The Special Connection
with the XVIth Gyalwang Karmapa: 9

Akong Rinpoché and the Karmapa Succession: Part Two

"We now find  Akong Rinpoché at Rumtek in the early 1990s. The author’s own understanding, gained from whatever information [1] he was able to tweak out of Akong Rinpoché, was that he added, let us say, "some vigour", to the proceedings in order to move things on. He had been invited to attend the regents’ meeting. Perhaps that specific input, at that time, was one of the reasons for the XVIth Karmapa choosing him as a recipient of the special protector transmissions when he was still a teenager? It would seem that the Shamarpa bore the brunt of the un-freezing of the situation, as it helped end the inaction caused by his delaying tactics, while he looked for his own candidate for the succession [2].

The price Akong Rinpoché had to pay for helping to get things moving was to be later horribly deprecated in Internet articles over a period of some fifteen years, with statements attributed [3] at various times by Jigme-la and Zimpon-la (the XVIth Karmapa's former attendant), i.e. those close to the Shamarpa. Akong Rinpoché dealt with these slanders as a true bodhisattva should—with compassion and “philosophically”. He was the living example of dealing with calumny, as described in Ngulchu Tomé's 37 Verses of Bodhisattva Practice. Nevertheless, the author witnessed not only the pain those lies caused Rinpoché but also his utter incredulity that such vicious and dark ideas could even be thought up. It was particularly hard for him to believe that Jigme-la, the XVIth Karmapa's nephew, who had been such good friends with him before, during and after the 1977 tour, could allow his name to be put to such untruths and calumny.

The outcome of this 1992 “push forward” in the succession story was for the testament letter of the XVIth Karmapa, eventually found in a yantra carried by the Tai Situpa and given to him by the Karmapa with the words This will protect you and may be useful one day, to be acted upon and for the Karmapa reincarnation to be found successfully, in Tibet, by Akong Rinpoché. Let us leave him to describe that in his own words, transcribed from a video [4] taken by the author of Akong Rinpoché’s address to the Samye Ling community on his return from finding the Karmapa in 1992:

<<I’m happy to come back and to see so many old friends ... and new friends. When I was in Tibet somebody asked me, “When are you going back to your home?” I could not answer because I am not sure where is my home. Anyway, since this is meant to be one of my homes, this is my first official talk after being in Tibet on this particular project: you may call it a project or you may wish to call it something different... one of my jobs anyway. Everybody is very excited about the prediction letter of the 16th Karmapa and “How did he find the XVIIth one?” or “How did he write such a letter?”. So there are a few things that I myself may not be able to answer but I am one of the luckiest persons, through having the opportunity to find the XVIIth Karmapa who the XVIth Karmapa already predicted before he left this worldly life.

But that’s not only a strange thing for me but the Vth Karmapa already wrote a prediciton letter which has many pages and there are many things mentioned in that particular letter about what is going to happen at the end of the XVIth Karmapa and beginning of the XVIIth Karmapa, the problems we are going to have and what may happen to the lineage, which is written down very clearly about three hundred years before. That is also very interesting for us. And then there is Chogyur Lingpa—a very well-known tertön from Nyingma, or Nyingma and Kagyu lineages, and there is a prediction from him, more than a hundred years ago, of many, many pages and also predictions of each Karmapa and in particular the names of each Karmapa and also in that predicition it is mentioned how important the XVIIth Karmapa will be and how important that the XVIIth Karmapa and the Khentin Tai Situpa are going to work together in a very positive way...

... In Tertön Chogyu Lingpa’s prediciton, it says that XVIIth Karmapa and Khentin Tai Situpa will be very close to each other, especially it says that “their minds will be as one” and they will work on everything in order to promote the Kagyu lineage and the Kagyu lineage is put as a sort of example, like a fruit or like a tree, and so that this particular fruit—its nourishment—these two people particularly able to produce and able to give to all the others. So I have put two pictures together with those quotations and I’m sure that those whoever are able to read Tibetan will afterwards read this particular column.. This is something that I myself am interested in ... it is not just that the Khentin Tai Situpa is the only one to (say he) has the main responsibility but he is already predicted over a hundred years before and he has to do the job. He doesn’t have the choice!

So if we have to believe all the predictions then we also have to believe all the other predictions that are already written, many hundreds of years ago or one hundred years ago or whatever: we have to accept those things. Now, this particular XVIth Karmapa, who many of us saw during his lifetime, and I myself had the opportunity to serve him until his passing away in Chicago and there are many Kagyu rinpochés but somehow my role was important for the last few years of his life. But I never expected that I would get the job to find the seventeenth [laughter]. There are several hundred Kagyu reincarnations, much wiser than myself, more learned than myself and many of them far better understanding but, in the end, I had to play a big part in the finding.

Now, we all realise that it has been delayed for so many years. After his passing away, they were not able to find a predicition letter. They know that there is one but they cannot find it. Then they had to cheat .. and tiny lies ... and say that there is a prediction letter that remained in Rumtek . But that was not really true in the beginning. But on another hand, they really believed there was a predicition letter, so it was true ... (hesitation) ... but anyway they looked everywhere and asked many people but they cannot find one. Then, the Tai Situpa remembered that several years before, His Holiness Karmapa had given him a protection, which is wrapped in yellow-gold coloured material, something like this one [AR takes a yantra from inside his shirt to show it] but much bigger but similar to this type and when he (K16) was in Calcutta he said, “You should not leave this behind. This is for your protection. One day you may find this is something useful!”

Anyway, this [points to blackboard] is a photocopy of the letter. This is a photocopy of the original, same size, written by His Holiness Karmapa, written by himself, and this is a special seal ... normally never use this. It is called Pakshi Ja-zuk and belonged to Karma Pakshi. Ja-zuk means like rainbow seal. And this [points to another document] is the translation of this, with a commentary by Gyaltsabpa. After we found, I thought it would be nice to have an explanation because most of it you can understand but there are a few words you can’t understand. Maybe something useful for future so this is only written in Nepal, after we came back. When I went to find the XVIIth Karmapa, we don’t have this particular explanation. But the letter itself is so clear it does not require explanation just for finding the Karmapa but there is a few poetry from the beginning and at the end for which it will be nice to have some explanation.

the story continues here ....

[1] What is recounted here is only the tip of the iceberg. The author imagines that many of the confidences shared with him by Akong Rinpoché concerning this area will go with him to the grave. For many reasons, some to do with tact, some legal (there is not enough proof to stand up in a court of law), the ugliness or« dark side » (very dark, at times) of what went on behind the scenes—against the XVIIth Karmapa, the Tai Situpa and Akong Rinpoché—can never be divulged.

[2]   He tried negotiating several, it seems, unsuccessfully, before opting for Thaye Dorje.

[3]  As is the way with Internet, these have come and gone and been revised. The terrible things said about Rinpoché were beyond belief and totally unfactual. Latterly, the accusations were signed by « Lama » Karma Wangchuk, the secretary at the Delhi institute under the Shamarpa, citing Jigmé-la and Zimpon-la, calling the latter Tsorpon-la. I have kept a record of them.
To give an example of one of the milder accusations, it was stated that Akong Rinpoché somehow pushed his way unwantedly into the 1977 tour, and he was not even a tulku. Having helped Rinpoché prepare that tour for over a year before it began, with constant contact with the Karmapa in Rumtek, and then witnessed day after day how the Karmapa and his party relied totally on Rinpoché as the organiser, I was speechless on reading that, knowing how ridiculously untrue it was ... and seeing how desperate they must be to say such things. Also, at the time of receiving the long-life prayer for Rinpoche, I had witnessed the high esteem the Karmapa had for Rinpoché and seen, written in his own hand, how he called Rinpoché "Lord of Dharma".

(4]  Rinpoché had set up two blackboards in the shrine room, covered with documents and photos related to his exposé. I have edited out some sections (where there are lines of dots .... .... where he was pointing to these and explaining them.

[5]  This was a polite way of saying he had found the letter. The other heart sons had all understood that.