The Gyalwang Drukpa

Today was quite a day for me. One of the koi was swimming upside down, meaning that she was quite sick, and that worried all of us a lot. Luckily after putting some salt in the pond, she seemed to be feeling better. She is the biggest in the pond and she is always very cheerful, jumping up and down and putting her head out from the water to look at us. It really makes us all so happy, just to look at her. My parents and I stayed at the pond and did prayers for her for about 2 hours. Now she is better, touch wood, I hope.

My student, Jigme Phende, offered this pond with the long-life fish to me as a request for my longevity, which was very kind of him. Before the fish or Koi came, everyone said that this kind of fish will live for 200 and even 400 years. I was even joking that if I live that long, then I would be looking at the Koi and the Koi would be looking at me, when all of my friends and students are gone, just me and the Koi, what are we going to do? I think I will be looking at the Koi and cry. When Khamtrul Rinpoche heard this, he was laughing so badly, you cannot believe that he couldn't stop laughing. But I was seriously imagining what would have happened if I really become 400 years old, looking at the fish as old as me.

A couple of months back, because of the unclean water, air and something wrong with the filter, one Koi died first and another died later. It was so painful for me to see such beautiful beings leave the world. Luckily, the conditions are improving for the Koi. The funniest thing is that when the Koi died, very strange-looking rainbows appeared in the sky, one rainbow was upside down and one was square, and we even saw one that was red. Thinking about these signs, I don't feel so bad about the Koi dying, although I would be so sad to see another one gone. Lately, there are many obvious and hidden signs that hint that these are no ordinary fish, I even feel that they are here in this world to benefit many beings in their own ways. As you know, blessings can come in different forms, they don't need to come with very strong physical presence, they can be very subtle and very secret. We cannot imagine Koi to teach or to pat our heads, can we? If they do that, then overnight it would be big news.

The Koi or fish is not only expensive, like US$30,000 to US$40,000 for each one of them, but also they are bringing inner and secret benefits to this world and when they leave us, they are also leaving us to benefit others in other worlds. So I told myself that there was nothing to worry or be sad about.

When the Koi first arrived in Kathmandu, about 11 of them, 2 male who stay in smaller pond and 9 female staying in the big pond, they were taken up to Druk Amitabha Mountain in 7 land cruisers. On this mountain, forget about such a huge procession for animals, we don't even have such a grand procession for human beings. When they were coming up, we received a call to request us to pray that the water would stay calm on this bumpy road up. That was when we all saw a huge rainbow, a very normal and ordinary one. But I never translated it as a sign that was related to the Koi. Then the first Koi died, and there was a rainbow which was upside down, again we never thought about this being related to the Koi, we thought that maybe some very auspicious occasions were taking place in the Kathmandu valley. When the second Koi died, one square rainbow appeared. By then, we were convinced that it had something to do with the Koi.

So today, we were all so worried that we would see rainbow. We did prayers like nobody's business. We didn't want to see any rainbow. Fortunately, rainbow didn't appear, and she gradually got better. But rainbow could have happened because there was some rain, some sun. It was very easy to have rainbow. Many of us were very worried and we kept looking at the sky. We didn't like to see rainbow.

So we have a mixed feeling for the Koi. Now it is not only for mundane enjoyment and happiness, but it is actually a spiritual pond with blessings, something to do with faith, devotion and divinity.

Ever since the Koi came, somehow there has been more rain up here. Now the first water tank that was built by Drukpa Humanitarian Group in Europe keeps having too much water. This is very much a practical blessing from the Koi, this kind of divine Koi. I am not writing this to amuse you, it's happening. There are many things in this world that we cannot use logic to explain. Devotion, blessings and if you like, you can say miracles, all these things are beyond logic.

Since I have a bit of free time, I thought it would be nice to tell you about what happened today.