Official Announcement Friday 2nd November, 2018 Plum Village International Practice Center Le Pey, Thénac 24240, France The monks and nuns of the Plum Village International Community of Engaged Buddhists stand by our beloved teacher, the Zen master, global spiritual leader, peace activist and poet Thich Nhat Hanh, as he returns again to his...

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A tale of Vairochana (aka Berotsana བཻ་རོ་ཙ་ན་, bai ro tsa na) and Pang Mipham Gönpo (spang mi pham mgon po) After returning to Tibet, the learned pandit Vairochana was eventually sent into exile to East Tibet; there he taught Yudra Nyingpo, Sangtön Yeshe Lama and the old man Mipham Gönpo before the Buddhist Tibetan King Trisong Detsen summoned him back to Lhasa. Vairochana was a great translator and contemporary of Guru Padmasambhava. Pang Mipham Gönpo became a student of Vairochana when he was already eighty (80) years old. Although 80 years ...

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b.1619 – d.1656 Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས། Geography: Lhasa ལྷ་ས། Historical Period: 17th Century ༡༧ དུས་རབས། Institution: Drepung Monastery འབྲས་སྤུངས་།; Olkha Cholung འོལ་ཁ་ཆོས་ལུང་།; Trode Khangsar སྤྲོ་བདེ་ཁང་གསར། Name Variants: Zimkhang Gongma 04 Sonam Drakpa Gyeltsen གཟིམས་ཁང་གོང་མ ༠༤ གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། Drakpa Gyeltsen, better known as Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen, was born in 1619 in Tolung Gekhasa (stod lung gad kha sa) into a noble family by the same name as the village. His family had previously produced the Twenty-fifth Ganden Tripa, Pe...

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Mahasiddha Lawapa Practicing Kumbhaka This detail of the great siddha Lawapa is one of our favorite depiction of the great Master of Mahamudra and Dream Yoga transmitted to Naropa or Naropada. Credit: HAR 81409 Lawapa or Lavapa (var. la ba pa; grub chen la ba pa; wa ba pa) was a figure in Tibetan...

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H.H. the 30th Sakya Trizin Sonam Rinchen (Main figure) (Top to bottom): Vajrayogini, Buddha Shakyamuni, His Holiness the 30th Sakya Trizin Sonam Rinchen, Hevajra, Gonpo Tramsuk (Brahmarupa), Mahakala of the Doors and Sakya Dorje Shugden Tanag. The 30th Sakya Throneholder Sonam Rinchen enthroned Dorje Shugden as a protector of the Sakya tradition and establish...

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Mantras represent the blessings of the enlightened beings in the form of sound. When we recite mantras they stimulate the various parts of our body to heal itself, to clear itself, to purify itself and to gain higher states of consciousness. Therefore, mantras are very powerful. They can be written, visualised or recited out...

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Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov was a charismatic Buddhist master and visionary from Buryatia in Siberia. He was born at a time when Buddhism was flourishing in the region. However, as he had foreseen challenging times ahead, he did not let the favourable circumstances blind him. When the Russian civil war broke out, Tsydenov’s decision to...

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Pith Instructions on Mahamudra  I bow to Vajra Dakini. 1 Mahamudra cannot be taught, Naropa, But your devotion to your teacher and the hardships you’ve met Have made you patient in suffering and also wise: Take this to heart, my worthy student. 2 For instance, consider space: what depends on what? Likewise, mahamudra: it...

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Mahasiddha Shyalipa ཥྱ་ལི་པ། (Shya-li-pa) Unusual portrait of the siddha sitting in a cremation ground with a female attendant and tantric partner cutting and offering corpses. Shyalipa (Skt. Śalipa), the ‘Jackal Yogin’, is counted among the eighty-four Indian mahasiddhas. He was terrified of jackals, and so received the instruction to consider all sounds as identical to the cries of jackals. Shyalipa was a laborer from Bighapur. He was so poor that the only place he could afford was one right on the edge of the cremation ground. In...

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  Lama Yeshe talks about how to practice at the beginning and at the end of each day during teachings given in London during the Lamas’ first European teaching tour in 1975. Lama Yeshe was a brilliant teacher and I wanted to share this with everyone so his teachings can reach more people. He...

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A person who cannot or refuse to plan for something and make it successful has to rely on his past successes if any. He has to mention how successful he was in school, in his teenage years or when he was with his parents. He has to tell you what degrees he has achieved...

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My very holy, wise and attained lamas told me over 30 years ago that Dorje Shugden is Manjushri. I’ve had many lamas and they tell me the same thing. And that he can benefit many beings during this time and age because our distractions are so many. We need a special protector who can...

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Five Forms of Manjushri (Main figures) (Top to bottom): Orange Manjushri, Four-Armed Manjushri, Manjushri Lion’s Roar, White Manjushri, Black Manjushri and Dorje Shugden. Deity: Manjushri Lion’s Roar (English) Alternative names: Jampel Sengetra (Tibetan); Vadisimha Manjushri (Sanskrit) Manjushri is the patron Buddha of Wisdom. In his right hand, he holds a flaming wisdom sword which...

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Saraswati (Main figure) (Top to bottom): Saraswati and Dorje Shugden. Deity: Saraswati (Sanskrit) Alternative names: Yangchenma / Yangchen Drolma (Tibetan); Goddess of Song and Music (English) Saraswati is a well-known deity in both the Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. In both religions, she is considered by many great masters to be the goddess and...

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Vajrayogini (Main figure) (Top to bottom): Vajrayogini, Mahasiddha Naropa and Dorje Shugden. Deity: Vajrayogini (Sanskrit) Alternative name: Naro Kechari (Sanskrit); Dorje Neljorma (Tibetan) Vajrayogini is a female tantric Buddha who has many forms and is practised in many lineages within Tibetan Buddhism. She embodies the fully enlightened female aspect of a Buddha and her...

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Manjushri (Main figure) (Top to bottom): Manjushri Arapachana and Dorje Shugden. Deity: Manjushri Arapachana (Sanskrit) Alternative name: Jamyang Arapatsana (Tibetan) Manjushri is the patron Buddha of Wisdom. In his right hand, he holds a flaming wisdom sword which cuts away the roots of ignorance from our lives and in his left hand, he holds...

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Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen (Main figure) (Top to bottom): Brahmarupa Mahakala, Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen and Dorje Shugden. Deity: Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen was the heir to the Zimkhang Gongma line of incarnations. The first in the line of these illustrious incarnations was the great Panchen Sonam Drakpa (1478-1554). ‘Zimkhang Gongma’ literally means the...

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Once upon a time I was born a small child in a cold hospital. I was tiny, helpless, an infant. I couldn’t take care of myself. I was vulnerable. I was cold. I was crying. I was hungry. I needed care. I wanted love. I looked for affection. I didn’t have identity. I was...

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Four-Armed Ganapati (Main figure) (Top to bottom): Four-Armed White Ganapati and Dorje Shugden. Deity: Four-Armed White Ganapati (English) Alternative name: Chaturbhuja Sita Ganapati (Sanskrit); Tsodag Karpo Chagzhipa (Tibetan) In the Tibetan tradition, Ganapati is the Sanskrit name normally used to describe this elephant-headed deity. However, his Indian epithet ‘Ganesha’ carries the same meaning ‘Lord...

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Orange Manjushri (Main figure) (Top to bottom): Saraswati, Orange Manjushri and Dorje Shugden. Deity: Orange Manjushri Alternative names: Jampel Arapatsana (Tibetan); Arapachana Manjushri (Sanskrit) Manjushri is the patron Buddha of Wisdom. In his right hand, he holds a flaming wisdom sword which cuts away the roots of ignorance from our lives and in his...

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