| Article Index |
|---|
| Drukpa Yongdzin Rinpoche Is Back |
| Page 2 |
| Page 3 |
| Page 4 |
| All Pages |
Khen Rinpoche who has been teaching my nuns for a few months were given to me by my living guru. I am so fortunate to have him here. He is truly a great Khenpo, that means a learned teacher of philosophy and he could manage to teach different levels of students. He always says, "I don't know anything" because he has no pride, in fact he knows everything that a great philosophy master needs to know.
The funny thing in this world now is that we tend to believe whatever people say or whatever they present externally. When people say, "I know a lot", "I know everything", "I am the best" or "I can teach you", we become so impressed that we follow what they say and we respect them. When we come across a master who is very humble and has no showy presentation, we think they are not very special. We are very stupid in this case. These days, smart people know how stupid we are and so they can cheat us very easily.
Therefore, I want to thank my Guru for sending me Khen Rinpoche indirectly. On behalf of all the students, I also want to thank Khen Rinpoche for taking care of their Yonten or educational life. I feel so proud of my nuns when they can write and speak good Tibetan, because we are practising Tibetan Buddhism, all the Dharma scripts are in Tibetan, if you want to learn something very precisely about Buddha Dharma through Tibetan Buddhism, you must learn Tibetan well. If you don't know Tibetan well enough, it is very difficult for you to progress in your philosophical studies. You know little Tibetan, you learn little. You know great Tibetan, then you become a great student too. Of course, I also feel great to hear them talk sometimes in good English, because English is internationally used and it is very useful to know English if you are interested to spread teachings of the lineage in order to help those less fortunate beings.
Overall, I wish for all my nuns, my monks and students to be descent and good human beings so that their activities can bring benefits to all others. The last thing I want is for their ego to be boosted in the name of Dharma or Buddhist philosophy or any sort of education. Any kind of knowledge should always be helping you to be a proper person, which actually means to be a descent human being. If it doesn't work that way, I am telling you that it's better off not to have any education, which brings too much fabrication. This way, you can at least give yourself a chance to develop your own spirituality. Whether or not this will happen fully depends on the spiritual masters that you follow. An arrogant master will sooner or later make all the students arrogant, egoistic without respecting any other masters or friends even if other masters or friends are more accomplished and knowledgeable. What a waste if a student become this way, how unfortunate this is for a student. This is the reason why I always advise that you have to be very careful when searching for a spiritual master.
Many people have wondered and asked me why I have not permitted my monks and nuns to have normal sessions of debate and other common studies. I think they do not understand why and specially when they know that I myself have gone through all these outer learning (Common Studies) for more then ten years very diligently. My great and kind Gurus who are truly living Buddhas had told me about how damaging this can do for some unfortunate ones, and I recently came to understand this.
Most of the beginners like us have very high risks to be caught up with our egocentric game in the name of Dharma which can be very embarrassing without knowing that it is. Therefore, I cannot take this risk for my own monks and nuns who have left their entire life in my hands from the depth of their hearts. I know it is more prestigious for me or even for my monasteries to have this kind of learning activities and schools for monks and nuns. But I do not want to throw my beloved ones into the ocean before learning how to swim properly just for the sake of my or my communities' fame. I hope my colleagues will eventually understand my intentions.
Talking about koi, here are a few photos taken by Philip Senge recently. After 3 female left us, there are now 6 female and 2 male left. For the time being, they are very happy and healthy, looking so beautiful. I am so touched by their beauty and loving nature. The sight of them swimming freely really makes me so happy.
