Rinpoche’s Living Space

Yesterday, I was hanging out with Rinpoche in his room and Pastor Jay Jae came walking in with a huge poster of the Himalayas (the exact picture is above here). He was going to mount the picture onto a frameless board. Unfortunately, the picture was a hue too dark and so the poster had to be redone. Temporarily, Pastor Jay Jae mounted the poster unto an existing picture and redirected some lights to shine onto the picture and voila! The scene came to life.

Rinpoche was just admiring the scene and he told us that the scene made his whole body tingle with innate excitement. It was the closest he could get towards being closest in such an environment at the moment. He said he is not trying to be difficult but it was a deep yearning. He does not like living in the city and amongst concrete buildings. It is not just a matter of preference but it brings about a choking sensation of closing in. Hence, although Rinpoche being the recluse that he is, would go out despite the fact that Rinpoche would actually rather stay indoors.

Rinpoche described that he often fantasize living in a lush forest with a lake and the sprawling view of the mountains in the horizon. He explained that its not a vision or a premonition. It is just something he had always wanted to go to in order to engage in retreats and to live out his life in seclusion with perhaps a few close attendants. He said that this fantasy is always combined with having a Manjushri statue near him always. It was connected, this beautiful place and Manjushri. It was something that goes in very deep and when he contemplate, it descends into a faraway distant memory thats blanketed in darkness of what cannot be remembered.

This is Rinpoche’s favourite statue of Manjushri that he dreamed about and Pastor Jay Jae had commissioned this as an offering to him.  

My conclusion would be that this yearning and feeling stems from a distant past, a previous life in fact. I think it was brought on by the fact that Rinpoche was definitely a yogi and a great practitioner of Manjushri in one of its many manifestations. I was thinking about it and admitted to Rinpoche that if it was me, I would probably had a poster of a city skyline instead. Rinpoche said that he would never ever want that or like that. He explained that the city to him is just a representation of human greed, attachment and delusions. While pictures of nature is a reminder of who were really are inside – compassionate, wise and spiritual. He said we are already so full of delusion, why do we want to be reminded of that or want it to increase?d

Rinpoche said that his teacher Kyabje Gangchen Rinpoche had told some of his older students that Rinpoche should always have in his room, Tara, Manjushri and Vajrapani. Apparently, the energies of these three great Yidams have a way of enhancing Rinpoche’s Dharma works. This reflects Rinpoche’s energy and always has a statue of Manjushri around him. Knowing Rinpoche, the statue is not merely a decoration but a shrine would be created around the Buddha complete with offerings.

Rinpoche spends most of his time within his room, working on the blog and basically administering the entire organization and his blog through the computer and via his phone. Hence, Rinpoche has a lot of working going on and has little time for himself to relax. The picture of the mountains is like a window into another world and a way for Rinpoche to relax after hours of working for others. It’s the least we can do to make it easy for our Lama, who works tirelessly for everyone.