If Shakya Buddha were still alive today, he probably wouldn’t be too impressed that we, his followers, have vigorously divided into cliques, which has lead to sectarianism and conflicts. In the country where I was born, I wonder if the people even consider what Thai Buddhists teach as authentic Buddhadharma. For sure they consider Thai Buddhism to be a lower Buddhism, whereas their Buddhism is the highest. In the country where I was born, I don’t think people know that China has the second longest lineage of Buddhism, after India. China has been a vessel and patron of Buddhism for centuries, but in the country where I was born, China is synonymous with Mao Tse-tung.
I was born in that country into a strong clique. My father comes from the Nyingmapa clique and my mother comes from the Kagyupa clique. But it so happens that karma had something else in store for me. I have long had the feeling that I am the subject of the Khon, which is another clique altogether, the family of the Sakyas.
Some might think that I have this affinity with the Sakyas because I’m supposedly one of the tulkus of Dzongsar monastery, which eventually became a Sakya monastery. But it is not. It’s because of this breed of Khon. Also, I just like the word “Khon.” It’s very attractive to me, not least because it has the connotation of “grudge.” The Khon family is said to have emerged from the battleground after a war between heavenly beings and the rakshasa demons. The tutor who accompanied me on my first visit to the Khon family raved about them, saying that they were heavenly beings who had gone astray. Some of the Khon family, when they sleep, never close their eyes, which is a residue of this heavenly pedigree.
The Khons have other distinguishing features—the color of their skin, their particular posture, the way they wear earrings and part their hair down the middle, sometimes braiding it with colorful strings and wrapping it around the crown of their head. It’s so classic. I doubt that anything has changed about the way this breed has behaved and manifested since the time of King Trisong Deutsen.
My first memory of the 41st Kyabje Sakya Trizin was in Dehradun when I was about nine or ten years old and he must have been in his twenties. Kyabje Sakya Trizin, as I mentioned in a previous episode, was the one who recognized me as a tulku. Later I studied at Sakya College, which he established in 1972, and I have been fortunate to receive many tantric initiations from him. The first time we met, Kyabje Sakya Trizin was sitting in Sakya Center’s dimly lit temple of (which was actually just a tarpaulin tent), the only white-clad being among all those maroon robes. I couldn’t make out whether this figure on the throne was male or female. I had a pure, innocent acceptance that he could be both. I wish I could still have that innocence. Alas, I have grown out of my childhood and can only perceive him as a man, although I aspire to see him beyond that. He sat on the throne and gave initiations and I was mesmerized by the distinct way he beat the damaru with a slight rotation. Later I tried to imitate his elegant ways.
My fascination and admiration for the Khon look and the whole ngakpa[1] phenomenon has not subsided. Being born in a yogi family myself, the sight of a yogi was nothing new to me. But the stainless, immaculate, majestic, elegant presence of Kyabje Sakya Trizin, and also of the 11th Minling Trichen, stands out from all the other yogis I had grown up with. This could be because Sakya Trizin and Minling Trichen are two of the last remaining yogi ngakpas, whose DNA can be traced back to Guru Rinpoche’s time. When I read the stories of Guru Rinpoche and King Trisong Deutsen with their entourage of yogis and imagine them in Samye Monastery, I can use Sakya Trizin and Minling Trichen as a reference. Then I have no problem visualizing what those guys must have been like.
Kyabje Sakya Trizin is not only a great master, he is a welcoming and gracious host who always creates a sense of home. When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time in Kyabje Sakya Trizin’s household. He would insist that we have lunch and dinner together and would sit on a chair, or sometimes on a small throne, with the rest of the family sitting around him. The attendants would bring the food in one by one. Some of his attendants were originally from Tsang and had an air of elegance. They were courteous, polite, and subtle, and very observant, like the butlers of a royal family. He had one of the best cooks, whose specialties were puffy momos and amdo bread. I tried to learn from this man, and it was from him I was introduced to the phenomenon of baking powder.
I had the merit to meet Kyabje Sakya Trizin’s auntie, who gave me a sense of belonging. Among my daily practices I have many Nyingmapa prayers, and whenever I spent time with the Sakyapas, I felt awkward. But when I heard his auntie doing similar Nyingmapa prayers even though she was a Khon, a Sakya, it made me feel better. She gave me a sense of confirmation and encouragement, and her prayers showed that the older generation wasn’t so influenced by cliques.
O
ne of my fondest memories of Kyabje Sakya Trizin is when he took a walk with me and the other attendants down Dehradun’s main road, Astley Hall, and he ordered tea from a tea stall. It was seemingly so ordinary. He was always curious to know about all kinds of things. Even today when we speak, the conversation is so all inclusive, he’s very inquisitive. Of the many great masters I have been acquainted with—such as the 16th Karmapa and Dudjom Rinpoche—Kyabje Sakya Trizin is one of the few who keeps up with the times, reading newspapers and magazines. I remember that long ago, he had Newsweek magazine delivered to his home every week, when the concept of a subscription was practically unheard of.
Even though he is so curious about the mundane world, he also has an otherworldly quality. We live in a time in which rational thinking and logic are cherished, but aren’t we only pretending that we want things to be so logical? Because when something magical happens, there is part of us that is happy.
Logic is not necessarily the natural way of being; we have to learn to be skeptical about the way of magic. Nevertheless, we are proud of being skeptical. Because of that skepticism, the magic and the power of the blessings cannot be conceived by our narrow rational minds. For those who are so fortunate as to even try to transcend rational limitations, Kyabje Sakya Trizin embodies that magic and those blessings. His presence is of utmost importance because of that. If you are too logical, you become stuck in a zone going around and around like a cat with meat tied to its tail. Reason is a leash that keeps you in that zone, unable to break out.
I knew Kyabje Sakya Trizin when he was young and not yet married, and even then there was no doubt that he was special. There was so much hope for him to take on the lineage, and expectation for him to father children. I knew his future wife, Dangmo Gyalung Chenmo, before they met and married. She is from the Hochotsang family, the daughter of a highly respected aristocratic physician, considered one of the best in Derge. Hocho Anjam was also a great calligrapher. He, like the entire Hochotsang family, was devoted to Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, and I believe the reason he decided to live in exile in Sikkim was because Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö had moved to Gangtok.
Gyalung Chenmo often came to the Gangtok Khyentse Labrang, where I was living, to roast barley and do other chores. We treated her as any other ordinary person. Years passed and she became the consort of Kyabje Sakya Trizin and eventually Ratna Vajra Rinpoche arrived, then Gyana Vajra arrived, and now they both have their own children, Kyabje Sakya Trizin’s grandchildren.
Kyabje Sakya Trizin with his sister, Jetsun Kushokla, his two sons, His Holiness the 42nd Sakya Trizin Ratna Vajra Rinpoche and Dungse Gyana Vajra Rinpoche, and his granddaughter Jetsunma.
Recently he did something so revolutionary and visionary by abdicating the throne of Sakya to the next generation, to his son and one of the heirs of the Sakya lineage, Ratna Vajra Rinpoche, the 42nd Sakya Trizin.
When I think about my life as a human being, having lived for half a century in a time without parallel—when there are more than 1,800 nuclear weapons on high alert, when the arctic sea ice is melting, and countless people are hungry and countless people are fighting—and when I think that I’ve shared this time on earth with beings like Kyabje Sakya Trizin, not just one or two moments, but knowing him through various stages of his life, I consider myself very fortunate.
[1] A lay practitioner, a yogi.
guru’s guru
preciousness of preciousness
🙏🙏🙏
Dear Rinpoche,
Hearing you is a miracle. Thank you so much for writing. May every single being awaken.
Thank you for sharing your reflections. I love the imagery of the logical leash. 🙏❤️
I really really like this last photo of HH Sakya Trizim 41. It seems to me like beautiful flower without gender blooming…thank you for the remembrance
This made me cry. Thank you, Rinpoche. May all beings benefit. <3 _/|\_ <3
Life´s a miracle indeed. Reading your thoughts crossing thousands of miles , being able to share a language and a path, learning every single day – how great it is !
May be its possible one time, like Sakya Trizin, knowing
the soulmade bevor even met him/her.
Thank you Rinpoche, for this glimpses of tibeten cosmos.
This rational western desert sometimes shows its miracle mirages 😉
Seem that i misunderstood the thing about his wife or was reading too quick … sorry for that.
But also in the meantime watched some teachings from H.H. Sakya Trizin – gratefull to see and here his wisdom, compassion and clarity.
Thank you Rinpoche, for telling about your impressions – please hold the thread ***
Thank you very much dear Rinpoche, for this episode, for open my heart to the Kyabje Sakya Trizin and for the hope in the magic and in the power of the blessing.
Anything I read or hear from you, beloved Rinpoche, is a boost of enthusiasm, beauty, hope, intelligence and true kindness. I feel immensely blessed because, one year ago, I saw one of your books in an unexpected place. That way I started getting to know your work and wisdom. So me too, among the craziness of current times, found in you a reliable source of endless inspiration. May you always be happy, healthy and may we all stay open to and inspired by your bright teachings. I bow down to you, feeling gratitude.
Yes Rinpoché i often think how blessed i am to be under the same sun and moon at the same time as people like you and His Holiness the Dalai lama.
Thank you Rinpoche, for sharing the magical world you have always lived in.
Ah! Thank you so much for this, Rinpoche. Your devotion fills my heart.
🙏🙏🙏
The story of the Kohn family is so intriguing and inspiring. It is, without a doubt, a magical story and thus, one to open our hearts and minds to the vastness of possibilities in this mundane world. Thank you, Rinpoche, for continuing to share your life story with all of us.
I love to look at the photos you are sharing, because through this I can participate in a culture which is so different from the one I grew up in. Thank you for this rinpoche
Deeply appreciate this beautiful writing about 41st Holiness Sakya Trizin, without which most of the time we would not have the opportunity to know. We pray for all holy great masters to have excellent health and long life. May we never ever be parted from him in every lifetime until reaching perfect state of enlightenment🙏
This is such an amazing and inspiring chapter of Mugwortborn! I feel the same way about HH Sakya Trizin who I met in 1969 before he was married, and felt he was both male and female, what an amazing being! I see him like Manjushri in person, thank you so much for writing this, I love it!
So meaningful , thank you Anila for words that so encouraged me forward , Moke Jamyang Dorje
I’m happy to see the magical link since the prayers with Kyabe Sakya Trizin in 1996 at Lerab Ling and now the magical moments spent to read you, Rinpoche.
TRÜL PE DOUNG GYÜ GYÜN TCHE ME PA DANG
Puisse la lignée Kön d’êtres incarnés se prolonger sans rupture,
KÜN KYANG TRINLE NAMKHA NYAMPAR SHOK
Et puisse leur activité être continuellement vaste comme l’espace !
Well done my friend
Omah hung
It will b nice to catch up soon and talk ! Have a hug ! Yeshe Tsogyal (now Rinpoche Tsogyal) will vouch for me..
Im sure of that ! It seems people r lookin for me in the wrong places..i love that.
Big hugs Rinpoche
Green Tara
It all depends on what color eyes are used to view the world and the number of snifters of bourbom that were involved. The line between logic and magic.
Whats in a name ?
Tears of compassion … in our case,
on relativ level, test of egoclinging …
With gratitude I bow down
Carry on, Rinpoche !
I m confirming the words of Arturo – he hits all the points of your great being and also the aspiration to never be apart from it.
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Your holiness thank you so much for sharing this wonderful episode.
Wish you live long life and benefits the mundane beings like me with your ocean full of wisdom and compassion.i submits my heart,speech and body to your feet.
Chapsoechoe la khenoo 🙏🙏🙏🙏.
may I never be separated from the dharma kings. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing your sublime tales.
Like a perfumed enchantment, if fragrance is expressed as something visible; I’ve often felt, or perhaps once again and then again, that sometimes people are less like people, and more like places. Some are beautiful, enchanted, magical, safe places. In these places, stones are like telephones! I mean, yu can whisper tu stones there. Anyway, marami maraming salamat po. Thank yu thank yu.
Although as a “simple” practicioner I met His Holiness in few occasions, I am considering myself very fortunate to be his disciple because with his simple way of being, He teaches how to integrate Dharma really in every moment of your (appearently) ordinary life…
black banana says, wizard prince from dakini wonderland, where magical birds and pink deer frolic, and nomad ship palaces ov crystal appear from the lazy breath ov cosmic buffaloes, when stones ripple with electric whisper, majestic, liquid kila ov sakya, oddiyana? I suppose so, yes very nice!
I don’t that nomad ship is of crystals? Or perhaps it is –of the type that makes one see the ripples of cosmic impermanence.
Thank you beloved Rinpoche la for sharing with us your life. Those memories plenty of magic with those great Teachers. I really enjoy very much the way you tell us your life, is like if you took my hand and show me your incredible world. My eternal gratitude for you living Buddha.
Liquid elegance, dusky beauty that glows with transmuted fury; precise, but never obvious; warmth ov assured knowledge, undefinable smile, like the glint from a dagger, or a distant thundercloud that appears in a dream, just beyond a shadowed tent where gender ambiguous mimes cavort.
Such, and much more, seems a gud description ov Sakya magicians and Khon flavor, if flavor were less about food and tongues, and more about something else.
I know there’s the something else. But, I’m drawing a blank here.
So, finally, this has been my praises ov Sakya, poorly composed.
Rinpoche, I was first exposed to the Sakyapa lineage through Deshung Rinpoche but at that time I was not ready to commit by taking vows (1982). Several years later You came to the center in Cambridge and I received a brochure. I was attracted by the description of you and the term, ‘nonsectarian’. I wanted to attend but I was too late, you were just leaving. So, I started studying with Lama Pema (now Khenpo Pema) and eventually attended the Lam Dre at Sakya College in 1987. That was when I met His Holiness Sakya Trizin (now Trichen). I am tempted to say, ‘Its been all down hill from there’ but it would be more accurate to say, ‘Its been all up hill’. In any case, I really resonated with your your descriptions of His Holiness and the Khon family. Much like H.E. Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, His Holiness radiates equanimity, wisdom, compassion, and other great qualities. They both imbued in me, or inspired, confidence in the Dharma, confidence in the Triple Gem. And yet, I have always been a little surprised that my karma brought me to the Sakyapa. You were a link in my connecting. Thank you for opening this window on your life and letting us peak in a little. You were so fortunate to have such rich early experiences with so many great masters. We are so fortunate to have the current opportunity to study with the Khon masters, and with you. It was good to see you at the enthronement.
Ingrained within the hearts of Thai, the union of their king and people to celebrate May 10 2017.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/ThaiPBSFan/videos/?ref=page_internal
Thank you. Rinpoche. 🙏 I never told anyone that I couldn’t determine if HH Sakya Trizin was male or female when I first met him.
I have always felt extremely fortunate to have received blessings and teachings from him.
HH 41st Sakya Trizin ( and his entire family) have always been an inspiration.
If you have the time, Rinpoche, it would be nice to read a piece about Appey Rinpoche and who could write about him better than you? and… maybe find his Tulku?
I know the tulku system is now “iffy”, but Appey Rinpoche???? We need him back, we need his relentless, humble, devotion and his creativity.
Such a magical post Rinpoche, to put it online and available for comment. Perhaps Rinpoche is seeking some vigor and spirit from his disciples, fans and followers? In a devotional vein of joy and love for my teacher Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche I have to ask; If it’s safe to say that Tibetan tulku system is “iffy” then what about Tibetan Brahmin system? Also, it sounds contradictory to mock sectarian clique habit while promoting a family clique… or maybe its not family clique, but just healthy pride in one’s own tribe? That I can understand because I feel it for my Scotch family name although this sentiment I don’t think has much to do with Buddhism. As a Vajrayana follower probably things around family can be seen differently. Like Saraha the Brahmin and many other Indian Tantric Buddhists were Brahmin family. Aside from that our leader Buddha was a prince whose son followed in his footsteps. Also, I found it interesting recently when I happened to find the definition of Bon to be grandchild or nephew.
Is spirituality in the genes? Is it how people choose to transcend difficult realities? Knowledge allows people to see things differently.
Yes, so self-knowledge is important for spiritual seekers. Knowing what bias we have, what it is that conditions our mental landscape… I think it is in blindly harboring an inner-world of contradictions that we get most led astray. Also, is it enough to be self-reflexive? Having named our contradictions there’s got to then be a next step.
Very inspiring 🙏
Thank you, Rimpoche, for sharing your stories. This episode makes me want to call a taxi and go to Dehradun today. Long life to all. Maggie
I never thought of HH the 41st Sakya Trizin as about an ordinary human being, he was always so much more to me than that.
When I saw him first I thought I saw a Buddha, perfect and joyful.
And exactly so inclusive and so curious about everything, like ever youthful and elegant Manjushri. The reason and meaning for living.
His grand-son HE Akasha Vajra Rinpoche resemble his grand-father of the same age.
I have no words to describe His Holiness, so thank you very much for writing about your perception, I totally agree and follow the same view..
Any words are empty and cannot describe the greatness and simplicity of the Khon family. May they remain forever in this world.
Progressiv and traditionell – thank you Rinpoche for all your enthusiasm, wisdom, compassion and love.
World wide and beyond – _()_
May all be enlightened
Namo Namo Namo!!!
Long Long Long Lives!!!
Thank You!
I like pretending I am something I am not. My grandmother goes to oracles to have them point the way. My father said our people came across the mountains. Hard to know how much is truth since pathological lying runs in the family.
I hear there are various commercial geneology kits available that can help. Maybe you can get answers there?
Can you enlighten us on the Rime school please on one of your chapters?
In a world that is now approaching almost 200 nations, perhaps there is something worth learning of what unifies versus separates.
Vajra lasso, sesame seeds and sparking grapes in a microwave are a start.
Thank you for pointing out the joy of magic at a time in which rational thinking and logic are cherished. They seem to go together well.
Having altered the Sakya presidency into a 3-year term holdership was a truly wise step to do. Life-Long permanent functions cement Systems and offer ground to manifold corruptions. In particuliar if inherited. Rules of cause and effect never are clear enough to guarantee that offspring can fill father’s shoesize. Every Sakya leader now is given the opportunity to fill his post humbly. As with the Nyingmapas who elect amongst themselves.
No comment as I have two different types of souvenirs with them ( apart from the fact that Sakya Trizin was often mistaken for a woman :I remember when I first met him in London, we took them to Harrowds , John Tate and I and on the way to the Tea shop to get some cake for Ratna Vajra who was was 3 , we passed some people when I heard the woman asking her husband :” was this a man or a woman ?” an other time I was waiting for him in the bazar in Dehra-Dun as he had gone to the doctor , while i had taken a small dog to the animals clinic , i was finnish first so I looked around in the Toys shop and the owner who knew me a little asked whom i was waiting for , so i said the Tibetan lama : she told me she did not know him but she knew his wife coming sometimes to her shop , when we returned , i told Dhamo Kusho , she told me : ” I never go there it’s too expensive , but His Holiness goes “
Thankyou Rinpoche ,scary stuff all that poisening and black magic ,all the more ‘magic’ you’re here !