“The inclusion of nuns’ ordination in the Global Peace Prayer events is especially significant because I believe women inherently bring peace. They have never been the creators of war throughout history.” --Dr. Zangmo, Bhutan Nuns Foundation, 2025. "We would like to start the process of reviving the bhikshuni ordination next year—first within the Kagyu lineage.… Continue reading FULL ORDINATION OF NUNS IN BHUTAN 2025 (Part IV): Report on full ordination of nuns in Bhutan by 70th Je Khenpo, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa’s previous initiatives, meeting Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo in Bhutan, and why it is so important for the “health” and future of the Buddhist community
Tag: 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje
NOTHING LEFT BUT A MERE NAME: Documenting the ruins of two 14th Century Karma Kagyu monasteries, destroyed or taken over by Mongolian-Gelugpa sectarians
“Leaving nothing behind but a name” མིང་གི་ལྷག་མ་ཙམ་དུ་གྱུར་ –-Tibetan idiom used to describe success at totally destroying so-called “enemies” As I wrote about in A TIBETAN TRAVESTY: DESTRUCTION AND APPROPRIATION OF KARMA KAGYU/8TH KARMAPA'S MANY MONASTERIES, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje recently taught about the reasons why 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje newly established many… Continue reading NOTHING LEFT BUT A MERE NAME: Documenting the ruins of two 14th Century Karma Kagyu monasteries, destroyed or taken over by Mongolian-Gelugpa sectarians
KILLING ORDINARY BEINGS IN THE NAME OF AVALOKITESHVARA? Exposing the Fifth Dalai Lama’s obsession with studying and practising thu (མཐུ་) violent tantric “killing rituals” from the Nyingma lineage (such as Zhigpo Lingpa’s texts) for political and war purposes, and re-writing the false narrative of a “Mongolian invasion” of Tibet and the Dalai Lama institution as the compassionate unifier of “war-torn” Tibet
"Most Gedenpa (Gelugpas) shun alcohol and the like, making them excellent models of the teachings. Yet, most Gedenpa see no faults in those who seek to kill and maim. Such anger and hostility is a huge enemy, be careful!" --Mipham Rinpoche དགེ་ལྡན་པ་ཕལ་ཆེར་ཆང་ནག་སོགས་འཛེམ་པས་བསྟན་པའི་མིག་ལྟོས་ལེགས་ཀྱང༌། ཕལ་ཆེར་གསོད་གཅོད་ལྷུར་ལེན་པ་ལ་སྐྱོན་དུ་མི་ལྟ་བས། ཞེ་སྡང་འདི་དགྲ་ཆེ་བས་གཟབ་ དགེ་ལྡན་པ་ཕལ་ཆེར་ཆང་ནག་སོགས་འཛེམ་པས་བསྟན་པའི་མིག་ལྟོས་ལེགས་ཀྱང༌། ཕལ་ཆེར་གསོད་གཅོད་ལྷུར་ལེན་པ་ལ་སྐྱོན་དུ་མི་ལྟ་བས། ཞེ་སྡང་འདི་དགྲ་ཆེ་བས་གཟབ་འཚལ། "Leaving nothing behind but a name" མིང་གི་ལྷག་མ་ཙམ་དུ་གྱུར་ --Tibetan… Continue reading KILLING ORDINARY BEINGS IN THE NAME OF AVALOKITESHVARA? Exposing the Fifth Dalai Lama’s obsession with studying and practising thu (མཐུ་) violent tantric “killing rituals” from the Nyingma lineage (such as Zhigpo Lingpa’s texts) for political and war purposes, and re-writing the false narrative of a “Mongolian invasion” of Tibet and the Dalai Lama institution as the compassionate unifier of “war-torn” Tibet
“ECSTATIC MUSIC OF THE BLISS DAKINI”, REPELLING “UNTIMELY DEATH SUMMONS” RITUAL BY 17TH KARMAPA: The remarkable life-story of wisdom dakini, Drowa Zangmo (Teacher and consort, of Gyalwa Gotsangpa and Ogyenpa) and first female tulku in Tibet, from new translated Introduction of “Ecstatic Music of the Bliss Dakini”An easy to perform way of offering to repel “untimely summons” of dakinis ” by the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (English Translation)
“It is said that when the mantra yogis pass away, the heros and heroines lead them to the realm of the dakinis/space-movers. It is also very common in the biographies of the Sarma siddhas that this happens. The reason why it is possible to avert/repel such “untimely summons” is this ritual of Drowa Zangmo that… Continue reading “ECSTATIC MUSIC OF THE BLISS DAKINI”, REPELLING “UNTIMELY DEATH SUMMONS” RITUAL BY 17TH KARMAPA: The remarkable life-story of wisdom dakini, Drowa Zangmo (Teacher and consort, of Gyalwa Gotsangpa and Ogyenpa) and first female tulku in Tibet, from new translated Introduction of “Ecstatic Music of the Bliss Dakini”An easy to perform way of offering to repel “untimely summons” of dakinis ” by the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (English Translation)
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
RESPECTFULLY YOURS WITH DEVOTED BODY, SPEECH AND MIND: Treating the guru’s objects and wealth with respect, and how to behave purely and respectfully with one’s body, speech and mind conduct when in the guru’s presence and hearing, and the difference between having only faith and real devotion (17th Karmapa, Day 11)
“At the beginning, if you don't correct your broken discipline, later it's difficult to feel actual genuine faith and respect for the guru.” -Je Jigten Sumgon, Drigung Kagyu founder “The tantras teach that you should protect and cherish the guru's wealth like your own wealth. For this reason, you may only give the guru's wealth… Continue reading RESPECTFULLY YOURS WITH DEVOTED BODY, SPEECH AND MIND: Treating the guru’s objects and wealth with respect, and how to behave purely and respectfully with one’s body, speech and mind conduct when in the guru’s presence and hearing, and the difference between having only faith and real devotion (17th Karmapa, Day 11)
OFFERING “EVERYTHING ONE OWNS” (AND THE “UNGIVEABLE”) TO A QUALIFIED VAJRAYANA GURU:Making offerings, the first of the eight ways to serve a guru, including offering one’s spouse, children, possessions and life, the importance of being a qualified, receptive student, and rejecting an unqualified guru (17th Karmapa, Fifty Verses on the Guru, Day 6, 2025)
“Son of noble family, in order to achieve the omniscient wisdom, a bodhisattva absolutely must receive realization from an authentic spiritual friend. In seeking a spiritual friend, never become weary/depressed. Never be satisfied with how much you see/look at a spiritual friend. Hold respectfully the teachings of the spiritual friend. Never be hostile/angry toward the… Continue reading OFFERING “EVERYTHING ONE OWNS” (AND THE “UNGIVEABLE”) TO A QUALIFIED VAJRAYANA GURU:Making offerings, the first of the eight ways to serve a guru, including offering one’s spouse, children, possessions and life, the importance of being a qualified, receptive student, and rejecting an unqualified guru (17th Karmapa, Fifty Verses on the Guru, Day 6, 2025)
NEW TRANSLATION: “Four-fold Mandala Offering Practice to Noble Tārā of the Karma Kagyu Tradition” by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (Sections I and II): Origins, lineage and benefits
“Avalokiteśvara, looking upon the realms of sentient beings, saw that even though he had dedicated all his merit and primordial wisdom, and so forth, for the sake of all limitless sentient beings, and liberated them, those sentient beings had not entirely transcended samsara. From the tears that arose from the force of great compassion, many… Continue reading NEW TRANSLATION: “Four-fold Mandala Offering Practice to Noble Tārā of the Karma Kagyu Tradition” by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (Sections I and II): Origins, lineage and benefits
Seeking the 17th Karmapa (II): The unexplained “heart-breaking” absence and “anchoring” of the 17th Karmapa at two major Karma Kagyu events in India 2025 and surprise “private” event at a “luxury rented residence” in five star hotels/designer malls area of Bangkok, Thailand
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje again was unable (or chose not) to attend the two biggest events in the Karma Kagyu calendar at which hundreds of monks and nuns from India, Nepal and Bhutan attend, at the most sacred Buddhist pilgrimage site of Bodh Gaya,… Continue reading Seeking the 17th Karmapa (II): The unexplained “heart-breaking” absence and “anchoring” of the 17th Karmapa at two major Karma Kagyu events in India 2025 and surprise “private” event at a “luxury rented residence” in five star hotels/designer malls area of Bangkok, Thailand
VIBRANT “HEART” OF GLOBAL BUDDHISM, SCENES FROM BODH GAYA 2025: Relics of Buddha and his two main students, meeting Bokar Rinpoche yangsi, Chinese Buddhist tradition gathering under the Bodhi tree, hunger strike protest by local Buddhists, personal artwork offering of new portrait of 17th Karmapa,
In this brief report, I share some information and photos from my one month pilgrimage this year to Bodh Gaya, India 2025, of the following: Relics of the Buddha exhibition (1st -3rd February 2025) at the Maha Bodhi Vihara temple Meeting Bokar Rinpoche yangsi Chinese Buddhist Tradition gathering under the Bodhi tree Hunger Strike by… Continue reading VIBRANT “HEART” OF GLOBAL BUDDHISM, SCENES FROM BODH GAYA 2025: Relics of Buddha and his two main students, meeting Bokar Rinpoche yangsi, Chinese Buddhist tradition gathering under the Bodhi tree, hunger strike protest by local Buddhists, personal artwork offering of new portrait of 17th Karmapa,