the struggle for recognition

Chokgyur Lingpa

Chokgyur Lingpa's early treasure revelations are recorded in multiple ambiguous and confused narratives. He himself wrote that before his thirteenth birthday he was visited by a vision of Padmasambhava, and that this was followed by “many unwanted and confusing apparitions,” some of them reportedly unintelligible, others apparently clear signs that he would reveal treasure. After he announced publicly that he would extract treasure from Namkadzod, one of his early teachers, Ngedzin Pusiri (gnas 'dzin pu si ri) at Pelme monastery, specifically forbade him from doing so. Nevertheless, the first four of his treasure revelations date to this period, including one of his most successful, the Barche Kunsel(bar chad kun sel), said to have been revealed in October 1848 from Danyin Kala Rongo (zla nyin kha la rong sgo), when Chokgyur Lingpa was only nineteen years old.

Biographies of Chokgyur Lingpa report that his colleagues in Nangchen scorned him, rejecting his claims to be a treasure revealer, and in his autobiography he expresses considerable frustration at this inability to gain acceptance. The nickname by which he was known during this period, Kyasu Terton (skya su gter ston), might be rendered in English as “the so-called treasure revealer of the Kyasu clan.” Ultimately, when he was twenty-five Chokgyur Lingpa left Nangchen for Derge, in search of patrons who might legitimize his treasure-revealing status. The biographies have it that Chokgyur Lingpa was expelled from his monastery, ostensibly for making mistakes during a ritual dance. But if he was in fact expelled, it is likely that it was due to his assertions that he was a treasure revealer, which possibly included his having taken a consort. Although this is nowhere explicit in the biographies, there is sufficient reason to believe that Chokgyur Lingpa began his relationship with his main consort, Dekyi Chodron (bde skyid chos sgron), before he left Nangchen in 1853.

read full biography at The Treasure of Lives

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Chokgyur Lingpa

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Adeu Rinpoche

A video highlighting Adeu Rinpoche apparently at the enthronement of a young tulku, if anyone knows details of who it is (I assume that is their footprint in the rock) please let us know.