2SPnm9ZVc

THE SPIRITUAL PATH 145Chödrön and Lama Chokden, Jamyang Khyentse's assistantand master of ceremonies.It was then that I experienced, in the most vivid way, thetruth of how a master can transmit the blessing of his wisdommind to a student. One day Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche gave ateaching about devotion and about our master JamyangKhyentse, which was extraordinarily moving; the wordsflowed from him in a torrent of eloquence and the purest spiritualpoetry. Again and again, as I listened to Dilgo KhyentseRinpoche and watched him, I was reminded in the most mysteriousway of Jamyang Khyentse himself, and how he hadbeen able simply to speak and pour out, as if from a hiddeninexhaustible source, the most exalted teaching. Slowly I realized,with wonder, what had happened: the blessing of thewisdom mind of Jamyang Khyentse had been transmittedcompletely to his heart-son Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and wasnow, before us all, speaking effortlessly through him.At the end of the teaching, I turned to Khandro andChokden, and I saw tears streaming down their faces. "Weknew that Dilgo Khyentse was a great master," they said, "andwe know how it is said that a master will transmit the entireblessing of his wisdom mind to his heart-son. But it is onlynow, only today, only here, that we realize what this trulymeans."Thinking again of that wonderful day in Sikkim, and ofthose great masters I have known, these words of a Tibetansaint that have always inspired me return to me: "When thesun of fierce devotion shines on the snow mountain of themaster, the stream of his blessings will pour down," and Iremember the words of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche himself,which express perhaps more eloquently than any other passageI know the vast and noble qualities of the master:He is like a great ship for beings to cross the perilous ocean ofexistence, an unerring captain who guides them to the dry land ofliberation, a rain that extinguishes the fire of the passions, a brightsun and moon that dispel the darkness of ignorance, a firm groundthat can bear the weight of both good and bad, a wish-fulfillingtree that bestows temporal happiness and ultimate bliss, a treasuryof vast and deep instructions, a wish-fulfilling jewel granting allthe qualities of realization, a father and a mother giving their loveequally to all sentient beings, a great river of compassion, a mountainrising above worldly concerns unshaken by the winds of emotions,and a great cloud filled with rain to soothe the torments of