Gyalwa Ensapa
Gyalwa Ensapa (1505 - 1566) was a great Kadampa master born in Ensa, at Hlaku near the Tsang River in Tibet. At a very young age he had a vision of the whole of samsara (the uncontrolled cycling of birth, death, and rebirth) being a limitless fire blazing without end. From that time he developed the wish to become ordained.
He felt nothing but revulsion towards every situation he saw in the world, while also feeling overwhelming compassion for every being. He met each one with the thought, “How can I rescue this poor being from the prison of uncontrolled rebirth in cyclic existence?”
He took monk’s vows when he was 11 years old with Abbot Drakpa Dondrub of Chokor Uding Monastery. Later, he went to Pema Chan to practice samadhi (concentration). He practiced in deserted foothills and isolated ravines and before he was 21 years old he achieved the ability to remain in samadhi day and night. As a result, whenever he did any activity he experienced bliss.
Gyalwa Ensapa gave this teaching:
“Anyone who claims to study the dharma (teachings of the Buddha) without thoroughly investigating all of the traditions of the Mahayana (the “Greater Vehicle”) and who likes to bicker over the slightest points of language saying, ‘You say this, but I say that’ completely misses the point.”
Relic and Source
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The relics of Gyalwa Ensapa were offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche by his student, Wu Wen Yuen in Taiwan, in 2001.
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