The Ocean of Play of Buddha Activity
A Daily Supplication to the Warrior Gesar, the Great Being Döndrup, King of Werma, Tamer of Enemies.
Namkha Drimed Rinpoche, who had originally requested the text in 1958, recalls:
“In July and August of 1958, I attended the Rinchen Terdzö empowerments that Trungpa Rinpoche was giving at Yak monastery in Tsawa Gang. That was the first time I met Trungpa Rinpoche. I already had a very personal connection with Gesar. I had received some Gesar terma teachings, but they were not complete. Realizing that Trungpa Rinpoche was a great master and also had a very special connection to Gesar, I asked him to write something for me. He immediately wrote down the Gesar supplication, The Ocean of the Play of Buddha Activity. After the text was copied, he sealed the original and presented it to me.
During the empowerments, we were occasionally able to talk about our Drala, Werma, and Gesar visions. Since I was young, I have been guided by visions of Gesar in various forms. Whenever I received prophecies, Gesar was in the form of a young boy dressed in white. I knew that this boy was an aspect of Gesar, but did not know his name. As soon as I mentioned this to Trungpa Rinpoche, he identified the boy as Akar Werma. Today, whenever I perform a Gesar arrow divination, I base it on the Akar Werma sadhana.
At one point during the empowerment, I was not well for a few days. Trungpa Rinpoche came to visit me and blessed me with a very beautiful phurba. The phurba, twelve inches long, was a terma that Trungpa Rinpoche used for special blessings. A few days later, I was fully recovered.
At the end of the empowerments, Trungpa Rinpoche told me that times were changing and that many uncertainties were approaching. There were already Chinese intrusions in the area of Surmang, but my own monastery was still quiet. Nevertheless, Trungpa Rinpoche was very clear that things were about to change. He said that he had to return to Surmang at least one more time, but that he would soon leave again—this time not in monk’s robes, but in the dress of a lay person. After presenting me khatas and offerings, he asked me to give him my blessing and to pray for the success of his journey.
In 1959, I left my monastery with my family and a group of monastics. It was a difficult journey, because we could not travel on the established routes, which were being watched closely by the Chinese. I devised our escape route through gorges and mountains, based mostly on Gesar prophecy and arrow divinations. During our escape, Trungpa Rinpoche and I met at Nyewo and conferred to confirm the safety of our route. Trungpa Rinpoche used mirror divination, and I used arrow divination, but the results were nearly the same. We decided to follow the route through Trakke, which has very harsh terrain and difficult gorges to pass through.
Trungpa Rinpoche and I met again on the plateau of Rigong-kha and consulted with one another. We thought about joining our two groups, but decided against it. Since I was leading a group of about a hundred people and Trungpa Rinpoche had an equal number or more, traveling together would have been very difficult and dangerous. However, Rinpoche’s mirror divination indicated that we would arrive safely in India, no matter which route we took.
Trungpa Rinpoche took the route along the Kongpo mountain range and eventually escaped through the region of Pemakö. I followed the water route, which was easier but longer, because there were more old and infirm people in my group. At one point, we were captured by the Chinese. As we were dressed as ordinary lay persons, no one could tell who was a lama or a leader. For some reason, the Chinese left my family alone, but sent everyone else back to Kham. This was truly a miracle. The fact that my entire family was able to escape together was only possible through the grace, power, and blessings of Gesar.”