The following will be based upon real experiences but fictionalized because these conversations I had with many highly developed spiritual and religious teachers, of Christian, Buddhist persuasions as well as Yogis and Native American medicine men. Though I'm attributing these conversations to my friend, Geshela(which means spiritual friend in Tibetan),who was a Tibetan Lama that my wife and I sponsored to come to California and helped him get a green card of the same kind granted to Catholic priests, these ideas are actually from ALL my spiritual teachers from birth until now.
It was January 1986 and I was in Dharmsala, India. We were staying in the Macleod Ganj section of Dharmsala at this point. When we first arrived in Dharmsala we stayed at the Kailash Inn? but because we were 5 we needed larger quarters and finally found them at a place called the Green Hotel. We then went out and purchased a kerosene stove to boil and sterilize our water for drinking. Also, it doubled as a heater for our room which had only electricity. Though it was a large group of rooms it got into the 20s farenheit in January because we were at almost 6000 feet in elevation in the Himalayas.So, the kerosene stove kept us from getting to cold or miserable while staying in Dharmsala at that time. I remember waking up one morning to go talk to a lama and it must have been about 30 degrees farenheit out(two degrees below freezing). There was a 3 year old getting a bath in ice cold water outside in a wash tub who didn't complain and acted like this was normal just like his Mom. I felt like such a pampered westerner at that moment. However, the flipside of this was that Geshela, whose parents were long distance traders who drove their yaks loaded with goods about 500 miles several times a year to trade with people in China from Kham, Tibet told me that his parents died at 52 for his father and 54 for his mother so he expected to die in his 50s. He was about 52 when I met him. I said, "Geshela. If you come back to California with us you will live much longer than that!" He looked at me not quite believing me because in Tibet most people don't live past their 50s who work out in the weather.
Though Geshela understood English very well his thick Khampa Tibetan Accent made it difficult to completely understand him sometimes. It was, at times like talking to someone from another planet, metaphorically at least. As I studied how a Tibetan and especially a Lama is taught to think I slowly found that dreams and physical reality are equal in validity.
For example, one night I had a terrible dream about being beheaded and felt sort of nervous about it the whole next day. Geshela said, "Oh. That is a wonderful dream. It means you are growing incredibly. That is a very good sign!" So I went from feeling very nervous about it to being reassured that this was a good sign in a Tibetan Lama way of thinking.
I think this equanimity of thoughts however, has its limitations. I found that many lamas seemed to have difficulty mastering things like driving cars because they lived in a world different than many people do. However, they could create supernatural events in such a way that it seemed perfectly natural because they existed in a consciousness that was at the nexus of dreams and physical reality.
Lama Gyultrul Rinpoche(spelling?) that I met in Ashland Oregon when he first came to Los Angeles was teaching the dharma to starfish. So I guess this means talking to starfish in Tibetan about the dharma. Well, he was doing this and people saw him and someone didn't know he was a Tibetan Lama and took him to the UCLA psychiatric center. So everyone had a good laugh when they realized he was a High Tibetan Buddhis t Lama and doing this was perfectly normal for Buddhist monks around the world.
There are many many true stories that I have heard and many I have seen myself. I have found Tibetan Lamas and Tibetans in general incredibly precious people that deserve our protection from harm because they are taught by their culture to be harmless. Such people should be helped and protected for they are a Godsend to us all.
One day I was taking a tour of Dharmsala and Geshela was talking to me. He said, "Fred, you have to stop talking about supernatural things. There are spies from all over the world here in Dharmsala trying to figure out how we do what we do. It is not good to talk about supernatural things because it could be dangerous."
Tibetan Lamas and monks don't teach or show the really powerful stuff unless the student demonstrates both aptitude and compassion for all life in the universe. This is out of compassion for all life in the universe that this system exists. It protects the student from biting off more than he can chew or survive. And it protects all beings from harm by an out of control student. Just like you don't let children drive cars, they don't teach powerful stuff to people with bad motivations.
There was a story I heard that I believe to be true from all that I saw there. A High Lama was being strangled to death by Chinese soldiers when they invaded Tibet. They shoved his Kata(white blessing cloth) down his throat and he was dying. He wanted to demonstrate he could kill with his mind if he chose to so he turned a cup on the table inside out with his mind and then psychically threw it against the wall before he died. He would not misuse he gifts even to save his own life to harm the soldiers. That is dedication and compassion! This kind of compassion and discipline I have found in many Tibetan Lamas. And I have found this kind of devotion in many Tibetan people I met. In my spirit I always felt more at home than any other time in my life when I was with Tibetans and Tibetan lamas. It was an ongoing very amazing experience.
Geshela and I were walking through Dharmsala and I asked him about rich people. He said, "Rich people are rich because of their karma." He said,"However, most highly evolved souls don't choose to be born rich. It is too easy to become distant and to loose compassion for the everyman, the everywoman and the everychild. It is harmful to ones soul to not be able to experience the suffering of the common person. There is no nobility without the compassion for the suffering of the common person. So I said, "So, Geshela. The problem isn't really being rich it is loosing touch with the reality of suffering of the common person?" He said, "Yes. That is the problem. And not being able to have empathy for them can lead to a hellish rebirth." I said, "What about being born poor to middle class like I and many people I know were and then becoming rich?" He gave me a look like he was sizing me up and said,"If one had already developed compassion for all beings in the universe then such a one could become rich like a Buddha to mankind and help to create an amazing future on earth for all life here." I will never forget the look he gave me after this. I think I had asked the right question!
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