Dharma
Sister Yue and her family hardly missed any group prayer held in Singapore which
was webcast over the Internet so far. Her family took refuge in Acho Rinpoche
recently, with several members of the family experiencing good spiritual
responses. The night before taking refuge in Acho Rinpoche, her mother had a vision of Acho Rinpoche and saw many seed syllables appearing all over the robe worn
by him. In one of the prayer sessions, her mother had a very special experience
where she felt her body rising upward into space and finally immersed in an
ocean of light!
Acho
Rinpoche shared a dream that he had recently where he found himself among a
group of young graduates in a class room. He felt as young as the group in his
dream but was requested by the lecturer to leave the class as he was considered slightly older than the rest of the students. When he stepped out of the class, he suddenly realised
that he had already retired and was already 62 year-old! He realized that the
notion of “time” is no longer relevant to a retiree as he lives a very basic
life style repeating the same sequence daily: eating, practising, doing walking
meditation and sleeping. A person leading such a life style will feel a sense
of timelessness. The notion of “time” is also not relevant to a young child who
has not started going to school. It is only relevant to students and working
adults who need to constantly remind themselves the time schedules for the
various activities to be carried out.
Acho
Rinpoche mentioned about a hot news circulating in the Internet lately about a female
Taiwanese artiste who married a renowned Tibetan Rinpoche. This Rinpoche has
lived in Seattle for many years, who became a monk since young, studying under H.H
16th Karmapa. However, he renounced his monkhood and married many
years ago and divorced his wife recently in order to re-marry this female Taiwanese
artiste. Now, they have a young daughter. The practice of Vajrayana is both
powerful and full of challenges, and the Rinpoches are not exempted from the
many tests. This Rinpoche had published a book titled “Wild Awakening” and his
teachings of the Buddha Dharma is clearly competent. However, he obviously
failed to apply the teachings in his life when faced with the challenges.
There
was another Hong Kong actress who broke her silence over a long-kept secret of
the father of her teenage son born out of wedlock. The media speculated wrongly
about the true father of her son as another Hong Kong actor who is her good
friend. The Hong Kong actor just kept silent about the truth by not making any
clarifications throughout the years, in order to protect her as a friend.
Finally, she broke her silence and openly declared that the true father of her
son was a Bhutanese Rinpoche and she expressed her disappointment over his
oblivion of both the mother and son throughout the years.
Some
experts within the Tibetan Buddhism circle expressed their views over such
incidents and made the following conclusions. First, a reincarnated Rinpoche
who renounced his monkhood for a marriage will certainly head for a downfall.
Second, a reincarnated Rinpoche who became a monk since young and persisted in
his monastic life while continuing his teachings is well respected by the community.
Third, a re-incarnated Rinpoche who persists to live a spiritual life in the
forest, who chooses not to accept the offerings by secular people, is most
respected by the community.
The
path to enlightenment is full of challenges as the sweet success will only
happen after a practitioner is toughened by the numerous tests that helped to
purify his negative propensities. There are many success stories demonstrated
by the many practitioners who rose above the numerous challenges. Similarly, there
are also many failures demonstrated by the many practitioners who succumbed to
the challenges. A practitioner should take this to heart and be mindful
about the need to stay vigilant about the numerous tests lining the path to
enlightenment.
Extracted from a
discourse given by Acho Rinpoche on 16-5-2015
