Thekchen Chöling, Dharamsala, HP, India - “Today, I’m going to give the actual empowerment of Avalokiteshvara,” His Holiness the Dalai Lama announced when he had taken his seat on the throne. “Avalokiteshvara is regarded as the embodiment of the compassion of all the Buddhas. And Tibet is the land whose people he is to train. Since the time of the great Dharma Kings, Tibetans have enjoyed a special connection to the one they know as Chenrezig.”
His Holiness repeated the story of the Kyirong Jowo, the Wati Sangpo statue that he has had installed in the Temple for the duration of the collection of Mani mantras. In Tibet there was a celebrated statue of Avalokiteshvara in the Potala, another in the Jokhang, while a third was the Wati Sangpo. When the Fifth Dalai Lama undertook an Avalokiteshvara retreat he brought the three together and experienced visions of deities emerging from the heart of the Wati Sangpo. The monks of Dzongkar Chödé say that different expressions can be seen on its face and His Holiness says he’s noticed that it seems to smile when he’s making prayers related to bodhichitta.
Something prompted His Holiness to mention a rhyme that is repeated when children’s milk teeth fall out. “May I not have teeth like a donkey, may I have teeth like a sheep.” He revealed that he has lost none of his own teeth, but that he had no wisdom-teeth. “However, I have wisdom,” he remarked, “I’m a Bhikshu, a monk fully-ordained in the Buddhist tradition. I received my ordination from Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché in the Jokhang in Lhasa.
