from that way, and they told me, “I never saw any worse place than this—ever!” I have no idea, but maybe I will see for myself one day.

When one of the re-incarnations of the Karmapa, Karmapa-chi, came to the Gonjo region, he showed many miracles. He gathered together many disciples, many people, and led them onto the path of the Dharma. One person from Gonjo, who was very devoted and had faith in Karma Chagme, suggested to Karma Chagme, “In the past, Karma Chagme, you came here and showed so many miracles. Can you please show many miracles and teach many people?”
Karma Chagme said, “I have this very clean karsugo-re, morality. That is my great miracle. This is all the miracles I have.” That’s what he said. Because he is a fully-ordained monk, a Bhikshu, or in Tibetan, Gelong, if he told a lie about his realization, then his vows would be degenerated. So if a fully ordained monk, Gelong, tells that he saw a god, demon or devil, that becomes a lie about his realization, which makes a condition to lose his vow. He said all of this in detail. This is exactly what he said, “If it doesn’t have the main meaning, there’s no point of writing a whole lot of books.” He also wrote over 250 pages. So difficult to read, and how difficult for him to write. “So if there is not any meaning, I have no time to write these things.”

There is a great meaning behind this history. Before that, he started with his personal introduction. It said, “I know what to do, what not to do. I know what fully ordained are supposed to do or not, what bodhisattvas are supposed to do or not.” Whatever he wrote is based on what he saw and what he heard directly from Tulku Migyur Dorje. At the end, he used information from some others. He had no choice but to get information from them. Except for that, he wrote all this, exactly whatever he heard and whatever he saw.

He’s said all these things so that people can have confidence and faith in this writing of his. From here I will start the full life story of Tulku Migyur Dorje.

Tulku Migyur Dorje was prophesized by many different people, such as Guru Padmasambhava. Actually, Guru Padmasambhava prophesized about all the tertӧns.  In the future, any treasure-revealer who comes on this earth has to be related with Guru Rinpoche. There is no treasure-revealer who doesn’t relate to Guru Padmasambhava. We have to understand that. Before Guru Padmasambhava there were some, but they aren’t called treasure-revealers. The name of treasure-revealer is very related with Guru Padmasambhava. Guru Padmasambhava prophesized exactly Tulku Migyur Dorje’s name and the place where he was going to be born. Dorje Mingjen shows one part of his name, Dorje.  Mingjen means named, named as Dorje. A person named as Dorje will be born in Nhom. That’s the name of the place exactly where Tulku Migyur Dorje was born, Nhom. Nhom it seems is a little bit big. It’s not small, like a few, few houses. It is not like that. Nhom seems like a town. Within Nhom, in Tibet, they said there is an upper part of Nhom, a middle part of Nhom, and a lower part of Nhom. Thus, so far, what we’re getting from Guru Rinpoche’s prophesy is only Nhom, where Tulku Migyur Dorje was born. Actually he is born in the upper part of Nhom. He was born in the upper part of Nhom, which is exactly close to the border with Riwoche and Chamdo. Actually he was born the upper part of Nhom. I think that place is also named Karma, Karma and Riwoche. This is all in the Kham region.

The story will be continued in future posts. Please subscribe or check back in!

 

Introduction to the Life Story of Migyur Dorje

by

The following is an excerpt from a teaching offered by Tulku Dawa Gyalpo at Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland. Future posts will continue with the teaching on the Life of Migyur Dorje.

First of all, generate this altruistic bodhicitta thinking that for the sake of all sentient beings, I am going to listen to the life story of the great Tertön Migyur Dorje. By listening to his life story, I’m going to generate confidence in the revelation teachings of Tertön Migyur Dorje. Then I’m going to put the generation and completion stages into practice, to be able to lead all sentient beings into the complete state of Vidyadharahood. For that purpose, I’m going to listen to this and generate bodhicitta.

 

Today’s talk is about the life story of Tertön Migyur Dorje. I came to know that Jetsunma Akhön Lhamo had this sudden experience, or some kind of thing, that made her ask me to talk about his life story. This was related to me from Gonpo and others. I heard about Tertön Migyur Dorje’s life story here and there from our late Holiness Penor Rinpoche Holiness, but I didn’t really study his life story deeply. Because I was told to talk about his life story, that became a catalyst or a condition for me to look into the life story of Tulku Migyur Dorje.  I heard the life story of Tertön Migyur Dorje from our late Holiness, my own root guru, as well as from our Khenpos and tulkus. They taught me about Tulku Migyur Dorje’s story. I know their personalities very well, so I didn’t look at it in detail. Today, when Jetsunma Akhön Lhamo asked me to talk about this, then I started to look in detail. Actually it is not possible to complete this in two hours. There is an outer history, inner history and secret history. There are over 250 pages [in this book] and that is not all. There are also some others [books] that I have to look at. Here I am trying to shorten over 250 pages [to fit] within this two hours. I think maybe tonight it will take a little longer than usual.

When I looked, I enjoyed myself very much. I felt bliss after I looked at those histories. Before I start this, I would like to thank Jetsunma Akhon Lhamo so much because she made this condition for me. I am so pleased and happy to talk about it. Not just only for me; for all who follow this tradition. It’s very important. He is the head, or root, of this tradition, where it comes from, when it started, and from there, what is going on in the Palyul lineage. He is like Shakyamuni Buddha, the person who started Buddhism on this planet. Likewise, Tulku Migyur Dorje is the person who started this Palyul tradition, especially this Sky Treasure. Therefore, I’m considering myself very fortunate to have a chance to talk about it.

Before I start, I would like to describe a little about the namthar, which is a kind of liberation. thar is liberation. Nam is like aspect, if you translate it word for word. The life history of a normal person isn’t namthar. We don’t call it namthar. It is “history,” but in Tibetan we have a different word. If the life has a very deep meaning and is very beneficial, it’s called namthar. If it is just a normal person’s life story, we call logyu, a different way of saying it. In English, it is Tulku Dawa’s history or it is Tulku Migyur Dorje’s history. It’s the same. There’s no different “history.” But when we talk in the Tibetan way, there is a big difference.

Nam is the aspect, or it could also be “appearance.” Thar is liberation by looking in that person’s aspect, which means their life. Their life is their aspect, their appearance. Through looking at their aspect, or the appearance of their three doors, we can get liberation by studying their life story. For that it is very important to look at the great person’s life story so we will know what we have to do in order to follow their path. Like Shakyamuni Buddha’s life history. If I am trying to follow him, then what should I do? This is Tulku Migyur Dorje’s history, the namthar.

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