MARCH 2004 A NEWSLETTER OF SIDDHARTHA’S INTENT

IN THIS ISSUE • VIEW, MEDITATION, ACTION • INTERVIEW WITH BERU KHYENTSE • NORTHERN TREASURES • WHITE LOTUS - REACHING OUT FURTHER • THE NUNS OF KHACHOE GHAKYIL LING INTERVIEW BERU KHYENTSE RINPOCHE (Photo Ross Smith) Beru Khyentse Rinpoche

Rinpoche, you were recognised by His Holiness the corals and turquoises. This is an example of what is called sixteenth , were enthroned by him and received rangjung or self-arising manifestation. The Karmapa was many teachings from him. Could you say something a real Buddha. about his qualities? After you were enthroned, the Chinese invaded and you The Karmapa is like Buddha, not an ordinary human led your monks and lay disciples out of Tibet. Could you say a being. He is very great; he knows everything, the future little about that? and past lives. When he meditates, he can see everything. He recognised many, many , not in an ordinary way Yes. We left in early 1958. In 1959 the Chinese destroyed but in a very special way. He could see the exact place Lhasa and many monasteries. The fighting had started in where the was born, his parents, the distance and parts of eastern Tibet, around 1958, but it had not yet direction of how to locate that place, everything. become so bad. However, both the Karmapa and myself Sometimes he would just tell his secretary to write down had done (divinations) and those indicated that it these directions; sometimes, without being requested to would be better if we left Tibet. So, officially, we got do so, he would relate all the details of where a lama was permission from the local government to go on reborn. pilgrimage and then we were to come back. After two or three months, while we were travelling, the fighting Many people were profoundly and suddenly changed started in many different places and many were through meeting him and have great devotion to him as imprisoned. Many things happened. he was so powerful. Sometimes they would be moved to tears, some would actually see him as Vajradhara, some We kept going and reached a place near Lhasa called would see him as Karma Pakshi, the second Karmapa Nyenchen ThangLha’s mountain where we stopped for a (1203 - 1283), in the form of an old man with long hair. few months. Then the Karmapa said that we should leave Karmapa’s sister saw him in the form of Vajradhara. quickly and go in a northerly direction, to the Nepali Some people saw the Karmapa with special ornaments, border. His Holiness the travelled to the

Cover photo: Beru Khyentse Rinpoche at Vajradhara Gonpa (Photo Bridget Gebbie) 4 - Gentle Voice danger of dying out. He would receive that lineage and then write it down in book form and teach it again. All lineages of the , Kagyü, and as well as the Shangpa, Drigung, Jodruk (Kalachakra) and Chö he searched out, received and also practised and then transmitted to his disciples. So he was a very great master.

At the same time, Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye (1813 – 1899) was his brother and they were each other’s disciples and gurus. The first Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo lived for seventy-three years from 1820 to 1892. Before he died, he practised Vimalamitra’s guru yoga and said he knew that it was his time to go and that he would dissolve into Vimalamitra’s heart and go to Vimalamitra’s sacred place, the five peaks of Wu Tai Shan in China. Then he would again radiate five emanations. So there are five Khyentses. His main seat was at Dzongsar Tashi Kartsey. The holder of this seat, the second Dzongsar Khyentse, died at the age of thirteen, after which the invited the Kathog Khyentse to Dzongsar to become the throne-holder there. This was Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. He was also very great and had many teachers from different lineages as had Jamyang

(Photo courtesy of Sonam and Tenzin) Khyentse Wangpo before him. His activities greatly His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa flourished and he had many, many disciples, both tulkus and khenpos. Assamese border. The Karmapa escaped south through Bhutan. We however went through northern Tibet. We The first Beru Khyentse, my previous incarnation, was travelled for one and a half years, living in tents and born in 1896. He was recognised by the first Jamgön travelling on horseback. In 1959 we reached Nepal. Then Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye as the speech incarnation of at the time of the New Year, , I met the Karmapa Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. The boy was taken to again in Nepal. We were all safe and didn’t have any Palpüng monastery and was given the name Pema problems with the Chinese, but many other monasteries’ Wangchüg. He studied all the different traditions and lamas and many lay people died. When we were near became a great rimé master. He was considered the heart Nyenchen ThangLha’s mountain, reconnaissance son of his main guru, the fifteenth Karmapa, Khakyab aeroplanes flew overhead. We heard them coming and Dorje. were able to cover our belongings with cloth so they couldn’t see us and they didn’t drop bombs on us. We Later, the fifteenth Karmapa invited the first Beru were very lucky. The next day we left. At that time, at Khyentse, who was a monk, to come to his seat, Tsurphu, Chegu Gonpa in Kongpo, there were many people killed. near Lhasa, and look after the monks and his sons and daughters as his regent. Before passing away, the fifteenth Rinpoche, you are the speech emanation of Jamyang Khyentse Karmapa had a vision about the incarnation of the Wangpo. Could you say something about the rimé or non- sixteenth Karmapa, which was recorded but was difficult sectarian lineage, as it seems very important at this time? to decipher. Eventually Beru Khyentse Rinpoche received a piece of paper containing the exact explanation of the Yes. The background to the Khyentse lineage is that at the reincarnation document. After he had read it, he time of the Buddha he was Manjushri. Then through understood the meaning and was very happy as he had many different lifetimes he was Manjushrimitra, been searching for this key to open the code of the Vimalamitra, Dril Bupa, (or Vajra Ghantipa), Bana Ratna reincarnation letter left by the fifteenth Karmapa about (or Pal Yang) and many, many great yogis. In Tibet, the the sixteenth Karmapa. This is regarding the first Beru first time, he reincarnated as King Trisong Deutsen. From Khyentse, the fifteenth Karmapa’s main heart son and the king emanated five forms of his body, speech, mind, also the guru of the sixteenth Karmapa. qualities and activities. Then, there are the 108 major tertöns (treasure revealers) and the 1,022 minor tertöns. Of Rinpoche, is there something you would like to say in the major tertöns in the past lives of Jamyang Khyentse conclusion? Wangpo, the first was Sangye Lama, who was the first tertön in Tibet (Tsa Sum Dril Drub was one of his termas), Yes. As the teachings of the buddha dharma spread then Nyang Ral Nyima Öser and Guru Chöwang. throughout the West and the East, in Australia and New Zealand we really need to put into practice these Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo was a very great master and teachings of the Buddha. This is a really momentous time. had over 150 different lineage gurus. He travelled all over There are many great masters giving teachings here. Tibet to receive and thereby preserve all of the lineage These teachings are very precious and now you have the transmissions, some of which were almost broken and in continued page 10

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S: I’m wondering how important the view really is. view. There are many Buddhist actions, such as Cannot someone be a perfectly normal person, without meditation, visualisation, compassion, generosity and so having such and such beliefs, without following such and on. But all these Buddhist actions can be abbreviated into such a view? Or is it really important and one has to try two things based on the view: outrageousness and and structurise one’s view to actually attain a certain elegance. Why outrageousness? It’s very necessary normality? because if you are not outrageous, you will become a slave of this wrong view. You will want to wear a tie and R: When we are talking about the view, there are many then you will spend the whole evening not knowing different levels of view. Of course, everybody has a view. which tie to wear. You are losing it again here! Not being A view is basically an idea and based on that idea we outrageous enough! function. For instance, BMW is a great car. That’s a view. Then for days and nights you work hard to buy one. If you are outrageous and you are maybe meeting the That’s meditation. And finally you get one; then you’re prime minister for dinner, you could wear a live fish always worried about how it will or won’t get scratched. because, based on the view, a live fish would be much That’s action. View, meditation and action. Everything has more valuable than this useless piece of fabric. But, then that. But, of course, Buddhists would dispute all the other again, action has to be accompanied by elegance. Why? views. They would say an ordinary view has a lot of Because as a Buddhist, as someone who knows what the faults. That’s why they call it the relative view. Why? view is, you have a responsibility. Compassion has to be Because maybe a year later you will not like your BMW; there. You should not go to dinner with a dead fish you will like Ferrari instead. Now that proves that BMW hanging around your neck. As a Buddhist you should not! is not the ultimate happiness or the ultimate truth. So You should wear a very elegant tie that will match your what defines the ultimate view is something that will not shoes and your belt. You should put it on properly and all change, something that is not dependent on any other along you should know, ‘I’m doing the most pathetic, cause and condition. useless thing that exists.’ These two things are the Buddhist action. The Buddhist view of looking at phenomena is that everything is impermanent, interdependent and So now just to summarise. The Buddhist view of looking there's no such thing as a whole. at our hand and at phenomena: everything is impermanent, interdependent and there’s no such thing as a whole. That’s the view. Meditation is to enhance this So this is what I mean. Our view about our hand is totally view. To get accustomed to this view you try to cut all wrong. We think this is the same hand as yesterday’s these inhibitions. But how? By doing nothing. Action is to hand. If I ask you, ‘Were you there yesterday?’ you enhance even more that view. You try to practise answer, ‘Yes’, as if yesterday’s you and today’s you are outrageousness and elegance together. You can’t practise the same. But they are not. There you go. You have a them one after the other. You have to practise them wrong view there! It’s a habit. And then when I ask, together. ‘Who’s this you?’ you point everywhere – to your toes, your nose, your chest. You have a whole abstract idea of Of course, I didn’t do justice to the vast and deep wisdom you. That’s a wrong view again because there’s not a of Shakyamuni. But I hope some of you can use this solid, tangible entity that you can refer to as you. approach as the door to the infinite path of Buddhism. Thank you. Anyway, let’s talk about action now. Again, the action has to be based on the view. The view is the most important (This teaching is also available as an audio tape from thing, okay? Meditation is to get accustomed to this view Siddhartha’s Intent Southern Door, P.O. Box 1114, Strawberry that we have established. Action is also to enhance this Hills, NSW, 2012, Australia.) continued from page 5 opportunity to practise, so I wish that all of you disciples four foundation practices, the view according to the make efforts to wake up your minds and not be lazy. You Kagyü tradition, how to meditate on and see, you have all the conditions here, even more than in how to apply this in one’s actions. At the end of the Tibet, so with these good opportunities the time has now cassette he stated that in the future many people here come to practise. The whole world is full of suffering and would practise the dharma and through this gain problems, so we need to produce discipline in our minds enlightenment. He dedicated his message in the following through the practice. All you Western dharma disciples manner: should not squander your precious human , but instead act appropriately and practise. In the way heroic Manjushri knows all, And too, In his message that the sixteenth Karmapa gave to me to I emulate their way bring in 1979, he said the following. ‘I am sending this And fully dedicate this virtue. incarnation, Khyentse Chökyi Wangpo, (the present Beru Khyentse), to Australia and New Zealand. I hope you can (The Gentle Voice would like to thank Douglas Mills for his receive teachings from him.’ He then explained about the transcription of this interview.)

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