During his three-year retreat at Rumtek Monastery in 1992, Khachab Rinpoche received this letter from his teacher Bokar Rinpoche. The letter arrived one day through Bokar Rinpoche’s nephew. He offered it wrapped in a katag, requesting Khachab Rinpoche to begin teaching during the retreat itself.
At that time, sixteen lamas were in retreat together at Rumtek. Bokar Rinpoche had given the empowerments and core instructions for the retreat, but he traveled frequently between his centers in Europe and could only visit once each year. Many of the retreatants had experience in rituals and pujas from their monasteries, but not all had received extensive philosophical training.
During the retreat, Bokar Rinpoche asked Khachab Rinpoche about his earlier training at the Gelugpa Ganden Jangtse Monastery. He said that most Karma Kagyu monks would never think of undertaking that kind of study. Khachab Rinpoche told him that he had specialized there in Madhyamaka, the Middle Way teachings.
At one point, Khachab Rinpoche composed a short text and offered it to Bokar Rinpoche, titled Lion’s Roar of Interdependence Free from Eternalism and Nihilism. Bokar Rinpoche was very pleased with this text. A few days later, he sent this letter expressing his confidence in Khachab Rinpoche’s experience and understanding of the Middle Way and that he wanted him to start teaching the others during the retreat breaks.
After lunch during the retreat, Khachab Rinpoche taught different subjects to support the group’s study and understanding. Among the texts he taught were the Bodhicaryāvatāra, the Aspiration Prayer for Mahamudra, and the Jewel Ornament of Liberation.
On another occasion, Bokar Rinpoche invited Khachab Rinpoche privately to his room and spoke with him about teaching in the future. He gave him a short lung for the Zabmo Nangdon of Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje and told him he should teach it when the time was right.
Khachab Rinpoche kept this letter as a gift from his root guru and as a symbol of the heart connection he shared with Bokar Rinpoche. Bokar Rinpoche trusted that he was capable of teaching during the retreat. For Khachab Rinpoche, the letter also carries a reminder of his pure samaya with the 16th Karmapa and Bokar Rinpoche, holding their instructions in his heart and continuing to share them with his own students.
ཟླ་མེད་བསྟོན་པའི་གསུང་རབ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ལ།
ལེགས་བྱས་རྟེན་བཟང་ཐར་པའི་གཟིངས་བཅས་ཏེ།
མང་ཐོས་བཤེས་གཉེན་དེད་དཔོན་ལ་རྟེན་ནས།
རིག་ལམ་ནོར་བུའི་དཔལ་གྱིས་ཁྱོད་ཐུགས་གཏམས།
On the ocean of the Excellent Teachings of the Peerless Teacher,
With the excellent support of your past virtuous actions, you board the ship of liberation.
Relying on expert spiritual mentors as your captains,
Your heart has been saturated with the glorious riches of the path of study.
རབ་འབྱམས་གཞུང་ལུགས་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་བརྗོད་བྱའི་དོན།
སྟོན་པ་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པའི་དགོངས་པའི་བཅུད།
ཟབ་ཞི་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་རྟེན་འཕྱུང་དགུ་མའི་གཏམས།
ཁྱོད་ཐུགས་རྣམ་དཔྱོད་རྒྱས་པས་མགྲིན་པར་སྐྱུགས།
The meanings expressed across the ocean of vast scriptural systems saturate your heart,
As does the vital essence of the enlightened intent of the Teacher, the “One Gone to Bliss”,
As well as the nine-fold interdependence—profound, peaceful, free from elaboration.
With these in your heart, extensive understanding springs forth from your throat.
དེང་དུས་སྐྱེ་བོ་ཤེས་རབ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་དམན།
ཐོས་བསམ་སྒོམ་སྒོམ་གསུམ་མི་ནུས་རྣམས་གཡངས་ལ།
མི་ཚེ་སྟོང་ཟད་བགྱིད་པ་བདག་ལྟ་བུ།
བསམ་ན་ཨེ་མ་ཁྱོད་ཉིད་སྐལ་པ་བཟང།
These days, there is minimal discernment and effort among people;
Unable to practice widely the cultivations of hearing, contemplating, and meditating.
Like my own, their lives are squandered in idleness.
Contemplating this, I think “o my! How fortunate you are!”
ཐོས་བསམ་ལག་རྗེས་ད་གདོད་སྒོམ་པ་ལ།
གཅིག་ཏུ་སྦྱོར་བའི་མོས་པ་ལྷུབ་བཞེས་ཀྱིས།
ལོ་གསུམ་སྙིང་པོའི་སྒྲུབ་ལ་གཞོལ་བ་འདིར།
ཡི་རངས་ངོ་མཚར་མི་ཏོག་ཅི་ཡང་འགུལ།
Having gained strong imprints from hearing and contemplating, you will meditate,
Taking up practice with strong devotion to applying yourself single-pointedly.
Here and now, be diligent in accomplishing the essence (heart) of the three-year retreat!
I offer wondrous praise and shower flowers [of admiration].
འབོ་སྤྲུལ་པས།
Bokar Tulku
