This is one Australian student’s story about the miracle of finding her teacher in this life. It is a story about the blessings of Guru Rinpoche.
In the centre of Australia there is red desert; rain is infrequent, sand is in abundance and only hardy plants survive. The dryness of the land desiccates everything. But then the rains miraculously comes, unexpectedly, and almost overnight these beautiful colourful and exquisite wild flowers bloom in the desert. The beauty and abundance that the rains bring to the desert is, for me, like the story of finding one’s teacher: a rare, beautiful and powerful event.
In the early 1990s I lived in Darwin, the capital city of a vast Northern Territory which spanned both desert in the south around Alice Springs and tropical rainforest in the north around Darwin.
While living in Darwin I had made a decision to formally become a Buddhist after considering all possible spiritual options! This decision was fast-tracked after I read Sogyal Rinpoche’s book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. I decided, after reading Sogyal Rinpoche’s book, I liked the sound of Tibetan (Vajrayana) Buddhism. Once I had made the decision to become a Buddhist I discovered a small Tibetan Buddhist practice group in Darwin. Soon after joining the group I received a Chenrezig empowerment from a wonderful Rinpoche and I subsequently took refuge him.
I knew I had finally found my general spiritual ‘home’ in Tibetan Buddhism but I also knew I hadn’t quite found the ‘home within the home’ so-to-speak: I needed to keep looking. Reading Sogyal Rinpoche’s book I had worked out that it was fundamental on the Dharma path to have a teacher so I made wishing prayers to the picture of Guru Rinpoche in his book to find my teacher! Of Guru Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche wrote: ‘One of his qualities is that he has the power to give his blessing instantly to whoever prays to him, and whatever we may pray for, he has the power to grant our wish immediately.’
I specified to Guru Rinpoche that I wish to find my teacher and that I wanted my teacher to be a woman! Ha! How presumptuous I was!! I immediately discarded the idea that I might ever find a female teacher as I did not know of any female teachers at that time in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and if there were any they must be as rare as hen’s teeth! And being a bit of a know-it-all I thought I knew this for a fact!
Around this time I had cause to travel to America for a conference and I was traveling on one of the American Airlines. In a flight magazine there was a picture of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo and a description of her recognition as a reincarnate Lama. The article described Jetsunma as a ‘housewife’ with children and I remember looking at her picture closely thinking that she didn’t look Lama-like (my experience of ‘Lama-looks’ being extremely limited). I’m embarrassed now to confess my reaction to seeing Jetsunma’s picture for the first time. I met my Lama in a flight magazine and I had profound non-recognition!
In this period, I also had a dream of the word ‘Nyingma’. I didn’t know what the word meant so I asked around and was told it meant ‘old school’ in Tibetan Buddhism. I didn’t know any more than that.
Increasingly I felt a very very strong pull to live in Alice Springs in the desert. I couldn’t think of a good reason why I would leave the Dharma group in Darwin that I had just found, particularly as I was such a new student. I was worried that I would fall into a proverbial spiritual hole in Alice Springs but I couldn’t continue to deny the urge to move to Alice Springs! Fortunately the decision was kind of made for me. My partner at that time had found a job in Alice Springs and that was the catalyst to leave Darwin. She told me that a friend who she used to work with had come back to Alice Springs as a Buddhist Nun and she thought she was from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The fact that there was a Buddhist Nun in Alice Springs was consoling to me. This Buddhist Nun turned out to be Ani Miranda who was Jetsunma’s first student from Australia. After meeting Jetsunma, Ani Miranda had been ordained as a Nun by HH Penor Rinpoche the head of the Palyul lineage (a Nyingma lineage).
In a way the story ends in Alice Springs when I met Ani Miranda (the rest is history/herstory as they say). Ani Miranda’s presence in Alice Springs provided a tangible link to Jetsunma. I began accumulating Guru Rinpoche’s 7-line prayer and then Ngondro and I listened weekly to Jetsunma’s video teachings. This went on two or more years. I felt at home in this practice tradition (Nyingma) but I still wasn’t sure Jetsunma was my teacher. So how was I going to find out? I thought the best way was to be in her physical presence. So when Jetsunma gave Phowa teachings in 2000 I had the good fortune to be able to attend her teachings in Sedona, America.
So that’s how I found myself in Jetsunma’s physical presence. I will never forget the moment when Jetsunma entered the room to teach. All my uncertainty about whether or not Jetsunma was my teacher fell away and I realized I was in the presence of an extraordinary Lama for whom I wished to remain inseparable from.
Jetsunma says that Guru Rinpoche will appear to you as your root teacher and so it is. Through meeting Jetsunma my heart has been opened and my life change radically in ways that I could never have predicted. So, there you have it. I found my teacher first in a flight magazine above the earth and then on the earth in the Australian desert thousands of kilometers from where Jetsunma lives. How miraculous is that?
Jetsunma is a Shower of Blessings inseparable from Guru Rinpoche. Through her blessings the wild flower of Guru Yoga blossomed in the desert in my heart. May I be of benefit.
Ani Tenzin Wangmo
14 February 2009
Recently, following Ani Kunzang’s visit to Australia, Lungtog, Kunzang and Wangmo took the opportunity to circumnambulate a 13 foot (4 metre) high consecrated statue of Guru Rinpoche blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The statue is the first statue to be be built as part of the first stage of The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion being built in Bendigo, Victoria under the direction of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The statue of Guru Rinpoche, resplendantly covered in gold leaf, will no doubt remove obstacles of all kinds including obstacles to the completion of the Stupa. During our visit we prayed for the long life and good health of our kind root teacher and all sentient beings. As well as circumnambulating Guru Rinpoche we also practised Guru Yoga together at the base of Guru Rinpoche and during that time, for a moment, the rain and wind ceased. Here is a picture of Ani Kunzang gazing up at the statue of Guru Rinpoche. the statue is housed in temporary accommodation while the rest of the Stupa is being built.