Dear students and friends, In the process of desiring for more convenient food options in our fast-paced lives, our health has gradually been compromised… When was the last time we thought about how our food ended up on our plate? We eat our meals not conscious about where the chicken came from, how old...
Dear friends around the world, I came across this article on Facebook and found her video compelling. I have come across people who are very much in the same predicament. I find it very sad that some people live for ‘likes’ and acknowledgement from perfect strangers. You want approval, meaning and substance from something that...
Wealth is nice. Wealth can be not nice. Wealth can be used to benefit others or it can be used to spoil others. Wealth can help us achieve some good works in this life, but it can also destroy us. Wealth is not the issue, but our state of mind and our attitude. These...
Hollywood socialite. Miss India finalist. Bollywood actress.
Not the typical titles associated to women who would aspire to become Buddhist nuns. But then again, how set in stone are labels? The first Buddhist nun in history was named "Pajapati" at birth, meaning "leader of a great assembly". She became the first disciple of the...
This video is super scary! Do you dare watch this video till the end? You better beware! Dharma work is very interesting and thrilling, but this will knock your socks off! 😯 Tsem Rinpoche
Dear friends, When we want to do something we normally always have fear of the commitment, time, energy involved and even greater fear if we would be successful. We are worried about what others might think of us, if our work will be accepted by friends, family and peers. If we even have what...
Dear Friends around the world, I try to always share stories and pictures that inspire me to be a better person. My blog team and I do spend a lot of time to ‘come across’ these stories to share with you. I do not hope for any gain except to enrich your lives as it does mine....
Transcript (edited): In October or November of 1987, around that time, I arrived in New Delhi from the United States. I was 22 years old and I had never been to India so it was a mighty culture shock for me in all aspects of that word. Anyway, I arrived in Delhi and...
I would very much like everyone to take 10 minutes off from your busy lives to read this article and contemplate on it. Taking care of animals is never an easy job because it requires tremendous effort and compassion to sustain one’s good work… but for animal lovers, taking care of animals is an...
(译文请往下阅读) (by Pastor Loh Seng Piow) Over the years, His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche has been to many hospitals, doing prayers, performing rituals, giving comfort to the sick, and relieving the worries of the families. The ones on the sick bed could be babies… born with defective organs desperately needing operation, young children, adult men and women with all sorts of illnesses, and dying old people. Rinpoche is clairvoyant to know whether the person on the sick bed is going to survive or not, so the prayers and rituals that Rinpoche performs...
I have always loved reading. Even when I was much younger, I would read books (mostly Dharma books) almost on a daily basis. My interest in reading stayed with me for the last 40 over years, as it is one of the ways I learn about the world’s history and current times without having...
December 15, 2014 Taitetsu Unno, Shin Buddhist scholar and minister, dies at 85 Rev. Dr. Taitetsu Unno—one of the world’s preeminent scholars of Jodo Shinshu (Shin) Buddhism and a longtime minister in that tradition—passed away on Saturday, December 13. He was 85 years old. Unno’s final moments were spent surrounded by friends and family,...
Dear friends, Here are nine special photos you must see, share and contemplate on. The old saying is true, one picture paints a thousand words. Maybe in this case, 10,000 words. Let me know what you feel about these pictures. They disturbed me enough to reproduce them here to create more awareness. May...
Tolerance is an interesting word. It denotes the object is at fault or difficult to deal with. Be it so in some cases as there is reality to contend with. If the subject changes the views, then the object although in certain circumstances are difficult, still the subject will not have to ‘tolerate’...
Many of Tsem Rinpoche’s students live together in what are known as Dharma Houses. Very often, when students are moving in, Rinpoche comes to personally ensure that everything is set up properly so his students have a conducive, comfortable environment to live in. Rinpoche will go shopping with his students, arrange the furniture, organise...
Dear friends, You will not regret taking 15 minutes from your day to see something so incredible, so touching, so inspirational and so moving. We often like to say we cannot do this and we cannot do that or just give up. We sometimes like to make excuses for everything we ‘can’t’ do...
Dear friends, I just completed watching an incredibly inspiring documentary on the hermit monks/nuns in Zhongnan Mountains of modern day China called “Amongst White Clouds” by Edward A. Burger – a 2005 film. Buddhism has been very strong for thousands of years in China and I thought perhaps during the Cultural Revolution coupled with the onslaught...
Dear students and friends, I have always admired His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama for His great effort in promoting peace and compassion. Recently the news reported that H.H. the Dalai Lama will be leading the US Senate in a prayer. I thought that was beautiful, as we all know that the predominant religion...
I would like to share with everyone about Terrance whom has worked in Burger King for 8 years, yet finds it so difficult to make ends meet for his 3 daughters and fiance.
Recently, I came across an inspiring talk by Aimee Mullins on TedMed. Aimee Mullins is an American athlete, actress, and fashion model. When she was born, the delivery doctor informed her parents that she wouldn’t be able to walk or to lead an independent life… She was born with missing fibula bones, and had...
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Messages from Rinpoche
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Concept: Tsem Rinpoche Technical: Lew Kwan Leng, Justin Ripley, Yong Swee Keong Design: Justin Ripley, Cynthia Lee Content: Tsem Rinpoche, Justin Ripley, Pastor Shin Tan, Sarah Yap Admin: Pastor Loh Seng Piow, Beng Kooi
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!
Tsem Rinpoche
About Rinpoche
Name
H.E. Tsem Rinpoche
Root Guru
H.H. Zong Rinpoche
Ordained by
H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama
Affiliations
Pukhang Khangtsen, Gaden Shartse Monastery
Founder and Spiritual Advisor, Kechara House Buddhist Association Malaysia
President, Tsem Rinpoche Foundation, Inc.
Honorary Doctor of Psychology, The Open International University
Hear the holy voice of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche giving advice on the practice of Dorje Shugden to those who had received the life-entrustment initiation. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche wanted to make sure those present received the maximum benefits from their practice, and that they kept their practice well. LEARN MORE >>
In Tibetan Buddhism, it is always said that whatever we practice must come from an enlightened source to be beneficial in our spiritual journey. As such in this video, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche shares with us the history and reincarnation lineage of Dorje Shugden to explain how great this Dharma protector is through the examples of his previous lives, showing us his powerful spiritual attainments. LEARN MORE >>
Dear everyone... This is a good condensed talk I gave on Guru Yoga of Tsongkapa. This is the one you should share with others when they are interested in a not too lengthy explanation. It is the perfect practice for everyone who wants simplicity yet effective blessings. You can share this with more people, it will be good.
"If you say you don't have money to help a animal shelter, why then do you have money to buy meat?"
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Eating animals is not our God-given right, but being kind to them is."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"What makes us good humans is not how we abuse animals, but how much we allow them to live and be happy freely."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"We need another and wiser and perhaps a more mythical concept of animals.... We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complex than ours they moved finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth."
~ Henry Beston, The Outermost House
"Not eating animals is only unnatural when we are not used to it."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES
"We may encounter defeat, but we must not be defeated."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"What you are today, is the choice you made yesterday."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"You think you can choose your life? What an ego trip!"
~ Lama Yeshe
"If TODAY you are dissatisfied, you must make the changes to create different results for TOMORROW."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
SPIRITUAL QUOTES
“Meditating on Dorje Shugden while reciting his mantra will open the gateways to higher dimensions, blessings and protection.”
~ Tsem Rinpoche
“If one does the recitation of the Lama Tsongkhapa guru yoga prayer for even one month using one of the visualizations for great or clear or quick wisdom, one will definitely see development of that wisdom. It is proved by experience. There is no doubt that by doing the Lama Tsongkhapa guru yoga practice one can meet Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings from life to life. And furthermore, it gives one the opportunity to be born in the pure realm of Lama Tsongkhapa, Tushita, whenever death happens.”
~ Pabongkha Rinpoche
"I was 18 years old in 1983. That was a very special year as I met His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche and received innumerable precious teachings and empowerments from Him at Thubten Dhargye Ling Centre in Los Angeles, California. It was the best time of my life. A time that seems so magical and surreal to me. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche is Heruka Buddha and I met Heruka."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"If being me offends you, maybe I'm not the problem."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Never abandon your spiritual teacher no matter how many inner obstacles you need to overcome."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Actions to force something to be permanent makes all the karmas arise."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"The dharma is not easy to listen to… because some people take it as criticism. But Dharma should not be just feel good only for the moment but for deeper contemplations."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Whether we do work and suffer but for others or we do work and suffer for ourselves, either way we have to suffer. That is the nature of samsara. So let us suffer for others and then suffering has meaning."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Those who really want the dharma to grow within themselves and to grow for others should never fear hard work, timing, difficulties, struggles, disappointments because it is for a good cause. Working for Dharma is not a prison or work, but it is purely spiritual practice. It is purely collection of merit and purification. Actually not doing dharma work is the real prison."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"His Holiness Zong Rinpoche stressed the need to continue to practice even when we come up against obstacles, and that we should continually review our progress. He stated that a happy, luxurious life was like a good dream, and that obstacles and difficulties were like a bad dream. We should give them no significance, but simply carry on working towards real, everlasting happiness."
~ Ngala ’ö-Dzin Tridral
"Things in samsara always go wrong. That's its nature. Don't be surprised."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Knowledge never quenches the thirst, only application."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
LIFE QUOTES
"I pity men who occupy themselves exclusively with the transitory in things and lose themselves in the study of what is perishable, since we are here for this very end-that we may make the perishable imperishable, which we can do only after we have learned how to approach both."
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Money amplifies negative characteristics and that can cause problems.
To walk away from that was actually very easy. I didn't even consider it."
~ Angeline Francis Khoo
"I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud."
~ Carl Jung
"There is a devil there is no doubt, but is he trying to get into us or trying to get out?"
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"If you love someone, show it by being honest, respectful & honorable with them."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."
~ Henry David Thoreau
"If I can just be the way I am & you the way you are & we accept each other, world peace is near."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"I am Asian, you are some other beautiful color. Together we make diversity so beautiful."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"It's amazing how some people have never met me or know who I am, but based on a few things they read here & there & rumours, they have formulated a new personality for me & all the things I've never done they passionately speak about....I find it funny and entertaining now. I guess we can't spend our lives fighting rumours...we just have to work hard & then rumours get proven wrong on it's own as a by product. No point explaining repeatedly. Just do our work & show results!!"
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"There's a difference between patience and laziness. Patience comes from respect while laziness from disrespect of others."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Although outwardly we have so much, we have so many conveniences, inwardly we have become more unhappy, so, acquisition is not the secret to happiness. The more we get, the more we have, the more unhappy we become."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Before we experience any pain, we already had a fixed view of how things should be. When the experience we encounter contradicts our views, then the pain arises. The pain arises due to our fixed views not so much the experience itself. So the secret is changing the views. Re-educating ourselves on our views."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"You know since very young, for better or worse, I always did the things that others told me not to do. I wasn't really good at following the rules. Even now with how I share Dharma and my practice, I just do it the way I think it should be done but I do it sincerely. Not what others tell me what I can and can't do."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Love me or hate me, both are in my favor... If you love me, I'll always be in your heart... If you hate me, I'll always be in your mind."
~ William Shakespeare
"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous or honest."
~ Maya Angelou
Devotional Songs
Sung by Mary Fewel Tulin, these mystical songs in praise of the guru originate from the Sikh tradition. Yet, they are applicable to all traditions for those who want to venerate their guru.
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
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