Gyaltrul Rinpoche
Many thousands of practitioners in Tibet were known to have achieved the highest realizations through this path. In my monastery of Dhomang, I never heard of any retreatant, any hermit, who didn't receive signs at the time of his passing, such as rainbows and other obvious signs, that enlightenment had been achieved.
I don't know about the tulkus, but those old hermit lamas were extremely diligent in their practice. They went straight for the target like horses with blinders on—no turning back. They would keep on practicing in retreat until they attained the highest accomplishment.
For many of them, the older they became, the happier and more beautiful they became. It seemed curious to me, as a child, seeing these people who were supposed to be growing old and unhappy becoming more youthful and happy.
My teacher, who taught me my ABC's, who taught me just about everything, as far as the nuts and bolts are concerned, and was like a mother to me, maintained a continual retreat in his everyday life for about 40 years. He always performed a regular nyungne (2 days fasting retreat based on Chenrezig) and he kept up his sessions no matter where he was going or what he was doing.
He was a traveler, like a gypsy. Inside, he was a hermit; outside he had to keep going here and there and doing things. Whether he was walking, or riding on his horse, whenever it was time for the next session he just started up. He was always chanting and reciting and praying. He didn't have to sit in silence in retreat like you do, in so-called ideal circumstances.
I remember when I was with him during that time, and I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears. His white hair began to turn black once again. He had lost his teeth, because of course he was old and we had no dentists in Tibet, but then new teeth came in, just like in his youth, and he became very powerful. So this old man I'd been with, the one who had white hair and no teeth, now had black hair and new teeth, and the skin on his face became taut again like a young man's.
He never escaped from Tibet when the Chinese came, but prior to my own escape he made many prophecies about what would happen to some of the great teachers of this tradition, very amazing prophecies because, indeed, they came to be fulfilled later on.
He told me that when I made it to Bodhgaya, Varanasi, and other sacred places in India, the holy spots of Lord Buddha, to please remember to pray for him. I said, "What are you talking about? I'll never get there in this lifetime; it's impossible! It's so far away! I'm not going there." And he replied, "Yes you are. You're going there, and you'll arrive safely, by the grace of the white man who will accompany you."
I ignored his words, shrugged them off, until later when I was in Bodhgaya; then I remembered. At the onset of the Chinese occupation things became very bad at the monastery in my region. People were being killed, and at that time I felt that I wanted to get out of there. My old teacher said, "Now is the time to go," and instructed me in how to escape. He promised me that I would be safe by the grace of the white man who would accompany me every step of the way, and I asked, "Who is this white man you keep talking about?" because I was still just a boy, and he said, "It is Avalokiteshvara. He will be with you." This was my teacher's tutelary deity, and he had accomplished some 400 million recitations of 0M MANI PADME HUNG.
