Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche,
An account of a meeting in 1988...
Near where I lived there was a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, a man called Michel.
We met to talk and share our practices. We did not have much to say to each other, and he suggested we meditate together.
We went into his room; he opened his personal notebook and the photo at the bottom of the page fell out of it.
As I picked it up, what I saw in this photo was something quite other than a simple photo: it was as if it were in 3D. I have kept this feeling ever since 1988.
Seeing how touched I was, Michel gave me this photo of his master; he only had 3. He asked me not to put it just anywhere, and to burn it if I ever wanted to part with it.
Then we saw each other a few times in Grimaud or in Paris; he was also sometimes the Dalai Lama's driver...
One day he called to tell me that Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was coming to the Dordogne and that it would be a chance to meet him, because his visit would not be much publicised and there should not be many people. He was coming for the end of a retreat of 3 years, 3 months and 3 days.
So I set off to the Dordogne to meet him.
On arriving I was "called" by a farmhouse that seemed to radiate something very strong, but it did not match the description of the place I was supposed to go to...
A few moments later I arrived at the right farmhouse, a magical and magnificent place…
There were very few people there, perhaps 50 at most, which was an extraordinary piece of luck.
I went towards the front door of the farmhouse. People were outside in front of the door; there did not seem to be enough room in the small farmhouse.
It was June and the sun was strong outside…
I came up behind the 4 or 5 people standing in front of the door.
I looked into the room; being 1.86 m tall helps, but it was dark and I could see nothing…
My eyes began to adjust to the darkness,
I saw people sitting on the floor, all facing one single spot…
But where everyone was looking, there was nothing…
Then my eyes adjusted a little more and I made out a box, a cube one metre high.
I raised my eyes, and there on the cube sat Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche…
At the very moment I looked at him, he looked at me!
That gaze and its sublime sensation will remain engraved in me forever.
It was like my grandfather, millions of times more loving, full of an infinite, immeasurable love, and at the same time my whole being radiated and vibrated everywhere, as if my hair were standing on end. I felt precisely that he was an extraordinary mirror in which I could feel and see my layers in relation to him, my thick layers...
My being told me: "I am, we are of the same nature", but in him this nature is in the foreground, fully there, free, luminous, simple, empty...
He gave a teaching, and I bathed in something magnificent, a peace, a well-being, an inner light multiplied tenfold.
The teaching ended. Michel (who had invited me) came to tell me that the body of a great Rinpoche (I no longer remember his name) was very close by, in a farmhouse, waiting to leave for India.
My partner and I were lucky enough to spend a few days close to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and even to go and meditate with him in the morning in his room when he woke up.
What a surprise to see that he slept in the lotus position on a cube like the one he had been sitting on.
What an enchantment to be 1 metre from him and join in the chanting of three monks in a tiny room. How beautiful the Tibetan language is, how it resonates in me; the bells and other instruments added a touch of magic to it all…
We had to leave, and as we drove more than 200 km away from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, my wife and I felt we were leaving his bubble: a great void, a great loss…
But what wonderful luck.
Thank you, life!
Thank you, Michel
Thank you, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
