Call me whatever you like

Call me whatever you like

At one time during Dza Paltrül Rinpoche’s wanderings, he came to hear of a monk who had spent many years in retreat meditating on ‘the perfection of patience’. He was passing not so far from the monk’s cave, and so decided that a visit might be in order. He left the path he had been following, and took the steep and precipitous track that led to the cave. It was a tiring climb, on which all he met were wisps of cloud and a few rambunctious goats. On arriving, he paused at the entrance of the monk’s cave, and waited to see whether he would be invited to take tea. When the monk noticed Paltrül on his doorstep, he motioned him in with a look of irritation. So Paltrül entered the cave and offered a courteous greeting to its somewhat lugubrious and dishevelled inhabitant.

To his slight surprise he was met with three questions, delivered in a rather abrupt fashion: “Who are you? Where d’you come from? Where are you going?” Dza Paltrül replied: “I’m the one you’re looking at; I come from down there aways; and it looks as if I shall be headed back pretty soon.” The monk paused momentarily, but soon thought up another three questions which he issued with a sneer: “Where were you born? To what do you owe your appearance? And why have you come here?” Dza Paltrül replied: “I was born on the earth; I owe my appearance to default; and my presence here has no significance.” The monk now looked distinctly on edge, so he dredged up another set of questions: “What is your name? What is your meditation? And who is your Lama?” he barked. Dza Paltrül’s immediate reply was: “You can called me whatever you like. My meditation is whatever arises in my mind, and my Lama is no different from that.”

This silenced the monk completely, and so Dza Paltrül decided to ask him a question: “Why... do you live in poverty in a miserable cave, in this remote and desolate place?” The monk looked somewhat relieved, and answered Paltrül, jeering: “To practice virtue, to live in peace, and to avoid fools like you!” Dza Paltrül composed a series of gesticulations that indicated something to the effect of: ‘How could I have been so foolish not to have understood’. He apologised for disturbing the monk, but enquired as to whether he might prevail upon his revered colleague to reveal the exalted nature of his practice.

The monk adopted a haughty expression and appraised Paltrül of the fact that he had spent the last twenty years there: “...perfecting the attainment of patience in all things,” and admonished Paltrül to do likewise. At this Dza Paltrül could no longer contain his amusement, and chuckled: “How could a pair of clowns like us ever achieve that!” This was too much for the monk – he became thoroughly enraged and cursed Dza Paltrül in the vilest manner, for what he deemed gross spiritual misconduct. The monk demanded whether Paltrül had no shame in the presence of a real practitioner, and gave vent to a further torrent of unseemly invective.

Paltrül listened patiently to the conclusion of the monk’s tirade, and apologised for his intrusion, and inappropriate behaviour. He allowed that his only excuse was ignorance of such profound manifestations of ‘perfect patience’ as he had witnessed in the monk.

 
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