CR
Lama's Unholy Style
James Low
talks about his teacher Chimed Rigdzin Rinpoche, also known as CR
Lama:
"My main teacher
is the late Chimed Rigdzin Lama, also known as CR Lama. He was a
married lama who lived with his family and, when I knew him well in
India, he taught in a university. He was a great scholar, a very
powerful person, and he was not at all holy. He was very ordinary in
his way of life. His qualities showed themselves without his making
special claims about himself. In the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism
there are many different styles of practice. Some lineages display
themselves as being very pure and holy; that is to say, they set
themselves in the domain of the sacred and create a mood which is
separate from ordinary life. When you encounter that kind of setting
you have the opportunity to experience something which is not like
ordinary existence. Such settings tend to be ritualised and
choreographed so that everyone knows their place and what they are,
and are not, allowed to do. My teacher was, however, very much in
ordinary life. He was very fond of university politics, supporting
his friends and attacking his enemies. This is not holy activity. But
oh, so very pleasurable! For many years I was his secretary, and I
had to write, on the basis of his special English, very insulting
letters. In order to enter his world I had to let go many of the
assumptions I held about how to live in a proper way. In the end, in
order to practise, we each have to find a style which is in harmony
with the energy of our potential as it responds to each unique
setting in which we find ourselves. Being in the mandala, or
environment, that Rinpoche created was very disturbing, and yet it
was also liberating. It opened the space to see that our world is
indeed a construct of our beliefs and assumptions. Freeing ourselves
from relative truth, from truth based on comparing and contrasting,
involves a leap of faith. Encouragement to make this leap was
Rinpoche’s wondrous gift."
