Rigzin Drakpa
xx xx, xxxx - xx xx, xxxx
Rigzin loved the outdoors. He loved hiking and trekking, but he especially loved mountain biking, and was off biking most weekends. Rigzin also loved playing the guitar and would (if circumstances allowed) practice every single day. He was very serious about learning about his Tibetan roots, which is why he came to study at RYI. He was an active volunteer for Shenpen and took it seriously to help many poor individuals in their lives. Everyone remembers Rigzin’s warm smile, and the kindness that radiated from it. Through this, everyone who met Rigzin felt safe and comfortable in his presence. With the big heart that he had, he was always available as a helping hand for many people, and would often go out his way to be there for another, no questions asked. Most people remember at least one thing that Rigzin did for them. In Rigzin, we found a wonderful friend and deeply miss him! Since Rigzin was a passionate Shenpen volunteer (Shenpen is Chokyi Nyima’s social work programme), Shenpen and friends feel it would be nice to give everyone the chance to donate to Shenpen to honor and continue his compassionate actions. A special donation link has been set up for paypal donations to Shenpen through the Shedrub Development Fund – the link is: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=WM46HKRAFK4NC
Condolences
Maitri
Rigzin was one of the few people who ever gave me a nickname. Quite in the beginning when we met he started calling me “little Ribong”, because he said I always jumped around like a rabbit. The name stuck as we became better and better friends. To be honest, I think Rigzin was a little bit of a Ribong himself, jumping around and being a delight do everyone. When I think of Rigzin, I think of sunshine and laughter, of dozens of breakfasts and dinners on the roof top. I think of his big smile and the feeling of comfort and ease in his presence – a constant invitation to just be myself. I think of my guitar that I gave to him when I left, and the fact that he kept sending me videos of himself playing it and singing songs to show his progress. Those made my day every single time. When I think of Rigzin, I think about our group of friends and the countless laughs we shared. I think about the many %mes when Alexi and I just had en%re conversa%ons about how cute and good of a person he is. I think about the %me when he organized a trip to the old age home, and what a natural talent he was at making friends with the old ladies. Of course, Rigzin was a natural talent at making friends with everyone. One of the many people he made friends with was my dad, who stayed at their housewhen he came to visit. When I remember Rigzin today, I do that also in my dad’s name. Both of us absolutely loved Rigzin – even my mother and sister know him, because we talked about him so o&en and with so much enthusiasm. Rigzin was one of a kind, and it’s hard to put that into words. This thought crossed my mind one of these days: when somebody is as good of a person as him, and lived as good of a life, it is almost futile to be sad, and above all I am happy that I met him in this life and got to spend some time with him. He brought so much joy into the world – now it is our responsibility to each take a small part of this joy and share it in our own worlds. Rigzie, I miss you. Thanks for being who you were. Your Ribong, Maitri
Champa
རིག་འཛིན་གྲགས་པ། (Rigzin drakpa) ཨ། རིག་འཛིན་ཡ་རིག་འཛིན། ཨ། གྲོགས་མཆོག་ཡ་གྲོགས་མཆོག ཁྱེད་རང་གང་དུ་བཞུག་ཡོད་ཀྱང་། བདེ་ཆེན་ཞིང་ལ་མྱུར་ཕེབས་མཛོད Ah, Rigzin ya, rigzin Ah, great ya, great friend Wherever you are at the moment Please go to Sukhavati immediately ཁྱེད་ཐུག་ནས་དོན་ཆེ་སོང་ལ། ཁྱེད་ཐུག་ནས་སྤྲོ་བ་ཆེ་སོང་། ཁྱེད་རང་གང་དུ་བཞུག་ཡོད་ཀྱང་། བདེ་ཆེན་ཞིང་ལ་མྱུར་ཕེབས་མཛོད། Meeting you was meaning And meeting you was cheerful Wherever you are at the moment Please go to Sukhavati immediately ཁྱེད་གཟུགས་ཐུང་ཡང་གང་སར་བསྙབས། ཁྱེད་ལོ་ཆུང་ཡང་ཚང་མ་འགུལ། ཁྱེད་རང་གང་དུ་བཞུག་ཡོད་ཀྱང་། བདེ་ཆེན་ཞིང་ལ་མྱུར་ཕེབས་མཛོད། Although you are short, you reached everywhere, Although you are young, you moved everyone Wherever you are at the moment Please go to Sukhavati immediately ཁྱེད་ནི་ང་ཡི་རྩམ་པ་ཟ་གྲོགས་ཡིན་ལ། ཁྱེད་ནི་ཁོང་ཚོའི་རྐརའཁོར་གཏོང་གྲོགས་ཡང་ཡིན། ཁྱེད་ནི་ཁོ་མོའི་དགའ་སྐྱོ་བཤད་གྲོགས་ཡིན་ལ། ཁྱེད་ཁོ་པའི་སྤོ་ལོ་ལྟ་གྲོགས་ཡང་ཡིན། ཁྱེད་ནི་ང་ཚོའི་རི་འཛེགས་གྲོགས་ཡིན་ལ། ཁྱེད་ནི་ང་ཚོའི་ཟ་མ་བཟོ་རོགས་ཡང་ཡིན། ཁྱེད་ནི་རང་ཕ་མའི་གཅེས་ཕྲུག་ཡིན་ལ། ཁྱེད་རང་བྱུང་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་གཅེས་ཕྲུག་ཡང་ཡིན། ཁྱེད་ནི་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཡི་གཅེས་སློབ་ཡིན་ལ། ཁྱེད་ནི་སྐྲ་བཞར་ཚོ་ཡི་ཉེ་གྲོགས་ཡང་ཡིན། You are my friend for Tsampa And You are their friend for cycling You are her friend for living And you are his friend for football You are our friend for hiking And you are our friend for making food You are a beloved son of your parents And you a friendly schoolmate of RYI You are a cherished disciple of Rinpoche You are a trusted friend of even street barbers. མི་རྟག་འཆི་བས་ཁྱེད་ཁྲིད་ཀྱང་། མི་འགྱུར་མཛའ་བརྩེས་ཁྱེད་བཟུང་ཡོད། གང་གང་ས་ལ་ཁྱེད་བཞུག་ཀྱང་། ཉིན་ཞིག་བོད་ལ་ངས་ཁྲིད་ཆོག Although the impermanent death took you away, The unchangeable friendship holding you back. Wherever you are now at the moment, I will take you to Tibet one day soon ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཆེད་དུ་ཙམ་པ་ཟ་ཆོག་ལ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཆེད་དུ་རྐར་འཁོར་གཏོང་ཆོག ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཆེད་དུ་རི་འཛེག་བྱེད་ཆོག་ལ ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཆེད་དུ་ལིའོ་ཕུའོ་ཡང་ལྟ་ཆོག། For you I will eat Tsampa For you I will do cycling For you I will do trekking For you I will watch Liverpool འདི་རུ་ཡོང་བ་ཐུགས་ཆེ་ཞུ། སྤྲོ་བ་སྦྱིན་པ་ཐུགས་ཆེ་ཞུ། དམ་ཆོས་སློབ་པ་ཐུགས་ཆེ་ཞུ། མི་རྟག་བཏོན་པ་ཐུགས་ཆེ་ཞུ། Thank you for coming into my world And thank you for giving a lot cheers Thank you for practicing dharma Thank you for teaching impermanence ཅོ་ཅོ་བྱམས་པ།
Carla Ott
We all knew Rigzin, so we know first hand what an exceptionally good hearted and cheerful person he was. He was always ready to help others, be it his friends, fellow students, the young monks of our monastery whom he taught math (with some science sneaked in) or the elderly women of the Matatirtha Oldage home. It impresses me how many people he had a connection with and how his life enriched others through his care and joy. That’s a great example to follow now! From all the memories I have of Rigzin, I feel that sharing one of the last ones is most meaningful. In our Losar zoom call on Sunday evening, which turned out to be his last one, we talked about what he found in his gothuk. It was a piece of cotton and when I asked if that accurately reflects his past year he said that he was able to remain patient and calm in situations where he would have reacted differently in the past. May he continue on the road of cotton far into the future and may we too infuse all our actions with the softness of cotton!