For a brief moment in the beginning of 2015 I spent a lot of time on the top floor of the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery. The floor that was Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche’s. There was also some office space there, so I used it and worked there. One day while in the office I agreed to meet a friend near the big bell of the stupa. So I closed my computer and hurried out of monastery to make it in time. I rushed through the main waiting hall in the middle of the floor with a mind completely fixated on hurrying to meet my friend until I was stopped by a relatively loud shout: “Mikk!”
Turning around I was a little confused. Where did this come from? Who called me? There was a monk standing in front of the big windows and because of back-light and my bad eye-sight I did not recognize who it was. As I took the steps closer and started to realize with certainty that the monk was Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, I tried to find excuses why I did not notice him before. Rinpoche’s answer was more or less the following: “You should not run around like this. I need to teach you to walk. When you walk you need to look and focus at the same time far and close and left and right. And you don’t need to run around, or go specially slow, but with dignity.”
I would like to be able to describe the way Rinpoche demonstrated the different ways of walking. It was crazy funny and serious at the same time. But I am not skilled enough to put these pictures into words. Though I forget it often, the teaching was important and practical. Try it yourself. To be able to have a panoramic vision like this, to focus near and far and left and right at the same time, I need to let go of the grasping, the fixating, the ideas. I really need to relax. Walking, with joy and dignity. Isn’t it better? More relaxed? More enjoyable?