Kathok Rigzin Chenpo Rinpoche:
Many fellow disciples (vajra siblings) of Aku Thutop Rinpoche, who is from my hometown, went to the Dakini pureland. There are records of this. I think there might be eight people or four people, I can’t remember exactly. There might be eight accomplished masters, out of which four went to the Dakini pureland in an amazing way. Ranggya Rinpoche told us about it and we recorded it down. This is a recent event, about 70 years ago.
At first, Aku Thutop Rinpoche contracted leprosy. He
received some teachings and entered retreat.
He retreated on the Simhanada Chenrezig practice for 12 years. One of
the benefits of this practice is to cure leprosy. After his 12 years retreat,
Rinpoche recovered from leprosy completely.
At the conclusion of his retreat, Simhanada Chenrezig appeared to him, prophecized that his karmically connected deity was Vajrayogini and
instructed him to do this practice.
The deity gave him other instructions such as where
to find the Guru and so on. Later, Rinpoche did retreat on Vajrayogini for more than
10 years and saw the Dakini herself. I
am not exactly sure how many years of retreat he did on Vajrayogini. His disciples are still around, we asked many
of them but they are not in accord about how many years Rinpoche did retreat.
Different accounts gave 7 years, 10 years or 12 years. So we are not sure. In any case, he practiced for a long time and
saw the deity herself. Rinpoche possessed the power of mantra.
Some of his disciples are major teachers of the Gelukpa
tradition and they are still around. He has disciples in the Nyingma and Sakya
tradition too. His Gelukpa disciples include some high lamas in Xikang.
When Aku Thutop Rinpoche was ill, my family supported him in
his retreat. It was not out of faith but
mainly to assist an ill practitioner. Later, when he recovered and attained his
accomplishment, he remained in that area. He would do retreat in a tent or a
cave. He gave away offerings received to others such as sick people or
disciples.
Many sick people came to seek the Dharma from him. He only
transmitted the Dakini practice. I think it might be because he did not know
many other practices. He concentrated on the Dakini practice. Many leprosy
sufferers or people with serious illnesses went to him for blessings. Many were
cured although there were some exceptions. Some 100 to 300 people could be
found encamped around Rinpoche at any one time. But dozens of them stayed near
him for the long term. They set up tents
or dug out a cave to stay by him.
Every afternoon, Rinpoche would give them blessings. He
would give them blessed water and recite prayers for them. When he accomplished the Dakini practice,
Rinpoche had many powers.
Once, when the river flooded, and people who had gone to do
smoke offerings were stuck, Rinpoche took some rice from his shrine and told
people to sprinkle them on the flooded area.
Within an hour, the flood subsided and everyone could return. It was almost as if the river stopped. This happened several times.
Once, there was a wildfire during winter. I think Rinpoche
gave them some rice again which they sprinkled in the direction of the fire and the fire died down very quickly. Such
wildfires happen frequently in winter in Tibet when the grass is dried up, and
it could last for several days causing great damage or loss of lives. But Rinpoche had this kind of power. This is a kind of worldly/mundane power,
Rinpoche also had supramundane powers.
I heard from some relatives that Rinpoche often had many
snakes slithering over him in his cave. The snakes in Tibet are not very
poisonous, perhaps a little poisonous, but not sufficient to kill a human. Rinpoche was never afraid when the snakes
glided over him. His cave had many snakes. Simhanada Chenrezig has many nagas
among the deity’s retinue. (So these snakes are a manifestation of the nagas.) Rinpoche told
people not to hit the snakes and that the snakes would not bite. He had a similar relationship with
animals. If he said something, it would
be fine, but usually he doesn’t speak much. Rinpoche practiced four sessions
daily until he passed into Parinirvana.
When he passed into Parinirvana, it was noon. My maternal
grandmother was ill at that time, so my family invited more than 50 sangha to
do a thousand offerings to Medicine Buddha puja for her. It was on the 25th
lunar day of the Saka month —the Dakini day.
Rinpoche had lunch with these sangha.
Rinpoche kept pure Bhikkhu vows. He did not eat after noon. He had tea or yogurt in the afternoon
sometimes.
After his lunch with these sangha, Rinpoche returned to his
tent. He gave some stuff to his patients
and gave some instructions. What was unusual that day was that Rinpoche
summoned some of the workers for my family.
One of these workers later told me about this. Rinpoche told them to
take care of my family well especially if my family meets any hardships in
future. He said that when he and these
workers were in a difficult time, my family had helped them very
much and so it was important to remember this kindness. Then Rinpoche gave the
workers some money and entered his tent where he sat and directly entered
Parinirvana. There were not many signs
but in the afternoon, it is said that many red lights appeared.
In the afternoon, a helper of the family who always brought
Rinpoche his tea went as usual with his tea.
Sometimes when Rinpoche has not concluded his session of practice, he
would say, “OM AH HUNG” repeatedly to signal that his session was not over and
that she should wait. But this time
there was no response. Later, they found him dead in a meditative posture.
On the same evening, my mother’s grandfather passed away.
Previously, Rinpoche had promised grandfather that he would bring him along to
the Dakini pureland. Grandfather often
reminded Rinpoche too, “Aku Thutop Rinpoche, when you go to the Dakini
pureland, you must not forget me.” Each time, Rinpoche would say,
“Alright, alright.” This was like a
little jovial joke but each time before the grandfather left, he would remind
Rinpoche this way.
When grandfather heard news of Rinpoche’s death, he started
to cry. But after a while, he collected himself and said, “Rinpoche would not
lie — he promised to bring me to the Dakini pureland, so I must prepare myself
now. He would bring me to the Dakini pureland.”
Then, he drank some milk, washed his face and started reciting the
Dakini mantra. He doesn’t know many mantras but he had some mantra power.
The reason for having some mantra power is that when he was
young, he was severely ill. Many people are the same. When people meet
obstacles, they begin to have some mindfulness.
Before meeting obstacles, people are very slack and lack faith. Due to that, they have no signs or
experiences in their practice. Due to
grandfather’s sickness, he recited several hundreds of million of Dorje Gotrab
mantra and gained some mantra power. He
recovered from his sickness and could bless others. Many masters also came to
receive the transmission of this mantra from him.
So, he sat there and recited the Dakini mantra. In this manner, he passed away in a sitting
posture just like Rinpoche. Both their
deaths were within 3 hours of each other. Later, several masters also said that
grandfather had been brought by Rinpoche to the Dakini pureland. His
consciousness was sent to the pureland, but his body remained.
The most amazing thing was about the many people who were
living around Rinpoche. It could be several hundreds of them. We don’t have the
exact count, but there were less of them than the usual 300 plus people at that time. These were mostly terminally ill people who
needed his blessings or his disciples.
These people were present during the 49 days of post death ceremonies
for Rinpoche. However, after that, they started
disappearing one by one, the numbers dwindled gradually and no-one noticed
where these people went. After about two years, all of them had vanished. There was no one left to receive the usual
provisions that were delivered to these practitioners. Everyone had
disappeared. When enquiries were made as
to where they had went, all the villagers and townspeople said they did not know.
Later, the great master, Shechen Mati Rinpoche, as well as
some Gelukpa and Nyingmapa masters said that these people had all gone to the
Dakini pureland. No one saw how they
went to the pureland, but the number of practitioners were gradually
reducing. The usual provisions of butter
and tsampa, or food, given to them had no more recipients and the neighboring
people had no idea where they went. So, a few hundred people just went to the
Dakini pureland this way. This is a
definite fact. Local people there know
about this incident. This is not just
one or two isolated incidents but happened to a large number of people. Even
their possessions had disappeared, only some tents remained. It was a mysterious disappearance.
Many masters said they had gone to the Dakini pureland. In particular, a relative of Apang Terton (who is
the father of Tare Lhamo, the famous female Terton), Apang Jigme Gyamtso, said
that he saw them going to the pureland in his meditation. He was the first one
who said this when they couldn’t find anyone left.
Aku Thubtob Rinpoche practiced the Dakini practice all his
life and benefited many people. Tsangpa
Drukchen and Lerab Lingpa said that Rinpoche often went to the Dakini pureland
when he was alive and that he was always surrounded by many Dakas and Dakinis.
Another special point about Rinpoche is that he blessed some
of his followers and told them to take care of the sick people properly. He
promised them that the sicknesses of these people would not infect them. He
guaranteed them this. These followers
had deep faith in Rinpoche. Presently
there are still two of them alive, they are more than 80 years old now.
Whenever there were any epidemics or any infectious disease
patients, these followers would go to take care of them and, true to
Rinpoche’s words, they never got infected. They enjoyed very robust health
right up to the age of 80. They had firm
faith in Rinpoche’s words.
When any epidemics broke out, they were the first to go and
look after the patients. Even common flus or colds could not affect them much.
Even if they caught the cold, it seems almost as if the sickness had little
effect on them and they would recover very quickly. During Covid-19, I asked if
they were infected. They told me that they got Covid too, but it only affected
them for a day or two and they recovered quickly after that without much
suffering. Other people who were the same age as them had severe symptoms or
died from Covid, but these followers had no problems at all.
They had a firm faith: “When it is time to die, we would
die, but we would not get infected by any sickness, this is the blessing of
Rinpoche.” This is something special of
Rinpoche. These followers would
definitely look after anyone who had infectious disease in that area because
that was Rinpoche’s instructions to them.
(Notes:
2. Accomplishment of some Dakini practices allows a practitioner to go to the pureland without leaving their bodies behind. That is why these people disappeared without a trace. )
