Dropakula: His Personal Teaching of Perfect LiberationCW33_No.97The Buddhist Yogi C. M. Chen
Few sages were perfectly liberated through the fire-ocean of desire and thus, particularly freed from all hypocrisy, could throw away their earthly mask, put no color or construction upon any worldly task, and pay no heed to either goodness or badness as conceived by the majority. It was only a real sage who dared to do like this and without fear could save every kind of sinner in every kind of manner. Such a kind of sage was always called a "Mad Lama" and it was forbidden to print his biography. But some might write it down by hand and others passed it from mouth to mouth. In this booklet I prepare to write down all that I heard from my Guru about the Perfect Liberation of Dropakula. Dropa meant Bhutanese, Kula was the sages name. He was the incarnation of the great sage Sharwarepa of India. Most of his activities seemed like that of a mad man. Those persons who had only flesh eyes did not like him. However, in Tibet, Hsikong [ed note: Kham], Bhutan, Nepal and Sikkim where Tantra flourished, everyone extolled him to the skies. Even the women and children of those countries spoke about interesting anecdotes concerning him. I regret that I heard only very little about his holy Karmas. I trusted many Bhutanese friends to get a handwritten biography about him many years ago, but at this time I am still disappointed. Here I can only introduce a few stories about him. Thus I heard that the great sage of perfect liberation Dropakula had no certain dwelling place. Wherever there was a cave, there he used to live for sometimes. Whenever some worshipers or visitors came, he would leave that cave immediately. Hence nobody could point out his address. He liked to play with small boys and girls and never made friends with gentlemen or hypocrites. His clothes were very dirty and in rags and tatters. Sometimes he drank and ate very much, other times he fasted for a long period of time. He ate everything without choosing, drank every kind of liquor without limitation. He was forced once to drink one hundred bottles of wine. People asked where that wine was being stored. He hung down the five fingers of his right hand and all the wine became rain and fell down. There was a famous lama named Hsangan Rimpoche [ed note: Rinpoche] who possessed some supernatural powers and occupied a great monastery served by many guards, servants, and attendants. He asked Dropakula for a magic competition and said, "We must hang our clothes on a ray of sunlight without them falling." Our sage Kula immediately threw all his clothes on the light and they stayed there without even a little waving. But when Hsangan did the same, the light ray moved, becoming somewhat curved, not keeping its natural straightness. He then asked Lama Kula, "Why?" Kula said, "You received many offerings and your Dharma-almsgiving was not identified with them. That is why you have some sin with you. Not like myself who is freed from all these sins and never pursued any kind of offering." After saying this, Kula left him and went away. From that time, Hsangan was unhappy and always troubled by a little illness. He sent several disciples and attendants to find the sage Kula in different villages and caves. They could not find him although searching for many days. They all returned to Hsangan Rimpoche and reported, "No matter how deep is the water, fish may be caught by a hook; no matter how wide is the sky, birds may be shot by an arrow; our mad Kula who has neither ego nor any place occupied by his ego, even God or a demon can not know where he is. How can we find him out?" Hence the only thing for Hsangan to do was to pray to him with his heart and soul. One day his prayer was inspired and Kula suddenly appeared in front of the precious seat of Hsangan Rimpoche and said, "What is wrong with you? Why are you calling me so urgently? Do you still wait for competition of some kind of supernatural power with me?" "No! I just devoutly ask you to allow me to confess and cure my disease!" After a large food offering in a certain form had been made and everything prepared according to the common ritual, Hsangan worshipped before Kula and asked the latter to perform the Puja. Our sage Kula simply sat there in silence for seven days. He did not repeat any incantation or read any Sutra. On the morning of the eighth day, he asked the Lamas to carry the large food offering of the triangular cake out. In general, this offering should be sent to a clear place or river. Instead of this, after Kula wandered many places, he came back with the same offering. Hsangan saw this and was surprised and said, "Why is it brought back? What an inauspicious sign it is!" Our sage did not pay any heed to what Hsangan said and when they approached Hsangan, he pushed the large cake down upon Hsangans head and said: "The demon is yourself, now he is leaving you. You may be cured!" Hsangan then immediately felt happy and light and all his disease disappeared. Outward common diseases such as gonorrhoea can be cured by physicians; inward diseases such as the mental poison of lust may be cured by religious beliefs, either of non-Buddhism or Buddhism. But the root of all the secret disease of ego which is the disease unknown to the multitude, can be cured only by the philosophy of the truth of nonegoism found only in Buddhism and not in any other religion. In the Saha world most people are fools. They only know about the outward diseases and, holding themselves in the trap of the five poisons without reflecting on the cause, they ask only for medicine to cure the outer disease. After one disease is cured, another follows, over and over again. Our sage Kula who was the king of all physicians was able to cut off the root of all disease through his power of perfect liberation. Hsangan Rimpoches disease was thus cured once and for all. It is a good lesson for modern people to know. One may think that all diseases are caused by some demon such as a headache being caused by Ravi; ringworm by Chandra; danger from wild beasts, Mercury; internal disease of neck, Jupiter; short-sightedness by Shukra; tuberculosis by Shani; rheumatism by Rahu; and diarihea, dysentery by Ketu. Who would like to consider himself the cause of disease, for as we are saying, the cause is the ego? Notwithstanding that all these demons may in fact give some trouble to patients, they do so only as the guest invited by the host. If there is no ego in a person, who is the host? And who welcomes the guest? Generally the demons may be categorized into four kinds, i.e. heaven-demon, death-demon, aggregate-demon, and sorrow-demon. They can be separated into two pairs; the first two are the external demons, the second pair the internal. These two pairs of demons are relative to each other. Whenever one set of them disappears, the other set can do nothing to trouble the practitioner. In more detailed particular these demons can be elaborately divided into ten kinds. The external five are the demons that hate the enemy and love the kinsman; that guide one to go astray from the Right Dharma, and introduce one to bad Guru and evil friends; that lure one to seek earthly gains; that guide one to grasp the delicious foods; and that lure one to get ill gotten wealth. The internal five are ego-demon, sorrow-demon, delusion-demon, laziness and doubt, and the twosided-view demon. If these latter five are destroyed, the former five have no room to stay. Certainly among these internal five, the first and foremost one is the ego-demon whom our sage Kula was able to kill. But the multitude of people in this modern world seem to love this ego-demon very much. To get rid of all diseases, Buddhism which is the only religion emphasizing non-egoism should be propagated throughout the world. One day our sage Kula was picking fleas from his clothing while sitting at the entrance of his cave. Sajabentza [ed note: Sakya Pandita] riding on a horse and followed by many attendants and much baggage happened to pass there. Kula saw them and sang a song loudly to catch Sajabentzas ears:
Sajabentza heard this song and paid Kula reverence by folding his palms. But those attendants all hung their heads and hid their faces until their shadows passed out of the sages sight. The multitude like the praise of ordinary people but pay no heed to the blame of a sage. But the learned and praiseworthy man fears only the blame of a sage and cares little for the praise of the majority. From Bhutan to Lhasa is a pilgrimage of hundreds of miles and most people go that way by riding on a horse or ass, but poor fellows must go on foot taking more than two months. Our sage had neither horse nor money and so went begging door to door, village to village and so he traveled to Lhasa. When he arrived he worshipped the Lord Buddha Gautamas image made of white sandalwood in a standing statue. He then sang a song.
He pilgrimaged to Dorountzpu [ed note: Dolung Tsurphu] which was a two days journey outside Lhasa and where the well-known monastery of His Holiness Karmapa was situated. The doorkeeper seeing him looking like a beggar, wearing rags, forbid him to enter. He then turned to a place near the monastery and took seven small stones and transmuted them into seven bricks of gold. Though he was still in rags, the glittering light of the gold attracted the doorkeeper to permit him to meet His Holiness the Karmapa and first worshipped him. Then he put the rest of the six bricks of gold in the corner of Rimpoches room and worshipped the gold also and said, "Without you I could not meet Rimpoche, hence I have to worship you too!" Karmapa said, "The foolish doorkeeper did not know you are the famous Kula. Please excuse him." Kula did not reply and immediately went back to Bhutan. Those prominent Lamas, like the top of a tree, are surrounded by many disciples, patrons, attendants and servants, and have their own special barber, tailor, cook, secretary, and accountant. These satellites are powerful above all excepting their Rimpoche and in the name of their Rimpoche they do every kind of evil for money. In Christianity the Pope used to collect money for indulgences; his followers wanting to save money brought about the Reformation. Afterwards many new sects of Christianity arose, each new one trying to save more money than the old one. The oldest one would have burnt his son as a fire sacrifice, later the Catholics had no kind of sacrifice, the Protestants even saved money by doing without candles and incense, and modern sects only seek money from their church. But the sage Francis following Jesus?example, refused the advice of the Pope to build a Church. He was somewhat like our sage Kula. But nowadays even the Geshe, a rank of knowledge, may be purchased within the Yellow Party of Tibetan Buddhism. Now let me return to the main subject. Those six bricks of gold remained in the corner of the Rimpoches room after our sage had left. The doorkeeper took them up into his palm but immediately they returned to their own nature of stone. He asked Rimpoche whether the first brick of gold also returned to stone. Rimpoche said, "Yes! It is quite a brick of gold." The holy consort Yeshitoga [ed note: Yeshe Tsogyal] changed a corpse into gold and the Guru of Chunpolongo [ed note: Khyungpo Naljor] named Nukuma [ed note: Niguma] changed the earth into gold. To the sage gold is only a common thing which may be gotten as easily as with ones hands in ones pockets. A religious person who pursues gold like a business man can not be a pious person. On his journey back to Bhutan, the sage Kula met a Lama who was going to Lhasa with a desire to visit Karmapa Rimpoche for His Holiness?blessing of his cloth-made painted image of sixteen Arhats. Our sage knew of his purpose and borrowed this painting for a look at it. He opened the roll and put it on the ground. He then crouched on it as if he was rendering his excrement and then he rolled it up and returned it to the Lama, the master of the roll. He frankly said, "There are still many miles until you reach Lhasa, you had better come back with me, you have no need to visit Karmapa. I have already blessed it!" The master of the painting roll was very angry with Kula when he saw that the sages manner was very disrespectful. After he heard what Kula said, he paid no attention and simply went on his journey. He said outloud, "I would beat you to death if you were not a so-called "mad Lama" When this master met Karmapa the latter opened the roll and found that all the images had become a golden color. Karmapa foreknew of this and said to the Lama, "This has been blessed by Lama Kula, why need to bring it to me?" The Lama worshipped Karmapa and repented. A murderer may appear from the outside to love his enemy for outward appearance does not show the internal quality. A wolf may be found in sheeps clothing, a golden image may be hidden by mud. All that glitters is not gold. He who is concerned only with ones outward manner will lose his real Guru. He who pursues only the flame of a great Lama in the city, will not find out a real Guru in a cave. People only believe what is common, always, and everywhere. But our sages trance was very rare and only shown occasionally. That is why the most wonderful things of the Indian, Chinese, and Tibetan sages have been forgotten by modern people. I could not but write this booklet to try to make them aware. Once a great Lama riding on a horse passed the cave in which our sage Kula lived alone. He asked the Lama, "Do you practice Bodhicitta?" "Why not" was the reply. "Then" our sage said, "Why do you ride on your mothers back?" Hearing this advice, the Lama immediately sat himself in concentration. He found out that the last life of the horse was as his mother. He jumped down and wept. He vowed before our sage Kula that he would never ride any horse again. Of course this Lama was a Guru of many disciples but our sage was the Guru of every Guru. Most famous Gurus did not believe him. The majority called him a mad lama and never took his good advice. Actually every sentient being is our mother. To practice Bodhicitta is not confined to the limitation of our personal mother. Once Artitza [ed note: Atisha], the great ancient Guru, heard a horse crying. He said, "My mother is crying!" But the last life of this horse was not his personal mother. But a mother in the sense of Dharma concerning the Bodhicitta. Once a chairman of a subdivision liked to kill animals. He also served the master of the district and offered the flesh of ten sheep daily. But the governor of that place forbid all hunters to kill the sheep fed by the government. Our sage wanted to advise them but got no chance. He then purposely killed many sheep of the government and sent their souls to Sukhavati. He wanted to have himself seized and it actually happened. When he was asked, "Why have you killed so many sheep?" He replied, "Where? Try to gather their bones here." The governor did so and Kula then made all the bones of the sheep resurrected. This miracle converted all those officials into a Buddhist order. Nowadays the resurrection promised in Christianity seems very attractive to the multitude. Once I read a Christian booklet in which there was a poem which said that Confucius died and was buried, Buddha died and was buried, Mohammed died and was buried, but only Jesus died and was resurrected. The author of this poem obviously knew only the New Testament. If he had read the Old Testament he would know that before Jesus the saint Elijah rose; and if he read the history of Christianity, that after Jesus his mother Mary also rose to heaven. If he was a very learned person and had read all the biographies of all religions, he might have found out that many other saints and sages in non-Christian religions also performed the same miracle. In Tibet eighty Lamas compelled by a fire set by robbers flew through the roof of their monastery to the Pure Land together at the same time. For a Buddhist sage it is possible not only to resurrect himself but also to resurrect his family. In Taoism the sage Liu An whose chicken and dog followed him also flew into heaven. Little knowledge is a very dangerous thing. A bottle full of wine makes no noise, but when it has only a little wine inside, it makes a loud noise. Nowadays it seems everything should be popularized but the more popularization the less is the knowledge. Everybody may take rice and know whether it is good or bad; wear clothes and know they are handsome or ugly; but not everybody may read a book and know whether it is true or false. Much the more, how can the profound philosophy of Buddhism be recognized by everybody? Since popularization is emphasized, cultures have declined straightforwardly. Though my English is very poor, I do not like modern prose, much the less the modern verse or poem which has neither rhyme or rhythm. Nevertheless we should be aware of making everything of materiality of every person equal to one another. This is right and possible. But we cannot make everything of mentality of every person equal to one another. This is wrong and impossible. We do hope Buddhism will be popularized and the majority may receive it equally. But we should not try to omit all of the profound philosophy for the purpose of suiting the multitude under the pretext of popularization. The advice of publishers having only the idea of getting more money should not be followed by scholars if they still have a little Bodhicitta to spread the Right Dharma. Now let me get back to the main subject. Once there was a great calamity of drought in Bhutan. All the officials and patrons of monasteries invited all the famous Lamas to a public hall to pray for rain. The precious mandalas, the plentiful offerings, the pretty dances, the orchestral music, all were performed expensively and continuously for a long period of time. But not a drop of rain was favoured by the Gods and Dragon King. Nobody thought of the sage Kula. When this Dharma meeting was finished, one hermit advocated to the patrons to ask for help from our sage and this was tried. To the patrons who inquired of our sage Kula whether he had the ability to cause a flow of rain or not, he immediately answered, "Why not?" Then the patrons asked again, "Do you want a prominent Lama to help you?" "No" was the reply. "What things should we prepare for your Puja?" Again he answered "Nothing!" "Do you want dance and music?" "No" was the answer. "Then candles? Incense or flowers?" Our sage answered all with No! "Then what do you want for your Puja?" Our sage said "Tsampa only!" The patrons were very sad, "We just need Tsampa to eat! If the little quantity that remains is offered, we will all die of hunger!" Kula the sage smiled and said, "If you believe me, why should you keep the old tsampa meal when you will get plenty of new tomorrow!" Then the patrons called all their neighbors to collect all their Tsampa on a plain. It was like a hillock of Tsampa of different families was gathered. Then our sage stood on his head in a Sirshasana inverted posture and opened his anus widely. He asked those patrons to put all the Tsampa which had been gathered as a hillock into his belly through his anus. After all the Tsampa had been put in he still cried, "If anyone is hiding his Tsampa inside his house, no rain will fall on his farm !" Several families heard this and fetched their Tsampa and put it into his belly. But still some kept some hidden in their rooms. He then kept himself upside down in his Sarnadhi for about one hour. Suddenly a great wind came from his anus and the Tsampa in his belly entirely puffed up to the sky. All the Tsampa became clouds, all the clouds became rain, all the rain made the barley from which tsampa is made grow up and all the barley matured at once. The next day every person had plenty of Tsampa to take and to keep except those few farmers who had hidden their Tsampa away. Then those believers wanted to gratefully give thanks to our sage Kula but he was nowhere to be found. What sport! Should a sage be like a clown in a circus, a calamity be grounds for pleasure, a ritual be like playing in a park? Why did those prominent Lamas who prayed for rain get nothing while our sage who did it in a sportive manner get it ! The average scholar would explain, "It is just like treatment by different doctors. At first those doctors gave some medicines utilizing the nature of cold, but this was not effective; at last the only way for Kula to go was using the medicine with the nature of heat and this was effective. As those famous Lamas repeated good incantations with their mouths but got no rain, so there was only the method to use the anus to puff up his breakwind which Kula used and thus succeeded." This explanation is like a joke. Certainly through the inspiration of Bhakti Yoga a good lama may pray to a God or Dragon King in deep devotion and get a lot of rain when the patrons and followers have few sins and are under a good condition to receive the blessing of the God. But when they are sinful and God is angry with them, it is difficult even for those Lamas who have devotion. But for a Lama who has enough wisdom and is powerful above God in his Samadhi of non-egoism, it is very easy to get success. Such a Lama who has destroyed his ego and recovered his Dharmakaya may do everything and get everything at will. Those common devotees can only beg rain from God; the wise ones could send the rain by commanding the Gods and Dragons. Those common Lamas who are bound by their egos and get no perfect liberation can do nothing to benefit others when God has no pity on them. In these later days, some modern Yogic scholars in order to flatter the Westerners, advocate that yoga is really science, not religion. The result is non-devotion to any god. Last year (1966) a great drought calamity happened in Bihar province of India where many yogic organizations were established some years back. Those yogas did not help get a drop of rain. Many years ago Russian scientists bragged that rain may be man-made but until now I have never seen or heard of man-made rain in Russia. On the contrary, I only hear frequently that Russian must get rice and wheat from Canada and the U.S. I am very doubtful about this idea for what is the harm if yoga is religious and what is the honour if yoga is scientific. Science is very common, just any state or fact of knowing is Science. This definition is written in the dictionary. According to my humble opinion, there is nothing less scientific than Science itself. It starts its study with hypothesis, proves it by some untrustworthy experiments which results are canceled by some later more "advanced" scientists. Try to turn the pages of the history of the development of Science and you will see numberless examples to prove that the later sciences always push down the findings of earlier sciences. There is no integrated and perfect truth or reality in science at all. Most superstitions are in science, not in religion. That the earth is flat was said by the ancients, but the scientist Magellan (1480-1521) turned this theory over by saying that it is round and sailing around it. Again this was later turned over by the very well-known scientist Newton (1642-1727) that it is a round oval. This was also pushed over by another scientist saying that it is pear-shaped with the northpole the upside and greater mass on the south downside. But now it is said to be square just as the ancients said as proved personally by the scientists in outer space who have seen the four angles through a man-made satellite. The situations of the four angles are exactly pointed out as follows: one is situated from Ireland to the North Pole, the other again from Africa to the South Pole and the other again is in Western America and its tip is in Peru. Alas! If I could awake from their graves those scientists who lived here in the 15th to 19th centuries and denied the theories of the ancients, I would let them know about this new Science. Readers, if you live another century you will surely find from time to time countless examples showing the failure of our present science. This is why I dare to say that superstitions are much more in Science than in Religion. All that the scientists use for numbers, symbols, formulas, statistics, and laws are subjected to revision and change. Ordinary scientists believe that 2 plus 3 makes 5. But the authoritative scientist Albert Einstein who took the Buddhist philosophy of non-absoluteness as a hypothesis, framed the theory of Relativity, asserting that 2 plus 3 sometimes may not be 5, and parallel lines sometimes may not be parallel. Every superstition is a good subject for a scientist to research, A divination or omen consisting of a profound philosophy of mathematics can be comprehended by a few learned mathematicians but this is very often blamed as a superstition by those students of little learning. He who says it is a superstition is not a scientist. All facts or matters or ideas are scientific themselves whether they may be generally recognized as science or not all depends upon how we observe them, collect them in a classified system, and bring them under general law and find out the new truth or principle within their own domain. In the vast and long history of the universe there are countless points of this which can be used to prove only one point, that every theory either evil or good, may be established on some basis. Suppose one invents that the stomach is God and another asserts that the heart is God; they both can find some points to prove their theory. The foolish multitude will prefer the stomach to heart because they like their appetite too much. For instance Darwins Evolutionism has been proved. Kropotkins Mutual Aid Theory has also been proved. But the world majority prefers the idea of "struggling for ones life" as Darwin emphasized. Hence the struggles between the free world and iron curtain go on without end. Therefore we should have the head of Science at the feet of Ethics and bend the Ethics to the Heavenly Religions Will and subordinate the heavenly religions under the thumb of Buddhism which is the real and final truth of non-egoism and non-war. When Science is controlled by Ethics there would be no harmful things like hydrogen bombs made to cause Gods anger who sends the drought calamity. When Ethics is controlled by heavenly religions, there would only be merits to make God happy. When the Gods are controlled by Buddha, there will be no pride of high-self or divine self and all would be obedient to Buddha or the sages who are equal to Buddha through whom in any manner rain may be gotten at will as our sage Kula had done. There are still some interesting stories I would like to write about so I will stop this long argument here. Once there was a Geshe who died and many Lamas gathered at his home for a Puja. When the second week of Puja was held, our sage Kula happened to pass by there. A young girl was also going to that house to condole. They met on the way. Kula asked the girl for sexual intercourse. The girl refused with anger and thought in her mind, "Even were I to allow you to do this, should we have sexual intercourse on the road? What a dog! " She then ran to the Dharma meeting. Kula passed away with a long sigh. The girl frankly told the story to the Lamas at that meeting. They said, "You have lost a good chance, what a pity!" She began to repent and wanted very urgently to meet Kula again. She suddenly left the meeting and went to many places with a desire to meet Kula. But she was disappointed for many days. One day she wept on the road and Kula knew of this and appeared there purposefully. He said, "Dont blame me as a dog. When I asked you for sexual intercourse it was because there was the spirit of that Geshe passing heading for the womb of a dog and I wanted to save him from a dogs rebirth and to bring him to a human one through your womb. Now he is already born as a dog. So what is the use of you?" The urgent excitement of the girl was cooled down by the sages words. But she still asked, "Are there some spirits you will meet again?" The sage answered in a very cold-blooded manner. "Even if there are, I am not sure you may meet me again at that very moment!" After saying this the sage disappeared immediately. The girl went back and all was lost! Alas! I know so many girls who lost their sweet chances in their golden age. They repented too late. That is why many old misses are suffering in London, Paris and New York whom I have known through their correspondence. Street walkers who seize every occasion would not lose the opportunity for sexual intercourse but they pursue only the young, handsome, and rich fornicators; not one of them would turn her head to a mad and poor sage, hermit, ascetic or mendicant. Especially girls who have the sign of a Dakini ought to be devoted to the sages or yogis, but I saw many such girls who were still not fond of hermits. Their human natures are stronger than their Dakini nature. Once a young nurse in her teens inquired of me to tell her fortune from her face and hands. After I told everything about her past and present and future I sat in my meditation for awhile and I saw a black mole on her vagina which was covered by her trousers. I frankly told her. She confessed and asked what did it indicate. I replied, "It is a good religious sign; if you meet a boy who has the same on his penis, marry him and you both will be lucky!" The next day in the early morning she came back again with a sweet smile and asked, "Do you know who has such a mole?" As I have such one I prepared to show her, but she ran away and since then I never met her. Though the names of many great guns in politics, poetry and literature in the history of the whole world I have forgotten, her name Workerkumani is still in my remembrance - Workerkumani. Before long I received from Calcutta my friend Mr. Woos daughters letter in which she sent her photo and asked me to see her face and tell her destiny. After I had done this I sat in meditation and set my mind to see her personal body in Calcutta. I saw a mole just in the center between her two lovely breasts. I wrote to her father whether this was true. The reply was yes. Since then she wrote me many times and whenever she was thinking of me in any manner her shadow appeared in the mirror of my mind. But her father - an average person with a little faith in Buddhism, did not allow her to learn something from me. Hence in this Kali age to practise the third initiation with a Dakini or to save a spirit through a good womb is much more difficult than in the age of our sage. Of course morality and modesty are important things, but the Tantric Buddhist must know something beyond mere morality and modesty which is much more important than the former. Once a Bhutanese old woman who was going to die handed over a turquoise to her granddaughter and commanded her to offer it to the Sage Kula for the Puja of Phowa - sending her consciousness to Sukhavati. As she weighed over in her mind that her granddaughter might offer it to another Lama, she called her granddaughter to come close to the dying bed and sang a song:
Her granddaughter kept this song in mind and her grandmother died peacefully after her song was integrated. The girl then sought the sage everywhere but did not meet him. She wept on the road and a friend of the sage passed by there and told her where Kula usually was. He said, "You cant miss him in the group of children. He always makes friends with boys and girls, playing pebbles together. They squat down on the ground. He is with them in the crowd." The girl followed that way and met Kula just in the manner as the friend told. She then offered the turquoise to him and begged for phowa to send her grandmothers consciousness to Sukhavati. He threw a pebble to the sky in the western direction and said:
Then he played with another pebble again. The girl saw his manner was not serious and doubted that her grandmothers soul would be transferred into Sukhavati. How could such a small stone be helpful to the great event. She asked for the return of the turquoise. Kula did so and after throwing a stone to the ground, he said "I return your grandmothers turquoise. To hell she goes back as she was." The girl did not heed what he said and directly went to Lhasa and offered the same turquoise to Karmapa Rimpoche. The latter foreknew about this matter and scolded the girl asking why she had forgotten her grandmothers poem made at the moment of her death. "She was going to Sukhavati but fell down to hell again when you asked for the return of the turquoise. You are not worthy of your grandmother. You have to repent and offer this thing to Kula again as soon as possible." The girl wept and went back. On the way home she met Kula. He saw her a far distance off and before she said anything, he threw a pebble to the vest and said:
The girl with tears on her face prostrated herself before the sage. She began to think of the three stones which after being thrown by the sage she was not able to find anywhere. She said to herself that her grandmothers turquoise was no better than those three stones. She told and praised this miracle to all the persons in her village. The fifth Penchan [ed note: Panchen] Lama whose holy position was only next to that of the Dalai Lama begged Kula to give him an initiation of long life. After the sage permitted this, the Lamas attendant asked, "What should we prepare for the ritual of initiation?" The sage replied, "No need of anything." The next morning the sage came to Penchan Lama with his begging packet. From this he took some Tsampa and threw it into Penchans face and put some butter in his mouth and he said your initiation is performed. You will live until the age of one hundred and seventy three! Afterwards his foretelling came true. It was written in the biography of Penchan Lama. Hence all the stories of our sage are no joke. He who believes shall be blessed.
[Home][Back to main list][Back to Chenian][Go to Dr. Lin's works] |