Dakinis and Goodbye

Tiny Tiny little Oak

As I packed to leave I received an unexpected visit from my sangha sister, who fortuitously was between sections of her retreat and could hang out for while. This is a real yogini, who completed three year retreat more than a decade ago, and really lives as a planless mendicant.
We walked the land again, and she showed me the place HH Penor Rinpoche gave an extensive series of empowerments long ago. The cement throne remains, and you can imagine that this might have happened yesterday.

Then she gave me advice, both practical and sublime for retreat, should such an opportunity arise. We arrived at her recently built womb-like strawbale house, and I sat with her drinking African tea and the lifestyle of the modern yogini, the in-depth practitioner of the mantrayana and Great Perfection.

Now, is it just me, or does this peak to the east of Tashi Choling look like a... bhaga?

Wondering that, I departed for Rigdzin Ling.

Serene Tashi Choling

The stupa, on a hilltop nearby

The temple from above, click to enlarge

Near Vajrasattva, Prayer Wheels, the old fashioned kind.

I spent the day walking all over the land, seeing what 30 years of hard work and hard fund-raising can create. Alot. Most meaningful to me was knowing that HH Dudjom Rinpoche had been here at the beginning. He was delivered by helicopter to a high point on the land, and planted a cedar tree up there. He made positive predictions about the benefits of practicing here. And, boy, I can see why!

Auspicious Dharma Place

Sun over the valley, Near Weed, CA

After retracing my steps, I resumed my journey up Route 5 to Tashi Choling, just over the Oregon Border. You should click on the pic above to blow it up, really pretty.

The Temple at Tashi Choling

Miraculously, I made it to Tashi Choling with an hour to spare before Throma tsok started. The approach to the place was devastatingly beautiful, the air crisp and clear, with cute little Oak trees (wearing attractive brown coats for fall) studding the rolling hills.

I also swear that you can feel this place 50 miles away. A blissful pure feeling started to overtake me as a came up I-5, getting into the hills that follow the flattish chapparal north of Mount Shasta. Until then, I remained a little blue.

Gyatrul Rinpoche, a Tibetan Lama in the Nyingma lineage, founded this place some 30 years ago. It is a small piece of land 80 acres or so, surrounded by properties owned by sangha members. When I arrived, the staff was very friendly and had my really nice room ready, and some texts I had ordered from them waiting for me in my room. The accomodations in the East Wing of the temple rival Tara Mandala in luxury.

Also when I walked in, an acquaintance from my own sangha unexpectedly greeted me. I had heard she was in retreat up here, but did not know I would see her. I went down to tsok, and Ani Baba (the resident nun) put out the texts I had bought on HH Dudjom Rinpoche's throne table for blessing during the tsok. So sweet. Every inch of their temple is ornamented, and to my surprize I found I liked that.

This center uses the exact same text for their feast of the Black Wrathful Mother, so I felt right at home as I sat with these 30 year sadhana experts. As I feel asleep I felt I had truly arrived at a pure land, or at least a good approximation.

Blessings

I remember hearing from classmates in high school that the first couple of times smoking marijuana one did not get high, then suddenly the third time or so, the drug would take effect. It seems that way with Vajrayana empowerments for me. The blessings of these Dudjom Lingpa wangs get more and more powerful with each passing day, seemingly a cumulative effect. I never understood why people wanted to receive these big cycles of empowerments, until I revieve the Dudjom (Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje) Wangs last year, and now this group.

I won't describe the sensation, for fear of disapating it, but it is palpable.

Today, after the wangs, I went out to lunch with a friend, then up to the Oakland Hills to walk as the sun went down. When I got up to the top of the MacDonald trail hill I found several wildflowers in full bloom, including groupings of the pink flowers above, with the fern-like foliage. They looked a bit like me--I had actually worn pink lip gloss today for the first time in my life. So, pink was the theme, I guess. Spring, flowering, fresh, clean, pristine.

On the way down the hill, this beautiful golden light.

Rain of Flowers

Flower petals continue to rain in anticipation of Tulku Theglo Rinpoche's conferral of the Dudjom Lingpa empowerments at Orgyen Dorje Den in Alameda starting Sunday. I learned this evening that, in additions to his other connections to Dudjom Lingpa, he is his great grandson. Anyway, I am getting my life in order and cleaning up, and am expecting a house guest to stay here and attend the wangs. I'm also planning to pop down to Pema Osel Ling Saturday for Lama Tharchin Rinpoche's "Heart Teachings."

But first, I have to clean the bathtub.