The Gyalwang Drukpa

It's 6am here in Delhi, I am about to leave for Darjeeling. I missed my flight yesterday and I don't want to miss it this time, so I will not be writing too much. Day before yesterday, when I was in the office of Pel Drukpa Charitable Trust, I received an email from Alicia of Drukpa Mexico, saying that many people were concerned about Nigu. She said that because I was writing news about her and suddenly when she was supposed to meet me, the news stopped, so they were worried and wanted to know where she was. So I think it should be time to say something here.

In fact... she has the karma to live in France and I was very happy that she was extremely happy to meet me again, when she arrived in Paris just a few days ago. I have given her to Genevieve Karuna to look after and Karuna is doing her best as a favour for me. So for me this is a great thing to know that Nigu is in good hands. I know Karuna loves cats, I hope Nigu will not give her family of cats a lot of problems.

I wish I were one of those enlightened ones such as Guru Padmasambhava who could speak any language and who never needed any translation. All the teachings were taught spontaneously in whichever language people desired. I have been enjoying the great hope for being able to do this one day, but hopefully I won't experience much fear.

We have a lot of bumpy road to go through in this universe. Being bumpy is not too bad for me, but when I see the road being too long and distant, that's a little scary for me. I think most of us don't see how long this could be dragging on for, and then the thing is that we keep living on hopes and this obviously would bring a lot of fear. I personally enjoy the period of hope, but unfortunately, most of the time hope always comes together with a great deal of fear. Understanding this spoils my breakfast. Don't you feel this way? If not, lucky you! I wish to take refuge in your boat.

For example, you have a great joy when you are about to have a beautiful girlfriend or a handsome boyfriend that you have been dreaming of having, or you have just won a lottery which is something you have been hoping for, or you have just had a wonderful journey to Disneyland which is also something you have been praying for, but sooner or later, these marvellous feelings will be spoiled by the ugly fear that comes together with all your hope. So for me, I am praying and working hard towards "gaining with no pain", I don't like this phrase "No Pain No Gain". This would be a great liberation, a great freedom. This is what we want to find within ourselves. I am looking forward to seeing that in every part of our life.

By the way, I feel okay when I look through my own life from the relative point of view, because I am somehow fulfilling the wishes I have made for the last hundreds of lives. And not only that, I also feel that I am serving those divine beings indirectly by caring for others through different means, such as teaching and sharing my limited knowledge. One of my gurus told me exactly the same thing in order to convince me. That was so helpful to get myself into deeper level of genuine spiritual practice. Luckily, my guru's comment did not boost my pride or indirectly my ego. I would think that it's the divine blessings of all of my beloved gurus that have put me in this way. In fact, an experienced guru should know exactly what should or shouldn't be said, to whom certain things should be said and how these messages should be delivered. This is where you really need a great master with all the enlightened skills to help you. Even though a guru may appear to be very ordinary, he or she can be a great enlightened one who has these enlightened skills to help you on the path. A variety of knowledge that goes together with skillful way of dealing with students like us is always the number one qualification for a guru.

I just went to have a look at the Live to Love website again, before I leave for the airport, since I may not be able to have internet access in Darjeeling (unless miracles happen). I was very happy to see many activities happening in different parts of the world. Individuals and groups are doing whatever they wish to do to help others. Did you see the old man that was helped by Drukpa Penang? That reminds me so much of impermanence of samsara and the suffering of samsara, isn't it a great teaching? First, this poor man was on top of the world, a great dancer who had even received honours from the government, but when karma ripened, everything fell apart.

Our world though looking very solid and real is actually very fragile. There is nothing that we can really count on, except for the spiritual strength. If you don't have spiritual strength within yourself, then when good things happen, you are flying in the sky, when bad things happen, you are drowning yourself. You will keep going up and down, there is no peace in the mind, forget about spiritual development.

You can also do something like Jigme Paldron in Germany, if you don't want to do things in groups. Serving the old people and giving them a good time are wonderful things to do. One day we will grow old too, how would you feel if no one loves you, no one wants you? It is important to have this understanding so that you will learn to appreciate your own life and appreciate the experiences that others give you, good or bad.

Then, let's have a look at Drukpa Hamburg's Live to Love activities, it's the same thing. I was very surprised to know poor people are moved out of the city so that the city can be kept clean, clean in the sense of external look, but how about the people and other beings. The city will never be cleaned unless people are completely happy, and the path to happy living is through love. Seeing these activities really make me feel that I need a huge broom to sweep away the unhappiness and suffering of samsara, but I am only one person and I can only do so much. Therefore I am overwhelmed with joy and moved by the sincere efforts of all my friends and students, who really come out from their comfortable life to practise "Live to Love". The only one thing I would like to request is if everyone can put on the Live to Love T-Shirts when they carry out "Live to Love" activities, it would be very good and effective way to share and spread the message.

Someone asked me what had inspired me to promote "Live to Love". Without hesitation I said, "Tzu Chi". I have met Master Cheng Yan once, very long time ago in Taiwan. Physically, she is very small, but spiritually she is very strong. I could not believe myself, when I met her that she alone was able to gather so many people to help so many other people, so many other beings.

I am praying all the time for Master Cheng Yan to live very very long, more than 100 years, like Yeshe Tsogyal. We really need many great teachers like Master Cheng Yan. We all should be helping Bodhisattvas like her to fulfill our duties as spiritual teachers and masters to help countless beings who are connected with us, by doing this, her spirits are being reincarnated and emanated countless ways through helping countless beings. One thing about Master Cheng Yan that I want to tell you is that throughout her life, she has never travelled out of  Taiwan, and yet due to her teachings and her inspirational motivation, her activities are spread in every parts of the world, where people need any kind of help. I was told that during Tsunami in Sri Lanka and Indonesia and during the floods and earthquakes in America and other parts of the world, Tzu Chi volunteers were the first to arrive with food, doctors, money, supplies, etc, they are even much earlier than other NGOs. On top of that, they have the second largest bone marrow bank in the world. Can you imagine? I really feel very moved, whenever I think about this and I rejoice in Master Cheng Yan's activities. Most of us, the so-called masters, live our entire lives, if not misleading beings, then we are praying in beautiful environment, meditating in beautiful temples and enjoying our status and the respect given by others. Some of us even go to the extent of working so hard to make ourselves so famous, so powerful and so rich, at the expense of other masters, other lineages and other spiritual beliefs. But look at Master Cheng Yan, who started with only a few nuns and without going out of the country and sometimes not even going out of her own humble residence, she is doing so much through her teachings and her honest way to promote loving kindness and compassion. This is the Buddha's way of living!

I think we are all copy cats. But we should be good copy cats, loving copy cats that are abiding by the 5 precepts and actively promoting Live to Love. Don't be copy cats of bad things and non-virtuous deeds. I have asked some of my friends and students to go to the website of Tzu Chi to have a look. Of course it would be a dream come true if we are able to help that many people and that many beings, but I don't think we can, even though we talk about it. I want to request all of you, my friends and students, to pray for Master Cheng Yan's good health and longevity. It was too bad that I have no time to talk about Mother Theresa, as I don't want to miss my flight. Her image just popped up in my mind.

I am proud to say that even my father had enjoyed a great and wonderful medical treatment at her Tzu Chi hospital, just a couple of years back. My father said that the hospital was really a great help for so many people and he agreed that Master Cheng Yan is truly a living Bodhisattva. I am really hoping that this time when I go to Taiwan, someone will help me to arrange a meeting with her. Not only meeting, I want to have a dialogue with her and her people, so that we can learn from them and so that Live to Lov activities will also be helping more people and more beings.

We all have different connections with different beings due to our past karma and aspirations, therefore if all of us are able to help those connected with us actively, I think we really can make our little worlds better with more peace and love. These little worlds will join together to become a bigger space, which can hold more people and more beings.

I am encouraging my friends and students, monks and nuns to also promote Live to Love activities in their own communities. Let's see what will happen in the future.

Well, I will leave you all here for the time being. If you want to receive more of my useless gossips, I think you should be praying hard that I will have broadband internet access in Darjeeling.

LIVE TO LOVE!