PREFACE
It was supposed to be the summertime, but, far away from my California homeland, I was weathering the force of the monsoon, feeling swallowed by dense cloud banks that wholly neglected my presence inside them and that retreated only sometimes in the chill of nights made darker by the distant lightning. The promise of precious initiations into vajrayana had brought me to the monastery known as Samdup Tarjee Choling, which is located in the Himalayas, an hour's drive down the hill from Darjeeling. Gathered together were more than a thousand followers of Tibetan Buddhism who had come to receive the transmission of Rinchen Terdzod, one of the five great treasuries compiled by Jamgon Kongtrul the Great. Together we were to spend six months packed into a shrine room decorated with beautiful murals of deities important to the practice of vajrayana, watching the lineage holders of the Karma Kagyu receive the initiations directly from the vajra master, Kalu Rinpoche. We all awaited the moment that these tulkus (recognized reincarnated teachers and mahasiddhas) would wind their way through the crowd to bestow the blessing of the day's teachings upon all present. As I watched Kalu Rinpoche seated for hours on end while he recited the teachings and initiations contained in the collection, I found it easy to admire him for his unending diligence in perpetuation of the Dharma. Truly, in all my travels in search of sacred and occult teachings, I have never met another person quite like him. His tireless efforts to bring benefit to all beings made a