A Further Look at the Rinchen Terzod

Being here at the Rinchen Terzod an amazing, wonderful experience. Any one who can make it to attend even a day or two, it is well worth it. 'Precious Treasury' is how the name translates, and this is an accurate description of the richness of this experience.

Entrance

Our day begins promptly at 12:45 as the shrine room doors open and we enter the mandala that Yangthang Rinpoche has created. He begins the recitations for the first empowerments as people are finding seats, prostrating and settling down – the flood of restless energy falls quiet very quickly as he doesn't really wait for the crowd, we must catch up with him. We are juggling chant booklets, handfuls of rice, a pad or sweater to sit on and making our first mandala offering of the day all at the same time. In the midst of this gentle chaos the choppens and other helpers are passing out flower petals and 'blindfolds' -red strips of cloth- which are part of most of the empowerments. It is this way every day.

Raising Pure Perception

The beauty of the Orgyen Dorje Den shrine room, the genuine expression of this beautiful realized master makes practicing pure perception an effortless experience. Feeling the perfect place, time, teacher, student, and teachings are taking place, your gratitude and bodhicitta well up naturally.

Good in the Beginning

Each empowerment begins with a recounting of the history and the instruction to raise bodhicitta. We hear how it was uncovered, by whom, and for what purpose. When you hear the history of how the terma was discovered, or when Padmasambhava sealed it and who uncovered it gives a living quality to both the dharma and the practice itself. You can feel the strong desire of King Tri Song Detsen to help his people in Tibet, the genuine and uncompromising compassion that Padmasambhava has for all of us who live in the dark age. The desire to help all mother sentient beings is a natural outcome of that. Yesterday we received the transmission for a healing practice that the King requested from Padmasambhava to heal his leprosy which he had contracted from working so closely with the nagas. The nagas had helped King Tri Song Detsen by bringing massive logs down the rivers to construct the first monasteries in Tibet. Nagas are powerful but dangerous; this close association with the nagas caused the King to fall ill. By doing the practice of Sangdruk Heruka, he was able to become well again.

Good in the Middle

Then we are given the preparations for the empowerment and the empowerment itself. The actual blessings and permission to do the practice can have multiple stages, so it can last for many hours. During the empowerments the choppens, graceful, attentive young women, are working hard under the direction of the head choppen, a young Tibetan who came with Yangthang Rinpoche. These women must maintain their practice mind, bringing a wide variety of articles and substances to Yangtang Rinpoche at precisely the right moment. There are very few bad days because they work hard at preparation. The four lamas in front jump up ten to twenty times an hour to receive empowerment substances from Yangthan Rinpoche (sometimes jump and run, so Rinpoche will not have to wait) . By the end of the day, we have generally listened to and practiced the visualizations for up to fourteen empowerments, the choppens have handled hundreds of items, the lamas have received many blessings from Yangthang Rinpoche and blessed many many monks and nuns. It is very beautiful and somewhat overwhelming.

In this way, the Rinchen Terzod is something of an endurance event. Like many realized masters, Yangthang Rinpoche is seemingly indefatigable. He goes to the shrine room at 4am to begin setting up the ground for the empowerments for the day and does not leave the throne until 7 or 8pm, whenever we are done. He eats very little and only takes a sip or two of tea the whole day. His gentle voice is unremitting as he reads page after page of the text without stopping, for up to 8 hours. We go in to the beautiful shrine room at approximately 12:45 and leave at about 7:30, with only one three minute break. People do get up to go to the bathroom, or there is a room with a video screen link if you are too ill to be in the main shrine room, but honestly, is hard to walk out - you don't want to miss a moment!

People have come from all over the world to be here. Standing in the line to go in, you can hear snatches of many languages. Mexico City, Bejing, Lyons, Montreal are just a few of the cities I've heard mentioned. The sangha supporting this amazing event is gentle, well-trained and thoroughly welcoming. They are a wonderful example of genuine sangha, working together with students of many different teachers, setting the tone for all to be accepted.

Good in the End

Yangthang Rinpoche gave us a brief talk the other day in which he mentioned that it seems the dharma is taking root firmly in America. His gentle praise was warm, noting that we had chosen to continue with the empowerments over celebrating New Year's Day or Christmas (he gave us a choice to take breaks; the consensus was to continue). His talk was comprehensive, beginning with the importance of the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind as our daily foundation when we open our eyes each morning and then building from that to include Refuge, Bodhicitta and Vajrayana.