Trungpa Rinpoché sent me this eight-point prediction letter in 1973...
Trungpa Rinpoché sent me this eight-point
prediction letter in 1973. He wrote it in his own hand, as he was young
and able at that time. Rinpoché asked his personal deity for a pramana
prediction concerning my activity. During the rituals called létsok, or
activity practices, a deity is invoked - a yidam or Dharma protector -
and highly accomplished practitioners can ask them questions. Their
answers appear in a mirror. Trungpa Rinpoché’s deity for this practice
was the deity Lhamo Youdrönma, Goddess of the Turquoise Lamp. Rinpoché
copied her answers from the mirror and sent them to me via Aché Tséphel,
the secretary of the 16th Karmapa. I still have this letter.
- Shamar Rinpoché, June 2010
- Shamar Rinpoché, June 2010
Concerning Kyabjé Shamar Rinpoché’s life prediction:
Dzaya Ho!
Everlasting, indestructible Vajra Spring: the
profound, clear symbolic wording is shown by Youdrönma, Turquoise Lamp,
unconstrained and unhurried.
Always keep the life deity of emerald radiance in your innermost heart.
The light of the evil youth’s messenger will be burnt by the fire of the end of time.
Please do the ritual of the Wrathful Guru!
The darkness of the era can be consumed by the fire of the ruby-colored crown.
The ring of five times ten (age) should be inserted into the mantra of indestructible life.
Accomplish Vajrakilaya which overcomes black magic and vigorously purify through the practice of Mamaki!
Beware of those intoxicated and maddened elephants who would stir up internal conflicts.
There is the possibility that the prosperous yellow
intellectualists will damage the lineage of true meaning. Therefore,
sharpen the speartip of your wise and prudent mind.
Please do a closed three-year, three-fortnight
retreat in the very blessed practice place of the holy masters, the
vajra rock mountain which glitters like gold.
By the white light of Vajrasattva, you will move to the non-meditation level of Dharmakaya.
In your innermost heart, please develop these points.
Samaya!
At the request of the Bodhi Path administrators and
several of his oldest disciples, both Tibetans and non-Tibetans, Shamar
Rinpoché has agreed to present this precious prediction letter. He asked
me to work on the translation and guided me through the wording. Below
are some of the additional explanations he gave for the sake of
clarification. The original letter is attached in .pdf format for
reference.
- Pamela Gayle White, translator, June 2010
- Pamela Gayle White, translator, June 2010
In the first three lines, Lhamo Youdrönma, Goddess
of the Turquoise Lamp, says: I will give profound and clear instructions
about your present and future activity. Her words indicate that Shamar
Rinpoché should do the practice of the emerald-colored deity, Green
Tara. Rinpoché explains that this was really quite wonderful, because at
the time he was in fact writing a Green Tara practice sadhana which
many lamas are now using. Trungpa Rinpoché couldn’t possibly have known
this - they had met briefly when Shamarpa was young but had no personal
contact at that time of the prediction. In 1973 the rinpochés who lived
on different continents had to communicate by sending letters through
the post - it seems that even exchanging Happy New Years cards was a
challenge.
The next three verses indicate that Shamar Rinpoché,
who was 23, was in a phase in his life where he might be distracted by
his youthful energy. He explains that he needed the light of a very
strong remedy that could outshine the youthful light of romance, as
these distractions could potentially disrupt his beneficial activity.
The powerful light that could burn through obstacles was Guru Drakpo,
the practice of a wrathful aspect of Padmasambhava.
Shamar Rinpoché says that a year or so after
receiving this letter, he went to Dharamsala with the 16th Karmapa, as
there were official meetings with the Dalaï Lama and the
government-in-exile there. He was very ill with food poisoning
contracted in the Punjabi city of Ludhiana, so he stayed behind and was
sleeping alone in the Dalai Lama’s guest house. Suddenly, there appeared
at the door an extremely powerful-looking monk in a yellow cap who
seemed intent on harming Rinpoché. Rinpoché thought he must be the deity
Shukden; he explains that at the time there was general concern about
problems related to certain practices of the Gelug sect. He immediately
invoked Guru Padmasambhava. “I tried to imagine myself in his form,”
Rinpoché says, “thinking that I needed to develop lovingkindness and
compassion as Padmasambhava had in order to get rid of this demon. I
concentrated very hard, then looked up and saw that he had disappeared -
now I only saw the door shutter. Up until this time, I had not been so
aware of Guru Rinpoché - of course, I did not doubt the power of his
practice, but it had not been a focus of mine. After that, I did the
practice much more seriously.”
The next verse refers to the ruby crown which,
according to Tibetan history, refers to the Shamarpas - ‘sha’ means hat
or crown; ‘mar’ means red. It states that it would be possible for the
Shamarpa to eliminate the darkness of an era, but the time is not
indicated. Since the 14th Shamar Rinpoché carries the Shamarpa title,
because of his past karma he may be connected to one of the Shamarpas
who made such a wish, and great benefit might spontaneously occur
through his activity. In the divination, Youdrönma doesn’t say: Shamar
Rinpoché should do this; rather, she is saying that beneficial activity
may naturally happen based on past wishes.
As for the next verse, Rinpoché believes it refers
to being 49 years old - Tibetans consider this to be an age where
life-endangering obstacles are more likely to arise than most other
years. Because Lhamo Youdrön specifically said that at fifty he should
do this specific practice, Shamarpa went with Sangzang Rinpoché by
helicopter to the Marathika cave in Nepal where Trulshik Rinpoché was
practicing at the time. There they received the Chimé Phagma White Tara
long life empowerments from him in very auspicious circumstances, as
this was the cave where Guru Rinpoché accomplished his own long life
practice.
As for the Vajrakilaya and Mamaki practices she mentioned, Rinpoché explains that he has already done them.
Concerning the verses that begin with the mad
elephant, it seems that these directly refer to the ongoing Karma Kagyu
controversies. Rinpoché says, “I can now say that I did not follow
Youdrönma’s explanations carefully enough. I did not know who to be
careful about and many mistakes were made - collaboration and betrayal
took place but I did not expect them. I was wary of outsiders, yes, but
not of insiders, and the mad, intoxicated elephants turned out to be
people I never would have suspected - people from inside our
organization who collaborated with outsiders.”
This controversy is well documented in works such as
the Karmapa Papers; The Buddha Cries! Karmapa Conundrum by Anil
Maheshwari of the Hindustani Times; Buddha’s Not Smiling by Eric Curren;
and the Karmapa Prophesies by Sylvia Wong - there is no need to explain
these topics again here. The books of Lea Terhune, Mick Brown and
Michelle Martin tell the other angle of the story. Rinpoché says that
there is no ‘religious’ pressure to take sides; readers are free to
inform themselves and make their own conclusions about where the truth
lies.
The rest of the divination verse refers to
Shamarpa’s meditation practice. It says that he should do certain
practices according to connections from past lives. The end of the
divination infers that a very high level of meditation can be achieved
in this lifetime.
http://www.shamarpa.org/index.php?id=6&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=45&tx_ttnews[backPid]=5&cHash=901863cf03
