By Carmen Rioja
Lama Drolma received us for the interview with a sweet smile. She is known as the famous Top Model who became a Tibetan Buddhist nun; with several years of study after joining the monastic life. Studying her biography, I couldn’t believe the transformation from what she used to be. She started out as a sultry woman on the covers of Vogue magazine. The sweeping beauty with long legs, and penetrating gaze, is now a nun with candid, cinnabar eyes and yellow habit. In her former magazine pictures you can appreciate her ravishing beauty, the elegance of an ibis bird as she models a designer evening dress. Before joining the monastery, and being ordained as a Tibetan nun, Aria was a sought after and a renowned New York couture model. She modeled the works of famous designers—the dream of millions of young girls. She had made it, she was on top of the world, and yet not entirely happy.
Her roots were far away, and she did not feel fulfilled at the cocktail or luxury parties. She met great celebrities, and other international models who constantly called her and offered contracts to wear the designs. Aria, as she was known in the world of fashion, always stood out for her stature, her slanted eyes, and captivating smile. But at the end of every big production, event, or celebration, she returned to her apartment with a distaste, a kind of emptiness inside. It all felt a bit frivolous.
Over the years, she became more well-known and loved by her colleagues, and in high demand for extraordinary events by the most prestigious designers and fashion houses. She was sought out by Chanel, Giorgio Armani, and Bloomingdale. But with the years the emptiness grew. But she missed her family, particularly her father, and the inner peace she felt when she was young and living in India.
Looking for something else to do with her life, she started working with designers in New York. She worked behind the cameras, in the dressing rooms, and even helping out in production. She was looking for a way to be more meaningful, and more productive. Then she had an awakening, although at first it was not pleasant at all. Supervising the result of photographs of the most perfect and beautiful models in the industry, she noticed that the designers in the editing department were trimming the model’s waist even more than what they were in reality. In addition, instructed by superiors, they were adding more makeup to the model’s face—lengthening the eyes, outlining eyebrows, and even adjusted the color of the skin. It was then that Aria had an epiphany. It appeared to her that what they were doing was horrible; they were sending the wrong message to so many women in the world. Those looking at the photo did not know that even the most beautiful models, were not as they look in magazines, as they are in reality. No one was like that in reality! No one is perfect. Girls all over the world were becoming anorexic to become thinner, risking their lives with surgeries and laser treatments to be more like the supposed ideal. Such useless damage, suffering and guilt.
That New Year’s Eve, Aria, who had grown up in an Indian village near Mumbai, made a resolution. She was going to seek a more spiritual life. She thought of taking courses or traveling to India, the path was not yet clear, but she was determined. Then, as if by magic, a friend invited her to a Buddhist retreat in the outskirts of New York, quite close to her home. So joined, and this led her to learn meditation.
This was a first step in long years of apprenticeships, and trips to Tibet to meet the main meditation teachers and visit monasteries. Everything started to make sense. Meditation gave her the opportunity to feel the peace we all have within us. It became an exercise she had to practice daily, almost as a sport, to see results. Today Aria is a teacher, which is the meaning and sense of life of a Lama: to teach the techniques and tools for a life in compassion, forgiveness and love. A meditation that leads us to feel the union with the rest of the universe, a communion with the stars, and with all the creatures of the universe. Something very close to happiness.
Lama Aria Drolma explained that we are part of a whole; that among the atoms that make us there is more emptiness than matter, that everything is made of the same atoms and the same energy, and that we should feel ourselves an extension and part of others. We are never alone. Of course we are still going to have bad moments. As a nun and teacher who has lived full-time in a monastery for decades, she explains that even great teachers feel sadness or anger. For example, you feel that when seeing wars or knowing about an act of violence. But meditation techniques allow you to observe these thoughts, without clinging to them, in order to transcend. Meditation and prayers will often transform the negative energy into something that brings peace and resolve within, and also to those around you. Aria smiles, and explains that this is why we would rather be around happy, active people, than spending too much time with someone negative or constantly angry.
We were surprised to meet her in our city, and asked why she chose San Miguel de Allende to give meditation workshops. “My friend Tashi invited me to San Miguel because he wanted to have a Dharma Center with a Buddhist spiritual community. So we meet on Mondays to practice wellness meditation and Tibetan chanting.”
We asked her about the hatred and selfishness over the recent attack in New York on Indian writer and Nobel laureate Salman Rushdie. “People who feel hate or who commit an act of violence are suffering tremendously inside. Compassion and love must always be in our emotions and with maternal tenderness that is the sweetest image.” She tells us that she says her prayers thinking of Mary and her son Jesus. For her it is the sweetest and most tender image. “This is how we can generate a transformation. We can use that same meditation inward…There is no selfishness in seeking compassion, love and forgiveness for oneself, because that love will also be what we can give to others.”
Mindfulness Meditation and Tibetan Chanting for Wellbeing
San Miguel Public Library, Quetzal Room
Sep 12 and 13, 3pm
Rosewood Hotel
Sep 28, 6pm to 7pm
Monday, South Street No.1, Fraccionamiento Capricho
WhatsApp 415-101-9942
