Cooch Behar House (now Elgin Hotel)

On the morning of 24 October, Kachu Rimpoche and Sangharakshita made their way to Cooch Behar House for the second time that week. Despite considerable pain from a swollen face, Sangharakshita had travelled up from Kalimpong the previous afternoon, determined not to be late for the ceremony.

“The initiation was an intimate affair, with Khyentse Rimpoche presiding grandfather-like over his spiritual family. He sat cross-legged on a kind of throne made up of three or four big, square Tibetan cushions placed one on top of another; in front of him was a narrow table on which were arranged a dorje and bell, a pot with a long, curved spout, a small pot filled with rice, and other ritual implements.”

On the guru’s left sat ‘the Ḍākinī’ — the Maharani of Sikkim. To the right were the Rimpoche’s personal attendant, Kachu Rimpoche, and Sangharakshita’s Dharma-friend Sonam Topgay Kazi, who translated whatever needed repeating.

“Above all, I remember the rapt, beatific expression with which [the Rimpoche] looked up as he invoked the bodhisattvas whose wongkurs he was conferring upon me. It was as if he actually saw their diaphanous, rainbow-like forms floating in the air before him.”

Mañjughoṣa was invoked first, then Avalokiteśvara, next Vajrapāṇi, and finally Tārā. By the time the last tinkle of the Rimpoche’s ritual bell had died away, Sangharakshita had been empowered to practise the sadhanas of all four bodhisattvas.

The building that housed this ceremony is now the Elgin Hotel in Darjeeling.

— Precious Teachers