Nyingma Transmission, How 'The Cyclone' Came to the West
Written by Mardi Junkins
Once there lived a family in the village of Joephu, in the Palrong valley of the Dhoshul region in Eastern Tibet. There was a father, mother, two sisters, and two brothers. Like many Tibetan families they were very devout. The father taught his children and the children of the village the Buddhism of Tibet, the Dharma. He taught them to read and write and to chant the stories of the Buddha Shakyamuni and of Padmasambhava the second Buddha who brought Buddhism to Tibet. Teachings of the Dharma and practice were woven into their lives. If one of the children happened to wake in the night, the father's continuous chanting could be heard.
The valley was a magical place with a high mountain no one had yet climbed and a high lake with milky white water and yellow crystal sand around its edges, sand that dissolved instantly on the tongue without a taste. This mountain had extraordinary rocks with footprints embedded in them. Tsa Sum Lingpa, the Crazy Wisdom Yogi, made these footprints when he danced on the rocks in an explosion of radiant energy. Not surprisingly, Tsa Sum Lingpa is especially revered in the Dhoshul region of Tibet.
The oldest of the brothers was nicknamed "The Cyclone" for his enormous energy. He would run up a nearby mountain to explore and play for hours. One day he found a baby goat on the mountainside and was so taken with it that he hid it under his shirt and streaked home. An upset mother goat wasn't far behind. His own mother advised him to return the baby goat, which he did reluctantly. Other times he would pick wild mushrooms and stuff them in his shirt, but they were so plentiful that they kept falling out, a predicament for a five-year old. Many a summer day "The Cyclone" would lie down in a field of wild flowers--all with names of Tibetan deities--and gaze up into the vast blue Tibetan sky.
During his fifth year he went on a journey with his mother to a mountain miles away. They were going to visit a well-known monk named Ahtsok to whom the mother had a special devotion and who lived in lifelong retreat. Local people brought him offerings of cheese, yogurt, tea or Tsampa and left them a distance away from the cave with a friendly shout; other times they stayed to visit. The mother and son were visiting on this day and climbed miles up the mountain to Ahtsok's cave above the timber line. They found the monk wrapped in ragged woolen clothes with a wool shawl around his head; he never wore animal skins. The little boy was deeply struck by Ahtsok.
The children were eager scholars at early ages. They went to the village monastery for instruction. However, their prime instruction continued to be with their father at home. The younger brother was recognized as a tulku, but the family decided not to emphasize this in his upbringing. When the younger brother was born the family chose to move to another village. The baby became gravely ill, and when the illness failed to respond to ordinary remedies his parents took him to the monastery for a diagnosis. They were told to move back to the village of Joephu because the baby was the incarnation of a highly revered lama from the Dhoshul region. The family returned to their old village and the baby regained his health.
When "The Cyclone" was six years old he entered Gochen Monastery
