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The Golden Gift on 14 August was the launch of the story of the first 40 years of the Samye Ling monastery in Eskdalemuir – and its acquisition of Holy Island off Arran in the 1990s. But before the story telling began there was music – Scottish and Tibetan. The Samye Ling pipers hanselled in the occasion . The pipers were resplendent in Samye Ling tartan – a bright and colourful thing. And it needed to be too, because it was up against the costume of a Tibetan singer, who was dressed from her flat felt hat to her shoes in a stunning variety of bright colours. She sang some Tibetan songs – mountain songs with all the carrying power needed in mountains and valleys. All of this took place outside Golden Gifts, on the pavement on the High Street in pleasant Edinburgh Festival sunshine. Tourists walking up and down stopped and open top tour buses slowed down to watch what was going on - Chinese visitors among them. The book is written by Ani Rinchen Khandro, a Brit who entered a retreat at Samye Ling and became a Buddhist nun. She read from parts of the book, starting with a graphic account of the flight from Tibet – which took 4 months on horseback then 6 6 months. She told how of the original party of 300, only 15 made it at last into India - the rest either shot on the journey or captured by the Chinese. Among those who reached India were two Lamas and younger brothers brothers. After some time in India they travelled to the West, spending a number of years in England, but also visiting USA. The elder brother, Akong Tulku Rinpoche was in due attracted to Eskdalemuir, where there was already a small meditation group, and so began Samye Ling. A younger brother took full advantage of the delights of consumerism in the west - and had, not to mince words, a ball! After some time of this life-style, Ani Rinpoche recounted how he’d gone, on being invited, on a shoot in the Scottish Hills. Returning to his brother, he got severe reprimand for abandoning the principles of his upbringing. Life changed for him and he started on the path which brought him to be Lama Yeshe Rinpoche, Abbott of Samye Ling. As he himself said later in the launch, “ I went back to the place where I should have started from” And Ani Rinchen’s last reading was of the way in which Holy Island came to be a haven under the wing of Samye Ling. It seems that Lama Yeshe felt completely at one with the place on his very first visit and was in no rush to leave it. Sitting by the shore on his first evening and watching the lights of Arran, he felt he’d been here before - it was exactly as it had appeared and him in a dream from years before. And so it was that in 1992 Holy Island became what it is today. In addition to describing in more detail his escape from Tibet – swimming in the Brahmaputra and having his fleece stay soaked and frozen round him for days after that – Lama Yeshe said a little about his attitude towards the Chinese and about the work of Samye Ling today. He did not, he said, bear the Chinese people any ill will. And of the leaders who had invaded and occupied Tibet he said smilingly that he had had a dream in which Mao Tse Tung and Deng Shou Ping had both appeared – “helping me in my kitchen”. From which he concluded that they, too, helped him on his path. The activities of Samye Ling will be familiar to most. There is a sizeable lay community who live around it and an equivalent number in retreat - like the author herself. There is an extensive range of courses, talks and seminars - yoga, meditation, Tai Chi, Tibetan language, Tibetan medicine, herbal remedies, etc. See the Samye Ling web site for something just for you! But beyond Samye Ling, and Holy Island, the work covers Scotland and beyond. Abbot Lama Yeshe sits on the Scottish Interfaith Group which meet twice a year - and have other contacts throughout the year. From his remarks it would appear that the Buddhist presence in such a grouping is distinctive. As he said, Buddhism is a philosophy rather than a religion – and of the major world faiths it alone was founded by a man who claimed no divine miracle or intervention for his work. The launch over, with copies of the book bought and signed by the abbot (all proceeds to Samye Ling’s building programme) it was out into the sunshine again and the world’s tourists moving up and down the High Street.
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