Letter from Kyabje Lama Thupten Zopa Rinpoche

Tulku Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche having his
hair cut by His Holiness the Dalia Lama
during the Kalachakra event.

Photographer Ven Roger Kunsang

The Letter from Kyabje Lama Thupten Zopa Rinpoche to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama for the Request of His Omniscient Observation to Find the Unmistaken Reincarnation of the late Great Mahasiddha Geshe Lama Konchog. October 23rd, 2005.

Sole refuge of myself and all migrant beings; jewels adorning samsara and nirvana, to which even the gods cannot compare; one kinder than all the Buddhas of the three times; Supreme Leader of gods and humans; general ushering peace and happiness into this world; leader of all the world’s Buddhists, spiritual and political lord of the Land of Snows, Arya Avalokiteshvara; appearing as a monk to accomplish the liberation of humanity, all powerful refuge and protector; all-knowing great seer; supreme one, at your lotus feet upon a throne supported by fearless lions, I prostrate.

In utter respect with my body, speech, and mind, I the reincarnation named Thubten Zopa on behalf of Kopan Monastery Ogmin Jangchub Choling, Kopan Nunnery Kachoe

Gyaling; Mu Monastery and Rachen Nunnery on the Nepal and Tibet border; Jinsiu Farlin Center of Taipei, Shakayamuni Centre of Taijung, Heruka Centre of Kaoshung, and Hayagriva Centre of Taoyuan in Taiwan; Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore; Lobsang Drakpa Centre in Malaysia; Chamtse Ling of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mayahana Tradition; with countless billions of billions of arms and hands reverentially folded together and placed atop the crown of my head, mind single-pointedly absorbed in faith and devotion, I pray from my heart to you.

In this time of degeneration, the world descends from lower to lower states of extreme degradation and all migratory beings have fallen upon terrible sadness and misfortune. Great Supreme Refuge and Protector, not only for migrating sentient beings of the Snowy Land of Tibet, but now also for all the innumerable sentient beings of the East and West who are without a spiritual protector, you are a true refuge and protector; you holy one are the source of all ultimate happiness and benefit arising from the hopes and prayers of all the sorrowful beings of this world; for all those obscured, submerged in the darkness of ignorance and completely without the eye of wisdom able to discern which actions to adopt and to abandon, you are the one dispelling darkness and opening the eye of wisdom that they may see what is right to adopt and what to abandon. Sentient beings controlled against their will by the power of delusion, although desiring happiness, turn their back on the causes of happiness, white virtuous deeds. Although not wishing to experience suffering, sentient beings perfectly accomplish its causes, negative and non-virtuous actions, thereby becoming immersed in just sufferings. At this time, through utterly misunderstanding which behavior to adopt and which to abandon, this world has become snarled by violent militants, warring famines, natural disasters, and various malign conditions, unfolding ceaselessly one upon another like turbulent twisted torrents of ill fortune.

Supreme Protector, you have become the guardian of myself and all other wondering beings. Your profound advice on actions to be adopted and abandoned, like a nectar free from sectarianism, absorbs into the hearts of all this world’s humans, transforming these lives without hope into lives full of promise. With powerful mind and perfect deeds you strive to accomplish the welfare of not only Buddhists, but also those who embrace religions and those who embrace none including materialists and so forth. Especially, you establish happiness and bliss in the minds of all. You cultivate in us the root producing the attainment of precious omniscience, great compassion benefiting others which is free from obscurations and possessed of the two collections of merit and wisdom. In general, you introduce us to the teachings of the compassionate teacher, the fourth Buddha of this world system, Buddha Shakyamuni. In particular, you reveal to us Tibetan Buddhism, vast and profound, not as something merely to be believed, merely understood intellectually, or as only words to be studied. Rather, you show us how Tibetan Buddhism has the ability to benefit us by pacifying the mental sufferings we experience in everyday life. Even after the present time, this work of yours is famed to have brought great benefit to innumerable Westerners in their daily lives. In short, you show this world’s numberless sentient beings the Compassionate Buddhas’ wholesome paths of non-violence and peace in order to lead us from birth to birth, happiness to happiness, and lead us to the ultimate omniscient state of a conqueror. We must actualize the unsurpassable intentions of you, the Great Refuge and Protector, during all our lifetimes by remembering in our hearts, for as long as time remains, the immense kindness of these – your deeds.

Further, many hundreds of thousands of people of this world are attracted to you by merely hearing your speech for an hour or two, merely meeting you the supreme refuge protector, or merely seeing your loving affectionate smiles to people and the way you joke with them. People are able to understand the sacred importance of those called Tibetans and their culture etc. through such contact with you. Even if the Compassionate Teacher Shakyamuni Buddha, the Bodhisattva Maitreya, Manjushri and others were to actually come to this world in person, they could not possibly accomplish more than the great waves of your current activities have accomplished. Moreover, by respectfully expressing the above, I thank you for giving protection to all of us miserable migratory beings, for your kindness in performing perfect deeds equaling the limitless sky which are beyond all thought and expression.

Although the holy Geshe Lama Konchog was not famed as one who was designated as the highest degree (Lharampa) by his monastery, He is held on the crown of our heads with greatest esteem as one who embodied the essence of what it means to be a True Guru, the root of the spiritual path. This is so because He perfectly practiced guru devotion in thought and deeds. Having thoroughly trained his mental continuum in all the stages of the Bodhisattva’s path, renunciation, bodhicitta and the correct view which are the essence of all the eighty-four thousand heaps of Dharma, Geshe Lama Konchog reached in one short lifetime of this degenerated age the unified state of omniscience by the profound path of offering to the guru and the completion of Vajrayogini practice. In short, though he appeared as a simple ordinary monk, in actuality he was the very quintessential meaning of a spiritual guide, the holy Guru.

Through His great kindness, Geshe Lama Konchog explained the three fundamental rituals of Sangha communities and then established the pure Vinaya teachings, essence of all the Buddha’s precious instructions, at several monasteries in Himalayas and other places near Tibet’s border and so on. By many means He inspired others to purify negativities and obscurations and to accumulate the two oceanic collections of merit and wisdom. For the welfare of the many impoverished peoples of various localities of those regions, Geshe Lama Konchog established several annual group meditations on and recitations of the MANI mantras 100 million times every year as well as other such amazing virtuous activities, thereby bringing great benefit to the teachings and to migratory beings.

In general, to give an idea of Geshe la’s practice to common appearance, I hear from his own word, for example, that he completed two thousand sets of Nyung Nye (2-day fasting retreat on compassionate Buddha Chenrezig) with this life’s holy body. Similarly, one time, while meditating, in a remote mountain cave, some shepherds of the area thought he was a Yeti on seeing his large and rugged body and threw rocks at him. No longer able to stay in the cave, he never gave up the meditation and lived under a tree without shelter for three years practicing austerities and deep meditation. Later, at the request of our holy teacher Lama Thubten Yeshe, Geshe la kindly accepted to come to Kopan and gave incredible instructions on Dharma practice at Kopan Jangchub Choling Monastery and Kachoe Gyakyling Nunnery. Likewise, he gave teachings on the preparatory practices, the graduated path, mind training, and various empowerments etc. to numerous foreigners who came from many different countries. Not only that, Geshe la also taught on the heart of all the Buddhist Sutras and Tantras, the essential graduated instructions on the bodhisattva’s path in many places abroad including:- Australia; four Dharma centres in Taiwan, comprising Jinsufarlin

Centre of Taipei, Shakyamuni Centre of Taijung, Heruka Center of Kaoshung, Hayagriva Centre of Taoyuan; also at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore and other centres in Singapore; Losang Drakpa Centre of Malaysia and Chamtse Ling Centre of Hong Kong. Geshe Lama Konchog performed an incredible kindness by teaching the secret instruction of the generation stage which ripens and the completion stage of the Tantra which liberates sentient beings, thereby setting many miserable migratory beings on the noble path of liberation and omniscience and bringing vast benefit to the Buddha’s teachings and to samsaric beings. For these reasons, I truly think that if his reincarnation were to arise as one to spread Buddha’s teachings of this world far and wide; one to be the root of all the collections of excellence in the minds of migratory beings; one to be the basis for the accomplishment of all attainments; one to compel the subjugation of negativities and the collection of merit and wisdom; one to generate faith in the Guru and belief in the cause and effect and more; in short, one bringing vast benefit would surely arise. Subsequently, the current situation apart, I feel that Tenzin Nyudrup’s story is so extremely clear that it is as if the holy Geshe Lama Konchog himself actually prepared all the optimum conditions for his own reincarnation. However, I pray with unbounded reverence that you the supreme refuge and protector completely free from obscurations, you who are omniscient and wise, will in your great love kindly guide us as to whether the Tsum boy Tenzin Nyudrup is or is not the reincarnation of our late Guru Geshe Lama Konchog.

I, the deluded one, and those who give their lives in service to the Dharma centres, and all the students and benefactors and friends together request that the lotus feet of yours, the supreme protector of all remain firmly in this world for hundreds and billions of eons. Please, please always in all times may you the refuge and protector of all migratory beings look upon the prayers of ours, your disciples, with love and affection.

As the representative of all the Dharma centres, I the deluded one, given the title reincarnate Thubten Zopa, make this prayer of request.

• Confirmation Letter from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

• Letter from Ven Tenzin Zopa about the search for the reincarnation and the miraculous signs around the events
• Photos from the Enthronement

Read More About the Incarnation of Geshe Lama Konchog