Fine dining (with flies)

After the first cycle of retreat at Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, the retreat lamas and I went on pilgrimage with Kyabje Thrangu Rinpoche in south India. At that point I had not had so many personal meetings and interactions with Kyabje Rinpoche. But nevertheless I did have some faith in him and believed he was a good lama.

There were a few moments from that time on pilgrimage with Rinpoche that stayed with me. As many of you will know, there are often long distances to travel between the different pilgrimage sites in India, with few rest stations with decent facilities along the way (although things in that regard have improved significantly in the last decade or two).

One day we needed to stop for lunch but the only place to eat was this roadside eatery that was little more than a patch of litter-strewn earth with a few randomly placed plastic tables and chairs next to a corrugated-iron shack that acted as the kitchen, and a counter of food covered with flies. There was nowhere else to eat, so this would have to do.

I watched with interest as, amidst the hordes of busy flies, someone served Rinpoche the food, that looked anything but appealing, or clean. But without any sign of hesitancy, much less disgust or the like, Rinpoche proceeded to eat the food. He ate it exactly as he would eat the lovingly prepared food he would receive in the monastery or that which might be served when a patron invites him for a meal in a five-star restaurant.

A similar thing happened with some of the accommodation on that pilgrimage. There was one guest house that we had to stay in that was extremely poor. The rooms were dirty and damp and just generally uncomfortable. I went to see Rinpoche in the evening, and he didn’t say a single thing about the room, he looked as comfortable and happy as ever.

In the larger scheme of things, what I am talking about here might seem quite minor. But we all know that Rinpoche and other high lamas generally have quite a high standard of living, in terms of food and accommodation and so on. People who get used to such comforts tend to have a hard time if they suddenly are without them; if they need to eat poor food or sleep somewhere uncomfortably hot or cold, or dirty.

So seeing Rinpoche act with such equanimity in the face of what potentially might have been a hardship, furthered my faith and confidence in Kyabje Rinpoche that bit more.