Chatral (Chattrul) Rinpoche (1913–2015), unlike Sangharakshitas other Tibetan teachers, was not a tulku or ‘re-incarnate’ lama of the Tibetan Buddhist establishment. At the age of fifteen, he had left home to search out teachings from Buddhist masters. He always travelled on foot, declining to use horses or ponies, and mostly lived and meditated in caves. This lifestyle continued into his mid-sixties when he established and directed five three-year retreats. He was a strict vegetarian who did not drink or smoke and enjoined this upon the monastics and lay people while they stayed at any of his temples or retreat centres – even casual non-Buddhist workers had to abide by these rules. He held several of the most important lineages of the Nyingma tradition and was highly sought after for his teachings.
Sangharakshita’s first meeting with the celebrated, unconventional Chatral Rinpoche, took place in 1957.
“I do not know what I had expected the celebrated Nyingma lama to look like. But in any case I received something like a shock when we met. He was of indeterminate age, perhaps somewhere between thirty-five and forty-five or even fifty, his coarse black hair was cut short like a monk’s, and he was clad in a nondescript maroon garment lined with what appeared to be grubby sheepskin. What I was most struck by, however, was his face, which was coarse and unrefined almost to the point of brutality, and could easily have passed for that of a horny-handed peasant with no thought beyond his pigs and poultry. At the same time, his whole being communicated such an impression of rock-like strength and reliability that one could not but feel reassured, and with Sonam Topgay as interpreter it was not long before the two of us were deep in conversation.”
Precious Teachers in The Complete Works of Sangharakshita, vol. 22, pp.391–2
“By this time I had developed considerable confidence in the Rimpoche, and I therefore asked him to tell me who my yidam or tutelary deity was … after a moment of inner recollection told me that my yidam was Dolma Jungo or Green Tārā, the ‘female’ bodhisattva of fearlessness and spontaneous helpfulness, adding that Tārā had been the tutelary deity of many of the great pandits of India and Tibet.”
In the Sign of the Golden Wheel in The Complete Works of Sangharakshita, vol. 22, p.374
Chatral Rinpoche then proceeded to bestow the initiation and explained the meditation at length.
“A few days later, Chattrul Sangye Dorje came to see me at Everton Villa.… He explained the Green Tārā sādhana to me again and gave me further instructions about its practice.… It was in the course of this visit that Chattrul Rimpoche, having elicited from me the information that Everton Villa was only a rented property, assured me that I would soon be able to establish the permanent monastic centre of my dreams and that I should call it ‘The Vihara Where the Three Yānas Flourish’. He then addressed to me, in what was evidently a mood of high inspiration, the Tibetan originals of the following stanzas.
In the sky devoid of limits, the teaching of the Muni is
The sun, spreading the thousand rays of the three śikṣās;*
Continually shining in the radiance of the impartial disciples,
May this Jambudvīpa region of the Triyāna be fair!
In accordance with his request, [made] in the Fire-Monkey Year
On the ninth day of the first month by the Mahā Sthavira Sangharakshita,
This was written by the Śākya-upāsaka, the Vidyādhara Bodhivajra: [may there be] happiness and blessings!”
*[i.e. morality, meditation, and wisdom]
Precious Teachers in The Complete Works of Sangharakshita, vol. 22, pp.392–4
Triyana Vardhana Vihara - ‘The Vihara Where the Three Yānas Flourish’. 1957
Peaceful White Ḍākinī thangka
In later years, after Sangharakshita had returned to live in the West, various members of the Triratna Buddhist Order would call on his teacher, Chatral (Chattrul) Rinpoche (1913–2015) to pay their respects, and to offer wishes or gifts from Urgyen Sangharakshita. Usually Rinpoche would send a white offering scarf back. On one occasion, Rinpoche sent some medicine pills that he had blessed, together with this thangka of a peaceful white ḍākinī, a figure that holds central place in one of the cycles of teaching of another of Sangharakshita’s teachers, Dudjom Rinpoche (1904–1987).
