One of my all time favourite photos of Rinpoche. I visited his ladrang in Kathmandu several times, and this picture was hanging in the waiting area. From the moment I saw it, I was captivated - there's something incredibly powerful about this image, and the young-ish Rinpoche looks almost surreal, surrounded by an aura of fire. I took another photo of it again more recently - here it is.
Rinpoche is a great healer, highly clairvoyant, profoundly kind and when you're around him, you never know what's going to happen next. Unexpected is an understatement.
I had the opportunity to meet him twice - once in Kathmandu and another time on one of his travels. Each time, his kindness and gentle nature shines through, and on occasion you get a glimpse of the tantric master and yogi that he is.
A beautiful account of an experience with Rinpoche can be found here:
http://www.iol.ie/~taeger/gangchen/gangchen.html Here's an excerpt from his book Self Healing II:
Please, Lama Action Vajra, great Rigden,
- Bless me to realize my body is the mandala of the universe, and to transform it into a pure container of spiritual and life energy like a pure crystal.
- Bless me to realize that the birth, life and death of my body is the birth, life and destruction of the cosmos.
- Bless me to realize that my spine is Mt. Meru and that the five colors of my skin and organs are its five colored faces. May my body and mind become a pure container for this positive elemental energy. (*)
- Bless me to realize that the flow of the vital energy, drops and winds rotating in my channels and chakras is the cosmic energy flow and the rotation of the celestial bodies. May my body and mind become a pure container for this positive, pure celestial energy.
- Bless me to realize that my right and left channels are the Sun and Moon. May my body and mind become a pure container for this positive solar and lunar energy.
- Bless me to realize that my central channel (tsa uma) is Rahu (=rising Moon Node). May my body and mind become a pure container for this positive, deep and profound, essential life energy.
- Bless me to realize that my 28 vertebrae are the 28 constellation divinities (=lunar mansions). May my body and mind become a pure container for this positive, divine celestial life energy.
- Bless me to realize that my seven facial parts (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, chin and forehead) are the seven planets. May my body and mind become a pure container for this positive planetary energy.
- Bless me to realize that my twelve left and right ribs are the twelve zodiac houses in the lunar and solar aspects. May my body and mind become a pure container for this positive archetypal energy.
- Bless me to realize that my countless millions of atoms and cells are the stars of the heavens. May my body and mind become a pure container for this positive stellar energy.
- Bless me to realize that my chakras are the great rotating galaxies. May my body and mind become a pure container for this positive universal energy.
- Bless me to realize that the year is the Shambhala King, that the twenty-four solar and lunar months are his twenty four ministers, that the days are the army of Shambhala warriors and that the hours and seconds are their powerful weapons.
Thus, may we become free from linear time, experience the past, present and future in the eternal now and dance in the sphere of timelessness.
p.s. Rigden = King of the mystical kingdom of Shambhala, also called 'Lama Action Vajra'.