Rinpoche Through My Eyes – Cooking For Rinpoche
Joy has been a student of His Eminence the 25th Tsem Rinpoche for over 15 years. Through the years, Joy has witnessed Rinpoche’s compassion and the unconventional methods he uses to benefit others. Some of the short stories she shares will tell interesting miraculous events that Rinpoche will not mention due to his humility. She hopes these stories will serve as an inspiration in your own spiritual journey.
Rinpoche Through My Eyes – Cooking For Rinpoche
The first time I had to cook for Rinpoche, I was so terrified because before that I had only ever cooked for myself. It was a nice and quiet morning when I got into the Ladrang (Lama’s residence), which Rinpoche called the “Haven” at that time. No one else was in yet and I was so glad I was the first person who came in early that day.
Then suddenly over the intercom speaker, Rinpoche asked me to come up to his room. Rinpoche asked me to make breakfast for him! I panicked and was freaked out because I had never cooked for Rinpoche before, and I did not exactly have a lot of time to experiment and make mistakes as Rinpoche was hungry. On top of that Rinpoche had a bad gastric condition.
I cannot remember exactly what I made, all I can remember was a huge rush of adrenaline as well as the fear of failure. Of course, you only wish for and want to serve the best to your Guru so it was a nerve-racking experience preparing breakfast. And you need to understand that I was alone that morning and had no one there to help, so it was not just cooking but plating, making the drink and ensuring the serving tray was clean, and then bringing it up to serve Rinpoche. I am sure Rinpoche knew how nervous I was.
After serving the breakfast, I was sure that Rinpoche was going to tell me how bad my food tasted but instead, Rinpoche ate everything and said it was good! I was relieved and from that day on Rinpoche started training more writers to cook and serve Rinpoche. The training was not so much about knowing how to cook but preparing everything from A-Z and doing the serving as well. This was one of Rinpoche’s ways of teaching us to care about someone else, using himself, the Guru, as the source for us to focus on first.
Rinpoche also said that food is one of the ways we show our love to someone. So by having us cook for Rinpoche, Rinpoche was training us to show love, care and generosity to others. Not only that, but it was also part of our practice of guru devotion as it is one of the greatest forms of offering, to offer sustenance to one’s Guru who is benefiting the world. Hence for all those who worked in the kitchen preparing food for Rinpoche, it was one of the best places to swiftly gain a great amount of merits, and one of the fastest ways to purify one’s karma.
The kitchen was always filled with many challenges that Rinpoche manifested to help us chip away at our delusions and bad habituations, as well as sharpen our minds. How so, you may ask? Well, sometimes, depending on the student, Rinpoche would test the student’s creativity, limits and ability to think outside the box in order to solve a problem. This problem usually presented itself as giving ideas for food. Yes, there are a few of us who have experienced this, myself included. Rinpoche would ask what he could have or what food there was in the kitchen, and Rinpoche would reject all that was already pre-prepared and ready, so that we would have to think of something else that we could cook up that Rinpoche might like.
Suggestions and ideas proposed to Rinpoche could be accepted very quickly, or the whole process could go on for a few hours (as some students have experienced, which I will share with you another day). Rinpoche might keep rejecting the food proposed and we would need to keep giving ideas until Rinpoche said it was enough or actually picked something to eat. Sometimes, Rinpoche would say, “I don’t need anything, I am going to bed now. Bye.” So, this was how we knew. It was all a test to see how creative or resourceful we were.
Not only that, but it was also to see how determined we were. I know for a fact, in different circumstances, if Rinpoche was not my Guru, I would probably give up and stop suggesting after being rejected three times. In this way, Rinpoche was also showing us our true nature, that we can care enough about someone to persevere and not just throw in the towel and give up. Rinpoche had gastric so having that in mind, we knew that Rinpoche could not go hungry and without food, as he would get reflux which would burn his oesophagus. This is why we could not give up or stop proposing ideas until Rinpoche picked something or asked us to stop.
A simple dish whipped up in 10 minutes and luckily, it was a pass! Rinpoche liked it as it had all of Rinpoche’s favourites – burrata, sweet tomatoes and fresh sweet basil
Thinking of ideas for food is always a huge challenge especially if you are not a chef! So some of us started getting ‘smart’ and prepared a list of ideas as well as cooked a few dishes, to be ready if Rinpoche rejected the original food prepared by the kitchen. However, Rinpoche was obviously smarter than us “clowns”, as he affectionately called us, and would reject everything we had prepared or would ask us to serve everything to the rest of the team instead. And then we were back to square one and down to zero food ready for Rinpoche, which meant we needed to think of something ‘fresh’ to propose.
This was how Rinpoche sharpened our minds and increased our patience and tolerance levels. Sometimes, depending on how sincere we were in making the effort, the situation ended very fast, as in Rinpoche would pick something fast or tell us what he wanted, which was usually something very simple. It was not about the food but it was about our attitude. Hence, working in the kitchen was like a measuring stick of how much we were practising Buddhist teachings. It was one of the best places to check ourselves and how much Dharma we were applying. It is not as simple as a “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” kind of scenario, but more like how we dealt with the heat and came out smiling after that.
I will share more personal stories of other people who have worked in the kitchen and served food for Rinpoche and what they have experienced and learnt from their time in serving food to the Guru in my other posts. Watch out for it. Until then, as Rinpoche would tell us:
Serving food, giving food to others is another expression of your compassion.
For more interesting information:
- Rinpoche Through My Eyes – Vajra Yogini or Anger?
- Rinpoche Through My Eyes – The Assignment
- Rinpoche Through My Eyes – Change Karma
- Rinpoche Through My Eyes – Creating The Causes
- Rinpoche Through My Eyes – Buddha Images and Imprints
- Rinpoche Through My Eyes – Food and Dharma
- Rinpoche Through My Eyes – Spreading Dharma in Jonker Street
- Rinpoche Through My Eyes – What’s the New News?
- Rinpoche Through My Eyes – Mission Impossible
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My motto is to “just do it with an open mind and heart” with fun, happily, joyfully and positively! Thank you Rinpoche and Joy for this wonderful sharing👍😍
That’s wonderful having the opportunity to prepare food for Rinpoche. Not everybody have that opportunity to serve Rinpoche which was one of the best places to swiftly gain a great amount of merits. And one of the fastest ways to purify one’s karma as well. Rejoice for you. .. Joy .Rinpoche manifested to help us chip away at our delusions and bad habituations, as well as sharpen our minds. Working in the kitchen is a tough for those who not loves preparing foods. That the way Rinpoche sharpened our minds and increased our patience and tolerance levels. Its more like training us not to give up in whatever situation we come across.
Thank you Rinpoche and Joy for this sharing. Glad to know more and understand better of Rinpoche through your eyes and stories told.