Host: but Rinpoche, you spent so much time practicing these practices, and also in Three Year Retreat as well. So is this what you were doing in Three Year Retreat? This deity yoga practice, and this yoga, is that the sort of thing you were doing every day? And what sort of, you know, signs did you get that “okay, this is worthwhile doing”?
Kalu Rinpoche: Just to be, you know, just simply to share with all of you, I was very lazy in the retreat. And I was like, you wouldn’t even imagine, you know, you would imagine “the Kalu Rinpoche, reincarnation of the great master, somewhere in the mountain in a snowy land, then doing retreat, almost half naked yoga” you know? “Not eating for days, and months”, you may have that kind of a imagination.
Good, keep on dreaming [haha] doesn’t mean I’m that.
There was a time that, a lot of distraction because you enter to a completely different environment. You go from playing football, going to the forest, buying some snacks from the stores to the place where you cannot get any outside access, you know? Even you get a newspaper, that’s like so much information. And if you get a small piece of newspaper, because people, when they send your gift, they wrap up in that newspaper. So I, I read a little bit of torn newspaper, trying to catch up with the world, even I’m not interested in the cricket, become interesting [haha] you have nothing else to read [haha].
But, what really encouraged me was the Niguma’s teaching and the Khyungpo Naljor’s teaching, and then also the journey they had. Because nowadays we have given a roof over our head, we are given a text in front of us, you know, a place to do retreat and practice, you won’t starve to death. But their condition, that what they had to go through is like experimental stage, isn’t it?
Like of course the teachings of the Buddha was there, that’s not experimental stage, but you know, they had to come all the way from Tibet, crossing the border of Nepal, and then entering to the West Bengal, going through all the climate differences, and have no, you know, translation app, you know, so you have to go, you have to go with the broken language. And then, and you’re bring back with a lot of spiritual teachings about enlightenment, you know?
Can you imagine? Like you have to go with the broken language, not knowing Nepali language, not knowing, you know, Indian language, but you have to become that bridge. And then, you know, they’re living their whole life for that purpose, and that give me the inspiration. And, and then also the previous Kalu Rinpoche’s Dharma activity, and all of that combined together, it, you know, it shake my heart, little bit. Yeah.
So little bit of practice really helped, because I find that solitude retreat is very important. Because without solitude, we can say we are very modern human being, living in the 21st century, and, but the mind function exactly the same as before.
So therefore, sometime, the method has to be traditional. Sometime the method can be adapted to circumstance. So I think balancing both is important.
Live with Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche on Wisdom Dharma Chats (24′ 45”)
Perspective on dharma in the modern world – 4th May 2023
To be continued …
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