Tales With My Lama: The Geshe Who Loved Butter
Pastor David has been a student of His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche for over 15 years. 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 Geshe Who Loved Butter
Several months before His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche’s parinirvana, Rinpoche gave me some personal advice concerning my practice. It was related to managing attachment to wealth and desirable objects. Rinpoche feigned a whisper, as if imparting a secret to me, when in fact he was giving me a rare insight into attachment. We don’t usually put much thought into attachment, as we think it is simply just admiring, pursuing and enjoying the beautiful things that we like. What’s wrong with that, since we’re not really hurting anybody and almost everybody does it?
In actual fact, the more we pursue our attachments, the bigger they become. However, Rinpoche whispered an often-unseen danger of attachment into my ear. It was the fact that the bigger the attachment, the bigger the obstacles it attracts. In another teaching years before, Rinpoche had explained that the nature of negative karma is to act as a powerful catalyst for obstacles to arise when we engage in Dharma practice. At the same time, these obstacles have the ability to purify the potential of negative karma effectively.
Attachment is negative karma of the mind. The bigger our attachment, the more it takes to purify that amount of karma. If we do not reduce our attachment, it will naturally increase on its own accord. When our attachments become big, it will overwhelm the little bit of Dharma study, practice and contemplation that we do. Most of the time, we barely realise how strong our attachments are as we lack Dharma knowledge and hardly carry out self-introspection. We would rather examine others and criticise them instead.
On another occasion, Rinpoche was served a meal and there was some leftover butter. Rinpoche asked me if I wanted it and I took it. This inspired Rinpoche to share some Dharma. Rinpoche said it was possible for a person who has kept his commitments, and engaged in Dharma studies, sadhana and retreats to ascend to Kechara Paradise, even if they had not overcome their delusions. Then Rinpoche asked me if I had heard the story of the geshe who loved butter. I furrowed my brow trying to remember and finally replied that I didn’t recall such a story. Rinpoche said there is a very famous story of a geshe, a learned master who kept up his commitments, sadhanas and retreats but was very much attached to butter. Due to his scholarly prowess, he had a number of devoted students although he didn’t exhibit any signs of high attainments.
In Tibet, butter is a daily staple. Tibetans use it to make butter tea. They then mix the tea with tsampa (roasted barley flour) to make pieces of soft dough, which is either eaten by itself or with a whole host of other Tibetan dishes. In the monastery, butter is allotted to each monk during puja to be mixed into their tea. However, some impoverished monks skimp on the amount of butter in their tea, and save it to make offerings of butter in butterlamps. This also means that butter is traded as a highly sought-after commodity in Tibet.
Now, this particular geshe relished the taste of the finest butter and acquired it for its financial value as well as for food. He enjoyed butter to the day he passed away. The geshe’s devoted students made funeral preparations and had monks come to perform the necessary pujas. Some students also consulted an oracle on what else needed to be done for the deceased geshe. The protector-deity took trance in the oracle and told them that there would be no further pujas necessary. However, he advised that a representative should approach the deceased geshe and verbalise that:
“The butter in Gaden is richer and smoother than anything found on Earth.”
A faithful student carried out the instructions and the funeral went on smoothly. Auspicious signs like rainbows appeared, that seemed to indicate that the geshe had taken a good rebirth. This was confirmed through divinations by high lamas and it was proclaimed that the geshe had indeed taken rebirth in a Pure Land.
What happened was that the geshe’s attachment was transformed into a powerful aspiration to take rebirth in a Pure Land. Naturally, this was possible because the geshe had kept his spiritual commitments, accumulated tremendous merits through his daily sadhana, retreats and so forth. We too can transform our attachments by holding our spiritual commitments well and by making lots of offerings; especially by offering the enjoyment of our attachments to our yidam — our personal meditational deity. If we combine this practice with contemplation of our death and mortality, we can transform our attachments into a collection of merit instead of negative karma.
For more interesting information:
- Tales With My Lama: Rinpoche’s Heruka Statue
- Tales With My Lama: Rinpoche on a ‘Holiday’
- Tales With My Lama: Dorje Shugden on The Head
- Tales With My Lama: What is the New News?
- Tales With My Lama: Rinpoche Felt He Was More Indian
- 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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Beautiful and famous story of a learned master Geshe who loved butter . Even though he loves butter so much yet as he has kept his commitments, and engaged in Dharma studies, doing sadhana and retreats he is able to ascend to Kechara Paradise. Wow ……the Geshe’s attachment was transformed into a powerful aspiration to take rebirth in a Pure Land.
Butter tea is a traditional Tibetan drink and it is severed in all household has become a necessity. There are many benefits drinking butter tea such as at high altitudes , boost immunity and energy ,an appetite suppressant and so forth.
The goal of any spiritual person is to strive towards attaining self-realization. We should be free from anxiety and distress, unencumbered by frivolous affections, and liberated from specious attachments. Nothing in life is permanent. Keeping our commitments, and always engaged in Dharma activities. Once we dominate ourselves through consciousness, the attachments disappear. Attachment comes from the accumulated past. The things we are attached to are no more than shadows of the past. The story of the Geshe indeed an inspiration and example for us .
Thank you Rinpoche and Pastor David for this beautiful post.
Pastor,
An ordinary people like us (not ordained), who diligently keeps one’s commitments, engaging in Dharma studies, sadhana and retreats, so it is possible for us to enter Kechara Paradise ( even with delusions) ?
Sounds like a great deal to me.
But, what if there’s no one to remind us of our delusion such as attachment during the final hour of our death? Can we still change the trajectory of our future path? Curious…
This sharing of Geshe who was able to gain enlightenment from his attachment with butter is very enlightening and mind-opening. Really enjoyed this short story. Thank you very much Rinpoche and Pastor David for this wonderful write up!😍🙏🌈