Routine life at the Namdroling Monastery near Mysore (popularly known as ‘The Golden Temple’) in South India may just be returning back to normal, as i write this. On the auspicious 13th Day of the Fourth Month of Saka Dawa, 2140 Royal Tibetan Year (23rd May) saw the cremation ceremony proceedings of the Kudung Zhugbul (offering of the holy body to fire) of His Holiness Drubwang Padma Norbu Rinpoche. He was one of Tibetan Buddhism’s greatest masters in recent times, the founder and nurturer of this monastery in India and the third supreme head of the Ngagyur Nyingma tradition.
Thousands of faithfuls, lay practitioners and monks, both local and global, attended the ceremony for which immaculate arrangements were made in astonishingly short time. As the ceremony was of great significance, it saw many a high Lama arrive from all over the world. I consider it a treasure trove to be able to meet them and be blessed by their compassion and inspired with their wisdom.
One such teacher we met was the articulate Changling Tulku Rinpoche a resident of Shechen Monastery in Nepal who frequently travels to teach Dharma. He shared with us two important lessons we ought to learn from the passing away of our teacher no matter how sad and heavy hearted we may feel at the loss. Here’s a gist of it: Fundamentally there are two types of teachers. At the relative level is the physical form of the ‘guru’ who imparts teachings and shows us the path based on valid reasoning so that we discover the two obscurations and other negative states that cloud our mind bringing pain and suffering to us and others and to and find ways in which we can do away with them. And having created this space, s/he is also the one who simultaneously helps long lasting valuable and positive qualities to germinate, develop and blossom within us. Having been shown the way skilfully and through impartial compassion by the external form of the teacher it is left to us to take it or leave it. We must now depend on our own sincere study and practices based on right view, attitude and conduct to tame and train our mind in order to reveal its purified perfect nature so that it becomes our protector. In short, we have to take support of the ultimate teacher i.e. ourselves. The Buddha said “Be your own protector, who else could protect you” (Tibetan: “Dagni dagi gon yin gi; shen ni suchik gon do jur”)
The next lesson Rinpoche stressed on was that of letting us realize the nature of impermanence of everything that take birth. We tend to believe things around us are permanent and tend to cling on to them. It is only through understanding the prospect of death that we avoid the danger of clinging and grasping. Thus, the passing away of the teacher comes as a strong reminder to us of the ever presence of death around us and the futility of clinging on to anything, including the strong tendency to cling to our teacher. “Gangza-la mi-ton choe-la ton” say the teachings in Tibetan (“Repose trust in the teachings; not on the teacher”).
With these short yet very important teachings, the small group of us Indian practitioners came back somewhat wiser.
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Thousands of faithfuls, lay practitioners and monks, both local and global, attended the ceremony for which immaculate arrangements were made in astonishingly short time. As the ceremony was of great significance, it saw many a high Lama arrive from all over the world. I consider it a treasure trove to be able to meet them and be blessed by their compassion and inspired with their wisdom.
One such teacher we met was the articulate Changling Tulku Rinpoche a resident of Shechen Monastery in Nepal who frequently travels to teach Dharma. He shared with us two important lessons we ought to learn from the passing away of our teacher no matter how sad and heavy hearted we may feel at the loss. Here’s a gist of it: Fundamentally there are two types of teachers. At the relative level is the physical form of the ‘guru’ who imparts teachings and shows us the path based on valid reasoning so that we discover the two obscurations and other negative states that cloud our mind bringing pain and suffering to us and others and to and find ways in which we can do away with them. And having created this space, s/he is also the one who simultaneously helps long lasting valuable and positive qualities to germinate, develop and blossom within us. Having been shown the way skilfully and through impartial compassion by the external form of the teacher it is left to us to take it or leave it. We must now depend on our own sincere study and practices based on right view, attitude and conduct to tame and train our mind in order to reveal its purified perfect nature so that it becomes our protector. In short, we have to take support of the ultimate teacher i.e. ourselves. The Buddha said “Be your own protector, who else could protect you” (Tibetan: “Dagni dagi gon yin gi; shen ni suchik gon do jur”)
The next lesson Rinpoche stressed on was that of letting us realize the nature of impermanence of everything that take birth. We tend to believe things around us are permanent and tend to cling on to them. It is only through understanding the prospect of death that we avoid the danger of clinging and grasping. Thus, the passing away of the teacher comes as a strong reminder to us of the ever presence of death around us and the futility of clinging on to anything, including the strong tendency to cling to our teacher. “Gangza-la mi-ton choe-la ton” say the teachings in Tibetan (“Repose trust in the teachings; not on the teacher”).
With these short yet very important teachings, the small group of us Indian practitioners came back somewhat wiser.
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