Stupa in Drepung Monastery where Tarab Tulku used to study
The story of a man from Kham
& that of Kongpo Ben
As told by Ven. Drubthob Rinpoche
To Kirsten Tarab Losang
There is a story of a man from Kham in Tibet, who went on a pilgrimage to see the famous Jowo Rinpoche statue in Lhasa. His mother was praying every day to the Jowo, asking for a relic. The Khampa man went to Lhasa, made offerings and prayed to Jowo Rinpoche. He then returned to Kham completely forgetting to ask for a relic for his mother. When he was in sight of his mother's house, he suddenly remembered, he looked around and saw the body of a dead dog. So he took a tooth out of the head of the dead dog and polished it very carefully and made it look really nice, wrapped it into a piece of brocade and went to his mother. His mother said "Oh, did you bring me the relics from Jowo Rinpoche?" and he said "Oh yes, of course I did, and it is the most precious one: I asked for a tooth of the Jowo Rinpoche, and he gave it to me, look!" So he gave the dog's tooth to the mother and she put is on her alter, praying every day.
When he was in front of the actual Jowo Rinpoche, he prayed, and nothing happened, and now his mother - praying to the dog's tooth, believing it to be a tooth from Jowo Rinpoche - after a few days saw a big light come from the tooth together with some relics. So Drubthob Rinpoche says, you see, this is the story to show that one's faith, devotion and aspiration are most important.
When one looks at the teachings with true devotion, this is what allows one person to seek the blessings. Independently of the quality of the teacher, maybe sometimes the Lama has not got super qualities, but the Boddhisattwa who has a lot of faith will be able to get the blessings and improve spiritual practise, whereas even from the great Lamas, those who do not have faith for them, do not get the blessings. Because the Lama is considered the embodiment of all the Buddhas, he is so precious and if the student has true devotion, the two things combined becomes very powerful.
Another story Drubthob Rinpoche told, was that of a man, Kongpo Ben, who was a very simple person with deep devotion. He came from Kongpo and went on a pilgrimage to Lhasa where he went to see the Jowo statue. Having a lot of faith he was praying together with others. As he was a very simple-minded person there was no doubt in his mind that he was not only in front of a statue of Jowo, but he was in front of the real Buddha Sakyamuni.
When he entered in front of the Jowo, his boots were hanging on his shoulder, when he was praying these heavy boots on his shoulder were bothering him, and as everybody was asking things from Jowo Yeshe Norbu, the wish-fulfilling jewel, he was thinking, "all right - everybody is praying for something, so I can also do that". He then asked the Jowo: "Please, can you look after my boots, while I go round and look at the paintings?" And Jowo did not say anything, but looked like - he did like that - Rinpoche is nodding. So he put his boots in a corner, then he thought, I am thirsty now, maybe I can drink some of the water from the Alter. So he drank the water and then he thought he could have something to eat, so he took some of the grains and ate them. Then he went for his round and in his mind there was no doubt that he received the permission from Jowo, Buddha Sakyamuni, to do all that. Then the monk that looked after the Jowo Rinpoche's place saw those dirty boots and said "Who put those?" Grapping them and was going to throw them out, when Jowo said: "Don't throw them out, Kongpo Ben left them there and I am looking after them". So the monk was very surprised, thinking who is this Kongpo Ben, he must be a very realised being, since Jowo has so much consideration for him. So he left the boots in the corner. He then saw this unkempt person, who took his boots and thanked the Jowo saying: "Thank you very much, it is really true what everyone says, you are happy to fulfil everybody's wishes. You looked after my boots, you gave me something to drink and eat from the offerings, I am very grateful to you. So please, do come to see me at my place in Kongpo". And the Jowo said: "Yes, I will" and he gave a day, a specific day. So on that day in Kongpo, Kongo Ben cleaned his house and killed a pig, because he had said to Jowo – "come, and I will give you some pork to eat". Then he asked his daughter to go on the roof to look for the Jowo, who was coming from Lhasa. She couldn’t see anything, so he was a little bit disillusioned, so he asked his daughter to fetch some water at the lake. She went there and while she was fetching the water, she saw the Jowo in the water, she rushed back to her father and said: "Look, that person you were expecting to come and see you from Lhasa, has fallen into the lake, and he is just down there". Kongpo Ben then begged the Jowo: "Please come out of the lake and come to my home". The Jowo came out and he was walking back with Kongpo Ben. When they got to a huge rock, the Jowo said: "Wait a minute, did you kill a pig today?" And Kongpo Ben said: "Oh yes, I killed a pig for you". Jowo said: "Oh that is really bad, I do not feel any more for coming to your house" and he leaned against the rock and disappeared. So even today you can see the image of the Jowo in this rock. It is one of the main pilgrimage centres. On that day of the year when the Jowo came to Kongpo, the pilgrims still come. Drubthob Rinpoche does not know what happened to the small lake, maybe when the Chinese came, they might have done something to it. Anyway, Tibetans used to come there on that day and some people even could see the Jowo in the lake, not all of them, only those who had the karma to see it.
Because of the great faith of Kongpo Ben, the Jowo actually went to Kongpo. And nowadays there is the Water Jowo and the Rock Jowo.
So this is to show why faith and prayer are important. Drubthob Rinpoche says that to have faith and to build the stupa is very beneficial.
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Geshe Tarab Tulku
The golden Stupa with the remains of Ven. Tarab Tulku
The golden Stupa
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