The Gyalwang Drukpa

I did not have the time to punch on the keys of the computer for a couple of weeks, as I was caught up with all the functions, mostly as you all know, it was my birthday that falls on the Tibetan 10th day of first month. Even though I personally am not too excited about this sort of celebrations, this always seems like a great opportunity for all my loving friends and students to come and join together. I also feel that there is a bit of positivity created by the gathering of all of us together in one temple or in one place.

After celebrating Losar in Darjeeling, I came to Druk Amitabha Mountain in Kathmandu, only to find that my nuns had done such a great job preparing for the birthday celebration for Thuksey Rinpoche and me and for Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo's enthronement. As I always tell my colleagues, I am such an uneducated person and therefore my nuns are also not academically trained. I was quite worried actually, after putting them in charge of the preparation. But their devotion and dedication to the lineage really sorted everything out quite nicely.

My friends and students told me how lucky I am to have all these wonderful nuns. I was also very moved by their efforts and I know they really tried their best. Now they have a project team, assisted by one of my monks Wangchuk that helps to oversee the construction work on Druk Amitabha Mountain and the office team that controls and oversees the budget. They were never educated and trained to run and manage projects and yet they did such a good job, becoming a role model for my other nunneries and monasteries and my Delhi office. As my guru told me, "Devotion is everything."

A spiritual guru's job is to teach and share the path of enlightenment. How unlucky to be gurus in this age? I felt like a donkey carrying the weight of an elephant, not only gurus have to give spiritual advice, we have to provide material support, otherwise we would be considered as irresponsible and unkind. It is truly very difficult. Most people came to me mostly demanding for something and I felt this would only end once I said "goodbye" to this world.

I don't want to praise the nuns too much, but I want to say that they have tried their best never to bug me with all the financial and operational issues and they have worked so well with my humanitarian groups in the west and the east. I was told that they provide weekly progress reports, supported with photos and project cost analysis. I sometimes feel very sorry that my poor nuns have to sacrifice their time for practice to do this kind of work. For example, during the 6-day celebrations, none of my office nuns came and joined in the prayer, instead they stayed in the office to help my friends and students with their enquiries and their needs. They said that working in the office for me, for my students and friends, is a form of spiritual practice for them. What a wonderful and kind thought they have? I believe that most people would have tried to join in the kora and the ceremonies, forgetting about their office work. I really feel that through my gurus' blessings, these nuns really came to brighten up my otherwise gloomy life. My student, Jigme Migyur, who has so kindly taken the heavy responsibility of Group Financial Controller, told me many times how moved he was by the dedication of the nuns and how one-pointedly they are serving me and our Drukpa Lineage. By the way, I want to thank Jigme Migyur for coming to Kathmandu and Delhi so frequently to help train my nuns in Kathmandu and my office staff in Delhi. I wish Delhi office will be working as efficiently as Kathmandu office soon.