The Exemplorary Life and Death of Geshe Yeshe Tobden

7/29/2019 The Exemplorary Life and Death of Geshe Yeshe Tobden

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GREAT YOGIS

the exemplary life and death ofGeshe Y eshe T obden

"HE WAS LIKEST. FRANCIS."

he way Geshe Yeshe Tobden , Dharamsalamedi ta tor and be loved t eacher to s tudents around

the world , l i ved and died i s an i lluminat ing exam ple o fDha rma in pract ice . Centro Terra d i Uni f icaz ione 'sGIOVANNA PESCETTI interviewed on e of those closest tohim, h is a t tendant Ven . Lobsang D honden .

Geshe Yeshe Tobden had escaped from Tibet by himselfin 1960-61 after years of terror and Communist occupation.He was already well known in his monastery in Tibet Sera-Me because of his very strict and rigorous practice. He waslike St. Francis; he lived according to a very strict discipline,in poverty, humility, and chastity. Thousands of monks knewhim and called him a saint from that time. Even the Chineserespected him.

Since his time in Tibet, Geshe-la [affectionate name for arevered teacher] was a well-known disciple of His Holiness theDalai Lama, from whom he had received the Kalachakra initi-ation. His Holiness took care of him until the last days of hislife. Other teachers of his, like Ling Rinpoche and TrijangRinpoche [the senior and junior tutors respectively of His

Holiness] considered Geshe-la as one of their most important disciples.After two attempts to flee a Chinese prison, he finally escaped and arrived at the refugee

camp in exile, Buxa in India, where he resumed his studies and obtained the highest degree thedegree of Geshe Larampa at the age of 37.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama sent him to the university of Varanasi to teach Buddhist philoso-phy for three years. But Geshe-la was not happy there b ecause his h ighest aspiration was to med itatein a small grotto on the mountain. At that time the conditions to be able to do it were truly difficult.All geshes could not go away to the mountains, and thus Geshe-la submitted to the wish of HisHoliness and went to Varanasi.

In Varanasi there were many other important geshes, among them Geshe Rabten whocame to know of Geshe Tobden's profound desire. One day, while in discussion with HisHoliness, he had the chance to talk to him about it. His Holiness then saw Geshe Tobden per-sonally, asking him if he still wanted to go to the mountain and what he would do there onceby himself. And Geshe-la said that he would like so much to meditate on renunciation, bod-hicitta and emptiness.

His Holiness greatly appreciated Geshe-la's genuine desire and proposed that he go toDharamsala, saying that he would take care of Geshe-la's material needs, would talk to the direc-tor of the university in Varanasi and ask for the collaboration of the Indian state so that Geshe-

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onnected him bymputer were surprisedel of concentration.

cientists who cwires to a coat his high lev

GREAT YOGIS

la would b e released from his teaching duties be fore the end ofhis con tract. Geshe -la was able to leave immediately.From that time on h e would be considered as a member ofthe Dalai Lama's own family; His Holiness would always havetime to receive him, regardless of his duties. Gesh e-la was sohappy. The other professors asked h im not to go and leave thenice house and a very good salary, one of the highest, higher thanthat of the m inister of the provisional Tibe tan governme nt. Hewas living a good life in Varanasi, worked relatively little andwanted to leave all that! In the eyes of the othe r professo rs hesee med a little e ccentric.Thus in 1971 he went to the mountain where h e lived in asmall house near the temple of His Holiness and adapted to hisnee ds. Some Tibetans had built, in on ly two days, a humble hutmade o f stone an d san d. He lived in it, just as it was, for 29 years.In the b eginning Gesh e-la lived the re all year round , butfrom 1979, when His Holiness first sent Gesh e-la to Italy, hespent ev ery winter either in Italy or in Bodhgaya Ch ristmas inItaly with his disciples, and January in India. He returned toDharamsala whe n the climate was warmer.Th is came abo ut because Geshe -la had b ecome ill withtuberculosis, and Lama Yeshe, who was his friend, told him tocome down from his mountain hermitage. Geshe-la was verythin, looke d like S aint Milarepa,only bones, and he did not takecare o f himself. He d id not wantto take Western medicinesbecause he said that they inhib-ited his mental capacity to med-itate. He took them for a whileand then he "forgot", and thus the cure could not work.Lama Yesh e offered h im a beautiful house in T ushita, wherehe could stay and be cured. He remained there for abo ut a year.Th anks to Lama Yesh e, some Italian disciples Piero Cerri,Claudio Cipullo and Luca Corona had got to know him better,since they lived in Tush ita close to him. Although G eshe -lanever spoke, and was always lying down to meditate, they couldtell that he was inde ed a great meditator, a great yogi.Th ese I talian s tudents r equested an audience wi th HisHoliness and aske d that Geshe-la be appointed resident teacherat the n ewly opened Istituto Lama T zong K hapa in Pomaia.W ith his gentleness and clairvoyance, His Holiness und erstoodthat Geshe-la would be just right for the Italians. Whe n Ges he-la later went to speak to His Holiness about his practices, hewas ve ry surprised at the sudd en proposal that he go to Italy.Reme mber that Geshe-la had nev er thought of going awayfrom India or visiting the West, much less teaching in Italy. Hisgreat goal and profound d esire was to become and remain amed itator up to h is death. During that discussion His Holinessexplained that he had do ne a mo [divination with dice] thatcame out very good , and that by going to the W est he could

also be cured (Geshe-la was very weak at this stage). HisHoliness had to insist on getting an answer through more thanone encounter, until one day Geshe responded , "Lama k h y e n ,Gyalwa Rinpoche khyen," (you know e verything. You wh o areGyalwa Rinpoche , you kno w eve rything).In June 1979, he went with Luca Co rona and s tayed at theIstituto Lama Tzong Khapa for two years as a resident teacher.In those two years many students invited him to v ariousparts of Italy and wh en h e de cided to return to India and to h ismoun tain, his d isciples tried every w ay they could to retainhim. Geshe -la was immutable and explained that he also had aneed of his teacher, and that his teacher was in Dh aramsala.W hen the moment o f departure came, his s tudents shed manytears at seeing him go.I also misse d him a lot; for two long years we had bee n sep-arated. As soo n as h e returned, he gave 90% of all the gifts thatItalian d isciples had given him to His Holiness the Dalai Lamaand the rest to his mo nastery, Sera-Me. He d id not kee p any-thing for himself.From 1983 h e made a trip to Italy every secon d summe r until1997. The second time, my friend Ngawang Khechog [a formermonk and disciple of Geshe-la's who had introduced Ven. Lob sangDhond en to Geshe-la; see story page 621 and I accompanied him.I asked permission to stay in Italyand to learn Italian, but Geshe-lasaid no . Now I thank him for that,

because life in the West for amon k, particularly if he is o riental,can be v ery, very hard!Geshe-la and I went toAmerica for the first time in 1987. In 1989 we toured FPMTcenters in America. In 1993, His Holiness sent Geshe Tobdento W isconsin University, to Geshe Sopa's Deer Park Center.W e had already b een to Italy, so that was a very long trip.Scienti s ts , who had o rganized a conference on the mind atDeer Park, attached him to wires con nected to a computer andwere surprised to observe his high level of concentration.Gesh e-la respon ded to specific signals for a long period. The y

said that an ordinary person would have managed to stayfocused for only about 10 to 15 minutes, after which they wouldhave felt fatigue or pain. Gesh e-la also visited Switzerland,France, and Canada.From my experience and memory of this great being, I cansay to all studen ts and W estern practition ers that if they reallywant to achieve anything in this life, it is important to practiceconstantly, and with co ntinuity. I have no ticed that W esternershave lit tle consistency and lack the knowledge of what dev o-tion to the guru really means. I lived and traveled a lot withGesh e To bde n and this is also his advice: when there are nogood roots, even if one doe s high practices like Y amantaka,Heruka or Vajrayogini, they d o n ot work.MANDALA JUNE 2001 PAGE 59


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0:111 1 1 . 1 MIlikeng r n a .. . rr.: .i .ee GREAT YOGISpractice and patienceFrom G eshe Yes he Tobden's introduct ion to his comm entary on

Shantideva's Bodhisattvacharyavatara, translated from Ital ianby Manu Bazzano

Iis not essential to be a monk or a special person:anyone can practice the Dharma perfectly andthere is no d ifference betwee n b eing in retreat,with the family, in the office or anywhere else. Many yogishave said that if we practice, nirvana is within the walls o four home , but if we do not practice, we create the causes ofan unfortunate rebirth , even tho ugh we might be o n soli-tary retreat.Th e Buddh a we refer to is not a legendary character, buta historical one who gave his first teachings in Samath, nearVaranasi. At first Buddha was an ordinary human being likeus, full of shortcomings and faults, but these can be com-pletely eradicated, and all virtues completely realized, as h eproved by succeeding in attaining enlightenment; it is possi-ble to understand logically that we can do the same. Buddhareached this state thanks to h is perseverance and h is greateffort, whereas we con tinue to wande r in cyclic existencefrom beginningless time due to our indolence.W e also find o urselves having to endure various prob-lems: some o f us perhaps do no t eat regularly and others sleepbadly. We endure many kinds of discomfort for some gain orother. But if we work long hours at the office, for example,the res ult is limited to this life. What we gain by listening tothe Dharma and enduring the difficulties of practice, on theother hand , go far beyon d this. Simply hearing the n ame of aBudd ha o r a bod hisattva is in itself a great purification, andwe benefit simply by listening to the story of the Buddha, orby wishing to be like h im, that is, one who has purified allnegativity and accumulated all virtues.If we possess solid foundations in the Dharma, even theordinary dimension s o f our daily life will not prese nt us withdifficulties. It will not b ene fit us, on the o ther hand , to putspirituality aside and ded icate ourselves exclusively to thematerial aspects of existence. If we compare a person whos ewho le life has be en d edicated to thes e material concerns tosomeone who also took care of his own development andmental training, we will notice that the latter has not onlysuffered less in this life, but that he h as some thing to takewith him after death. Those who follow a spiritual path willhave difficulties, but also realization s. Howe ver, on e sh ouldnot cultivate the kind of haste that makes us desire toachieve great results the very next day after hearing theteachings. If we plant the see ds o f a tree, we cannot possiblyexpect it to bear fruit the following year. Even in so wing grainor wheat we ne ed to wait five or six months for the harvest.W e h ave the oppor tuni ty to l is t en to the t eachings andemb ark on our spiritual training, but in orde r to see theresults we must be patient and wait. 0

Geshe- la debates in front of His Hol iness the Dala i Lama

The Harmony Stupa ( r ight) at Ist i tu to Lama Tzong Khapa. Geshe Iampa GyaLso, centerwith Rosario and Fiorel la Rizzi.

MANDALA (Nov-Dec 1999) and SIDDHI magazines h aveboth written abo ut how Gesh e-la left his body the extraordi-nary signs, the pe riod in which he remained absorbed in clearlight and so forth. I wo uld like to add that Geshe-la was grave-ly ill in the last four months, from April 6 to July 31, 1999. Hewent back to his mountain where two Tibetan doctors checkedhim daily and disciples h elped him d ay and night.What struck me the most is that in all these months Inever noticed a moment in which he was preoccupied with hisown suffering; instead, h e was h appy, paying attention to us,hospitable with eve ryone, nev er sad for himself, always content

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PoFlo

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Geshe- la 's Enl ightenment Stupa in Dharamsala.From left : Chusang Rinpoche and yen. Lobsang Dhonden.

and serene. He was a great practitioner; the best prac-tition ers face death with jo y, like a ch ild w ho is goingto his parents' house after months at college. I nev ersaw him sad. But when I remembered sometimes thathe was very ill, I became very nervous, agitated andstressed, and easily angered. I believe that he was soserene and conten t because of his practice. I have nodoub t about that.On July 30 Geshe-la appeared to be very ill.W hen we left for the ho spital, he was s leeping deeplyand his he ad was resting on my arm; he had stoppedtalking and had fallen into a profound sleep. Helooked serene and luminous.Geshe Y eshe T obde n stopped breathing on July31, 1999, just before entering the hospital inCh andigarth in India. Whe n his bod y was returned toMcLeod Ganj in Dharamsala, he was laid on his bedfor 12 days, during which there was no decompo sitionof his physical body. His disciples gathered around andrecited the texts that His Holiness the Dalai Lama hadadvised until on August 12, in the late afternoon,Geshe-la showed signs o f having left his body.Through this example, Geshe Tobd en sh owed h isdisciples ho w great a being he w as. He left them insilence, with gentleness , strength, hum ility and lov e,sho wing them that it is possible to live and d ie like asaint, a bod hisattva, dev eloping on e's pos itive capaci-ty for the b ene fit of the othe rs. It is thanks to this lastteaching of his that it is easier to be "separated" whilewe pray every day for his speed y rebirth.*

GREAT YOGIS

three stupas in his honorby F iorel la Rizz i

9ESHE YESHE TOBDEN WAS A TRUE MASTER, SO ONEWANTS TO THINK OF THE possibility of a new con tactwith him in the future. And so, imme diately after theannounceme nt of h is death, it seemed completely natural for someof us who live near Pomaia to build a stupa in his memo ry at theIstituto Lama Tzo ng Kh apa.Simultaneo usly, the d isciples of Gesh e-la in In dia undertookthe same initiative: constructing a stupa in Dharamsala and also asmall silve r stupa to carry to S era-Me.Th ree special places: on the mountains abov e Dh aramsalawhe re Ge she -la was physically most prese nt; Italy, particularlyPom aia (whe re he was the first resident lama at Istituto L amaTso ng Khapa); and in Sera whe re he trained his mind, carrying outthe studies of a geshe.In these three places, according to an invisible project oftogetherness abo ut which we on ly got to kn ow after we did it, thethree stupas (each containing a part of the ashes of the Master) arenow co mplete: sacred and potent objects to emanate a strong pos -itive influence on the environment and the beings.Th e first stupa (pictured this page) was con structed o n the ter-rain given by the T ibetan Ch ildren's Village, on the hill behindMcLeod Ganj, in the place indicated by His Ho liness the DalaiLama where the holy body o f Geshe T obden was cremated. Th estupa was finished in June 2000 and the final ceremony o f conse-cration took place on July 19, 2000.In his house-cum-laboratory at McLeod Ganj, the artist-gold-smith Ratna Kaji (very close to Geshe-la even by blood relationship)dedicated every free moment to applying leaves of silver on theinternal wooden structure, then to sealing and inlaying the smallstupa of which Ch usang Rinpoche was made the keeper in Se ra-Memonastery. There the young Rinpoche is studying, conscious of hisspecial role and responsibility, particularly from the moment whenthe new reincarnation o f Geshe T obde n will be found.At the s ame time in P omaia in July 2000, at the Istituto LamaTzo ng Kh apa, the preparation of the man tra and the collection o fthe o ther items to put in the stupa were completed; Lama Zo pa hadchosen a stupa of harmony from the eight principal types (picturedopposite). And n o on e was surprised, b ecause this was the e ffectthat Geshe Tobden produced around him: harmony in the placesand the circumstances in which he lived , and harmony in the mindof those who came in contact with him.On A ugust 3, 2000, Gesh e Jampa Gyatso and Ven . TulkuGyatso officiated at a blessing ceremo ny of all the items. Incredibly,financial donations arrived whenever the need arose, and withoutmaking a specific request. On the d ay of the cons ecration ce remon y,in which the budget was close d almost 'perfectly', the s mall amountin excess was offered to the mon ks present.

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.1.1MIALPROECT8 7 7 - T I B E T - A I Dww.t ibe ta id .orgGREAT How I becameGeshe-la's attendantBy Ven L o b s a n g D h o n d enI MET GESHE YESHE TOBDEN FOR the firsttime in 1975. I was in the m ilitary and hadgone to the Tibetan refugee camp of Orissato find my mother and my little sisterDechen. There I met a dear friend,Ngawang Kh echo g (now a famous flutep lay er who l ives i n Co lorado) who hadbecome a monk and disciple of GesheTob den o n the advice of His Holiness theDalai Lama.Ngawang had be en a ve ry lively youngman who bragged to everyone, but from thetime he had become a disciple of Geshe-lahe had become humble like him. My moth-er wondered who had succeeded in chang-ing the bo y who was once so aggressive andturbulent. She asked Nawang to take mewith him, because she wanted me to becomea monk like him. She did not like my beinga soldier, but I needed to earn money to he lpmy widowed mother raise Dechen .Th us Ngawang took me with him toDharamsala. My mother gave me mo ney forthe trip and once I got to Dharamsala Ilived w ith a family in a v illage. Ngawang,who was already a meditator, l ived in asmall hut near Geshe -la.I was a layman for the first six or sevenmonths until I took m onk's vow s from HisHoliness the Dalai Lama. Aside from HisHoliness, Ngawang had a very strong devo-tion to Gesh e-la, while I hardly knew him.Wh en I wen t up the mo untain it was to takefood to Ngawang because although he h adpresented me to Geshe-la, I was not imme-diately accepted as his disciple. Students areobse rved first very calmly, and only after agood bit of time does the Master accept you.Ngawang falls illIn 1976 Ngawang b ecame very s ickwith tuberculosis and we had to take him tovarious hospitals. Finally, with the help ofthe Private Office of His Holiness we wen tto Delhi, where he recove red completely.But his mind was changed. Instead ofreturning to Dharamsala, he disappeared.He wrote me a brief letter. "Please Lobsang,help my master, Geshe Y eshe T obd en, I willnot forget your kindn ess."Th erefore, Geshe -la was left alone upthere in the mountain, but in the meantimeI had s tarted to kno w him b etter. During Ngawang's illness , we had gon e together tohelp Gesh e-la, who slowly started to acceptme much more deeply.At the beginning we were like friends. Irespected him very much be cause Ngawanghad told me so many times that Geshe-la wasa great saint, a studious practitione r and agreat yogi. I had much d evotion, b ut withouthaving sufficient courage to advance myselfin his favor. At that time h e was ab out 50years old, s till youthful; he spok e ve ry little ina low voice, h e was always very thin, all skinand bon es , and he was of ten lying down,doing h is meditations in that position.Although h e did n ot call me often, Iwen t just the same to help him as best Icould; I did not have money, I was extreme-ly poor, and I could not offer him anything zero! but when I could manage it, Ibo ught him something to eat and ran upthe mo untain to offer it to him. Ngawanghad asked me to do that.In 1977, Geshe-la encouraged me tostudy in the Buddhist schoo l. With his helpI was enrolled and admitted. Geshe-la paidfor my school food 60 rupees a month and thus I was able to advance in my stud-ies. I considered h im my father, he was mymost important point of reference.In the meantime, my mother haddied at age 49 in Dharamsala. GesheTobden did pujas for her and helped withall the necess ary arrangements. After herdeath he continued to protect not onlyme, b ut also my litt le s is ter , who was atthe T ibetan C hildren's Village. I kne w Ihad to follow his wishes and help himthere on the mo untain.We we nt on like this from 1977 to 1999;we b ecame like a family, Geshe-la, Dechenand I; whatever problem arose we con frontedit together: food, clothes, other difficulties,whatever. Unti l the last day we dividedeverything evenly. I felt that my duty was tohelp and serve Geshe-la in the best way, andI did it with all my heart. Nobod y asked m eto do this, neither Geshe no r His Holinessthe Dalai Lama. Only my dear friend,Ngawang. I have said always that with thatlittle letter he gave me a light, I was living inthe dark, and he illuminated something trulyprecious, as if he told me : Take this thing, andit will be good for you. * Nepal Tibet .131notaiiNext Trip: BhutanOctober 7-23, 2001802-434-5416 [email protected]

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The Exemplorary Life and Death of Geshe Yeshe Tobden

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