A nice sharing
In 1987, Khenpo Sodargye followed HH Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche to Mt Wutai for the first time. The second pilgrimage was in 1991 and at that time there were some causal-conditions. According to a Chinese monk staying in the Serthar Buddhist Institute in the early years, HH asked Khenpo Sodargye to observe how the karmic conditions were for propagating the Nyingma teachings in the Chinese region. Khenpo Sodargye thus went to Mt Wutai for retreat and also to observe the karmic conditions.
Many auspicious signs appeared during this trip to Mt Wutai. Before Khenpo’s arrival, the Great White Stupa and Manjushri Hair Stupa in Mt Wutai continuously emitted light. A Chinese monk had went ahead to prepare for Khenpo’s arrival and knew of this matter.
On the day Khenpo arrived, after getting off the shuttle bus, this Chinese monk went up to him and reported, "Guru, the Great White Stupa emitted light a few days ago." Guru asked, "Will it emit light again?" The monk replied, "Of course, the emanation of Manjushri Bodhisattva has arrived." Guru didn't say anything in reply. At 2 or 3am that night, the Great White Stupa began emitting light again.
Everyone got up to watch, and also woke Guru up to watch. Guru watched it for a while and went back to sleep. The Great White Stupa emitting light was very rare and lasted for a particularly long time. It wasn’t a figment of people’s imagination. Some saw the stupa becoming translucent, some saw it directly emitting bright light and there were also many fireballs flying around.
Later, when heading to the East Terrace, the driver stopped midway to add water. For some reason, the car started to roll backward, as if it was going to overturn. People were anxious and some wanted to jump out of the car, but seeing that Guru wasn't moving, they felt embarrassed to jump. What if nothing happened, Guru would tease them about it later. Guru opened the car door and looked behind, then closed the door and didn't bother anymore. Later, a stick appeared from nowhere and blocked the car and the car stopped. At this moment, they saw a young man on the side of the road near the mountain, holding a roll of paper in one hand, an axe in the other, a coil of rope, and also a bunch of flowers.
Guru waved for him to come over. He came over and offered the flowers in his hand to Guru, saying: "This is for you." Guru took the flowers and smelled it, chatted with him for a while, such as where he came from, where he was going etc.
The man said he was a woodcutter and left. A monk commented that, at that time, he felt his mind was different from usual; normally, he was very clear-headed and capable, suddenly he become quite muddled and couldn't see the man clearly, only a silhouette.
While Guru was getting a whiff of the flowers, another Chinese monk, perhaps due to his karmic obstacles, shouted, "Master, you shouldn’t smell it, sometimes flowers are poisonous, some flowers planted in my home are poisonous."
Guru ignored him, broke off a petal and ate it, saying: "This flower is the Manjushri flower personally identified by HH Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche in 1987. Whoever eats this flower will definitely increase his wisdom." Then he broke off the flower and gave a petal to each of the disciples behind. The one who said not to smell it was not given any. This disciple was very anxious, and on the trip back, he asked the driver to stop the car and made many prostrations at that spot in contrition to repent his mistake.
After returning to Serthar institute from Mt Wutai, from late 1991 to early 1992, Khenpo often bestowed the empowerment of Manjushri Dzogchen. One morning, while giving this empowerment at Samye Stupa, Guru took out this Manjushri flower and said, "These Manjushri flowers were given by an emanation of Manjushri when we were in Mt Wutai, and some others were picked by myself. I kept some for myself and mixed the rest in here. Whoever has the merit will get the actual flower given by the emanation of Manjushri."
In reality, since both were picked by the two emanations of Manjushri, there is no difference. Guru also described how he met Manjushri and how he gained realisation etc. At that time, we didn't think it was anything special, but later when we went to the same place ourselves, nothing happened at all.
The year before last, Khenpo Sodargye went to Mt Wutai again, intending to retreat for seven days to see Manjushri. Guru said that if he didn't see Manjushri he wouldn't leave the mountain. Later, he came out of retreat earlier than scheduled. When a disciple asked, Guru said he had already seen Manjushri. He saw him in just three days.
HH Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche once pointed to a Manjushri statue that a disciple was holding and said, "I am Manjushri." At that time, Khenpo Sodargye was also beside him. HH then pointed to Khenpo and said, "He is too."
(Note: These Manjushri flowers of Mt Wutai are red in color, not the golden lotus flowers of Mt Wutai. It is also different from the Manjushri flowers at Serthar Buddhist Institute.)
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Khenpo Sherab Dedpa
Khenpo Sodargye has, you could say, spent his entire life propagating the Dharma, which is incredibly remarkable and self-evident. He also said that right up until his last breath, as long as there's even one sentient being who wishes to hear the Dharma, he will continue to teach them without stopping.
Many disciples don't understand this; they feel that the Guru's enlightened activities should involve frequently displaying supernatural powers or performing other feats, and they don't see daily Dharma teachings as particularly wonderful.
However, what is most beneficial for sentient beings, according to the Buddha, is the teaching of the Dharma. Therefore, Khenpo Sodargye places great importance on this fundamental aspect. While other things like monasteries and Buddha statues are important, the most fundamental element is the Dharma, because it is through the Dharma that sentient beings' minds are tamed and transformed. Without the Dharma, if there were only external forms of Buddhism, the minds of sentient beings can never be truly transformed.
Khenpo Sodargye often says that whether the Buddhadharma flourishes or not isn't determined by whether there are hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of millions of followers, nor by how grand the monasteries are or how tall and magnificent the Buddha statues are, or by the number of people attending each Dharma assembly. These are merely external appearances.
While, from a certain perspective, having so many sentient beings believe in the Buddha indicates that the Buddhadharma has not completely vanished from the world but whether the Buddhadharma is flourishing or not does not depend only on this.
The crucial factor is the degree to which Buddhists understand the meaning of the Dharma. If people have a deeper understanding of the Dharma's meaning, then the authentic Dharma is truly flourishing. If people only have a superficial or even biased understanding of the Dharma, then having a large number of followers is of little use. When the quality of Buddhist disciples is not high, authentic Dharma cannot flourish.
I used to often quote the Dalai Lama, "As a disciple of Buddha, not understanding the Dharma is a disgrace." Whether the Buddhadharma flourishes or not depends mostly on the quality of the followers — that is, their level of understanding of the Dharma.
If their understanding of the Dharma is deeper, then quality is excellent; if their understanding is superficial, then even a large number of people is useless.
