It’s an instant choice

Apr 19, 2016 | Views: 12,713

(Originally published March 16, 2013 by Tsem Rinpoche)

Dear friends from around the world,

I was lying down with a migraine and a realization came to me about myself, my childhood, my view of events in my life that everyone comes across at one stage or another. I had to share my thoughts. I had to share the feelings and it’s effects with you. I don’t claim any great realizations, but a deeper understanding on the workings of perception and how it can or cannot affect us did arise.

Do watch the video I recorded and let me know if any understanding you might gain from it or effects.

Thank you and may you be blessed.

Tsem Rinpoche

My thoughts and some understandings on perception.

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178 Responses to It’s an instant choice

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  1. Andrea Lai on Nov 27, 2020 at 5:47 pm

    Every family’s background had its own tale. We’re been brought up by our parents so whatever our parents taught, we follow regardless right or wrong. As we grow older, we realised certain things that had been taught are not appropriate with our live. At this point, our mind start battling with accuracy and because overwhelm with our ego we denial our action, hence we become impatience, angry and hate. I typically like Rinpoche explaining on sufferings, on one’s thought transform into a practice which was very significant. Every experiences we went thru, open the seeds that make us learn, realised and change. Thank you, Rinpoche for sharing your understanding on perception. 🙏

  2. Joy Kam on Dec 14, 2018 at 4:29 am

    1984 Los Angeles-Left to right: Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen, His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, monk assistant to Zong Rinpoche and the 18-year-old Tsem Rinpoche prior to ordination. Read more- https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/category/me

    ZongRinpocheAdvice-001

  3. JOY KAM on Oct 31, 2018 at 10:15 am

    View
    A poem inspired by seeing a picture of my teacher, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche…

    In the sport of correct views,
    all that is correct is just a view,
    without permanence or substance.
    As long as we hold onto views,
    our sufferings are gathered 
    to be experienced without end.

    Without the strong methods of emptiness
    and compassion, bereft of merit,
    we sink deeper without respite.
    To arise from this samsara is but
    a dreamscape on the deluded mind.
    Therefore seek the guru, who confers the yidam,
    hold your vows and fixate on liberation 
    free of new creations. Free of new experiences as 
    there are none. 

    ~ Tsem Rinpoche

    Composed in Tsem Ladrang, Kuala Lumpur on July 7, 2014

  4. V hari on Sep 12, 2018 at 4:21 pm

    Buddha would have very well started with bliss but he deliberately started with dukha for a contrasting end in joy. Similarly your current innings started with serious problems of grounding to make your perfect grounding in the dharmakaaya in the end. So no need to brood over or worry about the past.

  5. Pastor Adeline Woon on Jul 29, 2018 at 1:08 am

    A poem by Tsem Rinpoche

  6. Valentina Suhendra on Jul 26, 2018 at 5:28 am

    I was walking past a second hand shop on Western Ave selling old things. They had a Japanese-style clay Buddha which was beige in colour on the floor, holding the door open. I thought the shopkeeper would collect a lot of negative karma without knowing if he kept such a holy item on the floor as a doorstop. So I went in to talk to him, but he didn’t look like he wanted to talk or that he even cared. So I asked him the price and he said US$5. I purchased it so he did not collect more negative karma. I was 17 years old and that was in 1982.

    I escorted my new Buddha home and washed it lightly and wiped it. I placed it on my altar and was happy with the Buddha. I would do my meditations, prayers, sadhanas, mantras and prostrations in front of this shrine daily. When I left for India in 1987, I could not bring this Buddha along and gave it to a friend. It was a nice size and I made offerings to this Buddha for many years in Los Angeles. In front of the Buddha I placed His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s photo. I remember I was so relieved that the price was affordable. But US$5 that time was still expensive for me but worth it I thought. But I was happy to have brought the Buddha home. Tsem Rinpoche

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com

    Altar1

    Altar2

  7. Pastor Shin Tan on Jul 17, 2018 at 4:31 pm

    Tsem Rinpoche at Kechara Forest Retreat, Bentong, Malaysia

    TR Pic

  8. Valentina Suhendra on Oct 20, 2017 at 1:00 am

    H.E. the 25th Tsem Rinpoche is very devoted to his root guru, H.H. Zong Rinpoche.

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  9. Wan Wai Meng on Sep 1, 2016 at 4:04 am

    Not many people can,get over their pains and come out not only unscathed but transcend the pain and help and benefit others. Rinpoche was able to to turn things around to benefit many beings. More often than not, we cannot stop how other people treat us, but how we react to it, thats all us.

    A worldly example would be many of the very successful people in business, a lot of times, when they started in life there are usually extraordinary difficult circumstances for them to overcome. Like they have to work 20% harder than the average person, face 20% more problems than other people growing up. Adversity does make us develop strength and more results.

  10. Pastor Han Nee on Aug 6, 2016 at 3:09 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for this very powerful teaching . As I revisit it, I am learning powerful lessons about how suffering can be transformed into one’s path of practice out of suffering to real peace and happiness.

    Yes,there was a lot of deception when Rinpoche was growing up with his adopted parents,the Bugayeffs, and there were a lot of lies and there was a lot of instability and violence and there was a lot of fundamental disruptions, where the foundation of Rinpoche’s existence was just pulled away from under him, a few times. So in his teenage years, and his twenties and early thirties it affected him very deeply.It made him not trust people, not believe people, and he became fanatical in checking things over and over, worried that whatever people told him might be a lie, and when people disappointed him or lied to him or broke their promises to him, it would affect him very deeply.

    Because he became very sensitive towards all of this, he himself, did his best to not disappoint people. To not have people chase him for anything. He tried his best not to break his promises.For him, this was a big challenge because, as a teacher of hundreds of students ,as well as having many dharma friends, he had hundreds of people he made promises to. However, as it turned out, and as he now found out in a ground-breaking discovery, it really was good training for him.

    As Rinpoche reflected back, he feels tremendously grateful that he was born into that situation, because it made me who he is now. To not lie to people. Not deceive. To not break promises. To work hard, and to have integrity. Because Rinpoche knows how it feels…and because of all the pain and suffering he had experienced, he does not want to inflict the same on other people. Indeed, his experiences as a child, made him grow up to not want to do it to others. There grew in him a strong determination not to let others suffer likewise, and to stop this cycle of pain and reinforced pain instantly.

    Change is difficult, because we haven’t experienced the full extent of the karmic repercussions that will come back from our actions. And the karmic repercussions will come back, owing to the ineluctable law of cause and effect.

    Tsem Rinpoche:”If I had the chance to be born again in the same situation I was born in life, so that I can be trained up and prepare my mind for all the things I need to do as an adult, which is to deal with hundreds of people, keep promises to hundreds of people, have integrity, don’t hurt people, don’t damage people, tell people the truth, benefit them as much as possible, be generous. If I was asked to take that rebirth again, where I would have to experience the same things to train me up, to grow up to be a good person. A good person meaning, a person that experiences that pain and doesn’t want to give that pain to others. I would actually say yes”!

    Does it matter whether people think of you as reliable and having integrity? Tsem Rinpoche says it does matter “Because whatever I do, I’m dependent on others, they’re dependent on me. We are interdependent. No man is an island or a stone or a rock on their own”. So Rinpoche doesn’t want people to be confused about who he is and his intentions.

    So Rinpoche makes the ground-breaking discovery that all those childhood experiences which he had thought of as horrible, were wonderful experiences! Why?” Because they made me who I am. They made me the stronger dharma practitioner. They made me realise what Samsara is about. They made me become a monk”. They made Rinpoche renounce all attachment to samsara and find his way to peace , along the path of compassion.

    Spiritual practice is about getting results. In lieu of the wonderful results, Rinpoche, in reflecting back, realised he had made the right instant choice of transforming to a positive attitude and of developing correct perceptions toward his childhood and teenage experiences.

  11. Pastor Adeline on May 4, 2016 at 8:37 am

    Parenthood is not an easy one for it will either uplift or destroy a child’s future. Many children, regardless of their background and family environment, are brought up with experiences that bring them suffering on many levels. Those who are lucky turned out to be a good leader, a spiritual master, a caring and loving individual who bring peace and harmony to the world. Those who are unlucky turned out to be bitter, depressed, destroyed and cause chaos in the world. Either way, those are the results of individual’s choice.

    His Eminence the 25th Tsem Rinpoche has been brought up with a lot of sufferings, his choice to run away from home later did not make things any easier for him either. He was not given the choice to pursue spirituality and was confused with the ever changing set of parents. All these are a lot to bear on for any individual. Anyone who has gone through what he had, which I wish no one has to, would be acceptable to be a disturbed and angry adult. Instead, Rinpoche has become a Spiritual Advisor of Malaysia’s largest Tibetan Buddhist organisation that bring countless benefits to the local and international people.

    Rinpoche has decided to use his experience for better purposes instead. Although in great pain, both physically and mentally, he chose to continue with life and to work towards his goal to benefit others. Rinpoche has never let his past experience stop him from advancing and from being successful. Rinpoche has shown us the positive results from negative causes, breaking our perception of how things should be according to his life story. Rinpoche has given us a clear and loud message that changes are instant, choices are in our hands. We choose to become who we are and things can be different from the point onwards in just a split second.

    Seldom do we come across a good example like that of Rinpoche’s, and if we are planning to be a parent or already are, we should first make the instant choice to be a loving and kind person so that we can be good examples for our child as parents are the basis for the formation of their child’s behaviour and personalities. There is a desperate need for peace and harmony-makers in our world and we rely pretty much on good parents for that to happen.

  12. Chris Chong on Apr 23, 2016 at 11:06 pm

    Dear Rinpoche,

    Thank you for sharing this video. I had met many people who had a rough childhood and some of them grew up to become bitter and angersome people. They blame this and that and never once they look at themselves to be the source of the problem. However, i do met some that became very nice people because they appreciate things around them more and do not blame it on others when things go wrong.

    Rinpoche is right, it is just a instant choice to have a bitter life or a life with happiness. It’s all in the mind and it all arises from the mind.

    Humbly,
    Chris

  13. Pastor Loh Seng Piow on Apr 22, 2016 at 11:54 am

    One may have experienced unpleasant things while growing up, but it is an instant choice whether to continue dwelling on it, get haunted by it day and night, blame others endlessly for the “bad experience” and use that as excuse to continue to be nasty, to fail, to depress, or make and instant choice to come out of it better and stronger. There is no need to waste time, the transition can be instant, if we really want to. Thank you Rinpoche for this wake-up call.

  14. Pastor Shin on Apr 22, 2016 at 7:52 am

    John Keats wrote,“Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?”

    No one wants to experience pain, but Rinpoche has gone through the pain, and if given a choice, is willing to go through them again to experience all the pain, disappointments, and deceptions due to the realisation that these experiences trained Rinpoche up to achieve what Rinpoche needed to do. Furthermore, Rinpoche didn’t react to the pain by inflicting pain on others, instead Rinpoche always does his best to ensure that others do not have to suffer the pain that he suffered.

    Rinpoche’s explanation of his breakthrough makes the concept of Bodhisattva more down to earth. Shantideva mentioned in Bodhicaryavatara that even when the wise are suffering, their minds are serene, implying that a person who is capable of responding to suffering in this way can voluntarily accept the pain and hardship involved in seeking a higher purpose.

    We too can choose to transform pain by learning to respond to it without blaming others, to let go of our anger, and to extend our compassion to those around us – including those who prompted our pain. This is one video to share with many, and for us to watch over and over again.

    • Riobhcah De Pêché on Apr 24, 2016 at 11:19 pm

      Wonderful comment. Thank you.

  15. Beatrix Ooi on Apr 22, 2016 at 6:58 am

    I have heard people saying that, since H.E Tsem Rinpoche is a recognised incarnation of a lama, why did he have to go through what he went through ever since young? When a great being decides to take rebirth in samsara to benefit others, it means that He or She is ready to suffer in order to bring the Buddhadharma to them. It can manifest in any forms.

    To me, yes childhood is very important, it can affect us as we grow up but the training is to not let it affect/ control our life.

    A true bodhisattva will do anything to help/ benefits others although if he has had a very bad childhood, what’s admirable is that His Eminence did not allow all the disappointments to drag Him down. We can’t always find excuses to fail.

  16. MartinC on Apr 22, 2016 at 3:36 am

    It is very common for people to blame their parents, unpleasant things that happened in the past and present circumstances for their failures and for things they cannot or refuse to do. We are also quick to make excuses for other people because in fact there is like a silent pact that we help each other reinforce our excuses/alibis not to have to do certain things. Excuses and blame no matter now valid they may be, in fact trap us in the very situation we are unhappy about.

    Rinpoche’s childhood and past experiences are harsh and yet we hear for ourselves that Rinpoche considers them to be blessings and when we do that, we break the spell bad experiences have on us. There are many vital points in this teaching but the immediate lesson is that we should not surrender authority over our lives in exchange for excuses and blame no matter how valid they are. Things that happened in the past should not be allowed to determine our life and our future. They should have little bearing on us unless we empower them to.

  17. Pastor David Lai on Apr 21, 2016 at 11:02 pm

    Over the years, I have heard many stories about Rinpoche’s childhood from various aspects. All of these stories never fail to touch my heart and I would usually shed a tear or two. I probably would not understand the full extent of what Rinpoche had to go through but I do get glimpses through what rinpoche recalls in his poignant and nostalgic memories. I think there are many lessons to be learnt and gleaned from Rinpoche’s childhood.

    I think that how we grow up as adults, although it is heavily influenced by our parents, does not condemn or ensure everything would turn out alright. It’s a matter of conscious choice. Rinpoche had a difficult childhood and that made him appreciate kindness and integrity above all else. However, there are many who had experienced similar painful backgrounds just become damaged, nasty and evil. This goes to show that it is not having experienced difficulty would make us become better people.

    It is actually the accumulation of merit, learning and applying the teachings so we gain realizations that when we do encounter difficulties, it does not bring us down and we take the negativities and turn it into a lesson and find ways to benefit others from the experience.

    • Lam Chew Seng on Apr 22, 2016 at 6:08 am

      Actually I think it goes to show it’s not the experience that is the problem but the person who makes it a problem. I say that because some people can go through hardships and become better and better. Then there are other people will come out worse and they blame their adult behaviour on their childhood. But maybe actually they are using their childhood as an excuse for them to behave badly or behave however they want? They are not putting the effort in to control themselves or control how much damage they cause to other people. Just some of my thoughts, thank you

  18. Joy on Apr 21, 2016 at 10:48 pm

    Dear Rinpoche,

    What the high Lamas like Gangchen Rinpoche said about Rinpoche is true that Rinpoche is born in such painful circumstances to be of great benefit to all sentient beings. ‘Difficulties can be positive. The difficulties can be a push for Rinpoche’s current work and to reach enlightenment.’ And it is because of Rinpoche’s difficulties which Rinpoche shared with me and many I am sure, is what moved me to join the Dharma. Because it made me think deeper, if Rinpoche can go through so much pain and suffering yet turn out way way better than so many people who had wonderful childhood, then I too have some ‘hope’ in redeeming myself. I too had a chance in being happy.

    This is extremely powerful because it gives us the ‘power’ to turn our perspective around and from there change our lives for the better. It is an instant choice the moment we decide on which road we choose to take. And I thank Rinpoche very very much, with much humility and appreciation for existing because if it wasn’t for Rinpoche, I would not know what is compassion.

    It made me realise whatever I went through was nothing compared to what Rinpoche went through and therefore I do not have an excuse to not make it. Therefore I should stop feeling sorry for myself. Therefore I should just appreciate what I got. It also made me realise that all the bad things that I experienced actually taught me many lessons in life that otherwise I would not have learnt and whatever doesn’t kill you, sure is going to make you stronger. This I must admit is especially true and I’ve learnt to appreciate.

    Rinpoche you have been like a real life ‘Hero’ in my life and I am sure to many others as well, and I hope I can return Rinpoche’s kindness with some real transformation and to work harder on myself in the areas where Rinpoche has kindly pointed out.

    Thank you Rinpoche and may I always have the merits to be close to my Guru and serve my Guru for the rest of my life and all future lives!

  19. kb thapa on Apr 21, 2016 at 10:05 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this teaching with everyone. I realized more about how our choices affect our everyday life. We have to listen to the people who have a negative opinion as well as those who have positive opinion. Just to make sure that we are blending all these opinions in our mind before a decision is made. the choice we make brings where? depends on ours decision..

  20. Valentina Suhendra on Apr 21, 2016 at 8:16 pm

    Dear Rinpoche

    Thank you for the wonderful blogpost – It’s an instant choice. It’s true our previous experience can either make you or break you. That is a very good advice. I have seen some people continuously reprising what happened to them in the past. Sometimes, I feel pity for them because it seems to me they have not gotten over the previous circumstance that happened to them and it is affecting their work.

    I hope through this recording will help those who have the fortune to listen to overcome their previous experiences and become successful individuals.

    Valentina

  21. Pastor Antoinette Kass on Apr 21, 2016 at 5:50 pm

    Dear Rinpoche,

    Thank You for sharing your experiences and thoughts about your childhood. It is painful to think about what happened to you and yet instead of being stuck with it and turning your lift around the pain and confusion you suffered, you turn it into a something beneficial for you. The pain and experience is still the same, the feeling about it is still painful till today I am sure but it changed and changes the life of many towards something better as Rinpoche’s efforts are directed towards others instead of pondering on the pain and how life could have been otherwise.

    To focus out and do something for others seems sometimes difficult to do. It is far away from what we are used to do. But everyone wants to be happy and the more we give, the more we share in a good way, the happier we become.

    It is up to us to realise that our selfish behaviour doesn’t benefit anyone and especially not ourselves. We need to change before it is too late because our
    laziness and negativity will come back to us – this is for sure.

    Humbly,
    Pastor Antoinette

  22. Pastor Niral Patel on Apr 21, 2016 at 5:39 pm

    This first part of this video in which His Eminence talks about his childhood and the uncertainties faced due to the differing set of values within the three sets of familial environments he experienced highlights the importance of family when growing up. A strong sense of family, which necessarily involves a strong and nurturing bond with parents, is something that is very important. This is actually something that is stressed as part of Kechara Sunday Dharma School for children. From his own personal experience, His Eminence considers it important that children have strong, loving relationships with their families, which can provide a real sense of strength and enable one to weather the battles of life later on in one’s life.

    Deception between people on the other hand is something that can be very destructive, so why not tell the truth, be honest and then move forward. More often than not people think that they need to cover what is really going on, not telling the truth about a particular situation for example. This comes from the habituated pattern of selfishness, or the ego. But if people just told the truth then effort would just be spent on moving forward, whereas when people deceive each other, most energy is spent covering this deceit. Usually within Buddhist teachings, a teacher sits high on a throne and preaches from the scriptures, telling us about suffering, but for me His Eminence is different. He has faced so much suffering in his life that he has come to realise how we can improve ourselves so that we do not suffer or cause suffering to others. This is what is unique and very special about His Eminence’s way of teaching the Buddhist teachings.

    Since being a good person is to do with the mind rather than anything physical, this change occurs in an instant and the key to keep this positivity is integrity. This makes a good adult.

  23. Vinnie Tan on Apr 21, 2016 at 5:18 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for this amazing video teaching. It is very true that with our upbringing, it affects how we are later in our lives. It is through all the different experiences that we go through that makes us who we are now.

    What I really love about this teaching is that we should not be dwelling in the negative emotions that we go through. Instead, we should turn the negative to something that we do not want to be in order to be a better person. Rinpoche mentioned about when we do not experience some things when we are younger and have those things being handed to us, spoils us as we go into adulthood. I agree with what is said as it is true that when we are adults, it is more difficult for us to learn things as we may find it more difficult to put our ego down to be willing to learn, and sometimes when we fail in that aspect, we do not know how to face ourselves as we have fully disappointed ourselves by doing something that is wrong.

    We all know the answers to certain questions that we have in life. However, we delude our minds saying that these answers do not matter and we hide from them, not facing up to them. With that, it actually eats us away part by part, making us a more miserable person and not be able to do certain things or have people avoid us because of that.

    Thank you Rinpoche for once again showing us that it is all a perception and a choice that we have to make ourselves to allow ourselves to grow and be a better person or be someone that is bitter and miserable.

  24. Pastor Elena Khong Jean Ai on Apr 19, 2016 at 9:40 pm

    When Rinpoche said it was a wonderful childhood for what he wanted to do, it made me stop the video to think. Why was Rinpoche’s childhood bad? Why do we consider any of our childhoods good or bad, and how do we come to such a conclusion?

    Our childhoods can be considered good or bad based on the outcome and result. If the outcome of our childhood is that we are monsters as adults and terrible people who hurt and damage others, then our childhoods are bad, no matter how much wealth, travel, good education we experienced. If we become beneficial adults who help others, then our childhoods are good.

    But under ordinary circumstances, we come to the conclusion that our childhoods are bad because it doesn’t fit into the childhood we are supposed to have. That’s the delusion we live under that our parents are supposed to be kind, our parents are supposed to be generous, our parents are supposed to be honest and nurturing.

    But our parents are humans and sentient beings in samsara who have their own karma and suffering to deal with. So when we project that our parents are supposed to be all this, and they don’t fulfil these expectations and we don’t get the type of parents we expect, then we don’t have the wonderful childhood we think we should have and we are disappointed.

    But if we examine the childhood objectively and view it as a series of experiences that can be used to contribute to what we want to achieve when we grow up, then our childhood will become wonderful and positive as a result of this change in how we perceive those experiences. Hence why Rinpoche saying it was a wonderful childhood for what he wanted to do being such a powerful statement.

    Independent of our expectations however, parents do have a karmic responsibility towards their children to ensure that they don’t grow up to live with the consequences of the damage inflicted by the parents.

    Children spend two-thirds of their formative years with their parents (and the other one-third in school) so parents have the greatest opportunity to make a positive impression on their children’s mindstream. Qualities like integrity should be taught during this time. This is important because their offspring will spend a greater portion of their lives without their parents than WITH their parents, so it’s the parents’ responsibility to ensure their offspring will be beneficial human beings during this period, rather than be another damaged addition to the world that needs to be supervised, trained and nurtured.

    When Rinpoche first blogged (https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/me/its-an-instant-choice.html) about this three years ago, the aspects of this video that stood out for me were quite different to what stands out for me now. If I were to revisit this video in another three years’ time, I dare say my understanding of it will be different again.

  25. Pastor Elena Khong Jean Ai on Apr 19, 2016 at 9:19 pm

    I first commented on this post on March 18, 2013. Three years and one month later, I would like to hope that my understanding of Rinpoche’s talk has deepened somewhat…

    The difficulties we go through can never compare to the difficulties that Rinpoche experienced as a child. Abandoned from birth, Rinpoche was shuttled from one adopted family to another, and the fundamental experiences most people have when they are growing up were missing in Rinpoche’s life. I remember Rinpoche saying that these situations were actually the result of merit, because they inadvertently ‘forced’ Rinpoche to not form any of the usual attachments we ordinary beings have as a result of being born into samsara.

    But what distinguishes Rinpoche from most other people who have been through traumatic experiences in their lives is this – “I myself do my best to not disappoint people”. Instead of using these painful experiences as a reason to keep hurting others, Rinpoche turned it into a point of empathy for others’ pain, to make sure it doesn’t happen to those around him.

    In making this instant choice, Rinpoche cut the cycle of suffering, hurt and pain which could have been projected back out into the world. And this is something all of us can do too, if we nurture our empathy and compassion. How do we feel when people break promises to us? That is how people will feel when we break our promises to them. How do we feel when people lie to us, cheat us or steal from us? That is how people will feel if we did the same things to them. If everyone realised this fundamental point, I think a lot of conflicts in the world would be resolved because we wouldn’t want to cause the same pain to others, that we ourselves have experienced.

    What Rinpoche said about how these childhood experiences “turned out to be really good training” also struck me because that was another choice Rinpoche made, which turned a situation from destructive to constructive. It is an instant choice we make that can turn a situation into something that’s the RESULT of merits or demerits. It also turns the situation into a cause to CREATE further merits or demerits.

    If we choose to use painful experiences as a reason to hurt others, the painful experiences become a cause for us to accumulate further negative karma. If we choose to use painful experiences as a reason to ensure people don’t get hurt, the painful experiences become a cause for us to accumulate merit.

    What Rinpoche said about change being instant and drawing a distinction with drugs reminds me of a recent talk Rinpoche gave on a similar topic about how we confuse the physiological processes of our body with the processes of our mind, and how that confusion is a result of our deluded mind.

    Our body is composed of four elements – earth, water, air, fire. These elements interacting become the physiological processes of our body. Hunger, decay, defecation for example, are physiological processes of these four elements. These physiological processes are not a function of our mind; they are a function of the four elements.

    To the deluded mind however, our body (and its physiological process) and our mind are one and the same. So people who are alcoholics have a perception that THEY (the false ‘I’) need the alcohol when in fact, it’s the physical body that needs the alcohol. So when people experience drug withdrawal, that’s actually a physiological reaction; our physical body (the four elements) is detoxing from the chemical reactions that it has grown accustomed to.

    However, we are trained to confuse physiological reactions with our mind processes. So drug withdrawal becomes confused with mental suffering when in fact, the actual withdrawal process itself is actually physiological.

    So deluded beings like ourselves will say that drug withdrawal, or any kind of change or transformation is difficult because we are trained to confuse our physicalities with our mental state. Attained beings and real tantric practitioners however don’t confuse the two. They don’t allow the physiological processes of their body to control their mind. If they need to give something up, they give it up immediately; they are in control of their minds and therefore transformation and change happens instantly for them (hence it’s an instant choice).

    Hence why taking vows is very important, because it ‘forces’ us to refrain from and avoid stimulus we constantly receive that reinforces this confusion of physiology and mind.

    I’m about half way through watching Rinpoche’s video but I had to record these thoughts that came to my mind. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the video with us.

  26. Marten on Aug 17, 2014 at 2:52 am

    Dear Rinpoche,
    Time goes by…not slowly at all….sometimes 🙂
    I red your words of your childhood. I feel it , too. But what a lucky guy, who find a guru like you did. And what a great thing for me to find you 🙂
    Samsara is not perfect, i know. But sometimes i think: the most wonderfull flower is growing on the biggest dirt. You said, there is a light that will ever glow. And i feel it,too.
    The picture with yoda will always be in my mind 🙂 It gives me power to see, that you have the same problems like other people. And it gives me more power to see, how you clear it. You are a big teacher. Your know how i mean. 🙂 You are one of the luckiest guys in the world. Beautifull mother, great Lama, great actor and one of the funniest and smartest human i know. We would have a lot of things to laugh about 🙂 So always remember that there is a little student and wannabe gelugpa that always is like a satelite around you. And isn,t able to speak english 🙂 love and light, marten

  27. Emma on Dec 6, 2013 at 7:34 am

    Thank you so much for this gracious reframing of why terrible things happen to children, and how to take ownership of ourselves in this life.
    Personally, I did make a choice to change, but I really needed therapy to help me actualise it. The behaviours I was trying to change were so deeply rooted in harsh childhood experiences, it took outside support and time to unearth them. This process took a lot of courage and money, but since I am a single mother who does NOT want to inflict on my child what I went through, it was essential, but it was certinly not instaantaneous.
    I am truly grateful to be able to see what happened to me as an ideal training ground for what not to do for my child, and I thank you for your openness and courage in sharing your perceptions.

  28. Susanne on Jul 14, 2013 at 3:00 am

    it was honest, deep and inspirative. i hope i can changing and i can be a hero, and a good friend. I would like to grow up totally and live my life independent, and give goodness to the people. Thank you.

  29. Crispina Sumague Palacio on Jun 23, 2013 at 9:09 am

    i learned this from facebook and this is my first time to read your blog. Your messages are very enlightening. I would share your thoughts to my family and friends especially those who are in need good advice. Thank you for sharing us your wisdom…i wish you more peace and wisdom. God bless!

  30. kathleen on Jun 19, 2013 at 11:28 am

    thank you for sharing your wisdom and thoughts…..

  31. Milena on Jun 18, 2013 at 6:28 am

    Just in my mind :)Some times I think that I’m crazy because the way I think.Pretty much like you do.I see now I’m not the only one and obviously not crazy LOL…Well my life wasn’t easy until now.I am 28 now…If your(and mine) thoughts are right the next 28 years will be much better.(O and I’m christian orthodox.I didn’t even choose my religion.My parents did.I still can’t understand this generally.But I kinda ”believe”,or find more logical the Buddhism.Do you think there is any connection with some source of previous life?) Anyway just passing by.Great video. 🙂

  32. Silvia on Jun 17, 2013 at 4:31 am

    Some of these ideas were in one of the teachings that influenced me most. I love the idea of being a reliable person, and I got the example from my father a lot. Whenever I am punctual or reliable I always think of him very thankfully, and how he showed me a good example. It is a lot about the preparation. If you invest time in preparation for your activities you become more reliable because you are not rushing through anything. I really wish to benefit others as much as I can. I also love the idea of being surprising in the sense of creative and coming up with rule breaking innovations. Wishing Tsemtulku all the best and to be relieved of his migraine!

  33. unknown on May 31, 2013 at 7:15 pm

    Dear Rinpoche,
    Thank you so much for this teaching.
    It came to me just when I needed it the most. I have suffered from a extreme childhood also and I am now going through the healing period. I recently reached out for help and gave my trust to the wrong person and ended up with the same result as I was trying to heal from. Some days are better then others but I know I am being closely held by my Lama.
    Some days the pain is so incredible I feel like I cant stay another day but hearing your open teaching has inspired me to see that there is bliss at the end of my pain if I stay strong and disciplined with my practice,I will learn a great deal.
    After all isn’t that what the Dharma is all about?
    You are an inspiration for me to stay on the Dharma path. Thank you.
    I am forever in your debt and I now don’t feel so alone.
    With great gratitude.
    Please live long and spread the truth of the Dharma.

  34. Rena Wong on Apr 9, 2013 at 4:03 pm

    Dear Rinpoche,

    A very good afternoon, Rinpoche.

    Thank you Rinpoche for this great explaination of your childhood experiences. Rinpoche was able to face and overcome the many situations and experiences given the  Dharma knowledge Rinpoche has.

    This teaching provide everyone an understanding of what we go through in life and how we deal with it that will give us the sense of achievement. Like Rinpoche says it is important for us to handle and react positively to the situation and move on.

    It clearly explains about why and how different people react differently to the same situation and getting different results.

    Sharing these teachings, given that Rinpoche is having migrane is by itself a breakthrough and because of Your care for everyone Rinpoche choose to benefit people by givng these precious teachings of experiences & the choices Rinpoche choose to make in life. Rinpoche chooses solution instead  of excuses. This has let Rinpoche to help many people with their daily and spiritual  life.

    We must equip ourselves with Dharma which is the key ingredient and essence in our life as it  benefits  us in all situations we encounter in  life. With the Dharma knowledge and applying it in our daily life situations will definitely help us go through our difficult moments positively as positive  action will result positive effects.

    Many parents of today who did not have good childhood including myself  provide  our children with the silver spoon in their mouth. Our  children  do not know what is hardship,  pain,  difficulties or suffering.  Therefore,  
    they will be unhappy, in some state of shock, lost and depressed when they face difficulties in their adulthood.

    As i cant go back to the  formative moments of my children, i now ask them to read  Rinpoche’s blog when they relate to me their difficult situations they encounter  in their life.

    I am very grateful to Rinpoche for all your valuable teaching which has helped me to have a way out to the many difficult situations i faced. It has help me to understand, overcome and apply positive actions although  sometimes i still have flaws. I hope to consistently learn and practice from my flaws and continuously learn from my mistakes and downfalls.

    I wish for Rinpoche well-being and stable health to continue to give your profound teachings and that Rinpoches blog reaches out worlde-wide and help many more people to benefit from these  valuable advices. I also wish for Rinpoches works to flourish such as Kechara Forest Retreat to benefit more and more people spiritually.

    With folded hands,
    Rena

  35. hecelus tan on Apr 6, 2013 at 5:31 pm

    even Rinpoche himself faced on all type of problems and obstacles during the path on Dharma but he was still continued to practice it without any excuses. he was really such a sincere practitioner that inspired all of us.If we change the way that we were use to think when we faced hardships or problems, then we will become happy in our everyday life.

  36. Ron Wong on Apr 3, 2013 at 10:39 am

    For as long as we r in samsara, suffering is inevitable. However, not everything is the way it seems to be. If we look at it from a different perspective, the negative experience could turn up to have much positive impact in our lives. To have this thought & realization, we need to subdue this monkey mind of ours with our practices, contemplation & meditation on the teaching. Since our mind stream will continue on in our future lives, the more we unlearn & relearn our habituation with the dharma, we will have less suffering & every rebirth will bring us closer to the path of enlightenment. So, what is your choice?

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this profound teaching.

  37. kontol88 on Mar 31, 2013 at 8:55 pm

    ssssss

  38. shelly tai on Mar 31, 2013 at 3:05 pm

    Shelly tai on 31 march at 250pm
    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this video with us i feel fortunate to be able to learn the Buddha teaching which make me understand the law of karma. In this video Rinpoche is the perfect example for us to understand that we can change the negative karma into positive karma is all depend on how we react into it,if we accept this negative karma and work on it the negative karma can be benefit to us. Once again thank you Rinpoche for sharing this teaching with us.

  39. Katheryn on Mar 30, 2013 at 11:30 am

    Hello Dear Tsem Rinpoche, I suppose the letter I wrote you a couple of hours ago may not have reached you. I did not follow proper directions to post correctly I believe. I thought of you the other eve. and wanted you to know that my promise to keep you in heart at times of Holidays and other special family times still stands. Even if you may not remember the promise that’s OK cause I do! I know you get much correspondence from many all over the globe, so here’s another sent in Love today. Also…after watching and hearing your teaching on Instant Choice (even though you were not well at the time) I was moved to tears. These are my heartfelt thoughts as well which I have imparted to others but never found anyone else that would say them to me! YOU are the first ever to understand so completely my own feelings and understandings on this subject and every other word throughout the vid was in perfect alignment w/ my heart also. Much Gratitude to you this day of Blessing. “I am grateful to see lightning shine, it lights the way” A few words from an old poem I wrote a long time ago. 😉 P.S. I recognise the face in the image of your previous incarnation! 🙂 With deepest Gratitude,
    Katheryn (Kat) Archer

  40. John W on Mar 27, 2013 at 1:03 pm

    Dear Rinpoche
    Thank you very much for your video (“It’s an instant choice”) which you recorded even though feeling unwell with a migraine (I hope you recovered quickly & I wish you a long, happy & healthy life). Your whole life is a wonderful inspiration & example to us all as you overcame a very difficult childhood & dedicated your whole life to sharing the sacred & holy Dharma with a vast audience (both in person & through your website, YouTube videos, blog, books, etc.). You used adversity to motivate your thoughts, words and deeds to help & not harm. You are a great teacher & role model for all (including me) who struggle with many difficulties (such as a difficult childhood, sickness, poverty, etc.) and strive to live a constructive life, filled with truth, wisdom, love & compassion. I try to watch at least one of your YouTube videos every day to deepen my knowledge & understanding of Tibetan Buddhist teachings to help myself & others. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your YouTube videos (as I am certain that they benefit many thousands of people throughout the world) and for dedicating your life to helping us all to understand, appreciate & apply the Buddha’s teachings.
    From John W (a grateful student)

  41. sze mei on Mar 26, 2013 at 11:05 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this teaching and for showing how, through a change in perception, we are all capable of making the best out of the bad circumstances we experience.

  42. Paul Yap on Mar 25, 2013 at 12:25 am

    Rinpoche’s growing up experience has been a great inspiration to us, Rinpoche has experience continuous problems during his childhood, however nothing has made him stop learning dharma and being kinder to others.

    When we say we can’t do it, we are creative obstacles for ourself to change, become kinder and greater person. The pain that we experience during growing up shouldn’t be an obstacles, in fact it should be a valuable experience for us to learn, grow and become better.

    We must always learn from our past, move on, become better and get results. After all, there are no time to waste anymore!

  43. Patrick on Mar 23, 2013 at 7:19 am

    I found something a few weeks ago Tsem Rinpoche might enjoy. It´s a question and answer video with Dzongsar Jamyang Kyhentse Rinpoche and especially this part when you start watching at 8:50 is very interestering. =) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pTBnzUNVBo

  44. Jutika Lam on Mar 22, 2013 at 2:33 pm

    Dear Rinpoche,

    First of all thank you for sharing with me Rinpoche’s thoughts as well as some understanding on perception.

    It is a very truly and inspiring story to remember always.

    Here are my thoughts on the video.

    1. It’s very compassionate for Rinpoche to be born in to such a difficult situation not to benefit Rinpoche but to benefit millions of people though the Dharma.

    2. I am very touched how Rinpoche has sacrificed so much just to be here in Malaysia to teach us The Dharma.

    3. I agree with Rinpoche that when he has to chase people, it is very destructive.

    Thank you Rinpoche for going through so much pain not for Rinpoche but for us to learn to the Dharma.

    I am sorry to hear that Rinpoche is not feeling to well.

    Get well soon Rinpoche!

    Love
    Jutika

  45. Lyn Phng on Mar 22, 2013 at 1:25 am

    To have gone through what Rinpoche had gone through as a child, it is indeed amazing that Rinpoche came through it a shining example of strength and inspiration. Because truly, it must have taken an enlightened being to turn a horrible experience into a positive result. It would have been extremely difficult for an ordinary human being to do that but possible for an exceptional and extraordinary being. I know Rinpoche mentioned in this teaching that he cannot accept how some people who had challenging childhoods became bitter and wished or did onto others what they had experienced. Or they became numbed and made negative choices. But ordinary unenlightened people do just that. It is like human nature to response negatively to challenges and difficult situations. Hence it will take an enlightened Lama like Rinpoche to teach and show people the way to a better life. To challenge them in their adulthood in order to bring Dharma into their lives to gain self respect, integrity and honour. If I learned anything from this teaching, it is that I am now more convinced that Rinpoche is truly a reincarnation of an enlightened and compassionate high Lama in his previous life with great merits to make an honourable choice to be reborn in such an less than ideal situation in order to benefit others.

  46. uncle eddie on Mar 20, 2013 at 4:53 pm

    Life can actually be said to be an experiences of choices. Unpleasant memories could make us better persons like what it has done to Rinpoche, who has accepted it as a “love of Fate.” Though extremely tough, yet Rinpoche said that he willed himself to come back to be born under this situation again to benefit us, which really only true Bodhisattvas will do that, as all Bodhisattvas live selflessly for the benefit of all beings irrespective of whatever the circumstances. Thank you Rinpoche for your inspiring precious teachings, which, certainly has enlighten our daily lives, to be of benefit to all others too. In all our lives, may we never be parted from perfect masters and enjoy the glory of Dharma, if it be, like Mumu who so dearly and lovingly being looked after and taken care of. Om mani padme hum.

  47. Eric Lee KHJB on Mar 19, 2013 at 9:09 pm

    谢谢仁波切的大慈悲,即使是身体不适,还是不忘为我们的修行道路,付起他的责任,凡事都以我们的利益为主。我真的是三生有幸能够在修行的道路上,遇到詹杜固仁波切,并且皈依在他的座下。希望上师能够身体健康,继续留在马来西亚传法,让更多的马来西亚人可以共沾法喜。
    我个人认为,生命是为了学习而来的,不管是好的经历与不好的经历,都是上天在给我们一些讯息,但往往因为人的痴,所以箭头都指向别人,从来都不愿意承认一切会发生在自己身上的事,都是自己招惹来的。所以各自的因果各自修,人总是要经历痛苦,才会想要改变。也因为有了一些痛苦经历,才可以了解别人的痛苦。当自己能从痛苦中走出来的时候,才能够有能力去帮助别人从痛苦中解脱出来,就像当年的释迦牟尼佛一样,首先必须要自己达到证悟的境界,才有能力去自度度人。

  48. andrew on Mar 19, 2013 at 4:51 pm

    dear young rinpoche what i can say as a parent of five sons is that it is so important no matter the economic situation of any family each of the children must know the foundation of excistence is real and the future of excistence of all of us is even more important

  49. andrew on Mar 19, 2013 at 4:28 pm

    lets deal with this in parts i agree rinpoche what of all the children who grow up and miss the opportunities others have and vice versa

  50. Bryan on Mar 19, 2013 at 1:03 am

    After watching this teaching, it makes me thing everything is actually in our hand. A lot of time we will complain that life is so unfair, and we keep questioning why do we have this kind of fate to be reborn in such and such unfortunate stage… But how we face the problem is depends on us.

    Sometimes we can choose to blame the situation and let the situation drag us down, this might be the easy way out because we allow ourselves not to do anything and go into the depress mood so people will help us. We can learn to be stronger thru difficulty or let the problem drag us down.

    Rinpoche gone thru a very unusually childhood, i believe a lot of people who went thru same childhood experience like Rinpoche will not grew up to be good person, because they choose to let the situation to drag them down and use that as an excuse to have an easy life. A lot of people who are fail in life because they don’t want to do anything to change their “destiny”.

    This is why dharma is important to all of us, the Buddha teaching (dharma) is not designed to suit Buddhist but everyone. With enough dharma knowledge and we choose to live with the teaching and transform, we will be able to deal with negative problems that we have in more positive way.

    Abandon self-cherishing mind is one of the main teaching from Buddha, it sound easy but seldom have people truly practice it. Among all the people that i know, Rinpoche really choose to follow the foot step of Buddha, that’s why Rinpoche can deal with problem. Most of the time, Rinpoche is very worried about us, the student because he can teach but we don’t learn or practice all the way. Rinpoche know by our doing will not bring us to any good, hence Rinpoche want us to contemplate more.

    thanks Rinpoche again for such good teaching, even though Rinpoche is very sad during this teaching.

  51. Leu Chong Hin -kH (JB) on Mar 18, 2013 at 1:32 pm

    Thanks for Tsem Rinpoche sharing and teaching. Every time reading and contemplating what I had learn through the teaching it help and made me to a better person. Thanks.

  52. Junior on Mar 18, 2013 at 10:38 am

    This is a wonderful teaching for me.Thank you for sharing this video.
    May Rinpoche healthy and long life.

  53. Shin on Mar 18, 2013 at 4:02 am

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing what was on your mind despite having a huge migraine. This one adds to the collection of teachings that if one takes even one sentence and contemplate on it, one can write a thesis.

    There are many thoughts that I had when listening to the teachings, but these two are what stuck in my mind:

    1. Perception
    An experience is just a passing experience, but because of our strong sense of self, we often impute it as a positive or negative one. For Rinpoche, he thought of all the negative experiences as experiences that made him learn and progress. However, if it was me, I would have hung on the bad experiences and developed a victim mindset for the rest of my life – to be used as excuses for failure or reasons to harm others because I was hurt, and the weird thing is society will accept and think it is the norm.

    The good news is, we all can change our perceptions by making an instant choice. This instant choice relates a lot to what management guru Steven Covey said, “If you want to make small, incremental improvements, work on your behavior. If you want to make quantum leaps in improvement, work on your Paradigm.”

    2. Habits and the “Me”
    The “Me” is my own perception of me, and others perception of me, based on my habits. Habits can change and hence we have the freedom and the responsibility to remake them.

    Many said that it is difficult to let go or change a negative habit, yet it is possible to develop the power of awareness that comes from a conclusion/decision after contemplation – a power that can eventually become stronger than the power of our negative habits.

    Rinpoche also shared a tip in relations to this. I asked Rinpoche what if we can’t make a decision to remake the habits or if the thoughts of completely changing the habits is “impossible”, for example, to stop being angry. Rinpoche kindly reminded us that it may seem a gigantic task for some people, hence (it’s so common sense, why didn’t I think of it, argh!) we can make ‘small decisions’ – for example, choose to not be angry for one day, and then two days, one week, one month… Bad habits are overcome by learning new routines and practicing them over and over again.

    This is one video that I will definitely revisit.

  54. JP on Mar 18, 2013 at 1:51 am

    Thank you Rinpoche for teaching us even though you’re not feeling well. What stuck out in my mind are the following:

    1. Spiritual practice is moving on and getting results.
    2. Whatever upbringing we had, we learn from it and move on. Don’t let the past break us, let it make us.
    3. Make our lives wonderful by having integrity, kindness, forgiveness, generosity, straight forwardness, and tolerance.
    4. Make the choice now.

    Rinpoche’s teachings on the above are empowering. It is really a conscious choice that we make that will change our lives for the better. We just need to make that choice. It’s as simple as that.

  55. freon on Mar 18, 2013 at 1:16 am

    Dear Rinpoche,

    Thank you for sharing this wonderful Dharma’s talk.

    Rinpoche is a very very genuine Dharma Teacher, even H.E was in great pain, but when H.E have a thought to benefit others, H.E just do it without delay, this action itself is a lesson to me.

    From the talk, i realized that we should not used childhood experience as our excuses to cover our laziness. If we do not have a good childhood, we should not bring the bad memory and the bad attitude of others (e.g : our parents) and showed to other people when we are in adulthood

    Look at Rinpoche’s childhood, it was so so so bad, so unbelievable to many kids. And yet, Rinpoche wishes to be born in this kind of childhood again! I asked myself would i want ? The answer was, I do not have courage to do it. But, our Rinpoche even pray for it! This is real Buddha!

    I doubted any kid whom have ever experienced this kind of childhood will sure be ending up to an adult who is going to harm himself or the society. In fact, Rinpoche is a true Boddhisattva , H.E even though have a very bad childhood, but, he uses this bad experience to teach many of us today. To show us an example the way , the methods , the correct view to be a kind person. To improve ourselves and not to HARM others.

    And, if we have a kids. It is true if we over pampered a kid, he or she will never grow up. He or she will become very dependence. But, asked yourself, will you be forever there to protect the kid? Is better to train the kid to be independence than later he or she has to learn in a very hash and pain way.

    Another deep message i get is, if I always say I can’t , I can’t and adopted this mantra into daily life. This mean I am lazy and selfish. And, wanted to be in comfort zone and do not care for what other’s doing. When this become habitual and the karma ripening, I cant blame anyone. It’s my choice , is the karma that i have made. Instead of seeking non-stop inspiration, why not I improve, push myself hard. “spiritual practice is moving on and GETTING RESULT” May my mind blessed with this quote and remember.

    Thank you Rinpoche for this precious Dharma Talk

    Love,
    Freon

  56. Jeffrey on Mar 18, 2013 at 1:00 am

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing about your perspective about bad childhood as a blessing and the force that made you who you are today. I agree that if we don’t learn as a child we will learn as an adult. Everyone have their childhood and not everyone are able to take bad childhood positively like what Rinpoche mentioned. However it takes good Karma and merits to be able change one’s perspective of a negative circumstances to a good one. Yes it is a choice. By changing our perpective it is a choice. Remaining in the same perspective is also a choice.

  57. Jean Ai on Mar 18, 2013 at 12:12 am

    What I like most about this teaching is how Rinpoche is so honest. Honest, for example, when Rinpoche said that if we were to ask him whether or not he wishes to be reborn in the situation again, his initial reaction would be no way, but on deeper thought yes, he would because he realises it was good for him.

    I know Rinpoche is always honest, but that would’ve been a great time for Rinpoche to say, “Oh no, I would totally be reborn into it again and again”…but instead Rinpoche chose to bring the talk down to our level by admitting to what we perceive as foibles. I like that Rinpoche basically said that for NOW, it is OKAY if we are scared to want to be reborn into difficult situations BUT eventually we will see those situations differently, so there is hope for us.

    I was also attracted by how personal Rinpoche became, that Rinpoche spoke about how traumatised he was at the time with having an ever-changing set of parents, and how much it betrayed his trust that people kept breaking promises about who really cared for him…it gave me a much deeper insight into the things that bother Rinpoche nowadays.

    At the beginning of the talk, Rinpoche said that we can choose our situation, or we can be born into it as a result of our karma but I realised that from previous talks Rinpoche has given (for example, in the karma and mindstream talk found here: http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/discovering-yourself-a-teaching-on-karma-mindstream.html), that even the second “option” of being born into it as a result of our karma is still arising from a choice which we previously made.

    So at the end of the day, everything comes back to the choices we make every single moment, and that situations remain the same outwardly, but change us inwardly depending on our perception of them.

  58. Wan on Mar 18, 2013 at 12:10 am

    In our life there are many choices come around and it depend on us how to choose it and make the path. Even in worldly, people who successful in lives are people who turn bad experience to be a lesson and learn from it and they achieve it.

    Rinpoche turned the bad experience from childhood which Rinpoche had gone through to the positive ways which others will use it as excuses to not achieve things and blame it.

  59. Low ksjb on Mar 17, 2013 at 10:31 pm

    Thank you very much for your sharing dear Rinpoche.
    Your Dharma sharing are with a strong base as you have actually experience it in real life situation.Weather it is destiny or karma for what you had experience in your childhood ,you have certainly accept it in a up most positive manner that others would avoid in any circumstance.
    Rinpoche ,you are a sincere and generous person,as in your suffering, you gain deep insight, that you offer this knowledge to us for Free.Yet most of us would take it for granted. At times we would pay motivators a good sum of money,to listen to things the had read up from somewhere.
    Rinpoche,you have certainly gain self realization at a early age,even when you have to go through so much difficulties during your childhood and early youth, you had never harbour any ill intention or revenge.But to treat others positively, what you would not like to have experienced.
    We respect your integrity very much and hope to gain and hold similar value in time to come,as trust and confidence from others would follow immediately from those around us.

    Thank you Rinpoche,as you enlighten us with your essence of Life.

  60. So Kin Hoe on Mar 17, 2013 at 10:08 pm

    Rinpoche has taken all the sufferings during His childhood and made them as lessons to share with us by turning every bad experience we had during our childhood as an opportunity to do better when we reach adulthood. This is truly an amazing and great teaching. We have to learn what is pain so that we will not generate the pain or pass the pain to others. Whatever we do not like should not pass on to other people, but benefits others. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing us teachings through this video and I pray for Rinpoche’s long life and good health.

  61. anonymous on Mar 17, 2013 at 9:52 pm

    Thank you very much Rinpoche for this wonderful video. I will cherish my childhood and not take it for granted.

  62. anonymous on Mar 17, 2013 at 9:51 pm

    Thank you very much for this video Rinpoche. I realize now how important my childhood is and will enjoy every moment of it.

  63. Adrian Chow on Mar 17, 2013 at 5:59 pm

    Dearest Rinpoche,

    Life is full of choices and who we are today is the choice we made yesterday. The not so perfect childhood doesn’t stopped Rinpoche to pursue Rinpoche’s dream. Not everyone will have the similar situation to grow up to be the ‘perfect’ person, ultimately is the choice we make. We can choose to use the excuse of my not so perfect childhood make me of who i am today, but is it really true? I don’t think so, what is perfect childhood anyway, does it mean if you are born in a well to do family and you are guaranteed to be a successful person? Yes, you might have some advantages but ultimately is your own initiatives to be a better person which make a difference. Nobody can help you if yourself don’t want to change to be better.

    I hope Rinpoche is all well and continue to turn the wheel of Dharma.

    Thank you.

    With folded hands,
    Adrian Chow

  64. KM on Mar 17, 2013 at 3:23 pm

    Thanks Rinpoche for sharing your troubled childhood. Makes me feel better that even a Tulku has (or choose) to suffer like this.

    You’ve also answered my question – why cant a Tulku spent a few merit points to be reborn in a better family.

    I also have this problem of less than ideal parents which I feel sorry about. On reflection it seems that all the turmoil I’ve “suffered” forced me to develop some important qualities which I totally lacked. To learn something which I’d never learned if I’ve had a peaceful childhood.

    For me the choices are:
    1. My life sucks please feel sorry for me (common response)
    2. Think positive – pain makes you grow (motivational talk)
    3. Look at the pain, there is a pattern and purpose to it (learned from this blog)

  65. Chris T on Mar 17, 2013 at 1:22 pm

    Yes, i agree what Rinpoche said in this video. We all have the power and choice to change our life no matter what happened during our past. Instead of always keep complaint the life that we experienced so hard, people treat us badly, thing will never be right etc. We all have a choice to choose where we want to go but it required high wisdom to guide us. Therefore why not follow someone who has prove their success in this method. That is why spirituality is hard to come by finding the qualify guru is rare. If we put our effort into acquired high wisdom it will definitely help us to make a better choice in life.

    When i went to do Rinpoche’s bio in USA. Things that made me feel whatever Rinpoche done – the care, all come from his own life experience. Cause he knew how it felt like when bad thing happened to us hence he always remind his student make sure we take care of people. Never let them suffer even an animal.

  66. wei theng on Mar 17, 2013 at 3:24 am

    Thank you so much Rinpoche for tirelessly teaching us Dharma despite migraine and not well. This is the teaching for me that “mind over body”, that we can focus out to help and benefit people despite we are not well.

    Listening to Rinpoche’s sharing, it brings me back to my childhood experiences. Yes, indeed, without those experiences, I won’t be who I am now that are much stronger, wiser, more independent and able to face with challenges. Thank you Rinpoche that teach me I can choose not just to get out my bitterness from it, but also let go and also to appreciate those experience that make me who I am today. If I do not face those situation during my childhood and learn from it, it will be even harder for me to take it when I encounter such situation in my adulthood. It is always our choice to chose who we want to be and use the situation to teach us good values such as integrity, responsibility, kindness and compassion. This also taught me on how I should educate my children with values such as integrity, kindness, to be independent, and not just pamper them and spoon feed them.

    From Rinpoche’s teaching, I also learned on “Never too old to learn, unlearn & relearn.” I especially like this phrase “Learning something everyday is intelligence, but Letting go something everyday is wisdom.” It is our mind that learns and not our body. So, always learn new things and improve myself.

    “Spiritual practise is moving on & getting results” We need to keep practise and learn to be a better person and getting results. Not just words, but actions to show results.

    Thank you so much Rinpoche for this precious teaching. May Rinpoche get well, happy, live long and always turn the wheel of Dharma.

  67. Lanse on Mar 17, 2013 at 1:01 am

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this precious teaching with us. It made me realise more about how our choices affect our life.

    Some successful people came from very rich families, some came from medium class families, some from very poor families. There is almost no fix formula for that. Even two different children growing up in the same family, going through same education system can still be very different from each other. I guess what make them so different from each other is how they chose to view things and this leads them to make different choices for their lives.

    Every single choice leads to another different choice, and it will gradually lead to a totally different path and destination. Although it may sound too late to make a turn now, yet the fact is, it is never too late to make a new choice and lead to the same destination if we know what we truly want.

    Once we make up our mind in doing anything, it is like an express highway. Instead of travelling from city to city via normal route, we can choose a highway and drive through the mountains and rivers and reach the destination, sometimes it can be even faster. We just need to make a choice.

  68. pavara on Mar 16, 2013 at 10:36 pm

    This story is very inspirational.

    Rinpoche suffered in his childhood to benefit all of us. Like what Rinpoche said he does not mind to be reborn with the same childhood, and still grow up to be a better person to benefit all sentient beings.

    We learned here that we could learned to be more forgiving, caring and compassionate even though we suffered a lot during the childhood.

    We will follow what Rinpoche has taught us in the profound teaching.

    As we can see Rinpoche was not feeling well when he gave this teaching and yet Rinpoche decided to teach us even when he should be resting.

    This is how kind Rinpoche is to give teachings even when he is in pain.

    Thank you Rinpoche and hope Rinpoche rest well.

  69. Siong Woan on Mar 16, 2013 at 9:53 pm

    I have met numerous people who blame their less-fortunate childhood on everything bad that happens to them, also many who are successful because they want to live a better lives. Hence it’s just like Rinpoche had shared- it’s about the choice we had made.

  70. kwok wai on Mar 16, 2013 at 6:32 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for your sincere and heartfelt sharing of your very personal experience. For me , what stood out the most is that we are all blessed with the power of self determination : Choice . All it takes is an instant choice that we CAN make , which CAN completely change our perception. By letting go of the PAST we can transform something that we have previously perceived as negative into a POSITIVE and an inspirational force in our own lives and that of others. You are indeed a special someone , no many could have come out “normal” not to mention being able to transform the “experience” into a beneficial lesson for all . With folded hands .

  71. limtinnee on Mar 16, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    In Guru’s teaching on ‘It’s an instant choice’,he has turned his difficult childhood experience of deception,disappointments and broken promises into lessons that make him greatly revered by all who know him. Very clearly and methodically he elucidates how his bitter experience has taught him to be honest, reliable,independent,compassionate and sensitive to others needs instead of a monster that conventional psychologists believe would happen to children who are exposed to bitter experience in life.He is indeed a bodhisattva thriving in poisons like the peacock or alotus springing from the mud.His showing us practical way to character building and the path of a Bodhisattva through his life experience .
    Guru also takes this opportunity too,to teach parents not to spoil their kids for it will result in the creation of a society of adults who will give pain not only to themselves but also to their parents and society .He has advised parents to seriously discipline and train their kids to be independent ,reliable,honest,responsible,diligent,caring and kind.These qualities must be inculcated in the children when young as it is difficult to do so when they are adults.
    Very important to are these words of wisdom that our Guru has so kindly imparted to us.
    ‘To learn something everyday is intelligence.Letting something go is wisdom’. Letting something go is letting go of our attachments which include our big ego,our desire to be competitive ,to win and our bad habits which can be smoking or drinking which not only damage our health but also our efficiency in the long run.We must not do things
    to damage ourselves and others because of karmic repercussions.
    Guru,do take care of your health. When I look at my grandson,I can visualize guru’s heart rending childhood experience.It’s Guru’s good karma,the blessings of the Buddhas,his lamas and his teachers,his prayers and practices that has pulled him through the darkest moments of his life .
    With folded hands,thank you guru for giving us this profound valuable teaching.

    e

  72. Carmen K. on Mar 16, 2013 at 6:23 am

    Dear Rinpoche,

    First, thank you for compassionately recording this teaching to benefit all those who come across it and those who will gain realizations from it, eventhough Rinpoche wasn’t feeling well. Rinpoche has showed the true meaning of kindness. To not concentrate on me, but focus out, because others may benefit from listening to this, so the me and the illness plays a less important role than the many. Thank you Rinpoche for the extreme kindness.

    What stood out for me here was that with any situation we encounter, especially a not so pleasant one, it is better to be happy from an unhappy situation than to continue having an unhappy life because of that unhappy situation. You can spend the rest of your life reeling in suffering, misery and pain because of an unhappy period, or make something positive out of it so that for the rest of your life, you will be able to bear it, to be happy, and to focus on other things like helping others. Afterall, it is you who will be living your life, and whether that life of yours is fulfilling, successful and pleasurable (all subjective of course) will be dependent on yourself. It is your choice to make: to Lead a happy life or a sad life.

    What you learnt, saw, experienced throughout your life as child, teen and adult, you have the choice to emulate it. There were many things I saw and experienced as a child/teen, that I say have mould me into the person I am today. I saw those around me, and made a choice not to have this personality or that, but what I saw which I liked, it stuck with me. Yes, who am I as a growing teen to know what qualities are good and bad, but the result and the respect given by a third party to the object of your observation is a good enough clue to whether that trait would help you to be a better person or not. That was the basis of my judgment. Also, how I felt when other people treated me, and because of what I felt in me, I would know whether to repeat or not repeat the same on someone else, so that at the end of the day, I left them better off than when I met them.

    If you want to be treated like how you wish, treat others the same way.

    Since there is no limitation to your mindstream, learning at every juncture of life is possible. Of course, as a child you are less conditioned than when you are older, less stubborn and easier to mold. It is easier to rid something unattractive when you are young than after 30 years of having this unattractive side of you being ingrained within your mindstream. Of course it is harder to “dig it out” at 30 than at 13 and it takes more effort. So there are many things that we should learn when we are young, provided if our parents/guardians are able to recognize between what they feel is good and bad. The cycle just continues if ignorance prevails.

    Everything is your choice in your life. Your mind is yours to tame, to control and to teach. No one can take your mind from you, to control it.

    Thank you,

    Love,
    Carmen

  73. Lim (KH JB) on Mar 16, 2013 at 4:20 am

    Dear Rinpoche hope u will getting well soon, and may all Kecharian Guru samaya getting stronger to be able help u to manifest all ur dreams…

    Thanks Rinpoche for the teaching, ur experience is the true example for us that make us realize that experience from past is the key for our future. Like many story that i heard from succeed person, they always go through a tough path before they become successful. Despite of that, Rinpoche reminded all parents should be able to set up a good example for our next generation.

    The past experience however who u are, where u from and how old are u will be the best gift or weapon to our future. If we are suffering now dun be afraid just face it and deal with it. After some times, when u take a glance back sure u will know what u had learnt from the past to face ur future.

    In other way, if u r in comfort zone right now we may try to step out from comfort zone and experience it. If we really do that, u will realize that all the experience after u step out from comfort zone u may either help in ur future or maybe can help others when they needed.

  74. Khoo Hou Haw on Mar 16, 2013 at 2:39 am

    Dear Rinpoche,

    It is so wonderful to know that with a change of mind, the ‘bad’ experience that made us angry, untrusting and unkind to other people can be turned into a blessing experience that makes us a kind, responsible and helpful person. This teaching can liberate us from the experience that been haunted us and made us unsuccessful as a human being. We shall practice this teaching well and show it to others as this will definitely help a lot of people out there.

    Thank you Rinpoche for this precious teaching.

  75. justin cheah on Mar 16, 2013 at 1:42 am

    Thank you for this precious teaching especially having done this on a night when Rinpoche wasn’t feeling well. This goes to explain how compassionate Rinpoche has always been to everyone.

    This video made me realised one point that people who went through a tough childhood would usually become a better person when they grow up compared to a protected child. Kids that grew up having tasted rough experience are bound to be better equipped to face the reality in the society.

    And the fact that not many would be willing to choose to be reborn in a so called rough condition as everyone wants to enjoy their childhood but if we see kids who are from well to do families, they tend to become monsters as they grow up and most would not know how to carry themselves compared to the kids brought up in not so pleasant family.

    I agree very much to the fact that being born in many good secular condition can be disastrous for oneself if the kid are not properly raised. This is where we can see too much of a good thing can be bad for us and supposedly bad things can make us become good.

    This also made me realised that even whatever harsh conditions or however good conditions that we are in, it is our own decision whether to be a good person or to be a bad guy. It’s like the story of Batman and Penguin story for me. Both had terrible experiences during their childhood but one chosed to be a good guy and the othet one chosed to inflict pain oento others because he was badly treated.

    Thank you Rinpoche for this teaching again.

    Justin Cheah

  76. Kelvin@MBF on Mar 16, 2013 at 1:21 am

    Thank you Rinpoche for filming this video even though you weren’t feeling well.

    Growing up in those circumstances wasn’t easy for you but you have gain strength from it and took it in your stride. Everyone has the choice to either gain strength from it or get lost in it. You had chosen the former which is why many of us have benefited from your teachings.

    Thank you for sharing this video.

    Please take care!

  77. Wan Wai Meng on Mar 15, 2013 at 1:40 pm

    Rinpoche always shows of determination and not letting samsara stop him which is why Rinpoche is an enlightened being and all of us are not. He did not allow him being ill to stop him from doing the dharma work.

    Every moment we can actually make a new choice, a choice a new direction that can take us to another path to another level and so forth if we choose too. Which is why Rinpoche has always told us ‘Go all the way with’ I used to think it was saying no matter what happens make success in whatever you do. Now I think yes my previous assumption is correct, it is also correct to think that once you start on this direction especially when it is related to dharma. Keep going and maintaining the momentum, as if it is something good, and beneficial and spiritual, there will be tremendous obstacles and things that will slow you down and stop you from going further, on top of that we have a mountain of past karma and bad habituations to deal with. Like a salmon going back to spawn.

    I also feel that if we think we cannot change that is also incorrect and untrue, because the fact is if she have a paradigm shift, everything can take on a new life or direction. Change happen in an instant, but it is very helpful if one has the right view and understand potentially where that change can bring us to.

  78. beatrix ooi on Mar 14, 2013 at 11:09 pm

    It must have been a really tough time for Rinpoche during Rinpoche’s childhood. I’m very lucky to have parents who love me by my side. This is the most precious thing in life, to have parent’s support and understanding. I might not understand/agree the things they do sometimes but one thing I know about them is, they love me and I trust them. For example, my dad. We might not be close to one another but deep down inside, I know he loves Edward and I. I admit that I do not like him for the things he does sometimes, but he’s my dad.
    Growing up in a difficult condition doesn’t give one an excuse to treat others badly. In fact, one should treat others the other way round because he/she has been through the pain and know that it hurts.
    Thank You for the wonderful teaching Rinpoche.
    Love, beatrix.

  79. Uncle Lai on Mar 14, 2013 at 11:04 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for telling us the story of your childhood days where youwent through so much of difficulties, problems, insecurity etc…All these difficulties did not change or break you down. But instead it built you up and make you what you are today.

    Rinpoche related his experience during his childhood days to teach us the impotence of building up a character of good human values when young. Parents who are over protecting their children and not allowing them to experience their own challenges will make it difficult for them to face when they grow up because no one is around to cushion for them.

    With folded palms I say Thank You again.

  80. June Kang on Mar 14, 2013 at 10:14 pm

    看完此YouTube, 了解到一定程度上, 童年经历和人生的早期经验影响未来,父母的行为,对孩子的影响.,包括我们对人,对感情的态度,与人相处的方式,看待人生的态度,但所有你的过去,都不能定义你是谁。

    仁波切人生的早期经验是很多撒谎,不守承诺,困惑,没有安全感,失望的和伤害, 但长大后的仁波切没有背负那些影响,仁波切选择了诚实,守信,守承诺,明确,慷慨,关心别人,善良的人生,很明显告诉我们你想成为怎样的人是你的父母不能给予,而我们可以通过后天个人的努力 而加以改进,让自己的人生朝着自己期望的方向发展,更何况是改变自己是不需要时间,改变是即时的,关键是你要不要? 我想懂得成长的人,才能够获得真正的喜悦与平静。

    仁波切给予我们一个强有力的教导,我们经常提到老了很难学,但我们忘了学习的是我们的心,而心永远不会变老,因为我们死亡后,心可能会在下一世再传世为人成为新生婴儿,所以新生婴儿的心是老的吗?(此心指的不是我们的心脏)

    感谢仁波切的分享!

  81. ericchoong on Mar 14, 2013 at 8:38 pm

    在仁波切的身上,我们看到承诺与坚持,无我和慈悲。。。仁波切的这遍开示里他给我们了解到。。

    ” 我们以前曾经有过的经验,已经如梦幻般的消逝,然而我们在这些经历中的行动,还是依然存在。”

    仁波切在小时候,经历了很多惨痛的经验,包括心灵和肉体上的创伤。
    他讲述: 童年时的我,受尽了肉体及精神上的折磨,但我决定不要把他人对我的愤恨转移到别人身上,而对别人造成伤害。。。。
    仁波切教导我们要通过承受,放下和宽恕。教导我们如何从生活中取决于过去的经验与梦想,勇敢
    面对问题时也必须即刻采取行动。
    感谢仁波切一直对我们这班无知愚民的不放弃。。。

    分享

    ” 心灵的修行是为了改变
    我们的观点看法
    一切都在改变
    美妙的是
    与此同时一切也没有改变
    这既是佛法的奥妙” ~ 詹杜固仁波切

  82. Pastor Chia on Mar 14, 2013 at 7:05 pm

    Rinpoche used his bad childhood as an example make the choice continued who his him right now benefiting people. It show people what we have bad experience, not necessary translate to our current action. Important thing is you can make the choice, no holding what was happening to the past.

    Having honor seat in during rinpoche recording this video,received rinpoche heartfelt message wanted to shared this message to many people in the blog. Rinpoche question the audience what is the choice. Choice is from our habituation. Habituation came from our knowledge. If we want to break though our habituation is to learn and apply dharma knowledge to break though this circle. Be brave facing the difficulty,learn it and move forward to face more challenge at the future.

  83. edward ooi on Mar 14, 2013 at 3:19 pm

    Dear Rinpoche, it must be very hard living in a situation as Rinpoche lived in, but as Rinpoche said because He had a living situation like this as a kid that make Rinpoche who He is now. If I have the choice of taking rebirth in the situation that I wanted, I will definitely choose the same situation as Rinpoche were born in, because if I can help a lot of living beings then why not? Thank you Rinpoche for giving this teaching.

  84. Han on Mar 14, 2013 at 11:25 am

    仁波切的精湛教诲让我受益良多!
    我们在童年所经历根深蒂固的影响成长期,在世俗角度来衡量,也许看似悲惨但在过程中的学习成长完全是正面的。

    作为家长如果要锻炼小孩,那肯定必需让他们接受挑战,不要过于溺爱他们,事事顺心不是好事,凡事在孩童期就有经历和学习,学习诚信,培养责任感,慷慨,忍辱等美德,在成人世界中就是这方面的专家。。。逆向思考,好的,在最终未必是佳绩。修行路上,实践并有成绩是非常重要的,所谓的好成绩,就是仁波切所强调的诚信,慷慨,容忍,善良等优良品行,这都是孩童期就要训练而具备的,成人时才可驾轻就熟。

  85. AdelineTan on Mar 14, 2013 at 10:45 am

    Thank you Rinpoche for this profound dharma teaching. I like Rinpoche’s quote “Learning something each day is intelligence while letting go something is wisdom.” Experiencing difficulties in a young age in life can make a person more independent and mature faster, nothing comes easy and we will have to work hard for it in this samsara world. There is a old saying ‘When bitterness ends sweetness comes.’ Nothing is permanent. It’s better to suffer when you are young and be happy and at peace when you are old.

  86. Zla'od on Mar 14, 2013 at 8:56 am

    Nietzsche writes (in his epilogue to Nietzsche contra Wagner) that “I have often asked myself whether I am not more deeply indebted to the most difficult years of my life than to any of the others.” He celebrates the spirit of “saying yes” (ja-sagen) (to whatever arises) and “love of fate” (amor fati) which welcomes the possibility of “eternal recurrence” (ewige Ruckkehr) in which everything that we have experienced will be repeated again and again, forever. So, Tsem Rinpoche has inadvertantly stumbled upon a positive, heroic perspective which Nietzsche associates with the Superman (Ubermensch)!

    Keiji Nishitani (The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism, p. 50 of the English translation) interprets Nietzsche’s concept of “amor fati” to mean that “Every action of the self…is influenced by all things, and in turn influences all things,” and comments that “This idea is close to the Buddhist idea of karma….”

  87. William on Mar 14, 2013 at 3:31 am

    It is always a choice we have to make in any situation. We can choose to see a situation as bad or as good. The choice is always ours. And all the experiences that has happened to us in the past, we can take it as something that makes us stronger or something that makes us weaker as a person. One thing for sure is that it is never too late to have a happy childhood.

    I like what Rinpoche said that our soul has lived for a long time and has taken on many bodies before this. Therefore, when we experience something bad as a child, we would have experienced it before as a soul, maybe in our previous lives. So, it is nothing new. We can always choose to see that the bad things that happened to us in the past is in preparation for us to face greater challenges in the future. We do not have to be a victim of our past and never moved on from there. Rinpoche’s childhood may be awful, but it has made him who he is today.

    Make a new choice today.

  88. Jessica Yap on Mar 14, 2013 at 2:15 am

    Dear Rinpoche,
    this is a very touching video. My heart sank when i hear Rinpoche’s voice because I can hear the sadness in Rinpoche’s voice. Rinpoche went through so much difficulties and deceptions at such a young age, while i was playing with my toys not giving a care about the world. Yet Rinpoche grew up continuing to benefit others despite the unhappy childhood because Rinpoche is so compassionate and doesn’t wish for others to feel the way Rinpoche did.
    What i learnt in point forms:

    – Our life and our situation is all due to our past lives karma, hence the current situation. So for a better future, we should start making wiser decisions now.

    – Our past experiences shapes us to be who we are today. be it bad or good, it helps us form the personality we have today.

    -Deceptions,lies, and broken promises hurts us, so do not do it to another person.

    – If we are truly are sincere in changing, it would only take an instant to do so as it is all in our minds.

    -When we do not transform, we are being lazy and self cherishing and it will hurt others now, but in the future, ourselves.

    Our kind Guru had been so kind to us. By giving us the most valuable and greatest gift of all to us: the Dharma. Rinpoche also showers us with gifts and lots of care ALL the time. Rinpoche does this yet there is nothing Rinpoche wants in return but our mind transformation and to shift our attitude to be better.

    The change begins with me, NOW.

    Thank you, Rinpoche.. For everything..

    • Jessica Yap on Mar 14, 2013 at 2:21 am

      And dear Rinpoche, please rest well and eat well, Rinpoche looks abit pale and unwell..

      Always,
      Jess

  89. Angelshooi on Mar 14, 2013 at 2:12 am

    Hope Rinpoche is better today. Thank You for the profile teachings. No doubt that Rinpoche’s childhood life was experienced with hurt and disappointments but when Rinpoche grew up and turned up to be even a better person instead of hurting others.

    What I learned from this teaching is that, do not holding on to the pass and just get over it and it’s all in the mind. It’s possible to swift the bad attitude, habitual and laziness with instant effect! Do not take things for granted. It may hurt and disappointed our love ones and others deeply. In our life, to have integrity is very important, do not let people chase after and get worry about us.

    Sorry Rinpoche, I realized how Rinpoche feel and hurt. I will always keep this teachings in my mind and keep reminding me to have integrity in whatever I do!

    Thank You Rinpoche and please rested well.

  90. Andrew Boon on Mar 14, 2013 at 2:07 am

    Being in the Ladrang, I am blessed and privileged to be able to serve my Guru in such close proximity and therefore be privy to incredible teachings on a daily basis. I have no doubt that through “watching” Rinpoche’s actions of kindness and equanimity, Rinpoche is a tulku.

    Why? It’s almost impossible to cultivate such qualities within one short life and to have such impactful results as well.

    I believe Rinpoche, being who Rinpoche is, is using Rinpoche’s own life as a wonderful teaching. A teaching in making the right choices amidst a turbulent and trying childhood… hurtful, painful and sometimes downright frustrating… however Rinpoche NEVER gave up. And instead “chose” to be the person Rinpoche is NOW. Not using the negativeness in life to bring Rinpoche down but instead bring Rinpoche UP.

    It is an incredibly skillful manner of showing through Rinpoche’s own pain how one can transform. Something everyone can relate to. Something close to home for each and every one of us.

    To, if I may be so bold as to add, bring Rinpoche’s own status down to that of us mere hopefuls that there is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel, that no matter how bad it is or gets, there are others far less fortunate and that has gone through far more than ourselves… hence, pick yourself up and just move on UP.

    Thank you Rinpoche for such a profound and “real” teaching. For those of us who have the incredible merits to be getting such teachings from Rinpoche is just mind blowing. I fold my hands that we we were lucky enough to have done something right in our previous lives to be where we are now!

  91. June Tang(KH JB) on Mar 14, 2013 at 12:49 am

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this profound video !We should not using the bad experiences to be an excuse to harm others or stop to benefit peoples.Forgive to other people who did bad to us ,is not because they deserve to forgive but we deserve to happy and peace.Our happiness do not rely on others but ourselves !!I love this quote:”Learning something everyday is intelligence,letting go of something everyday is wisdom ” I wish that can apply this into my daily life !!
    Wish Rinpoche can get well soon !!

  92. tenzin llhamo on Mar 14, 2013 at 12:04 am

    Thank you Rinpoche for giving this beautiful teaching as always and even when Rinpoche is not feeling well. I do hope that Rinpoche is feeling better now.

    Everytime I listen to Rinpoche’s childhood, it makes me feel that my childhood is not that bad although it wasn’t a pleasant one as well. But the fact that Rinpoche always use His childhood experiences to show us that we can be what we want to be, its our choice. Although it was not a happy one, Rinpoche persevered and became what He wanted. I am very sure many out there do not have a happy childhood but that doesn’t give us the excuse to be worse off. I do not want my childhood to dictate how I feel but instead use it as an experience and be better. And because of Rinpoche’s teachings, I make it a point to not spoil my kids and make them learn that they too have to make their own choices. And to teach them integrity and they bear the consequences if they don’t. I am really happy to learn all these and still have the chance to make things better for myself and everyone around me. Learn, unlearn and relearn… The best method ever…

  93. Soon Huat on Mar 13, 2013 at 10:29 pm

    Thank You my Holy Rinpoche for the wonderful and inspiring talk even you were sick. When I get to know your childhood, I was confused that why you did not choose to have better childhood as you should have the say where you would born. But now I know why.
    In fact, I used to have similar thought too. I was angry about my life as my life was not smooth at all, filled of a lot a lot of obstacles. In fact, nothing is smooth including my health. One day, I just have similar thought that i experience so much, that is why make me to be understanding person. Who knows these painful experience might help me to understand the Buddha teaching easier as I experience some of them. I like the term: learning is intelligent but letting go is wisdom. I saw a lot of young and successful person but they do not have wisdom. They are ego as things they obtained so easy. Thank You again My Holy Rinpoche for the meaning teaching!!!

  94. nicholas on Mar 13, 2013 at 9:45 pm

    There are situation where we cannot choose and some we are able to choose to make a different. For example, I cannot choose my parents, my siblings but I can choose what to do or how to move forward to create a better future. Choices are not just about the past as we have made our choices in the past that effected the present but we have to make the right choices now at the present for better future.

    From our past experience we don’t grow up and act negatively in fact through our experience we should change for good or improve for better.

    Be a straight forward person with integrity, honest, kind, happy and compassion. People will want to be with us, work with us and be very good friend with us.

    This is really a great teaching to educate my children. Spoon feeding them too much will make them suffer when they grow up. Train them to be independent, to have integrity from young will make them a better person in future. It’s important to challenge their life from young to prepare them for their future as we can see some children or even adults when they can’t handle their problem they will choose the wrong way to avoid their problem such as lie, blame or even commit suicide. If we love and care for our children, our loved one, our family, our friends we show through our action not just by words.

    Thank you Rinpoche for such a wonderful teaching. We are what we want to be and we can make the choice for what we want to be. We live our life.

  95. Davin on Mar 13, 2013 at 7:19 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the video. This is a great teaching. What Rinpoche experienced in childhood didn’t let the negative perceptions overcome him and Rinpoche let us understand we should never quits and never give up when facing difficulties. Rinpoche determination for the Dharma will inspired many people. Hope that Rinpoche get well soon and continue to turn the wheel of Dharma.

  96. Darren Kechara Paradise on Mar 13, 2013 at 6:48 pm

    It’s disheartening to know Rinpoche childhood was a bad one but i think from the experiences & process of Rinpoche will inspire many. I don’t think anyone can withstand what Rinpoche has go through.. Sad to know that Rinpohce’s step mum Dana was suffering from schizophrenia and constantly abused Rinpoche. Amazing that without Dharma family but Rinpoche still believe on Buddha’s teaching and go all the way to be monk.

  97. grace (KHJB) on Mar 13, 2013 at 4:30 pm

    This is a wonderful sharing, thank you Rinpoche. It is true that we always use the past experience to become an excuse for our wrong doing today. From Rinpoche sharing, Rinpoche have overcome the difficulty that he facing during the childhood and make a choice to let those experience to remind himself to be kindness to other.we should keep learning and experience the life that we have pass through, regardless bad or good , turn it into a positive motivation and remind ourself don’t pass on such experience to other.i will keep in mind that “learning something each day is intelligence while giving something each day is wisdom “.

  98. Ng Wee Chin on Mar 13, 2013 at 3:46 pm

    In life, we continually facing new experiences and challenges. How we choose to respond and act to these situations and the decisions we make will be influenced by what we value or a certain way what other people in our life had done to us.

    Where am I and how I became myself is the choice I made in the past. It led me to think about where am I going? or my choice I make for later so that no regrets arise as a result of decision not taken and looking back over my life saying , I wish.. i wish… if only..if only…

  99. sweekeong on Mar 13, 2013 at 12:47 pm

    Dear Rinpoche, what you said is very true. There are many people who have turned out for the better no matter how difficult were their childhood. They don’t blame their childhood for what is happening in their life now. These people use the difficult circumstances they have experienced not as something bad but as an opportunity for growth. They took actions and change their mindset and their life. Rinpoche is one of the best example for everyone of us here who at one and another have put the blame on others who have maltreated us or acting unfairly from our point of view. We do have a large influence on the people around us especially those is younger because we have set in our ways. Children easily picked up and learned from our conduct. Therefore when we conduct ourselves well by being honest, responsible, not fearing to admit our faults then our children will grow up to have these qualities.

  100. Lilyn Tan on Mar 13, 2013 at 8:27 am

    Dear Rinpoche,

    Thank you Rinpoche for making this recording available despite feeling unwell. I hope Rinpoche has rested well.

    Life is about choices we make in life whether we break it or make it. Whatever situation is, we take it as a learning , practice and move on with it. It is our choice to make it wonderful by starting with ourselves to have integrity, generosity, kindness, straightforward, tolerance and forgiveness.

    Thank you Rinpoche for this precious teachings. May you live long and continue to turn the dharma wheel.

  101. Albert Ratchaga on Mar 13, 2013 at 5:44 am

    going through difficulties are not to make you a bad person, it is a situation where it will bring you up woth a more matured mind, caring for others, because you been through the sufferings, you know how they feel when they are in the same situation, hence, care and sympathy will born within you.

    It is everything about our choices, what we do, what we want, and how we treat others, it is totally choices from us, no one can control us and no one can force us if we not willing to follow them, but when we create disappointment to others, it is not anyone’s fault, but ours, because we chose to hurt others.

    Being is easy life does spoil us, because we used to get things easy, so when difficulty comes, we can’t handle and we’ll run away from it. We must overcome our laziness and selfishness so that we can live a more solid and meaningful life.

  102. Lam on Mar 13, 2013 at 3:12 am

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this video on instant choices.

    I hope Rinpoche has fully recovered from migraine and shoulder pain.

    Life is full of choices and it is up to us to pick which one we want. Most of the time we heard about people having traumatic childhood experience and when they grew up, they would choose to retaliate or take revenge on others for what they have suffered. This is definitely a wrong choice.

    Rinpoche has gone through very difficult childhood experiences of pain, disappointment and suffering, but yet Rinpoche has made the choice of transforming to become a great person with compassion, care and kindness when growing up. It is a great lesson for us to learn and guide our children so that they would not be spoilt and would grow up following the correct path.

    I love what Rinpoche taught us. “To learn something new is intelligent, but to let go something is wisdom.” I will learn new things daily and let go unnecessary attachment.

    Thank you Rinpoche for this profound teaching.

  103. Junior on Mar 13, 2013 at 1:21 am

    Thank you for sharing this teachings.It is a touching video and also a wonderful teaching for me.
    Thank you again.

  104. Karen Chong on Mar 13, 2013 at 12:25 am

    Sometimes we might think it’s unfair, why some people live good life and yet some people have to suffer a lot? The bad situation that we encountered in the past probably had traumatized us, but it shouldn’t be the reason for us to use this as an excuse to hurt or get back on others. As we know, karmic repercussions do exists. If we do not want to be treated what we do not like, then don’t even do it. In fact, we should cultivate good qualities in us when we encounter bad experience and the ugly negative part of it shall prompt us daily to be a better person thus we don’t suffer.

    I like the part where Rinpoche stressed that he admire people who become a inspiration, but not those who seek for inspiration. This statement by itself is full of motivation. It motivates us to be more responsible to ourself, do not rely on others. When you become an inspiration to others, it means your practice bears fruit. Our past shouldn’t make us a bitter person, in fact, it should make us a better person, if we choose to make it. Our happiness do not rely on others but ourselves.

  105. Erickksiow on Mar 13, 2013 at 12:15 am

    Thank You Rinpoche for sharing your childhood story to us, from Negative turn to Positive. Is very good learning session.

    Yes, When we don’t like the bad feeling that we get hurt by others, don’t react back or don’t treat others the same.

    Never ever give other an empty promise or empty words, had experience in my life, it’s not a good feeling at all. So, will never give other an empty words.

    Best Regards : Eric kksiow

    • Erickksiow on Mar 13, 2013 at 12:20 am

      Like this words much..!!

      Learning something everyday, is intelligent. Letting go on something everyday is wisdom.

  106. wansan on Mar 12, 2013 at 11:36 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing your thoughts and giving us this wonderful teaching despite having migraines and pain. Rinpoche’s childhood has made Him who He is now and who He is right now, is definitely someone whom all of us are aspiring to be, somehow one day.

    I have always thought childhood is the most important thing to a child as it nurtures and teaches a child how he should be when he is all grown up. I have always thought if the childhood is good, then the child would turn out to be wonderful and great; and if the childhood is unpleasant, the child will grow up becoming a monster, doing all kinds of bad things, committing a crime… but then I came to realise it is not entirely true, in fact, it IS not true. As like the title says, it’s an instant choice. Everything in our lives are more a less controlled by us, most of them. All the choices in our lives are controlled by us. If we choose to be a good person, we will be a good person; likewise, if we choose to be a mean person, we will turn out to be a mean person.

    Many people I know, or even me, if we had gone through a similar childhood as Rinpoche did, we would take revenge on others when we grow up. We would hurt people, or I should say, I would hurt people like how I was hurt when I was young. I would want to see other people suffer as I thought why should other people live easily and happily when I as a young child had to suffer so so much! It’s unfair! Well, bare with it, I would say. Life is unfair. C’est la vie.

    After watching the video, I came to realise, it doesn’t matter if you had the best or the worst childhood because like what Rinpoche said, he had a wonderful childhood, although most of us will see it as the worst! It doesn’t matter at all. What matters is the choices we make after that. Sometimes we can’t blame our parents for not teaching us what we are supposed to learn when we were young, as they might not have the knowledge themselves. As Rinpoche said, our mind stream is never too old to learn new things. So I should stop making excuses and say I can’t do it when actually I can.

    Once again, thank you Rinpoche for sharing this video and May your migraines go away as soon as possible and have a good rest.

    With folded hands,
    wansan

  107. patsy on Mar 12, 2013 at 11:32 pm

    Rinpoche’s childhood was horrible, filled with insecurities, broken promises, deceptions, lies yet Rinpoche turned the situation around to make sure that his utmost thoughts is not to disappoint or break his promises to others. Rinpoche is now an inspiration to everyone and Rinpoche’s compassion and integrity has touched the lives of many.

    What happened in the past, remained in the past. Our future is based on our present actions so it is our choice to break it and move on. I lived in a relatively “safe and comfort” zone when I was growing up and there were not many challenges. Following Rinpoche’s advice on getting out of my comfort zone made me a better and responsible adult. Now my life is all about learning, unlearning and relearning because I choose to become better and move on.

    Thank you so much, Rinpoche. May your health improve and may you live long.

  108. Vinnie on Mar 12, 2013 at 11:14 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such valuable lessons to all of us. It really helped me to understand more from the different situations that has happened to me while I was a kid, or happening now daily. It made me think through the situations that I have been through, or even the people that I have met.

    Through this video teaching, it made me value the situations that I have been through. Reason being that all these situations or actions that we been through would just improve ourselves as a whole, so that we can also teach these valuable lessons to others in the future. Passing and sharing all these very valuable judgments.

    And I truly believe that if we are not being challenged when we are younger or start off something on the correct foot, it would truly jeopardize or be a barrier for the correct path that we should be pursuing.

  109. Anna Tan on Mar 12, 2013 at 10:54 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for showing a great example of not using the bad experiences in life as an excuse to harm others and to retaliate. It’s really true that change can be instant, it’s a matter of choice.

  110. lewkwanleng on Mar 12, 2013 at 10:50 pm

    There are a few things I really like about this video..

    If we don’t learn about the integrity, honesty, hardworking, etc since young, I will still need to learn them when I grow up, in order to have respect from others, and eventually have self respect. This prompted me to instill these good qualities to my children so that when they grow up, and in their 30’s, they will be master of these good qualities. And I know I can’t just talk about it, I will need to show them by example, otherwise, the kids will know and they will say we parents are just hypocrite.

    Whatever happen to us in our younger age has already happened and we can’t go back and “undo” it. I know sometimes it is not easy to do, and at times we still hang on to our unhappiness/anger, but treating the unhappiness as an inspiration to practice Dharma is the key here. And Rinpoche is kind enough to show us it can be done. I have heard someone mentioned before that, whatever the reason that make us practice Dharma, be it happy or so-called unhappy experiences, is good.

    I thank Rinpoche for taking the time and record this video despite not feeling well, and I wish Rinpoche rest well.

  111. Girlie Ooi on Mar 12, 2013 at 10:04 pm

    A child learns from young and the most formative years would be when they are around 2 years old onwards — they become a sponge, absorbing all they can from the environment. They even start to “parrot” what they see and hear.

    Rinpoche’s experiences from young did not “break” Him, rather they “made” Him — He chose to make every situation into a positive one, learning along the way.

    The choice is ours to make, whether we want to see the good in everything or the opposite.

  112. mitra on Mar 12, 2013 at 10:00 pm

    Tt is a touching video .for me This is a wonderful teaching .thank you Rinpoche for making this video.

  113. Adrian Cho on Mar 12, 2013 at 9:36 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this meaningful teaching video.

    This is really a wonderful video and inspired me. No matter what happened on us, we still need to keep looking forward to be a better person. Also it is depends on our choices, whether we want it or not in our life times.

  114. Wobg Suet Moi on Mar 12, 2013 at 9:10 pm

    Dear Rinpoche

    This is a real story. What i learn from this story is we should see things at different ankles. We make our choice at most of the time.

    Suet Moi

  115. Datuk May on Mar 12, 2013 at 7:06 pm

    The first thought I had while listening to Rinpoche’s teaching was “what was my childhood like?”. I realised that I don’t remember much of it. Not that I am older now but I also remembered that I said the same to my husband years ago when he asked me “what was my childhood like?”.

    Right now, I realised that I did not want to remember and it is a real form of avoidance. Maybe my childhood had not been good, but listening to Rinpoche’s sharing, it does not matter anymore. I have made a choice that it was good.

    What strike me most is that the mind goes on and on lifetimes after lifetimes and if I suffer any afflictions from such a continuous mindstream, I can make the choice now and change it so that I will suffer less and each lifetime come back with less burden and suffering in doing the same things and getting the same results.

    Learning something every day is intelligence and letting go of something everyday is wisdom. I love this and basing on this I make a choice to let go everyday and learn something everyday.

    I am a person of judgement, hanging on to what is right and wrong. And what is right and wrong is based on my experience, a narrow spectrum of this great big world of 7 billion people. Let go and see how beautiful our different personalities are and in practising dependency on each other will make the world a better place.

    Save myself and time cannot be wasted.

    As always, may I practise and live in my choice of learning and letting go.

  116. Jay Jae on Mar 12, 2013 at 5:17 pm

    When I reflect on the teachings of Rinpoche, sitting in His presence and absorbing what Rinpoche has to say, it made me think deeper to what Rinpoche has really invested. Halfway through the beginning of this video, I noticed that there were tears rolling from Rinpoche’s eyes. It was evident that Rinpoche recollected the hard times he went through as a child. And when I say hard, it is very very hard.

    The sight of my Lama shedding tears went through my mind the past two days. Over and over again, I just thought to myself how much pain and injustice(in a very childish 28 year old manner) did Rinpoche went through at that time. The disappointments Rinpoche’s foster parents gave him would be horrendous if it came to my ears. Yet Rinpoche was very patient.

    This became a very empowering lesson for me, no matter how much or how hard the burden when faced with your inner calling for the Dharma, face it and keep on going. It will only bring benefit at the very end.

    Rinpoche could have taken this “bad” childhood and create more ugliness in his life. Instead, he has transformed himself to be a very sensitive, supremely generous, and on top of that charismatic. Rinpoche is the only person in my life who is able to pick me up from the slums of Samsara and place me in a direction – the Dharma.

    Transformation is POSSIBLE and now with this teaching – INSTANTANEOUS!

    So, what excuse do you have not to change your bad ways?

  117. thubten deki on Mar 12, 2013 at 5:07 pm

    sorry for my last comment:
    may be it’s my bad karma that I couldn’t find the video immediately. 🙂
    If it is so:
    Sorry precious buddhas.

  118. adelinewoon on Mar 12, 2013 at 4:53 pm

    “…Your existence is connected to them but not decided by them.” (Quote 50 of Rinpoche’s book: 108 ways to grab my Apples.) This is precisely what I’ve realised after listening to Rinpoche’s heartfelt teachings. We can have a so called horrible childhood, yet the choice is always in our hands for who we wanted to be in our lives. All experiences we have in our lives are the results from actions we have done previously. ‘Previously’ does not mean just this single lifetime, it includes all the many lifetimes we have had prior to this one.

    When the Buddha was alive, he had once experienced serious migraine for three consecutive days. His disciple (like many others who have asked Rinpoche) also asked the Buddha why would an enlightened being, someone who have so much wisdom, love and compassion, attained enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, got such serious migraine. The Buddha replied that in one of his previous life, he knocked a fish’s head three times with a stick. The migraine for three days was a result from that.

    It is evident that causes do resemble results, and we are responsible for both of them. If we do not resolve the causes we have made through doing good prayers, transforming our mind to always have good intentions, at the same time to have blessings and guidance from our lama, guru and the Three Jewels, the conditions of the results will worsen. The Buddha is so compassionate that he manifested that teaching by putting himself in the scenario.

    The focus of this teaching is not about the Buddha himself not taken actions to resolve the causes he has created, but to remind us that if we do not resolve the causes we have created, we’ll continue to be trapped by the overwhelmed results caused by our previous actions.

    Similarly, Rinpoche through his good prayers, intentions and the blessings of his lamas, gurus, Three Jewels, he has manifested the same teachings of the Buddha by putting himself through his “horrible” childhood. It is obvious that Rinpoche has chosen to be in that situation, because he has remained compassionate, caring and positive despite all that.

    Asking ourselves why we have to go through what we have gone through, why do we not have all the good conditions we have wished for our situations should lead us to contemplate the law of karma that will help us to understand and accept what we have, to be grateful that we are still capable of making a positive change. I have asked myself before if I wanted to go through what I have gone through (so insignificance compare to what Rinpoche has gone through), the instant respond was the same as Rinpoche: No, thank you. After contemplating what had happened and what have caused me to be who I am, I appreciate the experiences that have made me independence and brave (not without fear, but to do what is right). I’m grateful for them because they have pushed me to pursue my spiritual path than to work a normal job and continue to be miserable.

    A child is like a tree. In order for the tree to grow strong and stern, it has to be let out to experience storm and harsh conditions. Otherwise, they will continue to be a home plant that continue relying on the shelter and care from others. Once that is unavailable, they will die. I cannot bear the mere thought of a child dying in hunger at the comfort of his/hers home simple because he/she has been brought up with food being delivered to their mouth!

  119. Ethan Chu on Mar 12, 2013 at 3:21 pm

    Life is full of choices. In fact, a lot of time we blame people, the environment and we get frustrated when things are not going our way. But without these experiences, it wouldn’t make us grow. Every kind of experience mold us but it is really up to us to make the right choice. Hence, this is where the subject of spirituality comes in. Because nobody thought us the mentioned subject in school, our parents barely make it through trials and errors. Therefore, we rely on the ones who had make it – the enlightened ones. We rely on their wisdom to guide us through.

    I think whatever bad experiences we had at whatever degree we think how severe it was, it is really up to us to make the right choice to move forward, pick ourselves up and improve or gave it and thinking life is bad anyways. Hence, it explains some in life are fighters and some are losers. It is all in our mind. We actually had the power to make it happen and not them.

  120. Lim Han Nee on Mar 12, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    What is most amazing about this very profound teaching is that it has turned conventional wisdom on its head and shown what true wisdom is.Conventional wisdom would have it that what one experiences in one’s childhood years would make or break us. Conventional wisdom will have us believe that if we have a very traumatic childhood, filled with pain and suffering, from which the very ground of safety and security has been taken away from under our feet, then we will grow up to be an adult of the most insecure kind, and we would do to others what others ,like our parents, had done to us.

    But here, in this most startlingly brilliant teaching, Rinpoche shows us with his own childhood experiences, that a childhood of great pain and suffering and very traumatic experiences need not break us. Rather, because of such a childhood, Rinpoche grew into adulthood as a diamond of a person, whose rough edges and angles had been chipped off because of the ‘training’ that such a childhood had given him. Rinpoche as an adult, learnt to let go of all the pain and trauma. In letting go, he let go as well all the negative ways and behavior of those people which had caused him all the suffering.

    But then, we come back to the very crux of the matter. What actually is the deciding factor of whether a person’s childhood would make or break him? It lies in our choices. If Rinpoche had chosen to cling on to all the memory of pain and fear and suffering, then he would have ended up a negative and bitter adult, an adult who would have repeated the negative pattern of behavior of his parents and become a total failure of a person and end up lonely and complaining and bitchy.

    However, Rinpoche (through the blessings and compassion of the Buddhas and his Lamas and through his prayers and practice), made right choices. He made the right choice of letting go the memory of the suffering of his childhood. He made the right choice not to be dragged down into a spiral of negativity and pain, by not repeating the negative behavior of his parents. Hence, he learnt not to ever break promises to people because of the pain and hurt he experienced over his parents’ broken promises to him.He learnt to be a person of integrity, to be hardworking, to be kind and caring, because all these would benefit and not hurt others.

    In the end, we find ourselves asking, is it good karma to be born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth and end up in life bitter, lonely and miserable?

    Thank you Rinpoche for this lovely sharing of your childhood experiences and how, through your wisdom and compassion, you turned that childhood into a learning experience and a training that molded you into the wonderful person and the great teacher you are.

    I hope Rinpoche has fully recovered.

  121. Antoinette on Mar 12, 2013 at 2:04 pm

    Dear Rinpoche,

    Thank you very much for this teaching. You share so much of yourself. This is very rare. Your sharing is so very precious and helpful because it gives us direction, makes us change our perspective and attitude instantly.

    Childhood can be difficult and we might not learn the skills who are important for us in daily life. This makes things challenging at school, with friends and in many situations. And we end us avoiding these situations.

    Once childhood is over, people in your workplace or somewhere else expect us to have developed the skills of integrity, sincerity, keeping promises, care, finishing your work, being on time and having results. Having a good motivation is important but it is not enough. We search for respect and claim it,but don’t know how to get it. Now we know.

    Changing instantly – it is our own responsibility.

    Thank you for all your hardship and care.

  122. PhillisChin on Mar 12, 2013 at 12:52 pm

    We ourself have to bare on choices that we have made, and be responsible to it, without any regrets,no matter good or bad. We learn from what we choose and from there it can be a realizations, and this realizations make us what we are.

    Thank you Rinpoche for the care always and the teaching.

    love,
    Phillis

  123. Elaine Chong on Mar 12, 2013 at 12:33 pm

    感谢仁波切与我们分享他的童年和过去所经历的。在仁波切教诲中,让我思考;
    被欺骗的人,学会增长见识
    被绊倒的人,学会强化能力
    被遗弃的人,学会如何独立
    被伤害的人,学会磨练心志
    让我知道原来我们现在所发生的每一件好与不好的事源自于自己之前的选择,而我们却意味的把错与责任指向别人。明白了不管是过去还是现在所承受的痛苦与经历都是给我们的一种磨练与教导~而每一件事的褒与贬,都在于我们自己如何去看待与对待。自己的人生由自己抉择。
    再次感谢仁波切的分享与教导.

  124. Cindy Lee on Mar 12, 2013 at 11:16 am

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this with us. Try to forget what other people did to us. Even if other people hurt/curse us, I should try to forgive them,just keep everything to myself.
    I hope Rinpoche will get well soon.

  125. Julia Tan on Mar 12, 2013 at 11:13 am

    Dear Rinpoche, thank you for sharing this video and making me think again.

    I am now on top of Ladrang Hill writing this comment. I decided to be here at this beautiful beautiful place to read others comments and think of what Rinpoche said again. Many thought came into my mind.

    First i thought about my marriage, how I made a choice to get married when I was 19 and had my son. It was not an accident, but I chose for a reason. Then I moved on building our business with my ex-husband. Things going on smoothly and life was getting better which means I did the right choice! But I did not realize that my family was falling apart slowly. Well, again I did a choice and file for divorce. Everything went on smoothly. I think I did a right choice again.

    Then what happened to my children? They went through the confusing time like Rinpoche mentioned when my ex and I had the divorce. Although the drama had been brought to very low key but still a lot of bad imprint had been planted into my children’s mind. But this bad imprints had became their strength in their mind and brought them up to become a tough person. My son, William now chose to continue our family business (finally) and he is now staying with his father after many years staying with me. They take care of each other now. They were very happy and this made me happy too. My daughter, Melissa is now studying in a boarding school with full scholarship at the same time she is very fortunate growing up inside Rinpoche’s Mandala where she received a lot of blessings and valuable knowledge and imprints in her life. I made another right chose!

    Of course in between, there are up and down whether in the business world or dharma. There are still people that made me upset or things that I screwed up. No fail no pain, no pain no gain! Whenever I am not happy with someone, I make a choice to visualizing this person sitting in front of me while doing my Sadhana. Well, Dharma means being able to “tahan” for others.. This is for sure a right choice!

    I made the 1st episode of my life with my own choice. No matter right or wrong but it has make me see the value of Dharma that Rinpoche taught. Now I am looking over the mountain in KFR, I am grateful for every choice I made. Rinpoche made me see the value of life differently into different levels of lives with different people.

    Thank you Rinpoche! I know thank you and promise both are just words hence they themselves has no value until we mean it and make it happen. Thank you for your patience and forgiveness to bear with us along these years. Your teachings to us is like a tailor made beautiful evening lounge suit that fit each and everyone of us to make us beautiful. I believe no one in the world can do that but Rinpoche. No matter how much we do, we could not repay your teachings, kindness, love and all the beautiful thought that you brought to us everyday.

    I love you, Rinpoche.

  126. Pastor Yek Yee on Mar 12, 2013 at 9:01 am

    很多時候,當有一些事情發生了,我們總喜歡譴責他人,認為如果不是當初他所做過的某件事情,今天就不會發生這樣的事等等。這樣的譴責,好像成大家都覺得理所當然的,因此只要出事故了,便做出這樣的動作。可是,追根究底,這樣的動作,是否有問題呢?

    詹仁波切在他的視頻中,講述了他童年的種種遭遇,因他小時候的經驗如何造成現在的他。

    雖然如此,仁波切還是堅持,不希望當年所受的苦難,重复再發生。他更警愓自己,以前承受過的痛苦,不希望發生在他人身上。

    所以,仁波切個人對守承諾和誠信,特別的看重。

    在心理學的角度,人們過往的成長背景,尤其是家庭背景,直接影響到我們現在的個性。可是,它卻不會是造成我們以同樣方式去傷害別人的藉口。因此,我們必須要謹記,過往的經驗,可不是內以做藉口去譴責他人或傷害他人的,這對被你傷害的人並不公平,因為他根本不清楚你的過去。

    詹仁波切的此個視頻,都帶有警愓世人的作用,非常值得一看!

  127. sockwan on Mar 12, 2013 at 7:47 am

    This blog post has answered the question most people have for the bad experiences Rinpoche has gone through since he was young.

    Rinpoche explained how by change of attitude he started to find his childhood experiences the most wonderful one.

    Instead of being angry of the situation Rinpoche is in, Rinpoche turn it around to make it a lesson for him to learn, to not treat others the way he was treated.

    Rinpoche also mentioned it is better we go through some difficultiesmwhen we are young than when we are adult. We will be able to manage the situation better and become an inspiration to others.

    Lastly, it is our choice to make the best out of every situation we are in. Everything bad experience we have gone through can be good if we just change our perspective. This is how we can find peace and bring harmony starting from ourselves.

    Thank you Rinpochebfor the teaching.

  128. Lim Tat Ming on Mar 12, 2013 at 4:19 am

    Every one of us without exception will go through life and experience birth, ageing, sickness and death. At each of these stages, all of us will have different and unique experiences. Some of these experiences can be pleasant whereas some can be unpleasant. Our past karma and present life conditioning had shaped and determined the quality of our experiences.

    Sentient beings had wandered aimlessly through these life processes not knowing how to deal with them correctly over and over again in many lifetimes. Most sentient beings would have experienced great amount of fear, frustration, anger, despair, and many other negative emotions. Some would instead have experienced more positive emotions. All would have experienced a mixture of positive and negative emotions.

    It is not what happened to us that matters. It is what we do to what had happened that really matters. We have a choice here – to make it or to break it in life. We need not be controlled by the forces of our past karma. We can change for the better. Liberation is in the palm of our hands.

    Thank You Rinpoche for awakening us. It’s an instant choice that we got to make!

  129. Gim Lee on Mar 12, 2013 at 12:55 am

    So many teachings in this video… As always, beside the lessons from the teaching itself, Rinpoche’s own selfless action is the greatest lesson for us. Despite unwell and having migraine, Rinpoche made this hour-long recording just for our benefits. Instead of resting to recover, Rinpoche willingly endured physical pains to deliver these invaluable teachings for us.

    A true Bodhisattva that he is, Rinpoche is willing to go through all the sufferings all over again; including the deceives, abandonment, etc., in short all the emotional and physical abuses just so that he can have the ‘perfect childhood’ for him to grow up to be the same person that he is now and be able to help many people and other sentient beings.

    A same hardship childhood experience may lead to a totally different and disastrous result for another person. For Rinpoche, the end results will definitely be the same because all his actions are motivated by his compassion to benefit others.

  130. Leann Lim on Mar 12, 2013 at 12:43 am

    感谢仁波切分享这珍贵的教义,让我从新明白,去思考- 对,我们不应该被过往的一切牵制,没有所谓的好与坏,只是视乎你怎么看待,如何去感恩以往的一切造就现在的你!!’. “experienced should not be something to break us, but to make us.”这句话让我感动深刻,因为我常常被‘以前’以前‘怎样怎样打败,被’以前‘扯住,把自己往下拉,这都是我自己的思想造成的。因为自己的放任,自私而造成的痛苦,有时候觉得反正自己痛苦不用紧,但大错特错,不只自己痛苦,这消极的想法也牵连关心,爱你的朋友不快乐…

    虽然很多事情我们无法控制,但至少从自己做起~所以我们需要学习,在不需要任何人的恶启发下,本来就应学习信守承诺,把自己本分做好,诚实,不伤害他人,善良等等,这都是一辈子需要修行的功课,!!‘learning something everyday is intelligent,letting go something everyday is wisdom’, 这句话在我脑袋重重打了一记…开始想,是不是该把脑袋清洗,重新洗牌再来过~~

    仁波切的童年经历,和日后的成就,让我感触良多~~感受到每件事情的发生都是有原因的,是好,是坏都是自己的判断,自己的路是选择放下快乐的走,还是自怜自艾悲伤的去面对,都是自己选的,和别人没关系!!地球并不会因为你的悲伤而停止转动!!这录像仿佛为我打开了心结~~

    真的很感谢您,仁波切,在身体不舒服的状况下还为我们开示,深深让我们感受您的慈悲,关怀~~谢谢…愿您的身体尽快康复,长寿,常住世,常转法轮~~

    顶礼,
    Leann

  131. Fiona ng on Mar 11, 2013 at 11:55 pm

    感谢上帅仁波切无私的与我们分享他的过去童年和体验。
    我被困住了?还是在妄想?
    最重要的,是去觉察,研究和认识自己。
    而不是一直去问,如何才能解除恐惧和恶习。

  132. MayOng on Mar 11, 2013 at 11:53 pm

    It is our decision to make a choice of who we want to be, for our selves before others.

    Bad experiences in childhood can be learning lessons to us to, either break us (taking in all negativity) or propel us to improve positively for our betterment. It is a choice we can choose to make in this instant.

    For parents – if we keep protecting our child when they were young, they will grow up suffering more because they need to experience negativity they had not encountered in earlier lives when they became adults later, hence the example Rinpoche gave, of a 50 year old thinking and behaving like a 20 year old.

    Rinpoche took painful lessons from his childhood and turn those disappointments, lies and deception into good qualities that he has now, so others would not need to suffer the way he did when he was young. Rinpoche knew what it was like to feel betrayed or being lied to.

    Other people took painful lessons in their lives to continue hurting others with it, because “karma” has not yet ripen upon them yet, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

    Due to these painful lessons in Rinpoche’s earlier life, he made the choice of NOT to hurt others the same way again for now and future. Instead, he chose to work even harder to not disappoint anyone at all. He chose to become the “inspiration” for others, rather than being told to become one.

    The lesson for me here is – the choice is ours to make and what type of choice we want to make from painful lessons and experiences. Do we chose to stop our bad habits, get rid of them and start afresh to become better or to chose to ignore and continue but face the end result we created for our self at the end. I choose to learn and become better and move on.

  133. Pastor Susan on Mar 11, 2013 at 11:47 pm

    “Learning something everyday is intelligence, letting go of something everyday is wisdom.”
    Very powerful quote and Rinpoche’s life is in itself a testament. No matter what happened to us in the past, it should remain as it is…in the past. This teaching shows that choices we make can break our past and creates a new future. We all deserves to be happy and we should evaluate the choices we have made if our experience of life today is not a happy one. Thank you Rinpoche for this teaching and show by example is most powerful.

  134. DR on Mar 11, 2013 at 11:42 pm

    The title is so apt. Yes, it’s just a matter of choice that changes one’s destiny. Being born into a bad situation does not necessarily mean that one has to be stuck in that situation forever.

    It is sad that most people who are not exposed to dharma tend to hang on to their past/childhood and live the rest of their lives carrying the pain and baggage with them. It is as though they do not wish to let go of the past so that they have something to blame on if their lives do not turn out as they expect it to be….

    Holding on to your bitter past is like letting it live rent-free in you! Let go and move on. Don’t let it break it, let it make you, it’s just a shift of attitude aka making a choice.

  135. lucy yap on Mar 11, 2013 at 11:09 pm

    It is so true that we are always making choices.(even not choosing is a choice).We make changes everyday in life by learning something new about ourselves and how to want our futures to grow.
    It is amazing how Rinpoche teaches in a way that will stick to our brains….
    Thank you for sharing your thoughts,so beautiful!Rest well and be healthy always.

  136. Crystal Siew on Mar 11, 2013 at 10:44 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this teachings. From this video I’ve learnt that we should not get back to people even though others hurt us, try to forgive what others did to us. I’ve learnt that we shouldn’t be afraid to take the first step to improve ourselves, though there might be times that we are scared to do it. And learn to be kind.

  137. Winnie Cheong on Mar 11, 2013 at 10:37 pm

    感谢仁波切慈悲的与我们分享他的过去和体验。相信每个人都有一些好与坏的事情和经历,有仁波切的教诲当中,我更加明白了不要老是意味着不开心,老是想着为什么会是这样那样,而是事出必有因。不开心的经历,我要努力学习放下,要做出改变,要为自己创造好的因缘和种子,非常感恩仁波切无限的慈悲给与我们珍贵的开示。

  138. Cliff on Mar 11, 2013 at 10:30 pm

    “Because if we are perpetually a child, we will burden everybody around us and burdened people makes people lose respect for us, and when they lose respect we lose self respect, when we lose self respect we become deceptive, we become angersome, we become hateful, we become all the things that we rather not become.”

    “You’re never too old to learn, relearn…learning something everyday is intelligence, but letting of something everyday is wisdom”

    “And when we say we can’t do it, we can’t do it, we can’t do it…you know what? It’s not the universe, it’s not your enlightened nature, its not the buddha, it’s not your parents, its not your friends, its not people with wisdom telling you can’t do it, it’s you yourself telling you cannot do it…so when we keep sayng we can’t do it, we can’t do it, we can’t do it, actually we can do it, its just we don’t want to do it”

    “I’ve been asked many times, since you’re a high incarnation, or a an incarnation or a tulku, shouldnt you have the perfect childhood, shouldn’t you have the perfect parents, the perfect situation, everything wonderful and delicious and fabulous and great? I did. I did have a perfect childhood. I did have a wonderful upbringing. I did have a good upbgringing. Because everything I experienced as a child, opened up seeds in me, made me learn, made me progress, made me become…all the negative things that I saw made me become not wanting to be involve in that when I grew older, all the positive things that i saw made me want to increase that as i got older. So did I have a perfect childhood? I did. Did i have a good upbringing? I did. Because my upbringing was not soft, easy and hand outs. But my upbringing was pandemonium, confusion, deception, hypocrisy, lies, violence, heavy disappointments, and those are the very things I do not want to bring to anyone else now that I am an adult.” – this really blew my mind when I heard Rinpoche said it. I don’t think I would have had a strong enough mental capability to have gone through all that and still come out good out of it and have the good perception of it to learn and progress from it. Rinpoche took it as a lesson, contemplated and used it to benefit people, help people who have or are going through the same to be good people from it.

    “Its our choice. Make it wonderful, make it wonderful by starting within yourself to have intgerity, generosity, kindness, straight forwardness, tolerance, forgiveness. Start right now.”

    Some of my favourite quotes from this teaching.

    I have grown up being forced by my parents to do chores, help carry their bags, walk infront of them quickly to open doors for them, work fast, work efficiently, don’t be lazy, clean the house, make their beds, wash their clothes, to do this, to do that…I had always done it with a black face, thinking why must I have to do this for them, why can’t they do it themselves, why don’t my sisters do it. As I grew up I soon realised I was greatly thankful for the training, I felt regretful for thinking in such a way before but I do not regret going through all of that and continue to go through it because I feel it has trained me to be a better person than I would have been not doing all of it. I think I would have become unappreciative, spoilt, angersome, have little patience, less awareness of my surroundings, less respect for others, less respect for myself.

    I am thankful for my parents and realised my mother and father sacrificed a lot to take of me, clean me, wash me, work to feed me, shelter me, send me to a good school, why couldn’t I have done these small little things for them in return and more. I really agree with what Rinpoche says that if our parents were to given everything we wanted, done everything for us, helped us, of course with good intensions and love, its still the wrong kind of love. Its better to teach us and make us learn when we are young, so we can take it with us when we are older, and we would have the maturity to contemplate on it, understand it, and appreciate it better, because when we are older it becomes harder for us to change and become people of integrity, honesty, reliability and so on.

    With my most humble respect, thank you Rinpoche for sharing your wonderful thoughts and teachings. I truly enjoyed watching your video.

    I hope Rinpoche is well and relieves from your migraine immediately.

    • sarahyap on Mar 14, 2013 at 12:20 am

      Dear Cliff,

      I like your comment very much. Indeed, there is so much in this teaching that although Rinpoche talks about it generally, but the contents of the teaching can be applied to our life so logically and we can relate to it.

      Thank you for your sincere comment, it shows you really took the time to listen what Rinpoche’s teaching and am contemplating about it. There is no greater student than a student that listens, remembers and practice. These are the qualities in a student that keeps the wheel of Dharma turning.

      Rejoice!

  139. pat on Mar 11, 2013 at 10:18 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche, for sharing with us your childhood experienced so that we dont have to go through real self-experience to gain realization as how difficult life can be & how much pain, hurt and unhappiness that people can cause.I realised now that sometimes a ‘mistake’ is a lesson to learn, to improve and to change for the better and also not to do to others all the bad experiences that we have gone through.Everything in life is a choice,whether we choose the best or choosing to see more negative in every situation or experience.Just look at ourselves now, if we are unhappy then we know we have made the wrong choices.If we really want to change our life, we can, it is a choice & a choice we must make for ourself.Thank you again …Wishing Rinpoche speedy recovery and good health always.

  140. stardust. . on Mar 11, 2013 at 8:34 pm

    Dear Rinpoche,
    that was such an extraordinary teaching
    and so profoundly heartfelt. .
    I will certainly listen to it again, and sincerely wish that you will feel better soon

    kindest regards,

  141. Louise Lee on Mar 11, 2013 at 6:54 pm

    每天我们都活在将要过去的从前。 如果我们每天都只活在从前, 那么我们就不会进步! 从前的成功, 不代表将来也是如此!

    我们必须为将来拼搏! 创造更美好的明天! 昨天的痛, 是我们今天的进步, 而不是我们的绊脚石!

    谢谢仁波切的分享! 就如仁波切的身世, 有的人会表示非常同情仁波切的遭遇, 但是相反的也有人会被仁波切的勇敢面对,而改过自新!

    因为我们的惰性与傲慢, 让我们无法前进!因此,制造了许多的谎言、伤害,甚至辜负了一切关心我们的每一位。 傲慢也让我们变成讨厌的人。

  142. KH Ng on Mar 11, 2013 at 5:44 pm

    Thank You Rinpoche for this very wonderful, profound yet simple to apply teaching. Whatever happened in our childhood can be use by us as an adult to benefit others. What we do not know as adults can also learned right now to benefit others with results. There is no time that we cannot learn and apply what we learn with results. There is no child or adult in our mind stream for we are continuos.
    Similarly, this teaching reminds me on my own “wisdom” or the lack of it vis-a-vis with my own children. Because I may not have the “perfect” childhood, I want my children to undergo a “perfect” childhood and now I truly realise that it is not wise. Every difficulties that we put them in is a learning experience. Expecting results is wisdom. For otherwise, they will have to learn it in their adulthood which will be much more difficult.
    My “perfect” childhood, though not as “perfect” as Rinpoche’s has made me what I am today and I am definitely still learning. Lots and lots of learning to do and I will not stop learning to bring positive results for others.
    We can all make an instant choice. I have made mine while watching this video. I had a perfect (no apostrophes) life and will continue to do so to benefit others.

    Thanks again Rinpoche. May you live long!

    With folded Hands!
    KH Ng.

  143. Cynthia Ng on Mar 11, 2013 at 5:41 pm

    感谢仁波切用自身的经历激发我们每一位,每一个人都有权利选择自己的生活,好与坏,成与败都是在于我们,幸福与否取决在于我们的选择,要明白所有的事情经过都基于是我们的因果造成的,不可以怨天怨地。

    仁波切令我深思生活在痛苦与折磨中其实是一个善缘,仁波切的真实例子告诉我这样的生活并不可怕,可怕的是我们把自己终日锁在痛苦与绝望当中,那才是最痛苦的人生。有多少父母把孩子照顾的无微不至,殊不知这样是把他们推向失败的人生,不要害怕面对逆境,逆境可以造就非凡的人生,重要的是要有诚信,慈悲,慷慨,诚实等等。

    我们应该要从痛苦中反省与学习,记住那些不好的人生经验,告诫自己不要让身边的人承受这些痛苦,用相同的痛苦方式回报以及对待身边的人是一种自私的行为。

    请仁波切多照顾身体!祈愿仁波切健康长寿,长转法轮!

  144. KYC on Mar 11, 2013 at 5:38 pm

    Rinpoche’s teaching, using Rinpoche’s childhood experiences, makes us look at things from a different angle, a new perspective. A difficult childhood need not necessarily be a bad thing unless we choose to look at it that way. Rinpoche chose to look at the positive aspects. Rinpoche thinks he has a “perfect childhood” because it made Rinpoche what he is, a good person with qualities like integrity, generosity, kindness, tolerance… It’s a matter of choice. Experiences can either make or break us. Actually we do not need to look for inspiration outside. It’s within ourselves to realize what we want to be. It’s laziness and procrastination that prevent us from realizing our potential. I realize that now. Thank you Rinpoche.

  145. Yvonne Yap on Mar 11, 2013 at 4:01 pm

    事情的好与坏,都在于我们自己怎样去看待。很多东西是我们自己带来的,也改变不了,唯有好好的去经营,我们那时所做的选择,就是我们现在的源头。
    过去的好与坏经历,其实对我们来说,就是一堂课。我们该把好的学习起来,把坏的当成警惕,警惕自己,什么可以做,什么不能再做!
    我们该做成人,所该做的,守时,守信用,学习更多,做个更好的人。

  146. choi sheem on Mar 11, 2013 at 3:44 pm

    Dear Rinpoche,
    I hope Rinpoche have recovered from migraine and fever. We are so thankful to Rinpoche for giving a teaching even when Rinpoche is not feeling well. It is such a valuable lesson for parents like myself to not over protect our children from hardship and being put into situations to work things out for themselves. As Rinpoche mentioned in the video, it would be easier for children to learn certain lessons when they are young rather than to have the parents teach them when they are thirty years old. This is really loving them in the right way. Yes, we must educate our children to have integrity and to keep their promise, so that they grow up to be a responsible adult who will not burden other people around them. It is also so good to know that although our body gets old, our mindstream does not age, therefore it is always never too late to learn something new and to train our mind for our future lives. I wish to also turn whatever horrible experiences I have been through into something positive and to help others not go through those bad experiences. For me, the most fundamental lesson from the video would be that we must not have the “can’t do it” mentality and to always benefit others without agendas. Thank you Rinpoche for all these valuable lessons.

  147. yenpin on Mar 11, 2013 at 3:32 pm

    非常感谢仁波切的启发和教导,与我们分享过去童年和体验。
    让我们知道痛苦与伤害,不是别人,是自己创造的。
    现在遇不到,到时也会遇见的。既然如此,为何我们现在不要去学会去面对。
    意识是不会变老,我们没有借口让自己不要去做出改变。
    当我们明白到痛苦,是让我们学习成长的一个过程,我们受苦或是遇到悲惨的事情,就会避免把伤害带给他人。

  148. Valentina Suhendra on Mar 11, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    Dear Lama

    Thank you for the recording of your teaching It’s An Instant Change. These are my thoughts:
    • What happened to you during childhood can either make you or break you. I did not have the power to choose where I was born in this life. I think it is the force of karma. When I was a child I often envy my other peers who had it so easy. Well, I did not get any beating but there were some turbulences. I found what you said to be true. The values that I am having today, largely was formed during my formative years.
    • Our mind stream is never too old to learn – The process of learning does not stop at childhood. Every experience, every challenge that we faced on daily basis is opportunities to learn. My situation currently is not ideal, and sometimes I am frustrated because I feel that it is incapacitating me. However, I have to acknowledge as well that this “non-ideal” condition that I am experiencing also help me tremendously to focus on the essentials and discard many of my perceptions that I used to have about what is necessary to execute certain actions. I have become leaner and more efficient in my way of thought
    • Integrity – Just as yourself I have encountered many people that break their promises. It hurts. It used to drive me insane with anger because I do not take everything that is said lightly. Over time however, I learned to deal with this and have some pity and compassion to people who does not fulfill their promises. I do not keep my promises lightly as I do not want to inflict harm or hurt to people as best as I can. I feel that promises are made to be fulfilled. I may not always be able to fulfill my promises immediately (due to lack of resources or undergoing several unforeseen circumstances, or I just could not make it at this time due to my limited physical ability (e.g., extremely tired)), but they are in my thoughts and when the opportunities arise, I try my best to fulfill them. Especially my promises to you.
    • Lastly, I still remember that in year 2011, you promised to come to Indonesia and treat me lunch. I am still waiting for the fulfillment of this promise hehe..

    Valentina

  149. Sharon Saw on Mar 11, 2013 at 2:58 pm

    Thank you for this great universal teaching, which anyone can apply, regardless of religion or culture. Even Rinpoche’s giving the teaching while Rinpoche was so ill, was a teaching in itself – of Rinpoche’s priority being always on the need to benefit others.

    I liked what Rinpoche said about how we look at situations. Whatever experiences we have had, whether superficially good or bad, we can always choose to see them as positive or negative. In this case, Rinpoche had a very tough childhood, yet he says that he realized that it was a good childhood. This was because it has resulted in his not wishing others to go through what he did – to live in perpetual fear, to live with unpredictability and to always have people break their promises made to him.

    When we spoil our children, the lessons they should learn as children will only be learned when they are older, which often happens to adults who are irresponsible and lazy. If kids learn to take responsibility when young, then when they are older, in their 20s, they are better at it and by the time they are in their 30s, they are experts and in their 40s and 50s, they can become inspirational. However, when they only begin to learn responsibility in their 20s or 30s then the whole process is respectively delayed. This made a lot of sense to me, especially as a parent of course!

    The most empowering lesson was that everything is a choice. And choices happen in an instant. How we choose to look at things is a choice. With dharma, we have informed choices. And the results of the choices which we make will determine our future.

  150. Ai Nin on Mar 11, 2013 at 2:25 pm

    We have to move on in our many lifes time. I learned from this moment onwards practise to be a better person in order to carry good mind to our many lifetimes. I have experience at the age of eleven to twelve about confusion , lack of confidence, bad in expressions at teenage times. But, Rinpoche said it is not old to learn everything. “Learning new things everyday is intelligence , letting go things everyday is wisdom”. Many thanks Rinpoche. I will remember your words and share with people are surrounding me.

  151. Lai on Mar 11, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing, we should not defeated by bad circumstances and experiences, make used of it to be a better person.
    Life is full of choice, to be or not to be? don’t afraid of making a choice, move on and no stuck.
    “Learning something new everyday is intelligent, letting go of something everyday is wisdom.” Thanks Rinpoche for sharing this wisdom word.
    May Rinpoche getting well soon and always blessed by Menlha.
    May Rinpoche live long, healthy and always turn dharma wheel.

  152. jimmy tan on Mar 11, 2013 at 2:06 pm

    感谢仁波切无私的与我们分享他的过去童年和体验。在仁波切的教诲当中我学会了不要意味着羡慕别人,不要整天想着要找某谋人来启发自己。而是自己应该觉知自己不好的地方而从中立刻做出改变。人的躯体会跟着岁月的洗礼而慢慢的老化。不过人的意识是不会变老的所以我们没有借口让自己不去做出改变。当中仁波切也告诉我们不要把不愉快的事情当成是很悲惨因为这也是一种体验和成长过程。就算现在不来到时也会遇见的。既然如此为何不现在学会去面对呢?再次感谢仁波切无限的慈悲给与我们珍贵的开示!

    • James Long on Mar 15, 2013 at 3:53 am

      我们有一个固有的思想和观念,这种观念是我们从小灌输的,而我们觉得什么都不能改变,其实是为自己“不肯改变”找的借口。

      我最喜欢的一段是从33:00 分钟开始。我们从小应该教导关于诚信、有效率、能思考、负责的人,那么在二十岁时,我们开始能将事情做好,三十岁成为当中的佼佼者,四、五十岁成为别人的榜样,成为别人可以信任的人。

      可是我们对小孩的爱,往往是溺爱,结果成为了一群大孩子,不能独立自主,甚至连累身边的人。只要细心观察,可以发现很多拒绝长大的人,因为我们很少被放置在一个困境(也可是设计的困境)迫使我们长大。

      谢谢仁波切的教导,我们很幸运能知道自己的不足,有个走出来的机会,不然我们将会枉费一生,最后后悔离开。

  153. Felix Kong on Mar 11, 2013 at 1:57 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing so meaningful video . This is inspire me , even we had bad experience in childhood or right now, we have to face it and we will be better in future because nothing is permanent.

    Always remind myself that cannot be laziness, must learn from mistake or other peoples mistake and don’t repeat it again . Life will be full of happiness if we changing our mind , nothing is impossible and we must think that “We can do it “.

    May Rinpoche healthy and long life .

  154. joey wong on Mar 11, 2013 at 1:47 pm

    Dear Rinpoche,

    Rinpoche’s sharing of Rinpoche’s experiences really made me rethink many things on whether or not I have faced them. What really hit me was that Rinpoche had said that when we face something we cannot face we tend to be either overscrutinize or we get numb and that we have to face all of them now by making a decision on whether or not we allow those to make us to be a bad person or to be a good person as I always have a constant struggle of paranoia against people in general and it is exactly like how Rinpoche described….and its also about the lack of good qualities i have at the moment and how most of them should have been there when i was young but somehow i do not have it yet…and its not too late for me to develop them now and make my choice.

    I thank Rinpoche a lot for these words as it helps me ease my constant paranoia against people…i knew having paranoia was wrong but i had no idea on how to handle or shift it or make use of it in a more positive way.

  155. Jace Chong on Mar 11, 2013 at 1:31 pm

    Dear Rinpoche,

    Thank you very much for the enlightening teachings. “What we experienced should not be something to break us, but to make us.” With more wisdom, we transform pain to positive awareness of how to avoid hurting others. I like what Rinpoche says about what we experienced, we empower them in the good way. Never use the pain we experienced to hurt others and set up a new hurting circle which it will go round and round, grow bigger and bigger and it never ends.

    There are so many circle of pain the world already, if we unable to stop them all, at least we can stop creating one.

    Thanks Rinpoche. I wish your migraine be healed very soon and always be healthy, long life, and keep turning the Wheel Of Dharma.

  156. HelenaC on Mar 11, 2013 at 1:13 pm

    Dear Rinpoche, hope you are well and feeling better. After watching the video I feel the love and care from RInpoche. To repeat Rinpoche’s unpleasant experiences again and again is not pleasant at all, but Rinpoche did this to let us understand and to benefit us for moving on and be a better person. Never ever to have self pitiness as it will break us deeply and make us an angry person.
    Life is really about choices, we must not let the unpleasant memories nor experiences haunt us and hunt us down. These unpleasant memories it could be a good thing and perhaps an enlightenment for some people to be a better person. Always have a positive mind and things will work out smoothly.
    I am very very touched that Rinpoche says he will come back to born in this situation again to benefit us. This is truly a bodhisattva. I will always remember this teaching Rinpoche, whatever experiences I had and the choices I made is to make me and not to break me!! I will make myself a good quality person to inspired others.
    Thank you very much for your kind teaching. Please rest well and be well soon Rinpoche.

    Love,
    Helena

  157. joshua on Mar 11, 2013 at 12:39 pm

    Rinpoche’s has answered some of my questions. Thank you Rinpoche for making this video available when you are unwell. And when Rinpoche said that he is grateful to have went through the bad childhood situation. I personally think that it would be wonderful if most people felt grateful when they are met with bad circumstances and experiences. I believe its also partly due to the Gurus and Buddhas blessings that Rinpoche’s took it through to be successful and touches many people in a good way.

  158. David Lai on Mar 11, 2013 at 12:35 pm

    Wow! I came in not expecting this fantastic teaching at all. I have to say thank you rinpoche for the incredible life experiences. Yes, I have been one of those SOB of you would like to slap silly. I am also grateful that Rinpoche would not because you see the potential in me. I am overwhelmed with sense of hope. I really like everything Rinpoche said but I particularly like the parts where Rinpoche came to the realization that your painful childhood was actually good. It had made you the Rinpoche you are today and you realized this and wish to share of it.

    When Rinpoche said that, I made a wish that in my next life, I would wish to encounter a similar experience in childhood and possess the same type of determination for the Dharma that never quits and never give in to difficulties. I also like the part where Rinpoche talked about the Zen proverb about learning something each day is intelligence while giving something each day is wisdom. I was quite amazed with that wisdom because it curbs our ever-increasing attachments.

    Also, what blew my mind was also something Rinpoche explained to Martin after this recording. Martin asked how do we stop our mental instincts. Rinpoche asked what is instincts? It is merely habituation and that in itself is made up of smaller decisions. Each decision if we realized that do not bring us the desire result, we change our decisions. Since we don’t have the merit to make ‘long-term’ decisions that change our habituation, then we make small decisions that are firm and disciplined. We can always make a new decision every hour, every day and over time, we can extend the time frame of our decisions. Rinpoche breaks down transformation for us idiots and he talks nothing about collecting merit and other obscure jargon. Amazing and it ties in with Rinpoche’s amazing recollection and teaching.

  159. Niral Patel on Mar 11, 2013 at 12:16 pm

    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this video. Your life is a testament to the fact that we shouldn’t let the negative perceptions of the difficulties we’ve faced shape the way we see things, how we act or the way we think. The title of your post is extremely apt, it’s an instant choice that we make which can completely change our perception. By letting go we can transform something that we previously considered negative to a positive and motivational force in our lives.

    It’s all too easy to be lazy, allowing ourselves to perpetuate the ‘cycles’ of doing to others what was done to us. Even in those situations I think people know, deep down, that what they are doing is not right, yet it’s the laziness and the fear of the unknown that keeps us stuck. It’s the fear of not knowing how others will react or if things will be the same, or comfortable, that keeps us there. There is an aspect of courage involved with some of the choices we make, and Rinpoche, you are a true inspiration for the courage we need to overcome our current perceptions. Thank you.

  160. Wah Ying on Mar 11, 2013 at 11:34 am

    I love this teaching, thanks Rinpoche always shares your thought with insight and wisdom.

    I learnt that to be able to play a good game or winning a game, not necessary to have a set of good cards. A set of “bad” cards sometimes or most of the times makes one to be a winner. To be a winner in life not necessary to have all the criteria of reputed family, good education, wealthy parents….It depends on how we wish to lead our life, to have a wonderful and beneficial like to ourself and people we meet, is this motivation/choice that decides what kind of life we wish to have.

    It’s a DIY world, you always have a choice how you lead your life.

    拿到一手“烂牌”不一定输完,一手好牌却经常是输家。牌打得好不好不是因为你摸到好牌一套,而是你大牌得技巧如何,你一心要有怎样的结局。人生过得精彩还是烂,不一定因为是天之骄子,不是因为你得天独厚。诀窍,应该是在于不管先天条件如何,你决心有一个精彩的人生,一个让自己幸福遇见你的人幸福的人生。

  161. John Woo on Mar 11, 2013 at 11:33 am

    Letting Go, letting go and letting go is the hardest thing to do in this life. Often times, I’d indulge in self-pity when confronted with unpleasant situations and being not wanting to have “war” would rather keep my silence to preserve the peace. Getting out of self-pitiness does require realization, although most of the time it comes at a much later time in life. Having friends who are not from my common clique does help as they would not be giving their opinions based on group-thinking, but an honest and unbias opinion, which is valuable.

    Reflection, as mentioned by Rinpoche many times, is very important in our daily lives. It helps to assess if the things that have transpired and done was positive or negative, have benefited others or worse unknowingly hurt others feelings. While not perfect, I do endeavor to remember to reflect and be aware of phenomena that is happening, to contain the anger welling inside if I’m aware of it although I lost most of the time. I’ll endeavor to better myself in this aspect. It is the choice that I have to made.

    Thank you, Rinpoche for your continuous teachings and compassion. May you live long and continue to turn the wheel of Dharma.

    Kind Regards,
    John

  162. Teck Lock Ong on Mar 11, 2013 at 10:08 am

    What Tulku Rinpoche have gone through his childhood, make me realised that I’ve a wonderful childhood!

  163. henry ooi on Mar 11, 2013 at 9:30 am

    This is a wonderful teaching for me, and as a parent. I will ask my children to read, understand and practice what is being taught here. They will know why they have do household chores, their school homework and work assigned to them on time. They will learn: not to expect things to be given to them on a silver platter, not to expect and not just take but also give. They will learn not to complain but find solution. They will learn not to say they cannot. They will learn the meaning of integrity and keeping promises consistently. All these apply to me too. Dharma teaching and practice is the best education, aside from school, for my children and for me.

    Like most adults, I too had gone through some sad n difficult childhood but I did not use them as excuses to hurt or exact physical revenge on others. My children will learn of this. Like Rinpoche said, it is my choice if I let these experiences break me. I will use my experiences to make it.

    I will learn, unlearn and relearn. I will learn to discard negative thoughts and actions. Thank you so much, and please live long, Rinpoche.

  164. abby f on Mar 11, 2013 at 8:10 am

    In this teaching, Rinpoche talked about how His horrible childhood inspired Him to be a person who does not want to break promises, hurt others because He felt it in the past and He knows/understand exactly how pain it would be.

    Rinpoche’s bad childhood didn’t turned Him into a bad person but a nice person, a generous person. This is an instant choice as we have the choice to choose hang up in the past and all the bitterness, or we move on and be a happier kind person. After we learned Dharma, we have more choices, we have the knowledge to transform instantly. Never say NO to yourself. When we say no, it feeds our delusion and pure laziness. To be good and not to harm others… how long we can wait?

    We don’t have to wait for the enlightening moment to transform, we just transform and that’s it. This is instant transformation!

    What Rinpoche experienced in the past was a blessing. Because of all the hardships, Rinpoche knows/understand how much pain people carry. Rinpoche will be able to immediately connect with people’s pain with His own experience. So He can really help and give advice. And because of this condition, Rinpoche learned it in hard way, so this made Him a more kindness person.

    In fact there is no good or bad for having a wonderful or horrible childhood because they both can make us or destroy us. The choice is in your head, you can pick the choice anytime.

  165. Birda Rose on Mar 11, 2013 at 8:00 am

    Much Gratitude and Honour Rinpoche. I had a wonderful childhood too. Many Blessings to you in your kindness of sharing. In humility Birda 🙂

  166. terri on Mar 11, 2013 at 6:12 am

    thank you Rinpoche for making this video. I watched it as soon as I woke up, I reached for my mobile and saw my email, and I clicked the video and started watching it on my mobile, and now I watch it again on my pc. I love the photo, that is a wonderful quote also.
    I have also been through some terrible things, like I totally understand that terrible things can become a door for good things. For one thing if I hadn’t been hurt by bad people I wouldn’t be blessed by your teachings.

  167. mima on Mar 11, 2013 at 4:55 am

    This video is amazing. such a very very very precious guidance from Rinpoche. Even when Rinpoche is not feeling well, Rinpoche is always ready to give us help. Thank you Rinpoche so much for this precious teaching you just gave us.

  168. Joy on Mar 11, 2013 at 4:48 am

    Thank you Rinpoche for calling us in to witness and receive this heartfelt, enlightening teaching about “choices” we make… It is true that change, transformation and the switch from negative to positive is an instant switch “on”, a simple choice we can make to change the perspective. So even if the childhood we were was not such a nice one, we do not need to hold on to those “memories” instead… why not hang on to the “good” ones… like this teaching? It is just a simple amtter of choice.

    I like the fact that Rinpoche used his bad childhood experiences and disappointments to be an inspiration to become a better person, a become more forgiving, more tolerant, more kind, more compassionate and most of all more determined to rise above it all. This is inspires me because it made me reflect upon mind, which was not good also but definitely was not as bad as Rinpoche’s yet Rinpoche could turn it around and become everything the opposite of of who he cannot be or was told he cannot be. Basically everything can be positive or negative in an instant if one decides, and make that choice to see it in a different light.

    If you say it is an instinct… but instinct is also habituation which is also made by choices and choices comes from knowledge. And the lower you fall, the higher you will rise so which will you pick?

    I also like the explanation that our minds are neither old not your it is has no begining and no end… it is the shell, the body tghat changes fro life after the life but not the mind. So for those who say they “cannot” because of their age, then really need to realise this… that is has nothing to with one’s age! So really again what is the choice we pick to make that it positive?

  169. Raluca on Mar 11, 2013 at 3:49 am

    Thank you for the sincerity. It is a touching video, especially because one can see you are not feeling very well.You are so human in this confession and that is making it even more touching and once again an inspiration.
    I guess this sincerity, coupled with your honesty, perseverance and genuine concern make you so succesful in your work. Thanks to your videos and blog articles I gave up eating meat, smoking and started reading 50 stanzas on guru devotion which helped me meet my master soon after that. Whenever I recite the long amitayus mantra I am also vizualising that it is benefiting you too.I felt bad and ashamed when you mentioned that people looking for inspiration are lazy cause it happens to me some times.Thank you again.

  170. Li Kim on Mar 11, 2013 at 3:47 am

    Life is a Choice every Moment. From the moment we open our eyes to the time we go to sleep we make choices. These choices we make consistently become habits like brushing our teeth when we get up. Of course we could choose not to brush our teeth and this choice will have the results of no one talking to us at close proximity for the rest of the day. we can then make a new choice to brush our teeth and the results will change.

    Every moment I make choices. And every choice I make affects my next moment. I want to make good choices but I do mess up sometimes, and when I do mess up I get the courage (which involves shutting up my ego that I can make mistakes) to make a new choice to change the effects of my previous choice.

    Knowing that I have this power of choice is liberating and it tells me that I can make different choices and that I am not stuck and do not need to be a victim of myself.

  171. jose valdemar caruso on Mar 11, 2013 at 3:47 am

    obrigado ouvir só por sensação não falo ingles nas sinto-me abençoado

    • Martin on Mar 12, 2013 at 4:58 pm

      Rinpoche was not feeling well at all when this recording took place and in fact he was looking quite pale and was in pain. And yet, the decision to record and share the teaching anyway was made so that people can listen to it immediately and gain from it without delay.

      Not everyone has a perfect childhood and while it is true that we cannot choose our family or the condition we were born into, we can choose to either learn from the experience or suffer the experience. We cannot help what happens to us, and sometimes these things are justified and other times they are downright unfair. And because we are all human beings that respond to emotional impulses, they affect us one way or another.

      As a Bodhisattva, Rinpoche may have prayed in his previous life to be born into difficult situations so that they open his learning and compassion. But as a human person, they hurt nevertheless and therefore we cannot say that Rinpoche has a special ability the choose good over bad while we ordinary people cannot.

      For all the terrible experiences we have encountered, we can be bitter or we can commit never to let others feel the same terrible experience. We can not choose not to inflict others with similar experiences as well.

      For me the precious teaching is an equalizer and by that I mean once we have heard and understood the teaching we can immediately zerorize all the things we lamented before and use the elements in Rinpoche’s teaching to be the new foundation of the choices we make. That choice is instant and immediately triggers a difference in us.

      To begin with, the first thing we should do is to decide that everything that happened to us in the past were good. Good that they gave us a deeper deeper of what others go through, a deeper compassion of what many in similar positions are presently suffering and a greater conviction to so something for others.

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  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:31 PM
    Venerable Ajahn Chah was a Thai Buddhist teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition. Well respected and loved as a man of great wisdom, he was also instrumental in establishing Theravada Buddhism in the West. Interesting life story, how he chose to leave the settled monastic life and became a wandering ascetic. Walking across Thailand, lived in forests, caves and cremation grounds while learning from the meditation monks of the Forest of various monasteries. He wandered through the countryside in quest of quiet and secluded places for developing meditation. He even lived in tiger and cobra infested jungles, using reflections on death to penetrate to the true meaning of life. After years of wandering, Venerable Ajahn Chah established a monastery where he taught simple, practice-based form of meditation, and attracted a numerous of students including western foreigners. He was one of the greatest Dhamma teachers of the modern era. His wise teachings have continued to guide thousands of people along the path of Dharma. Venerable Ajahn Chah’s teachings of the Thai Forest Tradition gradually spread across all over the world. Several of Ajahn Chah’s Western students have since established monasteries throughout the world. Just in Thailand itself, there are more than 300 branch monasteries in Ajahn Chah’s tradition. Ven erable Ajahn Chah used his ill health as a teaching point, emphasizing that it was a living example of the impermanence of all things and reminded people to endeavour to find a true refuge within themselves. The legacy of Venerable Ajahn Chah’s teachings and legacy continues into the modern age.
    Thank you Rinpoche for this great sharing.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/great-lamas-masters/venerable-ajahn-chah-the-forest-monk.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:30 PM
    Wonderful blog written on the practice of Kalarupa for us to understand better. As an emanation of Manjushri, Kalarupa’s practice helps us to destroy ignorance and to develop wisdom overcoming our anger and suffering . Awesome Kalarupa manifested in multiple forms to help sentient beings who personifies enlightenment by the conquest of anger. Kalarupa also regard as one of the three main Dharma protectors of the Gelugpa is extremely fierce and ugly, and tames all kinds of spiritual ugliness. The fierceness of his iconography teaches us to remind ourselves that all the causes and effects of anger arising from ignorance are dreadful and distorted.
    Thank you Rinpoche and Pastor Antionette for this detailed sharing,

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/kalarupa.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:27 PM
    Nepal is a very spiritual country, having a huge Dorje Shugden mural in Kathmandu, is indeed a big achievement for Kechara. Located on Charkhal Road in Dilli Bazaar, the mural can be found midway between our two Dorje Shugden chapels which are in Putalisadak and Chabahil. It is also very close to one of Kathmandu’s largest shopping malls. Many locals , tourist will be able to connect them to a powerful deity that is so closely associated with their culture. Well the mural not only beautiful but also full of symbolism and everyone merely by seeing it is blessed. Thanks to those talented artists and generous sponsors making it a success.
    Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/travel/spectacular-dorje-shugden-mural-in-kathmandu-nepal.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:24 PM
    All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. Letting go helps us to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps restore our balance. A reminder for us all to go of attachment and meditating on impermanence and emptiness. We are to relinquish the domination of our ego and its habits to transform ourselves. A great reminder not to waste our previous life.
    Quoted Ceasing to do evil, Cultivating the good, Purifying the heart .
    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such a meaningful teachings with folded hands.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/pointing-the-staff-at-the-old-man.html
  • james belich
    Friday, Mar 8. 2024 09:43 PM
    Winning the lottery was part of my dreams, I tried so hard to win big but all to no avail, until I came across Dr Lucas online who made my dreams come through and made me win 10 million dollars. I was a logistics manager who lives in Lancaster, S.C. and works about an hour’s drive away, in Charlotte, N.C., I stopped at a store to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket during my lunch break, because Dr Lucas gave me all the assurance that the numbers are not going to fail after I did all he asked me to do. Dr lucas is a powerful Dr that is on a mission to eradicate poverty from people’s lives and i have confirmed that by winning $10 million with the numbers he provided for me, it is my promise to tell the world about my experience with Dr Lucas and that’s what I’m doing now, you can win the lottery fast with the help of Dr Lucas he is tested and trusted Email: Drlucasspelltemple@gmail. com or WhatsApp +234 904 794 3567 he will help you.
  • james belich
    Friday, Mar 8. 2024 09:42 PM
    Winning the lottery was part of my dreams, I tried so hard to win big but all to no avail, until I came across Dr Lucas online who made my dreams come through and made me win 10 million dollars. I was a logistics manager who lives in Lancaster, S.C. and works about an hour’s drive away, in Charlotte, N.C., I stopped at a store to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket during my lunch break, because Dr Lucas gave me all the assurance that the numbers are not going to fail after I did all he asked me to do. Dr lucas is a powerful Dr that is on a mission to eradicate poverty from people’s lives and i have confirmed that by winning $10 million with the numbers he provided for me, it is my promise to tell the world about my experience with Dr Lucas and that’s what I’m doing now, you can win the lottery fast with the help of Dr Lucas he is tested and trusted Email: Drlucasspelltemple@gmail.com or WhatsApp +234 904 794 3567 he will help you.
  • lee
    Thursday, Mar 7. 2024 07:06 PM
    We are members of the Buddhist Temple in Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong, Kuala Lumpur and we have been issued membership by the president (DATUK YIP KUM FOOK), we are very sad because we are the foundation of this Temple

    Now we can know who is always messing with people, and he always cheats money and women, he even uses Buddhism to find money.

    Also, need to be careful with his brother-in-law (Simon Low Kok Meng) because he is a spy (CID) for DATUK YIP KUM FOOK and we will write some letters to AGONG SULTAN IBRAHIM IBN ALMARHUM SULTAN ISKANDAR as soon as possible.

    From Jesmond Yap, Kepong Baru…Kuala Lumpur
  • Phoenix the Shaman Elder
    Thursday, Mar 7. 2024 01:40 AM
    The matriarchal cultures of the grandmothers have specific symbolism of animism shamanism, such as the horse, especially the blue horse, and the deer. These are two main symbols of a shaman woman and you can find them in many cultural folk lore, especially the Russian, Slavic, Siberian, Nordic, Finland, and Norway. It’s nice to see the Matriarchal Shaman Animism diety represented in Chinese.
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:59 PM
    An inspiring act of a selfless Lama feeding strays whether its night or day. Truly an example for us all to feed those lonely strays . Yes I do agree compassion starts with feeding strays. Reading this blog again to refresh myself to do more. Strays animals generally lead a life of poor welfare on the street. Feeding strays is a compassionate act.
    Thank you Rinpoche and Anila for this sharing.


    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/one-minute-story/rinpoche-through-my-eyes-compassion-starts-with-feeding-strays
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:56 PM
    nteresting revisit this blog again as truly inspiring reading over and over again . There’s so many inspiring nuns and female practitioner coming from different back ground, leading a more spiritual life. They are practitioners dedicated their life to religious observance and their path is illuminated by the light of compassion. Going against all odds to become one. Their devotion radiates like a thousand stars in the night sky. Here at Kechara Forest Retreat, Bentong Pahang we too have inspiring practitioners .
    Thank you Rinpoche for this great sharing.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/inspiring-nuns-and-female-practitioners.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:55 PM
    H E Tsem Rinpoche’s Sungbum project aim to preserve the teachings and practices that have been passed from teacher to disciple in an unbroken line beginning with Lama Tsongkhapa himself . History has taught us the importance of preserving Buddha’s stainless teachings. Its important to preserve and safeguard the Buddhist tradition for future generations.
    Tsem Rinpoche is a clear and effective teacher where his stories and teachings are endlessly entertaining and inspiring. The preservation is very much needed. We are so fortunate given a chance to be involved in such a meritorious project .
    Thank you.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/current-affairs/the-tsem-rinpoche-sungbum-project.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:55 PM
    Demons are disembodied spirits, supernatural being or spirit and unseen beings. We know they do exist and I believe they do. They have no physical form to them whatsoever. Demons do definitely exist. They are intelligent beings who are evil malicious spirits and are all dangerous entities. Valak is not to be summoned capriciously by anyone as they are dangerous beings when we invoke them having to face a heavy consequence. There are spiritual practices that we can ask for help a ritual of the wrathful Manjushri in the form of Trakze. Having a doing the practice daily without fail, consistently, as this Trakze practice has been proven to be efficacious to break the hold the Valak and other spirits. All thanks to our Guru bringing this practice to Kechara Forest Retreat, Bentong Malaysia.
    Thank you Rinpoche for this wonderful sharing for us to understand better.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/science-mysteries/valak-the-conjuring-2-demon.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:53 PM
    Wow ,reading all these powerful quotes had me realised much better of giving even I have little. May H E Tsem Rinpoche’s sincere advice to reach the far shore of liberation to everyone reading this blog. The most truly generous people are those who give silently without asking any in return. There is no exercise better than reaching and lifting people up. A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal. Well creating and lighting for others we naturally light our own way. Helping others especially those unfortunate ones, make us feel more positive about our own circumstances.
    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing all these powerful quotes.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/inspiration-worthy-words/the-power-of-giving-18-quotes-from-tsem-rinpoche.html
  • Aarati Bhatt
    Wednesday, Feb 28. 2024 12:47 AM
    I have tried mine and my friend’s horoscope and it results same in both of our case, and not just that I have tried this on various friends and this horoscope is showing same for maximum date of birth, I think this is a bug.
  • Samfoonheei
    Thursday, Jan 4. 2024 04:11 PM
    Lama Tsongkhapa was an influential Tibetan Buddhist monk, philosopher and tantric yogi, whose activities led to the formation of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism . Lama Tsongkhapa was hailed as the second Buddha by contemporary Buddhist masters of his time. Famous for reviving Buddhism in Tibet and revered for elevating the Dharma to all its present glory. Hence having a 12 ft Lama Tsongkhapa Statue at new Kechara Gompa (Prayer Hall) is indeed a blessing. Its truly beautiful. Merely by looking at it is a blessing .
    Thank you Rinpoche and team effort making it possible.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/kechara-13-depts/10-ft-tsongkapa-here.html

1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · »

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I must thank my dharma blog team who are great assets to me, Kechara and growth of dharma in this wonderful region. I am honoured and thrilled to work with them. I really am. Maybe I don't say it enough to them, but I am saying it now. I APPRECIATE THESE GUYS VERY MUCH!

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The Unknown

The Known and unknown are both feared,
Known is being comfortable and stagnant,
The unknown may be growth and opportunities,
One shall never know if one fears the unknown more than the known.
Who says the unknown would be worse than the known?
But then again, the unknown is sometimes worse than the known. In the end nothing is known unless we endeavour,
So go pursue all the way with the unknown,
because all unknown with familiarity becomes the known.
~Tsem Rinpoche

Photos On The Go

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According to legend, Shambhala is a place where wisdom and love reign, and there is no crime. Doesn\'t this sound like the kind of place all of us would love to live in? https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=204874
4 years ago
According to legend, Shambhala is a place where wisdom and love reign, and there is no crime. Doesn't this sound like the kind of place all of us would love to live in? https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=204874
108 candles and sang (incense) offered at our Wish-Fulfilling Grotto, invoking Dorje Shugden\'s blessings for friends, sponsors and supporters, wonderful!
4 years ago
108 candles and sang (incense) offered at our Wish-Fulfilling Grotto, invoking Dorje Shugden's blessings for friends, sponsors and supporters, wonderful!
Dharmapalas are not exclusive to Tibetan culture and their practice is widespread throughout the Buddhist world - https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=193645
4 years ago
Dharmapalas are not exclusive to Tibetan culture and their practice is widespread throughout the Buddhist world - https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=193645
One of our adorable Kechara Forest Retreat\'s doggies, Tara, happy and safe, and enjoying herself in front of Wisdom Hall which has been decorated for Chinese New Year
4 years ago
One of our adorable Kechara Forest Retreat's doggies, Tara, happy and safe, and enjoying herself in front of Wisdom Hall which has been decorated for Chinese New Year
Fragrant organic Thai basil harvested from our very own Kechara Forest Retreat farm!
4 years ago
Fragrant organic Thai basil harvested from our very own Kechara Forest Retreat farm!
On behalf of our Puja House team, Pastor Tat Ming receives food and drinks from Rinpoche. Rinpoche wanted to make sure the hardworking Puja House team are always taken care of.
4 years ago
On behalf of our Puja House team, Pastor Tat Ming receives food and drinks from Rinpoche. Rinpoche wanted to make sure the hardworking Puja House team are always taken care of.
By the time I heard about Luang Phor Thong, he was already very old, in his late 80s. When I heard about him, I immediately wanted to go and pay my respects to him. - http://bit.ly/LuangPhorThong
4 years ago
By the time I heard about Luang Phor Thong, he was already very old, in his late 80s. When I heard about him, I immediately wanted to go and pay my respects to him. - http://bit.ly/LuangPhorThong
It\'s very nice to see volunteers helping maintain holy sites in Kechara Forest Retreat, it\'s very good for them. Cleaning Buddha statues is a very powerful and effective way of purifying body karma.
4 years ago
It's very nice to see volunteers helping maintain holy sites in Kechara Forest Retreat, it's very good for them. Cleaning Buddha statues is a very powerful and effective way of purifying body karma.
Kechara Forest Retreat is preparing for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations. This is our holy Vajra Yogini stupa which is now surrounded by beautiful lanterns organised by our students.
4 years ago
Kechara Forest Retreat is preparing for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations. This is our holy Vajra Yogini stupa which is now surrounded by beautiful lanterns organised by our students.
One of the most recent harvests from our Kechara Forest Retreat land. It was grown free of chemicals and pesticides, wonderful!
4 years ago
One of the most recent harvests from our Kechara Forest Retreat land. It was grown free of chemicals and pesticides, wonderful!
Third picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal.
Height: 33ft (10m)
5 years ago
Third picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal. Height: 33ft (10m)
Second picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal.
Height: 33ft (10m)
5 years ago
Second picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal. Height: 33ft (10m)
First picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal.
Height: 33ft (10m)
5 years ago
First picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal. Height: 33ft (10m)
The first title published by Kechara Comics is Karuna Finds A Way. It tells the tale of high-school sweethearts Karuna and Adam who had what some would call the dream life. Everything was going great for them until one day when reality came knocking on their door. Caught in a surprise swindle, this loving family who never harmed anyone found themselves out of luck and down on their fortune. Determined to save her family, Karuna goes all out to find a solution. See what she does- https://bit.ly/2LSKuWo
5 years ago
The first title published by Kechara Comics is Karuna Finds A Way. It tells the tale of high-school sweethearts Karuna and Adam who had what some would call the dream life. Everything was going great for them until one day when reality came knocking on their door. Caught in a surprise swindle, this loving family who never harmed anyone found themselves out of luck and down on their fortune. Determined to save her family, Karuna goes all out to find a solution. See what she does- https://bit.ly/2LSKuWo
Very powerful story! Tibetan Resistance group Chushi Gangdruk reveals how Dalai Lama escaped in 1959- https://bit.ly/2S9VMGX
5 years ago
Very powerful story! Tibetan Resistance group Chushi Gangdruk reveals how Dalai Lama escaped in 1959- https://bit.ly/2S9VMGX
At Kechara Forest Retreat land we have nice fresh spinach growing free of chemicals and pesticides. Yes!
5 years ago
At Kechara Forest Retreat land we have nice fresh spinach growing free of chemicals and pesticides. Yes!
See beautiful pictures of Manjushri Guest House here- https://bit.ly/2WGo0ti
5 years ago
See beautiful pictures of Manjushri Guest House here- https://bit.ly/2WGo0ti
Beginner’s Introduction to Dorje Shugden~Very good overview https://bit.ly/2QQNfYv
5 years ago
Beginner’s Introduction to Dorje Shugden~Very good overview https://bit.ly/2QQNfYv
Fresh eggplants grown on Kechara Forest Retreat\'s land here in Malaysia
5 years ago
Fresh eggplants grown on Kechara Forest Retreat's land here in Malaysia
Most Venerable Uppalavanna – The Chief Female Disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni - She exhibited many supernatural abilities gained from meditation and proved to the world females and males are equal in spirituality- https://bit.ly/31d9Rat
5 years ago
Most Venerable Uppalavanna – The Chief Female Disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni - She exhibited many supernatural abilities gained from meditation and proved to the world females and males are equal in spirituality- https://bit.ly/31d9Rat
Thailand’s ‘Renegade’ Yet Powerful Buddhist Nuns~ https://bit.ly/2Z1C02m
5 years ago
Thailand’s ‘Renegade’ Yet Powerful Buddhist Nuns~ https://bit.ly/2Z1C02m
Mahapajapati Gotami – the first Buddhist nun ordained by Lord Buddha- https://bit.ly/2IjD8ru
5 years ago
Mahapajapati Gotami – the first Buddhist nun ordained by Lord Buddha- https://bit.ly/2IjD8ru
The Largest Buddha Shakyamuni in Russia | 俄罗斯最大的释迦牟尼佛画像- https://bit.ly/2Wpclni
5 years ago
The Largest Buddha Shakyamuni in Russia | 俄罗斯最大的释迦牟尼佛画像- https://bit.ly/2Wpclni
Sacred Vajra Yogini
5 years ago
Sacred Vajra Yogini
Dorje Shugden works & archives - a labour of commitment - https://bit.ly/30Tp2p8
5 years ago
Dorje Shugden works & archives - a labour of commitment - https://bit.ly/30Tp2p8
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha.
5 years ago
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha.
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha. She was his step-mother and aunt. Buddha\'s mother had passed away at his birth so he was raised by Gotami.
5 years ago
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha. She was his step-mother and aunt. Buddha's mother had passed away at his birth so he was raised by Gotami.
Another nun disciple of Lord Buddha\'s. She had achieved great spiritual abilities and high attainments. She would be a proper object of refuge. This image of the eminent bhikkhuni (nun) disciple of the Buddha, Uppalavanna Theri.
5 years ago
Another nun disciple of Lord Buddha's. She had achieved great spiritual abilities and high attainments. She would be a proper object of refuge. This image of the eminent bhikkhuni (nun) disciple of the Buddha, Uppalavanna Theri.
Wandering Ascetic Painting by Nirdesha Munasinghe
5 years ago
Wandering Ascetic Painting by Nirdesha Munasinghe
High Sri Lankan monks visit Kechara to bless our land, temple, Buddha and Dorje Shugden images. They were very kind-see pictures- https://bit.ly/2HQie2M
5 years ago
High Sri Lankan monks visit Kechara to bless our land, temple, Buddha and Dorje Shugden images. They were very kind-see pictures- https://bit.ly/2HQie2M
This is pretty amazing!

First Sri Lankan Buddhist temple opened in Dubai!!!
5 years ago
This is pretty amazing! First Sri Lankan Buddhist temple opened in Dubai!!!
My Dharma boy (left) and Oser girl loves to laze around on the veranda in the mornings. They enjoy all the trees, grass and relaxing under the hot sun. Sunbathing is a favorite daily activity. I care about these two doggies of mine very much and I enjoy seeing them happy. They are with me always. Tsem Rinpoche

Always be kind to animals and eat vegetarian- https://bit.ly/2Psp8h2
5 years ago
My Dharma boy (left) and Oser girl loves to laze around on the veranda in the mornings. They enjoy all the trees, grass and relaxing under the hot sun. Sunbathing is a favorite daily activity. I care about these two doggies of mine very much and I enjoy seeing them happy. They are with me always. Tsem Rinpoche Always be kind to animals and eat vegetarian- https://bit.ly/2Psp8h2
After you left me Mumu, I was alone. I have no family or kin. You were my family. I can\'t stop thinking of you and I can\'t forget you. My bond and connection with you is so strong. I wish you were by my side. Tsem Rinpoche
5 years ago
After you left me Mumu, I was alone. I have no family or kin. You were my family. I can't stop thinking of you and I can't forget you. My bond and connection with you is so strong. I wish you were by my side. Tsem Rinpoche
This story is a life-changer. Learn about the incredible Forest Man of India | 印度“森林之子”- https://bit.ly/2Eh4vRS
5 years ago
This story is a life-changer. Learn about the incredible Forest Man of India | 印度“森林之子”- https://bit.ly/2Eh4vRS
Part 2-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
5 years ago
Part 2-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
Part 1-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
5 years ago
Part 1-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
The great Protector Manjushri Dorje Shugden depicted in the beautiful Mongolian style. To download a high resolution file: https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
5 years ago
The great Protector Manjushri Dorje Shugden depicted in the beautiful Mongolian style. To download a high resolution file: https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
The Mystical land of Shambhala is finally ready for everyone to feast their eyes and be blessed. A beautiful post with information, art work, history, spirituality and a beautiful book composed by His Holiness the 6th Panchen Rinpoche. ~ https://bit.ly/309MHBi
5 years ago
The Mystical land of Shambhala is finally ready for everyone to feast their eyes and be blessed. A beautiful post with information, art work, history, spirituality and a beautiful book composed by His Holiness the 6th Panchen Rinpoche. ~ https://bit.ly/309MHBi
Beautiful pictures of the huge Buddha in Longkou Nanshan- https://bit.ly/2LsBxVb
5 years ago
Beautiful pictures of the huge Buddha in Longkou Nanshan- https://bit.ly/2LsBxVb
The reason-Very interesting thought- https://bit.ly/2V7VT5r
5 years ago
The reason-Very interesting thought- https://bit.ly/2V7VT5r
NEW Bigfoot cafe in Malaysia! Food is delicious!- https://bit.ly/2VxdGau
5 years ago
NEW Bigfoot cafe in Malaysia! Food is delicious!- https://bit.ly/2VxdGau
DON\'T MISS THIS!~How brave Bonnie survived by living with a herd of deer~ https://bit.ly/2Lre2eY
5 years ago
DON'T MISS THIS!~How brave Bonnie survived by living with a herd of deer~ https://bit.ly/2Lre2eY
Global Superpower China Will Cut Meat Consumption by 50%! Very interesting, find out more- https://bit.ly/2V1sJFh
5 years ago
Global Superpower China Will Cut Meat Consumption by 50%! Very interesting, find out more- https://bit.ly/2V1sJFh
You can download this beautiful Egyptian style Dorje Shugden Free- https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
5 years ago
You can download this beautiful Egyptian style Dorje Shugden Free- https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
Beautiful high file for print of Lord Manjushri. May you be blessed- https://bit.ly/2V8mwZe
5 years ago
Beautiful high file for print of Lord Manjushri. May you be blessed- https://bit.ly/2V8mwZe
Mongolian (Oymiakon) Shaman in Siberia, Russia. That is his real outfit he wears. Very unique. TR
5 years ago
Mongolian (Oymiakon) Shaman in Siberia, Russia. That is his real outfit he wears. Very unique. TR
Find one of the most beautiful temples in the world in Nara, Japan. It is the 1,267 year old Todai-ji temple that houses a 15 meter Buddha Vairocana statue who is a cosmic and timeless Buddha. Emperor Shomu who sponsored this beautiful temple eventually abdicated and ordained as a Buddhist monk. Very interesting history and story. One of the places everyone should visit- https://bit.ly/2VgsHhK
5 years ago
Find one of the most beautiful temples in the world in Nara, Japan. It is the 1,267 year old Todai-ji temple that houses a 15 meter Buddha Vairocana statue who is a cosmic and timeless Buddha. Emperor Shomu who sponsored this beautiful temple eventually abdicated and ordained as a Buddhist monk. Very interesting history and story. One of the places everyone should visit- https://bit.ly/2VgsHhK
Manjusri Kumara (bodhisattva of wisdom), India, Pala dynesty, 9th century, stone, Honolulu Academy of Arts
5 years ago
Manjusri Kumara (bodhisattva of wisdom), India, Pala dynesty, 9th century, stone, Honolulu Academy of Arts
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Videos On The Go

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    4 years ago
    Pig puts his toys away
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    Always be kind to animals-They deserve to live just like us.
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    5 years ago
    Bodha stupa July 2019-
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    5 years ago
    Cute Tara girl having a snack. She is one of Kechara Forest Retreat’s resident doggies.
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    5 years ago
    Your Next Meal!
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    5 years ago
    This is Daw
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    5 years ago
    Don’t Take My Mummy Away!
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    5 years ago
    They do this every day!
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    5 years ago
    What happened at Fair Oaks Farm?
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    5 years ago
    She’s going to spend her whole life here without being able to move correctly. Like a machine. They are the slaves of the people and are viewed as a product. It’s immoral. Billions of terrestrial animals die annually. Billions. You can’t even imagine it. And all that because people don’t want to give up meat, even though there are so many alternatives. ~ Gabriel Azimov
  • Our Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir speaks so well, logically and regarding our country’s collaboration with China for growth. It is refreshing to listen to Dr. Mahathir’s thoughts. He said our country can look to China for many more things such as technology and so on. Tsem Rinpoche
    5 years ago
    Our Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir speaks so well, logically and regarding our country’s collaboration with China for growth. It is refreshing to listen to Dr. Mahathir’s thoughts. He said our country can look to China for many more things such as technology and so on. Tsem Rinpoche
  • This is the first time His Holiness Dalai Lama mentions he had some very serious illness. Very worrying. This video is captured April 2019.
    5 years ago
    This is the first time His Holiness Dalai Lama mentions he had some very serious illness. Very worrying. This video is captured April 2019.
  • Beautiful Monastery in Hong Kong
    5 years ago
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  • This dog thanks his hero in such a touching way. Tsem Rinpoche
    5 years ago
    This dog thanks his hero in such a touching way. Tsem Rinpoche
  • Join Tsem Rinpoche in prayer for H.H. Dalai Lama’s long life~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYy7JcveikU&feature=youtu.be
    5 years ago
    Join Tsem Rinpoche in prayer for H.H. Dalai Lama’s long life~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYy7JcveikU&feature=youtu.be
  • These people going on pilgrimage to a holy mountain and prostrating out of devotion and for pilgrimage in Tibet. Such determination for spiritual practice. Tsem Rinpoche
    5 years ago
    These people going on pilgrimage to a holy mountain and prostrating out of devotion and for pilgrimage in Tibet. Such determination for spiritual practice. Tsem Rinpoche
  • Beautiful new casing in Kechara for Vajra Yogini. Tsem Rinpoche
    5 years ago
    Beautiful new casing in Kechara for Vajra Yogini. Tsem Rinpoche
  • Get ready to laugh real hard. This is Kechara’s version of “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane!” We have some real talents in this video clip.
    5 years ago
    Get ready to laugh real hard. This is Kechara’s version of “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane!” We have some real talents in this video clip.
  • Recitation of Dorje Dermo‘s mantra or the Dharani of Glorious Vajra Claws. This powerful mantra is meant to destroy all obstacles that come in our way. Beneficial to play this mantra in our environments.
    5 years ago
    Recitation of Dorje Dermo‘s mantra or the Dharani of Glorious Vajra Claws. This powerful mantra is meant to destroy all obstacles that come in our way. Beneficial to play this mantra in our environments.
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    5 years ago
    Beautiful
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    5 years ago
    My little monster cute babies Dharma and Oser. Take a look and get a cute attack for the day! Tsem Rinpoche
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    Plse watch this short video and see how all sentient beings are capable of tenderness and love. We should never hurt animals nor should we eat them. Tsem Rinpoche
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    5 years ago
    SUPER ADORABLE and must see
    Tsem Rinpoche's dog Oser girl enjoying her snack in her play pen.
  • Cute!
    5 years ago
    Cute!
    Oser girl loves the balcony so much. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTcoWpKJm2c
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    We rescued a lost baby owl in Kechara Forest Retreat.
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    5 years ago
    Enjoy a peaceful morning at Kechara Forest Retreat
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CHAT PICTURES

And here's Mr Wong of KSK Ipoh who dropped by to pray and offered some donation to the Chapel. Kechara Penang Study Group. Pic by Siew Hong & uploaded by Jacinta.
2 days ago
And here's Mr Wong of KSK Ipoh who dropped by to pray and offered some donation to the Chapel. Kechara Penang Study Group. Pic by Siew Hong & uploaded by Jacinta.
Today's puja (16/3/2024) ended around 420pm, Jacinta was the umze of the day. Pic by Siew Hong. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 days ago
Today's puja (16/3/2024) ended around 420pm, Jacinta was the umze of the day. Pic by Siew Hong. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Group photo taken after the last session, sealed with King of Prayers. Come and join us next time! Sayonara - 9-10th March 2024 - Kechara Penang DS Retreat by Jacinta.
6 days ago
Group photo taken after the last session, sealed with King of Prayers. Come and join us next time! Sayonara - 9-10th March 2024 - Kechara Penang DS Retreat by Jacinta.
Abundance altar! Fruits, flowers, Mee Koo (traditional Penang buns), Bee Hoon, sourdoughs and snacks are some of the offerings to Rinpoche, Buddhas & Bodhisattvas. Kechara Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat 9-10th March, 2024 by Jacinta.
7 days ago
Abundance altar! Fruits, flowers, Mee Koo (traditional Penang buns), Bee Hoon, sourdoughs and snacks are some of the offerings to Rinpoche, Buddhas & Bodhisattvas. Kechara Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat 9-10th March, 2024 by Jacinta.
Siew Hong, one of retreatants and an active member of Kechara Penang group proudly presented her torma to be used during the Kalarupa puja. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
7 days ago
Siew Hong, one of retreatants and an active member of Kechara Penang group proudly presented her torma to be used during the Kalarupa puja. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Torma making was taught by Pastor Seng Piow and held one day before the retreat. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
7 days ago
Torma making was taught by Pastor Seng Piow and held one day before the retreat. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat cum Puja, 9-10th March 2024 led by Pastor Seng Piow with 12 retreatants. Uploaded by Jacinta
7 days ago
Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat cum Puja, 9-10th March 2024 led by Pastor Seng Piow with 12 retreatants. Uploaded by Jacinta
The celebration ended with a Dorje Shugden puja, dedicated to all the sponsors, our loved ones and as well as for the happiness & good health for all sentient beings. May Rinpoche return swiftly too and taking this opportunity wishing all Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai from all of us, Kechara Penang Study Group. Uploaded by Jacinta.
1 month ago
The celebration ended with a Dorje Shugden puja, dedicated to all the sponsors, our loved ones and as well as for the happiness & good health for all sentient beings. May Rinpoche return swiftly too and taking this opportunity wishing all Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai from all of us, Kechara Penang Study Group. Uploaded by Jacinta.
Seen here, Pastor Seng Piow set off firecrackers - welcoming of the upcoming year with enthusiasm and positive energy. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
1 month ago
Seen here, Pastor Seng Piow set off firecrackers - welcoming of the upcoming year with enthusiasm and positive energy. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
In this pic, Pastor Seng Piow is sharing Dharma with newbies ~ Sharyn's friends. It's always good to make light offerings at the beginning of new year. By making light offerings, you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and achieve wisdom. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
1 month ago
In this pic, Pastor Seng Piow is sharing Dharma with newbies ~ Sharyn's friends. It's always good to make light offerings at the beginning of new year. By making light offerings, you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and achieve wisdom. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
One the day of Losar (new lunar year), it is always beneficial for Buddhist practitioners to get together in making abundant offerings to Buddhas on the altar to usher in goodness, prosperity and well-being of our loved ones. It's more auspicious this year as Losar and the Chinese New Year begin on the same date, 10th Feb, 2024. Back in Penang, our Kechara members came together to decorate the altar with abundance offerings for Dorje Shugden puja @3pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
1 month ago
One the day of Losar (new lunar year), it is always beneficial for Buddhist practitioners to get together in making abundant offerings to Buddhas on the altar to usher in goodness, prosperity and well-being of our loved ones. It's more auspicious this year as Losar and the Chinese New Year begin on the same date, 10th Feb, 2024. Back in Penang, our Kechara members came together to decorate the altar with abundance offerings for Dorje Shugden puja @3pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Mr. Dared Lim was offering water bowls on behalf of Kechara Ipoh Study Group. (Kin Hoe)
1 month ago
Mr. Dared Lim was offering water bowls on behalf of Kechara Ipoh Study Group. (Kin Hoe)
Jun from Ipoh was offering mandarin oranges to Mother Tara and The Three Jewels. (Kin Hoe)
1 month ago
Jun from Ipoh was offering mandarin oranges to Mother Tara and The Three Jewels. (Kin Hoe)
Prior to our puja in Ipoh, Mr. & Mrs. Cheah Fook Wan were preparing for the offerings to the Buddhas. (Kin Hoe)
1 month ago
Prior to our puja in Ipoh, Mr. & Mrs. Cheah Fook Wan were preparing for the offerings to the Buddhas. (Kin Hoe)
On Sunday afternoon, Kechara Ipoh Study Group has carried out Mother Tara prayer recitations in Ipoh. (Kin Hoe)
1 month ago
On Sunday afternoon, Kechara Ipoh Study Group has carried out Mother Tara prayer recitations in Ipoh. (Kin Hoe)
Some of the best shots taken during Thaipusam in Penang. Swee Bee, Huey, Tang KS, Nathan, Choong SH and Jacinta volunteered. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
2 months ago
Some of the best shots taken during Thaipusam in Penang. Swee Bee, Huey, Tang KS, Nathan, Choong SH and Jacinta volunteered. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Simple yet powerful ally ~ Bhagawan Dorje Shuden. Kechara Penang Study Group consists of Chien Seong, Hue, Choong SH, Tang KS, Swee Bee and Jacinta. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Uploaded by Jacinta.
2 months ago
Simple yet powerful ally ~ Bhagawan Dorje Shuden. Kechara Penang Study Group consists of Chien Seong, Hue, Choong SH, Tang KS, Swee Bee and Jacinta. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Uploaded by Jacinta.
Thaipusam in Penang. Some of the best shots. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
2 months ago
Thaipusam in Penang. Some of the best shots. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Nothing beats having a sacred audience with our lineage lamas. It's not selfie or wefie, but we have the best 'groufie'!!! 20th Jan 2024, Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 months ago
Nothing beats having a sacred audience with our lineage lamas. It's not selfie or wefie, but we have the best 'groufie'!!! 20th Jan 2024, Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Welcoming our lineage Gurus to our Penang Chapel today! Pastor Seng Piow explained the significance of having Guru Tree and introduced to us our lineage lamas, Buddhas, deities, protectors and etc.
2 months ago
Welcoming our lineage Gurus to our Penang Chapel today! Pastor Seng Piow explained the significance of having Guru Tree and introduced to us our lineage lamas, Buddhas, deities, protectors and etc.
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 months ago
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 months ago
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Tara Recitation is on now at KISG - Wai Meng
3 months ago
Tara Recitation is on now at KISG - Wai Meng
Photo from Wan Wai Meng
3 months ago
Photo from Wan Wai Meng
A sea of yellow ~usually in Tibetan Buddhism yellow represents growth. We prayed that our Penang group will grow in terms of people, wealth and attainments too. _/\_ Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
3 months ago
A sea of yellow ~usually in Tibetan Buddhism yellow represents growth. We prayed that our Penang group will grow in terms of people, wealth and attainments too. _/_ Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
After Dorje Shugden puja @3pm, we had Rinpoche's Swift Return puja too. We laughed as Sis Swee Bee was commenting that Tang should smile ~ here's the reason why we laughed.  Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta Goh
3 months ago
After Dorje Shugden puja @3pm, we had Rinpoche's Swift Return puja too. We laughed as Sis Swee Bee was commenting that Tang should smile ~ here's the reason why we laughed. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta Goh
3 months ago
Today's (9/12/2023)Dorje Shugden puja led by Gordon. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
3 months ago
Today's (9/12/2023)Dorje Shugden puja led by Gordon. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
3 months ago
3 months ago
Dharma sharing by Hue before we proceeded with DS puja & Rinpoche Swift Return puja. Hue is one of the long time Kechara Penang members and he comes to puja regularly. He shared that he truly believes that Dorje Shugden and Rinpoche always there guiding him. He shared how sometimes DS will give him hints to avert troubles ahead or to alert him when he 'misbehaved'. Hope many will come to know more about this powerful Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden aka DS. Having Dorje Shugden is like having a powerful ally that will protect us day and night. Just trust Him and have faith. Kechara Penang Study Group, 25/11/2023 by Jacinta.
4 months ago
Dharma sharing by Hue before we proceeded with DS puja & Rinpoche Swift Return puja. Hue is one of the long time Kechara Penang members and he comes to puja regularly. He shared that he truly believes that Dorje Shugden and Rinpoche always there guiding him. He shared how sometimes DS will give him hints to avert troubles ahead or to alert him when he 'misbehaved'. Hope many will come to know more about this powerful Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden aka DS. Having Dorje Shugden is like having a powerful ally that will protect us day and night. Just trust Him and have faith. Kechara Penang Study Group, 25/11/2023 by Jacinta.
Kechara Penang Study Group had our weekly DS puja , led by our beloved sis Swee Bee and serkym by Mr. Lee. After that, we completed Swift Return puja also. 18th Nov 2023. By Jacinta
4 months ago
Kechara Penang Study Group had our weekly DS puja , led by our beloved sis Swee Bee and serkym by Mr. Lee. After that, we completed Swift Return puja also. 18th Nov 2023. By Jacinta
#Back2back 11th Nov 2023 Dorje Shugden puja & Rinpoche's Swift Return puja @Penang Chapel, 49 Jalan Seang Tek, Georgetown, Pulau Pinang. Every Saturday @3pm/5pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
4 months ago
#Back2back 11th Nov 2023 Dorje Shugden puja & Rinpoche's Swift Return puja @Penang Chapel, 49 Jalan Seang Tek, Georgetown, Pulau Pinang. Every Saturday @3pm/5pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Pic: Rinpoche Swift Return puja ~ 21/10/23 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
5 months ago
Pic: Rinpoche Swift Return puja ~ 21/10/23 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
#Backtoback A few months back, Kechara Penang Study Group started to have two pujas consecutively on Saturday. Dorje Shugden puja @3pm and thereafter Rinpoche Swift Return puja. This can only be achieved due to the committed members from Penang. A big round of applause...... Pic : DS puja on 21/10/2023 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
5 months ago
#Backtoback A few months back, Kechara Penang Study Group started to have two pujas consecutively on Saturday. Dorje Shugden puja @3pm and thereafter Rinpoche Swift Return puja. This can only be achieved due to the committed members from Penang. A big round of applause...... Pic : DS puja on 21/10/2023 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
More pictures of the day! Kechara Penang Chapel & public blessings 3rd Oct 2023 by Jacinta.
5 months ago
More pictures of the day! Kechara Penang Chapel & public blessings 3rd Oct 2023 by Jacinta.
Some pictures of the public blessings taken right after the puja was completed by the monks. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta. 3rd Oct 2023.
5 months ago
Some pictures of the public blessings taken right after the puja was completed by the monks. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta. 3rd Oct 2023.
3rd Oct 2023, Tibetan monks came to Kechara Penang for chapel & public blessing, in conjunction with the arrival of H. E Tsem Rinpoche's holy statue. Thanks to Pastor Henry & Pastor Seng Piow, who guided us throughout the event. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
5 months ago
3rd Oct 2023, Tibetan monks came to Kechara Penang for chapel & public blessing, in conjunction with the arrival of H. E Tsem Rinpoche's holy statue. Thanks to Pastor Henry & Pastor Seng Piow, who guided us throughout the event. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Tsem Rinpoche's holy statue is here! 3rd Oct 2023. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
5 months ago
Tsem Rinpoche's holy statue is here! 3rd Oct 2023. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
29th Sept 2023. Kechara Penang Dorje Shugden puja adjourned at 4.30pm with 9 attendees. Thereafter, a Rinpoche Swift Return puja was completed too. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
5 months ago
29th Sept 2023. Kechara Penang Dorje Shugden puja adjourned at 4.30pm with 9 attendees. Thereafter, a Rinpoche Swift Return puja was completed too. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
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Dorje Shugden
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