Sucheta Dasgupta

Kathmandu:

His eyes shine warmly as his ancient face breaks into the most innocent of smiles. Blessing a recently bereaved Brazilian visitor with the silk khada (scarf) she has brought along with her as offering, the 86-year-old saint wishes her peace and says that he would pray for the soul of her departed mother. The Brazilian leaves as an American iconographer with a camera takes her place. The queue of visitors moves forward. “Tashi Delei (good wishes),” says the American to the Rinpoché. It is the time of exchanging good will and good wishes. It is Lhosar.

“The third day of Lhosar is the biggest day,” says His Eminence Chogye Trichen Rinpoché, when I comment on the size, colour and variety of the crowd. “Today is the day of the worship of burning incense and the throwing of the rice flour, the tsampa,” he further elaborates. “The tsampa thrown is an offering to the gods, demons and the deities. When the tsampa falls on the head, your hair is white, covered with the flour. This is an auspicious gesture. It signifies that you will live to a ripe old age,” he says with a smile.

Chogye Trichen Rinpoché, Khyenrab Lekshay Gyatso, is the head of the Tsharpa school within the Sakya tradition of Buddhism. The Sakya school has three principal subschools: the Sakyapa, founded by Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158); the Ngorpa, founded by Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (1382-1456) and the Tsharpa, founded by Tsarchen Losal Gyatso (1502-66). The principal teaching of the Sakya school is the Lamdre (the path, lam, with the result, dre). Lamdre contains instructions and practices covering the whole range of both the sutra and the tantra teachings. “The tantric teachings are where Vajrayana diverges from the Mahayana,” explains the Rinpoché to a curious me. “Besides, we have certain icons and practices that are not there in the older forms of the religion.”

Chogye Trichen Rinpoché is the oldest Rinpoché in the valley. Born in the year 1919, he obtained his title of Rinpoché (the reincarnated saint) at the tender age of four. He was given the title by no less than the 13th Dalai Lama. The Rinpoché remembers his teachers Kunga Choephez and his root guru Dampa Rinpoché for imparting vital knowledge to him and helping him become the man he is today. I remember the vital question that I have been planning to ask him. “Dear Rinpoché, it is known that a person must abstain from pride. Yet is it possible for an ambitious person or a man with a lot of dreams to give up all his pride? How can such a man be humble and, at the same time, true to his dreams?” I ask the Rinpoché. “It is not possible to realise your dreams without pride,” is the Rinpoché’s short reply. I coax him to explain. “Well, there are different kinds of pride: to believe in your dreams needs the right kind of pride. But ultimately all pride must be given up if a person wants true enlightenment,” he says. “And one must look into his heart and accept his own limitations. If his ideas are too big for him, he must accept that, too. With grace.”

“When were you happiest, Rinpoché?” My next question is out of my mouth almost before I have thought it. “The best time of my life was when I was about 16 or 17,” the smiling old man obliges. “It was the time when I was beginning my higher studies of philosophy. A time of great hope and looking ahead.” A time chock-full of dreams... “And when are you happiest now?” “When I am at meditation,” comes his reply.

I have asked him my last question. It is time for the grand old man to have lunch and attend his duties of the festive day. As I depart, I feel a twinge of sorrow in my heart. Shall I ever return to his presence or to the presence of those rare souls like him? “When Buddha beckons,” whispers my heart.

Chogye Trichen Rinpoché wishes all a peaceful and prosperous Lhosar.