Since Blazing Splendor was published, several rare photos have seen the light of day. I have seen this picture of Katok Situ enough times to feel it should be included.
In the book, a whole chapter is devoted to him, as told through Turlku Urgyen's uncle: "The Master-Scholar Katok Situ", which includes a wonder story about how Katok Situ found the renowned Armor Against Darkness, a clarification of Anu Yoga practice according to an original tantra known as the Scripture of the Great Assemblage. This commentary, written by Sangye Yeshe of Nub, one of the Lotus-Born’s twenty-five disciples, had vanished centuries ago.
Hello all,
Thanks for this "wish-fulfilling" blog. I am looking for any information about the actual location of Dhumasthira, "The Place of Smoke". It seems to have been a charnel ground where Lotsawa Vairotsana beheld Garab Dorje. Does this place exist anymore, how is it called these days? Does anyone have a picture of the place?
Thank you very much,
Saraswatee
Dear Anonymous,
I have sent your question in an email to Ani Jinpa who has translated his biography (see below). Let's see what she has heard. My guess would be that is lies close to Bodhgaya.
Palmo, Ani Jima (Eugenie de Jong; translator); Nyingpo, Yudra (compilor, et. al.) (2004). The Great Image: the Life Story of Vairochana the translator. Shambala Publications, Inc.: Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. ISBN 1-59030-069-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)
Funny that meeting isn't described in Vairotsana's biography, The Great Image. The only reference to his meeting Garab Dorje is in passing after receiving all the teachings from Shri Singha: "Then Vairo went to see all the great masters, including Prahe (Garab Dorje) and Manjushrimitra, who taught him the nature of dharmata in an instant, and he fully comprehended it that very moment." (pg.124)
Ani Jinpa replied:
The name Dhumasthira, "The Place of Smoke" doesn't occur in that text. It does mention many times throughout the text that Garab Dorje lived in a cave called Place of the Vajra near a charnel gound called Golden Sanctuary of Expanding Delight, which was on the bank of the Kutra Lake in Oddiyana.