I was taking part in a Dzogchen retreat and my mind was lost in outer space. I couldn’t understand anything Rinpoche said and, on top of it all, we went to his room to receive some instructions. And, oh my, those instructions were really sophisticated. Lama Sherab was translating, but even then I couldn’t understand what he meant. I was really worried. First, I couldn’t understand his English so well, and then, when the translation into Portuguese began, I couldn’t understand that either!
While we were there, he took a small music box shaped as a gramophone, it was really tiny. And every time he stopped giving teachings and the translation began, he would pick up the music box and wind it. Then he put it to his ear and listened to the music.
At first, I thought that was weird. Then I started to realize he was offering an alternative version to those among us who did not understand the instructions very well. At every break, while the translation into Portuguese was being made, he would wind up the music box and listen to it again and again.
He wasn’t only enjoying the sounds, he was meditating with them. He was showing us the practical version of all those over-sophisticated teachings. I started to relax and realized he was actually giving us an alternative, so that we could understand the teachings in a non-verbal way. That was exactly what I needed at that moment.
Throughout the teaching, he did that same movement during many breaks: he would stop talking, wind up the box and meditate. I think I relaxed in the process because I realized there was something I could understand within all the complicated teachings.
When I left the practice, I was certain that I had understood everything that was essential to be conveyed. Once again, I bowed before him. I saw how extraordinary he was, beyond our understanding. I’m sure that was the teaching that has marked me the most in this life, as a most beautiful manifestation of compassion giving us an opportunity for understanding, even if our minds are in no shape to do anything else.
[as told by Nenung]
Meeting Rinpoche was just like coming home. I had finally found my master. When you find your master, you feel calm, serene; you feel you know why you are here. You know you came here to help beings to relieve their suffering.
And Rinpoche taught us about that all the time. He was an example of compassion. He dedicated every thought he had to all beings. Once he said, “Whenever you recite the Tara mantra, think of all the times you have recited it and also dedicate every recitation to the benefit of all beings.” Then I realized that each time he said “Om Tare Tam Soha” he was trying to benefit all beings. And he said he would put all the Tara statues he ever made in this mantra. So that all beings could benefit from every simple statue he had made throughout the years.
[As told by Ângela]
I was living in a house with many ants; on the sink, on the floor, on the walls. Despite teachings I had received about how we should not kill any beings, I would act as if distracted and I would kill some of them, thinking that maybe they would be reborn in the human realm. I did not tell this to Rinpoche.
One day, after I went to the mall with him, I listened to his teachings and, during a break, Rinpoche called me and asked me how I was doing. There was a silence between us and, after that, he told me not to kill ants. I looked startled at him and said that, when I killed them, I made the aspiration that they would be reborn in the human realm. Rinpoche smiled and said I would only be allowed to take someone’s life when I was able to give it back.
[As told by Giovanna de Barros]
There are many wonderful gifts Rinpoche has given all of us. I think what I appreciate most about Rinpoche was the incredible compassion he showed us in every way. In particular, I have great appreciation for the fact that we were so fortunate, all his western students and students everywhere around the world to be trained as impeccably as we were.
He was so focused in teaching us everything about practice and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, particularly the rituals, exactly as he himself had been trained. For that I thank Guru Rinpoche and I am so grateful to Rinpoche and all the amazing work he started, his endless work.
I remember Rinpoche would travel and teach throughout the year, every day, often staying up all night. Even if people came to him at four a.m. to request teachings or blessings, he would be available to them. That I appreciate the most. How hard he worked and how infinite his compassion was for all beings.
[As told by Silvia Salazar]
I got to know about Buddhism when I lived in the East. When I came back to Brazil, the first book about Buddhism I was given as a gift was “Gates.” It interested me a great deal, and I decided to track down the master who wrote it. Curiously, every time I went to Khadro Ling, I never met Rinpoche. And when Rinpoche was in São Paulo, I never could see him either. I felt a little frustrated, running after the master and never being able to find him.
Then I lost someone very close to me in my family, and I didn’t know about the p’howa practice. This was October 25th, 2002. Soon after that, people from São Paulo told me there would be a p’howa retreat and that Rinpoche would be giving the teachings. I left everything I had to do and went to the south of Brazil, to Khadro Ling. I had the privilege of being with Rinpoche physically for the first and last time. It was during this retreat that he gave, not only to me but to all the practitioners, the greatest teaching he could have given to anyone.
Therefore, what I remember about Rinpoche is quite powerful. The only time I was able to see him, it was also the last. I feel privileged to have been able to be with him that day. Thank you.
[as told by Argus]
One time a practitioner started to paint some images and put them in the store to be sold. I thought: “I can’t believe this person is just putting these things here for sale.” The painting was very ugly. Everything was different — the proportions, the colors. I knew it was me and my judgment, the issue of wanting something to be this or that. But I looked at the drawing and there was just no way for me to like it. In the end, no one bought the painting.
Later, at a certain point in Rinpoche teachings, he started to say that it was nice to make drawings during practice because, at first, the deities look more like demons than like the deities themselves. So by drawing them carefully, we could perfect our visualization little by little. Rinpoche concluded by saying that we shouldn’t draw as we wished, that there were appropriate proportions. Surely, I remembered that painting at once.
The thing is, the next time I saw it, it looked completely different. And I asked my friend: “Was it painted again?” He replied: “No, no, Rinpoche blessed the painting.”
[As told by a sutdent]
I once arrived at Khadro Ling for a retreat with two friends and my boyfriend. The three of them had shaved heads. At the end of the practice, Rinpoche called them to talk and invited them to stay in the temple in retreat. He wanted to send some Brazilian students to India, in order to pursue monastic studies.
While he was explaining the intricacies of a monk’s life, I arrived with my son, who was very young. In that moment, Rinpoche started to laugh, realizing there was a family in our lives. In that moment, he steered the conversation: he started to give teachings about what family means and what merits a family can have by practicing the Dharma.
[As told by Janaina Torves]
The experience I had with Rinpoche which I wish to tell is a little funny. It happened during a Vajrakilaia Drubchen in which I was sitting very close to him. Once I went to the bathroom and, when I came back, I passed near Rinpoche and saw that he was laughing very hard at me. He called people aside, pointed at me, told the lamas to look at me. But I didn’t understand why.
When I came closer to the place I was sitting, a friend of mine who was right beside of me pointed to my tchuba. Then I realized I came back from the bathroom with half of my tchuba open, and my underwear was showing. Rinpoche couldn’t stop laughing at that.
What I learned about Rinpoche is that, among his many elevated qualities, one of them was his elevated sense of humor.
[as told by Gabriel]
The most wonderful memory I have from Rinpoche is of his eyes when he would look at me. I could see space. This was something that marked my heart deeply. Rinpoche gave me discipline. He gave me method. He gave me love. He taught me how to open myself to others. I believe he changed my life.
[As told by Cândida Bastos]
Oral instructions Rinpoche gave me about cooking for people who were in retreat were: “When they come to the kitchen, you tell them to go away. Tell them to go and meditate. Tell them that, if food comes, they should rejoice. If food doesn’t come, they will purify their karmas of being reborn in the domain of the hungry ghosts. And then you should slap them.” Then he did a gesture of slapping someone with his arm. I laughed.
Remembering those words dissolved much frustration during that long retreat, just because I knew he recognized my difficulty in facing my task with lightness.”
[As told by a student]