"Whoever wants to engage people's interest must provoke them." --Salvador Dali "Creativity takes courage." --Henri Matisse "For me, art has one language and it is not relevant to divide the artistic legacy and production into Western or non-Western." --Subodh Gupta "If you are creating something new, a sign that you are doing something is when… Continue reading RED-FACED ‘BEHIND THE TWO MOUNTAINS’: VISCERAL PAINTINGS ON WOVEN ‘FOREIGN AID SACKS’ OF MONKEY-ASS FACES, SKULLS, ‘SACRED COWS’, BLOODY MEAT AND ‘PURITY’: Tibetan contemporary artist, Tenzin Gyurmey’s solo exhibition in Dharamsala, an exclusive interview and review
Month: Feb 2023
SLASHING THE TORMAS OPEN WITH THUNDEROUS CLOUDS AND WAVES OF BLISS AND GREEN AND PINK PARROTS AT THE TASHI JONG ‘KAGYE’ DRUBCHEN 2023: ‘Eight Great Transmissions’ (Kagye), Drukpa Kagyu, the Khamtrul Rinpoches, the Togden Yogis, relic stupas and magnificent pink and green Himalayan parrots
"I want to sing like birds sing, not worrying who listens or what they think."--Rumi"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come."--Chinese Proverb INTRODUCTION On 19th February 2023 (the Dharma Protector Day before Losar) , I attended the final day of the Kagye Drubchen held at Tashi Jong Monastery… Continue reading SLASHING THE TORMAS OPEN WITH THUNDEROUS CLOUDS AND WAVES OF BLISS AND GREEN AND PINK PARROTS AT THE TASHI JONG ‘KAGYE’ DRUBCHEN 2023: ‘Eight Great Transmissions’ (Kagye), Drukpa Kagyu, the Khamtrul Rinpoches, the Togden Yogis, relic stupas and magnificent pink and green Himalayan parrots
THE BRUSH THAT CREATES AUSPICIOUS FORTUNE: Tibetan Losar Greetings from Gyalwang 17th Karmapa
སྔོན་ཚེ་ཐུབ་པས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སྤྱད་པའི་ཚུལ༎ལྷ་དབང་པིར་གྱིས་བཀོད་པའི་གཟུགས་བརྙན་ཡང༎འཇིག་རྟེན་ཤིས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་དཔལ་གྱུར་པའི༎བཀྲ་ཤིས་དེས་ཀྱང་དེང་འདིར་བདེ་ལེགས་ཤོག༎ཀརྨ་པ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེས༎Previously, the Muni [Buddha]’s way of practising Bodhicitta, andThe reflection created by the powerful deity [Indra]’s brush, thataccomplishes the flourishing of worldly fortune.May that auspicious fortune also bring blissful excellence here and now! --Losar Verse by 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje Today, on Tibetan Losar the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa released a picture and short verse… Continue reading THE BRUSH THAT CREATES AUSPICIOUS FORTUNE: Tibetan Losar Greetings from Gyalwang 17th Karmapa
Wishing all a happy and auspicious Tibetan Losar Water-Rabbit New Year 2150 (2023)!
Wishing all a happy, abundant, auspicious, healthy, peaceful Water-Rabbit Tibetan New Year 2150/2023! Music: ལོ་གཡང་དཀར་པོ། ༽ ལེན་མཁན། ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ཉི་མ། Losar Karpo by Choying Nyima, Bod-kyi Losar by Tenzin Kunsel, What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? by Ella Fitzgerald, When You Wish Upon A Star by Tony Bennett. Adele Tomlin, 20th February 2023.
LOVE AMONG THE RUINS: RE-DISCOVERING GEKAR OF TSURPHU, THE WHITE CLIFF HERMITAGE OF KARMA KAGYU. Identifying the sacred ‘ruins’ Karma Kagyu practice site Gekar of Tsurphu, retreat place of 1st Karmapa’s student, Gyawa Gangpa
''Upon your shattered ruins whereThis vine will flourish still, as rare,As fresh, as fragrant as of old.Love will not crumble.'' --Eleanor Farjeon INTRODUCTION On 14th February 2023, Layjang Bulletin (the official FB page of HH 17th Karmapa/Karma Kagyu in Tibetan), the latest in a series of posts on Karma Kamtsang monasteries/practice sites, published this fascinating… Continue reading LOVE AMONG THE RUINS: RE-DISCOVERING GEKAR OF TSURPHU, THE WHITE CLIFF HERMITAGE OF KARMA KAGYU. Identifying the sacred ‘ruins’ Karma Kagyu practice site Gekar of Tsurphu, retreat place of 1st Karmapa’s student, Gyawa Gangpa
A LA LA LA LA LA HO! BLISSFUL TASTE OF THE YOGINI’S LOTUS: New translation of the Yogini’s Lotus Offering song and brief overview of the ‘Ocean of Kagyu Songs’ (Kagyu Gurtso)
"Abandoning bliss will not liberateBlissless struggle does not liberateThat bliss abides in the lotus [lit. centre of birth].Do not change the desirous objects, youLiberate them with great bliss.With the taste of the ecstatic lotusBe satiated like a bee." ---words from the Blissful Taste of the Yogini's Lotus "The Kagyu tradition is said to be the… Continue reading A LA LA LA LA LA HO! BLISSFUL TASTE OF THE YOGINI’S LOTUS: New translation of the Yogini’s Lotus Offering song and brief overview of the ‘Ocean of Kagyu Songs’ (Kagyu Gurtso)
THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF GENUINE LOVE IN BUDDHISM
“The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love.” — Henry Miller "People carry roses, And make promises by the hour, My love she laughs like the flowers, Valentines can't buy her." — Bob Dylan Today, when globally people celebrate love on Valentine's… Continue reading THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF GENUINE LOVE IN BUDDHISM
‘INCINERATING ANGER’: ŚRĪ MAHĀKĀLA AND THE GYALWANG KARMAPAS: A brief history, lineage, and short catalogue of texts by the Karmapas, activities of the 17th Karmapa and 17th Karmapa’s speech to Rumtek monastery community
"Just as the Buddha predicted, a son with very dark skin and terrifying appearance was born to Shiva and Umadevi. He possessed great power and was given the name Mahākāla, the Great Black One." “Karma Pakshi said that the Black Hat Lama (the Karmapa) and the Black-Cloaked Protector are inseparable. As a guru, he is… Continue reading ‘INCINERATING ANGER’: ŚRĪ MAHĀKĀLA AND THE GYALWANG KARMAPAS: A brief history, lineage, and short catalogue of texts by the Karmapas, activities of the 17th Karmapa and 17th Karmapa’s speech to Rumtek monastery community
‘BLOWING THE HORN FOR INVITING TRANSLATORS AND SCHOLARS’: BRINGING JOWO ATISHA TO TIBET. Tibetans studying in Kashmir and at Vikaramashila, the invention of the Ragdung horn, Atisha’s connection to Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo and reasons for composing Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment (Life and Liberation of Atisha by 17th Karmapa, Day 3)
"How did the Dharma King, Lha Lama Yeshe O invite Atisha to Tibet? First, there was a student and expert of the Dharma, called Rinchen Zangpo, the great translator who had previously gone to India to study and was very famous in Tibetan history. The King selected five, young and intelligent Tibetans and he appointed… Continue reading ‘BLOWING THE HORN FOR INVITING TRANSLATORS AND SCHOLARS’: BRINGING JOWO ATISHA TO TIBET. Tibetans studying in Kashmir and at Vikaramashila, the invention of the Ragdung horn, Atisha’s connection to Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo and reasons for composing Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment (Life and Liberation of Atisha by 17th Karmapa, Day 3)
17th Gyalwang Karmapa on the five-deity Tārā practice of 1st Karmapa, new ritual text and closing speech for the Special Kagyu Monlam 2023(February 2022)
"Gods and Asuras with their crownsbow down at your lotus feet.To the one who liberates the destituteMother Tārā I prostrate and praise! ལྷ་དང་ལྷ་མིན་ཅོད་པན་གྱིས།ཞབས་ཀྱི་པད་མོ་ལ་བཏུད་དེ།ཕོངས་པ་ཀུན་ལས་སྒྲོལ་མཛད་མ།སྒྲོལ་མ་ཡུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།" --excerpt from the new long ritual for the five-deity Tārā "The previous Bokar Rinpoche, wherever he went he always brought the statue of Tarā with him. When I met him, it seemed… Continue reading 17th Gyalwang Karmapa on the five-deity Tārā practice of 1st Karmapa, new ritual text and closing speech for the Special Kagyu Monlam 2023(February 2022)
Dakini Translations and Publications མཁའ་འགྲོ་མའི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བའི་འགྱུར་དང་འགྲེམས་སྤེལ། 