A great practitioner, very moving
for me...
you can see her at the
last part of video here: http://www.pundarika.org/nuns_video.html
By James Gritz
We crowded into the small dark room and sat shoulder to
shoulder. The ceiling was covered with years of soot so thick that
black stalactites had formed. My eyes teared from the fumes of
incense and the yak dung smoke leaking from a crude wood stove. In
the dark corner, light spilled from the doorway illuminating an
ancient face, deeply etched from the harsh Tibetan life at 14,000
feet. There, leaning back in her meditation box was Sherab Zangmo
spinning her prayer wheel.
When Sherab Zangmo was a young nun, during a dark retreat (a
Dzogchen practice of staying in total darkness for 49 days and
nights), she had a vision of Yeshe Sogyal, Padmasambhava’s
principle consort.
“Three times she offered me mudras (hand gestures) and then she
became Tsang Yang Gyamtso (the student of the first Tsoknyi
Rinpoche who started Getchak Nunnery). He came to rest on top of my
head and then he dissolved into my body, speech and mind. We became
one. I cried and cried. That moment I had a direct experience of
the nature of my mind. I have had many experiences, good and bad,
but my mind has remained stable, neither good nor bad.”
Enthralled with the concept of seeing the world through
enlightened eyes I asked Sherab Zangmo, “Can you describe your
perception of the world?”
She replied, “What arises in my mind now is the thought to
benefit others. On the other hand, I don’t cling to appearances as
real, in the way that others do.”
Wangdrag Rinpoche, the head of Getchak nunnery, asked her, “Do
they appear like a dream?”
“Yes, they appear illusory, like a dream,” she said.
When Sherab Zangmo died a few months ago the nuns reported that
her heart stayed warm several days after her death. The Tibetans
call this tugdam — they say it sometimes occurs after the death of
highly realized beings.
When we left Sherab Zangmo her prayer wheel was spinning. She
was reciting the Vajrasattva hundred-syllable mantra, emanating
prayers of peace and power that came from a lifetime of
practice.
“The great yogini of Gebchak Gonpa, Sherab Zangmo, passed away
in the autumn of last year at the enlightened old age of 86 or so.
She had been unwell for some time, but then seemed to recover and
was strong and in high spirits for some days. During these days she
gave meditation teachings to the nuns and often sang the prayer
“Calling the Lama From Afar.” Near the time of her death her
complexion lightened, and her face and body became youthful and
small like a child’s. She told those who were with her that she
could see Jetsun Tara clearly before her, and that she was now
going to Dewachen, the Pure Land of Amitabha. She counseled the
nuns to serve their lamas well and to live in harmony with each
other, and told them not to worry, and that all would go well for
them in the future. The sky remained like a morning sky, bright and
clear for the whole day of Sherab Zangmo’s death, and she remained
in tukdam meditation for 6 days afterwards.
“Forty-nine days after her passing, Sherab Zangmo was cremated
at Gebchak Gonpa, with the great yogi Pema Drimey, Gebchak Wangdrak
Rinpoche, and all the Gebchak nuns performing the ceremony. The sky
was clear blue and the temperature unusually warm on this day, in a
season of constant inclement weather. After the ceremony, many
white crystalline relics of different shapes were found in her
ashes.