Namkha Drimed Rinpoche, amongst his many and various skills and
abilities to compassionately aid sentient beings, is a divination
master. With his Gesar of Ling arrow divinations he is able to
very clearly and reliably predict the likelihood of success or
failure, or the positive or negative likely outcome, of any situation
arising in one's personal or spiritual life. And generally it
is helpful to request divinations at least on an annual basis
regarding the general state of one's life and progress. Many unnecessary
obstacles can be eliminated in this way if they are foreseen in
advance.
How to Request a Divination
If His Eminence is present in the vicinity where you are, please
ask someone from Ripa Ladrang Foundation or ask one of his attendants
if it is possible to make an appointment for a divination. If
the divination appointment can be scheduled, then a date and time
will be set for the appointment with Rinpoche. It would be important
to arrive a few minutes early (not to be late) and to have your
divination question(s) clearly formulated before meeting with
him.
If he is not in the vicinity, please call the Ripa Ladrang Foundation
at (212) 631-1188 or (415) 905-8811 to request the divination.
Or you may e-mail divinations@ripaladrang.org
and your request will be forwarded to His Eminence. Occasionally
it may take sometime to receive a response, particularly if Rinpoche
has gone into retreat or if he has gone on a teaching tour, but
usually the response is fairly quick nowadays due to technology
progress, e-mail, FAX, etc.
How to Prepare for a Divination
Usually it would be best to write down the question(s) so that
his attendant can read it and have a record of it in case Rinpoche
decides not to do the divination in your presence. It is not uncommon
for him to receive your divination request, to discuss it with
you, and then say that he will do it later and will notify you
of the results. This is based perhaps on his own time schedule
or something he sees about why he would choose to do it later.
Whatever he chooses in this regard for the divination will always
be for your benefit so it would be excellent etiquette to accept
the decision.
Questions are generally written on a 3x5 index card or they can
be on a larger card if there is some explanation to do regarding
the subject in question. You can generally ask from 1 to 3 related
questions in a session unless he does something different with
you. But it would be quite OK to write down 3 questions.
The format of the questions should permit a POSITIVE or a NEGATIVE
response. You should not ask a question such
as "Where should I do spiritual retreat?" or such as "Whom should
I marry?" His divinations do not work in this way. The question
should be worded in such a way as to permit a yes or no type of
answer. For instance:
Are the indications positive for me to marry Robert Jones?
Would it be positive or negative for me to do retreat in December
in Hawaii?
Is my child Betty's health getting better?
Rinpoche will then advise what the indicators seem to be - positive
or negative. And if it is not so positive, sometimes he will recommend
specific pujas or rituals to be done on your behalf by his monks
or for you to do certain specific mantras or practices.
Offerings for the Divinations
If meeting with His Eminence personally, it is customary to
make an offering to him for the divination. Usually a white silk
kata is offered to him along with a monetary offering in a white
envelope. If the divination has been done by phone or e-mail arrangement,
then a donation can be made to Ripa Ladrang Foundation, 333 Mamaroneck
Avenue, #203, White Plains, NY 10605 and should be marked "divination."
You can also make a donation online. Please be sure to put "Divination"
in the "Purpose" drop down list. Click this link www.ripaladrang.org/payment.htm
to make an online donation.
