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.