I finally met the guru from my dream in real life

Had a blissful weekend. I finally met the guru who appeared in my dream last year.  A few Dharma friends know how special, precious and significant this was to me.  In that dream, I did not even know who he was since I have never met him before.  After that, I only know Choden Rinpoche is the guru of my guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Since that dream, I had been praying to be able to meet 80-year-old Kyabje Choden Rinpoche in this lifetime to be able to receive his teaching and blessings, as well as planting the karmic seed to be connected with him in future lifetimes.

Choden Rinpoche of Sera Je Monastery, is one of the highest of the Gelug lamas, a yogi, a scholar. During the communist Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1959, Choden Rinpoche stayed in Tibet and went into solitary retreat for 19 years. He never left his tiny, dark room in Lhasa from 1965 to 1985, and was virtually unknown in his monastery for this reason. He neither escaped his country after 1959 nor was imprisoned; instead, he lived in a house in Lhasa, never leaving his small, dark, empty room for 19 years, even to go to the toilet, and never cutting his hair and beard. In 1985 he was allowed to leave Tibet for India, and has since taught for many years to thousands of students at Sera Je monastery in South India. At the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Choden Rinpoche has travelled all around the world to give teachings and lead retreats.

I took lots of photos of this Enlightened Being, and also had a couple shots with him over the weekend. :D

I made sure I welcomed Choden Rinpoche at the airport, together with some students of Amitabha Buddhist Centre. I offered khata and flower to Rinpoche. When Rinpoche blessed me, he smiled, I was almost in tears - dream came true and my body was burning hot. Rinpoche in real life seems to be very huge in size. When I had a few seconds to steal, I requested Rinpoche for a photo and managed to snap a few of him and also with him. See my single big sunflower for Rinpoche? :)  

The next day, I attended a teaching given by Choden Rinpoche in ABC. He holds many important and rare lineages of the Buddhadharma, especially in the Gelug tradition. He gave teaching of "In Praise of Dependent Origination", the well-known verses composed by Lama Tsongkhapa which pays homage to Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings on emptiness.

After the teaching, it was blessing time. When he saw the sick people or those who needed help, he closed his eyes and took a little longer time to bless them. Rinpoche's voice is deep and resonant, and reminds me of the late Kyabje Lati Rinpoche.

Many people turned up for the session and of course to receive Rinpoche's blessings. Joyous occasion!

I decided at the last minute to attend Lillian Too's spiritual talk in Suntec, just because Choden Rinpoche was to make a guest appearance and I had wanted to bask in his presence longer. This was only the second time Lillian, world-renowned fengshui master, was holding this event about the Third Dimension in Fengshui, which is everything mystical about our surroundings, and not the usual Fengshui fanfare (which is usually in Dec/Jan period). So far, in all of her 300 over books, she has revealed the secrets of only the first two out of three dimensions of feng shui – namely, space and time. Lillian feels that the world is ready to learn about the third and most powerful dimension of feng shui; the spiritual dimension.

Lillian said she was sharing what she has learned from the great masters the secrets and tips, on how we can tap into the knowledge of Ren Chai (Mankind Luck), which requires us to use the power of our own mind and sacred rituals to enlist the help of cosmic forces in the spiritual realm to overcome obstacles and bring success into our lives. She stressed that "this dimension is not religious, but it is spiritual. It is not logical, but magical". There are different realms of existence residing around us and we can co-exist with them and can also engage their assistance. We learned how to use certain sacred rituals to appease the other realms, how to invoke the higher beings, how to wear certain amulets for protection, how to recite mantras and how to empower our objects.

When it comes to empowering objects, of course we had to invite a great master to do it; blessing and consecrating holy objects. Lillian gave a moving introduction of Choden Rinpoche. The Chinese government did not allow him to meditate even in a cave, he meditated at a tiny backroom of a disciple. He did not have anything with him, no mala, no Buddha statue, no thangka, no text etc... he also ate very little, mostly absorbing the essence from the air or plants. Instead of being angry, he meditated for 19 years without leaving the room. Today, Rinpoche eats only one meal a day. Can you even sit still and quietly meditate for 19 minutes, not to mention 19 YEARS!

1000-2000 people waiting for the arrival of Choden Rinpoche. He benefited everyone present who were from all walks of life, not just Buddhists.

Lillian showed this amazing photo when she was with Rinpoche at a holy site. While Rinpoche was reciting prayers, everyone was snapping photos. And when everyone's photos were developed, they found all their photos were radiating rainbow lights all around Rinpoche.  Amazing.  _/|\_

Rinpoche gave an impromptu brief teaching on the precious human life and methods of meditation. He introduced many individual Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and also gave oral transmission of their mantras. He blessed and consecrated all holy objects in the auditorium.

After that, everyone queued up to go on stage for Rinpoche's personal blessings. Those who were present were indeed very very fortunate.

Rinpoche blessed everyone patiently, and this took a long time.

Everyone offering khata to Rinpoche and also had their holy objects blessed once again, individually.

May all those present (even non-Buddhists) know that they were indeed very fortunate to have met Rinpoche in this lifetime. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has addressed Choden Rinpoche as Vajradhara.  Vajradhara is the primordial Buddha who is the same mental continuum as Buddha Shakyamuni but displays a different aspect. He appeared as Buddha Shakyamuni to reveal the stages of the path of Sutra, and as Vajradhara to reveal the stages of the path of Tantra. Vajradhara has said that in degenerate times, he would appear in an ordinary form as a spiritual master. And yes, that day, we had met Shakyamuni Buddha/Vajradhara in the human form. Thank you for coming, Choden Rinpoche!

Also thanks to the amiable and lively Lillian Too for a great event, for generously sharing lots of tips and sacred secrets.