New Book by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche: The Guru Drinks Bourbon? (Nov 2016)

[Lobsang Chojor]

Malcolm beat me to it

I was going to say every version of Lam Rim (starting with Atisha's) contains advice on choosing a guru

[To the best of my knowledge]

[dzogchungpa]

Looks like the book is available now, at least from Shambhala:
http://www.shambhala.com/the-guru-drinks-bourbon.html

You can read a preview here:
http://en.calameo.com/read/000039257cff463036937



Gotta love the dedication:

dedication.png (5.25 KiB) Viewed 4078 times

[emaho]

[tingdzin]

The title of the book comes from the punch line of a brilliant cartoon, which I was hoping someone could reproduce here (I can't find it online, though it's probably in the book itself). Anyone else seen it?

[dzogchungpa]

The title of the book comes from the punch line of a brilliant cartoon, which I was hoping someone could reproduce here (I can't find it online, though it's probably in the book itself). Anyone else seen it?

I have not, hopefully it will turn up. Trying to come up with an appropriate cartoon for that punchline is kind of an amusing challenge, something like the inverse of those New Yorker caption contests. Anyone want to give it a shot?

[florin]

Unless Sogyal is guilty of a crime, by which I mean, he is convicted of sexual harassment or worse, there is really nothing to say about his morays and habits with (consenting) adults.

He's into morays? That is kind of weird, you have to admit.

Could it be Glen Moray ?
I prefer Oogie Ten...

[dzogchungpa]

Unless Sogyal is guilty of a crime, by which I mean, he is convicted of sexual harassment or worse, there is really nothing to say about his morays and habits with (consenting) adults.

He's into morays? That is kind of weird, you have to admit.

Could it be Glen Moray ?
I prefer Oogie Ten...

Upon mature reflection, I think Malcolm may have meant to say 'mores'.

[Malcolm]

[PuerAzaelis]

He's one of the few "gurus" who is actually living in the 21st century. If he wants to say something I'll make time.

[renka]

"There were hundreds of magicians
Who tried to prevent storm and hail.
In the course of time
All of the ritual hats, altars and ritual garments
Have been blown away by the force of the hailstorm."
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

[pael]

I don't think so. He was a terton

How to know who is terton? And which yana they belong? Did Shakyamuni told about them? Was Shakyamuni terton?

[dzogchungpa]

You can preview quite a bit of the book at Amazon now. It looks like quite interesting.

[dzogchungpa]

An interesting story from the book:

In simple terms, you can think of the Vajrayana guru-disciple relationship as a very advanced form of apprenticeship. Unlike other teacher-student relationships, in the Vajrayana a vajra master can actually transfer all the enlightened qualities to the student, as if the student is the material to be cast and the guru is the mold or the form.

Tashi Namgyal was the son of a Derge aristocrat who was offered as an attendant to Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö when he was very young. Later he became my first attendant. He told me the story of how he and Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö traveled to Sikkim together in the late 1950s. Around that time, many Tibetan lamas were escaping the Cultural Revolution. Every day Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö would ask Tashi Namgyal who else had arrived from Tibet. When he heard that his close friend Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who was both his student and his teacher, had managed to escape, he expressed great relief and said, “The Dharma will be safe now.”

Tashi Namgyal said that just before Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö passed into parinirvana, he met with Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche in Sikkim and had a long conversation, and shortly after that, Khyentse Chökyi Lödrö died. Tashi Namgyal said there was an immediate and very obvious change in Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He said that when Khyentse Chökyi Ldrö was alive and teaching, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was nowhere near as eloquent or majestic as he suddenly became and as we all came to know him to be. The older students could visibly see a complete transformation.

Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche received not just Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö’s knowledge; everything was transferred—his aura, his way of thinking. This is the ability of a great master, and the recipient might not even consciously know it has happened.

[Punya]

I thought this was interesting too Dzogchungpa. Does anyone know of other instances where this has occurred?

[Tsongkhapafan]

I thought this was interesting too Dzogchungpa. Does anyone know of other instances where this has occurred?

Yes, according to the Vajrayana, the Guru bestows enlightenment on the student through his great compassion, through powerful blessings. This has happened many times in Je Tsongkhapa's tradition also - for example, Mahasiddha Dharmavajra bestowed enlightenment on his disciple, Losang Dondrub (also known as Gyalwa Ensapa) in three years.

It is said that when a fully qualified Mahayana disciple meets a fully qualified Mahayana Spiritual Guide, the attainment of enlightenment is easy.

[dzogchungpa]

I thought this was interesting too Dzogchungpa. Does anyone know of other instances where this has occurred?

Well, the book continues as follows:

There are many examples of this in Tibet. Terton Karma Lingpa was one of the greatest treasure-teaching discoverers. Unfortunately, due to some past karma, his consort was not the most perfect consort. One day, he was invoking treasure teachings in a cave with this dakini consort and writing them down with a bamboo pen. But the pen needed sharpening, so he asked his consort to pass the sharpening knife. She artlessly threw the knife to him, and it bounced off the table and stabbed him in the groin. The bleeding wouldn’t stop, and he knew he wouldn’t live long, so he quickly summoned his son, Nyinda Chöje, who was very young at the time. Nyinda Chöje was not at all learned. He was just a boy, a drifter.

Karma Lingpa said, “I’m dying, but I have some unfinished work here.” Then he put his head together with Nyinda Chöje’s, prayed for a long time, and died. Afterward, the rest of the treasure teachings were instantly invoked by Nyinda Chöje. He was not in a trance. It was a transference—gongpa phowa, we call it, like downloading from Dropbox. To this day we still practice the venerated one hundred peaceful and wrathful deities of Karma Lingpa, thanks to this transmission.

[Punya]

Thank you both. Although I didn't say it, I guess I was wondering about recent examples.

[Tsongkhapafan]

I wonder if it's talking about the Guru transferring realisations or actually transferring his/her own consciousness into the student's body? Such powa practice is explained in the Six Yogas of Naropa.

[dzogchungpa]

Well, I guess I might as well post the rest of the section:

We practice something akin to this transference during the guru yoga. But the word “transference” is a bit misleading: it sounds as if something foreign is being downloaded into the student. In one sense, it’s like that, but in another sense, the student already has the same buddha nature as the guru. So it’s more like the guru is rekindling something in the student or causing something in the student to awaken. The transference of a guru’s wisdom shouldn’t be understood as an aura or energy. The absolute level of transference of the wisdom mind in a guru-student relationship is inexpressible.

On the relative level, the tangible signs of a successful transference of the guru’s mind to your own is that you develop more renunciation of samsaric endeavors, more compassion toward sentient beings, more devotion toward the guru, and all the while your arrogance will wane. Also, the habit of writing down experiences and putting them into a book, like I have been doing, will cease.

[dzogchungpa]

Another interesting story:

One sunny day in the 1970s, Tulku Pema Wangyal Rinpoche was visiting Nyima Dzong, an old Knights Templar fort in southeastern France, surrounded in the four directions by four steep, rocky hills. A group of people decided to go with Tulku Rinpoche to “Amoghasiddhi Hill” to hang a giant prayer flag on a huge wooden post.

A big dog followed the group up the hill, even though its master, who was part of the group, kept telling it to go home. He even threw stones at the dog, but to no avail. As the group started to climb the hill carrying the post, some fog started to climb from the bottom of the hill in such a way that they were unable to see the view below them.

When they arrived at the top, they all began to collect stones to secure the post into place. The weather changed: a storm was approaching, and light rain started to fall. Tulku Rinpoche read some prayers while holding an umbrella, with a group of people around him. The storm arrived, and the sound of thunder and flash of lightning became almost simultaneous. Not more than ten feet away, some kind of metal antenna used by land surveyors was struck by lightning. At this point the stone collectors thought, “This is very bad! We’re going to die here!”

Christian, one of the people who were there, said he heard a huge sound like a bomb exploding and then felt a wave of electricity shoot through his body, which made him drop the stone he had just lifted. In a shock, he first thought he was dreaming.

When he looked up where the group had been standing, he saw Tulku Rinpoche alone, holding his umbrella. At his feet were rays of black, burnt grass radiating in all directions.

The first thing Christian heard Rinpoche say was, “So blissful.” Then he turned to Christian and said, “Poor people. I have to help these poor people. Please help me stand them up.” All around Rinpoche, the other people had been thrown various distances, but none of them was badly hurt except for the owner of the dog, whose leg was burnt, and his dog, which had died of a heart attack.

Rinpoche and Christian carried the man down the hill along with the others. Christian asked Rinpoche what had happened, but Rinpoche kept repeating, “The kindness of the masters is so amazing.” Later he told Christian that many people used to be struck by lightning in Tibet. His father, Kangyur Rinpoche, knew a sadhana that could protect from lightning but wouldn’t give it to Tulku Rinpoche while he was in Tibet. When Kangyur Rinpoche settled in Darjeeling, he gave the transmission of this sadhana to Tulku Rinpoche. However, Darjeeling is not a place frequently hit by lightning, and Tulku Rinpoche thought it would have been more useful in Tibet.

The day they went up the hill, Tulku Rinpoche felt the strong presence of Kangyur Rinpoche. When the storm came he had remembered the sadhana and started doing it. He was convinced Kangyur Rinpoche had given it to him for this particular moment. He said he felt an amazing bliss when the lightning crossed his body. He added that because Nyima Dzong had been a stronghold of the Knights Templar, the local protectors were probably upset about Buddhism coming.

I’m quite sure this story has not been told to many people.