Report on Dorje Drollo Retreat in Santa Cruz with Lama Tharchin
lotus
There was a Guru Dorje Drollo (Drolo?) retreat at Pema Osel Ling in Santa
Cruz, California, over Thanksgiving. You could arrive the night before, on
Thanksgiving, or in the morning on Friday. The retreat "ended" at 5pm on
Sunday with an after dinner final talk for those who could stay late.
The retreat consisted of an empowerment in the Dudjom Tersar practice of
Dorje Drollo, one of the manifestations of Guru Padmasambhava. This
manifestation is an extremely wrathful form to dispel obstacles,
particularly obstacles to maintaining samaya or commitment to your
practice. The treasure was revealed by the first Dudjom Rinpoche, HH Dudjom
Lingpa, and Lama Tharchin received his own transmission from Jigdral Yeshe
Dorje, the second Dudjom Rinpoche. Lama Tharchin indicated that HH Dudjom
Rinpoche (the second, who taught in America in the 70's and 80's) practiced
in secret until middle age when he began transmitting the practice.
Therefore HH's practice was very stable and strong before he passed it
along. Lama Tharchin himself has given this empowerment only a few times
before.
Although generally I am "wary" of wrathful practices, "preferring" kinder,
gentler practices like Tara, I have always been drawn to this manifestation
of Guru Padmasambhava since seeing a poor black and white reproduction of
his image in very reduced form in one of the old Evans-Wentz "Tibetan yoga"
series of books, along with a description of the iconography. My interest
was further piqued when I heard that this manifestation was responsible for
depositing the treasure teachings which seem to form a large part of
Nyingma buddhist practice in the West. Recently HH Kusum Lingpa gave a
Dorje Drollo empowerment from his own Terma and also HE Namkha Drimed Tulku
gave an empowerment, also from his own Terma, so this previously "rare"
practice suddenly seems available from great lamas. Therefore, all in all,
how could I resist this golden opportunity to practice in the Dudjom
tradition?
The empowerment took about two hours on Friday, November 28. The subsequent
lung was for a newly translated practice text prepared by the new
translation committee at Pema Osel Ling but apparently principally
translated by Lama Dechen Wangmo who heads up the branch in Hawaii. The
text was dated November 1997 and Lama Tharchin corrected two or three minor
typographical errors in the course of the practices so it is very "fresh"
indeed in terms of being a recent translation and hence fun to receive. The
main text was in the form of a sadhana with tsok offerings and required the
Daily Practice Book for Protector prayers and several other prayers that
repeat in many of the Pema Osel Ling sadhana practices. At the end of the
new practice booklet there was a short - about one or two pages, depending
on whether you count the triple line spacing to allow for Tibetan script,
transliteration and English translation - for which the lung was also
given. No lung was given for the Daily Practice Book Dorje Drollo practice
text, which was prepared by Richard Barron (Chokyi Nyima) in the early '90s
for use by the Chagdud Tulku gonpas and is used by kind permission at Pema
Osel Ling (this text is also derived from the Dudjom Tersar materials, so I
assume the empowerment covered this text although no lung was given).
So right now there are three extant English translated Dudjom Tersar Dorje
Drollo texts that I know of: the original Chagdud Gonpa translation, the
"long" sadhana text given this past weekend and the new ultra short daily
practice. Lama Tharchin, I believe, referred to texts, in the Tibetan, of
four different lengths; there is no assurance that the extant texts now
translated correspond exactly to the original Tibetan texts of different
lengths since I am under the impression translations will sometimes include
"extra" prayers and sometimes delete sections in the original for the sake
of brevity.
The retreat was held in the format of a "mini" drubchen; the first
morning's session departed from the handout listing the text pages,
presumably to "open" the mandala. On Saturday, the only "full" day of
practice exactly matching the handout, the "schedule" of three sessions
(morning, afternoon and evening) on the handout was followed pretty
precisely and it was easy to follow along as the positions in the text
jumped here and there.
There were a lot of musical instruments, the low bellowing horns, the
screechy wailing horns, cymbals, conch shells and even at one point an
ordinary whistling made with the hand. Plus the usual bells and small
damaru drums. It had the effect of really immersing me in a foreign culture
since my own practice is without all these supports. That and very rich
incense which sometimes made me sneeze.
Sessions worked out to about 2 hours a piece, which was good for my poor
knees, especially since the narrow gaps between benches made it almost
impossible to raise a knee or sit sideways without disturbing other people
or knocking over texts. That worked out to about six hours a day of
sitting, so by Sunday I had a little permanent knee ache. It is gone now.
Lama Tharchin was very friendly, humorous and outgoing, which is in itself
somewhat ironic in the context of a wrathful empowerment. It seems that the
more serious lamas will be serious at wrathful or peaceful empowerments,
while the humorous ones will maintain their humor at both. Of course in all
cases I find good serioius lamas to always be able to add a light touch now
and then, if only with some smiles, while good humorous lamas never seem to
detract from the essential dignity of these practices.
Lama Tharchin's sangha is pretty friendly, so it wasn't hard to fit in. If
there were any disappointments in terms of the outer structure of things, I
heard some students grumble about the food being a little "light" (I
thought it was just right, given the inactivity of sitting) and of course
since Lama Tharchin is going on retreat next year people were trying to fit
in personal interviews in a very crowded schedule. (He said he will try to
return to lead the summer retreat at Pema Osel Ling.)
The schedule was easy to live with. First daily practice, except for
optional "daily practice prayers" done routinely at the center but not part
of this sadhana, was at 10:30; the evening session ended at 9. So everyone
was able to get plenty of sleep. Rain ended Thanksgiving day (which was not
in session anyway) and during the practice there was only rain on Friday
night, when it got pretty heavy but that was after midnight anyway.
Oh - the sessions were held indoors, not down on the platform by the Guru
Rinpoche statue, so it was actually not as cold as some of the summer
retreats. There were about 150 enrolled retreatants, plus lamas and monks
so the retreat hall was packed, but not uncomfortable.
For anyone going to winter retreats, I would recommend a BRIGHT flashlight
(in case it is a new moon, and cloudy, like it was this retreat) and
probably some "rubber ducky" type of shoes since there is a lot of mud. The
cabins have heaters so you don't need too much bedding, but you will need a
pillow and sleeping bag.
I came back feeling more compassionate, so I figure something good happened
at the retreat.
--
MW (mwe...@juno.com)