Blogging and posting retreat in Ladrang!
Dear Rinpoche,
Volunteers in ladrang commenting and busy posting away. So fun! I love it when ladrang is packed.
Thank u,
su ming
Pic 1 – liew and yy
Pic 2 : Micheal kuang, nic and girlie. Nic is sick, i’m chasing him to go home to rest.
Pic 3 : strangers on the net! Exchanging glances he he he Eric and james
Pic 3 : Martin…
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for buying us Korean dinner. Yes, it’s nice especially with the Kimchi sauce. Everyone is enjoy eating the Kimchi rice. Thank you Rinpoche!
Regards,
James
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It is absolutely amazing at how much I have learnt from the recent blogging and posting retreat in Ladrang. There is a sense of comradeship, looking out for each other and trying to help to achieve what we set out to do. Rinpoche has very skillfully “forced” us to learn in a super express way. The Blog postings are a wealth of information from Rinpoche’s childhood, the sufferings he went through to the great gurus and masters, to cruelty to animals and many more. Even the comedy clip on “ I love Lucy” has deeper meanings than what it appeared to be if we care to look deeper.
Thank you Rinpoche for always looking out for us, guiding us and your unceasing love and care.
I and uncle eddie was summoned by Rinpoche to Ladrang lne evening to attend a meeting on Blogging. I panicked and was very worried. How am I to blog when I don’t even know how to operate a computor as I don’t own one. It was very difficult when you are put into something which you don’t know. Somehow I sat thru the Retreat and try to write out my comments from printouts of Rinpoche’s postings. I spent about two weeks staying up and working in Ladrang to learn how to post comments. FM would type it out and post our comments from his computor. After few days I then tnought I cannot be independent on people all the time. I decided to to do something for myself and buy my own netbook and learn. I challenge myself and quickly went to buy a Mini Netbook although it was hard on my budget. After the blogging retreat I ask around for help and started to learn to master the computor. Since uncle eddie do not have a computor. Rinpoche was very kind. he bought one for uncle eddie so that he could also learn to do himself. And also replace the mini one that I had with a better one for me. Thank you Rinp oche for your kindness generosity and thoughtfulness to make things easier for us. And now I am making every effort to master and learn the computor. I now can read and comment on the blog although I type very slow. I have done it even though it is just posting comments andnothing else..
I have an apt description for blogging and posting comments on the TsemTulku blog – PIGGY BACKING! Many of us (me included) are insignificant souls in that our contribution towards the dharma had been quite insignificant. On our own we may not account for much to benefit others, but if we piggy back on someone who has been an all round tremendous benefit to others with global reach and influence, then the effects of our meager efforts could be multiplied many fold! Therefore if we take this exercise seriously, we can benefit too, at a scale that we would otherwise not have been able to. More so if our comments come from a genuine desire to share experiences and knowledge with other people in order to help them. We can even do it from anywhere.
To write anything of use, it needs thinking, sometimes research and careful expression. I think it does take courage to write something for all to scrutinize as it allows others to gauge our level. In the process we learn. But if we don’t put ourselves to the test, we would never know where we are or improve. So let us continue to use this very convenient avenue to bring benefit.
Therefore thank you Rinpoche, for creatively conceiving of yet another method to benefit others, and allowing us to ride on your overarching compassion and kindness.
p/s: That’s a major benefit of having a Guru!
Initially it was hard to start up even 10 blog comments took a lot of time. Thoughts like I read this before, should I read it again, and how to say different things for topics that are so similar in nature. How many times can I say thank you, thats dharma or compassion.
Sometimes these things creep up on you, after a couple days working from E-divison with a few E-people and guests, you start to write more creatively and push yourself to give a different angle or see something you never saw before. Then commenting become joyful.
I never thought a Blog retreat is possible, in Kechara it is! I learnt a lot more than I thought I would, I’m glad I gave it a good effort. I enjoyed it even in silence as we all worked furiously on our mouses and keyboard. Loved the aliens, ghosts and sasquatch series loads!
2 weeks of madness, hysteria, even down to the last few hours – hearts were beating, I was hyperventillating..nothing is ever what it seems. At the end of it all, we all realised the important lesson in the blogging retreat. How kind is our Guru to think of creative ways for all of us to learn, build on our friendships and grow together. No one was left behind. Never in Kechara. It is always a team effort, a family in unison. It has been an AMAZING RACE all the way. What a beautiful way to learn and bond! Thanks to the innovative cyber Lama, H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche. Because HE never gives up on us, we don’t give up on ourselves and each other.
At first when I was casually given the assignment, it was to blog 2 posts a day for a week. The following day it was to do 5 blog posts a day. That same evening, I was to blog 10 posts a day to 15 a day. I didn’t think much about this task as it is always usual to be asked to do “unusual” tasks all the time in Ladrang. It was labeled as “task” then until I got down to writing the first 10 blog posts. After the second day into this “task”, I started feeling like Hey! Wait a minute! This is NOT a task. It is more like a Group Writing Retreat!” It was subtle.
My hunch was right. So should I push my boundaries up and higher? To stay up from morning till the next morning to finish the numbers? I stayed up and up till I completed my quota and more.
I literally covered most of the blog topics ranging from Pets, Mumu, whale cruelty, ET, Big Foot, Kechara 13 Departments, Elizabeth Taylor, Clash of the Gods, Lin Dai, Reincarnation, Gelugpa lineage, HE Tsem Rinpoche life in Hollywood …..
I mean what kind of a blog is this? But the distinct take-away lesson I learned from this experience is – it has expanded my mind wider. I find that there is a dharmic lesson that can be learned from each and every posts in this blog.
This is one of HE Tsem Rinpoche’s skillful ways of teaching his students to look at things in a different perspective. It encourages us not to have fixed minds of how things should be.
Reading the blog posts makes me Think, Check, Contemplate before I can put in my comments.
Just reading about others’ comments provided me so many different points of view on the same issue. It was such an incredible teaching! It was cleverly done with no pain at all but more to gain!
I look forward to coming back to all the posts you put up in this blog to discover even more. Thank you, HE Tsem Rinpoche for being so kind again. With folded hands, I prostrate to you
The past 7 days have been an incredible experience of teamwork and bonding. I was floating along on a tweet high for ages.
What I liked most about the blog retreat was finding little nuggets of Dharma in the most unexpected places. Where else will you find spirituality while watching an Elizabeth Taylor movie, or I Love Lucy??
Of course, there are full-blown dharma classics too, like the biographies of H.H. Trijang Rinpoche, and the 27 VERSES TO REAL HAPPINESS http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/2010/07/27-rules-to-happiness-.html (an absolute gem) and inspiring stories of Rinpoche’s childhood.
This retreat was really a modern take of the classic meditation retreats of old – we still had to focus, concentrate and contemplate… and the subject matter WAS the LAMRIM – in a very modern form. Rinpoche is not called a mahasiddha for nothing!
And THANK YOU to all the people who have sponsored food, drinks, snacks for all the bloggers – the midnight pizza and tau foo faa was delicious 🙂
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this Blog Retreat.
This retreat has given me much learning:
1) Education: about Kechara House, Tsem Rinpoche & Rinpoche’s vision and Dharma.
2) Self awareness: My reactions when pushed or challenged. At the beginning, I was stressed and grumpy with mission impossible. However, after 3 days, acceptance seeped through and I was able to look at the “good” side of the experience, which in turn creaeted “good” results. Conditions whereby things are the not going as expected or within the comfort zone are best learning opportunities. As stated in “If not now, When?” (book published by Kechara Media & Publication), Dharma put into action is true Dharma.
3) Breaking limitations I impose upon myself: During this retreat I saw my fixed beliefs on sleeping hours, I-am-not-a-computer person etc. melt away day after day.
I am very grateful for the blessing Rinpoche and Rinpoche’s Blog created for me. I am privileged to continue participating in this educational and inspiring blog as well as bring friends in to benefit from this generous sharing.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for pushing us to complete this retreat. From this experience, I now realize how fun Rinpoche’s blog is. There is a wide variation of topics suitable for everyone. It is a also a very good way to learn from fellow dharma brothers and sisters by reading their very buddhist posts. Once again, thank you Rinpoche for finding so many fun and easy ways to assist the transformation of our minds.
With much love and respect,
Wee Liang
It was indeed an incredible week. The most amazing thing about this retreat is that everyone worked as a team and family. Supporting each other and pulling their weight where nescessary. Thank you Rinpoche for this chance and for pushing us to help ourselves. And thank you also for those whom I am proud to call my Dharma family!
There is so much more on this blog that I have not even begun to absorb! I shall continue to do blog postings and do it in the manner that I have been doing whilst helping out in the retreat. I have learnt a lot from the mere 22 blogs I commented on that I will try to push myself to finish as many blogs as possible till I catch up with Rinpoche’s blogging. In that I will be reading and absorbing a teaching as it is posted.
This is going to benefit me in the long run as I have been lazy in my practice. And I know this is something I can do. I shall continue to update Rinpoche on my progress. With folded hands and much love.
Thank you so much Rinpoche for offering us all these various ways to learn and practice the dharma. Reading your blogs and responding to them is such an opportunity to know more about you and your teaching.
I have to push myself to write as I cannot write very well but nevertheless I always remember one of your important quote at the time I am ready to give up: ‘Never say you can’t do, because that is not the real you speaking’. It has helped me so much to follow your advises in so many cases. I am so fortunate to have find you on the internet and I thanks all the kechara teams for their great support and participation in blogging and making comments this weekend. What a wonderful group at work!
This retreat was really very amazing and an example again of Rinpoche’s very skilful means to benefit us. As Henry says, we learned a lot about our Lama, not just facts but his character – his Guru devotion, his difficulties as a child, his compassion towards animals, his appreciation of gifts from students, his sense of humour and many more.
I will miss the intense all-nighters at ladrang with the retreat group – a big thank you to the kind people who bought food for us and the ladrang staff for taking care of us during the retreat. We just come in and enjoy the aircon, unending drinks, comfortable chairs, free internet etc. – we are so fortunate to have all the conducive conditions to finish our retreat.
Thank you Rinpoche for the retreat and the lessons learned.
Congrats to all retreatants who completed the retreat within the timeline. Also to those who contributed but were not in Malaysia, Thierry & Andrew in Europe, Lily and Keng Nam in UK and others not mentioned here.
We have benefited and learned very much from this retreat:
Knowing more about our Lama,
Working harmoniously together to achieve a common goal,
Pushing ourselves,
Never giving up.
A small step towards the manifestation of KWPC. Thank you all!
This retreat make me learn so much….the info provided in the blog was so informative and the comments for others give me another view in seeing things. This is another ways of learning.
Thanks to Rinpoche for thinking of this alternative method to teach us.
The Paris pose is always unmistakable. Haha blog away guys and gals.