The Path of Compassion: A Biography of Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche — Part Two: Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche — Chapter One: Family and Birth

The light of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara’s activities shines upon the beings of the Land of Snows. On September 22, 1969—the Fire Bird Year of the sixteenth sixty-year cycle and the Buddha’s Descent Day—Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche was born in Hor shul, a place in Sertar within Dokham that the great master Padmasambhava had personally blessed, into a family in which accomplished masters had appeared on both his father’s and mother’s sides. The Khenpo was born beside a monastery that Lerab Lingpa, an earlier incarnation of Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche, had built at Five-Colored Lake. This was a sacred place where Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal had undertaken retreat together for seven years and where King Gesar had built a temporary palace. When the Khenpo entered the womb, both parents experienced exceptional dreams, and many auspicious signs appeared before and after his birth, although no definite records of them have been found.

Both parents of Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche came from families belonging to Tibet’s five noble clans. His father, Gede, came from the clan of King Gesar, the Guofei. When his paternal grandfather was only a few months old, Lerab Lingpa—an earlier incarnation of Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche—personally recognized him as one of his own incarnations. Lerab Lingpa himself removed his hat, placed the infant inside it, bestowed his own bell and vajra and many other treasure objects upon him, and made many exceptional prophecies concerning later generations of the family. His paternal grandmother’s clan, the Abang, was also a noble lineage. In more recent times it produced the Nyenlung consort and her father, the treasure revealer Abang, among others. The Khenpo’s grandmother’s elder brother was Abang Tsilo, the paternal grandfather of Master Mencuo, head of the Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Institute in Sertar. He was widely regarded as an emanation of the Medicine Buddha and was a holder of the Abang family’s medical lineage.

Abang Tsilo was the foremost disciple of Yike Lama, an emanation of Vimalamitra. Master Yike praised him as having genuinely accomplished Chöd, and throughout the entire Serba region he alone was authorized to practice Chöd for others and dispel demonic obstacles and adverse conditions. Master Mencuo’s father, Menba Yelo, was raised from childhood by the Khenpo’s grandmother. The Khenpo was therefore a close relative of Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche’s family.

The Khenpo’s mother, Tula, belonged to the direct line of Dromtönpa—the Drom clan—and to a hereditary chieftain family of the Sertar region. His maternal great-grandfather was commonly regarded as a son of Mahākāla. The family produced many great paṇḍitas and great Khenpos, and in recent generations a number of accomplished masters in its direct line also attained rainbow body.

When the Khenpo had just been born, his grandfather told the family, “This is no ordinary child; an accomplished master has returned.” During his childhood, his parents took him to Tulku Lodrö Wangpo, abbot of Luoruo Monastery in Sertar. The venerable one had just finished reciting Khedrup Je’s Ten Great Aspirations and said happily that the auspicious connection was excellent. Tulku Lodrö Wangpo observed that he would greatly benefit the Buddhadharma and sentient beings in the future and gave him the same name as Khedrup Je, the heart-son of Master Tsongkhapa: “Gelek Palsang” (dge legs dpal bzang), a Tibetan name conveying virtue, excellence, glory, and auspiciousness. The Chinese source thereafter uses a shortened Chinese form of the name.

As a child, the Khenpo once saw many ancient scripture volumes in a cave and was extremely excited. The following day he led his family there, but they could not find even a trace of the cave. On another day, an unknown person gave him a parcel and disappeared from sight as soon as he turned away. When the parcel was opened, it contained an old notebook filled with writing. The Khenpo gave it to his grandfather, who examined it and said that it was a treasure teaching handwritten by Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche in his early years and must have been delivered by a Dharma protector. Through this auspicious connection, while still very young the Khenpo went to many charnel grounds and practiced Chöd at night according to the treasure liturgy contained in the notebook. Many people were astonished that someone so young possessed such courage and realization. This original handwritten record of Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche’s treasure teaching still exists; its paper differs from ordinary paper. Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche’s biography relates that some treasures he revealed in his early years were carried away by ḍākinīs and Dharma protectors and were revealed again late in his life. Prophecies about the future proved extremely accurate afterward.

From childhood, the Khenpo wrote many prophecies in ḍākinī script. The great Tulku Tudeng Longduo of Hor shul was his very close childhood friend, and he was the only tulku Venerable Khenpo Qiaq ever recognized. One day, before any great master had recognized him, the Khenpo wrote a text about Tulku Tudeng Longduo in ḍākinī script. Its general meaning was that he was an emanation of Hayagrīva and of Chaotong, King Gesar’s uncle, and that in his previous life he had been Lama Lodrö, guru of Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche and Khenpo Qiaq. Later, numerous great masters—principally the accomplished Nyingmapa master Xigong Mazhi Rinpoche and the Second Angzang Zhuba Tulku—recognized him. The documents these masters wrote identifying the circumstances of his successive lives were unexpectedly the same as what the Khenpo had written years earlier, which was extraordinary. The text written by the Khenpo is still preserved today in the tulku’s home. Many people still retain the ḍākinī prophecies, and there are many other events of this kind.

In the preface to A Guide to the Preliminaries of Dzogchen, Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche
mentions the lineage of the Dzogchen preliminaries: “Patrul Rinpoche transmitted it to Khenpo Lekshé Gönmé;
he transmitted it to Lama Lodrö Rinpoche, and my gracious teacher Lodrö Rinpoche transmitted it to me.”
The only reincarnate tulku recognized by Venerable Qiaq in his lifetime was Thubten Longdo Rinpoche, the incarnation of Lodrö Rinpoche.
Note: Tudeng Longduo is also translated as Thubten Longdo.

From childhood the Khenpo possessed compassion. Whenever someone killed a living being, he became deeply saddened and could not bear to watch, and powerful renunciation toward the suffering of saṃsāra arose in him. At four or five years of age, the Khenpo took extraordinary delight in matters related to ordination. Moreover, as the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra (Ornament of the Mahāyāna Sūtras) says:

Before undertaking action, one possesses compassion, faith and understanding, and patience; pure conduct and virtuous deeds are known as marks of the family.

The Khenpo possessed all the marks of the Mahāyāna family. Even at play he would shape many heaps of tormas from clay, decorate them with numerous little pieces of red, white, and yellow paper, and accompany them with chanting melodies and recitation. Such behavior went beyond that of ordinary children. The local people were all convinced that the venerable one was a rare emanation.

Once, the Khenpo entered a rock cave and was just beginning to fall asleep when an immense sound of “dī” came from space, and his consciousness instantly became faint. When he awoke, he directly beheld Mipham Rinpoche, inseparable from youthful Mañjuśrī, and received the master’s blessing.

The Khenpo directly beheld Mipham Rinpoche in his wisdom body from childhood, and he firmly believed that Mipham Rinpoche and Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī were utterly inseparable.

On another occasion beside Five-Colored Lake, the Khenpo and a young companion directly saw in the sky a Buddha Amitābha several stories tall. As they played, Amitābha emitted five-colored light from his heart that shone upon the Khenpo’s heart, and the Khenpo received an exceptional blessing. The young companion, who later became a bhikṣu in Hor shul, personally recounted what they had seen many times and was entirely truthful.

Before the age of twelve, as the power of his spiritual family awakened, the Khenpo could naturally compose collections of poetic praises and songs of realization without any study. Their language and meaning were supremely beautiful and deeply moved learned and realized masters.

Especially after directly beholding Mipham Rinpoche, the Khenpo could understand the full wording and meaning of any book after reading it only once. If he read a book such as a guru’s biography once, the following day he could recount all its contents in order without confusion. He could even know with complete clarity and without error where a particular word occurred in the book. Such intellectual ability surpassed imagination.

Once, when a yogin who practiced in retreat at Five-Colored Lake came to the Khenpo’s home to perform a Dharma rite, the Khenpo learned some treasure teachings from him, for he was an emanation of the great treasure revealer Dudul Dorje, “Vajra Subjugator of Māras.” When the venerable one was still young, this yogin praised him as an exceptional emanation and made a few prophecies about his future, all of which were later fulfilled.

Renown also arises from qualities; the qualities of buddhas and great beings appear;

The light of qualities surpassing moonlight can dispel the vicious enemy of pride.

New grudges, old resentments, and jealousy dissolve into purity, and all rejoice.

As soon as circumstances improved somewhat, the Khenpo himself insisted strongly on going to Larung to take ordination. There were no houses and nowhere to stay at Larung, and conditions were very difficult. At that time the teacher was still young, only in his early teens, and the family was too poor to support him, so his father brought him home.