Tales With My Lama ~ Manjushri

I have a gilded statue of Manjushri that sits on a small altar on my desk. I had just offered incense to it when it inspired me to write this piece . This statue is a 9-inch Nepali crafted figurine that became a part of my shrine a little over 14 years ago. What makes this statue significant is that it was a gift from H.E. Tsem Rinpoche and was the first Buddha statue I have ever owned.

I still remember that day. I was with Rinpoche and Rinpoche felt inspired to talk spontaneously about Manjushri and the benefits of his practice. Towards the end of his teaching, Rinpoche turned to me and said that I should make Manjushri or any form of Manjushri  as the focus of my daily practice. At that time, although I was not really familiar with all the deities in the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon I knew about Lama Tsongkhapa and Manjushri.

Then, Rinpoche asked me to pick between Lama Tsongkhapa and Manjushri. I hesitated for a moment as I really like both. In the end, I chose Manjushri and to my surprise, Rinpoche picked up a beautiful statue of Manjushri from his own shrine and handed it to me amidst recitation of benediction. Rinpoche first placed Manjushri on my head before laying the beautiful statue into my receiving hands, with a white khata scarf. I was overjoyed!

That was the manner in which Rinpoche gave me my main practice. Rinpoche intuitively knew the Buddha-deity that I should focus on and it matched perfectly the deity that I was interested in. This is also one good example of Rinpoche’s boundless generosity, that he would even offer his own personal worship items that moments before, was on his own shrine.

That was the manner in which Rinpoche had given me my practice. Rinpoche intuitively knew the Buddha-deity that I should focus on and coincidentally matched perfectly the deity that I was interested in. Furthermore, this is one perfect example of Rinpoche generosity. There would be no other person who would give such lavish gifts of a priceless Buddha statue.

Furthermore, Rinpoche never saw Buddha statues as priceless works of art meant only to be collected for oneself alone. He kept Buddha statues as potential gifts for people he meet as a blessing or to kickstart their spiritual practice just like how I had received Manjushri. It didn’t matter to Rinpoche if the statue was expensive or not. He is ever willing to give the statue away if it would benefit that person.