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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
From mouths of babes
» Kaneohe
The first whispered words from the lips of the newest little Buddha as she came out of her first meditation were "Wow ... Wow... "
It almost sounded like a mantra.
As Joe Kharma helped her remove the virtual-reality goggles and ear phones, 9-year-old Elizabeth Resurreccion turned to the second Lama Jey Tsong Khapa. "I think I learned compassion, Lama Jey."
He nodded, smiled. "It has always been in you. Now you understand it's beauty and power, and absolute necessity."
She continued to sit there in her pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and matching shorts, legs crossed, posture erect, smiling beatifically, her left hand cupped gently just below the navel with thumb slightly raised, the right hand resting on her knee and bent gracefully down at the wrist, the palm slightly cupped and facing out. The gesture of supreme accomplishment and meditation.
Her shocked mother Rosalita, hands still covering her mouth, plaintively looked to her employer/friend Lily Ah Sun. But it was Lily's husband Quinn, a Buddhist who had at least some grasp of these matters, who spoke first.
"So she's attained enlightenment. Now what?"
"That is always the question," the lama said. Now just days from his 19th birthday, he had announced that he was the first reincarnation of the great Tsong Khapa at the age of 2, at his parents' home in Liliha. "In my case, after the elders visited and confirmed that Tsong Khapa had again come to life in the boy known as Frankie Kharma, I went off to the Himalayas to study with masters in the Tibetan tradition. But everyone is different, every case unique. And not every enlightenment is a case of reincarnation."
The young lama turned to Elizabeth. "What is your name?"
Without pausing, without having any way of knowing the name, much less knowing how to pronounce it correctly "Sam-yung Kunzang Dechen."
"Omigod, no, she's speaking in tongues!" the devoutly Catholic Rosalita gasped.
"Not at all," the lama said. He bowed from the waist, fingertips pressed together and touching his nose. "You grace us with your presence, Sam-yung Kunzang Dechen. Thank you for coming."
"You related to Sam Sung?" Joe Kharma said.
"Oh, Joe," she sighed, in a compassionate wisdom-of-the-world way.
"Sam-yung Kunzang Dechen," the lama explained, "was the wife of Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, an incarnate master whose lineage goes back to Padasambhava, who established Buddhism in Tibet in the 9th Century. In exile in India, Sam-yung Kunzang Dechen built many temples and retreat centers. She was herself a master of the way known as Cho, and was known for encouraging women to involve themselves in spiritual practice."
"Oh boy, another one," Khan said. "Won't this make Te-Wu happy."
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Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com