Shangpa Rinpoche: Great enlightened ones, whatever they do, there are some purposes. When they appear there is a purpose. They pass away also there is a purpose. It does not end there. It will continue. They will appear again to benefit sentient beings. Then they disappear again and it makes everyone sad but then they appear again. This is Bodhisattvas deeds. Even Buddha Shakyamuni himself has shown this in order to subdue the mind of those who do not think that impermanent applies. All great enlightened ones keep showing this so that stubborn ones who cannot be subdued by words are subdued by actions. It is admirable and wonderful teaching. You should take their passings in that way. But as a human we do not relate well to these enlightened activities in our life and practice. We feel emotional and upset and we feel in a great loss. It puts us into a very dark and state of loss. It happens to me 2 times in my life, first one is when HH 16th Karmapa passed away and this is the second time i feel this. All these great masters who pass away make us feel that we lost our lifes direction and confidence. We dont know what we are supposed to do. This is human way of dealing with death of great masters. Personally i do not feel anything when my father passed away. But when 16th Karmapa passed away i feel like my father passed away. Shamarpa passed away is another great loss in my life and to Buddhism in general. Especially for Karma Kagyu. For a while it is like total darkness. But we have to think of his enlightened deeds so it is not totally hopeless for us. We hope he comes back again to lead us and take care of us. Put our every effort to practice. Throughout their lifetimes they keep exhorting us to practice. Their wishes for us is that they want us to be liberated and free from suffering. They wish us to be a good practitioner so we should do it as much as we can in order to fulfill the wish of his holiness. During Shamar Rinpoches last visit to Karma Kagyu centre Singapore, i still vividly remember, i asked him to come back again because we are going to build this centre and i need him to come more often. At that moment i can see his sad face and he told me this will be his last visit to singapore. I felt sad at that time. And i think that at that time he is telling me what happens today. From that moment on i feel sad inside but i do not express to anyone. But deep inside me i know something is about to happen. One thing we shouldnt forget is the kindness of shamar rinpoche. Particularly kkbc members we must not forget that this centre is set up by shamar rinpoche with his aspiration and his wishes. He puts a lot of effort to build centre and form committee. So to everyone of us he is like our father and our founder. We should always thank him and feel grateful to him. Because of him today we have this centre. Many masters are able to teach and to come and give blessings. All this come from shamar rinpoche. this we should not forget. So our spiritual father, who has made so much effort and aspiration to establish centre in Singapore, has left. We are like fatherless children. We have responsibilities given by our father to do best in our life and to assist and put all our efforts towards the legacy of his holiness Shamar Rinpoche, that is to materialize new karma kagyu centre in the future. This is how we fulfill our responsibilities as spiritual children. So therefore everyday we try to think of him and his great compassion and his great kindness. Spiritually we all miss him very much. With devotion and longing and that feelings we request rinpoche to manifest his nirmanakaya body as soon as possible to lead us and give us confidence and to liberate us. So in this difficult moments of karma kagyu as well as for all of us we need to be strong, we need to be united and not to be fussy over small small matters. We should forget these emotional matters because these stuffs do not benefit oneself and others but only harm. Show our compassion and closeness to each other. Treat others as ones own mind yet with different manifestations. Use that kind attitude to live together and put the effort to build a new centre. Then we can show this new centre as our offering to his new manifestation. — Karma Kagyud Buddhist Centre Singapore
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 12:03:37 +0000