I just happened to see a reference to this online at the Buddhadharma Quarterly in their books roundup.
This version of the 6th Dalai Lama's life is quite different from both the popular Tibetan and "historical" view (meaning that the popular view is of the 6th DL as a kind of wild semi-hidden trantrika or openly as a young poet/carouser and recorded history can be read to view the 6th DL as a failed monk).
Kirt
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
Bummer, that costs too much for a biography for me (unless if it were of my own teacher). I'm probably going to get Dudjom Lingpa's autobiography though, does anyone already have it?
Although many individuals in this age appear to be merely indulging their worldly desires, one does not have the capacity to judge them, so it is best to train in pure vision.
- Shabkar
Pero wrote:Bummer, that costs too much for a biography for me (unless if it were of my own teacher). I'm probably going to get Dudjom Lingpa's autobiography though, does anyone already have it?
I'm taking it and Fearless Simplicity with me to Chicago for the holidays.
WOW! Quite a namthar although I'm uncertain what to think beyond that. It's written in 1757 by the last surviving close student of a lama who was claimed to be the Sixth Dalai Lama. In this case the claim is that in fact the Chinese Emperor was not pleased with the dethronment of the Sixth Dalai Lama and that the Mongols who had removed him from Lhasa were threatened. At this point the Sixth Dalai Lama dresses as a common beggar (sort of, he's a young man from a cosmopolitan city who knows nothing but city life - he's really not dressed like a beggar at all) and is able to escape as a massive sand storm hits. He then wanders around through the northern Tibetan border, lost, into China then back into Tibet and down to his birthplace in Tamang (now just barely in India). So he kind of wanders around in plain sight, practicing, doing retreat but is basically on an unstructured pilgrimage. He is also recaptured and then effortlessly re-escapes. He goes to India and eventually he ends up in Mongolia (after visiting Bejing!) and is asked to be the abbot of a monastery and then a monastery complex (which he does). Along the way he meets people who knew him in Lhasa and the rumor gets around that there's a strange monk on pilgrimage, who can perform miracles at times, who is supposed to be the Sixth Dalai Lama.
This is written by a Mongolian student of the lama's about ten years after the lama died. If this has any validity then it should be that the history of the region should reflect the events in the story. Back in 1757 it would have been easy in that region to verify many of the details of the story. Perhaps Aris (no friend of Tibetan Buddhist myth making) has something illuminating to say about all this.
Kirt
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
Michael Aris wrote extensively on the 6th in "Hidden Treasures and Secret Lives", though I can't recall offhand whether he used this Tibetan source or not. Amazon has it, but there's also a cheaper Indian printing.
