A Teaching by Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Last night was a powerful experience for me. Seeing these three pictures, especially the last one, really affected me. It was the combination of the sadness of their suffering and the beauty of love in the midst of that suffering.
Reflecting on them, tears streamed from my eyes. I couldn’t stop crying.
I saw many photos from Nepal, but these photos were especially powerful, because of the sadness and beauty together. So I wanted to share this reflection with my students and friends:
Love is the most important thing in the world. Love is what gives us life.
Look at the baby trying to milk the dead mother. We are doing this all the time, while our mothers are alive. We grow up milking our mother, because our mother’s love, with her milk, nurtures our human life.
And see the army soldier protecting another baby with love. Because of that love, the baby survived. Survival is also based on love.
Love carries us from birth through youth, and to the last breath of our life.
In the third photo, at the moment of death, love was trying to protect one another. This image is so sad and so beautiful. If we look deeply into it, nothing else was left at that last moment except love and trying to help each other.
So many reflections arose from seeing these photos. We are very lucky. Life is so precious; we don’t want to waste it. While we are OK, we have to appreciate our life. We can learn so many things from these photos.
What we can learn is that love is so important. It is what we need to practice while we are alive. Please connect to your essence love and express your love to any and all sentient beings. They really need it. Their survival is based on someone’s love. We can be one of those who offer our love. Without love and care nothing can survive.
Life begins with love, is maintained with love, and ends with love.
Right now, while we’re alive, is the time to practice and express love. So please take care of your love. Love is capable of reaching so many people.
~ TSOKNYI RINPOCHE, Argentina, April 2015
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EARTHQUAKE RELIEF UPDATE 5/3/2015:
There is still a great need for fundraising and a lot of relief work yet to be done. Rinpoche has found that most of the relief work being done by the government and outside organizations is centered upon Kathmandu. Therefore he is working to use funds donated through the Tsoknyi Nepal Nuns (www.tsoknyinepalnuns.org/donate/) to help rural mountain communities in addition to helping neighboring villages around our nunneries. There is a great need for shelter, tents or tarps. There are huge challenges trying to find tents and tarps to purchase and even greater challenges getting these to the high mountain villages. Rinpoche, his family, close friends and advisors in Nepal know how to get things done though and can apply help with precision. He knows how to help effectively and encourages all of us to keep up our work raising funds for emergency relief and rebuilding. Thank you for the work that you are doing and your own generosity.
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