Dear Sangha,
Tashi deleg! Best wishes to each of you for the Tibetan New Year (Losar) that began on February 8. Sometimes it seems strange to celebrate two new years so close together. At Chagdud Gonpa centers, the interval between January 1 and Tibetan New Year has always been intense and eventful, a time when hidden currents surface and are then purified and transformed by the powerful Vajrakilaya ceremonies.
I have been leading the extensive Vajrakilaya practice from the Dudjom lineage since 1980, when His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, then visiting California, told me that this sadhana would be of particular benefit in the West. When I conduct such ceremonies, my purpose is not to direct wrath at outer enemies with form or at inner demons without form. Rather, the intention of all the prayers, offerings, mudras, mantra recitation, lama dancing, and so forth is to create a pure field of activity in which you can subdue your own dualistic perception, cut through your grasping at outer objects, and free yourself from clinging to inner phenomena.
Until you accomplish this, you will be entangled in attachment and aversion, hope and fear, concepts of pure and impure. You will be happy momentarily, but unhappiness will inevitably follow. Lasting peace will elude you. These dualities are the real enemies and demons that hinder your spiritual realization. They will prevent you from serving sentient beings skillfully and impartially. They are obstacles to your enlightenment. They must be vanquished.
Ceremonies—Vajrakilaya at Losar, the drubchens, tsogs, daily practices—establish various mandalas that you enter by dropping ordinary concerns and bringing your mind into accord with the deities and lineage lamas. Through the merging of your motivation with their blessings, negativity falls away and you can experience the fundamental purity of your buddha nature.
This year and last, I took pleasure in the simultaneity of the Vajrakilaya ceremonies taking place at Rigdzin Ling and at Khadro Ling. Having made the choice to come to Brazil, of course I am happy to see that students here have the energy and receptivity needed to practice Tibetan Buddhism. Eighty people participated, and we concluded with lama dancing, which was taught to this new generation of Brazilian dancers by Maile Wall and Jeff Miller. For four consecutive days during the ceremonies, vivid dou-ble rainbows appeared.
In a few months I will begin the tem-ple (lha khang) and also a large Guru Rinpoche statue. I am an old man, and I am not going to hold back now. The lha khang will be the first traditional Tibetan Buddhist temple in South America.
Your support has helped to generate lasting benefit in both the United States and Brazil, since some of my U.S. students have contributed generously to the lha khang construction fund. I am grateful that you share my belief that the seeds of dharma can ripen wherever conditions are created by pure intention.
Your lamas in the United States serve as authentic sources of dharma, and I am confident that you can rely on them. Still, at times I miss you very much, and I look forward to seeing many of you this summer at the drubchens, the retreats, and the Tagsham empowerments that Terton Namkha Drimed will offer. Until then, though it may seem that we are far apart, this is not really true. My own practice increases these days and, with it, my love and compassion for all beings, including my old students. Abiding in the wisdom nature of appearances, beyond near and far, coming and going, makes the sense of separation fall away. May you experience this, too, this linking of intention through your meditation, your love, your kindness, your faith.
In the dharma,
Dear Sangha,
Tashi deleg! Best wishes to each of you for the Tibetan New Year (Losar) that began on February 8. Sometimes it seems strange to celebrate two new years so close together. At Chagdud Gonpa centers, the interval between January 1 and Tibetan New Year has always been intense and eventful, a time when hidden currents surface and are then purified and transformed by the powerful Vajrakilaya ceremonies.
I have been leading the extensive Vajrakilaya practice from the Dudjom lineage since 1980, when His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, then visiting California, told me that this sadhana would be of particular benefit in the West. When I conduct such ceremonies, my purpose is not to direct wrath at outer enemies with form or at inner demons without form. Rather, the intention of all the prayers, offerings, mudras, mantra recitation, lama dancing, and so forth is to create a pure field of activity in which you can subdue your own dualistic perception, cut through your grasping at outer objects, and free yourself from clinging to inner phenomena.
Until you accomplish this, you will be entangled in attachment and aversion, hope and fear, concepts of pure and impure. You will be happy momentarily, but unhappiness will inevitably follow. Lasting peace will elude you. These dualities are the real enemies and demons that hinder your spiritual realization. They will prevent you from serving sentient beings skillfully and impartially. They are obstacles to your enlightenment. They must be vanquished.
Ceremonies—Vajrakilaya at Losar, the drubchens, tsogs, daily practices—establish various mandalas that you enter by dropping ordinary concerns and bringing your mind into accord with the deities and lineage lamas. Through the merging of your motivation with their blessings, negativity falls away and you can experience the fundamental purity of your buddha nature.
This year and last, I took pleasure in the simultaneity of the Vajrakilaya ceremonies taking place at Rigdzin Ling and at Khadro Ling. Having made the choice to come to Brazil, of course I am happy to see that students here have the energy and receptivity needed to practice Tibetan Buddhism. Eighty people participated, and we concluded with lama dancing, which was taught to this new generation of Brazilian dancers by Maile Wall and Jeff Miller. For four consecutive days during the ceremonies, vivid dou-ble rainbows appeared.
In a few months I will begin the tem-ple (lha khang) and also a large Guru Rinpoche statue. I am an old man, and I am not going to hold back now. The lha khang will be the first traditional Tibetan Buddhist temple in South America.
Your support has helped to generate lasting benefit in both the United States and Brazil, since some of my U.S. students have contributed generously to the lha khang construction fund. I am grateful that you share my belief that the seeds of dharma can ripen wherever conditions are created by pure intention.
Your lamas in the United States serve as authentic sources of dharma, and I am confident that you can rely on them. Still, at times I miss you very much, and I look forward to seeing many of you this summer at the drubchens, the retreats, and the Tagsham empowerments that Terton Namkha Drimed will offer. Until then, though it may seem that we are far apart, this is not really true. My own practice increases these days and, with it, my love and compassion for all beings, including my old students. Abiding in the wisdom nature of appearances, beyond near and far, coming and going, makes the sense of separation fall away. May you experience this, too, this linking of intention through your meditation, your love, your kindness, your faith.
In the dharma,
Dear Sangha,
Tashi deleg! Best wishes to each of you for the Tibetan New Year (Losar) that began on February 8. Sometimes it seems strange to celebrate two new years so close together. At Chagdud Gonpa centers, the interval between January 1 and Tibetan New Year has always been intense and eventful, a time when hidden currents surface and are then purified and transformed by the powerful Vajrakilaya ceremonies.
I have been leading the extensive Vajrakilaya practice from the Dudjom lineage since 1980, when His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, then visiting California, told me that this sadhana would be of particular benefit in the West. When I conduct such ceremonies, my purpose is not to direct wrath at outer enemies with form or at inner demons without form. Rather, the intention of all the prayers, offerings, mudras, mantra recitation, lama dancing, and so forth is to create a pure field of activity in which you can subdue your own dualistic perception, cut through your grasping at outer objects, and free yourself from clinging to inner phenomena.
Until you accomplish this, you will be entangled in attachment and aversion, hope and fear, concepts of pure and impure. You will be happy momentarily, but unhappiness will inevitably follow. Lasting peace will elude you. These dualities are the real enemies and demons that hinder your spiritual realization. They will prevent you from serving sentient beings skillfully and impartially. They are obstacles to your enlightenment. They must be vanquished.
Ceremonies—Vajrakilaya at Losar, the drubchens, tsogs, daily practices—establish various mandalas that you enter by dropping ordinary concerns and bringing your mind into accord with the deities and lineage lamas. Through the merging of your motivation with their blessings, negativity falls away and you can experience the fundamental purity of your buddha nature.
This year and last, I took pleasure in the simultaneity of the Vajrakilaya ceremonies taking place at Rigdzin Ling and at Khadro Ling. Having made the choice to come to Brazil, of course I am happy to see that students here have the energy and receptivity needed to practice Tibetan Buddhism. Eighty people participated, and we concluded with lama dancing, which was taught to this new generation of Brazilian dancers by Maile Wall and Jeff Miller. For four consecutive days during the ceremonies, vivid dou-ble rainbows appeared.
In a few months I will begin the tem-ple (lha khang) and also a large Guru Rinpoche statue. I am an old man, and I am not going to hold back now. The lha khang will be the first traditional Tibetan Buddhist temple in South America.
Your support has helped to generate lasting benefit in both the United States and Brazil, since some of my U.S. students have contributed generously to the lha khang construction fund. I am grateful that you share my belief that the seeds of dharma can ripen wherever conditions are created by pure intention.
Your lamas in the United States serve as authentic sources of dharma, and I am confident that you can rely on them. Still, at times I miss you very much, and I look forward to seeing many of you this summer at the drubchens, the retreats, and the Tagsham empowerments that Terton Namkha Drimed will offer. Until then, though it may seem that we are far apart, this is not really true. My own practice increases these days and, with it, my love and compassion for all beings, including my old students. Abiding in the wisdom nature of appearances, beyond near and far, coming and going, makes the sense of separation fall away. May you experience this, too, this linking of intention through your meditation, your love, your kindness, your faith.
In the dharma,
Dear Sangha,
Tashi deleg! Best wishes to each of you for the Tibetan New Year (Losar) that began on February 8. Sometimes it seems strange to celebrate two new years so close together. At Chagdud Gonpa centers, the interval between January 1 and Tibetan New Year has always been intense and eventful, a time when hidden currents surface and are then purified and transformed by the powerful Vajrakilaya ceremonies.
I have been leading the extensive Vajrakilaya practice from the Dudjom lineage since 1980, when His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, then visiting California, told me that this sadhana would be of particular benefit in the West. When I conduct such ceremonies, my purpose is not to direct wrath at outer enemies with form or at inner demons without form. Rather, the intention of all the prayers, offerings, mudras, mantra recitation, lama dancing, and so forth is to create a pure field of activity in which you can subdue your own dualistic perception, cut through your grasping at outer objects, and free yourself from clinging to inner phenomena.
Until you accomplish this, you will be entangled in attachment and aversion, hope and fear, concepts of pure and impure. You will be happy momentarily, but unhappiness will inevitably follow. Lasting peace will elude you. These dualities are the real enemies and demons that hinder your spiritual realization. They will prevent you from serving sentient beings skillfully and impartially. They are obstacles to your enlightenment. They must be vanquished.
Ceremonies—Vajrakilaya at Losar, the drubchens, tsogs, daily practices—establish various mandalas that you enter by dropping ordinary concerns and bringing your mind into accord with the deities and lineage lamas. Through the merging of your motivation with their blessings, negativity falls away and you can experience the fundamental purity of your buddha nature.
This year and last, I took pleasure in the simultaneity of the Vajrakilaya ceremonies taking place at Rigdzin Ling and at Khadro Ling. Having made the choice to come to Brazil, of course I am happy to see that students here have the energy and receptivity needed to practice Tibetan Buddhism. Eighty people participated, and we concluded with lama dancing, which was taught to this new generation of Brazilian dancers by Maile Wall and Jeff Miller. For four consecutive days during the ceremonies, vivid dou-ble rainbows appeared.
In a few months I will begin the tem-ple (lha khang) and also a large Guru Rinpoche statue. I am an old man, and I am not going to hold back now. The lha khang will be the first traditional Tibetan Buddhist temple in South America.
Your support has helped to generate lasting benefit in both the United States and Brazil, since some of my U.S. students have contributed generously to the lha khang construction fund. I am grateful that you share my belief that the seeds of dharma can ripen wherever conditions are created by pure intention.
Your lamas in the United States serve as authentic sources of dharma, and I am confident that you can rely on them. Still, at times I miss you very much, and I look forward to seeing many of you this summer at the drubchens, the retreats, and the Tagsham empowerments that Terton Namkha Drimed will offer. Until then, though it may seem that we are far apart, this is not really true. My own practice increases these days and, with it, my love and compassion for all beings, including my old students. Abiding in the wisdom nature of appearances, beyond near and far, coming and going, makes the sense of separation fall away. May you experience this, too, this linking of intention through your meditation, your love, your kindness, your faith.
In the dharma,
Dear Sangha,
Tashi deleg! Best wishes to each of you for the Tibetan New Year (Losar) that began on February 8. Sometimes it seems strange to celebrate two new years so close together. At Chagdud Gonpa centers, the interval between January 1 and Tibetan New Year has always been intense and eventful, a time when hidden currents surface and are then purified and transformed by the powerful Vajrakilaya ceremonies.
I have been leading the extensive Vajrakilaya practice from the Dudjom lineage since 1980, when His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, then visiting California, told me that this sadhana would be of particular benefit in the West. When I conduct such ceremonies, my purpose is not to direct wrath at outer enemies with form or at inner demons without form. Rather, the intention of all the prayers, offerings, mudras, mantra recitation, lama dancing, and so forth is to create a pure field of activity in which you can subdue your own dualistic perception, cut through your grasping at outer objects, and free yourself from clinging to inner phenomena.
Until you accomplish this, you will be entangled in attachment and aversion, hope and fear, concepts of pure and impure. You will be happy momentarily, but unhappiness will inevitably follow. Lasting peace will elude you. These dualities are the real enemies and demons that hinder your spiritual realization. They will prevent you from serving sentient beings skillfully and impartially. They are obstacles to your enlightenment. They must be vanquished.
Ceremonies—Vajrakilaya at Losar, the drubchens, tsogs, daily practices—establish various mandalas that you enter by dropping ordinary concerns and bringing your mind into accord with the deities and lineage lamas. Through the merging of your motivation with their blessings, negativity falls away and you can experience the fundamental purity of your buddha nature.
This year and last, I took pleasure in the simultaneity of the Vajrakilaya ceremonies taking place at Rigdzin Ling and at Khadro Ling. Having made the choice to come to Brazil, of course I am happy to see that students here have the energy and receptivity needed to practice Tibetan Buddhism. Eighty people participated, and we concluded with lama dancing, which was taught to this new generation of Brazilian dancers by Maile Wall and Jeff Miller. For four consecutive days during the ceremonies, vivid dou-ble rainbows appeared.
In a few months I will begin the tem-ple (lha khang) and also a large Guru Rinpoche statue. I am an old man, and I am not going to hold back now. The lha khang will be the first traditional Tibetan Buddhist temple in South America.
Your support has helped to generate lasting benefit in both the United States and Brazil, since some of my U.S. students have contributed generously to the lha khang construction fund. I am grateful that you share my belief that the seeds of dharma can ripen wherever conditions are created by pure intention.
Your lamas in the United States serve as authentic sources of dharma, and I am confident that you can rely on them. Still, at times I miss you very much, and I look forward to seeing many of you this summer at the drubchens, the retreats, and the Tagsham empowerments that Terton Namkha Drimed will offer. Until then, though it may seem that we are far apart, this is not really true. My own practice increases these days and, with it, my love and compassion for all beings, including my old students. Abiding in the wisdom nature of appearances, beyond near and far, coming and going, makes the sense of separation fall away. May you experience this, too, this linking of intention through your meditation, your love, your kindness, your faith.
In the dharma,
