To Rinpoche - Like a great boulder peering out over the valley below, surveying the land with its powerful concentrated gaze, all seeing, forever imprinted and established on the landscape, a monumental force of insight and courage, as if created by the earth itself, immovable and immune to discrepancy, you were like a foundation for us all. When one was needed to stand above the rest, to move when we couldn’t, to force out the best in all of us through inspired words and actions, you stood alone.
Crazy wisdom, or wisdom crazy - why is it that only in hindsight can one truly appreciate the gifts one has been given? How could it be that through your passing from this world you have only grown stronger in my heart?
When I faltered, gave in and gave up, when the light seemed at its most weak and retreated state, you were there, beside me, a figure of solid luminance and power. For a long time my life has been aided and guided by your intentions and advice, a gift whose worth cannot easily be measured, for it is far too great and profound to be counted or explained in words. I am, only now coming to understand the great imprint that you have left in me, for my life has been forever changed by your presence, a path set out for me unlike anything I could have ever dreamed for myself. A grandiose adventure of the most incredible qualities, full of richness and joy, sorrow and learning, light and dark, ups and downs, to deem this life full would be the understatement of my lifetime. Helping me to understand that to truly live one must be willing to risk it all, to stand for one’s beliefs and let one’s heart truly create your path, only when you are truly honest with yourself can you be truly honest with the world - and it is then, and only then that the world will open and bloom.
To share even a moment of this life with you Rinpoche is a blessing and a gift more precious than anything I could explain, and while I can never have another moment next to you, your glowing heart and open mind will always be with me, ever expanding and powerful, seeming only to gain its strength as time continues on. To my teacher who taught by walking the walk, leading by true example, never backing down from the truth, your willingness to go to the ends of the earth to teach us will never be forgotten. Like a light in the dark, illuminating the path for all of us, who could not see it alone. A guiding light in the dark, opening my heart, showing me how to stand with head held high. Rinpoche - thank you for always being my guide, a guiding light when all others have gone out.
