Bobby Trendy, Judy Garland & Star Trek

A scene from Judy Garland’s movie, ‘A Star Is Born’.

As part of the writers’ team, a few of us (Pastor Niral, Pastor Jean Ai and Beatrix) get to meet Rinpoche on a regular basis to discuss the latest happenings and work assignments. Then, there are days that are spent with Rinpoche just watching what would seemingly be random movie snippets and documentaries.

Rinpoche is always on a personal mission to expose his students to what would be the deepest darkest Samsaric world of movie stars, fashion designers, celebrities and whole slew of his favorite sci-fi flicks. Today happened to be one of those days and I often enjoyed the ride as I had always enjoyed a little escapade from time to time. If you know Rinpoche the way I do, you would know that everything he does is more than meets the eye.

Today’s session began with Bobby Trendy, the celebrity designer with the bitchiest, funniest and loudest outfits to hit the small screen. It was random YouTube clips of his outrageous appearance in LA, obnoxious appearance on Anna Nichol Smith show and his court appearance. Then, we moved on to the old Judy Garland songs on Youtube like Rinpoche’s all time favorite Just In Time, Swanee and Get Happy. Rinpoche said that although she was so talented and such a powerful performer, she died in poverty and towards the end of her life, she was on drugs and alcohol.

Then Rinpoche looked around the room and said that there were four of us in the room with parents who had difficult marriage. “Why do people get married?” Nevertheless, he was referring to the fact that almost all the couples that he met behind close doors reveal the breakdown in their marriage. He often reminds people of this in order to expose the hypocrisy of pop culture and most people’s misconception that marriage leads to happiness.

Then, we moved on to the original Star Trek, where Rinpoche had wanted us to watch the thought-provoking episode called Mudd’s Women. It is about the Enterprise intercepting some sort of cargo ship and beamed the occupants just before it explodes. It turned out to be a man by the name of Mudd and his 3 beautiful women ‘cargo’. They turn out to be ordinary frumpy women on a special Venus pill that they take to become beautiful and alluring to men. In the end, one of the women refuses the pill in order to be true to herself. It’s an empowering tale of being true to oneself and not resorting on superficial appearance to be attractive.

There were many other videos in between these three and all meant to expose us to various elements. As Rinpoche had explained before that he always strive to expose his closer students to all types of videos in order to expand our understanding and view on things. When we are more exposes and have a less narrow view on the world, it will be easier for the Dharma to go in. So, there is higher purpose in watching and enjoying this wide selection of videos.

The 3 alluring Mudd’s cargo in Star Trek