Tales With My Lama: The Shopping Experience with Rinpoche
Pastor David has been a student of His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche for over 15 years and within the ‘Tales With My Lama’ series of articles, he explores his spiritual relationship with Rinpoche, sharing anecdotes, stories, observations and little Dharma nuggets. It is all told to inspire others for their own spiritual relationship with their teachers.
The Shopping Experience with Rinpoche
One day around seven years ago, like many times previous to that, Rinpoche decided to go shopping. It seemed to be a spur-of-the-moment decision, something that was typical of Rinpoche. Now, shopping was not exactly one of Rinpoche’s favourite pastimes, unless he was shopping for someone. Rinpoche always said he would have to drag himself out of bed for it. Rinpoche dreaded crowds in malls, but fortunately this day was a weekday, so the crowd was thin.
It was just myself, Pastor Seng Piow and Rinpoche in a Hilux truck driving along the highway while dodging evening traffic. Pastor Seng Piow was the driver and he was not particularly familiar with the roads. So, while attempting to amuse Rinpoche with my stories, I had to function as a GPS (not the best in the world) as well. We got stuck in traffic on Federal Highway as we headed to Sunway Pyramid, one of those strange themed malls built to resemble a sphinx and a pyramid. Fortunately, we made it to the mall with minimal fuss.
When we arrived at the mall, we did a bit of shopping. Although Rinpoche was dressed in all black, he still attracted quite a bit of attention. Rinpoche didn’t like undue attention at all, particularly if there was the possibility of being recognised. Rinpoche was a private person, but when he did meet anybody he knew, Rinpoche would always greet and talk to that person.
So, Rinpoche took quick walks into shops or glimpsed into shops through the windows and told us if anything caught his eye. Pastor Seng Piow or I went into those shops and enquired about the prices of the items before reporting back to Rinpoche. If the items were not too expensive, Rinpoche had us buy them. Needless to say, most of our purchases ended up as gifts for various students. Over the years I knew Rinpoche, he rarely bought anything for himself.
Then came the perennial question, “What are we going to eat?” Ideas were proposed and we eventually agreed on a Chinese restaurant where we ordered vegetarian food. During dinner, Rinpoche looked around and he contemplated aloud that people in general just eat, work, have families and then pass on. Rinpoche added that he would never be like them. You see, I was already used to Rinpoche’s frank observation and was not taken aback by what was said. Rinpoche revealed once that when he was very young, he contemplated this and saw the faults of marriage and getting a job from the ultimate standpoint of life and death.
There was a time I wondered why Rinpoche talked about death so often. It was strange but no surprise that I found the answer in the Lamrim (Stages of the Path to Enlightenment). There is a part of the Lamrim that says observant Lamrim meditators shouldn’t confine their meditations (e.g. on topics of death and impermanence) to just being on the meditation cushion alone. In fact, they should apply as much of the Lamrim topics into their everyday lives as possible. So, Rinpoche was contemplating the Lamrim, just without the labels.
Rinpoche wasn’t looking down on ordinary folks who did those things, but he just couldn’t see himself living a life of making money and having a family. Rinpoche said that the happiness derived from those is deceptive and illusory, and that’s just what society dictates and what his foster parents wanted him to do. Rinpoche wanted to practise the Dharma and so against all odds, he became a fully ordained monk. This is not a form of escapism as some might call it but an acceptance of reality. All in all, a mundane shopping experience with Rinpoche was never what it seemed. It was always an exercise in awareness and there was always something Dharmic in everything Rinpoche said or did, although it may have appeared as ordinary.
For more interesting information:
- Tales with My Lama: Bigfoot Dreams
- Tales with My Lama: What does Rinpoche like about Liz Taylor?
- Tales with My Lama: Daily Practice
- Tales With My Lama : Laugh Away Your Ego
- Tales With My Lama: Why Rinpoche Has To Suffer
- Tales With My Lama : Larger than Life
- Tales with my Lama – Manjushri
- Tales With My Lama : Audience With Tsem Rinpoche
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Thank you Pastor David for sharing all the wonderful encounters of shopping with Rinpoche. As we know Rinpoche rarely goes shopping for himself but as gifts for various students. Reading this post simply have me thinking, one must be observant to develop knowledge, and to apply what we read from the Lamrim topics into our lives. Being observant of our surroundings and practicing situational awareness at all times.