Yeshe Tsogyal and the Feminine Principle

The day began rather overcast, but warmish for all that. Most arrived by about 9 am or shortly after and waited until somewhat after 10:30 for His Eminence to finish preparing the Yeshe Tsogyal mandala for our entrance. As is often the case when the sangha has leisure to dwell in unscheduled space, it uses the opportunity to gossip and tell more or less enlightened tales of the guru.


Some unattributed not-exactly-verbatim exemplars are:

"You know I saw Shibata Sensei last June at the Kyudo Intensive. He was being pushed in his wheelchair by Carolyn Olsen Green. When I'd seen him three years ago, he looked close to death.
I leaned down and said "Sensei, you look great! What have you been up to?"
He smiled and said, "She's my lover" (meaning Ms. Olsen Green).
I said, "Sensei, you're shameless."
He said, "I am shameless!"
It was obvious to the informant that they were totally in love.

Another involved a rather long tale about connections between our sangha and the Ripa lineage. It seems a sangha member in Berkeley had a close encounter with His Eminence Namkha Drimed Rinpoche several years before the Sakyong and Khandro Tseyang met. He'd been told by a friend that he really should go to the airport and meet this great teacher. Being a lazy being as we all are, he said to himself, no way. He went to bed Saturday night as usual after partying hearty, looking forward to his day of rest and coffee on Sunday. He woke suddenly in the middle of the night after a particularly intense dream, with an imperative conviction that he had to get dressed and leave NOW for the airport. He got there and spotting His Eminence, spontaneously and immediately fell on the floor in prostration. He said, "Rinpoche, what are your connections between the Mukpo family and the Ripa?" Without a pause, His Eminence replied, there are three . . . -- I'm sorry to report, I can't quite remember what these were precisely, though one was the Gesar connection. This fellow became a student of His Emincnce as well as remained in the Shambhala sangha.

Seeing Gerry Haase-Dubosc and Nancy Wallace, I was reminded of his telling me at the kasung mess about how happy he was to be married again at age 65 to such a wonderful person and that they were following in the Sakyong's footsteps by having three honeymoons, one in India, one in France, and now one in Halifax.

After discovering the "Fair Trade" coffee vendor and getting a tuna sandwich, I went back upstairs to the foyer where people were filing in to the shrine room.

His Eminence gave a wonderful exposition on the dakini principle and told us the history of Yeshe Tsogyal and then gave the abhisheka.

A short recap: Yeshe Tsygyal is the real-life consort of Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava. She is considered the embodiment of all the dakinis, of which there are three levels: Dharmakaya (Samantabhadra); Sambhogakaya (Vajravarahi, Vajrayogini, White Tara, Green Tara, Mamaki, etc); and Nirmanakaya (Yeshe Tsogyal).

In her hagiography, it is said that when she was born, the earth shook turning a nearby small lake into a large one, hence her name Tso (meaning lake) gyal. She then put her hands together and said three times: "Guru Rinpoche, know me, think of me." Guru Rinpoche later made her his consort and gave her all the outer, inner, and secret empowerments. She went through many hardships along the lines of Milarepa, practicing in the high reaches wearing nothing but a cotton robe, then only her ornaments, and then finally wearing nothing at all in the bitter cold. Her special deities were Vajra Kumara and Vajra Kiliya. She lived to the age of 210 years. She had two primary students, Kala Siddhi and Tashi Chodron), who when Yeshe Tsogyal died dissolved into her two breasts. She tend dissolved into a rainbow body and went to the land of Kumara. She later appeared as Machi Lapdron and transmitted the Chod practice.

Most of the 128 great terton who have been emanations of Guru Rinpoche have had consorts who were manifestations of Yeshe Tsogyal. These consorts serve to maintain the long life of the lama and are beneficial and compassionate to his students.

If your lineage is transmitted through a family line, it is imperative that you have a Khandro (or highly realized female being). His Eminence then traced his lineage through mothers and wives down to Khandro Shime Dorkar, mother of his children. She is an emanation of Dorje Palmo (the enriching guardian of the mandala) and Red Tara. In Gesar's time she was the wife of Gesar's elder brother (if you remember from yesterday's post, His Eminence was this person in a previous life). His Eminence stressed the importance of a great mother to the quality of their children and was very happy about the union between his family and the Sakyong's and looks forward to meeting their progeny. At first I felt that there was possibly a slightly chauvinistic hit to all this, but the feminine side of things seems to be based on the very powerful nature of wisdom and compassion and just plain kindness. "What, you don't always speak kindly of each other?" was a comment heard.

Then last, but not entirely least, most of us repaired to the Kalapa Court to enjoy a garden party, though I think many took the opportunity to take a bit of a rest. A surprisingly tasty ruby grapefruit and rose petal punch was served while we strolled in the sunshine and shared news and views. Another lhasang was led off by the Mukpo and Ripa families, who, after about 5 or 6 turns around the smoky fire were ready to let the rest of us enjoy the blessings.

Sam West performed a Shihobari and then all dissolved back into clumps, to eat pieces from two cakes shaped and frosted in the colours of the Shambhala flag. I was totally exhausted with picture taking and left before the singing began, but heard it went well.

Well, I definitely must be off to my booth at the Marketplace where perhaps I will sell one of my photographs, or at least a few cards. Drop by eh?

For more on the Ripas, go to: http://www.ripaladrang.org/teachers.htm