Part 2:
KYABJE ZONG RINPOCHE'S PASSING
In 1983, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche made his third trip to the West and embarked on a teaching tour that took him to England, Canada, the U.S., Switzerland, Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Austria. In June 1984, fervent and repeated requests by his students in India caused Rinpoche to cancel the remaining three months of his European schedule and return to his home at Ganden Monastery, by then reestablished in Mundgod in southern India. The following month, Zong Rinpoche gave pith instructions on the Hayagriva Tantra, followed by the Chittamani Tara initiation, and a long life empowerment for all the Tibetans in Mundgod's refugee community. Shortly after the last of these teachings, he arranged an elaborate offering ceremony for the Dharma Protectors. After a few days of rituals, the students at Zong Labrang, Rinpoche's residential compound, reported that Zong Rinpoche had fallen ill with a high fever. Although his doctors gave him the best medical care, his condition did not improve.
All of the twenty-one students who lived with him in his residence and everyone in the monastery offered numerous long life prayers, imploring Rinpoche to recover. The monastic Dharma Protector in particular begged him in the name of the Buddha's doctrine and all sentient beings to regain his health and live for many more years. In the event that this was not to be, the Protector added, Rinpoche should at least prolong his life until the reincarnation of Venerable Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was legitimately determined.
As the news of Zong Rinpoche's ailing physical condition spread, delegates began to arrive to pay their respects and offer long life requests and ceremonies. Visitors from Drepung and Sera monasteries, including representatives of the two tantric colleges, Gyuto and Gyume, and all of the incarnate lamas of these great Buddhist institutions, came to offer long life prayers. Four months later, at the beginning of November 1984, Rinpoche suddenly declared, "I do not have any of my former illness." Once again, in apparently good health, he resumed his daily routine, and, upon requests from the monastery and other communities, presided over the ceremony to determine the new incarnation of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche.
Prior to his illness, and again during this time, some of his attendants noticed that Rinpoche engaged in the self-empowerment rituals of Heruka Chakrasamvara, Vajrayogini, and Chittamani Tara over long periods of time, and they observed him in "unusual states of absorption," as one of them later described it. Rinpoche became increasingly gentle as each day gave way to the next. He summoned his resident students in groups as well as individually and offered them profound and intimate advice. He made observations on a number of topics, including Dharma centers in the West. At one time, he remarked to his personal attendant, Tenzin Wangchuk, with his characteristic directness, "I cannot bear this hot weather. I would like to be in the cool. Let me see for a few days... I might get used to it. If I can bear it I will remain. If not I might leave." At another time, he said to his students, "You have been so kind to me. I thank you all for the services you have rendered me during my recent illness. How pleasant it is here, to be in this house. What could be more comfortable than to be surrounded by my own students?"
Rinpoche normally awoke at three o'clock in the morning and finished his daily meditation before dawn. In the early morning hours of November fifteenth, exactly two weeks after his recovery, Zong Rinpoche repeatedly asked a young resident, "Did the dawn break?" When the answer was negative, Rinpoche remarked, "It seems to be taking a long time for dawn to arrive today." Rinpoche touched the right side of his chest and complained of a minor pain, but his discomfort seemed to subside as the new day dawned beneath a clear sky.
The day, marking Buddha's descent into this world after returning from the Celestial Realm of Indra, would come to strike everyone with immense sadness and grief. But now, in the tranquil morning air, the newly risen sun bathed Rinpoche's eastern-facing residence in glory, and shafts of early morning light flooded his reception room. He ate a hearty breakfast, which made everyone very happy. As his attendant removed the tray he softly remarked, "This was appetizing, completely satisfying and excellent. You have been extremely kind."
At that time, someone delivered a large color photograph of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche's stupa sent by one of Rinpoche's Italian students. Taking the picture in his hands, Rinpoche asked his attendant, Tenzin Wangchuk, if he understood the significance of the gift. "If you don't," he explained, "it implies that you should build such a stupa. Can you construct something like this? Even if you cannot build a traditional one, my students will build a stupa in the future with their wisdom and practice!"
Tenzin Wangchuk told Rinpoche that he had called a medical doctor from the Dueguling Tibetan Resettlement Hospital half a mile away to give Rinpoche a check-up. It was shortly after nine o'clock in the morning when the doctor arrived. Rinpoche stood up and walked from his bedroom into his sitting room, saying that he would like to sit in an upright posture. The sitting room was Rinpoche's favorite room. The door led to his garden, and he liked to watch the sun rise from its eastern window.
During his illness, Rinpoche had generally relied on someone to support him while he walked, but today he told his students emphatically, "Nobody needs to hold me. I can go on my own." He once again declared to those around him that he was no longer ill, and left the bedroom in his usual brisk manner. In the sitting room, Rinpoche stretched out his legs and let the doctor examine him. After the examination, the doctor told the students that he could detect no serious illness, only that Rinpoche was rather weak and could use some glucose. However, as the doctor didn't have any glucose with him, he sent his assistant back to his clinic to fetch some.
When the students entered the room a few minutes later, their beloved Teacher had left them for another realm. As he had prophesied, Rinpoche did not die in hospital, in pain, or from a serious illness. Those around him were amazed how Rinpoche's body remained as if in a deep sleep, without losing luster or color. It was clear that their teacher was in a most subtle state of mind, embracing the meditation of clear light. He was eighty years old.
As news of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche's passing spread through the monastery, the first reaction was one of shock and disbelief. Although his supreme spiritual accomplishment meant that he was not subject to death in the usual sense, Rinpoche's passing was completely unexpected, and rendered all the more devastating by its suddenness. The monastic community was plunged into anguish and despair. Amidst a sea of eyes glistening with tears, the news was officially declared in the main prayer halls, where the entire community of Shartse and Jangtse colleges had congregated to offer Ganachakra in Rinpoche's memory.
The Representative Officer of His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to offer his condolences, and was soon followed by delegates from Drepung Monastery and others who streamed into Rinpoche's residence compound. In his rooms, last rites began the same day, with Vajrayogini selfinitiation presided over by Venerable Kyabje Zemey Rinpoche, foremost among Zong Rinpoche's innumerable disciples; Khen Rinpoche Jhampa Yeshe, the abbot of Shartse; and Khensur Losang Tenpa, the former abbot of Gyuto Tantric College, along with other highly realized disciples.
As dusk fell, the whole area of Ganden Monastery was illuminated with butter lamps. For six hours, the night resounded with thousands of monks reciting the Essence of Eloquence, Lama Tsongkhapa's masterpiece of Sutrayana. To complete the cremation rites on the basis of the Vajrasattva Tantra, these recitations were followed the next day with the senior tulkus performing the complete self-empowerment of Heruka Chakrasamvara's Body Mandala. In the evening, all the monks of Ganden Shartse recited the root texts of Maitreya's Ornament of Realization and Chandrakirti's Guide to the Middle Way. Meanwhile, the monks of Ganden Jangste also gathered at Zong Labrang and recited Guhyasamaja sadhanas.
On Saturday, the third day after Rinpoche's passing, Kyabje Zemey Rinpoche and other high lamas gathered to conduct a self-initiation of Chittamani Tara, and the monks of Ganden Shartse, who had completed a Yamantaka retreat, conducted the self-initiation of Yamantaka. From the day Rinpoche had passed away the air had remained so still that barely a single leaf had rustled in the garden, but around three o'clock the weather suddenly changed and a strong wind came up, violently blowing the dust from the ground into the sky. When the wind subsided, word spread that Zong Rinpoche had arisen from the Clear Light state and had ascended into the enlightened realm. Residents of Mundgod also reported feeling land tremors before and after Rinpoche's passing. Countless numbers of people, including abbots, high-ranking lamas, and geshes from all three monastic universities, came to pay their respects and take an active part in the rituals. Everyone recited the prayer for the swift arrival of Rinpoche's reincarnation that Zemey Rinpoche had composed two days after his passing.
That evening Kyabje Zemey Rinpoche led Rinpoche's close disciples in bathing and dressing Rinpoche's body in full initiation costume. Bell and vajra were placed in his hands, and his body was laid in a richly arrayed wooden casket, which had been made into a palanquin. One by one, monks from the great monasteries filed in to pay their respects. By this time, the eastern sitting room was open to the public so people could receive the final blessing from Rinpoche's sacred corporeal form.
Surrounding the eastern room of the Labrang, the monks of Ganden Shartse formed three groups. The first group began to recite the root text of Acharya Dharmakirti's Logic in Four Volumes. The second group recited the Abhidharma text composed by Acharya Vasubandhu, and the third group recited Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, by Acharya Shantideva. At the same time, the monks of Ganden Jangtse gathered to recite Maitreya's Ornament of Realization and Chandrakirti's Guide to the Middle Way as the Ganden Shartse monks had done the evening before. As the junior and senior monks surrounding Rinpoche's residence chanted these texts, the high lamas gathered inside to perform tantric rituals.
At eight o'clock on the morning of the fourth day, Sunday, the eighteenth of November, the palanquin slowly emerged from Rinpoche's residence. Held aloft by his close students under a revolving parasol, it wound its way ceremoniously toward the cremation hearth that had been especially prepared within the compound. Throngs of monks, nuns, and laypeople, including many schoolchildren bearing flowers, lined the path amidst flying banners and the sounds of cymbals and conch shells. Amongst the mourners were some of Rinpoche's disciples who had traveled from Europe and North America as soon as they had heard of his passing.
Those who were present during these days witnessed many unusual signs. On the third day, just before the cremation hearth was lit, seven Indian ascetics clad in new saffron robes and leading a loaded elephant walked into the compound. When asked what they were doing there, they replied that this day marked a very auspicious occasion, and asked for an offering. Tenzin Wangchuk offered them bananas and money, and they left, satisfied. It was an unprecedented event, and everyone remarked that it was a very auspicious sign. Later, when monks asked the local villagers about the elephant, they couldn't find anyone who had seen it. During the cremation, the community recited a multitude of prayers and texts, made tsog offerings, and performed rituals. Students of the monastery voluntarily spent entire nights before the cremation hearth reciting key sutras and tantras.
In Tibetan tradition, the elephant is often compared to a bull. When the reincarnation of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche was born on May 27, 1985, in the year of the Bull or the Ox, and the reincarnation of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was confirmed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama that same year, it became clear that the appearance of the elephant and the ascetics had had a definite significance.
The twenty-fourth of November was the night of the full moon. It was one of the days that Rinpoche had circled in his diary before his death, and so it was on this morning that the members of Zong Labrang opened the cremation hearth. Lying among Rinpoche's ashes they found his skull unburned and completely intact. Zong Rinpoche's previous incarnation, Zongtrul Tenpa Chopel, who had died in 1899, had also left his skull intact. That relic, which bears the Tibetan syllable AH, is kept to this day at Zong Rinpoche's residence as a treasure of faith and honor.
Two hollow pans had been placed, one atop the other, in the lower part of the hearth. The rim of the upper pan was cemented to the inner walls of the hearth, while the lower pan was turned as a lid over the sand mandala beneath. When the cremation hearth was opened, a large quantity of relic pills were found between the two pans. Finally, when the lower pan was removed, everyone present, including some of Zong Rinpoche's Western disciples, saw in the sand mandala two unmistakable footprints of an infant, complete with heels and toes. The discovery of these extraordinary signs made everyone feel great peace, reaffirming their faith in their Teacher, and assuring them that his return would be swift.
A week before Rinpoche passed away, he had had a survey conducted around the compound of Zong Labrang and had asked his attendant, Tenzin Wangchuk, to remove a pile of dirt and concrete from a specific area in the yard. The supposed reason was that this area was to be used as a place for the monks to do physical exercise. However, in reality, Rinpoche meant for this place to become the site of the stupa-like hearth in which his body would be cremated, and this spot would remain a cremation site thereafter.
Also, some time before his passing, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche had circled three dates in his diary. The first was the date that he rose from the Clear Light state. The second was the day of the cremation. The third was the day the cremation hearth was opened. This made it very convenient for the disciples to plan and conduct the traditional arrangements, but the real message is, of course, that Rinpoche had gone beyond ordinary death and rebirth. His last extraordinary deeds demonstrated a fully controlled, fearless death. They teach us that one day, everything must come to an end. Those present were indelibly impressed with the knowledge that practice and effort can enable one to completely transcend death. Thus, the life of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche became a teaching on how to live meaningfully and die well.
Zong Rinpoche's reincarnation was born in India, in the Kullu Valley, revered by Hindus as a sacred site of Lord Shiva and his consort, Parvati. The Kullu Valley is also revered by Tibetan lamas as one of the twentyfour sites sacred to Heruka Chakrasamvara.
Zong Rinpoche's "precious tomb stupa," or dung-ten, was completed in 1986 by members of Zong Labrang, with contributions from a number of Rinpoche's disciples. It stands five feet high, is covered with precious stones and metals, and is filled with relics and holy objects. Today, it stands in a place of honor in the center of the Zong Labrang prayer room.
