Walking with the Buddha

A couple of days ago, i went to pick up webbie from the ladrang for dinner. As i was just round the corner, she rang and said Rinpoche wants to go for a walk at TTDI park, do you want to come? I was more than happy to - but i was wearing clothes for dinner, not for walking! When i arrived, Jenny Wong lent me a pair of brightly coloured shorts which came down to my knees, and Webbie had a spare T shirt in her drawer which i quickly changed into. They decided to go in my car but I was a bit nervous about driving Rinpoche so i asked Jenny to drive instead. I sat in the back with Webbie and we waited for Rinpoche outside his house.

He got into the front seat of the car and being over 6 foot tall, he had to push back the seat to the max. My previously spacious toyota altis seemed filled with Rinpoche! It was a quick drive to the park and the park was quite deserted at 7.30ish in the evening. Rinpoche had brought handfuls of fruits to feed the monkeys, and they scampered up as they saw us. "Look, they remember me," Rinpoche said with a smile. He whispered om mani padme hum as he happily doled out the fruit to the group of congregating monkeys. We also brought nuts which were strewn in corners for the monkeys to help themselves.

When all the fruits and nuts were given out, we started to walk round the park. Rinpoche's stride is like twice any of ours and we trotted to keep up. We talked about a variety of subjects - from the frivilous to serious - and the two and a half hours passed in a blink of an eye. If not for a blister on my foot and my muscles which were objecting to the uncommon demand to move, i could have walked all night. During the walk, Rinpoche had kindly advised me on some personal matters and that i should let go of certain attachments which made things much clearer for me.

It was such a luxury to have the precious opportunity to walk with the Buddha. I hope he'll invite me again :)