By Ana Victoria

The visit to Mexico of Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche July 15-August 4 was a time of love and awakening into the path of enlightenment for the Mexican people.

One of the most amazing events was Rinpoche’s visit to Amatlán de Quetzalcóatl, a Nahuatl village and the birthplace of the king of the Toltecs, the old empire that reigned in Mexico seven centuries before the Aztecs. Here, Rinpoche bestowed a Kalachakra initiation and, for the first time, an initiation of the King of the Nagas (Serpents), as well as a Tara initiation.

The main priestess of the ancient Toltec tradition as well as the head of the Tlahtoani and the Medicine Lady, accompanied by village people, dancer and musicians, came to greet Rinpoche and acknowledge him as the High Reincarnation of Quetzalcóatl, the Plumed-Serpent God, whom we have been awaiting for the past seven centuries. This was totally unexpected and spontaneous. It was a historical moment of tremendous importance for the role of our culture.

The main Tlahtoani greeted Rinpoche in this way: “Beloved and respected Father: we have been waiting for your precious presence for a long time. Please grant us your blessings and illuminating teachings and free us from the bondage of darkness and ignorance. This is your home and these are your children. We all bow to your feet and honor your name and the Enlightened One. For us, this is a moment of light and rebirth. You came back! Never leave us again and guard us as your dear ones. We will always wait for your return.”

The three-week program was quite intense and extraordinary. Rinpoche shone his light onto this continent. Not only Dharma students attended the teachings and initiations but many ordinary people as well: housewives, workers, students of all ages and farmers. The inspiring presence and the kindness and wide knowledge of two great women, Tibetan Ven. Tsen-la, who kindly translated for Rinpoche, and American Ven. Lhundrup Nyingje, who was a spiritual guide for the retreats, contributed to the success of this transcendental visit.

The weather was excellent even though it was rainy season, and Ven. Nyingje reported that she saw a rainbow from the window of the hotel where we all stayed – a great omen for this auspicious event.

During the first weekend, as an offering to the lotus feet of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who has been my root guru since 1978, a White Tara empowerment was given at the Serlingpa Retreat Center in Michoacán, Rinpoche’s center in Mexico. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche also gave transmissions of Chenrezig, Manjushri and Vajrapani.

Serlingpa’s director Rocio Arreola said, “Rinpoche gave the White Tara empowerment to 120 students. He blessed and consecrated the retreat center. It was the first time we’ve had a lama in our center, so it was a very exciting time for us.” He also consecrated some statues and blessed the land where a large stupa will be built in the future.

Then we returned to Mexico City where Rinpoche gave a four-day thought transformation teaching. Ven. Nyingje guided a Heart Sutra retreat and led us in chi-gong exercises. On the weekend of July 25 Rinpoche offered the Medicine Buddha initiation.

Two days after Rinpoche was honored by the people of Amatlán de Quetzalcóatl, in the midst of the mountains in the womb of mother Earth, Rinpoche offered the Highest Yoga Tantra, beginning the process of a three-day Kalachakra initiation for world peace.

I cannot explain in words what this meant for everybody. We have been waiting for an event like this for many years! The melodious sound of the Dharma spread throughout Mexico and blessed us with the precious oral teachings of the Enlightened One. We will never be the same.

We went to visit the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe (the Mother of the Mexicans) and Rinpoche was moved by the devotion of the people. We then visited Teotihuacán, the abode of the Gods, where Rinpoche climbed the ancient and huge pyramids faster than the rest of us! Rinpoche also accompanied us to the floating gardens of Xochimilco, after which we all enjoyed tacos and the accompanying music of a mariachi band.

All of this was due to the kindness of my kind root gurus, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Thubten Yeshe, as well as Ven. Karin Valham of Kopan Monastery. I was introduced into the Mahayana path back in 1978, and I stayed in Nepal studying with them for more than three years. I then studied the rGyud bzi Secret Medicine Tantras. I was brought up by a Mexican Indian lady healer and I had formerly studied and recapitulated the Ancient Medicinal Systems of Mexico-Maya and Nahuatl.

It was in the summer of 1978 that I met Dr. Lobsang Dolma at the University of California at Berkeley and I knew she was the teacher I had been searching for. She agreed to teach me but said, “First, you must go and study with my dear brother and then you can come to me.” She meant Lama Yeshe. I intended to go for six months and it lasted three years. Nevertheless, that is another story!

May whatever merits derive from Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche’s visit to Mexico spread all over the world for the benefit of all sentient beings. Thank you very much, and Tashi Delek.

Quetzalcóatl, the Plumed Serpent God, has three levels of meaning. First, the mythological god who came from heaven in a chariot of serpents of fire and descended in Mexico, where he taught the wisdom to the people. He then disappeared but promised to come back. Second, the archeological Q that we can observe in the pyramids and other constructions made from stone. And third, the historical Q, who reincarnates and becomes the famous king of the Toltec empire in the 17th century of this era, which is known as the Golden Age when one single corn was enough to feed a family for one year. At that time, everything was splendid and abundant. A paradise. And this is the human aspect that was acknowledged in Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche by the main rulers of this ancient lineage.

When I told the Toltec spiritual masters of Amatlan and Mexico City that Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche was coming to give a Kalachakra initiation and of its connection with Shambala, they showed intense interest. “Where?” they asked. “Amatlán de Quetzalcóatl,” I said. Where else?

This is a place that up to now has been kept untouched, surrounded by the mountains of the Sacred Valley of Tepoztlán in the state of Morelos, an hour and a half from Mexico City, the most populated city in the world. It is a campesiño, a farmers’ village where they still speak Nahuatl, the ancient Toltec language; and the place that I have kept for so many years to be dedicated for the practice of Dharma.

At the entrance to the village of Amatlan de Quetzalcóatl there is a small sign that says: “And here he walked his first steps in his golden sandals.”

Although nowadays it is much more accessible than before, still it keeps its sense of secrecy and natural beauty. Many years ago, we managed to declare it an “ecological reservoir.” Some of the medicinal plants and animal species go back to the original flora and fauna of old Mexico.

Rinpoche was extremely happy there and used to take long walks through the mountains reciting mantras and prayers. I mentioned to him when he arrived that the place was full of enormous caves, some of which served at the time of Zapata as headquarters for him and his group. Rinpoche purified and blessed the land every day for ten days, including the last morning at dawn, before we departed for the airport. Rinpoche also blessed the spot where we will build a stupa and gompa in the future.

The medicine woman I was brought up by was one of the representatives of the ancient spiritual Toltec lineage of Mexico from the king-priest Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco. This was the rule of the Toltecayotl, a society based upon a tradition that followed the most elevated of the arts, poetry and literature and who opposed the brutal practices of the wild cast of the Aztecs.

This king did not believe in human sacrifices; instead he used to offer butterflies and flowers to the highest, most revered god of the Toltecs, Quetzalcóatl (from “Quetzal”: precious bird, green like jade; “Co,” Serpent Queen of Earth; and “Atl,” Great Waters of the Universe.) The philosophy of the Toltecayotl, the most elevated of the Toltec tradition, was known under the name of “In Xochitl in Cuicatl”: Flowers (poetry) and Song, very similar to the ancient Greeks. They used to spend most of their life dedicated to the development of the highest spiritual, moral and ethical values. There were centers for all types of studies and disciplines called Calmecatl, for both men and women, and they had developed at the time one of the most extensive and sophisticated systems of medicine, astrology, sacred architecture and astronomy.

Texcoco was the site for one of the most extraordinary libraries of antiquity. It contained all kinds of codex and other records of prehistoric times, which, according to King Nezahualcoyotl, dated back to the origins of the different periods of evolution.

The Toltecs as well as the Mayas, and much later, the Aztecs, believed that this world has gone through several changes and they even named these eras “Katunes” (number of eons); there were five – five “Suns” or cycles of earth.

The mythology is explained thus: The gods wanted to create the perfect creature, so they started by gathering together all the substances of creation. At first they came up with a human made from clay, but it could not move or talk or think. Being imperfect, they were destroyed by a flood.

The second attempt to create humanity was from wood. But again they were stupid and did not have memory, so they could not worship their gods and were destroyed by fire.

Next, giants were created. They could move and talk and had memory, but they became too selfish and proud, so the monsters of the depths of earth came to the surface and destroyed them.

Now the monkeys were born. They were quite intelligent; they could move and swing, but they could not talk or remember to worship their gods, so they too were destroyed.

Again the gods gathered together. This time they took the blood of the phallus of Quetzalcóatl and mixed it with the milk of the corn: from this the human being was created; and this time they were successful.

We are the people of the Fifth Sun, which, according to the Mayan Chronicles, started in the year 3003 BC and will last over a period of 5,000 years. The next Sun is the Sixth, and the return of the Plumed Serpent God is awaited. It is believed to be a king from heaven who descends to earth for the benefit of sentient beings.