“Obstacles are a sign of success.” –16th Karmapa During the meaningful and auspicious one month stay (14th February to 15th March, extended twice on request) at the beautiful setting of Sherab Ling Monastery, Himachal Pradesh, India, I was able to complete several new pieces of original writing, research and translations, and make some new suggestions… Continue reading 8TH TAI SITUPA NEW RESEARCH AND TRANSLATIONS, AND ONE MONTH SHERAB LING MONASTERY STAY 14th February to 15th March 2026 (Summary report)
Tag: 8th Tai Situpa
“MOONSTONE MALA” 8TH TAI SITUPA’S “MEANINGFUL YET DIFFICULT TO SWALLOW” KAGYU HISTORIES: Seeking and reading 8th Tai Situpa, Chokyi Jungne’s Diaries/Autobiographies and Collected Works (Part I)
སྒྲུབ་པ་པོ་རྣམས་གྲུབ་པའི་རྗེས་སུ་སྙེག མཁས་འདོད་རྣམས་ནི་མཁས་ལ་གཅིག་ཏུ་འདུན། ། བླུན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གྲགས་པ་ལ་འཆེལ་བས།། གཏམ་གྱི་སྦྱོར་བས་ཐམས་ཅད་འདྲིད་བྱེད་ཀྱང། ། Practitioners, who chase after accomplishments, Those with scholarly ambitions, who are solely focused on learning, Even fools who are obsessed with being famous. Are all lured/pulled in[i] by artful stories. རིན་ཆེན་རིན་ཐང་མེད་པའི་ཁ་བྱང་བཞིན། ། བདེན་གཏམ་དག་ཀྱང་གློ་བར་ཆུད་དཀའ་བས། ། ཐོས་པས་དོན་ལྡན་ངེས་པར་མི་བསླུ་བའི། ། དམ་པའི་རྣམ་ཐར་ཤས་ཙམ་གླེང་བར་བྱ། "Like a priceless treasure without a map/address, True stories are also difficult… Continue reading “MOONSTONE MALA” 8TH TAI SITUPA’S “MEANINGFUL YET DIFFICULT TO SWALLOW” KAGYU HISTORIES: Seeking and reading 8th Tai Situpa, Chokyi Jungne’s Diaries/Autobiographies and Collected Works (Part I)
“PROTECTION FROM FEAR OF ENEMY ARMIES” WHITE TĀRĀ AND 8TH KENTING TAI SITUPA: Historical lineage from Indian panditas Vāgīśvarakīrti and Dharmakīrtiśrī, Karma Kagyu as holders of all main transmission from Je Gampopa, Palpung/8th Tai Situpa’s iconic (and subtly “political”) artworks, and newly transcribed e-book of White Tārā sadhana commentary by 9th Gyalton Rinpoche
"The white lady who deceives death.” འཆི་བ་སླུ་བྱེད་དཀར་མོའོ། ། --from the Origin of Tārā Tantra “Puṇya is merit. Jñāna is primordial awareness. Puṣṭiṃ kuru svāhā means may those increase.” “One million recitations of the root mantra is said to be accomplishment of the mantra. With ten million it is said that all activities are accomplished. In… Continue reading “PROTECTION FROM FEAR OF ENEMY ARMIES” WHITE TĀRĀ AND 8TH KENTING TAI SITUPA: Historical lineage from Indian panditas Vāgīśvarakīrti and Dharmakīrtiśrī, Karma Kagyu as holders of all main transmission from Je Gampopa, Palpung/8th Tai Situpa’s iconic (and subtly “political”) artworks, and newly transcribed e-book of White Tārā sadhana commentary by 9th Gyalton Rinpoche
VISITING PHUNTSOG DARGYE LING (PUJI SI 普濟寺) AND RE-VISITING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF THE 8TH KENTING TAI SITUPA: A historical and pilgrim’s account of the 18th Century Phuntsog Dargye Ling (Puji Si) monastery, the ongoing persecution of Karma Kagyu monasteries in Lijiang by violent Mongol-Gelug forces, personal pilgrimage observations (China/Tibet pilgrimage part 9)
"The principle of self-defence, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi." - Martin Luther King, Jr. "Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defence against a homicidal maniac." --George Orwell "One need not destroy one's enemy. One… Continue reading VISITING PHUNTSOG DARGYE LING (PUJI SI 普濟寺) AND RE-VISITING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF THE 8TH KENTING TAI SITUPA: A historical and pilgrim’s account of the 18th Century Phuntsog Dargye Ling (Puji Si) monastery, the ongoing persecution of Karma Kagyu monasteries in Lijiang by violent Mongol-Gelug forces, personal pilgrimage observations (China/Tibet pilgrimage part 9)
VISITING NO-HIGHER LAND (OG-MIN LING/FUGUO SI 福國寺) MONASTERY : 17th Century founded, ‘mother’ Karma Kagyu monastery in Lijiang, Og-Min Ling, its historical background and contemporary state (China/Tibet pilgrimage, part 8)
"Before its being built, it was reported in Chinese sources, that prior to its founding, the 6th Zhamarpa, Chokyi Wangchug, had been given the land by the Mu Naxi King after he pointed to it and said that would be a good place to build a monastery. Six Naxi disciples whom the 6th Zhamarpa had… Continue reading VISITING NO-HIGHER LAND (OG-MIN LING/FUGUO SI 福國寺) MONASTERY : 17th Century founded, ‘mother’ Karma Kagyu monastery in Lijiang, Og-Min Ling, its historical background and contemporary state (China/Tibet pilgrimage, part 8)
THE NATURALLY-ARISEN VAJRAVARAHI AND CAVE AT ‘JOYFUL LAND OF SECRET-MANTRA’ (WENFENG SI 文峰寺): Visiting another of the five main Karma Kagyu temples, Sang-ngag Gatsal Ling (Wenfeng Si), the three-year retreat centre, Vajravarahi cave, naturally-arisen Varahi and stunning Kagyu statues and artworks
"The Tenth Karmapa took shelter in Jang for approximately twenty-five years (c. 1646/7-1672) in the wake of Gushri Khan’s entry into at the behest of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s (1617–1682) regent in 1642. This Mongol onslaught resulted in the destruction of the entire Karmapa encampment; the Karmapa barely escaped and fled to Jang with only… Continue reading THE NATURALLY-ARISEN VAJRAVARAHI AND CAVE AT ‘JOYFUL LAND OF SECRET-MANTRA’ (WENFENG SI 文峰寺): Visiting another of the five main Karma Kagyu temples, Sang-ngag Gatsal Ling (Wenfeng Si), the three-year retreat centre, Vajravarahi cave, naturally-arisen Varahi and stunning Kagyu statues and artworks
THE NAXI MU KINGS OF JANG, TIBETAN BUDDHISM AND THE KARMAPAS: Lijiang, the Naxi Mu Kings and the Karmapas, Mu’s Mansion, a 500 year old tree, the original Lijiang Kangyur and Black Dragon Lake park (Shangri-La pilgrimage, Part 2)
"While the kings of Jang had close contact with the Kagyu order since at least the early fifteenth century, the development of significant relations are traditionally marked by both Tibetan and Chinese sources with the visit of the first hierarch who personally interacted with Lijiang, the Eighth Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje who visited in 1516, when… Continue reading THE NAXI MU KINGS OF JANG, TIBETAN BUDDHISM AND THE KARMAPAS: Lijiang, the Naxi Mu Kings and the Karmapas, Mu’s Mansion, a 500 year old tree, the original Lijiang Kangyur and Black Dragon Lake park (Shangri-La pilgrimage, Part 2)
ON THE ROAD TO SHANGRI-LA: Following in the footsteps of the 10th Karmapa and Karma Kagyu in Lijiang, Shangri-la, Dechen Tibetan region and seeing the great Khawa Karpo Tibetan mountain (Part 1: Highlights and research review))
Introduction: the 10th Karmapa and Karma Kagyu in Lijiang (Jang), Yunnan This is the first in a new set of original research articles about my recent two-week pilgrimage to Yunnan, South China to visit Lijiang, Shangri-la (Gyalthang) and Dechen Tibetan Autonomous region, and the famed Tibetan mountain there, Kawa Karpo. For a while now, I… Continue reading ON THE ROAD TO SHANGRI-LA: Following in the footsteps of the 10th Karmapa and Karma Kagyu in Lijiang, Shangri-la, Dechen Tibetan region and seeing the great Khawa Karpo Tibetan mountain (Part 1: Highlights and research review))
THE KARMAPAS, TAI SITUPAS AND THE SIX MAIN HEART-SONS: Closing Speech of the 38th Kagyu Monlam by 17th Karmapa (Summary and transcript)
"In brief, the various incarnations of the Situ Rinpoche are one of the earliest lines of tulkus in Tibetan history. Among the Karmapas' heart sons, after the Zhamarpa, the next one is Tai Situpa." "In general , when we talk about the Karmapa and their heart sons, they are very important it is not necessary… Continue reading THE KARMAPAS, TAI SITUPAS AND THE SIX MAIN HEART-SONS: Closing Speech of the 38th Kagyu Monlam by 17th Karmapa (Summary and transcript)