Sitting with Samdhong Rinpoche for 25 Minutes

In August 2007, I met Samdhong Rinpoche. I left Dharamsala for his residency on a rainy September morning;the small hill of Dharamsala was covered in fog. I woke up a bit earlier than usual and prepared the things that I needed to take with me. I put my thesis, which discussing Sino-Tibetan Dialogue and one kilo of apples in my school bag. I walked toward the resident house of the ministers (Kalon Laishak). Kalon Tripa’s driver and body guard were waiting outside of main gate when I arrived there. They greeted me before I entered the gate even though we don’t know each other personally.

I entered Kalon Tripa’s house and his personal secretary was waiting for me in the living room. Kalon Tripa was taking his morning breakfast in his private quarter. It was eight twenty. As I waited, his personal secretary offered me tea which I gratefully accepted. His personal secretary and I talked about variety of topics. His personal secretary is a short man, with a kind face, an enthusiastic manner, and a gentle voice. He is a man of few words but important, in-depth thoughts. He explained himself with clarity and listened to my unshaped opinions carefully. He left at eighty thirty for a meeting and asked me to wait for a few minutes.

I was bit nervous, shaky and excited. After three minutes, Kalon Tripa came out from his private quarter. I introduced myself to him and handed him my thesis about Sino-Tibetan Dialogue. He sat down on the sofa and looked at his pocket watch. It was eight thirty five. He reflected for a while then started to talk.

He said, “There are mainly four requirements to make a meaningful life. You should try to attempt to acquire these requirements in your youth. The first requirement is physical health. Even if you are a professor who is rich or a talented person who is wealthy, you cannot do much if you are not healthy. You especially can’t contribute your efforts to human society if you have a health problem. Sometimes people ignore their physical health when they are young. But its effect will show itself eventually when a person ages. That is why, if you are thinking about having a long life with a successful future and serving human society, you should care for your health”. I nodded and sipped the tea gently.

He continued to talk, “The second requirement is your future goal. It is very crucial to have a goal in your life. It is better to decide your goal before twenty but if you can’t then it must be done before twenty five, because, the earlier you decided your goal, the better. The tremendous efforts and times that you spend working for your goal will not be wasted and damaged. Having this in mind, you should decide your goal as early as possible to enhance your education and skills in order to obtain your goal and have a successful future. I am not saying that you should keep one goal in mind. You can keep several goals in your mind and make these clear in your mind.”
He learned forward,looked me in the eye and continued. ” As a young Tibetan in this period of exile, you should have a goal to become active in Tibetan struggle and serve exiled community in the future. Moreover, whatever subject you study, you should maintain good knowledge of Tibetan language and culture. It is also especially crucial for young Tibetans, like you, to learn Chinese as well”

I took down notes and listened carefully. He looked at me and kept talking, “The third requirement is self knowledge. Whatever you do in your life, self knowledge plays a vital role in your life and the decisions you make will stay with you your whole life. To become a highly talented and mature human being, you should have a good self knowledge in your daily life. Self knowledge prevents you from making mistakes and shields you from difficulties. In a nutshell, think before you act. If you meet these three requirements, I am sure that you can have a successful life but I am not sure about meaningful life. “Meaningful life” is something a bit different from “successful life” in my view”.

To have a meaningful life, you should have an altruistic mind for other beings. If you have this quality on top of other three requirements, then you can make a meaningful life”. When he came to this point, he again looked at his pocket watch. It was exactly 9:00am. He gently said good bye in a manner that told me he had enjoyed our time and was sad to leave, but he rose and left for his office and the task at hand.

Note: ( I wrote this article in Tibetan and published on www.khabdha.org in 2008).