The Cup in Paris

I am sure you are all familiar with Rinpoche’s first feature film, The Cup. Almost from the first moment I met Rinpoche he spoke about wanting to make a movie, but back then, when my mind was stuck in an even tinier box than it’s in now and my world was vastly smaller, I didn’t take him very seriously. As far as I was concerned he was a Rinpoche, not a film-maker, and his duties as a teacher, lineage holder, etc, etc, outranked any personal ambition. So, all his talk of making movies must just be wishful thinking, a way of passing the time between Champion’s League matches and the World Cup. Mustn’t it?

Well, I got that one spectacularly wrong! If Rinpoche decides he wants to do something, however overloaded he may be, however high the pile of invitations to teach in all four corners of this world of ours, however many gigabytes of whinging emails he receives, absolutely nothing will stop him. Hence, The Cup, Travellers and Magicians, and I’m sure several more enthralling stories are in the works.

In 1999, The Cup premiered at Cannes to great acclaim, and I began to understand there really is no limit to what Rinpoche can achieve this lifetime. Yet, he has remained essentially the same. More in every way and increasingly majestic, but still the same person, with the same sense of humour and humility.

In this snap you can see him with Philip on the Champs Elysées where the movie was showing. Magical times…