Lama Zopa Rinpoche

who helped with his education, his debating, and came from each of the main monasteries,
Sera (Je and Me colleges), Ganden (Shartse and Jangtse colleges) and Drepung (Gomang and
Loseling colleges).
His Holiness undertook much study and then sat examinations. So, even though he is
Chenrezig, an enlightened being, to benefit us ordinary sentient beings he acted in an
ordinary aspect. An enlightened being who manifests as a dog must then eat like a dog and
bark like a dog. Manifesting as a dog, he would have a dog’s hairy body, a dog’s eyes, a dog’s
nose and so forth and do everything a dog does, all to guide us sentient beings.
One of Lama Tsongkhapa’s closest disciples was a monk called Duldzin Dragpa Gyaltsen, 47
who some say was reborn at the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama as Tulku Dragpa Gyaltsen. 48
He was said to have been murdered by a government official and to have reincarnated in the
wrathful aspect of Dol Gyalchen, Dolgyal. In that aspect he went to Tashi Lhunpo
Monastery as he was a disciple of the Panchen Lama but he was prevented from entering by
the eight guardian Dharma protectors of the monastery. 49 If Dolgyal, appearing as Dragpa
Gyaltsen, had in actuality been a buddha, an enlightened being, or even an arya bodhisattva,
there is no question that he would have been allowed in. So it’s a huge question why he was
not. A huge question. According to one version, he then went off to offer a torma to the head
of the Sakya order, but the lama put the torma on a very low shelf.
What happens is that practicing Dolgyal creates a problem in your relationship with His
Holiness, who is Chenrezig. It stops you working for and offering service to His Holiness.
That’s what has happened with many lamas who are very devoted to Dolgyal.
It interferes with your guru devotion. In particular it breaks your samaya with His Holiness
and that harms not only this life but life after life for hundreds, thousands, hundreds of
thousands and even millions of lives and it causes you to be reborn in hell and suffer for
eons and eons. Then, even if you are born human, you cannot find a guru for hundreds or
thousands of years. It goes on like that.
It also causes problems at the end of your life. There are stories of people who strongly
practiced Dolgyal but were harmed terribly at the end of their life. Dolgyal has common
powers and can manifest in many forms but at the end of a practitioner’s life it shows its
own form, its spirit form. When that happens the person sees clearly what he has done and
how Dolgyal has cheated him his whole life and he becomes extremely repentant.
There was a man in Tibet, not a monk, who practiced Dolgyal intensely but even his wife
didn’t know. When he was gravely ill and nearing death he asked his wife to have a puja
done, a tea offering in the temple where they practiced Dolgyal. It was only then that she
came to realize he had been a follower of Dolgyal.
He had practiced Dolgyal so much but then, at his last breath, the spirit manifested, not in
its usual form but in its true form, the real spirit, so ugly, so terrifying. Seeing this with his
last breath the man realized he had been completely deceived by this spirit his whole life. He
had unbelievable regret and felt strong repentance. This story is in the foreword I wrote.
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