Amber Marie Williams

Rinny the Rinpoche

Original Illustrations by Marie Louise Williams

Design & Typography by Sheldon Lawrie

Edited by Meghan Aris & Sarka Kolacna

Copyright © 2012 Amber Marie Williams

First Edition

Printed in Canada—All rights reserved—No part of

this book may be used or reproduced in any manner

whatsoever without written permission from publisher.

WWW.OWLEYES.COM

Also by this author:

Owl Eyes: A Timeless Fable about

Interconnection, Nature & Love

*A portion of the proceeds from my creations will be

donated to support our magnificent natural world*

Rinny the Rinpoche

Amber Marie Williams

Rin•po•che ||rin|pä ch | |

noun

Incarnate lama or highly respected spiritual teacher

Often used as an honorific title

Literally translates as 'precious jewel'

Origin of the word: Tibetan Buddhism

This is the story of a Three-Toed Sloth.

Her friends call her Rinny.

Rinny is a Rinpoche.

She lives high up in her tree fort in the Stanley Park

forest, and she mostly just loves to slowly hang

around and smile.

But another one of her favourite things is to talk with

and listen to all of her animal forest friends.

Rinny smiled and exclaimed:

“They always give me the most magnificent messages!”

Just then Rinny heard a funny, howly, giggling noise

coming from the base of her tree fort.

Alarmed, Rinny started down to the bottom of her

tree to investigate.

However, when she got down to the ground, she

discovered nothing but a Coyote sleeping soundly.

Rinny shouted:

“Coyote! Wake up! Did you hear that crazy giggling?”

Coyote awoke from her slumber, shook her head from

side to side, and said:

“What? Who is that? Oh, good lord... what time is it?

Geez Louise, yes, of course I heard that giggling. That was

me, trying to play a trick on you! But it took you so long to

get down here, I guess I fell asleep on my own gag!”

Rinny was perturbed.

True... it had taken her seven hours to get down her

tree to investigate, but how annoying on Coyote’s part

to play this trick in the first place!

Rinny asked her sister:

“Coyote, after all of this tomfoolery,

what message do you have for me?”

Coyote replied:

“Well dear Rinny, my message for you is no matter what the

foul or folly, never mind what happens to you.”

Rinny paused for a long while and then said:

“Hmm. Well, I guess I see your point Coyote. We should

never judge what happens to us as being either good or

bad—it just is. Thank you for this balanced advice.”

Coyote smiled, and with a flick of her fluffy tail she

turned and started trotting down her path, all the

while softly howling her favourite song.

It was turning into quite a warm sunny day, and being

that Rinny was already down from her tree top, she

decided to make her way down to the Pacific Ocean

for some sea kelp and a swim.

When she arrived at the beach, Rinny was happy to

see that Grey Whale and Harbor Seal—two of her

favourite animal friends—were also in the vicinity,

swimming around and enjoying the sea and sunshine.

Rinny shouted:

“Oh! Yoo-hoo, brother Whaley! Great to see you.

How have your travels been?”

Whaley replied:

“Good day Rinny. Always lovely to see you! As for a report

on my travels, I am a bit embarrassed to say we are not

doing an especially good job at protecting the water that

surrounds, sustains, and nourishes us. We must realize

how precious it is, or we are not going to survive. After

all... we only get one earth.”

Rinny sat with this for a long moment and then said:

“Wow, that is quite heavy brother Whale...”

And Whaley replied:

“Yes, well, ... so am I.”

Rinny then turned to sister Sealy and asked:

“Sister, do you have a message for me... perhaps one on a

lighter note?”

Sealy replied:

“Yes, Rinny, I do. No matter what,

do not forget to breathe.”

Then she winked, playfully waved

her flipper, and dove straight down

into the sea.

Rinny waited a few moments for her to return, but

just like an exhale itself, Sealy was gone.

Rinny took the better part of the afternoon to slowly

return back up to her high perch in the Stanley Park

tree tops.

And then, about a week later, Rinny took the duration

of another afternoon to slowly move back down

towards ground level.

She had to use the facilities.

When she finally got down to the earth, she

discovered brother Raccoon scooning around the base

of her tree. Woody the Red-Headed Woodpecker was

also present.

But... he was so busy doing his own thing—drumming

into tree bark and gobbling up grubs—he did not

notice Rinny right away.

When Woody finally saw Rinny, he smiled a huge

smile and exclaimed:

“Well... hello dear! Always a pleasure to see another

like-minded being who marches to the beat of their own

drum! You are always yourself—I mean, what other animal

moves so mindfully that moss and algae are able to grow

inside their fur? That is a real inspiration my friend.”

Rinny grew an even bigger smile than she usually

wore.

Then, she slowly turned towards Raccoon and asked:

“Brother Scoon, do you have a message for me too?

Scoon peered at Rinny with his unreadable black eyes

and moved his little scoon paws in and around the

earth in front of him, looking for something delicious

to eat, and replied:

“Be aware of the masks you

wear, Rinny. The true self

never needs to be masked,

so pay attention to when,

for whom, and why you

wear yours. Your answers

may surprise you.”

Rinny considered this message while she slowly did

her business. Then, she proceeded to take the

remainder of the night to slowly climb back up to her

tree fort.

When she finally arrived it was with the dawn, and

the sunlight allowed for her to see that a pretty long

legged spider had moved into one of the nooks and

crannies of her tree fort. Spider had been spinning her

tapestry all night and had succeeded in weaving quite

the webbed masterpiece.

Rinny gasped and

proclaimed:

“Sister Spider... I just love

your creation! Look how

your silky strands and the

fresh dew droplets glimmer

in the morning light.

What a beautiful day!”

Spider said:

“Yes Rinny, it is. But then again, they all are.”

Rinny liked this reminder very much, and she asked

her sister if she had any other messages for her.

Spider replied:

“Yes, I do Rinny. We must never forget that time is a

shapeshifting trickster. After all, all is always all right in

all ways. We do not need to worry about a thing. In fact,

all we need to do is to ask the universe for perfect timing

and it will be granted.”

Just then a little ladybug flew right into Spider’s web.

Rinny slowly squealed:

“Oh no! Lady! Are you OK?”

But Lady just laughed and sort of tumbled out of the

web, bouncing right onto a branch of Rinny’s tree

home.

Spider could not believe what her eight eyes had just

seen!

Dumbfounded, Spider whispered:

“How on earth did you escape my sticky web?”

Lady giggled and opened her wings a little, as if to

dust herself off, and said:

“Silly Spider. I let go and let the universe take care of

everything. That is why nothing can touch me! After all,

why worry about anything when there is nothing to worry

about?”

Spider smiled, closed her eight eyes, and said:

“Of course, Lady. Of course. I should know better.”

And with that, Lady happily flew away without a care

while Spider leisurely returned to the centre of her

webbed creation to patiently manifest some other

form of nourishment.

Rinny was exhausted from receiving all of her

messages, so she decided to slowly and mindfully eat

some leafy greens and then have a nice long

meditation. As she relaxed into her healing state, she

fell asleep.

And she slept.

And slept some more.

“Lovely, now I feel better!” said Rinny.

But... Rinny was actually still sleeping, dreaming, and

in her vision three powerful forest beings appeared to

her all at once.

“Oh... my... word. Eagle, Raven and Owl—together?

What is going on? Am I dreaming?”

Chief Black Raven smiled and said:

“Good, always trust your gut Rinny! It

always knows the truth. And yes, you

are dreaming, but you have never been

more awake.”

Then Chief Bald Eagle said:

“Yes, keep doing the good job you

have been doing Rinny. You are

co-creating your own universe, and

you must never forget to remember

how powerful you really are.”

To this Chief Barred Owl added:

“Rinny, never be afraid to let go of

what no longer serves you on a soul

level. Always move through your

darkness and fears towards the light,

and know you are never alone. Do

not be afraid of anything.”

Rinny absolutely loved the messages she was receiving,

but being deep in her dream state she also felt slightly

disoriented.

In her usual reality these three predatory beings

would be naturally opposed. So why were they now

united?

The Three Chiefs implicitly understood her confusion,

and simply replied that they had come together to

impart these messages because it was very important

all living beings heard and understood them.

As Rinny slowly awoke, everything she ever needed to

know dawned on her all at once:

“I see! I really see!”

And she really did.

Rinny tilted her smiling face towards the sky and

slowly lifted her furry arms out and forward into the

universe and shouted:

“Thank you Universe! Thank you for all of our animal

friends whose messages for us always serve

to inform and guide our lives perfectly in all ways.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!”