“I eat when I am hungry, sleep when I am tired, and watch thoughts like clouds in the sky.”
“Everything can be used as firewood for practice.” –Je Milarepa
After attending the impressive (yet elegant and understated) Buddha Within Year One Vietnamese teachings of the 9th Gyalton Rinpoche, I decided to go to Taiwan and attend Rinpoche’s weekend teachings on Je Milarepa at the Palpung centre, Taichung. I have been to Taichung in Taiwan once before, for the 16th Karmapa’s relics exhibition, centre opening and teaching of Dilyag Rinpoche at the new Nalandabodhi Centre last year. For a review of the new centre (see here) and for a transcript of the teaching, see here.
As I wrote regarding my recent participation in the Vietnamese course, I was surprised and impressed by the “vajra master” capabilities of 9th Gya-ton Rinpoche to harness the inner wisdom winds enflamed with the passion for awakening and was intrigued he was going to teach of on of the favourite Kagyu yogi masters and forefathers, Milarepa. The teachings were interspersed with some “direct experiential” meditations, watching the mind with awareness.
Previously I have written several research articles and translations on Milarepa including an interview of a direct descendant of the Hunter who met Milarepa (and his lineage). Also about Milarepa’s songs, collected in the 3rd Karmapa’s Black Treasury (Ngag Dzo), which was only recently released from the masses of texts in the stolen stash hidden for centuries by the Gelugpa sectarians in Drepung Monastery, Tibet. Also, about the twenty-eight sacred places and caves that Je Milarepa frequented here.
HE Gyalton Rinpoche spoke about the benefits of isolation, and not having anything else to look at but one’s own mind. And he spoke briefly about his own three year retreat and how there were times it was difficult to bring his mind under control and it became like “a television”. But the process has really paid off for him and us. It is rare to meet and get teachings from such a “Vajra master” who seems to be free of scandal and unethical conduct. Although, I respect them both, I have never really been drawn to the current HE 12th Tai Situpa much, nor Mingyur Rinpoche (who is very popular and has a big presence on social media), other than through my connection to the 17th Karmapa and Karma Kagyu. However, 9th Gyalton Rinpoche’s elegance, humility, understated Vajrayana mastery of the channels and winds, and kind-hearted, open energy were a pull too hard to resist for sure!
The combination of teachings, experience, inner heat, tummo and Vajravarahi passion/lust literally seemed to burn down/combust the whole room, like one massive bliss explosion, a Buddhist “chemical reaction” let’s say ha ha. Busting wide open the heart chakra and burning the impure firewood. Proving that pith instructions and practice can be done anywhere, any time, with the right teacher and ready and willing recipients. Below is a short report of the teaching, the venue and my own “personal experience/observations”. The central channel gya-ling music opened up with its sounds and laughter too, as I write about below here.
I attended the event incognito, did not take many photos myself and personally requested none be taken of me during the event, but especially during the meditation sessions. Again, as in Vietnam this was not followed and the photographer started taking many photos all over the place during the refuge visualisation of Buddha, which was distracting and unnecessary, especially considering only a dozen or so photos were actually posted after the event! Even standing right in front of me while Rinpoche was teachings so all I could see was his backside for several minutes. It was difficult to understand how someone could be that inconsiderate but again it seems some men take being asked not to do something, as “red rag to a bull” to do it. So as not to get myself and them into too much “trouble” so to speak! Lone, foreign females in particular seem to be easy targets for that ha ha. I tried to bear the whole endless photography around us with patience and grace, and also took a vow of semi-silence in terms of talking to others, to protect them and me, so the photos shared here are mainly from the Palpung Taiwan Facebook page.
However, frankly, photos could never do justice to the sheer energy and depth of it. One had to be there to “experience” it. As the red “sash” of Milarepa transformed into the fiery, lustful, seductive goddess Vajravarahi, the songs of Milarepa and his laughter transformed the space into the vast mind of Milarepa/Buddha nature itself, proving that one does not need fancy, expensive temples or places to “taste” experience and Buddha Nature. A truth that Milarepa lived and breathed with his own songs and life-story meditating in caves with nothing but cloth robes and nettle soup to sustain him physically.
At the end of the teachings, we chanted a long-life prayer for 9th Gyalton Rinpoche composed by the 12th Tai Situpa at Sherab Ling in 2022 (during Covid lockdown times). It was in Tibetan and Chinese, and so as my own humble offering to Rinpoche, his followers, the Karma Kagyu and the Buddha Dharma, I have done my own translation of this praise aspiration (see below the article) and it can be freely downloaded here: Gyalton-Rinpoche-Life-Stability-Aspirations-Translated-and-arranged-by-Adele-Tomlin-2025, with original Tibetan and English phonetics.
Music? The Greatest Love of All with the magnificent, divine “voice” of Whitney Houston started playing in the cafe where I wrote this, and even though it is a little “cheesy” (as we say in England), the lyrics and sentiment seemed perfect for the teaching, and for Vajravarahi blissful times, Wildflower Wildfire by Lana Del Ray, Let the Flames Begin by Paramore and Are You Mine? by Arctic Monkeys for the hot, blissful, passionate unions.
May attending and writing about this teaching encourage others to seek out qualified vajra masters, and to study and be inspired by the life and songs of Milarepa, and may Gyalton Rinpoche’s life be long and happy and his activities flourish!
Je Milarepa teachings by HE 7th Gyalton Rinpoche, Taichung, Taiwan (June 2025)
The Place: Taichung, Taiwan
Frankly, after Hanoi’s manic traffic and endless cafes (which I loved), energy-wise Taichung felt like a big drop in energy with its quiet roads and streets and my ego was saying “this is so boring”. There seemed to be a lot of Seven-Elevens and Pokemon about and the architecture was generally plain and non-descript. But one thing I noticed when I arrived there is the Taiwanese are very friendly, kind and helpful even when I was getting a bus from the airport to the city, strangers happily helped me out with a smile. Even the bus driver was helpful, and let me use his own travel card to pay the fare which is not so usual anywhere ha ha ha. On Saga Dawa I visited a stunning and huge Buddha statue and temple near the city, which I wrote about here.
The Venue: Palpung Centre, Taichung
The event was held in the centre of Taichung, at a small building down a side street, with the sign (Palpung) outside in Tibetan, English and Chinese. Donation cost was 1500 NT which was reasonable. Here are some photos below:
The Taiwanese hosts and organisers were extremely kind, and helpful and it was all very well organized. Other participants also were friendly, kind and happy to help out if asked. There were about fifty people attending, with pre-allocated seats, which helped also avoid the scramble for seats and places that can happen at these events. The Chinese translator for the teachings was a very friendly man, whose English was excellent. He told me he didn’t have much training or study as an oral interpreter but his interpretation seemed to capture the subtle humour and finer points of the teaching, which is crucial for any interpreter.
The teaching
First Day: Milarepa’s spontaneous songs/music of the open channel
The first day teaching was on Milarepa’s prior life to meeting his guru Marpa one of the greatest Tibetan Buddhist translators and practitioners in the history of Tibet. How Milarepa had been forced to build a the tower (Sekhar) several times at the request of his “difficult’ guru. For more on Sekhar tower in Tibet, see my previous article here.
I did not know this but apparently Marpa had told Milarepa to build the first time the tower in a triangle shape (wrathful shape) and then after Milarepa did that, he told him he had not said to build it in a triangle shape and to tear it down and build it in a circle shape. This made me laugh at how Marpa clearly wanted to break down Milarepa’s need//ego to be right etc. One has to have absolute confidence in a guru to accept such “black is white” type pithy wisdom instructions though, and one should never do so from an unqualified guru that’s for sure, otherwise one’s life will get very messy and go downwards (as we all know too well!!).
Rinpoche also shared some profound and pithy quotes from Milarepa, about how even though he was not a scholar, he had the experience and sang these songs of experience. He spoke about in Tibet, people used to have amazing singing voices because of the vast open spaces, (and of course realisations).
This made me smile, as when the central channel is open and flowing, music/melodies naturally burst forth from it, in particular in devotion to one’s guru, deity or the Dharma teachings and so on. I have often attended pujas where the gya-ling (or rag-dung) start playing and the whole central channel opens up and I find myself spontaneously singing AH in perfect unison with the gya-ling. I wonder if this is how that famous sound and instrument came to be invented by the Tibetans. It really is the sound of the spheres of a wide open central channel. This also happened during Gyalton Rinpoche’s Milarepa puja on the second day (more on that below).
As for the Milarepa quotes, Rinpoche chose several profound and beautiful pith instructions combined with short meditations, that again as in Vietnam on the relative level were on shamatha, but on the inner and secret levels with Vajrayana teachings on the channels, winds and drops. I was in state of bliss hearing this and began to inhabit the mindstream of the guru/Milarepa inseparable. I felt magnetized and intoxicated, as am sure did all of Milarepa’s students/consorts who were suitable vessels.
A teaching on Milarepa’s experiential song and Empty-of-Other
I had previously been talking to the Chinese language translator in the break about my book on Taranatha’s Commentary on the Heart Sutra, and he told me he was a huge fan of Taranatha but he said he did not know much about the Zhen-tong (Empty-of-Other) view. He seemed a very humble and sweet man, who was able to get across the humour in Rinpoche’s teachings too, which is not always easy to do as a translator. So I told him if he had time, I will explain the Zhen-tong view to him. After that, Rinpoche’s teaching on Milarepa feeling empty after he abandoned all attachments, seemed the perfect teaching on Zhen-tong and I told the translator this when I saw him afterwards, which he smiled about but told me he did not know about it so could not comment.
Second Day: Milarepa Puja and Vajravarahi’s blissful presence and the red “consort” belt of Milarepa
On the second day, I decided to get some “energy” going inside and outside, I wore all red, with my red scarlet mala (newly bought and practiced with daily in Bodh Gaya last year for two months). It had a lot of mantra power in it, and people there kept asking me about it, magnetizing in colour and energy. It is not an expensive mala at all (about 1000 INR) but it is a lovely colour with jade green stones in it too, and its richness lies in the energy of practice within it.
In any case, I felt it was a suitable offering and dress for the puja/empowerment. There was not empowerment though, and we were handed the Milarepa puja text, and began practicing together. I had not read this text before, so it seemed to be an experiential oral transmission/empowerment both. The opening lines, were about Dorje Phagmo, inseparable from Milarepa and his red belt/sash as his secret consort. I remembered this from previous teachings and so went into the visualization for her and her mantra.
The room which was small was filled with heat and bliss and passion, like a bonfire raging with the cooling method of bodhicitta and skilful means of Rinpoche, keeping it subdued so it didn’t spin out of control like a wildfire and destroy everything in its path!
At this point, I realised that Rinpoche is a really an accomplished vajra master and was able to provide this energy, “fan the flames” yet keep it under control. Bliss arose in the secret place many times and I felt madly intoxicated, tasting the “peak” again that Buddha within of the yidam deity in all of us. But minus the clingy attachment of normal, worldly desire and bliss. Like Milarepa said, empty of other, becoming empty.
As the gya-ling (or rag-dung) and damaru drums started playing, my central channel opened right up (and as had happened before) the “song”/gur cames pouring out without obstacles and without any contrivance, just the sounds of blissful joy. And it is the same sounds and tones and melodic pulsations of the gya-ling. So I do believe that is how and why that instrument was invented by the Tibetans, as what else could explain its unique and very distinctive and mysterious beautiful sounds of awakening. For more on the circumstances and time in which this instrument was invented, see 17th Karmapa’s teaching about it in relation to Je Atisha, here.
Unchanging Great Bliss-Emptiness: Long-life Aspiration for 7th Khyungpo Gyaton Rinpoche
by 12th Khenting Tai Situpa, Pema Donyo
ཁྱུང་པོ་རྒྱ་སྟོན་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུའི་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ་འདེབས།།
ཀྭན་ཏིང་ཏཱའི་སི་ཏུ་པདྨ་དོན་ཡོད།།
༄༅།།འགྱུར་མེད་བདེ་ཆེན་མཆོག་ལྡན་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད །
gyur mé déchen chokden tongpa nyi
Unchanging great bliss, supreme emptiness itself
ཡེ་ནས་ཟུང་འཇུག་རང་བྱུང་རིགས་དྲུག་པ།།
yé né zungjuk rang jung rik druk pa
Primordial union of the six naturally arising “families”
འགག་མེད་གང་འདུལ་རོལ་པ་ཕྲིན་ལས་རྩལ། །
gak mé gang dül röl pa trin lé tsel
Energetic display of unimpeded playful activity that subdues,
གདོད་མའི་སྟོན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་ལ་འདུད།།
dö mé tön pa dor jé chang la dü
I bow to the primordial teacher, Vajradhara.
འཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན་གནུབས་ཆེན་སངས་རྒྱས་དཔལ།།
jampel shé nyen nup chen sanggyé pel
Jampal Shenyen Nubchen Sangye Pal.
རྒྱ་སྟོན་བརྩོན་སེང་གསལ་སྟོང་ཤྭ་སྒམ་སོགས།།
gya tön tsön seng sel tong sha gam sok
Gyaton Tsonseng Seltong Shagam and so on
འཕགས་བོད་པཎ་གྲུབ་དུ་མའི་རྣམ་འཕྲུལ་མཆོག །
pak bö pen drup du mé nantrül chok
The supreme emanation of many noble Tibetan masters.
ཞབས་པད་བརྟན་ཅིང་མཛད་ཕྲིན་རྒྱས་གྱུར་ཅིག།
zhappé ten ching dzé tringyé gyur chik
May your lotus feet remain stable and activities flourish.
རྒྱལ་བསྟན་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་སྤྱི་དང་བྱེ་བྲག་ཏུ། །
gyel ten shé drup chi dang jé drak tu
The general and specific, teachings and practices of the Buddha.
མར་ལུགས་བླ་མེད་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་གདམས་ངག་རྒྱུན།།
mar luk la mé gyü kyi dam ngak gyün
The lineage of Marpa’s tradition unsurpassed tantric instructions.
འཛིན་སྐྱོང་སྤེལ་བའི་ཐུགས་བསྐྱེད་རྨད་པོ་ཆེ། །
dzin kyong pelwé tuk kyé mé po ché
To the one who upholds, preserves, and spreads these with great intention.
ཞབས་པད་བརྟན་ཅིང་མཛད་ཕྲིན་རྒྱས་གྱུར་ཅིག།
zhap pé ten ching dzé trin gyé gyur chik
May your lotus feet remain stable and activities flourish.
ཨོ་རྒྱན་མཚོ་སྐྱེས་རྒྱལ་བའི་གདུལ་བྱའི་ཞིང་། །
orgyen tsokyé gyelwé dül jé zhing
The field of those to be tamed by Orgyen Lake-Born (Padmasambhava), the Victorious One.
སྦས་ཡུལ་གནས་མཆོག་དད་ལྡན་སློབ་ཚོགས་མགོན།།
bé yül né chok dé den lop tsok gön
Protector of the assembly of faithful ones, in the supreme place and hidden land.
རྒྱལ་བསྟན་རིན་ཆེན་དཔལ་ཀུན་སྤུངས་པའི་བསྟན །
gyel ten rin chen pel kün pung pé ten
Teacher of all the gathered precious teachings of the Victorious One
གོང་མའི་རྣམ་ཐར་སྐྱོང་བཞིན་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ།
gong mé nam tar kyong zhin zhap ten söl
May you maintain the conduct of your predecessors and your stance remain firm.
ཀརྨ་དཔལ་ལྡན་ལུང་རྟོགས་ཕྲིན་ལས་པ། །
kama(?) penden lung tok trin lé pa
Karma Paldan the one with activities of realisation and transmission.
འགྲོ་མགོན་འཁོར་ལོ་གསུམ་གྱི་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ།།
dro gön khor lo sum gyi pel zang po
Excellent glorious protector of beings and and the three turnings.
དམ་པའི་ངང་ཚུལ་དགུ་ཡི་བདག་ཉིད་ཅན། །
dam pé ngang tsül gu yi dak nyi chen
Possessing the nine aspects of a sacred being.
ཞབས་པད་བརྟན་ཅིང་མཛད་ཕྲིན་རྒྱས་གྱུར་ཅིག།
zhap pé ten ching dzé trin gyé gyur chig
May your lotus feet remain stable and activities flourish.
ཅེས་ཁྱུང་པོ་རྒྱ་སྟོན་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུའི་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ་འདེབས་འདི་ཉི་སྦས་ཡུལ་རྒྱ་གར་བྱང་ཤར་འབྲས་མོ་གཤོངས་ཀྱི་ཞལ་སློབ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་རེ་བསྐུལ་ལྟར་རྒྱ་སྟོན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་གོང་འོག་དང་ཆོས་དམ་གྱི་འབྲེལ་པ་ཟབ་ཅིང་བརྟན་པའི་གཞིར་ཀྭན་ཏིང་ཏཱའི་སི་ཏུ་པདྨ་དོན་ཡདོ་གྲུབ་པས་འཕགས་ཡུལ་གདན་ས་དཔལ་སྤུངས་ཤེས་རབ་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའི་གླིང་དུ་ཡེ་ལོ་༢༠༢༢་ཟླ་༣་ཚེས་༡༨་རབ་བྱུང་བཅུ་བདུན་པ་ཆུ་ཕོ་སྟག་ལོ་ཟླ་༡་ཚེས་༡༥་ཉིན་བྲིས་པ་དོན་དང་ལྡན་པར་གྱུར་ཅིག ཕྲིན་ལས་དམ་ཅན་རྒྱ་མཚོས་སྒྲུབས་ཤིག།།
This supplication for the long life of Khyungpo Gyaton Tulku was written on the 15th day of the 1st month of the Water Male Tiger Year, the 17th Rabjung, March 18, 2022, at Palpung Sherab Ling Monastery in the sacred land of India, by Kenting Tai Situ Pema Donyo Drub, based on the request of the disciples of the hidden land in Sikkim, Northeast India, who have a deep and firm connection with Gyalton Rinpoche and the Dharma. May it be meaningful. May the activities be of the samaya-bound ocean be accomplished.
Translated by Adele Tomlin, 15 June 2025.