Opening Our Birthday Present
Let's celebrate by unwrapping Mingyur Rinpoche's gifts
Today (November 20, 2024) is Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s birthday—his 49th, I understand. Other members of his worldwide Tergar community and I helped him celebrate with a brief online event earlier today. As a gift to him, thousands of us joined in a recitation of the aspiration he wrote in 2022 when asked for one addressing the problems of today’s world.
I’m sure he won’t mind if I share his aspiration with readers of From the Pure Land as a gift from him to you. He might consider that act a gift to him as well. Later in the day, I came across another gift from him to help us all cope, and I’ll return to that one after this beautiful aspiration:
AN ASPIRATION FOR THE WORLD
Namo Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, With all your wisdom, knowledge, and love, please care for me and all other beings And dispel the many troubles of our times.
May all the masters who sustain the teachings of the Foundational, Great, and Vajra Yanas, and all my gurus, with their great kindness, live long and their enlightened activities flourish.
May those who protect our world from misfortune, who promote education and prosperity, and who care for our environment be healthy and achieve their aims.
May peace and joy spread throughout the world. May conflicts and epidemics cease.
May global warming come to an end, and may religious and political harmony increase.
Ultimately, may all beings throughout space
Manifest their essence of innate, timeless purity
And their wisdom, knowledge, and love.
May we all awaken together.
Today also happened to be when I received the monthly emailed teaching from Rinpoche. In a video, he talked about the questions he gets from all over the world about our difficult times—unstable geopolitics, global warming, polarization, racism. He said many of us have lost our resilience and are suffering from depression, anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem, or other afflictions, and he outlined his advice for mental hygiene.
I know that many readers have been suffering after the November 5 elections in the United States—maybe increasingly since then. So, let’s consider Rinpoche’s video a second gift. He outlined what we might call a seven-point program for our minds and gave pointers on each:
Exercising, especially with aerobics.
Getting enough sleep and limiting caffeine.
Following a good diet.
Using deep-breathing techniques.
Meditating.
Feeling gratitude and appreciation.
Being OK with not being OK.
Where I think Rinpoche was especially helpful and eloquent was in Numbers 5, 6, and 7, so I’ve set the 12-minute video to begin about halfway through, but of course, you may want to rewind to the start.
About Number 6, I’m especially grateful for all that Rinpoche has given me, including the (perhaps unwitting) gift of inspired words and thoughts I can share with From the Pure Land readers while I’m wrapped up and unable to devote as much time as usual to coming up with my own.
If you are so moved, join me in an aspiration for him:
Beloved Rinpoche, may you live long and achieve your goal of bringing all to a state of awareness, loving-kindness, and wisdom.
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