EPISODE TWO: To Cry or Not To Cry
The sight of tears, especially those of children, and especially of girls, remains in my consciousness for years. Once Claudia was driving me to Sydney airport and her daughter Sachiko, barely a few months old, was crying for attention in the back seat. But we couldn’t do anything because we were on the busy highway. Sometimes that scene still comes back to haunt me. I hope a fear of abandonment was not engrained in her that day.
In the environment I was raised, children who didn’t cry were praised by adults. So I became proud of keeping it in and not being a sissy. I didn’t shed a tear when I was taken away from my grandparents to boarding school. Even on the momentous day not long afterwards, when I was taken away from school and home forever, I controlled my tears, although it took some effort. On that day, I had to say goodbye to my maternal grandparents who had raised me and leave for Sikkim, which was farther away than I could imagine. There was no mention of ever returning. Sikkim is not geographically that far away from eastern Bhutan, but distance, height, and time are all relative and changeable depending on one’s changing perspective. From the point of view of a child of five, it could not have been farther.
I had heard people talk about places like Sikkim and Nepal but it never occurred to me that I would have an opportunity to go myself. Once in a blue moon an airplane would fly overhead and everyone would scramble outside to stare. They would stay a long time after the plane had passed, watching the white trails cross the sky. And for days we would talk about what it must be like up there. I assumed I would never have the opportunity to fly because it was for important, rich people. Once a family member came and claimed he’d taken a flight. He told his tale at dinner time in the kitchen where we all ate around the hearth, and it wasn’t just me who was mesmerized, even the adults listened intently. Night after night this relative recounted his experience in the sky.
Anyway, when the day came that I was going to this distant land called Sikkim, by road, mind you, my grandmother could not control her tears. I remember my grandfather scolding her because, he said, her display of emotion was inauspicious. To see an adult crying, especially when it was someone I respected very much, must have made a strong impression on me because it is the strongest of the few memories I have of my grandmother.
Later I realized there are so many reasons people cry, including the people I respect most in this world, not just when they are sad or afraid.
I have a hazy, fragmented memory of loudspeakers from the first time I met Kyabje Dilgo 
Khyentse Rinpoche. I was less than one year old and I had been taken to Darjeeling, where my paternal grandfather Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche was giving the transmission of the Kangyur[1]. To give the transmission he had to read about 70,000 pages of text aloud, which takes many months. Probably the greatest thing the Tibetan civilization ever achieved was to translate, preserve, continuously transmit, and teach the Kangyur. I later learned that it was my grandfather who insisted I receive this transmission even though I was just a baby. And not just some parts of it; he told my mother not to let me sleep even for a moment. If I dozed off or got fussy, he would stop the transmission to give me sweets so that I wouldn’t miss a single word. Years later people used this fact to manipulate me into giving the Kangyur transmission myself. And I did so, painfully, in Chauntra at Dzongsar Shedra, which permanently damaged my eyesight.
It was there that Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche came to receive part of the transmission from Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche and I had my first encounter with him. I have a distinct memory of being drawn to a man seated on a throne, clearly not my grandfather. I insisted on approaching Rinpoche. This was later confirmed by my auntie, who told me that even though I was so young I was very focused on Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
The second time I met Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche is much more clear in my mind. I was 
five years old, just after I had left my grandparents, and on my way to the Khyentse Labrang at Gangtok Palace—also known as Tsuklakhang or the Palace Chapel—in Sikkim, where I was about to be enthroned as a tulku of Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and where I would reside for many years to come. The space for the labrang had been generously offered to Khyentse Chökyi Lodro by the King of Sikkim, Tashi Namgyal and his son the then crown prince Palden Thondup Namgyel, in the late 1950s. Khandro Tshering Chödrön had been residing at the Tsuklakhang since then.
Our group travelled from Bhutan in a dilapidated Mahindra jeep. I was feeling like a real man because I hadn’t cried when saying goodbye to my life as I had known it. I was looking forward. When we reached a crossroads at Singtam, there was a large gathering of people there to receive me. My attendants and driver became flustered and nervous, rolling up the windows. Someone said, “Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche is here to receive you.” As the jeep slowed down amid crowds of people holding katas, I saw Rinpoche standing there in a cloud of swirling smoke offerings. He was extremely tall and somewhat slim, not as large as he would become one day, and he was dressed up in fine robes. I was told much later that no one had ever seen him in such a robe and some even suspected that he borrowed clothing for the reception because he was very poor at that time.
I was just a kid but Rinpoche treated me with complete respect. Ceremonial saffron rice and butter tea were offered, and then it was time to continue on to Gangtok. I was to shift from our dusty jeep into this beautiful white European sedan. This was the first time I’d been in a European made car. Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche got in first and I was placed on his lap.
That’s when it started. It was almost a two hour drive and Khyentse Rinpoche wept like a child the entire way, this giant man who was so respected by everyone, completely dissolved in tears. Years later, I heard that he told people that from the moment of seeing me in Singtam until he reached the palace, he felt the presence of Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö utterly, clearly, as if nothing had changed, and he couldn’t help himself.
Not long after that, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche began to teach and give initiations. In Tashiding, western Sikkim, he gave a very important treasure teaching of the Lama Gongdu cycle. Again, I watched in awe as he suddenly burst into tears in the middle of the teaching. He called for his attendant—there was one named Shedrup—who was also in tears. He immediately brought a very long scarf, which Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche put around my neck.
Usually, Rinpoche was like a mountain, nothing moved him, nothing made him flustered. He was the last person you’d expect to cry. This is a man, six feet, eleven inches tall, with the blood and bones of some of the most celebrated warriors of Kham, Eastern Tibet, his grandfathers were ministers of the King of Derge. He inherited their bravery and elegance and was just so majestic, we can never really finish talking about his amazing qualities. But I can remember a few other occasions of Rinpoche crying, sometimes even bursting out into tears and wailing like a child, really boo hoo-ing. He was also capable of exhibiting great joy, beyond anything I had seen.
When I was a bit older, Rinpoche invited a group of us to Tibet, including Rabjam Rinpoche, Tulku Pema Wangyal, and many others. We went to Gonchen monastery, also known as Derge Monastery, a Sakyapa temple founded by Thangtong Gyalpo in Tibet. It was Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s second visit to Tibet since the Red Guard’s destruction of the monasteries during the Cultural Revolution. China was just beginning to change its policies about faith and practice, but many of these monasteries were in a state of complete ruin. After we arrived, many, many Tibetans came to see us.
One day, a very ordinary looking young man came and from his rough looking bag, he offered a small three-inch statue of Manjushri to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. It looked like an ordinary statue to me but Rinpoche immediately recognized it as the practice object belonging to Mipham Rinpoche. He wept for a long time—it felt like ages—while we all sat speechless. He behaved as if someone had given him a real live Manjushri. And I have no doubt that that is how he must have perceived it.
Rinpoche kept placing the statue on the table and gazing at it, then picking it up again and again. And then he would burst out in tears again. He would put it on his head and on his heart, he was just so overjoyed. He summoned Tulku Pema Wangyal Rinpoche to reward this young man and I think Rinpoche gave him quite a significant amount of money even though he wasn’t asking for it.
As followers of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, we of course paid homage to Mipham Rinpoche and Manjushri, but our devotion was very casual. Our attitude was to venerate because we were supposed to venerate. We had never really witnessed this deep joy that Rinpoche was displaying, let alone experienced it for ourselves. I was astonished, it’s not often that you see such a thing. I now realize by witnessing a real warrior, a larger than life giant, actually having tears, I had witnessed the embodiment of courage.
Maybe a little bewildered and not knowing what to do, I knelt down and told him that I pledged to offer 100,000 butter lamps to this Manjushri statue. Rinpoche immediately said, “You will be very learned by the blessing of Manjushri.”
Many years passed. Carried away by laziness and distractions, I never actually made the lamp offerings while he was still living. Rinpoche passed away in 1991. During the enthronement of the present Yangsi Rinpoche, Rabjam Rinpoche asked me to give transmissions to the young tulkus from the writings of Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and, sure enough, as I was reading his sadhana in praise and offering to Manjushri, in the colophon I found myself reading aloud from a passage that said, “When Yangsi Thubthen Chökyi Gyatso (this is how he referred to me) offered 100,000 butter lamps to Manjushri, I thought this would be of great benefit.” I was reading the lung through a loudspeaker and though I was so conditioned to not cry, my feelings were so strong that tears came to my eyes. I had to pretend that I had to blow my nose and cough. My immediate reaction was to hide.
As soon as I was done with the transmission, I immediately ordered enough butter from Tibet to make 100,000 offerings. Thereafter, whenever I have a chance I make 100,000 mandala offerings and 100,000 light offerings to this great Manjushri statue that still is kept in the Jnanasattva of Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s stupa at Shechen Monastery in Nepal.
Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche has been enthroned for many years. I aspire to see him, Rinpoche, in the way that Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche saw me. It’s unfathomable to have someone get so overjoyed by such small things, a boy and a statue.
[1] the complete collection of the words of the Buddha
Dear Rinpoche, thank you. You write with such eloquence and lightness about a culture and lands I know so little about, yet through your words feel, smell, sense, taste and travel with you on this journey. Thank you for personal experiences of being in the presence of such wonderful teachers, my eyes feel blessed to read such words. I am writing a travelogue of sorts of my Muddled life and its brush with Buddhism and the opening words express a word or two on tears:
‘the feeling caught at the back of my throat, waves of nausea rippled through my body, fluid rushed to exit all portals, pushing for escape, in small gasps, I released, sobs the shape of rectangles, lonely, I am’
Dear Rinpoche,
Reading your blog both informs and inspires me. Thank you. May all obstacles to your health and activity be dispelled.
Rinpoche
No matter how many times i read this,
It still bring me tears everytime in this episode of you and dilgo kyentse rinpoche connection.
You are the guru i pray upon.
🙏🏻
What a devotion! May such blessings and humility arise in all practitioner. Thank you for sharing your memory.
Wonderful story. Many thanks for sharing. I never saw Khyentse Rinpoche shed a tear but it would have made an indelible impression. We are blessed to experience devotion like this. Rinpoche would be happy to see it.
Thank you Rinpoche for generously sharing stories of your precious life. they make me laugh and cry too.May you live a long life and all your dharma activities be accomplished!
Made me cry and when I next visit Nepal I will visit the Shechen Monastry if possible to look upon the Manjushri Statue
Rinpoche, just reading about it makes me shed tears of such profound joy…i feel so so blessed and fortunate. Thank you.
Beautiful. Thank You.
Since Rinpoche’s grandfather and father are both my teachers this is a story that really helps me see the continuity of the lineage. Now Dzongtsar Khyentse Rinpoche is also one of my teachers in a more distant way, but the thread of this story is like gold sewing a very beautiful tapestry.
In a sea of possible appearances,
some/many options of lived experience touched upon,
chosen amongst perspectives,
chosen amongst memories,
evocative emotions expressed by others, the core itself untouched, life swirls around a centre so untouched, that it touches with great compassion.
Thank you for sharing these beautiful and touching stories! I wish to meet you one day and connect to you and your tradition. I want to express my heartfelt respect and appreciation. Thank you! (and:wow!)
Dearest Rinpoche,
So amazing and so full of beautiful vast heart.
_()_ Thank you for sharing _()_
Dear Rinpoche, Thank you so much for this story. It reminded me of meeting Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche in NY in 1981 or 1982, not sure exactly when. It was in a small interview room, not many people at all. He let people ask questions while he was reading a pecha text, turning the pages. He would listen and answer, but never look up, reading the text while the translator explained what he had said. At any rate, I had had trouble getting to the interview because my excitement and the high energy of it was over-stimulating and I wasn’t paying attention and took the wrong subway, so when I thought I would miss the interview, I started to cry and cry and cry. And I couldn’t stop,even when I got there, so I asked him “what is this? what is this crying?” And he looked up at me with a huge big smile and said, “that is known as devotion from the bottom of your heart.” Such bliss standing in the glow of that smile! Love, Connie
Lovely story, Connie. Thank you for giving it to us all.
You are very blessed to have met Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Connie!
Thank you for this wonderful narrative. From my limited perspective being able to cry equates with being able to let us being touched by life. By sorrow and by joy, tragedy and defeat as well as profound happiness. Life has this mysterious quality of the two sides of a coin, since it is dreamlike and illusory, and yet so rich in all its appearances. Wondrous thing! Thank you again, and may you (and all of us) be happy and well!
I am crying because of your reverence for Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. May your connection strengthen mine for the benefit of all beings.
completely dissloved in tears
Thank you. I feel so fortunate to be reading this wonderful text. Firstly the writing is so engaging and lively. I feel like I have entered the world you describe. Secondly, this has a lot of personal meaning for me. I have been fighting back tears these last few days as I prepare to leave for home from a visit with my eldest daughter who now lives so very far from me. Thirdly I have had my own inexplicable heart connection with Dilgo Kgyentse Rinpoche. I was given a book with his picture in it when my father was dying in 1997 and I was absolutely transfixed by his face. I literally used to open the book and just stare at it and find a deep sense of solace. Again 5 years ago when my husband was dying I returned to the book and found his picture and again just stared at his remarkable face that simply just is compassion. Since then I have avidly consumed every opportunity to learn about him or read his words. I am woefully ignorant and untrained and I feel very strange that you might actually read this, but I’m extremely grateful to you. I look forward to reading more.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing these inspiring visions. This story invokes deep faith… in the miracle of the love and wisdom lineage that shines through all time and space.
Through your tears and Dilgo Rinpoche’s，I see the live Manjushri. Also live Mipham Rinpoche. Now feel so different to read Praise to Manjushri
written by Mipham Rinpoche，“the perfected glory”，“the most peaceful in peace”，like the transparency of precious tears.
Touched by your blessings…thank you…
Rinpoche’s recollection of Agay Khyentse’s devotion,
and aspiration for that kind of devotion,
is extremely touching la 🙂
_/\_
Strange – why do I wish to be the small boy and not the fearless weeping giant?
Amazingly inspiring!
Thank you so much for sharing your memories, thoughts and emotions with us. Your honesty and transparency is like a purifying stream. I am so grateful to know of the world that shaped you.
Wonderful Rinpoche your work in the world for the benefit of all the sentient beings are beyond the words to express. I heard from one lay priest stated by Dalai Lama, if he has knowledge like JamYang Khyentse he can shake the world. So I feel it is really 100% right by seeing the different noble activities carried out in the world. Simple eg. SJI at SamdrupJongkhar, Bhutan. Such activities can be taken up by the public only if such a great person initiate.
These stories are enjoyable with no need to mention HH the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, who’s never been in Bhutan, by the way; if you do have to quote HH the 14th Dalai Lama, please provide a reliable source with links. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing. I have often wondered why i so moved at the funeral hill of King Thris stong Deutsen at Chongyas, then at the stupa of Kyabje DK in Nepal, and then in the presence of the present Kyabje. You begin to put into words what I cannot explain. My family and friends find me weird. Perhaps this may be the dawn of my wisdom from this pea brained ant.
Dear Rinpoche.
_(())_ Thank you for sharing _(())_
Beautiful…..Tears of Gratitude and joy _()_
Delightful and insightful. I would expect nothing less! Thank you Rinpoche, as always, for your fresh words and perspective! The sharp cutting through, always seeing how things really are.
Lama Kheno. I am both fortunate and unfortunate. A no-one born. Please bless this shit coming from the “shit-village” la. Thank you and eagerly waiting for some more episodes.
Thank you, Rinpoche.
Dear Rinpoche, Thank you so much for this blog. It is so fresh and honest. Just like tears.
May you live long and spread the word of Shakyamuni now and in the future.
with gratitude
To comment or not to comment. I’m dying to read the next episode.
Dearest Rinpoche,
Thank you for this glorious opportunity to read about your life. Your courage as a small child and hardships you endured are so moving and poignant. May you live long and continue to teach us.
Wow! what a story.
I love the “…wailing like a child, really boo-hooing” Tears of a sublime man of his stature; what a gift to share such juicy moments.
Oh, love the picture of the red boat and the far shore
What a life I can’t wait to read more.
“To cry or not to cry” What a contrived statement!
When a wave of emotion overcomes me during public practice, I sometimes feel shy, or even frightened, thinking that others will judge me, or disapprove, especially the older Dharma students who have been involved with Buddhism for over 20 years. I thought it was because I am a woman, and Hispanic, but an American man in San Francisco approached me and said: “When I feel the wave of emotion, I just let it be. It is a part of it, a part of what we are doing.” This brought relief immediately. I wanted to hug him, but it was not appropriate. I always keep tissues or even a paper towel when practicing, because I know it’s coming. When I come out of our tiny altar place, my husband asks: “Are you okay?” “Yes, I have never been better.” It is a joyful crying, a heart’s cry. In this American/Western culture, I also have to hide excessive joy: if one is too optimistic and happy when there are problems, some might distrust one, or think one is mentally ill, or that one fails to grasp the “gravity” of the issue (my country has other issues, like ignoring suffering, etc., please don’t feel criticized as Americans). I have learned to feel compassion for those who worry and can’t seem to be able to solve a problem, but wish to talk about it endlessly, every day. And compassion for myself for not always knowing what to do, or what is best. Ignorance stinks! Two extremes: joy and sorrow. Why are we afraid of them?
This was a wonderful teaching of reverence for me, to self reflect upon the significance of those who have touched me so deeply. To recall the overwhelming rush of emotion in those moments, to hold the love of that person closely. Sad a bit, to have to recall those experiences rather than be able to reflect upon one close at hand.
The naivete of a revered child witnessing a great master in his deepest reverence weeping. So precious. The same child becoming a man to experience the rush of reverence himself while in the conflict of trying to pause the emotion. So honest.
I have great appreciation Rinpoche. Thank You.
Such eloquence & well uttered! Exactly how i felt resding this episode.
Dear Rinpoche
Thank you , I aspire to have the purity and honesty , the genuine devotion and love that you exhibit. You too are a true warrior of the truth, thank you for being who you are.
Oh my God, I can’t stop crying. Your stories make me very happy!
Rinpoche,
May this little coward student pray that you will not enter into nirvana and have the LONGEST live ever so that we could have someone to look up and follow your footsteps. Please don’t leave us in this lonely samsara dusk of darkness.
Also, please keep churning out those childhood stories, so and so nice… Please keep making movies so we have something good to watch! How about a movies about his Rinpoche?
Rinpoche I’ve met you this life only twice
but I wanted to say
Thank you for
walking us through
the innermost
contours of your heart
the way Maria Callas
sang to her audience
as if each of us alone
were the only one
to ever touch those sacred chambers
I pray that the light of the illusion of your form dwells in our hearts and warms are way evermore. Please continue to remain on this earth.
Namo Manjurshuri
Rinpoche, thank you.
May you live long.
May your activities flourish and come to perfection.
I second this: Live Long and Flourish.
Dearest Rinpoche,
Your remembrance of HHDK brought to mind the retreat in Prapoutel France , 1990. It was where I first met HHDK and first saw you. When I saw you with Sogyal Rinpoche , I knew that you embodied completely his master, Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro Rinpoche. I had no doubt about it. No sure I really understood the role of Tulku yet, maybe I still don’t. But you have remained in my heart ever since. Although I do not have your fearless commitment to enlightenment, it is an aspiration to wake up , perhaps in my next life I will be as fearless. I have been given the gift of tears by my Masters, after meeting Sogyal Rinpoche I sobbed and then cried for a year, being in the presence of your Grandfather’s body I was brought to my knees in tears, making aspiration prayers in front of HHDK I was brought to tears. Such Joy! Thank you .
One of my first teachings I was conscious for was simply walking into Field’s Bookstore in San Francisco and seeing two books on an end-cap, one by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and the other by Kalu Rinpoche. Both books had their respective pictures on the cover, both images staring right out at me. Your stories remind me of the blessing of presence, even a wisp of it, when it is recognized. And if joy comes, too, then what a day it is. Thank you.
thank you rinpoche. may your life be long and fruitful.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing ur blessings n blessings of your masters…who are and were Buddhas in human form…n Buddhas cry too.Really profound,inspring n deeply touching words of wisdom n blessings.
Dear Rinpoché your writing is memerising,so human and direct,this is so clear I felt the sobs and tasted the salty tears of devotion,thankyou for enlarging my understanding of Dilgo Kyentse’s life and why I’m always affected deeply by your teachings(on you tube!)Also the enrichening of my understanding of how Tulkou Pema Wanyal Rinpoché was is so important to me !Thankyou,your writing is wonderful!
This might be my favorite.
So touching n inspiring! Thanks for sharing.
Reading this I was transported back a few years, to Bangkok. I walked into a buddhist temple, the first I’d ever been in. When I saw the big golden Buddha image I was filled with joy, and felt tears coming. I felt embarrassed. People were looking at the foreigners who just sauntered in (friends and I.) My friends noticed I was red and teary-eyed asked if I was alright. Acutely self-aware I decided to have a look around the hall, thinking maybe I’d feel less anxious. Wandering around, I saw a cabinet full of books. Realizing these were the words of the Buddha, I fell face down and started to weep.
I was really ecstatic, and felt a little bit sad leaving. but my friend insisted we’d spent enough time looking around and that “Thailand has lots of temples.”
Later, after my friends and I had parted I went to stay in a hermitage, across the highway from Wat Suan Mohkk. I met a Singaporean man there named Lau Khong, we called him Willy. Willy invited me to come with him south, to stay in the residence of a Monk we called Phra Malay. Phra Malay was one of the senior monks at Wat Khuha Sawan in Phatthalung. Phra Malay was a small, cheerful man. Though I didn’t see much of him. I was very suprised when his uncle came to visit.
Phra Malay’s uncle was very old, 86 if I recall. Each day he would get up around 4 or 5am, like Willy and Phra Malay. You’d know they were awake because the “Amithabha” CD would be playing on loop. Chinese folks chanting Amithabha over and over to some classical music. But was really surprised me was that this old man spent his day cleaning the residence, sprucing up the garden and massaging his nephew’s legs and feet.
In the morning, we would go for breakfast and bring some porridge, and sometimes doughnuts or sticky rice for Phra Malay and his uncle.
After a bath and some sitting meditation, we would go down to the cave in the Wat. Willy would spend most of his time cleaning the cave, especially the area in front of the image of Luang Phor Tuad, even polishing tile grout with an old brick and a rag.
One day we went for a walk, and climbed one of the mountains in the town, and came to a valley where there was another wat. Willy arranged to speak with one of the monks there to see if it would be possible to stay and practice. We walked around the relics kept in one of the main halls. Then we went down into one of the meditation caves. When we came out, I sat by one of the Buddha images and cried, and cried. I wondered why, and asked Willy. he said “well you, must have some connection with Buddha in the past, so now you feel this way.”
Later in our travels we talked about kilesa being carried from one life to the next. /|\ Thank you Lau Khong for your kindness. Thank you Khyentse Rinpoche for causing me to remember all this.
Thank you rimpochhe for sharing with us your life stories. looking forward for more n more.
Yes!
May the continued fire and heat of each 10,000 butter lamps melt the hardness from the Heart. <3
Thank you…bowing deeply.
Now, we young boys are old men. With failing sight and salty eyes, fickled ‘Fortune’ has us riding this Ferris pin-wheel. Here. And there. On a lovely water bubble raft we, like squinting pirates mark a glaring, setting sun.
The waves.. in waves are careless.
Cool, clear, fish-eyed reflection dapples in ripples – slowly…slowly – that auspicious/splendor-bunny moonrise, and then ohh! ཧེ་དེ་བའོ་སོ་ the brilliant moon! – moistens those who are oceanic.
Again… And again.
མཚོ་སྐྱེས་རྒྱལ་བའི་བསྟན་པ་རྒྱས་གྱུར་ཅིག
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing parts if your life with us. You write with such absolute honesty that is enchanting, captivating, witty and yet so filled with deep insight and wisdom. Your writing has made me laugh, cry and feel so small and insignificant in the wonder and mystery of Timelessness. Thank you Rinpoche for the blessing of your words.
I find these lines very sentimal, though sign of over joy and happiness, my tears couldn’t just stopped rolling along with the lines.
Rinpoche, this is truly inspiring story la.I am deeply touched and tears well up. This is a central teaching on guru devotion la. Thank you very much la Rinpoche. May Rinpoche’s teaching continue to inspire ignorant beings like me la. _((*))_
Rinpoche, each and every word of yours is a rare insightful wisdom with unlimited extraordinary blessings that causes my insignificant being to rupture with sheer joy, happiness and peace. Thank you very much with my whole being and I remian evermore humbled at your gracious lotus feet.
Oh Guru! Deeply touched and teared! Beginning to learn what Guru devotion actually mean! Thank you Rimpoche and continue blessing _((**))_
to comment or not to comment
though definately waiting for the next episode shared, alala
Beloved Guru,thank you for this,thank you for taking me in,for your generous teachings, i cry when you arrive and i cry when you leave.am overjoyed when you hit us on the head with treasured statue. Crying now in gratutude . Please live long and healthy
so beautiful…and I cried,and time to admit that I too regularly cry at the sound of your name or even to think of you. Great warrior of our time Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche!
Absolutely gorgeous. I cried through almost the whole thing. You are so kind to share your stories with us, Rinpoche, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Solo pensar en usted … lloro….profunda devocion y agradecimiento querido RIMPOCHE
Yes. Ayur.
Dear Rinpoche,your love and devotion to Dilgo Kheyntse Rinpoche and his to you too is very moving. You mentioned a sense of wonder as to how Dilgo Kheyntse could so clearly see his old teacher in you as a one year old boy. I pray one day we all see such sacredness in all beings we meet. Childish for sure, but then the world would be truly magical and beyond beautiful.
Thank you, Rinpoche.
Dear Rinpoche , thank you very much to sharing this beautifull story from your own experience when meeting whith Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
It’s remind mee all the great blessings I’ve got by meeting Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and yourself Rinpoche during 3 years retreat in Dordogne 20 years ago.
Thank you very much.
Tashi.
Thank you la. Speechless, in tears and feeling blessed.
Your tears is enough to evoke me to drop a poem in the air
Dear Rinpoche, thank you so much for the sharing, I love it!
One can only imagine how someone must have felt in the Presence of H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. I do love watching the videos made about him, and having a brief glimpse into His life. The extraordinary life of a living contemporary Buddha.
Reading about your personal experience makes my mind and heart travel in time to those special moments when he poured tears of joy in the presence of what he held dear to His heart. H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche holding his beloved teacher now contained in the body of a small child.
The moment in time where everything came to be: the past, present, and the future contained in the body of a child. Guru was, Guru is here now, and Guru will return again and again to love, benefit, liberate all sentient beings. The Bodhisattva’s promise, fulfilled.
This is my favorite chapter of your book.
Thank you for sharing it.
See you in Mexico!
Rinpoche,
i just wrote some comments to your new book.
Today may i say something about your last gem of wisdom.
Untill now I m not member of this facebook-system.
But a few days ago I explored it for reading.
Essenceless is the whole of karma and nirvana ….going beyond conceptual consciousness,beyond words, like the heart-sutra trys to show. So far I can follow. Its possible to fall in love in this state of mind – ? If, it has to be a very, very new experience and a big practice to deal with old habitual patterns. A great challenge, I trusting in your words and looking blissfuly forward.
Certainly confident, Michaela
Wow – speechless 😉
Dear Rinpoche, Wonderful ! Thank you for sharing this story. Crying now as missing Rinpoche.
interesting photo, the mascara (sp?) doesn’t run, there are no real tears. thank you. and YES! Please live long. i just met you.
“Look for me at guru devotion.com”
I am orphaned again by his name, his face, just by his exposed soft arms
Next year, if nothing goes wrong, i will take the big ironbird to visite Shechen monastry, circle around Boudhastupa and , who knows, cry by beeing just there.
Its my first visite to the east and i am happy to have the opportunity to come to “far off”; till then, practicing to renounce hope and fear and stay with less expectation.
May all go beyond far and near
May all be free from suffering
Dearest Rimla, thank you for sharing this very special episode la. I pay homage today, and everyday, to Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche for being the great person that he was and will forever be ~ from being a Guru to a loving father to all sentient beings- I too am filled with tears and joy having read this. Immeasurable gratitude, forever and always la.
Endless tears from my heart and from my eyes….I have never met Khyabje Dilgo Rinpoche, not even his yangtse as yet, but whenever I sat down for translating dharma, his clear immage always came in front of me,above my head. A clear and live immage bringing softlly my full attention to the teachings to be translated. Hemaho! Thank you Rinpoche!
Rinpoche, thank you from the depths of my heart. Your stories moves something deep inside me, and little by little, I recognise glimpses of something genuine, shining from underneath all that artificiality and fake poses I habitually tend to cover it with. Difficult to express how grateful I am.
Dearest Rinpoche, I am beyonds words thankful to be your student and I’m with tears reading these writings that offers a glimpse of you and your heart guru together. My first meeting with Khyabje Dilgo Rinpoche was watching video footage of him ( I think 2001 ). I was in uncontrollable tears for maybe 40mins or so. I was moved deeply. This was the very early beginnings of me entering the path. Thank you dear Rinpoche for these wonderful writings 🙏🌈 Nicky from Melbourne
Please try to see Matthieu Ricard in your travels and teachings this year. He may be a link in the blessings of Manjushri in this very interconnected world with strange coincidences (or perhaps they are just illusions around almost every corner).
What would the teachings of the Buddha in the Manjushri form have to say about the showing compassion for the refugees all over the world? The current headlines paint a pretty bleak picture of the Rohingya situation. How to show compassion? How to strip the illusions in this case? This seems to be yet another case of cycles repeating over the ages.
Perhaps the answers are not Wutaishan, the Matterhorn, or the Vinicunca. It could be the view of Ama Dablam from a village in Khumbu or Kilimanjaro from the plains or on a glacier at Mt Ranier. People do what they are capable of doing and then perhaps it’s time to pass the baton.
Build it and they will come. Think of all the amazing monuments created by nature.
AS a visitor from Europe lots of tears i leave in Bhutan, each one a gem of heartconnection
with the beauty and the truth radiating from people and holy places.
Bowing down with gratitude.
Lagilo for Bhutan and all realms.
El mariachi! Seems that the magic is further south in the heart of the rainforest.
Another thought. Could your prostate illness due to repressive emotions? Ask your psychotherapist. There is one whatever called psychosomatic illness. Sometimes I have gastric when I got stressed. Relax Dzongsar and get well soon. I meant it from the bottom of my heart…. poor chicken… gonebeyondgiggling
What a beautiful story. The story reminds me of something Rinpoche said in 2007. “You just have to feel it, no matter how painful it is”. We are still conditioned in the West to not cry and when we do most people can’t handle it. It’s still a sign of weakness instead of strength. Thank you Rinpoche!
Thank you very much Rinpoche , May your Life be very long and healthy !
Whenever I read this chapter, I come into tears. The same emotion I had when I red Sogyal Rinpoche’s Book, describing the moment Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche met you at that time. I feel like experiencing that very moment…
Elegant and wonderful writing about the great beings of times past. This is so inspiring, fresh and unpretentious. Thank you for this gift. May you live long and your activity flourish for the benefit of all. I find it amazing that as bad as things are nowadays, these great beings continue to appear in the world to bring to light of pure dharma to all.
“I bow to Manjushri through whose kindness a virtuous mind arose. I bow to those spiritual friends whose kindness made me thrive.”
Dearest Rinpoche, gratitude, respect and awe bubble over when reading this chapter. You show us how to be honest, to fearlessly acknowledge our hypocrisy even though we risk being publicly shamed. Your offering of butter lamps inspires me to continue with my pathetic attempts to complete mandala offering. Your presence in our world is a blazing splendour of light and wisdom…. please remain.
Fruitful
That Man Ray photograph is of Lee Miller. She took pictures of Buchenwald when it was liberated. One has has to ask, what has been learned in the past 8 decades.