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!
