Chimey Dorje

Perfector of the four visions, Chimey Dorje.

Next in age, after Samten Gyatso, was my father who was the fourth incarnation of a master named Tsangsar Sonam Yeshe.
After Wangchok Dorje died, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo predicted where he would be reborn. After he had done so, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo then asked, “How many sons does Konchok Paldron have?” He was told, “She had one previously and this year she had another.” Khyentse then exclaimed, “Ah! This new child doesn’t have a long life-span! You must re-name him Chimey Dorje! It will help to prolong his life.” That is how old Jamyang Khyentse gave my father his name which means “Indestructible Immortality".
I have to admit that my father, in spite of being a tulku, was a bit of a rogue in his younger days. He would carry a long knife and rifle and go hunting all the time. He delighted in confrontations and a good fight. He was brave and incorrigible and no one in the area could get the better of him. And this was my father! You could say he had a taste for heroics and he didn’t change his ways until he was about 22 years old. At that time, he was acting as Samten Gyatso’s attendant when they went to meet Sontar Chonchok up on the mountainside. When they arrived at the door of the hermitage, Chonchok came out to greet Samten Gyatso and said, “Welcome, Rinpoche!” then looking around he asked, “Who have you brought with you?” Samten Gyatso replied, “He’s the reincarnation of Tsangsar Sonam Yeshe.” Chonchok exclaimed, “Ah, so the Sonam Yeshe incarnation has arrived!” and bowed down at my father’s feet. Chimey Dorje tried to sidestep him, but Chonchok kept bowing in his direction expressing his deep respect. Finally my father thought to himself, “Oh dread! How can this lama have such pure perception of an evil-doer like myself? He has such devotion to my former incarnation that it makes no difference to him that I am dressed like a worldly person. How I have wasted my life until now! I have hurt so many people.” So, due to the skillful intervention of this lama, Chimey Dorje had a complete change of attitude and said to Samten Gyatso, “Today, in front of this lama, I would like to promise to change my way of life and never repeat any of the evil deeds that I have done in the past.” Samten Gyatso replied, “If you really mean it, then you should surely do so. But if not, what’s the use in making promises that will only cause you grief later?” Chimey Dorje replied, “From this moment until I die, I will shed these mundane garments and will only dress and act like a lama!” From that day onward, my father turned into a gentle person. It is very hard to find anyone as mild-mannered as he was. I never even heard him scold a servant. He never once hit me, but then I never went against his wishes — I attended him just like a servant would. For two years, I managed his household; before that, I was his cook and made him momos.
Chimey Dorje requested meditation instructions from Sontar Chonchok and was given all the ‘mind teachings’ and oral instructions, as well as the pointing-out instruction to the awakened state, hence he regarded Chonchok Rinpoche as his root guru. After Chonchok Rinpoche passed away, but before Chimey Dorje had been told, Chonchok Rinpoche appeared to him in a vision in the sky, riding a lion and imparting the oral instructions on meditation practice. My father told me, “From that day on, it was like a sun shining in a cloudless sky. This master was the kindest to me!” With that vision he had attained stability in nondual awareness.
Chimey Dorje had many such visions of various masters and yidam deities, but he didn’t keep his premonitions to himself very much. For instance, before a person of importance arrived at his hermitage he would tell me that so-and-so was on their way. When I asked who had sent the message, he would say that it had just occurred to him and sure enough a short time later the person would arrive.
He carried out a vast number of practices and recitations from the perspective of Mahayoga. He used the Cho system as the framework, but the innermost core of his practice was Kunzang Tuktig and Chetsun Nyingtig. He would sometimes say to me, “How can there possibly be any difference between the view of prajnaparamita, which is the very nature of Cho, and the view of the Great Perfection? They are completely identical! Mahamudra, Dzogchen and Cho ultimately converge at the same state. There isn’t the slightest difference, is there?”
My father was fond of going on pilgrimage and would often interrupt serious teachings with ceremonies and picnics. When he gave a reading transmission, you could hear each word distinctly so that at the end of a day of reading sutras aloud most educated people could remember what the Buddha had said to whom and where, and were able to re-tell it to others. It’s interesting to note that when his body was cremated, they found his tongue lying, intact, in the ashes. Perhaps his tongue had been blessed in some way, for it would be hard to find anyone more articulate and with a voice that could project as far as his. When he chanted the Cho songs at his hermitage, they could be heard echoing across the entire countryside. He could read the whole Kangyur in three months, usually 1½ volumes a day and he gave the complete lung for it three times.
As Chimey Dorje had such a great voice, when he arrived somewhere new people would gather, from near and far, in order to listen to him. Of his many great qualities, one of the more obvious was his power of mantra which was probably a result of all the Mahayoga practices he did.
He was more famous for his powers to cure people than Samten Gyatso. Sometimes sick people were carried from as far away as a two or three weeks journey. Once every week he would do the Cho ritual and they would recover and then take leave. During the ritual the people had to lie down as if they had died, giving up all concerns and in his meditative state Chimey Dorje would then open his ‘Cho eyes’ in which he could see the karmic causes of their diseases and what remedies were necessary for a swift cure. He would state these aloud for all to hear. When people heard why and in what circumstances they had fallen ill, they were often astounded. Not everyone was cured, but the morning after the Cho ritual it would always be clear whether they would recover or not. He cured a lot of people in this way, received plenty of gifts of gratitude and was regarded with deep respect. Ask any old person from my region, they all remember Chimey Dorje and his Cho practice. He died when he was about 63 years old.

--extract from Blazing Splendor, the momoirs of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche