The great activity of Mahaguru Padmasambhava included concealing innumerable treasures to be revealed by One Hundred Great Treasure Revealers at destined times. The last of the hundred Great Tertons was Chokgyur Dechen Shikpo Lingpa who, blanketed with loving kindness by none other than Guru Rinpoche, benefitted countless beings and upheld the sacred mantrayana through the Guru’s continuous blessing, guidance, and peerless protection. During his lifetime, Chokgyur Lingpa made many visionary journeys to Zangdok Palri, the Copper Colored Mountain of Glory, revealed many treasures of the seven transmissions, and propagated these teachings. At the age of forty-one, the great treasure revealer, Chokgyur Lingpa passed into parinirvana, dissolving into the expanse of Dharmadhatu.
Chokgyur Lingpa had two sons and one daughter. The 4th incarnation of Terchen Chokgyur Lingpa, my father, Kyabje Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche was a direct descendent of the Terchen. My Father Rinpoche was very humble, genuine, and very patient and broad-hearted. I don’t remember, in my whole lifetime, that Rinpoche showed any anger to my mother, never even once raising his voice or showing an angry face to her. This shows very clearly that, of course, he was a very good practitioner and meditator. He was very pure, and kept his relations very pure with others, and was very humble. This is how he always was. Furthermore, my Father Rinpoche practiced for a portion of every year in retreat at the Asura cave. He had many visions of his teachers and of dharma protectors. And, he would sometimes share very clear premonitions at Asura, among gatherings of his students. All teachings that he learned, he would memorize, and when he taught, would cite the teachings from memory. There are countless stories that we could share about his visions, premonitions, and unique qualities, but there is not time to share that here.
His main gurus were his father, Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and H.H. The 16th Karmapa. He was able to propagate the Chokling Tersar three times in his lifetime. The first time he transmitted the entire Chokling Tersar to Kyela Chokling Rinpoche from Tibet, and I also received it at that time. The second time, it was transmitted to Benchen Kyabje Tenga Rinpoche and my brother Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche. And then the third time, he bestowed it to H.H. Gyalwang Karmapa Thaye Dorje. His last activity was the bestowal of the entire cycle of the Tukdrup Barchey Kunsel to the Yangsi of his father Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, and to my own son and daughter. Rinpoche bestowed and propagated the lineage, practiced constantly, and upon his passing, he maintained a meditative state for six days. He finished his samadhi at around 3 am on the morning of Guru Rinpoche’s day, the tenth day of the eleventh lunar month.
When I look back on all of this, I see so much of the blessings and the continuum of the activity of Mahaguru Padmasambhava.
In this year of the 150th anniversary since Chokgyur Lingpa’s parinirvana, I received a Dakhu (“looks like me” statue) of the great treasure revealer, Chokgyur Lingpa. Two statues were made that successfully captured his appearance, and they remain in Tibet where Chokgyur Lingpa had built his temple. I received a replica, and we were able to auspiciously replicate this Dakhu of Terchen Chokgyur Lingpa 1000-fold to commemorate the 150th parinirvana anniversary of the Terchen and the parinirvana of my dear Father Rinpoche who was the unmistakable reincarnation of the Great Terton.
Three weeks after the passing of Chokgyur Lingpa, the great revealer, the great Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo saw in a vision, on a full moon day, that a new pure land, the Lotus-Covered Realm, arose beside Amitabha’s pure land. And, that a bodhisattva named Lotus Essence, a manifestation of the great revealer Chokgyur Lingpa, appeared there to benefit beings. This pure vision treasure is called Kusum Rigdu, Essence of Three Kayas. The Chokling Dakhu enclosed with bountiful precious blessings was offered to the sangha of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling on the Full Moon day of January 28th upon the completion of the three day puja of the Kusum Rigdu in the presence of the Kudung of H.E. Kyabje Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche.
All these auspicious coincidences show that the blessings continue, the activities continue, and the propagation of Mahaguru’s activity through Chokling Tersar continually flourish just like an unceasing river during the rainy season.
May you all have good health and long lives, and be able to carry out your spiritual aspirations. May your experience and realization blaze forth, and may your minds be indivisible from Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. This is the wish I have made in front of the precious Kudung.
Kyabje Tsikey Chokling Mingyur Dewey Dorje
And just as my Father Rinpoche made these aspirations in front of his Father, Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s Kudung, I too here stand through the passing of time witnessing the impermanent nature of all phenomena, in the presence of my dear Father Rinpoche’s precious Kudung making the same aspirations so genuinely laid out by my father, Kyabje Tsikey Chokling Mingyur Dewey Dorje.
