Here's my story on the Secret Flag, as we are calling it:

At the bottom of the original drawing by the Vidyadhara it says " Vidyadhara & Maisumi Roshi December 21, 1980. I just realized this would be the Winter Solstice. This is what I remember. We, that is, my girlfriend Sara Kapp and I were at a program at Tail of the Tiger ( or was it called Karme-Choling by then?) and we were outside on the frount lawn with Trunpa and Masumi- they were doing calligraphy and we were watching- when suddenly Trungpa told us to come over to his side. (It would be interesting to find out what program was being taught at that time) He asked for a piece of paper and Sara opened her Filo-Fax book. Dipping his brush into the sumi ink he drew the flag we are calling the Secret Flag. He said to me this is very important, never lose this, but save it for just the right moment in the future. He stressed how powerful this image was and he seemed to imply that it would be used at just the right time as if it had a life of it's own. That was it, he went right back to what he was doing and never mentioned it again.

Over the years I would show it to all sorts of people and to my surprise no one seemed at all interested in it. I was in Germany with the Sakyong shortly before his enthronement in 1995 when I showed it to him. We were working on the designs for this event and I thought for sure that this should be the flag for this occasion. But he too showed absolutely no interest in it.

Since then I have showed it to any number of people including a few Acharayas but nothing happened. It was only when Robin asked me if I had any special drawings, designs or doodles by CTR that he could use for his web sight that I immediately thought of this. Robin said he wanted something magical. And this is why I think Robin's using this now is meant to be. One of Robins main projects has been to show the unity of the four Shambhala Terma Texts.

This flag, to me, is about the joining together of the Four Dignities. When they are joined, the Universal Monarch is created, hence the use of the Chinese character for Universal Monarch: Heaven, Earth and Man joined by the vertical line. Could the four Terma Texts, in the order that they were received,be related to the Four Dignities? Could the Golden Sun of the Great East be the Tiger? The Letter of the Black Ashe be the Lion? The Letter of the Golden Key which Fulfills Desire the Garuda? The Scorpian Seal of the Golden Sun the Dragon? And is the Universal Monarch symbol the Golden Dot, the Epic of the Lha? Well at least I think so. And, Robin is the only one to see the magic in this design. It's meant to be.

Yours in the Dharma (Art), Jack