Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche in NYC Teaching on the prayer in 7 chapters

Schedule of events and short note on the material offered within context of the main teaching, the Prayer in Seven Chapters.

Friday, April 28, 2006, 7pm
Public Talk: Introduction to Buddhism

Saturday, April 29, 10-12 and 2:30-5 pm
Teaching on “Supplications to Guru Rinpoche in Seven Chapters”

Sunday, April 30; 10-12 pm
Empowerment White Umbrella
Sunday, April 30; 2:30-5 pm
Teaching on “Supplications to Guru Rinpoche in Seven Chapters”

Location: Nyingma Palyul Dharma Center 3rd Floor
121 Bowery Street (just south off the corner with Grand Street)
New York, NY
For information on Palyul events in NYC: http://newyork.palyul.org
Palyul Ling International: http://www.palyul.org

Some basic research on the collection of prayers that is known as “Supplications to Guru Rinpoche in Seven Chapters”.

Erik Pema Kunzang in “The Lotus-Born: The Life Story of Padmasambhava” on page 225 writes: “Karma Chagmey (1613-1678). History, Meditation and benefits of the Supplication in Seven Chapters. GSOL’DEBS LE’U BDUN PA’I LO RGYUS DMIGS RIM PHAN YON DANG BCAS PA. 78 manuscript pages. An explanation of the seven famous supplications to Guru Rinpoche revealed by the hermit Sangpo Dragpa and given to the great terton Rigdzin Godem. The daily practice of these supplications embody the entire life-story of Padmasambhava, all his lineages of transmission, and all the levels of his teaching.”
-Above is an entry in “Bibliography” listing of the book for Mahasiddha Karma Chagmey commentary, but it does present immense scope of practice associated with the Supplications.

Culmination of Guru Rinpoche’s speech, the seven chapters of prayers of supplication.

It is said that all of Guru Rinpoche practice instructions, all of Guru Rinpoche life story and all of transmissions of these can be summed up and connected to through these supplications.

English translation and research on the Seven Supplications is available in the following books:

Guru Rinpoche, His Life and Times by Ngawang zangpo  (Snow Lion)

A Great Treasure of Blessings, A Book of Prayers to Guru Rinpoche, To celebrate the Wood Monkey Year 2004-5 translated and edited by Rigpa Translations  (Rigpa)

A Treasure Trove of Blessings and Protection, the Seven Chapter Prayer of the Great Teacher Padmasambhava translated by Mike Dickman  (Cool Grove Press)

According to these research, main 6 supplications were composed by Guru Rinpoche after the request of his 5 heart disciples, in Male Fire Horse Year, 12th Lunar month year 767 according to Western calendar. At Samye monastery in Tibet.

First Supplication:
The Supplication to the Spiritual Master’s Three Bodies of Enlightenment. Also translated as: Prayer to the Guru Trikaya
It is given to requesting 5 disciples collectively who are: fully ordained monk Namke Nyingpo, King Trisong Detsen, Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, Nanam Dorje Dudjom and prince Mutri Tsepo. Through realization of the teachings of Guru Rinpoche, these five disciples knew that keeping of samaya commitments is the very heart of vajrayana and supplication to the Guru is most effective way of maintaining the samaya, thus their request is for a short and meaningful supplication that can be recited by any one at any point during the day or night is for that very purpose.
Second Supplication:
Supplication Given to the King
Last lines of the request as given by Ngawang Zangpo: “…that this life’s obstacles be cleared away, and that we eventually attain the supreme accomplishment of Great Seal [mahamudra]…”
Third Supplication:
The Supplication Given to Yeshe Tsogyal
Last lines of the request as given by Ngawang Zangpo:
“…to be able to move your blessings like clouds in the sky. If we ordinary people repeat this supplication in Tibet after you depart to Odiyanna, may it have the power to make you return from the land of the dakinis in Odiyanna and to compassionately appear before the Tibetan faithful, blessing us…”

Fourth Supplication:
Supplication Given to the fully-ordained monk Namke Nyingpo.

Fifth Supplication:
Supplication given to Nanam Dorje Dudjom

Sixth supplication:
Supplication given to Prince Mutri Tsepo
In the Male Water Dragon year [1352], Tulku Sangpo Drakpa retrieved this treasure from the retreat cave of the Master from Odiyanna at Drompa Gyong, Rulak. He entrusted it to the great Rigdzin Gokyi Demtru Chen and this great awareness holder translated it from the yellow parchment.
Seventh supplication is given at a later date to Mutri Tsepo and is titled: The Supplication for the Spontaneous Fulfillment of the Wishes
In the Male Water Dragon year [1352], Tulku Sangpo Dragpa retrieved this treasure from the Gyong temple at Rulak. He gave it to the great Rikzin Gokyi Demtru Chen and this great awareness holder translated it from the yellow parchment.

Supplication to Dispel Obstacles on the Path
This supplication is closely connected to the Supplications in seven chapters, it was given in Earth Monkey year [768] to Prince Murub Tsepo, who is also known by his Buddhist name Yeshe Rolpa Tsal. Ngawang Zangpo on page 260:
“…He then placed his right hand on king’s head, his left hand on mine [Yeshe Tsogyal], and touched his forehead to that of the Son of Heaven [title for a Tibetan Prince at the time] In the innate indestructible sound of the melody of the nature of reality, he spoke this supplication:
Om Ah Houng Benza Guru Pema Siddhi Houng…”
[which is followed in the book by text of the translation for the supplication]
Prayer mentioned above and a similar to the original version of the supplication for Spontaneous Fulfillment of Wishes was revealed in 19th century by Chogyur Dechen Lingpa (1829-1870) within cycle of The Heart -Meditation on the Master, A Wish-Fulfilling Jewel.

Hambo Lama Itigilov 2005

About image:

ULAN-UDE,Russia: A believer decorating the body of Hambo Lama Itighelov, a Siberian Buddhist leader who looks and feels just the same as when he died in 1927 in a temple in Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Buryat republic. (HO/AFP/Getty Images) The body of Hambo Lama Itighelov, who was a spiritual leader of Russian Buddhists from 1911 to 1927, was first exhumed from the grave in 1955, at the Lama’s request. When after the third exhumation in 2002 after 75 years since the Lama’s death, his body still showed no signs of decay, medical experts decided to examine the miracle.

Imperishable Body of Russian Buddhist Lama

By Nataly Teplitsky

Epoch Times San Francisco Staff Dec 08, 2005

http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/5-12-8/35535.html
The grave contained a wooden box and there was a sitting Buddhist lama in a ‘lotus’ position. His body was preserved as if it were mummified, however it was not. The body was covered with silk clothes and fabric. “Samples taken 75 years after the body had been buried, show that the organics of the skin, hair, and nails of the dead man aren’t any different from that of a living human,” a professor of history at the Russian State University for Humanities, Galina Yershova stated at a press-conference in “Interfax” central office in Moscow, according to Pravda.ru.
“His joints flex, the soft tissues are elastic just like in a living person, and after they opened the box, where the body of the Lama lay for 75 years, there was a very pleasant fragrance,” Yershova was quoted as saying.
Yershova believes this is completely inconsistent with what one would expect of a body that has been buried for 75 years.
The body has become holy for Buddhists in the Russian region of Buryatia, where it now rests in the Ivolgin Buddhist Monastery in the regional capital of Ulan-Ude.
Hambo Lama Itighelov is a real person, well known in Russian history. He studied at the Anninsky Datsan, the Buddhist University in Buryatia. Itighelov got degrees in medicine and philosophy (on the nature of emptiness). He also created an encyclopedia of pharmacology.
In 1911, Itighelov became a Hambo Lama (the head of Buddhist church in Russia). During the period from 1913 to 1917, he opened the first Buddhist temple in St. Petersburg. Itighelov published religious tractates and teachings and united many of the religion’s factions.
He was invited to celebrate the 300-th anniversary of Romanov’s house, and on March 19, 1917, the Russian Tsar Nikolai II gave him St. Stanislav Award.
During the First World War, Itighelov was helping the army with money, clothes and medications. He also had built a set of hospitals where lama doctors helped to cure wounded militants. For his contributions, Itighelov was awarded with St. Anna medal.
In 1926, he warned the Buddhist monks about the coming ‘red’ terror and advised them to flee to Tibet. But he himself never left Russia.
In 1927, Itighelov told lamas that he was preparing to leave this world. He started a meditation and soon was dead.
Itighelov left a testament where he had requested to bury him as he was, sitting in a ‘lotus’ position in the cedar box on a traditional cemetery. There was also a statement, where he asked monks to exhume him after several years.
His will was fulfilled in 1955 and in 1973 respectively, by Buddhist monks. But it was kept in secret, since all kinds of religions were forbidden under the communist rule.
The Soviet Union, under Stalin, repressed most manifestations of religion, executing hundreds of lamas and destroying 46 Buddhist temples and monasteries.
In the years since the Soviet Union collapse, across Russia the Buddhists have begun to thrive again, rebuilding ruined temples that attracted more followers.
On September 11, 2002, seventy five years after Itighelov’s death, the body was for the third time lifted from the earth. This time there was a record of the event: a dozen of witnesses, including two forensic experts and a photographer.
Soon the Lama’s body was transferred to Ivolginsky Datsan (a residence of today’s Hambo Lama), where it was closely examined by monks, scientists and pathologists.
With the permission of the Buddhist clergy, scientists investigated samples of tissues of the “imperishable body”. They compared them with those of living people.
When one of the scientists approached the body, she could clearly feel the warmth of his hands.
Professor Viktor Zvyagin from the Federal Center for Forensic Medicine, examined Itighelov’s body in Ivolginsk last November, and conducted analyses of hair, skin and nail specimens after his return to Moscow. He concluded that Itighelov’s body was in the condition of someone who had died 36 hours ago.
According to the results, the protein structure of the body was not damaged; it was identical to the one of a living person.
Scientists were dumbfounded by the results of the chemical composition of his body. They could not explain the fact that chemical elements in Itighelov’s body were either absent or present in negligibly small quantities.
Two years had passed. Itighelov’s body is now kept in the open air, without any temperature or humidity restrictions.
Nobody understands how the body can stay in this condition.
The official statement was issued about the body – very well preserved, without any signs of decay, muscles and inner tissues, soft joints and skin being intact. It was confirmed that the body was never embalmed or mummified.
“He was 75 years old, and he promised to return to his followers after another 75 years,” Yanzhima Vasilyeva, the director of Itigilov’s Institute, said.
“The most amazing thing is that he was still sitting upright. Scientists say that after two weeks a dead body cannot stay upright on its own,” Vasilyeva continued.
Itighelov’s caretaker Bimbo Lama, stays close to his teacher almost at all times.
Once in a while he changes Itighelov’s clothing, and at that time Lama’s joints become more flexible. Bimbo lama has noted that while changing the clothes, he could smell a fragrance coming from the teacher’s body.
The lamas have dressed the body in a golden robe, with a blue sash laid across his lap. His eyes are closed, his features blurred, though the shape of his face and his nose doubtlessly resemble his picture taken in 1913. His hands remain flexible, his nails perfectly trimmed. His skin is soft. His head is still covered in short-trimmed hair.
According to Professor Yershova, this is the only confirmed and recorded case of the body, imperishable over such a long period of time in the entire world.
Embalming and mummifying is well known among different nations and peoples – Egyptian mummies, Christian Saints, communist leaders and others. Some bodies were found in permafrost, however when they contacted with oxygen atmosphere they perished within several hours.
Lamas from the temple relate many miracles, taking place around the “precious body”. Some people become magically healed upon seeing the body of Hambo Lama.
Itighelov said before his death that he had left a message to all people on Earth.
“There is a great moral crisis in Russia today,” Vasilyeva said, “Itighelov’s return presents a great opportunity to help people believe.”
A fragment of the interview with Hambo Lama Ayusheyev, the spiritual leader since 1995, has been also demonstrated at the press-conference.
“Many people don’t see what’s obvious,” he said. “Many people won’t understand even if they see him.”
However, there are descriptions of such things in Buddhist texts, but there were no confirmed examples. Well, now it looks like there is one. And that time came to comprehend the Lama’s unspoken message.
“To me, it is the greatest miracle in life,” said Hambo Lama Ayusheyev. “It turns out there are things on which time has no power.”

Hambo Lama Itigilov 2002

Foreign Desk | October 1, 2002, Tuesday

Ivolginsk Journal;
A Russian Lama’s Body, and His Faith, Defy Time.

By STEVEN LEE MYERS (NYT) 1139 words, Final, Section A, Page 4, Column 3

IVOLGINSK, Russia: A miracle has occurred here in Siberia. Or it may be a hoax. Others believe science can explain it. It is a question,it seems, of faith.
The story begins in 1927, when a spiritual leader of Russia’s Buddhists gathered his students and announced his plans to die. The leader, Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, the 12th Pandito Hambo Lama, then 75 and retired, instructed those gathered around him to “visit and look at my body” in 30 years.
He crossed his legs into the lotus position, began to meditate and, chanting a Prayer for the dead, died.
The years that followed were difficult for all faiths in Russia, including the Buddhists here in Buryatia an impoverished Siberian region on the Mongolian border. The Soviet Union, under Stalin, repressed most manifestations of religion, executing hundreds of lamas and destroying 46 Buddhist temples and monasteries.
After World War II, Stalin relented somewhat and allowed the Buddhists to rebuild their monastery outside Ivolginsk, along a low desolate valley 35 kilometers (20 miles) from Buryatia’s capital. Ulan-Ude. But religious practice remained tightly restricted.
When the 30 years had passed -it might have been 28(?) the details are murky; Itigilov’s followers did what he had asked, exhuming his remains from a cemetery in Klinkhe-Zurkhen.
What they found, as the story goes, was Itigilov’s body, still in the lotus position, still perfectly intact, having defied nature’s imperative to decay.
Stalin was dead, but Soviet power remained absolute, and so the Buddhists reburied Itigilov-and the secret- in an unmarked grave, packing his wooden coffin with salt.(That may be important, or not.) “Nobody could talk about it then,” said the current Pandito Hambo Lama, the 25th, Damba Ayusheyev. “To bring him back to the temple it was forbidden, impossib1e. So he was put back.”
Unlike supreme Tibetan lamas, who are considered reincarnations of previous lamas and are enthroned for life, Pandito Hambo Lamas are elected by other lamas, serve relatively short terms and are free to step down.
The story might have ended with the reburial had not a young lama, Bimba Dorzhiyev, turned his curiosity for history into a quest to resolve the mystery of Itigilov. He found an 88-year-old believer, Amgalan Dabayev, whose father-in-law had been there when the coffin had been opened and who himself had seen Itigilov. Dabayev led him to the grave.
On sept.11, 75 years after Itigilov’s death, the body was once again lifted from the earth. This time there was a record of the event: a dozen witnesses, including two forensic experts and a photographer. The lamas who opened the coffin wore surgical masks, but they need not have. Itigilov’s body remained preserved.
The current Hambo Lama ordered the body brought to Ivolginsk where it was greeted with fanfare, ringing bells and lulling chants. He ordered the body placed on the second floor of one of the monastery’s four temples, where it remains today, secreted behind heavy curtains and locked doors.
The monastery’s 150 students keep a vigil on the first floor, praying around the clock, though only the lamas may see the body.
“To me it is the greatest miracle in life” said Ayusheyev, the spiritual leader since 1995. “It turns out there are things on which time has no power.”
The 12th Hambo Lama was born in 1852 in czarist Russia and orphaned early, according to the Buddhists’ history. At 6 he studied to become a lama and served in several monasteries in Buryatia. In 1911 he was nominated along with nine other candidates to become the Hambo Lama and he was ultimately appointed by the czar’s governor in Irkutsk.
During his time as Hambo Lama, Itigilov is said to have strengthened the faith especially among the Buryats, a nomadic people of Mongol descent who have lived in the region for more than 30 centuries. He published religious tracts and teachings and united many of the religion’s factions.
Most of Russia’s Buddhists – estimated today at 1 million – adhere to the “yellow hat” sect that is predominant in Tibet. The Dalai Lama is their highest spiritual leader.
In the years since the Soviet collapse, Buryatia has remained a republic of the Russian Federation. Across Russia the Buddhists have begun to thrive again, rebuilding lost temples, opening schools and attracting new followers, even among ethnic Russians.
In Moscow Vladislav Kozeltsev an expert at the Center for Biomedical Technologies, the institute that keeps the body of Lenin – who died in 1924 – in state on Red Square said the salt in the coffin might have slowed the decay but could not alone explain the preservation of the lama’s body. Other factors may include the soil and the condition of the coffin.
More likely, Kozeltsev said, Itigilov suffered from a defect in the gene that hastens the decomposition of the body’s cellular structure after death. He added, “You cannot rule out some secret process of embalming” Ayusheyev says the body was preserved because Itigilov achieved a heightened state of existence through meditation known as shunyata, or emptiness.
He acknowledged that there would be skepticism. When greeted with it, he relented on his own order and led a visitor into the temple to the darkened chamber where Itigilov sits atop a simple table, surrounded by candles and metal bowls holding oils. The lamas have dressed his body in a golden robe with a blue sash laid across his lap. His eyes are closed, his features blurred, though the shape of his face and his nose certainly resemble the 1913 photograph. His hands remain flexible, his nails perfectly trimmed. His skin is leathery but soft. His head is still covered in short-trimmed hair.
“Many people don’t see what’s obvious,” Ayusheyev said. “Many people won’t understand even if they see him.”

Orgyen Kusum Lingpa in NYC

From: Lou Barlow
Date: Thu Apr 6, 2006  4:41 pm
Subject: APRIL 10 & 11 H.H. KUSUM LINGPA OFFERS EMPOWERMENTS OF CHENRIZIK & VAJRAKILAYA IN NYC

His Holiness Orgyen Kusum Lingpa is one of the most revered Nyingmapa lineage holders and Tertons (treasure revealers) of our time. He is the supreme abbot of Thubten Chokhor Ling Monastery where is still resides in Golok, Tibet. His Holiness joyfully radiates a youthful, timeless essence through His own old age and sickness. This will be the last time His Holiness will generously travel from Tibet to offer His profound, compassionate connection to all those who seek it! It is prophised by The Great Dzogchen Rinpoche, Mingyur Dorje that, “He (Kusum Lingpa) will guide all those connected to Him to Sukhavati, the Realm of Great Bliss.”

Regarding His life’s work, His Holiness has said in recent years:  “Much earlier in my life, I made a pilgrimage to Samye (the first Buddhist monastery built in Tibet, constructed during the time of King Trisong Detsen).” There, due to good karma, auspicious coincidence in conjunction with the needs of these current times, I saw all my past and future lives. I recalled all the teachings I had received directly from Guru Rinpoche when I was His disciple, and I saw all the hardships and difficulties of the time in which I am now living.  This makes it possible for me to reveal these teachings which are of particular benefit now, in this time of great suffering yet profound opportunity.”

2006 NYC Program:
Monday, April 10th, 7:30 p.m.
H.H. will offer teachings on Bodhichitta (the heart of enlightenment) & empowerment into The Buddha of Supreme Compassion, Chenrizik.
Tuesday, April 11th, 7:30 p.m.
H.H. Kusum Lingpa will offer a detailed explanation of the meaning and symbolism, as well as empowerment into His Vajrikilaya revelation.

Passing of Kunzang Dechen Lingpa

From: “zangdokpalri.org” Date: Wed Apr 5, 2006  9:49 pm Subject: Kunzang Dechen Lingpa passed away.

Kunzang Dechen Lingpa Rinpoche passed away recently at his temple construction project, Zangdokpalri in Arunachal Pradesh, India after giving a longlife initiation to nearly 10,000 buddhists who had come from all this poorest of Indian states.  After loosing all vital signs Rinpoche remained in a state of deep meditational awareness  sitting upright unassisted for 2 and half days (Tib: TUKDOM). There are reports that a rainbow emanated from his body and photographs were taken.  Many of us on the dharmanet nyc list had the opportunity to receive teachings and healing cho from Kunzang Dechen Lingpa during his tours to the USA over the last 5 years. Rinpoche passed away while preparing for another tour to the west with a group of his most Kunzang accomplished nuns and monks. His goal of obtaining donations to finish the Zangdokpalri temple that the Buddha Guru Rinpoche had specifically directed him in a dream to construct in order to bring peace to these troubled times drove him to leave his Himalayan meditation retreat and travel. Now that goal is just a thought. Should any want to contribute tax deductable donations towards the completion of Rinpoche’s project you can send checks payable to

Zangdokpalri Foundation for Great Compassion

130 7^th Ave

Box 221

New York NY 10011

Or go online to www.zangdokpalri.org to help and donate through that link.
donations of 108$ will receive a cd of Rinpoche’s last pointing out instructions
those in excess of $250 will receive a dvd.

You can also join the email list at that site and receive updates as to the progress of the temple and the possibility of an upcoming healing cho tour by the monks and nuns.

thank you,

Moke Mokotoff, president Zangdokpalri Foundation for Great Compassion

———————————————————————

Swift Rebirth Prayer For Terton Kunzang Dechen
Lingpa by H.H. Thrulshig Rinpoche

To all the victorious Buddhas of the three times
endowed with ten powers and who are even masters of the gods,
and whose attributes of perfection are the source of all compassionate deeds
benefiting the vast ocean-like realm of sentient beings,

To the assembly of sacred doctrine embodied in the Three Vehicles,
supremely serene, a jewel-treasure of enlightenment,
stainless, unchanging, eternally good, and the glory of all virtues,  which actually liberates beings from the sufferings of the three worlds

And to all members of the enlightening, noble spiritual community,
who never stray from the thoroughly liberating adamantine city,
who possess the wisdom eye that directly sees the profound truth
and the highest valor to destroy all machinations of cyclic existence,
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:

That Kunzang Dechen Lingpa, protector of the beings of this
degenerated time, be reborn Quickly. We unfortunate ones have no other hope but him.
Please shower on him your blessings so that he he would come back soon enough .

Through the blessings of the wondrous Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,
by the infallible truth of the laws of dependent origination,
and by the purity of our fervent aspirations,
may the aims of my prayer be fulfilled without hindrance.

“This prayer written in Tibetan by H.H. Thrulshig Rinpoche will be translated into English soon”    (translated by Lama Namkha Dorje, Boudha Stupa,Kathmandu Nepal.)