These short verses were published in Tibetan by the Layjang Facebook page yesterday. They are some inspiring words written by the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje for the Kagyu lineage masters. It does not say the source text name or location. It was also accompanied with this image of the footprints of the 3rd Karmapa, Rangung… Continue reading “Heartfelt inspiration for the Kagyu Masters” – Translated verses by 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje
Month: July 2025
REMEMBERING BUDDHA’S FIRST “TURNING OF THE WHEEL OF DHARMA” (CHOKHOR DUCHEN): the site of the first teaching in Sarnath, India and the four noble truths
Monday was the commemoration of the Buddha's First Teaching (Cho-Khor Duchen) in Sarnath, which is considered to be the four noble truths. This day is sacred in all Buddhist traditions and is celebrated on the fourth day of the lunar month in Tibetan Buddhist and Himalaya traditions. I have visited the sacred pilgrimage site of… Continue reading REMEMBERING BUDDHA’S FIRST “TURNING OF THE WHEEL OF DHARMA” (CHOKHOR DUCHEN): the site of the first teaching in Sarnath, India and the four noble truths
THE SIXTEEN ARHAT STATUES OF THE KARMAPA “LOOTED AND EXHIBITED” BY GELUGPA: Origin, history and style of sacred “Yongxuan” Arhat statues gifted to the 5th Karmapa by the Chinese Yongle Emperor, looted by the Mongolian-Gelugpa invaders, and stored for centuries in Drepung Monastery, and the inaccurate sourcing and lack of objective “analysis” of the origin of such artworks by contemporary “western” scholars and art historians
“The [Karmapa’s] repository burned down around the year 1644, during the late Ming period when it was set ablaze by Mongol forces. At that time, Gusri Khan, the Khoshut prince and founder of the Khoshut Khanate, led a large army into the Tibetan region, defeating the Tibetan rulers who supported the Karma Kagyu tradition. This… Continue reading THE SIXTEEN ARHAT STATUES OF THE KARMAPA “LOOTED AND EXHIBITED” BY GELUGPA: Origin, history and style of sacred “Yongxuan” Arhat statues gifted to the 5th Karmapa by the Chinese Yongle Emperor, looted by the Mongolian-Gelugpa invaders, and stored for centuries in Drepung Monastery, and the inaccurate sourcing and lack of objective “analysis” of the origin of such artworks by contemporary “western” scholars and art historians
QUESTION OF THE ORIGIN AND USE LONG-LIFE RITUALS IN BUDDHISM?: New translation of Introduction to “Castle of Indestructible Life-Force: Method for Offering Ten-Zhug (Long-Life Stability) in a Sacred Place” by 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
Āyurjñānasiddhirastu. Guru Amitayus [Tse-phagme] I bow my head at your feet in reverence. For the sacred protectors of the teachings and beings. I write the ritual for stabilising life. ཨཱཡུརྫྙཱ་ན་སིདྡྷི་རསྟུ། བླ་མ་ཚེ་དཔག་མེད་པ་ཡི། ། ཞབས་ལ་སྤྱི་བོས་ཉེར་བཏུད་དེ། ། བསྟན་འགྲོའི་དཔལ་མགོན་དམ་པ་རྣམས། ། སྐུ་ཚེ་བརྟན་པའི་ཆོ་ག་འབྲི། ། Translator’s Introduction For Dakini Day today, here is the second translation of an Introduction from the second… Continue reading QUESTION OF THE ORIGIN AND USE LONG-LIFE RITUALS IN BUDDHISM?: New translation of Introduction to “Castle of Indestructible Life-Force: Method for Offering Ten-Zhug (Long-Life Stability) in a Sacred Place” by 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
THE QUESTION OF MERIT (PUNYA) AND PRAYING TO OTHERS IN BUDDHISM: What is “merit” and why is it important to accumulate as a Buddhist practitioner and “Do Buddhists pray to external beings?
"Just as a drop of water that falls into the great ocean Will never disappear until the ocean itself runs dry, Merit totally dedicated to enlightenment Will never disappear until enlightenment is reached." ཇི་ལྟར་ཆུ་ཐིགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཆེ་ནང་ལྷུང༌། །རྒྱ་མཚོ་མ་ཟད་བར་དུ་དེ་མི་འཛད། ། དེ་བཞིན་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཡོངས་བསྔོས་དགེ་བ་ཡང༌། །བྱང་ཆུབ་མ་ཐོབ་བར་དུ་དེ་མི་འཛད། ། Consciousness (namshé) is impermanent. Wisdom (yeshé) is permanent. རྣམ་ཤེས་ནི་མི་རྟག་པའོ། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་ནི་རྟག་པའོ། ། --Buddha Shakyamuni, Questions of… Continue reading THE QUESTION OF MERIT (PUNYA) AND PRAYING TO OTHERS IN BUDDHISM: What is “merit” and why is it important to accumulate as a Buddhist practitioner and “Do Buddhists pray to external beings?
BLISSFUL “INNOCENT” LOVING SOUNDS OF THE MANI MANTRA CIRCLING HEART CHAKRA: A report of the 3rd Bokar Rinpoche’s teaching and empowerment in Taipei, Taiwan at the Kagyu Monlam and NEW musical composition and song of the Mani Mantra (June 2025)
On the second day of the Taiwan Kagyu Monlam (the weekend prior to the 12th Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche birthday events), the young 3rd Bokar Rinpoche tulku, gave a short teaching and stunning empowerment on the deity of compassion Chenrezig, at another venue in Taipei that was organised for the Monlam there. As I wrote in… Continue reading BLISSFUL “INNOCENT” LOVING SOUNDS OF THE MANI MANTRA CIRCLING HEART CHAKRA: A report of the 3rd Bokar Rinpoche’s teaching and empowerment in Taipei, Taiwan at the Kagyu Monlam and NEW musical composition and song of the Mani Mantra (June 2025)
NEW TRANSLATION: “GARLAND OF UTPALA FLOWERS”. Daily Practice of Five-Deity Tārā (སྒྲོལ་མ་ལྷ་ལྔའི་རྒྱུན་ཁྱེར་ཨུཏྤལ་ཕྲེང་བ་)composed by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (Three Roots Unified II)
"In the Sengdeng palace, the supreme place of awe, from the ocean of unborn compassion, emerald in color, is a precious and beautiful woman, adorned with ornaments. Victorious mother Tārā, to you I bow and praise." སེང་ལྡེང་ཕོ་བྲང་འཇིགས་པའི་གནས་མཆོག་ཏུ། ། སྐྱེ་མེད་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་མཚོ་ལས་མརྒད་མདོག ། བུད་མེད་རིན་ཆེན་ཡིད་འོང་རྒྱན་ལྡན་མ། ། རྒྱལ་ཡུམ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། །" --Garland of Utpala Flowers by 17th Karmapa (July 2025) Introduction Today,… Continue reading NEW TRANSLATION: “GARLAND OF UTPALA FLOWERS”. Daily Practice of Five-Deity Tārā (སྒྲོལ་མ་ལྷ་ལྔའི་རྒྱུན་ཁྱེར་ཨུཏྤལ་ཕྲེང་བ་)composed by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (Three Roots Unified II)
NEW MUSIC/SONG: Breathing Out Love and Compassion (Om Mani Padme Hum), a mantra of healing and love for troubled times and minds (Adele Tomlin/Dakini Songs, July 2025)
Today, the full moon (July 10th) is also "Universal Prayer Day", and am happy to offer another musical offering, an aspiration prayer for love and compassion for the world and the beings within it. The Great Compassionate One, the fully awakened Buddha Avalokiteshvara's six-syllable Mantra Om Mani Padme Hum is medicine and soothing for troubled… Continue reading NEW MUSIC/SONG: Breathing Out Love and Compassion (Om Mani Padme Hum), a mantra of healing and love for troubled times and minds (Adele Tomlin/Dakini Songs, July 2025)
SAGA DAWA PILGRIMAGE BLESSINGS: Visiting Fo Guang Zhan on Saga Dawa, the world’s tallest seated Buddha Statue and Buddha’s tooth relic (Taiwan III)
On the Saga Dawa day this year (11 June 2025), after attending 7th Gyaton Rinpoche's teachings on Milarepa (see here), as there was nothing planned for its commemoration at that Palpung centre, I decided to use the opportunity to visit Fo Guang Shan (佛光山) and what is said to be the biggest bronze Buddha statue… Continue reading SAGA DAWA PILGRIMAGE BLESSINGS: Visiting Fo Guang Zhan on Saga Dawa, the world’s tallest seated Buddha Statue and Buddha’s tooth relic (Taiwan III)
KAGYU PROTECTOR RITUAL AND 71st BIRTHDAY COMMEMORATION WITH HE 12TH GYALTSAB RINPOCHE: Birthday commemoration protector puja, and 1st Karmapa’s five-deity Tārā empowerment with HE 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche (5-6 July, Taipei Taiwan 2025)
“The name of Gyaltsab (Regent) is not only a mere name. It is necessary that the name matches its meaning. So one does not need to introduce the meaning of the name with long, wordy explanations, but that it is clear by itself inherently. . . Nowadays, I deeply feel that it is so rare… Continue reading KAGYU PROTECTOR RITUAL AND 71st BIRTHDAY COMMEMORATION WITH HE 12TH GYALTSAB RINPOCHE: Birthday commemoration protector puja, and 1st Karmapa’s five-deity Tārā empowerment with HE 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche (5-6 July, Taipei Taiwan 2025)