Forthcoming Visit to Asia
14th October 2008
This is to continue from where I was talking last time. From Manali, we went to Manikaran hot spring and then to Bhuntar. Initially I thought I could arrive in Delhi on the same day, but the schedule became a little complicated, then I reached Delhi one day later.
The people who managed the new Drukpa temple in Manikaran hot spring requested me to visit them, I accepted their invitation, thinking that it would only take half an hour, and I also thought that visiting His Eminence Choegon Rinpoche Chokyi Sengye's Druk Dechen Choekhor Ling in Bhuntar would also take another half hour, so it was not such a big deal to do two visits at one go. But then the visit to Drukpa temple in Manikaran took almost 3 hours. In such a small place, there were more than 700 people waiting for me and expecting me to give teachings and transmissions of different mantras. On top of everything, I could not refuse their request to give individual blessing. The temple committee also organised such a huge lunch for me and my entourage which was really moving for me, I couldn't refuse this offering as well. So it took me more than 3 hours to finish everything in Manikaran.
When we went to Bhuntar, it was a little late already. We tried to visit the temple which is under construction, thinking that no one would know that I was coming and hoping that I could walk around to see the progress and meet some of the monks to say hello to them, and then I could rush to Delhi. Well, because of high-tech gadgets like mobile phones, my schedule was tracked, when I arrived at Choegon Rinpoche's monastery, they already painted the 8 auspicious symbols on the road and all the monks had put on traditional costumes and welcome procession to greet me. I didn't dare to hurry up and I couldn't tell them that I had to rush to Delhi. So I sat on the throne and accepted mandala offering, I had tea and traditional sweet rice. I tried to request them to perform the traditional rituals faster, but still it took more than 2 hours. Then among the monks, there was a nun who came to meet me. I felt very good connection with her and spontaneously said to her, "Nice to meet you. How are you?" She said she was well and went off smiling. I didn't pay much attention because there were many people who came up to see me. After that, we all rushed to our jeeps. Sey Rinpoche was told that she was Karmapa Ogyen Trinlay's sister, he didn't know who she was before that. I thought that this was one of those little unexpected things, especially I was told that their family belongs to our Drukpa Lineage, therefore I am supposed to have a very good connection with them as well. Anyway, we went down to Delhi, and today, we all came back to Druk Amitabha Mountain, preparing the teaching to be given to the nuns, monks and the other crowds from tomorrow onwards.
When I arrived, I received news about stock market crash. Some of my friends and students wrote to me and said that the world financial market is in big trouble, because some old banks are unable to pay their loans, one by one these banks are collapsing and now even prices of oil, steel, etc. are falling. I remember telling many of my friends and students that this is a year of big changes and turmoil, so a lot of prayers need to be done and people should be constantly keeping their mind focused on spiritual practice. The more difficult the external situation is, the more strength you need to develop within yourself to keep a balance so that you will not go crazy, so that you will not float up and down with the waves of samsara. This is very important. The stock market can be the direct reflection of greed, and followed by the other poisons, if you do not know how to handle, you become affected. When it goes up, you are so happy, when it comes down, you are so sad. Your emotions also become like a stock market, if this is happening, then I can tell you straight away that your spiritual practice is not strong enough, and this is a very good opportunity for you to gain understanding and to transform all the negative emotions into spiritual strength. It's better you do that now, rather than keeping yourself emotionally unstable and killing your spirit slowly.
Despite all the negative external circumstances, I am very happy that my students are able to keep themselves contented, this is what I need to see. For some people that I know, even when the stock market was going up to the sky, they were very down and having long face all the time; that is very sad and unlucky sign. Now they must be even in a worse shape.
Even though this is a very unfortunate financial crisis, I am quite contented to see that my students manage to keep their smiles and their positive attitude, even if they have a lot of shares in the stock market. This is the result or outcome of spiritual practice. One day for sure, their will experience very high stock market, at that time, they still have to remain in this balance of emotions, this is what I will be expecting from them, if it is not too much of an expectation.
Anyway, the reality is that the world is suffering a lot. I personally will pray that this hole will be filled up soon and life will be back to normal. Therefore, at this very bad time, I was very surprised that one of my new students, Jigme Rigdzin Wangmo, offered a huge offering to me, means my projects, a few days ago. I hope and trust all the spiritual practitioners, even though they are going through a very bad time, will still be able to continue to support their masters and their spiritual lineages for the sake of all sentient beings, so that these practitioners will have some fruit of having wealth. The reason for having money is to help others, by helping others genuinely from the depth of heart without any egoistic intention, this is a very good and effective way to accumulate merit. If they can't even use money to accumulate merit for themselves and others, so what's the point of having material wealth? To have the fruit of material wealth, one should at least be able to do something for others.
I even received news from some of my close friends in other parts of Asia that my organisers in Taiwan have been requesting them to raise funds for my forthcoming trip in Taiwan, and I even heard rumours that some of the organisers said that because I had not gone to Taiwan, now my old supporters and students have disappeared. I am very surprised that this kind of news can be spread around. I don't believe my organisers in Taiwan would ever go around begging for support, because they themselves are more than capable to handle my short visit. None of my visit to any of the Asian countries can compare to my forthcoming visit in Vietnam. Because of the genuine devotion of Vietnamese people to Avalokiteshvara and therefore to Tsangpa Gyare's lineage, that is our lineage, Vietnamese devotees had even started preparing for my visit the minute I left Vietnam last year. Of course, I must also say that Khamtrul Rinpoche although living in Bhutan has been giving tremendous support to the Vietnamese devotees and of course tremendous encouragement.
I have not been back to Taiwan for more than 13 years, and it is quite discouraging to hear such kind of rumours going around even before I reach there. Anyway, we will see what happen. As Lama Sonam is very busy organising prayers for his brother's funeral and for getting the new Chia Yi centre that he has built for the Drukpa Lineage ready for my arrival, Jean Chen is about the only person who is working so hard from A to Z, supported of course by a few of my friends and students. I gave her the full authority for my visit because she must be one of the most trusted and most capable students that I consider to have in Taiwan. I have full confidence that such kind of discouraging rumours will make her stronger and more confident for the long term. I think if she does well this time, I will definitely go back to Taiwan to give longer retreat, instead of only 2 days this time. I am thinking also of adding up the programs to include Sengey Tsewa together with an initiation to go with it. Sengey Tsewa, as you know, is a practice that cuts the ego and that can eliminate a lot of mundane and spiritual obstacles in life. This is now a time where people in Taiwan need to do this practice very seriously and very urgently, so that their lives can be improved. Jean has put up a very nice program called "Goodbye Stress, Hello Self Nature" for me, I like it very much, it really sounds very lively and practical. You all can see the full details on the website that she has set up for my visit: www.drukpa-taiwan.org.
For my friends and students in Hong Kong, they have always been consistently supportive and they are always following my instructions without any hesitation or question. They are like my golden children among the Asian followers. Despite the recent crash in stock market, all of the key people like Alice, Connie, Cindy and Kin are still working so hard to provide funds to maintain Druk Amitabha Mountain. Of course, Drukpa Humanitarian groups in France and UK are also joining together. This time, I was especially moved to receive Cindy's emails, she was recently going through a lot of ups and downs because Ricky, her husband, has not been well. But still one-pointedly, she took care to raise funds for a main portion of maintenance of Druk Amitabha Mountain where almost 300 people are staying. I know this is a difficult time, but I also can assure her that the whole Drukpa Sangha is together praying for her husband and her family, not because she is fundraising, but because she is really like a golden child with a golden heart, helping her sisters who are the nuns on Druk Amitabha Mountain. I am grateful and very proud to have all these children. In a way, I am so moved whenever I think about all these golden children of mine, who would never create any headache or have any doubt.
I must also say that Drukpa Penang and Drukpa Butterworth, like Drukpa Vietnam, have been working very hard to organise my forthcoming visit since the day I left Penang last year. This is why I have tremendous confidence that their programs will do very well. In fact because of the enthusiasm and efforts they have shown through different channels and through different expressions, I have decided to give them 2 extra nights. I will teach at Drukpa Penang on 1st December and at Drukpa Butterworth on 2nd December on whatever topics they feel appropriate for their members. Requesting for teaching is one of seven branch of accumulations, some centres and organisers requested very last minute, therefore I just felt that there was no sense of devotion and then the outcome will definitely be very disappointing. Anyway, because of the recent financial crisis, I have finally decided that people in Kuala Lumpur will need more guidance in how to deal with stress. So on 3rd and 4th December, there will be two nights of teaching and guided meditation at Drukpa Kuala Lumpur. I have made up my mind on the schedule and I will put it on the schedule page.
Some more news are coming up... I have a new member that just joined my family. Tomorrow I will tell you more about Zhonu...