Surprisingly, our Lama Ontul Rinpoche came to stay over the weekend. He had visited Estonia and Russia, together with his son, who is also a high incarnation. Ontul Rinpoche is sitting in the middle of the picture, next to the young monk in orange robes, his son. It was so good to see him. He asked me how I am, I said "okay", but then I told him about my husband's job problem and mine with the tone that won't let me sleep. I've been working hard with my mind, speech and body, sitting on a cushion, reciting mantras, meditating. The tone is almost gone now, and this morning, my husband got a call from his -- hopefully -- future company to talk to them tomorrow.
The monks in the picture are mostly refugees from Tibet; some came just recently across the montains, they fled from China. Many of the boys have lost one parent or both. The parents of some are too poor or too sick to earn a living. Our Lama's wife (standing, grey dress) coordinates the sponsoring of the monks and nuns. This Lama is not a monk (he used to be when he was young), but a married ordained person which is possible in most Tibetan orders. Everyone makes his own choice whether to take celibacy vows or not. All these boys will decide whether to keep the vows or put them down when they will be about 18 or 20 years old. Being married is not an obstacle to receiving highest initiations.
4 comments:
the colors of those robes are too rich for words.
omg - are they all named Rinpoche? My friend Jack, whom I knew from kindergarten on, became some sort of Buddhist (and refused to come to the reunion last weekend). He is an eccentric artist who was always, and probably still is, endearing.
I watched a number of videos he made of lectures he gave that I couldn't make heads or tails of. He also goes on about the Trungpa Rinpoche, his guru and dharma art.
Rinpoche means "precious" and is a title of certain higher Lamas, like others say "Rabbi" or "Hodja".
Ah, thanks.
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