Tales With My Lama: Bigfoot Dreams
Tsem Rinpoche re-enacting the walk of the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot at Bluff Creek forest, where the actual footage of Bigfoot was originally filmed.
Pastor David has been a student of His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche for over 15 years and within the ‘Tales With My Lama’ series of articles, he explores his spiritual relationship with Rinpoche, sharing anecdotes, stories, observations and little Dharma nuggets. It is all told to inspire others for their own spiritual relationship with their teachers.
Bigfoot Dreams
To the scientific community, Bigfoot is nothing more than a myth, or more accurately described as a cryptozoological creature. This means that this creature does not exist to the scientific community due to a lack of substantial evidence that proves its existence, despite a growing number of eyewitness accounts, footprint castings and so forth.
However, Rinpoche like most Tibetan high lamas, ordinary monks and the general populace of the Himalayan region believe otherwise. In fact, Bigfoot is considered to be a real creature by people of many cultures. That is why Bigfoot has many names. He is known as Sasquatch to the American Indians, Yeti to the Nepalese, Migyur to the Tibetans and Yeren to the Chinese. Rinpoche believes that they do exist and owing to their enormous size, unusual stealth and strength, they are able to evade mankind to this day.
A still picture taken from the film footage shot in 1967 (known as the Patterson-Gimlin film) at Bluff Creek by Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson. This film has since been subjected to many tests to authenticate and debunk it. However, the tests remain inconclusive to this day while some experts continue to believe that this is the most authentic footage of an actual Bigfoot. Click on image to enlarge.
Like most American children, the young Rinpoche used to read about Bigfoot and other paranormal phenomena while growing up in New Jersey. However, the interest in Bigfoot never waned over the years, as the young Rinpoche devoured numerous books on this genre. Aside from books, Rinpoche also watched a number of films and documentaries that feature and portray this evasive creature. These days, Rinpoche continues to read about Bigfoot as a means of relaxation. Sometimes, Rinpoche has a Bigfoot documentary playing on his computer after completing his sadhana while he recites additional mantras as he unwinds for the day. Rinpoche watches many documentaries and films but prefers the older ones like the In Search of series hosted by Leonard Nimoy, Legend of Boggy Creek and many others.
In 2014, while travelling through America, Rinpoche passed through Willow Creek, one of the biggest hotspots for Bigfoot sightings in the world. It is located in Humboldt County, California where all the Bigfoot enthusiasts gather to visit the site where the famous Patterson-Gimlin footage was shot. This is one of the world’s most famous and authentic sightings of Bigfoot caught on camera. As such, it makes the place a ‘Bigfoot Mecca’ and that is why there is a Bigfoot museum, motel, gift shops, bookstore and even a Bigfoot burger place there. All these are very exciting for Rinpoche but the most exciting is the pristine forests. Rinpoche wrote about his experience at Willow Creek in a blog post, ‘I am in Willow Creek’.
Rinpoche said that he always had a deep fascination with this semi-mythical creature and is unable to explain where this comes from. Perhaps, Rinpoche was reluctant to reveal a connection from a previous lifetime due to his humility. However, the answer to this question came from an unexpected source, one of Rinpoche’s highly clairvoyant teachers, Kyabje Gangchen Rinpoche who told us that he is not at all surprised by Tsem Rinpoche’s unusual interest in Bigfoot. He explained that the source of this deep interest was indeed from a previous life.
Rinpoche in his maroon monastic robes while visiting the famous Bluff Creek, not far from the site where the famous Patterson-Gimlin footage was taken. Click on image to enlarge.
According to Kyabje Gangchen Rinpoche, Tsem Rinpoche’s previous lives engaged in many extended retreats in isolated and mountainous places in Tibet, which are the natural abode of Bigfoot creatures. These creatures were initially attracted by the spiritual aura of Rinpoche’s saintly presence. Thus, they made offerings of fruits and edible herbs foraged from the forested regions in which they live. Eventually, Rinpoche in his previous life discovered a means to engage Bigfoot as a messenger and often sent messages to other meditating lamas.
In this lifetime, Rinpoche has no access to the real Bigfoot in Malaysia. However, Bigfoot has come to represent the spread of Rinpoche’s message of the Dharma to the world. Thus, Rinpoche often posts articles about Bigfoot on his blog to introduce this creature to the world in order to encourage people to explore the paranormal and the unknown. After all, it is through the unknown that people start asking the right questions which lead them to spirituality and the Dharma. Thus, Bigfoot continues to be Rinpoche’s messenger spreading the word of spirituality and the Dharma to the world.
For more interesting information:
- Tales with My Lama: What does Rinpoche like about Liz Taylor?
- Tales with My Lama: Daily Practice
- Tales With My Lama : Laugh Away Your Ego
- Tales With My Lama: Why Rinpoche Has To Suffer
- Tales With My Lama : Larger than Life
- Tales with my Lama – Manjushri
- Tales With My Lama : Audience With Tsem Rinpoche
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Here in, Crestone, Colorado, we call them “The Wise Ones”…
Well there is a possibility that Rinpoche past life is related to what was told by Kyabje Gangchen Rinpoche. This can be seem and noted as Rinpoche has always an interest in Bigfoot or Sasquatch or ape-like creatures that dwell in the wilderness leaving footprints and upright-walking creatures. Rinpoche in his previous life must have discovered a means to engage Bigfoot as a messenger as many high Lamas do meditation in isolated caves up in remote mountains centuries back. Most Tibetan high lamas, yogis do believe Bigfoot do exist especially in the Himalayan regions. Legends of Bigfoot ,large, ape-like beasts can be found all over the world . The sighting of Bigfoot in the woods of North America and others part of the world since centuries ago. Researchers and scientist have been trying to prove its existing. So far no hard evidence to support it. But many have not given up hope till to this day. Well as now we have Bigfoot flea market, café and so forth in Bentong and Bigfoot continues to be Rinpoche’s messenger.
Thank you Pastor David for this wonderful sharing.
Bigfoot has often been an elusive creature that many had tried to find. It is often reported only when a chance encounter happened, which means no specific evidence can be recorded other than word of mouth. It is surprising that with all the modern technology available today, we are still not able to track or trace the Bigfoot to its home. In one of the blog post: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/one-minute-story/interesting-facts-on-bigfoot-yeren-sighting-in-china, one man mentioned that their team even hunted down a Bigfoot and cooked it to eat but found it too foul to stomach. However, there is no pictorial or collaborative evidence from this man was given. So until today, Bigfoot remains a mystery and still holds great fascination for many. Thank you for sharing your story here Pastor David, especially of Rinpoche’s past life and how Bigfoot was a messenger for Rinpoche. It would be wonderful if one does show up at Kechara Forest Retreat as Malaysia has been said to have captured footprints said to be that of Bigfoots’. Actually, I would understand Bigfoot’s reluctance to meet with humans. Would be treated with respect or become an experiment specimen?
Thank you Pastor David for sharing the background of bigfoot and how it relates to Rinpoche. I always have this question why bigfoot and what’s the correlation with Rinpoche. Now I understand why we have bigfoot in Bentong. May the dharma continues to grow and spread to many countries and more Bigfoot shops coming up soon, to bring people closer to dharma.