(By Tsem Rinpoche and Pastor David) According to The Clear Mirror of the Royal Genealogies (Gyalrab Salwai Melong) attributed to Sakyapa Sonam Gyaltsen (1312-1375 CE), the great Tibetan Emperor Songtsen Gampo (617-47 CE) decided that he had to make various statues of his yidam (tutelary deity) to be of benefit to sentient beings within...
There are several variations and interpretations of the history and lineage of Dorje Shugden. However, the source most referred to and heavily relied on by contemporary Gelugpas is the Collected Works (or Sungbum) on Dorje Shugden written by His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang. This is also considered the most accurate account of the manifestation...
I am very excited to present to you our first Dorje Shugden mural in Kathmandu, Nepal! Located on Charkhal Road in Dilli Bazaar, the mural can be found midway between our two Dorje Shugden chapels...
Bodhgaya is the centre of many sacred sites. Chief among these is the Mahabodhi Temple Complex where Prince Siddhartha became enlightened and where Buddhism began more than two millennia ago.
During the 7th century Tang Dynasty of China (618 – 907 CE), there arose a great Buddhist master named Xuanzang (602 – 664 CE), who became a famed monk, explorer, scholar, writer, and translator. He is particularly famous for his journey to India, which took nearly two decades to complete, from 627 – 645...
As an ordained Buddhist monk, I have no better way to give back to the beautiful Nepali people than to share the Dharma with them. I want the Nepali people to have a way to ease their burdens. Bhagawan Dorje Shugden’s practice is perfect for this...
History The first unified Tibetan kingdom was known as Tubo or Tu Fan. It was established by one of the greatest leaders in the nation’s history, King Songtsen Gampo. King Songtsen was the first monarch to expand Tibet’s power beyond its traditional strongholds of Lhasa and the Yarlung Valley. He is also credited...
How Dorje Shugden helped in the time of need… There may be many lay spiritual practitioners who are embarrassed to admit that the main reason for their practice in the first place is something personal and which can be classed as self-cherishing. If one is able to hear the silent prayers to the divine...
Recently, we have received the good news that two holy places are being built in Yunnan province, China. The first is a Dorje Shugden stupa in the Jade Dragon (Yulong) Snow Mountain area and the second is the rebuilding of Chosang Temple in Shangri-la. I am pleased to be able to share this news...
Every time you are checking at a hotel, wherever that may be, pay attention! You could have an encounter with the unseen world that makes itself visible for you...
Shailendra (yang dieja Sailendra, Syailendra atau Selendra) adalah turunan dari gabungan kata-kata Sanskerta ‘Śaila’ dan ‘Indra’ yang bermakna “Raja Pegunungan”. Dinasti Shailendra, yang muncul di Jawa (Indonesia) selama abad ke-8 Masehi, sangat dipengaruhi oleh budaya India dan memainkan peran penting dalam kebangkitan budaya di daerah tersebut. Sebagai penyebar Buddhisme Mahayana yang berkuasa, Shailendra membangun...
The practice of ‘Dharmapalas‘, literally meaning ‘Dharma Protectors’ in Sanskrit, was introduced to Tibet during the period of the north Indian Pala Dynasty. It was an era of territorial conquests and Dharma Protectors were used by both secular and religious authorities to protect the State and religion. Dharmapalas are not exclusive to Tibetan culture...
On certain special days of the year, the accumulation of merits is multiplied a hundred thousand times. This is not the result of chance or an ‘alignment of the planets’ but the fruit of the collective vows and aspirations of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas...
Mount Wutai is believed to be the earthly abode of Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom. Its connection to Manjushri is mentioned in a passage of Avatamsaka Sutra (the Flower Garland Sutra)...
Since my mother had passed away earlier this year, H.E. Tsem Rinpoche advised me to take my dad on a holiday. He suggested several countries like India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand and so forth. Rinpoche said that we should go to these places to make our holiday a meaningful one because these countries are full...
(By Tsem Rinpoche) Around August 2013, the Board of Directors in Kechara presented me 800 White Tara statues to request for my long life. I was very touched by such a wonderful and sincere offering from my students, as I knew it must not be easy to arrange for 800 statues and on top...
(By Tsem Rinpoche) Yantai City Yantai City, also known as the “Most Charming City”, is located in the northeast of Shandong Province, China. Unlike the metropolitan cities like Beijing or Shanghai, Yantai offers charming, picturesque sceneries that made it one of the most habitable places in the world. Yantai in Chinese means “smoke...
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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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