Rinpoche – Behind the Scenes 活佛背后的故事

written and sent to my family on July 9, 2010 (my 34th birthday)

Dear my beloved family,

Attached are some pictures of grandma’s funeral, her remains is now placed forever in Miao Hsiang Lin temple in Penang , next to grandpa.So this is it, the final chapter of the oldest generation of the Loh family is officially closed. And from now onwards, most likely we will not meet each other again, it may sound negative, but that’s reality, no reason to gather together for Chinese New Year, no reason for you to come back to Penang , no reason for some of us here to go visit you overseas, that’s reality. We have had great time together, especially at grandpa’s old house in Sungai Ara, now only memories left, impermanence the true nature of this world.

So I would like to share some words with all of you.

Grandma’s passing was very peaceful, it was a miracle. Grandma was diagnosed with 4th stage cancer, she died of cancer, but on the final day of her life, July 3rd, she ate a whole big bowl of porridge BY HERSELF, and she got up and CHANGED HERSELF, and she went to sleep, and passed away WITHOUT A SIGN, without heavy breathing, without suffering. You can ask around, which terminal stage cancer patient could pass away in such a peaceful painless manner? 

And this is exactly what my Tibetan Lama His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche has requested the protector Setrap to help, a few weeks ago when He came to Penang specially to bless grandma, that if grandma were to pass away, please make it painless and peaceful, and we now saw it happening with our own eyes. Besides, Tsem Rinpoche also requested the Tibetan monastery in India to perform powerful pujas for grandma a few weeks ago: Vajrayogini and Lama Chopa pujas, both very powerful pujas done by hundreds of fully ordained monks dedicated to grandma, and Rinpoche sponsored all the pujas Himself.

If you remember, about 1 year ago, grandma fell down and was diagnosed with brain haemorrhage, she was wheel-chair bound and already seemed like she couldn’t make it, but my Lama told me it was not her time to go yet, and He asked me to do prayers to the protector Setrap. And what happened after that all of you know, grandma recovered miraculously as if nothing had happened, she could walk, eat, talk, and was as alert as before, and what’s even more surprising was, during the next check-up she went to, the scan showed that the haemorrhage had disappeared altogether.

Sorry to say, singing a few praises and songs to the Divine certainly did not and could not have helped grandma, THE DHARMA DID.

His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche is a high Tibetan Lama reincarnated for over 17 lifetimes now, if He can control his own death and reincarnation to come back again and again for so many lifetimes, helping grandma’s death and rebirth is “easy” for Him.

All of you know that I am grandma’s favourite grandson, I loved grandma the most too, and I have repaid her kindness with the best gift – a good death and a good rebirth. I have been graduating from university for ten years, I could have worked in a decent job and earn lots of money and gave grandma, bought her new house, nice clothes, I could have gotten married and produced beautiful great-grandchildren for grandma, but if I did those things, today it would have meant nothing to grandma already, NOTHING AT ALL. But I chose to do Dharma, because Dharma work collect merits, and only with the merits I could save grandma for this life and also her future life; it is also with those merits that I could request a high being like Tsem Rinpoche to come and bless grandma. I am no one special, I am not holy, but my Dharma work collect tremendous merits, thus I could transfer those merits to my beloved grandma.

I am not trying to brag about myself here, that’s not my purpose. My real reason of sharing these with all of you is to show you how you could really love your loved ones in the ultimate way. I will continue my Dharma work, because I still have my dad, mom, brother, sister-in-law, nephew…they are my immediate family, I can do the same thing to help them like I did for grandma, because of the merits. I wish help my relatives like you too, but you are far and most likely we will not meet ever again, so the best is for you to help yourself, and I have already shown you how, by the example of grandma’s miraculous good death.

You may ask, how to collect merits? The simple rule of thumb is, working and living for ourselves exhaust our merits, while working and living for others collect merits. So we check our daily lives, we work, we earn money, we live, for who? For ourselves or for others? We may say that we are working very hard to take care of our children, and we do not harm others, and we think that is good enough. It is NOT. To put it in a crude but absolutely true way, animals like horses and cows also work, they also have children and take care of them, and horses and cows also do not harm others, so do horses and cows collect merits? No they don’t, so do we, if we live solely for ourselves.

So, working for others will collect merits, Dharma is not limited to Buddhist work, they key here is not the religious label, but the motivation behind it, you could be an atheist but you are thinking and working to benefit others every day, then you also collect merits.

Do look at the pictures I attached, and contemplate for a moment, this could and will definitely happen to our next loved ones, one day they are alive, next day they are dead, next day only their bones are left, next day they are placed in an urn, only memories left, when all that happen, have we done anything to help them, if we say we love them?

I thank you my family, for all the love and care, for all the fun we had, from now on I wish you well, and it is not an empty wish, I share with how to really live a meaningful life and truly benefit our loved ones.

Like I said, I am not forcing any doctrine onto you, I have shown to you beyond doubt that Dharma worked, Dharma saved grandma, and Dharma benefitted grandma ultimately, I only wish you could gain the benefits too, because you are my family and I love you.

Thank you, and really wishing you all the best. Please do share this email with those in the family that do not have email access, or who are not listed in this email.

Love,
Piow

(grandma passed away on July 3, 2010)

 

In mid-June 2010, Rinpoche went all the way to Penang just to bless and do puja for my grandma

Rinpoche performing a powerful tantric puja to bless Grandma, and He also sponsored powerful Vajrayogini and Lama Chopa pujas at the Monastery for grandma

Rinpoche blessing grandma with holy items

Grandma passed away on July 3rd

Grandma’s ashes will be inside this urn forever

Grandma and grandpa in the 1930s, like us, they also had dreams, and they had also been through happiness, sadness, anger, joy…just like what we are going through now.
But today, all those were gone forever, all those meant nothing at all.
Only one thing is worth rejoicing, that grandma has taken a good rebirth to continue the Dharma path, and that is only possible with the blessing of –
His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche