Returning to the Malaysia pilgrimage section (whose first article was on Kuala Lumpur here before going to Indonesia), this article is about my visit to Georgetown, Penang on the northern coast of Malaysia and to Kek Lok Si Temple ( 極樂寺) one of the largest Buddhist temples there. The highlights of the visit to the… Continue reading THE TEN THOUSAND BUDDHAS PAGODA AND HUGE GUANYIN STATUE OF PURE LAND TEMPLE (KEK LOK SI 極樂寺) TEMPLE: Visiting the renowned Buddhist temple in the UNESCO site of Georgetown, Penang (Malaysia pilgrimage II)
Month: May 2024
The Twenty-One Tārās: New online reading and study class (in Tibetan and English)
"Beloved Adele, you have been not just a wonderful teacher but a great friend who has brought inspiration, intelligence and love to my life. I am very grateful for the time spent together. Keep going!” –student feedback Am happy to announce a new Dharma and Tibetan language reading study class, probably starting in mid-June, or… Continue reading The Twenty-One Tārās: New online reading and study class (in Tibetan and English)
REMEMBERING THE KINDNESS OF A SUPREME ‘FATHER’: Announcement of passing away of 17th Gyalwang Karmapa’s elderly father on Saga Dawa, new calligraphy artwork and message, and re-sharing of Shakyamuni Buddha sadhana composed by 17th Karmapa
"Today, on the special and important commemoration of the Teacher's [Buddha] Parinirvana passing, in the morning at 8.48 am, the elderly father of Gyalwang 17th Karmapa, who had reached 87 years old, also passed into nirvana, passing into the peaceful expanse of sleep. In particular, even though the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa has had to be… Continue reading REMEMBERING THE KINDNESS OF A SUPREME ‘FATHER’: Announcement of passing away of 17th Gyalwang Karmapa’s elderly father on Saga Dawa, new calligraphy artwork and message, and re-sharing of Shakyamuni Buddha sadhana composed by 17th Karmapa
VISITING THE ANCIENT ‘INDRA JEWEL’ JAVANESE MENDUT TEMPLE. Vesak/Saga Dawa Day procession, the Śailēndra dynasty in Java, three original 9th Century Buddhist statues representing awakening, compassion and power, the stellar constellation straight line and stunning gardens and buildings of Mendut Buddhist monastery(Indonesia pilgrimage VII)
"Candi Mendut is a reflection of the sublime and stupendous “Indrajal” of the Javanese people when they attained unprecedented heights of power, when literary genius blossomed in their language of Javanese, when they enriched their lovely island with monumental structures that evoke wonder after twelve centuries, even in their ruined state." "Even now it is… Continue reading VISITING THE ANCIENT ‘INDRA JEWEL’ JAVANESE MENDUT TEMPLE. Vesak/Saga Dawa Day procession, the Śailēndra dynasty in Java, three original 9th Century Buddhist statues representing awakening, compassion and power, the stellar constellation straight line and stunning gardens and buildings of Mendut Buddhist monastery(Indonesia pilgrimage VII)
DISCOVERING THE PADMASAMBHAVA STUPA WHERE THE “TWO RIVERS MEET”: Visiting Chatral Rinpoche’s Guru Padmasambhava stupa ground, Borobudur, Java (Oddiyana) (Indonesian Pilgrimage VI)
“Eating meat in one’s diet is very different than eating flesh to liberate a being through super natural powers. I am just an ordinary monk who really doesn’t have these qualities. So, if I ate meat it would be the same if you or any other lay person ate meat. I would be committing sin… Continue reading DISCOVERING THE PADMASAMBHAVA STUPA WHERE THE “TWO RIVERS MEET”: Visiting Chatral Rinpoche’s Guru Padmasambhava stupa ground, Borobudur, Java (Oddiyana) (Indonesian Pilgrimage VI)
REVEALING AND VISITING GURU PADMASAMBHAVA’S OḌḌIYĀNĀ IN JAVA: The actual location of the renowned Oḍḍiyāna ‘land of dakinis’, Ogyenpa, Fa-Xian and other evidential sources, the Guru Padmasambhava birthplace at Lake Rawa Pening, and new Padmasambhava Oḍḍiyāna Lake statue project launched (Indonesia Pilgrimage V)
"Pakistan’s much touted claim of Swat being the birthplace of Padmasambhava is based on few western sources of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century who erroneously identified Padmasambhava’s birth in Swat. Few western scholars claimed Swat to be the mythical Oḍḍiyāna, without much deliberation. Such mistaken views need proper correction." " In the Yoga Tantra,… Continue reading REVEALING AND VISITING GURU PADMASAMBHAVA’S OḌḌIYĀNĀ IN JAVA: The actual location of the renowned Oḍḍiyāna ‘land of dakinis’, Ogyenpa, Fa-Xian and other evidential sources, the Guru Padmasambhava birthplace at Lake Rawa Pening, and new Padmasambhava Oḍḍiyāna Lake statue project launched (Indonesia Pilgrimage V)
THE “GUIDING STAR OF THE WORLD” TĀRĀ IN JAVA: Visiting the famed Tārā Temple at Kalasan worshipped by Indian adept, Ātiśa (Indonesia pilgrimage IV)
"On 17th March, 774 A.D., there was spring equinox. The noon shadow on spring equinox completely disappears at the equator. This was also a New Moon day. Thus, the coincidental disappearance of one’s own shadow, Moon and the Pole star might have spurred the astrological exploration by scholar-practitioners of Tantra in an established centre of… Continue reading THE “GUIDING STAR OF THE WORLD” TĀRĀ IN JAVA: Visiting the famed Tārā Temple at Kalasan worshipped by Indian adept, Ātiśa (Indonesia pilgrimage IV)
VISITING A “WONDER OF THE WORLD”: BOROBUDUR BLESSINGS. The Ancient Borobodur temple, Kagyu Monlam, the 16 Arhats empowerment by 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche and the ‘brilliant white’ temple for the Marme Monlam (Indonesian Pilgrimage III)
'Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, she became a butterfly.' --Ladies of the Borobudur After attending HE 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche's empowerment and activities in Batam Island and visiting some other Buddhist temples there, I traveled to the sacred land of Java, Indonesia, first to the city of Yogyakarta. This whole region is… Continue reading VISITING A “WONDER OF THE WORLD”: BOROBUDUR BLESSINGS. The Ancient Borobodur temple, Kagyu Monlam, the 16 Arhats empowerment by 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche and the ‘brilliant white’ temple for the Marme Monlam (Indonesian Pilgrimage III)
NEW ‘MELTING’ MOON LONG-LIFE ASPIRATION FOR ‘ACCOMPLISHING WORDS OF TRUTH’: New Translation of long-life aspiration for 12th Goshri Gyaltsab Rinpoche composed by 17th Karmapa (February 2024)
འཇའ་ཟེར་འོད་ལྔའི་དྲ་བ་འཁྲིགས་པའི་དབུས། །ཟླ་བ་ཞུན་མའི་གཟུགས་ཀྱིས་རོལ་པ་ཡི། །རྒྱལ་ཀུན་རྡོ་རྗེའི་བཙུན་མོར་མཉམ་སྦྱོར་བས། །ཚེ་དཔལ་ཉི་ཟླའི་སྙིང་པོར་གྲུབ་གྱུར་ཅིག ། At the centre of a vast net of five rainbow lights,Displaying the form of a refined 'melting' moon,In union with the all-victorious Vajra Queen,May the sun-moon heart of flourishing life be accomplished! --Excerpt from Long-Life Aspiration for the 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche composed by 17th Karmapa (February 2024) For the new… Continue reading NEW ‘MELTING’ MOON LONG-LIFE ASPIRATION FOR ‘ACCOMPLISHING WORDS OF TRUTH’: New Translation of long-life aspiration for 12th Goshri Gyaltsab Rinpoche composed by 17th Karmapa (February 2024)
A RESOUNDING HRI: ENTERING AND ABIDING IN THE VAJRA BLISS EXPANSE (DEWACHEN): Buddha Amitabha empowerment by 12th Goshri Gyaltsab Rinpoche at Batam Island (Indonesia pilgrimage II)
འཇིག་རྟེན་བྱ་བར་ཐུག་ཚེ་ཞེན་ལོག་པོ། བསྟན་པའི་དོན་ལ་རང་སྲོག་འབེན་འཛུགས་པོ། རྟག་ཏུ་བླ་མ་དྲན་པའི་མོས་གུས་པོ། རྒྱལ་བའི་རྒྱལ་ཚབ་ཁྱེད་ལ་བདག་སྟོད་དོ། Repulsed and disgusted when meeting worldly activities Whose life-force aim is penetrated by the teachings’ meaning Devoted one who continually remembers the lama Victorious Gyaltsab, I praise you! --excerpt from Praises to 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche by 17th Karmapa On 5th May 2024, the following day after HE 12th Goshri Gyaltsab Rinpoche's… Continue reading A RESOUNDING HRI: ENTERING AND ABIDING IN THE VAJRA BLISS EXPANSE (DEWACHEN): Buddha Amitabha empowerment by 12th Goshri Gyaltsab Rinpoche at Batam Island (Indonesia pilgrimage II)