Interview - Lama Tsering Everest
Gentle Voice : October 2005

Lama Tsering Everest has been a student of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche since 1979. After translating for Rinpoche for several years, she completed a traditional retreat in 1995 and was ordained a lama. She is currently the resident lama at Chagdud Gonpa, Sao Paulo, Brazil. During a visit to Australia in January 2005, Lama Tsering spoke to the Gentle Voice.

You met Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche in 1979, I believe. After being his student for some time, you became his translator. Could you say a little about your connection with Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche?
Well, it was a very good connection. When I first saw Rinpoche, I was very taken by him. He’s visually interesting. And at that time he didn’t really speak English, so he needed to have translators. I was very moved by him. At first I wondered whether that’s what they mean by ‘yogi’. And then I thought, maybe he’s a medicine man or maybe he’s a sorcerer. Those were the kinds of power-ful images I had about him. But, more than that, I really didn’t know how to relate to him. It’s just really a karmic connection, I think. It’s kind of a funny thing to say, because what isn’t? But it’s a very strong connection. And then, as it turned out, it grew because I was very interested in what he wanted to say. But he didn’t really have language skills. So it meant you had to listen with more than just your ears, you had to listen with your skin.

After having studied with Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche and having translated for him, you completed a three-year retreat and were ordained a lama. In fact, you did four years…
Almost four.

And you did retreat in your own home, albeit at a retreat centre. Now there are retreatants starting at Vajradhara Gonpa. Do you have any advice for those retreatants?
Chagdud Rinpoche gave me advice when I went into retreat! But it was Rinpoche’s style. He told me, ‘Some days you’re going to feel tired, some days you’re going to feel sick and some days you’re going to be in a bad mood. But always remember the four thoughts because that’s what gives you power.’ (The four thoughts are this precious human birth, impermanence and death, the law of cause and effect, and the nature of suffering that is samsara.) And you will know when you are not keeping them in mind. It’s not that you don’t get sick or that you don’t have a mood, but you won’t lose sight of your intention if you remember the four thoughts. The four thoughts give you the ability to apply yourself, to realise this is your precious chance, your human body, and that it is brief. You may not think so; you may think that over a thousand days is a long time, but actually it goes so fast. I noticed when I hit the mid-way mark in my retreat that I had a kind of sadness, a poignancy of impermanence.
Because now it’s like over the hump, almost over, almost out! Remember that it’s impermanent and remember the four thoughts – it really does give you the power to apply yourself. And the only other thing Rinpoche told me was that I should practise like my hair was on fire! A pretty woman whose hair catches fire doesn’t sit around and think, ‘Oh, tomorrow, or next week…’ with a laissez-faire attitude. She responds immediately. The more instantaneous the response, the more you can cultivate that intensity (and yet be relaxed in it), the better. Because intensity isn’t enough. It’ll just give you stress. But if that intensity is coupled with relaxation, you can really make some headway.

And for practitioners who are still leading a worldly life?
The advice is no different. What’s the difference? I don’t think there’s any difference at all. It’s still the four thoughts. Maybe more so because phenomena swamp our boat. We can get completely swamped by phenomena. So I think the answer is just the same. And again, it’s good to remember the advice about your hair being on fire. I don’t think I would change the advice.
Gentle Voice : page 6

It sounds like good advice, especially the part about not getting into effort, but relaxing in the immediacy of it.
You see, people fool themselves with relaxing. They think that they’re really relaxing and they’re really not. They’re still just picking and choosing instead of relaxing in the moment. We can’t really help but to pick and choose, but even with the picking and choosing we must learn to relax. But people get really confused by that, I think. It’s true, you must relax; but it’s so easy to just rationalise relaxing in your mind, when you’re not really relaxing at all. Effortlessness is the most difficult!

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche has been to Brazil several times now. He’s been teaching Shantideva’s Way of the Bodhisattva there.You may have perhaps witnessed him with Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. They were very close.
Oh, they are very close! Yes, it’s wonderful. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche is very kind in his responsiveness to Khandro Ling, the gonpa’s students and Brazil. Very kind, as I think he is with everyone. I don’t think it’s any different. He’s quite universal.

I read recently that in accordance with Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche’s last wishes before he died in November 2002, a Padmasambhava temple is being created. Where is that up to now?
It’s beautifully perched on the highest point of the mountain and the basic construction is done. Roofs are being applied and now the artists are working on the statues. What’s going on there is magnificent, absolutely breath-taking. And when you come round the mountain to approach the gonpa, it looks like some kind of spaceship landing. It’s very, very pretty. It’s such an amazing, awesome kind of appearance there. And the beauty of the statues and the construction! There’s liberation by taste and there’s liberation by touch and this is, for sure, liberation by seeing. Chagdud Rinpoche always wanted to be able to receive people who were non-Buddhists and that’s why the tourists really come to the temple. Rinpoche created everything so that they could see, so that they could fulfil their interdependent connections, even after his death and on through this time. It’s beautiful Buddha activity, I think.

In conclusion, Lama Tsering, what would you like to say? Is there anything you’d like to say on this visit to Australia or to Rinpoche’s students?
I’m just so happy to listen to the teachings. It’s my kind of fun, to listen to the teachings, to be with the sangha, to travel and do pilgrimage and to see the teachers. I’m just happy. There’s not much more to say than that.

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