Bodhgaya & Vajrayogini

My Bodhgaya Vajrayogini (17 inches)

Over a decade and a half ago – Bodhgaya as everybody knows is the place where Lord Buddha chose to become enlightened where he sat under a tree. And his tree or offspring of it is still alive in Bodhgaya which is amazing as it is 2500 years old. And this is where Lord Buddha sat and King Ashoka of India built a stupa to commemorate this holy tree. So the tree is here, and the stupa is really touching it. And you can go inside the stupa and inside the stupa, there is a Buddha statue that is bigger than life size, carved from a black stone and it was made by a disciple of Buddha, a female disciple who has seen him. So after 60 years of Buddha’s death, paranirvana (paranirvana is death) she wanted to create an image of him that looked like him. So she told her sons. She had four sons. The four sons had the statue commissioned and made. That statue commissioned and made to look exactly like the Buddha. Because the lady came to have a look and said ”oh his nose is like this, his eyes is like that”, “he is like this, he is like that” So this statue is said to look exactly like Buddha.

So during the invasion of India from the North, the whole of Bodhgaya area was covered. It was in the early 20’s that the British colonialist, they dug the place and found the Buddha and they enshrined it again. They didn’t enshrine it because of religious reasons but for cultural reasons. But then the Dalai Lama came and he offered gold on the whole body so it became golden. And so that statue is there and it’s very very sacred and it is very holy and tens and tens of thousands of visitors come from years ago come to gaze at the statue because it is said that it looks like Buddha, and to come to circumambulate around that tree and to make prayers because it is said that whatever prayers you make at Bodhgaya will come true. And the next Buddha to come will also be enlightened in that area. That exact spot. So Bodhgaya is THE pilgrimage spot for all Buddhist and Buddha also recommended for us to visit that spot.

Now, I went there to do retreat. I went and I stayed in a hotel called Burmese Hotel. And it was very cheap, 50 rupees a day. That time it was expensive for me. Every day I would take a rickshaw and it would take me about 10 minutes to get to the stupa because the farther you are the cheaper the hotel is. And it is a nice hotel. I have no complaints. And I had a beautiful room. And I did my practices. And every single day I would pack up my sadhana, pack up my mandala set, pack up my thick cushions and everything and I would go to the tree. And I circumambulate around the tree maybe 100 times per day and then I would sit down under a shady area of the compound and do hours and hours of my sadhanas and prayers which I really love.

And so on one of these expeditions I met a Malaysian and he was a Tibetan Buddhist and he was very devoted to his teacher. And what happened was we became friends. And he didn’t have a lot of money. I didn’t have a lot of money. He was young. I was young. We became friends and we went to have breakfast together many times. We talked about Dharma. We went to the stupa, circumambulated but when we did our practices, we separated. Because he had his own I had my own and we want our privacy. We would meet up for dinners and all that stuff. And it was beautiful. And what happened was after a month and a half of hanging around with him, he said “I really like you and I want to give you a gift”. And I said “oh!”. I was really taken aback because I don’t expect anything. And then he said “what would you like?”. And I went like “I would really like a Vajrayogini statue”. He said “where?” I said “in north India they sell them”. He said “why didn’t you get one?” and I said “I really can’t afford it”. And you know at that time although the statue is “cheap”, there is no way I could afford it. Because the statue, plus the gold on the face, the jewels, the mantras, there is no way I could afford it. And anyhow that was what I was dying for. So he said to me “ok I will get it for you”. And I said “really?” So he called up his mother in Malaysia, and he told her about me and she said “I will send you the money”. And for them it is a lot of money too because they are just a normal family. So she sent the money. She gave it him and I remember it was around 1300 rupees, which is about 100 to 110 ringgit. And so we went under the tree and he made a prayer and he said “I don’t have the statue because I can’t go to north India to get it for you but you will be going to north India and you are going to get the statue yourself”. So he says “I am going to visualize this money as the statue and I am going to give it to you under this Bodhi tree”. And I was like, I mean, can you imagine my emotional response and also the auspiciousness, can you just imagine all that?

Then under the tree I made prayers, he made prayers, he held onto the money and then we went directly under the Bodhi tree, and he offered it to me. He gave it to me and I received it. So for me, I received this statue under the Bodhi tree. Hence literally it is under the Bodhi tree. So what happened was, I was just overwhelmed. I was just overwhelmed! And I was so grateful to him and I didn’t have anything to give him because I was very very poor and I was so grateful. So I had a statue and what I did was this. I took the statue and after Bodhgaya I had to go to north India and after north India I went to Delhi.

So from Bodhgaya to Delhi it is one night by train, not by bus. And from Delhi to Dharamsala is another one night by train or bus. So what happened was I met this Swiss lady and we became friends and she said “I like you a lot and I would like to give you something. What would you like?” I said well, “If you don’t mind, I would like you to sponsor the offering of the gold and jewels onto the statue”. And she said she would love it because she understood the significance. She understood it was meritorious and she knows it was for Vajrayogini. And I said “wow”. So I got my statue in Delhi and I went to Dharamsala with her. We took a taxi and listened to Simply Red all the way up there. We listened to it the whole trip up there. She was into it and she got me into it. So it was me and her in the taxi listening to Simply Red with my Vajrayogini. And when we arrived in Dharamsala, I asked around and I found a wonderful artist. And the artist took about a week. And he painted her and he put jewels on her. So the jewels you see on her, is done by the artist. And when he did it, he had a special drill and he actually carved and drilled into the brass. So he removed a little bit of the brass and he put the jewels in so the jewels fit in perfectly. It is very tedious. Can you imagine? Even for the small ones he would do that.

What happened was I went there to check every single day. You know I am kind of a perfectionist. I went everyday and I said to the artist “I want it like that… like that”. One day I went there and he said “I am nearly done”. And I was sad. He said to me “what is the matter monk?” And I said to him “you didn’t do it the way I wanted”. “Why?” he said. I said “I want LOTS of ornaments. You put too little”. He laughed and laughed! The artist laughed and said to me “I know what you want kusho-la” (kusho-la means venerable monk in Tibetan). So I came back a few days later, and my Vajra Yogini, she looked like a drag queen. She was all decked out, ornamented and simply beautiful. The artist did such a good job with all the ornaments he put onto her. I loved it.  She was just like this, decked out for a party. And I said “you did what I wanted”. She is so beautiful. She was just so beautiful. And you know the painting that you see on her now, and the jewels you see on her now is the original. So I haven’t touched up at all. The only thing I did was many years later when I had some extra money, I had gold painted on her whole body. Otherwise it is the original. And then I went to south India and I showed it to my teacher and my teacher had mantras put inside of her and he consecrated her himself. And he is the abbot at the time, he is a scholar, he is a yogi, he is a master, he is really top of the top. He blessed her for me and I brought her down and I put her in my room. And I had a special cabinet section for her. And I put her inside the cabinet with covers and offerings.

Then what happened was a lot of people passed away or they got sick where I lived in South India. And when people pass away the family give you an offering called Ngoden. And what they do is they give you a little Ngoden and they  ask you to pray for the deceased. Well, I got quite a sum of money you know… few thousand rupees. Because it’s 10 rupees here, 5 rupees there was collected. So what I did was I converted all that money to jewellery throughout the many years, into pearls, into moonstones and into amber and I made necklaces that I offered on her. So all the necklaces that you see on her are from people who have passed away so I thought what’s the best way to make offerings for them because it’s small amount of 10 rupees, 5 rupees which is a lot to them because they are poor and their families are poor but I wanted to make it last so every single day Vajrayogini wears those pearls, it will benefit the people who passed away. So a lot of the jewellery you see is from that.

Now I kept that near me and I have always offered special offerings to Vajrayogini near me. And when I came to Malaysia, I decided to invite Vajrayogini over, to escort her over. So she is with me now. And this year I wanted to raise funds, and I wanted to… this is a little difficult for me to say… auction her off, to raise funds for our employees and a lot of people were opposed to it and I was quite touched by it because people see the value of who she is and what she represents. I was quite touched by it and so I decided to make replicas of her and make exact replicas of her and that is what the Ladrang is making right now and this is what you see right now, a replica of the same Vajaryogini. And some people mentioned that it looks like her but it doesn’t feel like her and I agree. Because when you get a statue, before it is blessed it is just a statue, after it’s blessed you ask the actual Vajrayogini to come reside within and it becomes her. And when you do your Sadhanas, whatever sadhanas you do everyday doesn’t matter. When you do your sadhanas, because you can do Tsongkhapa Sadhanas, Manjushri Sadhanas, Tara Sadhanas, they will come and they will enter her. You think, because she is Vajrayogini how can they enter her? Look, Tara is Manjushri, Manjushri is Vajrayogini, Vajaryogini is Tara, Tara is Buddha Shakyamuni. I mean a Buddha image is a Buddha image. Once they go in it not like “oh I am Tara and you are Vajrayogini so I can’t enter you, I can’t bless you”. No! No absolutely not!

So whoever has these beautiful replicas, if they keep it on their altars as I kept it, close to my heart, extremely sacred, extremely meaningful, because it is very meaningful, she will come to life also. You know, my statue has never spoken to me or blinked or anything to me but she is alive. And so what happen is, you are no different than me. Your beautiful Vajrayogini will come to life to also if you show devotion, if you practice transforming the heart and you do your best to help people, she will come to life. It is the same. Now my original Vajrayogini that I got from Bodhgaya, I am going to call her the Bodhgaya Vajrayogini. Ok, so BVY.

My BVY is very auspicious for another reason, because before I met this Malaysian, this young man, I have never heard of Malaysia. I have never heard! And I have no idea where it is or what it is. I have never even heard the word even once in my life. I mean talk about ignorance. And my point is I got this Vajrayogini from a Malaysian and now I reside in Malaysia. So this statue has a lot of significance and I would like to spread Vajrayogini to many people in this region starting from Malaysia. And I had no idea who Malaysia was or what Malaysia was. And I got this statue from a Malaysian. So somehow Vajrayogini, Malaysia and myself must have some kind of connection. And I also got it in Bodhgaya of all places. Remember, I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t even think I should get it. I saw the statue a long time ago in north India, in Delhi and I said I would like to have it but there was no way I could buy it, no way, no way.

Now the first time I ever saw this mold, this statue, was in my guru’s house in New Jersey. And my guru that time, his holy name is Kensur Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche and he has the exact same image on his altar. And I saw it that time. And when our biography group went back to America, to do research on my biography, they saw the statue there too. So when I originally saw the statue I was 13, 14 years old in America and when I came to India I saw her again for sale and I could not afford it, then when I went to Bodhgaya for retreat someone offered it to me under the tree and then in Dharamsala someone else offered jewellery on her for me. I mean everything was kinda like “planned”. And when I came to Malaysia I escorted her here. So my dream is to spread Vajrayogini practice here and in this region because my guru said that she is extremely beneficial to help. And although I don’t know much but I believe my guru. So I would like everybody to have a Bodhgaya Vajaryogini in their hearts and in their lives.

Tsem Rinpoche

I had put Joy in charge together with the Ladrang to duplicate my sacred Bodhgaya Vajra Yogini. And it finished last night. Now there are four more exact replicas of my original Vajra Yogini.

In each of these Vajra Yogini statues contain: 110 billion images of Vajra Yogini (pendrive). 450 billion Vajra Yogini mantras written by H.H. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche (pendrive), pearls, Hayagriva Chakra, HH Dalai Lama’s robe, H.E. Kensur Rinpoche Jampa Yeshe’s robe (inside the Hayagriva Chakra) and the traditional mantras also.

Look at how the faces are painted…supreme beautiful vajra wrath…They look EXACTLY like the original.

This is the sacred Bodhi Tree where Lord Buddha sat under and meditated to become a completely Enlightened Being. On the left is the sacred Stupa marking the place of Buddha’s enlightenment. I received the holy Vajra Yogini under this sacred tree.

Another angle of the holy tree. The sacred Mahabodhi Stupa built by King Ashoka is right next to the Tree. My Malaysian friend and I stood here and he offered me such a beautiful and powerful gift of Vajra Yogini. This Vajra Yogini is with me always in my room now.

Large Mahabodhi stupa built by King Ashoka to mark the very sacred place Buddha attained enlightenment. I used to visit this sacred spot many times to retreat in the past. It is one night’s train journey from Delhi. Inside this very sacred stupa houses a Buddha statue that is over 2,500 years old. It was commissioned by a lady disciple of Buddha who actually saw the Buddha Himself. She had the statue carved by her four sons in the likeness of Buddha. So it is very beautiful. Every Buddhist and spiritual seeker who wishes to be blessed should visit Bodhgaya at least once in their lifetime. The Buddha Himself mentioned that those who are His disciples should visit the place of His Birth (Lumbini), Enlightenment (Bodhgaya), teaching (Varanasi), and parinirvana /death (Kushinagar). These are important pilgrimage places for Buddhists all over the world. We will purify many negative karma by visiting. We will plant powerful seeds of enlightenment when we do our prayers there. And all the Buddhas of the future will also appear in these places such as Maitreya. So it is a good chance to create affinity with Maitreya Buddha. What can be more powerful than to be AT THE EXACT SPOT WHERE LORD BUDDHA MANIFESTED ENLIGHTENMENT AND DO OUR OWN ASPIRATIONAL PRAYERS??? We must visit there……it is important for our spiritual benefits.

Mahabodhi Stupa at night. Simply holy, stunning and powerful. Everyone must make a pilgrimage. Best to go around late September, October, November, December and early January. That is the best time of the year.