Woman Rinpoche on Selfless Compassion
(by Swati Chopra | Times of India | December 23, 2002)
New Delhi: "I didn't know people in Delhi meditated," said a pleasantly surprised Khandro Rinpoche to a group of meditators at Delhi's Tushita Mahayana Centre. The Dehradun-based rinpoche, who was in Delhi to participate in the Tibetan Festival of Compassion, was speaking on 'Applying Dharma in Daily Life'. "Dharma is not a religion," said the rinpoche. "Its essence is all-pervasive. That's why the Buddha 'realised' the truth, he did not 'compose' it", she said. "Practising dharma must make you able to reflect upon the potential of the mind."
Khandro Rinpoche's clarity of vision translates into honesty, whether it be commenting on meditators taking themselves too seriously or taking a jibe at the constant building of viharas and monasteries.
Speaking of her life as a novitiate in a nunnery, she said: "There would be so much competition between us that the motivation for taking a teaching or transmission would at times be to show off. This would not lead to inner transformation." This was the danger of following the dharma only in letter and not in spirit, she said.
The spirit of dharma, the rinpoche said, was "genuine, selfless compassion. "Selfless compassion arises when we realise the interdependence of everything, she said. "When the Buddha spoke of all sentient beings having been our mothers at some point of time, he meant that every creature deserves the love we have for our dear ones. We can realise this just by looking at someone and saying, 'I breathe, so does he. I want happiness and so does he,'" he said.
Daughter of the head of the Mindrolling lineage, 35-year-old Khandro is one of the foremost women teachers of Tibetan Buddhism. She has also received teachings of the Karma Kagyu lineage after being recognised by the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa as a reincarnation of the Great Dakini of Tsurphu. Her western education coupled with the experience in a monastery is reflected in her ability to render Buddhist ideas clearly in a modern idiom. This has made her especially popular among western practitioners.
On being a woman teacher in a community whose spiritual leadership is dominated by men, Khandro said: "When I was younger, I would think there was much injustice against women. Now I think it is a matter of perspective. I would rather concentrate on the core teachings that do not discriminate on the basis of gender rather than a 13th century commentator who did." Since women in Buddhist societies were not educated, they could not speak their minds, she said. "But the situation is changing now," she added.
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