Dudjom Yeshe Dorje (1904-1987)

Treating the Spirit

Meditation is but thought within ourselves (regardless of good and bad), it generates clear vision and understanding of one's natural disposition, it does not need to dwell in delusions of the past or the future, it is neither infatuated with joyful experiences nor crushed by sadness. It is an extremely balanced condition; in this state, all good and bad, tranquility and sadness, lose their meaning.

Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, commonly known as Dudjom Rinpoche, is the king of all great yogis in the 20 th Century. He is the reincarnation of one of Guru Padmasambhava's twenty-five disciples, Kyeo Chung Lotsawa. Parenthetically, one of Kyeo Chung Lotsawa's previous incarnations was Lingchen Repa, the root guru of the first Gyalwang Drunkpa Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje, for that reason, Dudjom Rinpoche is also known as Dudjom Lingpa.

At the young age of fourteen, Dudjom Rinpoche had already proven himself an able scholar and meditation master. Before Dudjom Rinpoche's birth there had been no yogis or enlightened scholars in his region. Since such time, many of the Rinpoche's students have shown signs of full enlightenment. However, in 1958 the young Rinpoche decided to leave Tibet before the difficult time in the country began. He then dedicated his attention to teaching and empowering millions of his devotees across the world. His Holiness once said that despite all the activities that he had taken part in back in Tibet , he found the empowerments with the teachings the most beneficial for others. At another time he said that he had tried almost every other way to help beings, but unfortunately due to the lack of positive karma not many of the activities became as beneficial as hoped. Consequently, he said he was no longer interested in any method but teaching and empowering with the blessings of those who would receive them.

Nearing the end of his life, Dudjom Rinpoche began preparation for leaving his relative body and taking a reincarnated form. He told his disciples to prepare for a journey to Pemakod in southwest Tibet that described as a paradise on earth. Yet because Dudjom Rinpoche was at such an advanced age, his disciples had trouble understanding how he planned to travel the great distance from his residence in France to Pemakod. Some of Dudjom Rinpoche's aged disciples even started their journey ahead of time knowing that it could take them at least a year to travel from each of their far-off locations.

Shortly before his death, Dudjom Rinpoche began constructing an infant-sized carriage in which he said he could ride. His disciples still did not understand, yet the next morning they found Dudjom Rinpoche in a full state of meditation that continued for several weeks up to the moment of his body's death.

The young reincarnated form of Dudjom Rinpoche was later found in Pemakod exactly where the Rinpoche wanted himself to be found. Phukhong Tulku, a discple of Dudjom Rinpoche and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, recognized the child according to Dudjom Rinpoche's detailed instructions on how to recognize the child's father, who would be the Prince of Kanam and a direct descendant of King Trisong Detsen, as well as the mother, Namgyal Drolma. Upon recognition of the child's parents, Dudjom Rinpoche's disciples were both astonished and pleased to witness the child recognizing each one of them and communicating in Dudjom Rinpoche's local dialect from the Gulok region.

Dudjom Rinpoche passed into the parinirvana on January 17, 1987 at his residence in France . I was told by one of the masters who was there serving him that relics of his body were left as a sign of the dissolving of his Nirmanakaya body into the pure space of the Dharmakaya. His relative physical body shrank by almost 85%. His remaining body that he purposely left behind for his devotees is presently placed in a stupa in one of his main seats near the Boudhanath, in Katmandu , Nepal .

lthough I believe I have a magnificent connection with this great yogi from both our past lives, somehow due to my lack of some particular positive karma, I did not have the chance to be with him physically in this life. However, I have had the pleasure of receiving some direct instructions on the subject of mind and the entire Terdzod empowerment, among others. On one special occasion I was given a three-word instruction on essential mind, and that was it! I have not the words to explain what actually happened to me at that moment, however, I wish these kinds of yogis and masters, in order to save all of us, would fill the entire world. May I reunite with His Holiness wherever he is now!