Lama Thubten Yeshe was
born in Tibet in 1935 not far from Lhasa in the town of Tölung Dechen. Two
hours away by horse was the Chi-me Lung Gompa, home for about 100 nuns of
the Gelug tradition. It had been a few years since their learned abbess
and guru had passed away when Nenung Pawo Rinpoche, a Kagyü lama widely
famed for his psychic powers, came by their convent. They approached him
and asked, "Where is our guru now?" He answered that in a nearby village
there was a boy born at such and such a time, and if they investigated
they would discover that he was their incarnated abbess. Following his
advice they found the young Lama Yeshe to whom they brought many offerings
and gave the name Thondrub Dorje.
Afterwards the nuns
would often take the young boy back to their convent to attend the various
ceremonies and other religious functions held there. During these
visits—which would sometimes last for days at a time—he often stayed in
their shrine room and attended services with them. The nuns would also
frequently visit him at his parents' home where he was taught the
alphabet, grammar and reading by his uncle, Ngawang Norbu, a student geshe
from Sera Monastery.
Even though the
young boy loved his parents very much, he felt that their existence was
full of suffering and did not want to live as they did. From a very early
age he expressed the desire to lead a religious life. Whenever a monk
would visit their home, he would beg to leave with him and join a
monastery. Finally, when he was six years old, he received his parents'
permission to join Sera Je, a college at one of the three great Gelug
monastic centers located in the vicinity of Lhasa. He was taken there by
his uncle, who promised the young boy's mother that he would take good
care of him. The nuns offered him robes and the other necessities of life
he required at Sera, while the uncle supervised him strictly and made him
study very hard.
He stayed at Sera
until he was twenty-five years old. There he received spiritual
instruction based on the educational traditions brought from India to
Tibet over a thousand years ago. From Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, the Junior
Tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he received teachings on the Lam-rim
graded course to enlightenment which outlines the entire sutra path to
buddhahood. In addition he received many tantric initiations and
discourses from both the Junior Tutor and the Senior Tutor, Kyabje Ling
Rinpoche, as well as from Drag-ri Dorje-chang Rinpoche, Song Rinpoche,
Lhatzün Dorje-chang Rinpoche and many other great gurus and meditation
masters.
Such tantric
teachings as Lama Yeshe received provide a powerful and speedy path to the
attainment of a fully awakened and purified mind, aspects of which are
represented by a wide variety of tantric deities. Some of the meditational
deities into whose practice Lama Yeshe was initiated were Heruka,
Vajrabhairava and Guhyasamaja, representing respectively the compassion,
wisdom and skilful means of a fUlly enlightened being. In addition, he
studied the famous six yogas ofNaropa, following a commentary based on the
personal experiences of Je Tsongkhapa.
Among the other
teachers who guided his spiritual development were Geshe Thubten Wangchug
Rinpoche, Geshe Lhundrub Sopa Rinpoche, Geshe Rabten and Geshe Ngawang
Gedun. At the age of eight he was ordained as a novice monk by the
venerable Purchog Jampa Rinpoche. During all this training one of Lama
Yeshe's recurring prayers was to be able some day to bring the peaceful
benefits of spiritual practice to those beings ignorant of the dharma.
This phase of his
education came to an end in 1959. As Lama Yeshe himself has said, "In that
year the Chinese kindly told us that it was time to leave Tibet and meet
the outside world." Escaping through Bhutan, he eventually reached
Northeast India where he met up with many other Tibetan refugees. At the
Tibetan settlement camp of Buxaduar he continued his studies from where
they had been interrupted. While in Tibet he had already received
instruction in prajnaparamita (the perfection of wisdom), Madhyamika
philosophy (the middle way) and logic. In India his education proceeded
with courses in the vinaya rules of discipline and the abhidharma system
of metaphysics. In addition, the great bodhisattva Tenzin Gyaltsen, the
Kunu Lama, gave him teachings on Shantideva's Bodhisattvacat yavatara
(Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life) and Atisha's Bodhipathapradipa
(Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment). He also attended additional tantric
initiations and discourses and, at the age oftwentytight, received full
monk's ordination from Kyabje Ling Rinpoche.
One of Lama Yeshe's
gurus in both Tibet and Buxaduar was Geshe Rabten, a highly learned
practitioner famous for his single-minded concentration and powers of
logic. This compassionate guru had a disciple named Thubten Zopa Rinpoche
and, at Geshe Rabten's suggestion, Zopa Rinpoche began to receive
additional instruction from Lama Yeshe. Zopa Rinpoche was a young boy at
the time and the servant caring for him wanted very much to entrust him
permanently to Lama Yeshe. Upon consultation with Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche,
this arrangement was decided upon and they have been together ever since.
Lama
had arrived back in India in early October after a strenuous teaching tour
of Europe and America. From Delhi he travelled to Dharamsala where he had
a house in the grounds of the Tushita Retreat center. Here he stayed in
seclusion.
Lama was not
scheduled to go to Nepal to teach as he had done for fourteen years at the
annual Kopan meditation course. Vicki Mackenzie, a London journalist and
friend of Lama Yeshe for eight years, was at Kopan for the course. 'We
were told that Lama was too sick. We didn't know where he was but we did
know that he would not be coming. But, a couple of days before the end of
the month-long course, suddenly. like magic, he appeared.
'It was morning. We
all came out of the tent to greet him. It was so moving and terribly
touching. All the small monks of Mount Everest Center were lining the
road, the older monks on the roof of the gompa blowing conches and
trumpets out over the valley. And everyone was so silent. There was such
an incredible hush. Somehow it was very poignant and very holy. Lama Zopa
went up to the land rover to greet Lama with unbelievable reverence, love
just pouring out of him. Catherine and I, and others, burst into tears. It
was so special and so moving.
'The silence was
extraordinary. So unlike the usual joyful pandemonium of the monastery. We
didn't know anything but somehow we felt that this was very, very
special.'
And Lama Yeshe did
teach. Two days later, at the end of the course, he gave first a
question-and-answer session and the following day a four-and-a-half-hour
teaching on refuge and bodhicitta.
'It was
extraordinary,' said Vicki. 'For one month the hundred of us had been
immersed in the serious business of a Iam rim course. It had been
very intense. There had been much anguished discussion about the various
traditional teachings Lama Zopa had been giving us.
'When Lama walked in
I knew immediately that he was very ill. Still so caring though, and
joking: "Oh. I don't know what I'm talking about!" But always so kind, so
concerned about us. "Are you all right? Are you tired?" he would ask us.
He showed just so much love.
'His answers were
marvelous, somehow exactly what we needed. He completely demolished all
our dualistic, narrow concepts. "Your Mickey Mouse minds! You are so boxed
in, so narrow," he said. Somehow, his words were like a miracle. He spoke
such utter common sense, made everything seem so simple. Our confusion and
worries simply dissolved away. He knitted everyone together, cut across
all divisions.'
Vicki had to leave
Kopan the next day, so after his final talk she followed him out of the
gompa to say goodbye. 'I was completely overwhelmed by his extraordinary
kindness. He was obviously so ill, yet he showed only concern for me. "Are
you all right dear? What can I do for you?" "No!" I said. "What can I do
for you Lama?"
'He said he was
fine. He took my hands and before leaving asked me to "give my love to all
my dharma brothers and sisters in England."
'Lama had told me in
an interview in 1978 that he "should have been dead years ago. But if
someone tells you you're going to die, what can you do but give up? I
don't give up," Lama said. "What these doctors don't see is that human
beings are something special. We are beyond the ordinary concepts of what
we think we are." That night, December 10th, Lama began vomiting and
experiencing difficulty in breathing. He did not sleep, nor did he sleep
the next night. On the morning of the 12th it was decided to take Lama to
Delhi for urgent medical treatment.'
He traveled to Delhi
with Karuna Cayton, an American student of Lama based at Kopan, and was
admitted into the intensive coronary care unit of a good hospital. He
stayed altogether for fifteen days under the close observation of two
highly respected cardiologists. On January 1st Lama was released and
remained another month in Delhi to recuperate.
On January 3rd Lama
allowed—for the first time, according to Lama Zopa—mandala offerings to be
made to him for his long life. On behalf of all his students, Australian
monk and director of Lama's Dharamsala retreat center Max Redlich
fervently requested Lama to live longer. Lama agreed that he 'could live
for another two years.' He told Lama Zopa at this time that he 'could live
for ten, twelve years, but it depends on the karma and hard prayers of the
students.'
Since Lama had left
Kopan on December 12th he had insisted that Karuna keep complete silence
about his condition. In early January, Geshe Rabten, one of Lama's dearest
teachers, stayed with him in Delhi. He instructed Lama 'to lift your cloak
of silence. You should let people know about your condition so that your
students can create merit.'
On January 8th
Karuna wrote a letter to Lama's students at his centers detailing the past
month's happenings.
Lama's heart was now
failing so badly that congestion in his heart was making breathing
difficult; congestion in his liver and other abdominal organs were causing
pain and vomiting.
By early February it
seemed clear that Lama should undergo surgery to replace his faulty heart
valves. Stanford Hospital in California was chosen.
Lama Yeshe arrived
at San Francisco Airport, two hours from Stanford, on February 3rd. He was
accompanied by Lama Zopa, who had been with him constantly for the past
month, American nun Max Mathews and his Indian doctor. He was met by John
Jackson, director of Lama’s California center, Vajrapani Institute. Lama
looked 'weak and surprisingly thin,' but still had his vibrant smile. He
was driven straight to Stanford Hospital.
Registered nurse and
student of Lama Yeshe, Shirley Begley, volunteered her services. She
arrived at Stanford on the sixth. The results of the extensive tests on
Lama confirmed previous diagnosis, and doctors suggested surgery as soon
as he was strong enough.
On February 8th Lama
was released from hospital and allowed home, where he would have full-time
nursing care: Shirley would be joined later by Lennie, another nurse,
Barbara Vauier and others.
Lama was driven to
his home in Aptos, an ocean-side suburb of nearby Santa Cruz forty-five
minutes from the Vajrapani land. The house, overlooking vast expanses of
the Pacific, had been bought for Lama and renovated by some of his
students.
He preferred to be
home. He enjoyed his garden, and within two days was pottering around
outside. But by the twelfth Lama was feeling faint and could no longer
hold food down. He remained in bed and needed constant nursing.
Shirley was worried.
Her medical experience told her that definitely Lama should be back in
hospital, but he did not want to go. 'I don't need to go,' he said. 'You
don't have to worry.'
Throughout the
entire period of Lama's illness, Lama Zopa was in constant touch by phone
with Kyabje Song Rinpoche in Switzerland as to when and how to act for
Lama's benefit. He also consulted frequently His Holiness Dudjum Rinpoche
in Paris. And he himself would always make observations in the traditional
manner whenever decisions were needed.
Often, this proved
difficult for the nurses: their observations as nurses told them one thing
and Lama Zopa's would tell them another. However, they learned, they said,
to let go and in retrospect can see the benefits of the decisions that
were made.
On the evening of
February 15th, Shirley was in the kitchen with Rinpoche. Lama was asleep
in his room. Shirley was explaining to Rinpoche her perception of the
seriousness of Lama's condition. Understanding the importance of Lama Zopa
in the decision-making process, she wanted to clarify with him just how
much responsibility she had. She asked Rinpoche if she could make the
decision to hospitalize Lama if an emergency situation arose. 'You mean to
save Lama's life?' Rinpoche asked. 'Yes,' said Shirley. Rinpoche agreed
that she could.
Just then Lama's
bell rang from his room. They rushed to him and it was immediately obvious
to Shirley that Lama had had a stroke. She took his blood pressure and
Rinpoche gave him some Tibetan medicine. Rinpoche agreed they should call
an ambulance, which arrived five minutes later and rushed Lama to a nearby
hospital. The stroke was severe. The left side of Lama's body was
paralyzed. In spite of this, and against his doctor's advice, after one
night in the hospital Lama insisted on going home.
During the next two
weeks, Shirley, Lennie and Barbara nursed Lama around the clock. Many
students worked continuously. Everyone was very happy to he able to serve
Lama. They would feed, clean and massage him. Barbara said she could feel
how utterly relaxed Lama was, quite unlike the way an ordinary person
would be under the same circumstances, of this she was sure.
Throughout the days,
the conversations with Lama were brief; he did not speak much. Lama used
short sentences and spoke directly. They learned how to be sensitive to
his movements and learned how far they could go in their caring for him.
At first they were hesitant about touching his body or wiping away
perspiration and mucous. But Lama let them do everything. All of them felt
incredibly grateful for this opportunity to repay Lama's kindness to them.
They told him this, and said that he was a mother and father to all his
students.
Throughout the days,
of course, the students with Lama were continuously praying. As were his
students around the world; Lama Zopa had given special instructions to all
the centers.
Rinpoche discovered
that he'd been carrying a Tibetan text on how to deal with paralysis.
There were specific prayers and mantras to do in order to protect against
more paralysis and reverse what already existed. It explained what food
and exercises were suitable. Rinpoche instructed the people looking after
Lama to say the mantra, om dumbali dumbali su su shey shey soha,
loudly so that Lama could hear it and that they were to get him to repeat
it seven times. The text also said that there should not be sparkling
sunlight or mirror reflections in the room, so during the daylight hours
Lama's room was kept dim.
As the days passed,
Lama's paralysis seemed to improve. However, his overall condition was
weakening. Song Rinpoche was consulted about whether or not Lama should
return to hospital. He advised that, no, Lama should stay at home for the
time being, and that he himself would come to see Lama soon.
Song Rinpoche
arrived from Switzerland on February 20th and stayed with Lama for three
days. He performed many pujas and gave Lama initiations. By the
twenty-sixth, however, three days after Song Rinpoche had left, Lama
worsened. He was vomiting continually and was considerably weaker.
At Lama Zopa's
request, Dr. Don Brown, another student of Lama's, came to examine him.
Immediately Don recommended that Lama go to hospital to receive intensive
care. He was taken to the Presbyterian Hospital in San Francisco. After
tests, it was concluded that Lama must have surgery as soon as his
strength could be built up.
It was agreed that
neither Stanford nor the Presbyterian Hospital was the place for the
necessary heart surgery. After much brainstorming, and observations by
Rinpoche, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles was decided upon;
this was confirmed by Song Rinpoche in Switzerland.
Meanwhile, Lama's
strength was gradually building up, as he was being intravenously fed. And
his paralysis was remarkably improved. Plans went ahead to have him moved
to Los Angeles. Max Math—Lama called her 'Mummy Max'—organized an air
ambulance, a helicopter, to take Lama on the five- hundred mile journey
south. He was accompanied by a cardiologist, Lennie and Max, and met at
the hospital three hours later by long-time student John Schwartz.
He was placed in the
coronary care unit. The hospital and Lama's doctor there, Steven Corde,
were incredibly kind. In spite of regulations they allowed people to stay
with Lama continuously. Characteristically, Lama treated Dr. Corde as if
he were an old, dear friend.
Steven Corde told
Rinpoche and Lennie that Lama's condition was critical, 'like walking on a
cliff.' But he felt there was hope. Rinpoche asked him what he would do.
Dr. Corde explained a procedure for strengthening the heart and prefaced
his answer by saying, 'If he were a member of my own family I would...'
Rinpoche said, 'Doctor, this is the last hospital we will go to. You seem
to understand Lama and his case, so, as you would do for your own family,
please you do for Lama.' And he requested to be informed about any crucial
decisions so that he could 'check up.'
As in all the
hospitals, the medical staff were told about the Tibetan Buddhist attitude
towards the death process and, as everywhere, Steven Corde and the staff
of the Cedars-Sinai were sensitive and understanding.
That night, and the
following, March 2nd, the last night of Lama's life, Rinpoche and Thubten
Minimal, a young Sherpa monk from Kopan who had served Lama for years,
stayed with Lama. Also with them on the last night was Vajrapani resident,
Chuck Thomas.
Nine years ago, in a
conversation with Chuck about his heart, Lama told him that doctors
believed he should be dead. He said that he was alive because of his
psychic power and that when the time came to go he would just go; that it
would be as simple as that. After his stroke Chuck asked Lama if he
remembered that conversation, and Lama said yes, he remembered it clearly,
and that now was the time. That was fifteen days before Lama came to
Cedars-Sinai.
Chuck spent ten
hours with Lama on the eve of his passing. He said Lama was completely
conscious, talking and laughing with the nurses. He ate strawberries and
talked about those that he grew in his garden. Some of his Los Angeles
students visited Lama. They said he was as kind as ever, sending love to
everyone.
In the middle of the
night Rinpoche sent Chuck out to rest, then to make torma offerings and
White Tara pills: Rinpoche intended to offer Lama a White Tara empowerment
on the morning of Losar, the Tibetan New Year.
Around three-thirty
or four in the morning Lama asked Rinpoche to do the Heruka sadhana with
self- initiation with him. Lama was able to sit up for the meditation. Two
students in the room as well were reciting White Tara mantras.
The moment Rinpoche
had finished the Heruka sadhana Lama's heart beat changed; it could be
observed on the monitor. It beat faster, then slower, and his breathing
changed. A nurse came in and asked Lama if he was all right. ‘Yes,' he
said. Was he hurting? 'No.'
Barely twenty
minutes before dawn, at seven minutes past five on the first day of the
new year, Lama Yeshe's heart stopped. Rinpoche immediately checked with
Song Rinpoche whether or not to attempt resuscitation; he said yes. A team
worked on Lama's heart for two hours. Steven Corde reported to Lama Zopa
that there was no response. Rinpoche asked, ‘Doctor, what is the longest
time you have worked on someone after their heart has stopped?' 'Three
hours,' he said. Lennie asked if he had had success. 'No,' he told her.
Rinpoche said, ‘I think it is time to stop."
From that point on
no one was to touch Lama's body. Geshe Gyeltsen, who has a center in Los
Angeles, arrived at Cedars Sinai. He and Rinpoche performed pujas at
Lama's bedside, and students were told to do Heruka mantras. Meanwhile, a
room on another floor was being prepared for Lama's body.
At eleven o'clock
two orderlies gently wheeled Lama's body, covered in his saffron robes,
through the hospital corridors in a silent procession. Rinpoche had
permission to keep Lama's body there till ten in the evening.
Rinpoche and the
students set up the quiet corner room as a sanctuary, making an altar on a
bedside table and placing blankets on the floor for people to sit
comfortably. When things were settled, Rinpoche stood before Lama's holy
body and, with what one student called 'exquisite devotion,' made three
full length prostrations before sitting.
People sat with Lama
throughout the day, always reciting mantras. Just after five-thirty in the
evening Rinpoche broke the utter silence in the room by suddenly shouting
Heruka mantras. Chuck thought he noticed Lama's head move slightly under
the covering robes, but felt he must have been hallucinating. But Rinpoche
bent down to him and said, 'Now Lama's meditation is finished.'
Earlier in the day
Lennie had made arrangements with a local mortuary, Abbott and
Hast—recommended by the hospital as a mortuary that 'took pride in
catering to special-interest, religious and ethnic groups'— to take Lama's
body from the hospital. Mr. Hast was located on a yacht in the Pacific
performing a burial at sea.
He was very kind. He
arranged from there the appropriate formalities for obtaining permission
from the governor's office to perform the cremation on the Vajrapani land:
observations had found that either Vajrapani or Dharamsala would be most
suitable.
Although it was a
Saturday afternoon there were no hitches: permission was granted and a
fire permit issued by the Boulder Creek environmental office, for which
someone there graciously offered the two dollar fee.
Lama's body was
moved that night to Mr. Hast's mortuary. Rinpoche was given special
permission to spend the night there. Students who had spent sleepless
nights at the hospital were encouraged by Rinpoche to go home. Others came
to sit through the night with him and Thubten Monlam.
The room was large
with comfortable sofas and pillows and chairs. Lama's body was at one end
of the room and was covered with his saffron robe, a bouquet of white
carnations at his feet. The overhead light was dim and the soft flicker of
candlelight gave a most serene and peaceful atmosphere. There were hot
plates for boiling water, and tea and tsog offerings from the hospital
pujas were plentiful. Rinpoche suggested that people make prostrations and
recite the practice to the thirty-five buddhas.
During the night,
Rinpoche left the room to make phone calls. One was to request Song
Rinpoche again to come to California from Switzerland, this time to
oversee the cremation of Lama's body. Later, when he heard that he would
come, he smiled and said, 'It will be good for the students.' At eleven in
the morning of Sunday March 4th Lama Yeshe's body was taken from the
mortuary and driven north to Vajrapani by one of the residents, Tom
Waggoner, accompanied by a caravan of cars.
The journey took
fourteen hours. At one in the morning of Monday they wound their way
slowly up the dark bumpy road from the town of Boulder Creek into the huge
redwoods of the retreat center. Residents and retreaters were lining the
path to the gompa, and the sounds of conches, bells, damarus and chants,
resonating into the night sky, greeted the cars as they approached.
The closed coffin,
draped in white offering scarves, was placed by the altar at the front of
the gompa, where it would remain until Wednesday afternoon, the eve of the
cremation itself.
The news of Lama's
death had started to spread around the world on Saturday morning. Although
it was well known that he had been gravely ill, the fact of his death was
stunning, almost impossible to take in. An Australian nun said that the
last time she saw Lama, in Italy five months before, he had seemed like an
old man, needing help to walk and scarcely able to breathe. 'If it had
been any other person of the same age I would have known they were close
to death; but somehow, because it was Lama, I just couldn't, wouldn't
allow my mind to grasp it.'
By Monday morning
Californian time—Monday night in Europe and Tuesday morning in
Australia—the news had hit home. Scores of people, from Australia, New
Zealand, India, Nepal, Malaysia, Hong Kong and many European countries,
had already arrived or were on their way to Vajrapani .
Already, Geshe Sopa
had arrived from Wisconsin and Geshe Thinley, one of Lama Yeshe's
brothers, had come with five others from Australia, where he was resident
teacher at Chenrezig Institute. And Kyabje Song Rinpoche was due from
Switzerland that night, to officiate at the week-long ceremonies. Also
there were Geshe Gyeltsen from Los Angeles, Geshe Lobsang Gyatso, the
resident teacher at Vajrapani, and the reincarnation of his teacher from
Sera Je, Tenzin Sherab, a young Canadian boy, and Jeffrey Hopkins and
Elizabeth Napper from the University of Virginia.
American monk
Thubten Pelgye and others had started to organize the kitchen, bringing in
food enough to feed one hundred people for a week. And forty-five minutes
away, not far from Santa Cruz and Lama Yeshe's house at Aptos, Peter
O'Donnell and the staff of Greenwood Lodge, a conference center and home
of the Universal Education Association, had opened up their rooms and
cabins to accommodate the visitors.
On Monday night Song
Rinpoche was picked up from the San Francisco airport and taken to Lama's
house, where he would stay until Saturday March 11th. There with him were
Lama Zopa, Geshe Thinley, Geshe Gyeltsen and Geshe Sopa. They were being
looked after by Thubten Monlam, the young Sherpa monk whom Lama had sent
for from Kopan a month before, and Lama's friend, Age Delbanco. By Tuesday
afternoon, the gompa was packed. There was a Vajrayogini puja and
self-initiation, and in the evening a Heruka Vajrasattva tsog
offering written by Lama Yeshe in 1982, with prostrations to the
thirty-five Buddhas being performed alternately. As much as possible, Lama
Zopa had said, these purification practices should be done—'not for Lama's
sake but for our own.'
People continued to
arrive during the week. Although many had not met before, there was a
powerful feeling among everyone of deep friendship; brothers and sisters
sharing the grief of losing an incredibly loved parent.
Lama Zopa asked
Geshe Sopa to talk to the people on Wednesday morning. 'We have known each
other for a long time, as teacher and student, since he was a young boy,'
he said. 'During these past years Lama Yeshe has done so much beneficial
activity for so many people, especially in the West.'
Geshe Sopa
emphasized harmony. 'There are many students everywhere at all the centers
that Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa have established. It is so important to be
very 'friendly towards each other, like children of the one spiritual
father...We should ask. "How can I help?"'
Lama Yeshe is gone,
but 'Lama Zopa is still here. His activities everywhere are great, sowing
seeds everywhere for the development of this wonderful spiritual teaching
that is most beneficial to sentient beings.'
After the talk, an all-day Heruka puja and
self-initiation started. And John Jackson and others, with the supervision
of Song Rinpoche, began work on the stupa in which Lama's body would be
burned. The site chosen was a clearing on a ridge, five minutes' walk up
from the gompa, which had a spectacular view of miles of forest and the
smell of the unseen ocean beyond.
They worked all day and
into the night, mixing concrete, laying bricks, chopping wood. There were
no precise measurements to go by, but Song Rinpoche knew what he wanted
and would say when things were not right.
Heruka puja broke
for lunch. At that time Lama's body was removed from the gompa and placed,
the coffin open, in a side room, to be prepared for cremation. Puja
continued until the evening, followed by Lama Choepa, and throughout the
night people performed Vajrasattva tsog and prostrations. In fact,
since the arrival of Lama's body until the ceremonies were over a week
later, a vigil was kept in the gompa, and Vajrasattva mantras recited
continuously.
Keeping vigil at
Lama's body next door was Bill Kane. 'Beautiful odorous were coming from
his body,' he said. On Wednesday morning he assisted Lama Zopa and others
prepare Lama's body for cremation. It was to be burned in an upright
position, so his knees were drawn up to his chest and tied tightly with
katas. His arms were crossed and a dorje and bell placed in his hands.
He was dressed in his magenta robes and a yellow chogo. Upon his head was
placed a triple-tiered black bodhisattva's hat adorned with a crystal
rosary, and his face was covered by a red cloth. His body, in a chair, was
driven in procession up to the ridge, which was already prepared for the
fire puja.
Mountains of
appropriate offerings for the fire were on a side altar, between the stupa
and Song Rinpoche's throne. The place was covered in flowers. Incense
wafted on the breeze and the sky was bright and blue. Two hundred people
were assembled—monks, nuns, lay men and women, and children and included
five of Lama Yeshe's doctors, members of the administration of the
University of Santa Cruz where Lama had taught for a term in 1978, and
many, many friends. One, a woman who 'always dresses in red' had met him
five years before and was immediately attracted because of his 'wonderful
laugh.' That morning she had heard that 'Lama Yeshe was in town' so came
to Vajrapani with an offering of flowers— only to discover that she was
coming to his cremation.
The van carrying
Lama's body stopped at the edge of the crowd. His body was carried to the
stupa—only the square base of which, waist high, had been built so far—and
carefully placed inside. Metal rods were put horizontally on all sides of
the body to keep it upright. Firewood was stacked around him and oil
poured over the wood to ensure that the fire would burn well.
The remainder of the
stupa was built around Lama's body. Bricks were laid in a circular fashion
to form a cone-shaped structure about eight feet tall. The entire stupa
was covered with mud and, as it dried, with white wash. The square base
had four openings, one on each side, and the upper part two, for receiving
the offerings.
By Monday morning
Californian time—Monday night in Europe and Tuesday morning in
Australia—the news had hit home. Scores of people, from Australia, New
Zealand, India, Nepal, Malaysia, Hong Kong and many European countries,
had already arrived or were on their way to Vajrapani .
Already, Geshe Sopa
had arrived from Wisconsin and Geshe Thinley, one of Lama Yeshe's
brothers, had come with five others from Australia, where he was resident
teacher at Chenrezig Institute. And Kyabje Song Rinpoche was due from
Switzerland that night, to officiate at the week-long ceremonies. Also
there were Geshe Gyeltsen from Los Angeles, Geshe Lobsang Gyatso, the
resident teacher at Vajrapani, and the reincarnation of his teacher from
Sera Je, Tenzin Sherab, a young Canadian boy, and Jeffrey Hopkins and
Elizabeth Napper from the University of Virginia.
American monk
Thubten Pelgye and others had started to organize the kitchen, bringing in
food enough to feed one hundred people for a week. And forty-five minutes
away, not far from Santa Cruz and Lama Yeshe's house at Aptos, Peter
O'Donnell and the staff of Greenwood Lodge, a conference center and home
of the Universal Education Association, had opened up their rooms and
cabins to accommodate the visitors.
On Monday night Song
Rinpoche was picked up from the San Francisco airport and taken to Lama's
house, where he would stay until Saturday March 11th. There with him were
Lama Zopa, Geshe Thinley, Geshe Gyeltsen and Geshe Sopa. They were being
looked after by Thubten Monlam, the young Sherpa monk whom Lama had sent
for from Kopan a month before, and Lama's friend, Age Delbanco. By Tuesday
afternoon, the gompa was packed. There was a Vajrayogini puja and
self-initiation, and in the evening a Heruka Vajrasattva tsog
offering written by Lama Yeshe in 1982, with prostrations to the
thirty-five Buddhas being performed alternately. As much as possible, Lama
Zopa had said, these purification practices should be done—'not for Lama's
sake but for our own.'
People continued to
arrive during the week. Although many had not met before, there was a
powerful feeling among everyone of deep friendship; brothers and sisters
sharing the grief of losing an incredibly loved parent.
Lama Zopa asked
Geshe Sopa to talk to the people on Wednesday morning. 'We have known each
other for a long time, as teacher and student, since he was a young boy,'
he said. 'During these past years Lama Yeshe has done so much beneficial
activity for so many people, especially in the West.'
Geshe Sopa
emphasized harmony. 'There are many students everywhere at all the centers
that Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa have established. It is so important to be
very 'friendly towards each other, like children of the one spiritual
father...We should ask. "How can I help?"'
Lama Yeshe is gone,
but 'Lama Zopa is still here. His activities everywhere are great, sowing
seeds everywhere for the development of this wonderful spiritual teaching
that is most beneficial to sentient beings.'
After the talk, an all-day Heruka puja and
self-initiation started. And John Jackson and others, with the supervision
of Song Rinpoche, began work on the stupa in which Lama's body would be
burned. The site chosen was a clearing on a ridge, five minutes' walk up
from the gompa, which had a spectacular view of miles of forest and the
smell of the unseen ocean beyond.
They worked all day and
into the night, mixing concrete, laying bricks, chopping wood. There were
no precise measurements to go by, but Song Rinpoche knew what he wanted
and would say when things were not right.
Heruka puja broke
for lunch. At that time Lama's body was removed from the gompa and placed,
the coffin open, in a side room, to be prepared for cremation. Puja
continued until the evening, followed by Lama Choepa, and throughout the
night people performed Vajrasattva tsog and prostrations. In fact,
since the arrival of Lama's body until the ceremonies were over a week
later, a vigil was kept in the gompa, and Vajrasattva mantras recited
continuously.
Keeping vigil at
Lama's body next door was Bill Kane. 'Beautiful odorous were coming from
his body,' he said. On Wednesday morning he assisted Lama Zopa and others
prepare Lama's body for cremation. It was to be burned in an upright
position, so his knees were drawn up to his chest and tied tightly with
katas. His arms were crossed and a dorje and bell placed in his hands.
He was dressed in his magenta robes and a yellow chogo. Upon his head was
placed a triple-tiered black bodhisattva's hat adorned with a crystal
rosary, and his face was covered by a red cloth. His body, in a chair, was
driven in procession up to the ridge, which was already prepared for the
fire puja.
Mountains of
appropriate offerings for the fire were on a side altar, between the stupa
and Song Rinpoche's throne. The place was covered in flowers. Incense
wafted on the breeze and the sky was bright and blue. Two hundred people
were assembled—monks, nuns, lay men and women, and children and included
five of Lama Yeshe's doctors, members of the administration of the
University of Santa Cruz where Lama had taught for a term in 1978, and
many, many friends. One, a woman who 'always dresses in red' had met him
five years before and was immediately attracted because of his 'wonderful
laugh.' That morning she had heard that 'Lama Yeshe was in town' so came
to Vajrapani with an offering of flowers— only to discover that she was
coming to his cremation.
The van carrying
Lama's body stopped at the edge of the crowd. His body was carried to the
stupa—only the square base of which, waist high, had been built so far—and
carefully placed inside. Metal rods were put horizontally on all sides of
the body to keep it upright. Firewood was stacked around him and oil
poured over the wood to ensure that the fire would burn well.
The remainder of the
stupa was built around Lama's body. Bricks were laid in a circular fashion
to form a cone-shaped structure about eight feet tall. The entire stupa
was covered with mud and, as it dried, with white wash. The square base
had four openings, one on each side, and the upper part two, for receiving
the offerings.
The person elected to start the fire had to be someone who had not
received teachings from Lama. She prostrated three times in front of the
stupa, bent low and, with a burning torch handed to her by one of the
attendants, set fire to Lama Yeshe's body.
The Yamantaka fire
puja commenced. The mountain of offerings slowly diminished as the
ingredients were handed to Song Rinpoche who in turn handed them to Chuck
Thomas and others who offered them to the fire. The puja lasted three
hours. Throughout, a deep stillness, a composure, a sense of the
unexpressed grief, pervaded. And the only sound to be heard above the
chanting was the blazing of the powerful fire.
By one o'clock the
puja was over. Later, Song Rinpoche and Lama Zopa returned to the stupa to
seal the openings; it would remain untouched until Sunday afternoon when
Lama Zopa would dismantle it and remove the relics of Lama's body.
'I'm just very numb,' Lama Zopa said later that afternoon, when he talked
briefly in the gompa. 'I can't think of anything.' Rinpoche sat for a full
five minutes before continuing. 'These high lamas, His Holiness and all
these high lamas, including Lama Yeshe, they do not fit us, they do not
fit. Because of our small merit, they just do not fit. They are like a
huge burden that we cannot carry.' Earlier. he had said that Lama had died
'because we do not have the merit. But we should not think too much about
this because we would go mad. Instead, we should protect our mind and try
to practice dharma.'
It seemed that
people hung on to his every word. Lama had always been the pillar of
strength; now, with him gone, people looked with a sense of relief almost
to Lama Zopa. He thanked everyone for their kindness during the past few
months. 'If we follow Lama's wishes, every piece of advice, if we put it
all into practice then I think it will become a quick cause for Lama to
reincarnate soon. Maybe he will even come to America! I think that's all.'
he said. 'I will pray.'
By Friday, many
people had left. In the afternoon Song Rinpoche gave a Heruka Vajrasattva
initiation and talked briefly. He, like the other lamas, stressed harmony.
'We are all very good relatives,' he said. 'Loving each other is the most
important thing.'
Kyabje Song Rinpoche
was bade farewell—for what would be the last time—at the airport on
Saturday, when he returned to Switzerland. That night Lama Zopa invited
people to Lama's house for a Lama Choepa puja. The room was packed. The
ocean pounded just outside the windows. It was good to be there in that
house that Lama had loved. The puja, sung in English, was intense and
heartfelt. It was seven days since Lama's death.
On Sunday afternoon,
Lama Zopa went back up to the ridge to open the stupa and remove the
relics. He requested that everyone stay in the gompa and recite
Vajrasattva mantras and do prostrations. Tenzin Sherab, the young Canadian
Rinpoche, was there with Lama Zopa. 'First we did prayers, then more
prayers,' he said later. 'We started opening the stupa at exactly
two-fifty p.m. and at four-twenty-four we finished taking everything out.
First, the stupa had
to be carefully dismantled, brick by brick. Each bone was taken from the
stupa floor and handed to Lama Zopa, who would examine it and put it aside
in the red trunk bought especially for the relics. The ashes were put
separately.
Later, Rinpoche said
that the fire had been almost too good; it had burned so fiercely that
most of the body had burned completely. What remained, apart from the
bones, were part of Lama's heart and kidneys. 'I saw every bone in his
body,' Tenzin Sherab said. Later, during the drive down to Santa Cruz, he
said that during puja after taking out the relics he looked up into the
sky and saw, besides other things, 'a cloud forming into an arrow and
pointing towards the south, and four Tibetan letters, la, la,
sa and ra. ' Song Rinpoche suggested that these might
indicate the name of the mother of Lama Yeshe's future incarnation.
The relics were
carried in procession down to the gompa where again purification practices
were done. Rinpoche thanked everyone at the conclusion of the puja. 'I am
completely satisfied. Everything has gone so perfectly, nothing
inauspicious has happened.' He said that even if the pujas had been done
by the monasteries in south India, it all could not have gone better. He
gave to each person a capsule of ashes — 'vitamins for the mind,' he
called them.
By Monday afternoon,
Vajrapani land had returned to its normal serene routine. The week that
had seen one of the most extraordinary events of the centre's seven years
of existence had come and gone like a dream. Lama Zopa had returned to
India that morning, via Switzerland where he would see Geshe Rabten and
Song Rinpoche, and the people had returned to their homes and centers and
monasteries around the world.
Lama's relics, once
consecrated by Song Rinpoche in Switzerland, were divided up and sent to
each of the centers, where they were received with great respect and
ritual 'as if you were receiving Lama himself,' Rinpoche had advised. Most
of the relics, however, went to Kopan where eventually they will be sealed
inside a larger-than-life-size statue of Lama; the face, an exact
likeness, is being made by American sculptor Courtland Bennett, and the
body, with the hands in Vajrasattva mudra, by local Nepali artists.
A thousand small
statues of Lama Yeshe, commissioned by Max Mathews, are being made in
India, and the bulk of the ashes from the cremation will be mixed with
clay and made into small Vajrasattva statuettes (tsa-tsa).
In accordance with
Lama Yeshe's own wishes—that a year's Heruka Vajrasattva retreat be done
'wherever my body is'—a retreat started at Kopan in April. A yearlong
retreat also commenced mid-year in Spain, at the O Sel Ling Retreat
Center.
It is possible for
people to come to these retreats for any period of time. Most other
centers have held or plan to hold shorter retreats at times to suit their
students.
While preparing
Lama's body for cremation, Bill Kane asked Rinpoche if Lama had ever
indicated to him where he planned to take rebirth. Rinpoche thought for a
while before replying that no, Lama had never said any thing about it, but
Rinpoche's own opinion was that Lama 'had karma with California.' Seven
months later Rinpoche said in a letter to one of his students that in a
dream he had seen that 'Lama had already decided on his rebirth.'
And in December he said, 'Lama will reincarnate
soon. We have done many pujas and have been checking and will continue to
check through lamas and deities. So sooner or later we can have big
parties for Lama's reincarnation.'
---o0o---
Source: http://www.fpmt.org
Update : 01-04-2003
