Conversations With My Guru Chapter 4: Creating Experiences

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Conversations With My Guru
Chapter 4 Creating Experiences Chapter 4
Creating Experiences Link https//www.thekchenc
holing.org/blog/conversations-with-my-guru-
13/post/conversations-with-my-guru-69 There is a
contradiction in all of us - we always seek a
peaceful, stable, serene life with no problems.
Yet, for probably all of us, when we look back at
our lives, we realise that we grew, learnt and
changed most as a result of (very often)
challenging, difficult or stressful
situations. In some Buddhist texts, it mentions
that a Guru has to pull the rug from under your
feet so we progress on the path. For some
older students, from our experiences with Singha
Rinpoche, it is something that he does quite
well. Year 2000. Mid or late I can't quite
remember. Anyway, exact dates are not important.
The group of students had grown a little and what
was to become Thekchen Choling operated out of a
private property in the Thong Soon area.
Complaints by residents about parking and noise
meant the presence of the authorities -
specifically URA. They came and told us we had to
vacate. A few months later, we found an alternate
location at Hindhede Road. By that time, the move
was quite significant, with a full altar,
statues, furniture etc. Some of which went to
Hindhede and some moved elsewhere due to the lack
of space. There was no committee or staff. We had
not set up a society so we all just assumed that
someone would always be there to help. But there
was no organised, clear, defined moving plan. We
were all mostly in our 30s or early 40s and
busy with work and young families. The move was
quite chaotic. I would get a call suddenly asking
me to come down and help move some furniture
and/or pack or unpack. As students, all of us
received these calls, sometimes from Rinpoche and
sometimes from other students asking for
help. Please come lah, I am alone and Lama wants
to move the big cupboard now. We all were often
pretty annoyed at how disorganized it was.
Looking back now while writing this, I realise
how silly this all sounds. At that time though, I
often got irritated
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as did some others (and tired remember it was
not very many students). BUT, all of this chaos
brought us together. We realised we had to help
one another. Each of us experienced being the one
trying to call others for help or being called.
We were all from very different backgrounds and
had only recently come to know each other. This
and similar situations dissolved our selfishness
a bit. We looked beyond our differences - who was
rich or poor, the languages we spoke. A culture
was created where we trusted and would help each
other. These bonds made a huge difference when we
had to work together to set up Thekchen Choling.
Like a bunch of chopsticks put together,
providing strength when together and not as
individuals, as Rinpoche would constantly remind
us then. After some time, when we were
reminiscing about this period, we all felt that
Rinpoche may have done this - being skilfully
disorganized and creating difficult situations
for us - on purpose. Over the next 20 years, we
learnt that, from time to time, to wake us up
from laziness and complacency, Rinpoche would do
this in different ways. At some point, he sort of
admitted when we asked. But very often when we
did ask, his reply would typically be I never do
anything ??. Which from a wisdom perspective,
seems to be the perfect reply. Tenzin 10 Oct
2021