Chatral
Rinpoche doubting
Tulku
Urgyen Rinpoche
A
few days into offering these empowerments, I met Chatral Rinpoche.
His appearance was striking: he wore coarse felt garments and had a
prominent nose and a Khampa bearing. Our conversation began like
this:
"You,
lama! Where are you from?" he demanded brusquely.
"I
am from Nangchen.”
"From
where in Nangchen?"
"I
am a descendant of Chokgyur Lingpa.”
"I've
been to Tsikey and I didn't see you there.”
"I
didn't always stay at Tsikey.”
"Then
where are you from? Out with it!"
"Chokgyur
Lingpa's daughter, Konchok Paldron, had four sons one of whom
was
my father.”
"Hmmm
... hmmm ... I had heard that you were supposed to be the nephew
of
Neten Chokling. I know him from Dzongsar, where he came to visit
Dzongsar Khyentse, but I've never heard that he had a lama nephew.
Now I hear that our Dudjom Rinpoche is receiving the Three Sections
from such a nephew, and we all know that plenty of
these so-called Khampa lamas come here to Central Tibet to try out
their various tricks. So, I was wondering if you were just another
one of them. Hmmm...”
He
was staring at me with his big eyes glaring the whole time.
”A
lot of Khampa lamas come here and cheat people by giving empowerments
to which they have no lineage."
Dudjom
Rinpoche, who was sitting right there, broke in and said,
”It
was I who asked him to give this transmission."
And
soon they began to crack one joke after another, during which Chatral
Rinpoche
turned to me with a smirk and said,
”Okay,
I guess you are not a fake after all. You can go ahead and give him
the empowerment then."
-
From Blazing Splendor, p. 304, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
