Lama Tharchin Rinpoche's Magic

I don't know how many of you know my main root lama, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche.  He was ill for many years, and not really teaching much publicly.  Above is a 2006 photo I found online.

The aspect of Rinpoche's life story that has been on my mind lately is from his youth.  He had completed many years of retreat under Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche in Tibet, culminating with him serving as a teaching assistant in the final group three year retreat.  He realized when he was about to come home that, as the son  of a respected lama, and someone who had completed extensive retreat, he would be treated with great esteem by people in his home area.  He knew he had not yet defeated his ego clinging, so after reuniting with his beloved mother, he told her he needed to go wander and practice in areas where he would be a complete nobody.  She said she understood, and told his father.  His father said "Good boy." His father --a fierce mahasiddha who was the ancestral spiritual leader of a community of non-monastic yogis (ngakpas) in Rekong (now Tongren, Qinghai)--had left his home for similar reasons.

Anyway, soon afterwards word came that things had gotten too bad politically to remain in Tibet to stay.  He escaped over the mountains to India.  He always jokes that the Chinese set up exactly the kind of situation he had been seeking.  He became one among many refugees, eventually settling in Orissa in Dudjom Rinpoche's refugee camp there.  There he became successful--as a very effective beggar.

Rinpoche remains the most stubbornly humble high lama I have ever encountered.  Without his guidance, I am sure that myself and countless others among his students would be real egomaniacs by now.  It is apparently easy to fall into this trap as practitioners of teachings that are said to be exalted.  Then one can undermine the whole process by wantonly engaging in the most seductive afflicted emotion there is--pride.  So hard to see in oneself, so poisonous

So the best news is that Rinpoche is healthy now, and teaching a lot this year.  Please see his teaching schedule at the Vajrayana Foundation website and the Jnanasukha website.  He has said quite often that he doesn't need new students, doesn't have any personal need to give empowerments and so forth.  All the more reason to become his student and receive as many teachings and transmissions as you can from him.

The pool of great lamas training in old Tibet is shrinking annually.  If you are alive today you are among the last people alive who will have access to such masters.  Please don't squander it by thinking they will always be there and you will meet them after you make some money and retire.  I regret so much how I squandered my first 30 years on silly dualistic political obsessions, and could have easily met Dudjom Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse, 16th Karmapa, and Trungpa Rinpoche instead.