Stories from a Chela – Za Rahula and Strange Habits
A ‘chela’ is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘student’. In particular this word refers to the student of a spiritual teacher. Within this series of short posts, I will be sharing stories about His Eminence the 25th Tsem Rinpoche. Hopefully through these stories, you will get a glimpse of how Tsem Rinpoche and the Dharma that Rinpoche shares has not only benefited me but countless others.
Za Rahula and Strange Habits
Habits are strange things, learned from a young age they stick with us throughout our lives and most of the time they are illogical and absurd if we actually stop and think about them. As a child growing up in London, you hear all sorts of superstitions such as if you walk under a ladder or open an umbrella inside the house, you will be struck with bad luck. Over time, when you hear these superstitions more and more, they become strange habits with no logical basis.
A somewhat modern example of this is not to walk over three drains in a row, or three manholes in the road that have covers right next to each other. Now, I have no idea where this comes from, but quite a few people of my generation from my locale will walk around three drains that are right next to each other or even cross over to the other side of the road to avoid walking over them. I know what you are thinking, that is strange! But I guess it is just one of those local superstitions that people have.
I used to have this habit, but not to a terrible extent. And Tsem Rinpoche once noticed it. I had the fortune to be part of Rinpoche’s Ladrang (household) in the United States, when Rinpoche was there a couple of years ago. Those who know Rinpoche, know that Rinpoche always makes abundant offerings to the Buddhas. On the day in question Rinpoche had taken us to a nearby supermarket to purchase items as offerings for that day. We had finished shopping and we were walking back to the car, when I stopped out of habit to walk around three large manholes in the road, all in a row. As we continued walking, Rinpoche put his arm over my shoulders and told me about Za Rahula.
The unenlightened Dharma Protector, Za Rahula
Za Rahula, though most often referring to the subdued unenlightened Dharma protector is also a name used to refer to a type of spirit. The Dharma protector is actually the Indian cosmological deity Rahu, who is known as the deification of the phenomena of eclipses, and this is mirrored in the Tibetan Buddhist stories of Za Rahula’s hunger to swallow up the planets before he was subdued.
On the other hand, the type of spirit known as Za Rahula that Rinpoche told me about, lives in energy currents within the earth, somewhat like ley lines that criss-cross over land. Anyone unfortunate to have the karma to be afflicted by them and who steps on one of these lines can be struck with unfortunate illnesses and fits if these spirits are angered. Thankfully, there is a method to overcome this illness, which is to swallow a mantra written on a paper. This mantra needs to be written by a master who has completed the necessary retreats and written on a specific type of paper. Rinpoche told me the story of one such master, the abbot of a small Nyingma Monastery, which was located right next to Gaden Monastery in south India. He was well known to have the ability to cure people’s fits and illnesses caused by such spirits.
I thought it to be an interesting story, and something to add to my knowledge of deities, spirits and the abilities of high lamas to help people overcome the problems people go through. But when I thought about it, Rinpoche was doing much more than just that. He was helping me to overcome that strange habit of mine. On one hand he was hinting at me, that even if there was something bad that would happen if I stepped over three drains, the compassion of the Buddhas can manifest in ways to combat it, and on the other hand, Rinpoche was subtly hinting at me that I need to overcome the habit.
You may ask, “Why would Rinpoche even talk to you about overcoming such a simple habit”? The answer is, how can you be expected to overcome bigger and more deeply rooted habits like one’s anger, ignorance, jealousy and attachments, if you cannot even deal with a simple habit such as thinking that walking over three drains will cause you bad luck? The strange habit I had died that day. I’ve been happily walking over three drains in a row since then, without the illogical worry of being struck with bad luck.
For more interesting information:
- Stories from a Chela – Spiritual Nourishment for All
- Stories from a Chela – The Lama that Builds
- Stories from a Chela – The Teaching in the Tea
- Stories from a Chela – Incense Offering That Saves Lives
- Stories from a Chela – Supernatural Protection
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All of us have habits, some are good habits, some are bad habits. Good habits take a lot of hard work to cultivate while bad habits are easy to form because most of them require no effort. Rinpoche skillfully gives dharma that is applicable and relates closely to our daily life. When we apply the dharma constantly, we are repeating a positive action. It will become a positive habit which is beneficial to us and people around. Thank you Rinpoche and Pastor Niral for sharing this profound teachings to overcome our bad rooted habits such as one’s anger, ignorance, jealousy and attachments. ???????
Most of us never give a second thought the fact that we are repeating some actions frequently. After decades of mental programming, automatically we behave or react in these patterns without questioning are these appropriate to do so. We all know, in order to break a habit, we have to aware of our thoughts, speech and actions and make a change. The fact is how often we are able to identify our habituation which brings no benefit to us?
If you have a Guru, you are a fortunate one because a Guru is there to lead you to enlightenment. Just like Tsem Rinpoche who is compassion, his dharma teaching is simple to understand yet profound. Rinpoche skillfully gives dharma that is applicable and relates closely to our daily life. When we apply the dharma constantly, we are repeating a positive action. It will become a positive habit which is beneficial to us and people around.
It is so true that we develop so many strange habits over our lifetime, especially the illogical ones passed down by our family. There’s no cutting of nails at night or you will not be there for your parents at their passing, no hanging laundry to dry outside at night or the spirits may attach themselves to the clothes, grinding teeth when asleep can be stopped by eating a piece of fat meat while hiding behind the door, go to a crowded public place after attending a funeral so that the spirit will not follow you home, and so many other superstitious actions that we habitually follow. It does make sense to just throw these in the winds as the Buddha has given us protection in our practices. Thank you Pastor Niral for sharing such an interesting story which reflects our idiosyncrasies and how our Guru is able to help us grow beyond these limitations.
Habits are the small decisions we make and actions we perform every day and they have stuck with us throughout our lives since young. Is a routine of behaviour that is repeated regularly and soon they become strange habits with no logical basis. When we learn to transform our habits, we can transform our life if we made a change. Interesting stories of Za Rahula and strange habits which were told by Rinpoche.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this profound teachings to overcome our bad rooted habits such as one’s anger, ignorance, jealousy and attachments.
Thank you Pastor Niral for sharing this short story with us. I think the most important point in this article is the changing of our habituation. All of us have habits, some are good habits, some are bad habits. Good habits take a lot of hard work to cultivate while bad habits are easy to form because most of them require no effort.
It is important to quit bad habit starting from the small or insignificant ones. If we are not able to do that, how are we going to transform our mind and get rid of the habits that cause suffering to us? We must not give up easily.
Everything Tsem Rinpoche does brings only benefits, he never harms anyone. The best gift he has given to the people is the Dorje Shugden practice. He shares so much information on Dorje Shugden without asking for anything in return. It is very kind of him.
This was actually quite similar to my mother as she always says not to cut nails on Friday and on night. Not only this, she also believes taking a group photo of three people may lead to a person in that group to left the group or die. At first, this actually doesn’t make any sense for me.
As my mom keep on advising me about this, it happened to be one of my habits. This really sounds strange. But after reading this article, i think I’ve to overcome this illogical habits. Thank you for this article.