In light of the state of his health, he has already named his successor. In typical ground-breaking style, he has appointed a woman to eventually take over his role when he is no longer able to do so.  Her Holiness Khadro Crystal Chu Rinpoche has more than paid her dues over the years, not only seeing to Professor Lin’s needs and well-being, but also taking on a substantial study load, bestowing her with well-deserved titles.  We watched short moments this past weekend as she gingerly stepped into these enormous shoes at the enthusiastic encouragement of her mentor.

It is during these precious and poignant moments that I am grateful for my limited abilities to speak to him in his native Mandarin language.  In doing so, I have a direct link to this man and his enormous heart during which we can speak eye-to-eye, not having to rely on a translator.  He gets great delight in my attempts to speak Chinese.  I stumbled through a request asking if he would bless the beginnings of a new book I’m working on.  In typical gracious fashion, he went through the scribbled notes and torn bits of paper which I sheepishly handed him.  I wished they had been in better shape, more organized, more official-looking.  Regardless, he carefully and meticulously handled those remnant pages with the greatest respect.  No judgment on his side of this request.

The best part was I could look at him directly to tell him how much I treasured his approval for this project and how much I treasured him as a teacher.  Never mind I had spent an undetermined amount of time in my hotel room the night before pouring over my Chinese dictionary to get the phrasing just right.  From the enormous smile on Professor’s face, I’ll bet he knew just how much work went into that sentence.

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