Happiest of Birthdays to my Most Precious Teacher, Lama Padma Drimed Norbu!
I just found out that today is also World Kindness Day, and that is so appropriate! I write today to honor one of the kindest people I have ever known (and I’ve known a LOT of people), the person who became my Buddhist meditation teacher and guide, Lama Padma Drimed Norbu, known as Lama Drimed to most, Wyn Fischel to some.
In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the spiritual teacher is said to hold the key to one’s heart. Opening the heart (or, in Tibetan terms, the heart/mind) is fundamental to becoming receptive to the spiritual practices and their impact on us, allowing us to change, inviting the methods to work within us without impediment.
A teacher may play many roles and be of great benefit. The only limitations to the impact of a qualified teacher on students are in our own minds.
The story of how I “found” my spiritual teacher is a bit unusual, in that I had known Wyn Fischel before he had been ordained as a lama (we met in 1985). However, I hadn’t seen him in ten years, had only talked with him the previous fall twice on the phone, before coming to accept teachings from him in 1999, in his new identity as Lama Drimed.
He had told me on the phone in the fall of 1998 that people who had known him “before” had had difficulty accepting him as a teacher and warned me that it might not work for us, either.
I told him that I had already had many dreams in which he IS my teacher and that I was confident it would work. Secretly, though, I was nervous and a bit doubtful, myself. I knew what he meant because the first person I had considered as my teacher was also someone I had known before (Lisa Leghorn/Lama Shenphen Drolma) and things had become very difficult for both of us.
During or after this 1999 summer retreat with him, we would both decide if we could continue as student and teacher.
The day the retreat started that June day in 1999, we were all gathered in the shrine room (large space for meditation practice and teachings), waiting for him to arrive.
I had had no idea how the retreat would be structured, what went on, even where he would sit. There were colorfully draped thrones in the front of the room, but I had a hard time imagining that he would actually sit on one.
There was a curtain, a drapery wall, separating the shrine room from the porch eating area. It rippled and a man entered. At first, I didn’t recognize him as the man I had known. His hair was down past his waist and flowed as he moved. Last time I’d seen him, his hair was barely to his ears.
Even more different was the way he moved. More startling and unexpected was that I felt my heart burst open. My eyes filled with tears. In total silence and surprise, half bowed along with everyone else, I stood there staring at him. There was a glow around him that I could not actually see with my physical eyes but which I could perceive nonetheless. He emanated peace, confidence, warmth.
My heart was pounding and the tears increased as I watched him glide smoothly across the room carrying a single, long-stemmed rose in one hand.
He walked up to the throne of His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche (who was living in Brazil at that time, but who passed in 2002) whose framed face rest on it. Gently and reverently, with immense love that I could feel from across the room, Lama Drimed placed the rose in front of the picture.
Then, he gracefully stepped back several paces and did three full-body prostrations in front of that throne, offering respect and devotion to his teacher. I felt Lama Drimed‘s devotion as pinpricks in my heart and my tears flowed.
He finished his prostrations and walked over to the empty throne. Climbing up onto it, I could feel the rightness of it: it was his seat, his rightful place.
As soon as he sat down, the room of about thirty students erupted in motion: everyone began prostrating to him as he had done to Rinpoche’s picture. I stood there, trembling.
Up until then, despite having attended several teachings, one retreat and several empowerments with other teachers, including Lama Drimed‘s and one of mine, His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche (who passed in 2002), whenever I had done prostrations, I hadn’t felt anything. I did them out of respect, but without my heart engaged.
This time, as I bent to the floor to join the others in this ritual, tears fell on the carpet and my heart felt as if it would burst. The English translation for the words to the prayer we say as we do the prostrations echoed in my mind with new meaning:
“From now until I reach the heart of enlightenment, I take refuge in the Lama, who is the Three Jewels.”
Not “the” Lama: THIS Lama. I felt gnosis resonating in me as I prostrated.
My devotion and dedication awakened that afternoon as it had on no other day in this lifetime, yet it felt as if I were coming home. I had found my teacher, my spiritual guide and friend, the key to my heart/mind. Right there, that day.
Now, over twenty-four years later (fall of 2023) , I am even more devoted, dedicated, grateful and certain of my good fortune to have Lama Padma Drimed Norbu as my teacher. He scares me, he amuses me, he teaches and guides me. We argue, we talk, we laugh, we discuss.
Lama Drimed as a lama represents the embodiment of enlightenment. As a man, sometimes he puts kale into his juicer and talks to me about my being a sci-fi author.
He brings me to tears: of gratitude, frustration, discouragement and awe.
I stretch, I learn, I grow. So does he.
I am so lucky that he is alive and teaching, willing to have me as a student.
He is a constant inspiration to all of his students, especially now, as he remains in samadhi (meditative absorption) in the fourth year of his second “long” personal, individual, mostly silent retreat (date of this one’s ending still unannounced).
Thank you for being the key to my heart/mind, Lama Drimed. May you continue to have a long, healthy, wonderful life filled with benefit and happiness.
May all beings benefit. May all find their spiritual teachers and meet with them in this and every lifetime.
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PHOTOS, top to bottom, of this post:
Lama Drimed, 2017;
Lama Drimed‘s rose for Rinpoche (or very like…);
Lama Drimed and I in front of the Guru Rinpoche statue and fountain at Rigdzin Ling during retreat, 1999;
Lama Drimed and I at one of his southern California rentals in Marin County, 2010;
Lama Drimed teaching, 2020 (in a video he made for his students, during this “long” retreat).
Sally Ember, Ed.D. 
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