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In Honor of Ani Thupten Palchen on the one year anniversary of her death

Ani Thupten Palchen died on Friday, January 8, 2010, at the age of 80. As Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, we have heard stories of seemingly ordinary and devoted practitioners in Tibet who showed miraculous signs at the time of their deaths. And now we have in our own sangha a display of these miraculous signs from a student of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.

What are the miraculous signs of accomplishment at the time of death? The signs are described in the following excerpt from the introduction of the new biography for His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche called an Introduction to Light of Fearless Indestructible Wisdom

The Dzogchen tantra Blazing Relics of Buddha-Body describes signs of realization observable to others when a great master leaves the body, as well as the meaning of those signs. When a circle of light surrounded by rings appears after death, that individual has reached the ultimate state. When a light goes straight up, it indicates that the individual has instantly reached enlightenment without having to experience the bardo.

When beams of light appear, it means the individual is reaching enlightenment at the end of the bardo. That same tantra teaches that when a sound comes from the eastern direction, the practitioner has achieved enlightenment in the vajra family; from the south, in the ratna family; from the west, in the padma family; from the north, in the karma family; and from above, in the buddha family. Furthermore, the complexion of one who has merged the child and mother clear-light luminosity states remains bright; even if the body is left for as long as twenty-five days, it will remain fresh. And fragrances are emitted, more pleasant than camphor, saffron, and sandalwood.

Ani Thupten Palchen’s body was kept in the hospital for six days before it was transferred to the crematorium. Since her body was to be cremated, it was not embalmed. On the seventh day after her death, three Buddhist Anis (nuns) went to dress her body for cremation. According to Beverly Heckrotte, the President and Mortician of Going Home Cremation Service in Clarksville, Maryland, nothing had been done to the body other than refrigeration. No embalming process was used and no make up was applied. Juanita Thomas, Mortician, confirmed that the only thing she had done was wipe Ani Palchen’s face to make it nice and clean. She also indicated that the refreshing scent in the room was unusual, especially considering the length of time since her death and the fact that Ani Palchen had open wounds from a skin graft on her leg and open heart surgery. As evidenced by the photo of Ani Palchen’s body, Ani Palchen’s face and skin continued to have a natural tone seven days after her death. These are unusual signs.

Here is a first hand report from Ani Aileen who was present at the crematorium.

Today Ani Drolkar, Ani Rinchen and I went to the crematorium to dress Ani Palchen’s body for the cremation. We took her daily robes, her yellow robes, and the rest of her Dharma clothes and put her together as best we could. Then we covered her with flowers and incense. She looked beautiful!

Juanita from the crematorium was with us and we commented on the fact that Ani Palchen had no odor, although she’d been dead a few days. And, at the hospital, they had taken skin to use in grafting for burn victims, so she had open wounds. In fact, the whole room smelled quite pleasant. Juanita replied that it was quite unusual for someone to be completely without odor–and almost unheard of when there were those kinds of open wounds. We were all delighted and astonished. Ani Palchen looked so peaceful when we left her after prayers of dedication and we were so happy at her auspicious transition!!!

Ani Ariana’s report:

I had the great good fortune to be present when the call came to the home of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, our Guru and Spiritual Guide that Ani Thupten Palchen had died. As has been described previously, Jetsunma immediately went into her prayer room and performed the practice of Phowa for Ani-la at the very moment of her death. Palchen was successfully awakened from her death slumber, and guided by Jetsunma to Amitaba’s Pure Realm, known as Dewachen. She was liberated! This is what all practitioners aspire to; this is our goal.

Now we have a most remarkable second part to Ani Palchen’s story. Her body had remained for almost a week at the hospital where she died, an unusually long time. Finally, her body was released for cremation. In preparation for this final step, three of our Anis went to the crematorium to dress Ani Palchen in her ordination robes, and to prepare her body with due respect for the cremation. They surrounded her with flowers, laid incense on her body, and arranged her as though for a funeral pyre. To everyone’s astonishment, they discovered that there was no odor whatsoever from Ani Palchen’s body. Even after so many days, even after having been subjected to surgery and skin grafting prior to her death, there was no scent of deterioration. This was incredible to everyone there.

Jetsunma confirmed that this phenomenon occurred because Ani Palchen had been truly liberated. It was a sign, a true confirmation of her successfully following the Path of Vajrayana, with complete devotion and faith, and achieving freedom from the suffering of cyclic existence. It was a modern day miracle. There could be no ordinary explanation for the phenomenon that was witnessed at the crematorium.

Here is Ani Sonam’s report:

I was at Jetsunma’s house when Ani Ariana got a call from Ani Rinchen who was at the crematorium where they were dressing and preparing Ani Palchen’s body for cremation, and they reported that it was very unusual because the body had no odor. When Jetsunma was told she said, “That’s a sign that Ani Palchen is no longer ordinary. She has been liberated.” And Jetsunma said, “This is wonderful news for people who don’t believe that miracles can happen anymore.” I commented that, even more extraordinary, it was a Westerner who had accomplished her practice. And Jetsunma said, “A woman accomplished her practice with a woman teacher.”

This is historic. These are signs of Ani Palchen’s spiritual accomplishment through her devotion to her root Guru, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. In Jetsunma’s words, this is “Proof that liberation in one body is possible! Lineage and devotion are the real deal.”

His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, Head of the Palyul Lineage was informed about Ani Palchen’s miraculous signs. His Holiness Karma Kuchen upon seeing this post on Ani Palchen, looked closely at her picture and said, “I know her from retreat! This is good! This is VERY VERY good!” Nawang Paljor who was with His Holiness, expanded by saying, “Especially in Nyingma, faith & devotion are emphasized, and even lay people show these accomplished signs from their practice. Now for westerners, it’s very good that they can see with their own eyes this proof of their faith, and perhaps more westerners will be drawn to Dharma.”

Ani Palchen

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

What form will your compassion take? Making compassion your root commitment to sentient beings must take some form. How can you begin to do that? First, I recommend again that you be courageous enough to study the nature of suffering: how it has evolved, what it means, where it exists. See for yourself. Go through a logical thought process. What will bring about the end of suffering? If I did this and this and this and this, will suffering really end? What can the possible results be? Allow yourself to really go through an examination of suffering. Come to your own understanding of suffering so that you can decide what your next action must be. Allow yourself to think, “Well, if I did this good thing for somebody, or if I fed the world and got everybody out of poverty, what would the result be?” Follow this line of reasoning to its logical end, and see if there’s any specific action that you could take that would truly end suffering completely.

Then, think of the Buddha’s logic and try to understand what that might mean. What if what the Buddha says is true? What if hatred, greed and ignorance are the root causes for suffering? What if you could completely remove the seeds of suffering from the fabric of reality? What if it were possible, through the extensive practices given by the Buddha, to accomplish that for yourself first, and then reincarnate in a form by which you could benefit others by offering that same method again and again? Might that be a solution? It’s a slow one, but it’s a big universe. Is it possible that might work? According to the Buddha’s teaching, when you take a vow as a Bodhisattva, you vow to liberate your own mind from hatred, greed and ignorance. You vow to liberate your mind from the very idea of self-nature as being truly valid. You agree to liberate yourself from any form of desire, and you do that specifically so that you can return again and again, in whatever form necessary, in order to be of benefit to sentient beings. You agree to propagate the Dharma. It doesn’t mean that you become a born-again evangelist. It means that you reincarnate and allow yourself to return in whatever form necessary in order to bring teachings to beings that will finally help them out of the sea of delusion that comes from the belief in self.

You should contemplate this and think, “Is this solution really useful?” You have a couple of different options at that point. If you decide that the Buddha’s teaching is valid and useful, you can begin to develop aspirational compassion. Right now, if I were to say to you, “Do you want to help people? Do you want to help the world?” You’d say, “Yeah, I’m on! Look at what I’ve done. I’ve done a lot!” But I tell you, until we reach supreme enlightenment – and I’m talking about bona fide, rainbow-body, walk-on-the-water, supreme enlightenment – we must continue courageously to develop the mind of compassion in every moment. Until we can liberate the minds of others just through a breath, just through a glance, just through a moment of being with them, just through a prayer, we have not truly attained the liberating mind of compassion.

We must continue with this effort throughout all of our lives. Even though we may have the idea of compassion, we must develop aspirational compassion. We must aspire to be anything that would bring true and lasting benefit to beings. We must offer ourselves and our minds again and again and again. I think of one prayer of a Western Bodhisattva that touched me very much as a child, “Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.” That’s the kind of thought that we as Westerners must have within our minds. As we begin to become more comfortable with Eastern terminology, then we can think, “Let me be born in whatever form necessary, under any conditions in order that beings should not suffer. If there is the need for food, let me return as food. If there is the need for drink, let me return as drink. If there is a need for a teacher, let me return as the teacher. If there is a need for shade, let me return as the tree. If there is the need for love, let me return as arms.” You must continue to develop this idea in such a selfless way that it doesn’t matter to you in what form you can give this love.

Your job would be to liberate your mind to such an extent that you achieve realization through strenuous activity. Yes, the Dharma is difficult. Any path that promises to lead to enlightenment has to be difficult because it’s a long way from here. Let’s face it, any path that leads to bona fide, no-kidding, walk-on-the-water, rainbow-body enlightenment – I’m not talking about a psychological “a ha!,” I’m talking about the real juice – must be very involved, very profound.

So your first thought must be, “Let me then liberate my mind to such an extent that I achieve some realization, and then I wish to return in whatever form is necessary. May I be able to emanate in many bodies. May these emanations fill the earth, and, if necessary, one-on-one, through those emanations, let suffering be ended. Or if it can be done in some other way, I don’t care. It has no meaning to me. Only that suffering should end. What is important is that all sentient beings should themselves achieve liberation and go on to benefit others as well, until there are no more, until all six realms of cyclic existence are free and empty.”

When you get up in the morning, think, “As I rise from this bed, may all sentient beings rise from the state of ignorance and may they be liberated until there is no more suffering.” When you brush your teeth, think, “As I brush my teeth, may the suffering of all sentient beings be washed away.” When you take your shower, think, “As I take this shower, may all sentient beings be showered with a pure and virtuous path by which they themselves can be liberated.” When you walk through your door, think, “May all sentient beings walk through the door of liberation.”

An American Miracle

Liberating Mind