We, Rinpoche’s disciples, find that our Guru ‘does not step out of the door’ (always ‘stay indoors’), not to mention travelling around for recreation. From the information shown in the ‘Health and You’ section (http://www.vajrayana.asso.fr), one can see that there are many beautiful landscape photos and all of them are captioned ‘Rinpoche has been here before’. A lot of people are then conduced to misconstrue that Rinpoche always goes travelling for recreation. As a result, many disciples try to imitate but they all forget that, ‘For places (heights) that tigers can easily jump over, rabbits are not able to do so’!

Please note that we are not trying to compare Rinpoche with the fierce and cruel tigers, this is only a metaphor. One has to view tigers as a lot of merits and virtues achieved while rabbits are viewed as petty merits and virtues done. How can the amount of meritorious virtues that we have obtained through practices be compared with those of Rinpoche’s?  In the 24 hours a day, a normal person usually allocates 8 hours for sleeping, 8 hours for working, 3 hours for the three meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) while the remaining 5 hours are for entertainment, exercise and other activities etc. In this way, a day passes very quickly. Our Rinpoche shortens his time for the three meals to 1 hour so that there can be a surplus of 2 hours; cutting the time for entertainment, exercise and other activities gains another surplus of 5 hours; reducing the sleeping time to 4 hours gives him an extra of 4 hours. Thus, a total of 11 hours is saved. In other words, the total working time of Rinpoche is 8 + 11 = 19 hours, the mealtime is 1 hour and the sleeping time is 4 hours. Among the 19-hour, Rinpoche spends them on dharma practice, Dhyana(meditation), Buddhist-scripture-reading, revising wrong sentences or incorrect words in Sadhana (pamphlets showing the procedures for dharma practices), discourse and Salvation (to release souls from sufferings) etc. and this still has not yet included the time when Rinpoche is passing on Buddhist Doctrines abroad!  The navigating experience of a professional pilot is determined by his flying time and mileage. Simply speaking, Rinpoche spends 19 hours a day on Buddha Dharma. How about us?  How many hours do we spare for Buddha Dharma every day?

Rinpoche says, “Buddhist practitioners should always think and bear in mind that having human re-birth is rare, hearing Buddha Dharma teachings is scarce whilst meeting (engaging in) Tantric Dharma is even harder. Hence, one should let one’s intention of having recreational travel down, but cherish time, forge ahead vigorously and diligently. Work hard to devote oneself to Buddhism so as to put ‘virya’ (zeal and progress), one of the Six Paramitas (the six things that ferry one beyond the sea of mortality to nirvana), into practice.”

If one is a newly convert (to Buddhism), a beginner, a youngster or someone who seldom goes travelling for recreation, under the condition that one is financially available, it is really a good idea to go out and have a look at the world so as to broaden one’s horizon. Even so, one has to consider thoroughly one’s destination when going travelling: what kind of place is it?  Is the public security there alright?  Is the accommodation safe enough?  Are drinking water and food there clean enough?  Is it a holy land of Buddhism?  Is one going there on a pilgrimage?

For practitioners who have practised Tantric Dharma for more than ten years, especially those Buddhist who have received profound-precept, should think even more thoroughly (on planning to travel for recreation):
●	For Buddhists, who are advanced in age, have to consider their physical and health condition as well as the fact that life is impermanent and inconstant. How much more predestinated life-span is still left behind for one to practise cultivation?  One should certainly grasp the time left!
●	For Buddhists, who are still young, have to learn to put relish down. Don’t idle one’s time away. Instead one should dedicate oneself to progress in Buddhism-learning, hoping that one can attain better achievements in this life!

It is really very toiling for Rinpoche to travel overseas from afar to proclaim the Buddhist truth, consecrate empowerment (by pouring water on one’s head), confer blessings and conduct discourse etc. Rinpoche stays in his hermit-house to do dharma-practice. Without stepping out of the entrance door, Rinpoche has neither received enough sunshine nor done any physical exercise for a long period of time. For the sake of Rinpoche’s good health, some disciples (in France) then have brought Rinpoche out to the suburbs to bask in the sun, to inhale fresh-air and to do some walking which is regarded as exercise. At the same time, the accompanying disciples can have some exercise too!  On the other hand, they can be also benefited from another advantage because Rinpoche has extremely good inspirations in the suburbs at intervals and he may thus give his disciples alternative disclosures.

Rinpoche says, “Practitioners shouldn’t go travelling for recreation frequently, they ought to devote in their cultivation diligently instead. However, for you, I mean disciples in France; your mental initiative of showing me your great hospitality to serve me is fully understood. As it’s also not gracious to turn down the warm-hearted offer, I hereby undertake your request so that all of you can receive the merits and virtues of offerings. Fortunately, it’s only a two to three days’ trip which is acceptable both psychologically as well as in terms of duration. It’ll probably not affect my daily tasks (routines).”

Actually, in Rinpoche’s dictionary (his mind), there are no such words as ‘recreational travel’. When Rinpoche travels, firstly and the most importantly, it is done for sentient beings (that is Rinpoche travels for long distances to propagate Buddhism so as to liberate sentient beings); secondly, it is to comply with disciples’ requests so that they can have the chance of making offerings to Rinpoche and thus accumulate the corresponding meritorious virtues; thirdly, it is to assimilate inspirations (during the trips) so that there can be more information to be given to disciples who are going to write it on the webpage and in turn more sentient beings can thereby be able to acquire wisdom disclosure. Furthermore, landscape photos are put on the webpage as wallpaper to help increase the visual artistic feel that makes passages being easy for readers to understand. Lastly, by taking for trip, both Rinpoche and disciples are not only getting better in health physically and mentally, but they also have a multiplication in enhancing their affections. (remark: at first we felt that Rinpoche was rather inhumane and lacked human feelings either, but later we learnt that Rinpoche ‘does not cling to emotions in the world’). It is believed that, as Rinpoche’s disciples, you would surely hope that Rinpoche can be fit and healthy, enjoy longevity as well as staying in the world for a long time, wouldn’t you?

In brief, one has to correct one’s wrong concepts!  It is not appropriate for Buddhist practitioners to go travelling for recreation frequently, nor should they misconstrue that Rinpoche always goes travelling for recreation!   !  Or when one wants to go travelling for recreation oneself, one employs the excuse that ‘Rinpoche also goes travelling for recreation’. Practitioners should examine their own conscience and ask themselves whether they have enough power of merits and blessed virtues accumulated to go travelling for recreation instead of spending their time on dharma practice!  !  !