Picture 1:
Aura of Guru Padmasambhava, at Tiger Nest
Picture 2:
Aura radiated from the body of Acho Rinpoche, at Changyangkha.
Picture 3:
Aura enlarged and ascended upward, showering everyone present, at Changyangkha.
I found it
difficult to pen my thoughts for this preface because this Bhutan tour was full
of spiritual responses, the magnitude of which was simply overwhelming.
37 of us, the
Vajrayana practitioners, embarked yet on another extraordinary tour on 5 Oct
2012, heading towards the happiest country in the world – Bhutan. This was a
holy trip that straddled the present and past lives.
We chose to
transit in Bangkok, Thailand and stayed there for one night. Of course, there
is already a direct flight from Singapore to Bhutan being introduced recently.
When we touched down in Bangkok, we went for our dinner at a restaurant famous
for its transvestites (lady boys) performance. However, we nearly missed out
dinner. Reason being, immediately upon our arrival, the numerous deceased
transvestites stranded in the nether world came forward to seek help for their
soul deliverance. It took nearly an hour for the matter to be settled, after
giving them blessing and persuasions to leave.
On the
following morning, we were already onboard a Bhutan national airline flight, Druk Air,
touching down in the valley of Bhutan. The view of the Himalayan range was
simply astonishing! The airplane was so close to the hills that both its wings seemed
to be crashing into the valley! No
wonder only Druk Air pilots are capable of flying the airplanes into Bhutan.
The runway was so short! And there was only one airplane in the entire airport – ours.
We set off for
Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan, immediately after touching down. We really
enjoyed the scenic landscape throughout the journey decorated by green mountain
ranges, turquoise rivers and golden padi fields. We stopped at a certain
location that was very picturesque and I heard the group exclaiming almost
simultaneously, “Is this Shangrila?”
We visited the builder of Buddha
Dordenma. He was the vice Chief Monk of Bhutan, H.E Trizin Tsering Rinpoche. He
shared with us the reason for building the world’s biggest bronze Buddha
statue. Actually, the building of this Buddha statue was already prophesized in
the 8th century, that it would bring great benefits to the sentient
beings in the universe. When Trizin Rinpoche discussed the plan with the Chief
Monk of Bhutan, Je Khenpo Truku Jigme Choeda, the latter entrusted this sacred
duty to the former. Soon after, there were several Singaporean Buddhists who
came forward to offer their help, in both efforts and kind. The statue was
built within a short span of just two years. Trizin Rinpoche told us that the
consecration ceremony was scheduled in three years time, and he invited us to the
ceremony. We requested him to do a prayer for the group on the spot. We also
mentioned our affinity with the statue. On the last night before our departure
from Bhutan, Joanne, the organizer of our Bhutan tour, had a dream. In her
dream, she saw our group attending the 20th anniversary celebration
of the Buddha statue!
On the second
day of our arrival in Thimphu, we visited the most renowned temple – Changyangkha
Monastery. We saw many parents bringing their new-borns to the monastery for
blessing by the abbot. We met the abbot, Tshjeh Rim Richen Rinpoche, and did a Avalokitesvara
prayer with him. He told us that the Thousand Armed Avalokitesvara statue
enshrined in the monastery was brought into Bhutan from China in the 12th
century. This statue actually spoke to the 16th Karmapa when he
visited the monastery. When I offered a khatta to Richen Rinpoche at the
courtyard of the monastery, Dharma Brother Piu took a picture of us.
Surprisingly, three of the pictures turned out to be extraordinary. The first
picture showed a rainbow aura radiated from my body. The second picture showed
that the rainbow light ascended to the space above, showering everyone present.
The third showed a big blue light ball appearing above my head.
On the same night, we had dinner with
the uncle of the lady boss who arranged our tour, Om. Her uncle was H.E Tsering
Penjor Rinpoche. Penjor Rinpoche was the 8th lineage holder of Powa
in Drukpa Kagyud. He often travelled to Taiwan to teach. Dharma Brother Shao
had a vision of his lineage masters surrounding him, which was a testimony of
his high level of spiritual attainment. I showed him the three pictures taken
with Richen Rinpoche. He said only a practitioner who has attained a true state
of liberation would be able to demonstrate such extraordinary feat. No wonder,
when we did a Guru Padmasambhava prayer with him at night, he offered the
centre seat to me. He also gave everyone in our group two big precious mani
pills each.
After one long day of bumpy roads, most
of us ended up feeling nausea and giddy. Finally, we arrived in Gantey. On the
following morning, we visited Gantey Gompa of Nyingma lineage. It was built on
the west side of the black mountain in Gantey. This monatery was built in
commemoration of a great Terton (hidden treasure discoverer). When we entered a
place that enshrined a stupa within the monastery, Dharma Sister Zhen suddenly
broke down and cried, requesting my blessing. She seemed to be singing in
Bhutanese language. After which, it was the turn of Dharma Sister Karen to cry.
She said both her arms felt numb, trembling and cold, completely out of her
control. When I finally said, “It’s ok now!” her strange sensations disappeared
instantaneously. Dharma Sister Qiong and Wong were also crying and asking for
blessing. At this juncture, H.E Konde Rinpoche suddenly requested me to bless
him with the vajra held in my hand; everyone present was clearly surprised by
his action. Finally, everyone knelt down and requested my blessing. So, I
transformed myself into Vajradhara and blessed everyone present. When the
blessing was over, Dharma Sister Irene collapsed on the floor, complaining
about many spiritual beings entering her body requesting blessing too…….
We cut through a vast padi field,
making our way to the famous Divine Mad Man temple. We met many Thailand
Buddhists on the way. When we reached the temple, I held the unusual religious
implements of the Divine Mad Man, Lama Drukpa Khenley, in my hand. At that
juncture, H.E Konde Rinpoche knelt before me again, requesting my blessing. I
gave my blessing to everyone present, using the religious implements of the
Divine Mad Man, including an arrow and a bow, and two other pieces of wooden
male organs. After we left the temple, we went to the house of one of our tour
guides, Sonam SP. It was the house of his wife. He requested me to do a Green
Tara prayer. Green Tara descended from space, blessing everyone and delivered
the soul of the past seven generations of his wife’s ancestors. When we left
the house, on our way down the staircase, there was another group of spiritual
beings coming forward to seek my blessing…….
Joanne kept asking our Bhutanese tour
guides about the “Look Like Me” statue of Guru Padmasambhava, from the second
day onwards after our arrival in Bhutan. However, the tour guides told her that
there was no such temple. Few years ago, Jampel Lama, a Bhutanese monk came to
Singapore and gave her a picture of that statue. He said that statue was
believed to be a look-alike of Guru Padmasambhava, hence the name. When we arrived at the hotel in Paro, we went
to a temple that was believed to be the oldest in Bhutan, which was not in our
original itineraries. It was built in the 7th century for the
purpose of subduing a big demon in the Himalaya range. It was one of the 108
temples built then. This one sits on the left knee of the demon. There is
another one sitting on its heart – the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. There is
a replica of this temple built by the 3rd Queen of Bhutan, sitting
just next to the original one. When we entered the temple, we immediately saw
the statue of H.H Dilgo Kyentse being enshrined in the left wing of the temple.
His relics were enshrined in a stupa in the right wing. And his throne was
being preserved too within the temple, from which he gave the teachings of The
Great Perfection (Dzongchen). A big statue of Guru Padsambhava was being
enshrined right in the centre of this temple. It was just the “Look Like Me”
statue of Guru Padmasambhava! There was another “Look Like Me” statue of Guru
Padmasambhava in Tibet. Both of them
were made from the same piece of material. When Ma Yum La (my wife) paid her
respect to Guru Padmasambhava by touching his big foot with her forehead, she
felt the movements of Guru Padmasambhava……
The last stop
of our mind-training tour was the most sacred place of Bhutan – the Tiger Nest!
Two years ago, Dharma Sister Bing had a dream. In her dream, she and I came to
a temple that was built on a cliff. When we entered the temple, she saw the
abbot of the temple giving up his throne and requesting me to sit on it. When
we arrived at Tiger Nest, she suddenly realized that that was the temple in her
dream! There was a wonderful and inconceivable connection between the Tiger
Nest and Acho Rinpoche indeed. The rest of the group ascended the Tiger Nest
before I did. When I made my way to the last step to the Tiger Nest, they
started chanting my heart mantra. At this juncture, Nelso had a vision of a
huge ceremonial crown of Guru Padmasambhva descending from space, resting
nicely on my head. Dharma Brother Shao had a vision of Guru Padmasambhva
welcoming us and offering a khatta to me and the rest of the group. He also
offered a five-buddha crown to everyone in the group. At Tiger Nest, members of
the group took many pictures of auras using both the cameras and video cameras.
When we offered one thousand butter lamps at the sacred cave where Yeshe
Tsogyal transformed herself into a tiger, there were many pictures of beautiful
auras taken at this location.
At our night
prayer on the last night in Paro, there were seven (auspicious number) Bhutanese
joining us including the lady boss of the travel agency, tour guides and
drivers. They received empowerments from me too. When H.E Konde Rinpoche made
his closing speech, he told the group that although he had met many rinpoches
in the past who also presided over prayers and transmitted the teachings to the
numerous sentient beings, he had never come across an experience that was so
shocking and the power of blessing so great! He realized that our tours are not
ordinary tours but a mind-training tour that could truly benefit the numerous
sentient beings in the Six Realms of Existence (samsara). He wished to join us
for our mind-training tours every time in future……
Of course, Konde Rinpoche had many
auspicious dreams during the tour. Besides, there were other members of the
group who either found her son, brother or husband (who waited a long time in
the nether world for the opportunity to be delivered) respectively of their
past lives in Bhutan. There was also a member who dreamt of being chased after
by a thousand ghosts and was so frightened that he decided to follow me closely
even when I went to the toilets, haha…… There were simply too many
extraordinary encounters to be mentioned in this preface. I would like to ask
the readers to wait patiently for our new X-Tour book to be published. I will
guarantee you that you will be seeing lots of wonderful and extraordinary
pictures of aura etc, and a glimpse of the secrets of the cyclic existence……
Acho Rinpoche
14 Oct 2012
