Nice sharing by Lama Tsering about Chagdud Rinpoche
Said during the Covid-19 pandemic (slightly edited for clarity)
~~
Good morning everyone. I hope you're doing fine. I know that there are many people these days who are having a lot of sadness and emotions and upset and depression over the conditions of our quarantines and self-distancing from others. We go through these efforts in order that other people can benefit.
But I want to tell you a story of what Rinpoche used to say all the time because I remember there were times now and then when either Khandro or I would complain to Rinpoche about this and that, of difficult times, that things were very hard.
Now you have to remember Rinpoche was a refugee. He went through the Chinese invasion in his country and he lost a lot of his family and it was very difficult — his exodus from Tibet. So, it's not that Rinpoche lived some kind of golden easy life. He had a very hard life.
But when faced with complaints from people who say, “My life is too difficult,” Rinpoche always would say, "No, this life, this life we have now, this is the picnic"...
This life is the life we've waited for. This life, this one in this human body, in this human world, even though we might be sick or we might be getting old or we might be afraid, we could have troubles for sure. But just to be born in this life is a great pleasure.
To have a human body in this life is a great pleasure. That you can see, that you can hear, that you can read a book, that you have this human body, because this is the life you've waited for. This is the life you've prayed for. This is the life that you have now. This life is your joy and the basis for all (Dharma) realizations and fulfilment, through this human body.
Even though it can be trouble, we do purify karma with our physical hardships and difficulties. But that is our fortune too. And so, Rinpoche would say, don't waste time being angry or upset. This life is as short as stopping to sit on a park bench. You should enjoy it. There's no time to fight or complain or be critical.
Each day, each moment, realize this is the life I've waited for. I'm going to enjoy this moment, this day, this life.
~~
Chagdud Rinpoche:
My mother used to say, “No matter how difficult your life is as a human being, there is no comparison between the difficulties here and the miseries in lower existences.”
(Note: Rinpoche's mother is an emanation of White Tara and a Delog who travelled to the lower realms to benefit beings.)
~~
Chagdud Rinpoche
There was a very great practitioner in my family, Tulku Arik, one of my cherished teachers. People came from hundreds of miles just to look at the place where he meditated. Even the Chinese Communists said, “If you practice dharma the way he does, it’s okay.” He owned only what he could carry on his back and lived in a cave or small meditation house. His practice was very pure and simple. From the age of thirteen until his recent passing at the age of eighty-four, he slept only one hour a night because it was more important to him to practice than to sleep.
As a teacher he could be quite wrathful, directly confronting his students’ attachments and aversions. When students came to him, for the first four years he taught them nothing but the four thoughts. He demanded that they penetrate the meaning and understand the consequences of these teachings until their mindstreams changed and their practice matured.
When people begged Tulku Arik to give more profound teachings, he said, “This teaching may not be good enough for you, but it was good enough for the Buddhas. They meditated for years in order to understand the truth of the four thoughts. If this teaching is not profound enough for you, go somewhere else.”
(Note: The four thoughts are Precious Human Life; Death and Impermanence; Cause and Effect; Sufferings of Samsara)
