Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Visiting the Vajra Throne, Bodhgaya


After I finished my retreat I was able to go on several pilgrimages. First, I visited Bodhgaya, one of the most sacred places in this world. As sutras tell us, the vajra throne in Bodhgaya is the site where the one thousand buddhas of this eon awaken to complete enlightenment. Samten Gyatso once told me that all who visit Bodhgaya just once in their lifetime have not wasted their life and can die without regret. With that in mind, and not wanting to die without having seen it, I headed off for Bodhgaya soon after arriving in Sikkim. I was looking forward to making prayers and pure wishes at that sacred place, though I didn’t get to stay long on that first visit.

There is a relative and an ultimate meaning of the term vajra throne. The ultimate is the awakened state of primordial purity, which is the real location for attaining enlightenment. The vajra throne in Bodhgaya is an external version of the inner throne of basic space. In Kham, everyone had heard that when the deceased’s spirit flounders through the bardo, there are only two places it cannot choose to go: the mother’s womb and the vajra throne. But Samten Gyatso once told me, “It’s not the throne in Bodhgaya, it’s the vajra throne of inner basic space, the awakened state of primordial purity. After conception, you can’t come and go from the mother’s womb. You can only go in once, then you stick like a fly in glue and the spirit begins to be enveloped in a body composed of the aggregates, elements, and sense bases, from which there is no escape until the death of that rebirth.”
--Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, from Blazing Splendor

photo: Graham Sunstein

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a BEAUTIFUL picture, I almost cried!
I have to go to visit the Vajra Throne! Oh my
Thank you so much!

Erik Pema Kunsang said...

This picture was taken in the 1980s by Graham Sunstein, my good friend and a student of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche.

Anonymous said...

Sweet...
Thank you...

Erik Pema Kunsang said...

There exists an early photo of Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, sitting under one of the bodhi trees in Bodhgaya, perhaps the Vajra Throne, in the company of Gongna Tulku Rinpoche (another lama from Dzongsar who passed on recently). I have seen it and would like a copy. Who has it?

Anonymous said...

Erik,
Did Urgyen Rinpoche ever mention meeting or hearing about the 12th Shamarpa, Jamyang Rinpoche? I ask because he was also a son of the 15th Karmapa and spent most of his life at Tsurphu.

Erik Pema Kunsang said...

He must have, but never mentioned it to me.

Anonymous said...

Please forgive my ingnorance: would you explaing what is the meaning of "Sharmapa"
Thank you...

Anonymous said...

SPELLING CORRECTION: It is "Shamarpa".
:(
Thank you so much....

Erik Pema Kunsang said...

It means "wearer of the red hat/crown"