Letter from Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche when Departing for Retreat

[Karma]

Thought some of you might find this interesting,
http://tergar.org/resources/2011-8-letter-from-rinpoche.shtml

[Aloka]

Hi Karma - I've moved this thread to the Mahayana/Vajrayana forum.

kind regards,

A-D

[Element]

Thank you, Karma

I am brousing through Mingyur Rinpoche's website (http://tergar.org/about/mingyur-bio.shtml) and listening to some very delightful teachings on You Tube & on his website (http://tergar.org/resources/intromeditation.shtml).

As for Mingyur Rinpoche's wandering retreat, it is obvious Mingyur Rinpoche feels he needs to do this.

Reading his background, like many Tibetan teachers, it seems that Mingyur Rinpoche has been highly nurtured & coddled.

So wandering retreat may test his dharma and increase his paramis.

Mingyur Rinpoche is a very delightful teacher.

Thank you again

Element ;D

[Aloka]

I have attended some of Mingyur Rinpoche's offline teachings in the past and he did seem delightful. He can be very entertaining when getting a point across to the listener.


I wish him well for his wandering retreat. :hands:

[Karma]

Sorry for posting in the wrong section.

His books helped develop my interest in Buddhism, I hope he returns safely

[Karma]

A little more about the story
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/sep/22/mingyur-rinpoche-buddhist?newsfeed=true

[Aloka]

Thanks for posting the article, Karma. I had no idea that he was a millionaire !

[hajurba]

After this article are following 4 full pages of public comments...astonishing how many people are concerned about the Rinpoche's renunciation....there are many biting sarcasms about it...there is the usual presence of trolls .
Yet also genuine concerned people. I found this reply here interesting :


"There's an interesting parallel with the Buddha," says Donald Lopez, professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies at the University of Michigan. "Since the fall of the Tibetan monarchy in 842, incarnate lamas have served as a kind of aristocracy in Tibet, so a high-ranking tulku is not unlike a prince. Mingyur Rinpoche has renounced royal life, just as Prince Siddhartha did. This radical step that he has taken is essentially a return to the lifestyle that the Buddha prescribed for all monks."

Yes Siddharta Gautama always advocated that bhikkhus and bhikkhunis should maintian a life of wandering. Records show that during the 80 years of the Buddha's life, the boundaries of his and his fellow monks ascetic wanderings covered an area of some 600 by 300 kms. This was no mean feet in days where was considerable dangers to travellers. Interestingly, although Siddharta was gifted a number of groves and other areas of land on which to build monasteries, the buddha was never confortable with the sanga making a permenent home is one particular area. Nor was he comfortable with living conditions which offered anything other than the basics of life. There is a anecdote in the Suttavibhaanga where one of the monks contructed a semi circular solid hut of clay rather then using flexible twigs that were most often used to make shelters. The Buddha order the monk to destroy the clay hut. Siddharta was troubled by the destruction of life that resulted from firing the inside of the clay hut in order to waterproof it and make it more strong. Furthermore he did not want his himself and his monks to become attatched to any one particular area. He saw permanent residency as a form of enslavement to worldy attachments. If enlightenment is the goal, the mind must shed all attachments to ego and the emotions, all attachments to earthly pleasures and even attachments to feeling of security. Inner security and indeed abiding calm and joy, he manitained came from trusting in the dharma, trusting in the inherent powers of the mind to realise and live the truth of the dharma.