exceedingly deep and advanced teachings with glorious high lamas like Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, Ling Rinpoche, Song Rinpoche, Serkong Rinpoche, Ribur Rinpoche, Geshe Lagden and Lama Yeshe. Unfortunately, his karma as a student of Lama Yeshe ran out in 1984. Roger recalls how he and other students who came to pay their respects to Lama’s passing witnessed how Lama’s body remained warm for two weeks after he was pronounced medically dead. According to Roger, they had to wait for at least 14 days before accepting lama’s death, to make absolutely sure that Lama had really passed away. On previous occasions Lama Yeshe had manifested the appearance of death (no breathing or pulse) in 50 separate instances, only to “arise” from death days later! During the autopsy of Lama Yeshe’s body, the medical doctor who examined his heart discovered evidential scars of about 50 fatal heart attacks during his lifetime, and marvelled at how Lama managed to live for so long!
GOING INTO RETREAT /
COMPLETING THE PRELIMINARIES After Lama Yeshe’s passing Roger continued to devote his life to serving and obeying Lama Zopa Rinpoche. On Lama Zopa’s advice, Roger had begun his “nundro preliminary practices”- these are preparations to enter into a Great Tantric Retreat. A Great Tantric Retreat is a solitary retreat that lasts for four years; in which one requires the dedication and commitment to complete a designated number of mantra recitations (in the millions) and advance meditational practice. Great Retreats cannot simply be undertaken – one has to raise “spiritual capital” (merit) to do them and thus do nundro; in Roger’s case, 1,300,000 dharma things. Within the “13 hundred thousand” things required were thousands of daily full-length prostrations, water bowl off erings, mandala off erings, tsa tsas, reciting “migsemes” and purification practices such as short Vajrasattva retreats. Around 1990, Lama Zopa told Roger he was ready to
undertake the Great Nearing Retreat for Vajrayogini and Heruka. T is required Roger to live a simple isolated life of meditation and practice alone for 4 years! By then Roger had already remarried his Dharma friend and wife – Paula Chichester, and together they were to undertake this retreat at the same time, but live separately from each other! So for the fi rst two years, Paula and Roger lived in tiny 7 x 7 feet wooden shacks, situated about 100 yards from each other, not speaking or seeing each other. Roger recalls with joy and humble pride, how he and Paula both survived four freezing Vermont winters without ever losing the motivation to do their retreat practices. Despite having no heating, OR proper winter shoes, and having to do their washing in a nearby frozen lake (with a pick-axe to cut through the ice!), Roger says that he experienced some of the best times of his life during the Retreat, and he expresses endless gratitude to his Guru Lama Zopa Rinpoche for giving him and Paula this wonderful opportunity to practice!
32 FENGSHUIWORLD | JULY/AUGUST 2011
shared with me was how he and Paula would have exactly the same dreams on “signifi cant” days. For example,
realizations and blessings directly from his Guru. One amazing experience he
While in retreat, Roger began to experience magical dreams,
whom was Paula. When he and Paula compared notes later, she revealed that she too had exactly the same dream on these days!
Tsog Off ering (thanksgiving to Guru) to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, together with a group of practitioners, one of
on Tsog Off ering Days, Roger would have a lucid dream of performing
After emerging from retreat, Paula and Roger both realised that their time as ordinary husband and wife in this lifetime had come to an end. With great faith and obedience to Lama Zopa, both took ordination vows and lived far apart from each other for several years. Roger again went into a second Great Tantric Retreat for four years, meditating on the practice of Yamantaka. Roger shared with me how these retreats have helped him
overcome deeply-rooted hatred and anger that had damaged his mind since childhood. His father was a war veteran who had witnessed and performed many killings in World War II. Back in the 50s it was socially forbidden for soldiers to speak of their violent experiences, so all the pent-up rage and disturbing thoughts would erupt as violence and abuse when they returned to family life. Roger, the youngest of six children suff ered many days and nights of physical and emotional torment brought on by this mentally disturbed father. Today, Roger is well on his way to having healed both
his outer and inner wounds, and is now back in Shine land (pronounced Shee-nay-land) to begin preparations for his next Great Tantric retreat. Preliminary nundro for this particular retreat include reciting 700 Heart Sutras, writing up hundreds of Sanghata Sutras and performing meditations on Lama Tsong Khapa’s Mahamudra teachings. T is next great retreat will take four years so the next time we can meet with this lovely practitioner again will be after 2015! As Lillian succinctly observed through the week we spent together, “How lucky we all were to have had Roger with us sharing such important and detailed ways to practice, giving us the quick ways to attain the powerful siddhis that come to anyone embarking on this path... Ven. Roger’s knowledge encapsulated precious spiritual MAGIC; it enabled us to achieve higher understanding of our great lamas’ teachings.”
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