It was Monday, January 21, 2019, we concluded our Dechen Shingdrup practice. Before going to bed, I usually do my practice and that night too, I lit all the lamps and prayed in the quiet, calm and blissful silence of the night and then went to bed.
It may be about 3:30 am that I dreamt of being in a place in Tibet. I am walking towards a group of people and suddenly see someone like my precious root teacher, Kyabje Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche approaching me. Surprised and in disbelief, I think how could it be possible that all these people are from here yet this is in Tibet. As he comes closer and closer towards me, he is my root teacher! I cannot not believe my eyes and look at him again and then look at him closely one more time and realize it is really him. Overjoyed, I immediately get down to the ground and prostrate to him. He has an orange cloth on him that he usually wears and there is a white halo like light behind him. I am filled with extreme joy and ask him, “Rinpoche, you are here, where are you coming from?” He replies, “Yes, I came here and I came here for you” and hands me a round molasses and says, “You should eat it.”
Because of the special sweet taste of molasses, I immediately think about how the experience of emptiness as described in the teachings. The teachings liken the experience of emptiness, simply to the taste of sweet molasses. As one cannot describe the exact sweetness of molasses, at the same time, one cannot exactly describe the experience of emptiness, it is simply an experience.
As the molasses touch my hand, I feel an intense warmth as if receiving emptiness in my hand without my teacher having to say that this molasses is emptiness. I look up to my guru’s face and smiling gracefully, he asks me, “Shardrol, do you know what it means? Shar-Drol Due-Nyam.”
Shar-Drol Due-Nyam is referenced in the teachings of the great Dzogchen masters like Garab Dorje, Jamphel Shennyen and Shri Singha and their lineage holders. It means the moment a thought arises, it dissolves into the vast expanse of emptiness.
Instantly my guru vanishes in my dreams and I woke up.
As I woke up from this amazing dream in awe, my hands are tightly closed and I felt there was a real molasses in the palm of my hand. I sat there for about an hour and looked at my hands again and again. By then it was about 5:00 am and I got up from my bed, sat in my meditation seat and practiced for about 2 hours. During this time, as memories of the kindness of my root guru came forth like layers, one by one, tears rolled down my cheek and I prayed.
Every time I dream of my root guru, I feel the strong power of kindness, compassion and emptiness that stay with me for the length of that month or week. I write this not to boost my ego or make this up but because my root guru was so kind to me, I noted this dream as a remembrance of one of these special dreams of him.
