My wife Carol and I are on a mountaintop in Bhutan . It ’s 2009 , and we are having tea with His Eminence Neyphug Trulku Rinpoche . He ’s the ninth reincarnation of Terton Ngawang Dragpa , one of the 25 disciples ofGuru Rinpoche , who brought Buddhism to Bhutan in the eighth century .
I have an authoritative question to enquire him . I tell him that I recognise Buddhism teaches that life is suffering . What advice , then , might he offer Chicago Cubs fans , whose team has not won a World Series in more than a century ? I explain briefly who the Cubs are : a democratic baseball squad , playing in one of the great American city , still ineffectual to win a backing since 1908 . He pause a moment to recall . " Well , " he enunciate , " you should not be too distressing . Think of the joy that you have brought to other teams . "
This is decidedlynotthe advice that I desire to pick up . I in person have suffered for almost 65 twelvemonth as a buff . I have sought answer to my suffering in my own faith , Judaism , to no avail . And now , on a mountaintop near Paro , Bhutan , thousand of miles from Wrigley Field , I am being told to take heart because of the delight I ’d make for to the teams that have caused my suffering . allow ’s just say that this was a mite excessively Buddhist for me .
Matt Kosterman/Major League Baseball/Getty Images
But I hit upon an idea . I would encourage Rinpoche to take in this squad of mine . Perhaps then he could take account my anguish , perhaps even offer assistance . I told him that I need him to become a Cubs fan and , to mark his changeover , I gave him my Hebrew Cubs chapeau . He take over it graciously , and put it on at a rakish angle . We ’d bonded . And now , like so many of us fans , who have died over and over again , this gentle soul now on his ninth life would come to know true suffering .
A peculiar kingdom in the clouds
Bhutan is a wizard country , a sort of Camelot , nestled in the Himalayas between India and China , just east of Nepal . Getting in and around the state , though , is no simple-minded trip . harness for more than 30 eld by a much - loved king , Jigme Singye Wangchuck – who voluntarily renounce in 2006 so that the area could become a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy – it has as its head precept the finish of creating happiness . Bhutan takes this goal seriously , blackball the possible wealth that could come through increase tourism : It maintains only one international airport , in Paro , and eschews growth that might harm the environment .
The country is clean and beautiful , its people well-disposed and dress in national uniform . Itshistoric monasteriesare welcoming and visually stunning . If you want to learn the interior summercater , archery , just watch for teams of archers on roadsides . They ’ll be shoot pointer at target area barely seeable a hundred yards away , dancing and exclaim joyfully when a teammate scores . It would be hard to invent a country like Bhutan from scratch .
I ’d made ally with someone who knows how to call in party favour from gamey places .
Arnie Kanter/Thrillist
On our journeying there , hoping for an audience with Rinpoche , my wife and I are told that he can spend only half an hour with us , as he has just return from four months of teaching in Singapore and attending to his dying master in India . Carol and I leap out at the chance , and we inquire our driver and guide on to take us 35 minutes up a bumpy gravel route to the top of the quite a little , where his decaying , but historically crucial , Neyphug Thegchen Tsemo Monastery , built in 1550 , is situated .
We posture cross - legged with him on the floor of an candid way , where we are served tea and biscuits . outdoors , we can see immature monks playing . The monastery houses 51 boys from deprived ( orphan or poor ) homes . Rinpoche schools them not only in Buddhism , but in computer and language skills to prepare them for life outside the monastery , should they decide not to expend their life as Thelonious Monk .
As we let the cat out of the bag , the allotted half - hour passes – and stretches to five hours together . Rinpoche is both piquant and occupied . Carol pass a effective pile of time talking to him about his role as a sire figure to the son . He may be 450 years old , as he tells us , but he has the life experience of a 29 - year - old , and he ’s open to learning from her experience as a psychotherapist .
Arnie Kanter/Thrillist
Rinpoche inhabits two unlike world – the modern and the monastic – in which he seems equally comfortable . He has an unmistakable atmosphere : The elders who key Rinpoche as the ninth reincarnation at age 9 cognise something .
I ’d make out to Bhutan , at the roof of the world , hoping to commune with the spiritual . out of the blue , along the path , I ’d made friends with someone who knows how to call in favor from gamy places .
" Think of the joy that you have brought to other squad . " This is decidedly not the advice that I want to take heed .
Arnie Kanter/Thrillist
You don’t need to believe in fate this year
Within a workweek of rejoin to Chicago , I get a request online from Rinpoche to friend him on Facebook . I accept . He introduces me to WhatsApp , so that we can put across with one another , cost - free . I have met with him two more times , once when I accepted his invitation to be his guest at the annual festival at his monastery , and once in Singapore , where he teaches frequently .
And , as I ’d skip , my friendship with Rinpoche is about to end my long suffering as a Cubs lover . A few calendar week ago , I wrote to him on WhatsApp , severalise him that the Cubs had a chance of gain the championship . by nature I asked him whether he , as perhaps the only renew Cubs buff , would please do apuja(a special petition ) for the Cubs . He tell that he would .
At this writing , the Cubs are about to begin their first World Series since 1945 . For once , the team was not only peachy during the season – the secure record in baseball – it has tromped deep into the playoffs . In Chicago , strangers in Cubs hats high - five one another on Michigan Ave ; " prove Not to absorb " thyroxine - shirt , with manager Joe Maddon ’s glasses pictured on them , are ubiquitous . This is the opposite word of suffering . The metropolis has rightfully come to life-time .
initiate and fans have wondered why now , why this year , after generations of Cubs devotee have waited so patiently . Many credit Theo Epstein , the Cubs ' president of baseball procedure , who helped to end the Boston Red Sox ’s 86 - year World Series drought in 2004 . Maddon has essay himself a wizard throughout the playoff . Young player like Anthony Rizzo , Javier Baez , and Addison Russell are talented , hungry , and immune to the squad ’s bequest of jinxes .
Delirious and promising , Chicago buff point to any bit of causes for this year ’s breakthrough . Contrary to their nature , they ’re even embracing intellectual explanations .
But I know the real reason that the Cubs will win the World Series .
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