The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

144 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYINGAgain and again, I have heard Khandro say that if your linkwith your master is kept really pure, then everything will gowell in your life. Her own life is the most moving andexquisite example of this. Devotion has enabled her toembody the heart of the teachings and radiate their warmth toothers. Khandro does not teach in a formal way; in fact, shedoes not speak a great deal; but what she does say can oftenbe so penetratingly clear that it becomes prophetic. To listento her fervent and blissful chanting, or to practice with her, isto be inspired to the depths of your being. Even to walk withher, or shop, or simply sit with her is to bathe in the powerful,quiet happiness of her presence.Because Khandro is so retiring, and because her greatness isin her ordinariness, only those with real insight see who sheis. We live in a time when those who thrust themselves forwardare frequently admired the most, but it is in the humble,like Khandro, that the truth really lives. And if Khandro wereever to teach in the West, she would be a perfect master: thevery greatest kind of woman master, one who incarnates witha mysterious completeness the love and healing wisdom ofTara, enlightened compassion in its female form. If I were todie, and Khandro were there next to me, I would feel moreconfident and more at peace than if any other master were bymy side.All that I have realized I have realized through devotion to mymasters. Increasingly, as I go on teaching, I become aware,humbly and with real awe, of how their blessings are beginningto work through me. I am nothing without their blessing,and if there is anything I feel I can do, it is acting as a bridgebetween you and them. Again and again, I notice that when Ispeak of my masters in my teaching, my devotion to theminspires a vision of devotion in those listening; and in thosemarvelous moments I feel my masters are present, blessingand opening the hearts of my students to the truth.I remember in Sikkim in the 1960s, not long after my masterJamyang Khyentse had died, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche wasgiving a long set of initiations, the visionary teachings ofPadmasambhava, which can take several months to bestow.Many masters were there in a monastery in the hills behindGangtok, the capital, and I was sitting with Khandro Tsering