All Night Tara Purification

Last Sunday evening, the day before National Day, I went on an overnight mini retreat. It was the all-night Tara Purification Practice organised by Amitabha Buddhist Centre.

All Night Tara practice is a tradition whereby participants stay up all night to recite the 21 praises to Tara. The sessions are interspersed with full length prostrations and circumambulations – all done while reciting the 21 Praises. Tara represents the wisdom and compassion of all the enlightened beings in a female form. Meditating on Tara is a very powerful way to identify and connect with our own inner potential for wisdom and compassion. It also helps to eliminate obstacles to the spiritual path and to being able to work for others. There was recitation of a dharani for purifying negativity and increasing wisdom. It is a powerful practice in that we bear hardships (doing prostrations and prayers in the night) to express our devotion to Mother Tara, thus exhausting our negativities.

The session started at 7pm and there were 4 sessions throughout the entire night till the next morning 7am. Many people came for the 7pm session, I think about 70-80 people participated in the practice. After the preliminary prayers, we circumambulated around Tara’s altar of precious holy objects and offerings, reciting the 21 praises to Tara. I was familiar with the Tibetan phrases as I have been attending Tara pujas on and off. When the monks led, the singing of each praise just felt very natural and comfortable for me. Tara pujas are one of my favourite pujas.

After circumambulating for a few big rounds around the main gompa and after the completion of the 21 praises, we started our full prostrations. Everyone can take their time to prostrate, and try to do as many as possible up to their fullest capability. I did it slow but continuous because I intended to stay and last the entire night. So I had to conserve my energy.

Each session lasted about 2 and half hours and after a 30 minute break, we proceeded to the next session and repeat everything all over again. After the first session, the crowd gradually dwindled to about 30 participants in the last session which started at 4am and completed around 6.30am.  I calculated and estimated I probably did 500 prostrations that night. It was tougher than doing sit ups or push ups because we did it slowly and continuous throughout the night. If you do not know what are full prostrations, please click here.  When we do prostrations we act on the level of body, speech, and mind. The result of doing them is a very powerful and thorough purification. By the 4th and last session, I was really almost half asleep although physically, I was still chanting and reciting prayers and still “exercising”. It involved real determination and endurance to stay awake.

This was Tara’s altar which we did our circumambulation. Before the final session at 4am, while most of the participants having a break or napping, I circumambulated the altar on my own again, chanting Tara’s mantra. In my very exhausted and body-aching state, I could not believe I was still able to move  circumambulate around the altar. 

I was so glad I completed the all night purification practice, in full bliss. Even though the following day, my whole body was aching, thighs and arms were weak and painful, I am glad I took this opportunity to practice and to do purifications which I feel I badly needed to. I am glad I spent the whole night doing something very meaningful, rather than to have spent it sleeping, or pubbing/drinking/KTV somewhere. I have full confidence and faith in Mother Tara’s blessings. Thanks to ABC for organising this powerful and beneficial practice session.

This photo is from Amitabha Buddhist Centre. View more in their FB Page. Please do join their FB Page for updates of future activities.

Benefits of Tara Practice

Tara is quick to grant success in obtaining the ultimate happiness of enlightenment. You receive much good merit, or cause of happiness; it prevents a suffering rebirth in your next life; you receive initiation from millions of buddhas; and you achieve enlightenment. 

Besides these, however, Tara practice has many other benefits. Reciting the Twenty-one Taras’ prayer with devotion, at dawn or dusk—or remembering Tara, singing praises and reciting mantras at any time of the day or night—protects you from fear and dangers, and fulfill all your wishes. If you pray to Tara, Tara is particularly quick to grant help.

There are also many temporal benefits from Tara practice, either reciting the Tara mantra or the Twenty-one Taras’ prayer. Tara can solve many problems in your life: 

– liberate you from untimely death; 

– help you recover from disease; 

– bring you success in business; 

– help you to find a job; 

– bring you wealth. 

When you have a really serious problem, such as a life-threatening disease, if you rely upon Tara, very commonly you will be freed from that problem; you will recover from that disease. If you eat poison, if you rely upon Tara, the poison will not harm you. By doing Tara prayers and mantras, couples with difficulty having a child can have a child—and whichever they want, a son or a daughter. These are very common experiences. Through Tara practice, you can obtain any happiness of this life that you wish.

As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says “If you recite the Twenty-one Taras’ prayer once every evening, it is impossible—I can put my signature to this!—for you to die of starvation. It is also a very common experience for lay practitioners, monks and nuns with financial difficulties to have such problems relieved by doing Tara practice. In my personal experience, I have seen many instances of people who have prayed to and taken refuge in Tara and been saved from the danger of untimely death from disease without taking medicine.”

An obstacle-clearing weekend

I’m excited about the below 2 great pujas happening this long weekend.

1. Heart Sutra Obstacle-Clearing Puja

Sat 7 Aug, 7.30pm-9.30pm

Venue: Gaden Shartse Dro-Phen Ling (DPL)

The Heart Sutra belongs to the teachings on the perfecting of insight or wisdom, sometimes referred to as the “Mother of all Buddhas”. It is this insight or wisdom that brings about enlightened individuals. 

This puja is a special method to clear obstacles and/or crisis e.g. court case and surgical operation. Reciting this Prajnaparamita Sutra, you would thus create a vast amount of merit and purification.

The Prajnaparamita mantra is:

Om Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Ye Soha

2. All-Night Tara Practice 

Sun 8 Aug, 7.00pm-6.30am (Overnight)

Venue: Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC)

The all-night Tara practice is a tradition to recite the 21 praises to Tara. The sessions are interspersed with full length prostrations and circumambulations – all done while reciting the 21 Praises. 

Tara is the female manifestation of the Buddha’s omniscient mind. She is especially swift in granting the wishes of sentient beings. Tara is also known as the “Mother of all Buddhas” because she embodies wisdom – all Buddhas are born from this wisdom. By the way, this photo is a very beautiful Tara.

There are many inner obstacles that hinder the development of our wisdom and compassion. These inner obstacles in turn create external obstacles. All the enlightened activities of the Buddhas manifest in this female aspect, Tara the Liberator, in order to help living beings to successfully accomplish their goals. 

Tara is known for the quick respond to our prayers. Here are some of the benefits of praying to Tara. In the future, you will:

– Achieve success in your career and business
– Increase your wealth
– Excel in your studies
– Be protected from fears, harms and dangers
– Gain good health and auspicious energy
– Obtain good rebirths in your future lives
 

The Tara mantra is:

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha

“If you recite the 21 Taras’ prayer once every evening, it is impossible (I can put my signature to this!) for you to die of starvation. It is also a very common experience for lay practitioners, monks and nuns with financial difficulties to have such problems relieved by doing Tara practice.” – Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche

To participate, please register here.

 

Do it for others….. what happened on Wheel Turning Day…..

Yesterday morning I woke up at 5am+ pushing 6am, and took the 8 Mahayana Precepts. The 8 Mahayana Precepts (vows) are taken for 24 hours. It is especially good to take them on full and new moon days and on special Buddhist days. Yesterday was Chokhor Duchen, Wheel Turning Day, in which the merits multiplied by 100 million times! What not a better day to reap immense merits. Creating merits is definitely something we can be kiasu about!

The essence of this practice is to be mindful of the Mahayana motivation; to take these precepts in order to lead all sentient beings to enlightenment.

The first time one takes the precepts, it is done from a qualified master / monk / guru. Thereafter one can do the ceremony before a Buddha image by visualising it as the actual Buddha. Another pre-requisite is one must have already Taken Refuge. I took the Precepts from Geshe Chonyi from ABC a few years ago, so now whenever I want to go on the Mahayana Precepts, I can do it on my own. During the 24 hours (before sunrise to the next morning sunrise), one can only take one vegetarian meal before 12 noon and thereafter fast till the following morning. Liquids without solids/pulp are allowed.

Observing precepts for even such a short time has tremendous benefits: one accumulates a great amount of positive potential (merit) in a short time. One will receive pleasant rebirths and eventually will attain enlightenment. One is protected from harm and the place where one lives becomes peaceful and prosperous. One’s mind is peaceful and calm; one gains control over one’s bad habits; there will be fewer distractions when meditating. One gets along better with others. One will meet the Buddha’s teachings in the future and can be born as a disciple of Maitreya Buddha.

In the afternoon, I specially went down to ABC to join in the recitation of the Golden Light Sutra. When many people recite the Sutra together, the merits multiply many times. The Golden Light Sutra was 21 chapters long and it took us 4 hours to complete the entire text. As with the last time I recited the Golden Light Sutra, whenever I reached Chapter 17, the story of the “Previous Lives ofJalavahana’s 10,000 Fish Disciples“, I would be so touched that my hair would be standing. I don’t know why.

To summarise, the story tells of how 10,000 fishes were saved by a compassionate Jalavahana, a merchant’s son, from a drying lake, as well as from flesh-eating animals and vultures. He not only tried to feed the 10,000 hungry fishes, he also expounded the Dharma to them. As a result, although the 10,000 fishes eventually died, from the animal realm, they were reborn as Gods of the Thirty-Three, due to the virtuous bodhisattava act of the compassionate Jalavahana. Jalavahana was Shakyamuni Buddha in a previous life.  The moral of the story is, firstly, Dharma can be propounded to even animals (liberate them in this lifetime), and secondly, you can become a Buddha, depending on your actions.

In the evening, there was also a Shakyamuni Buddha puja to commemorate the merit-multiplying day. The main gompa on the second floor was beautifully adorned with lots of offerings of light, food and flowers.

There were 100,000 water and incense offerings all around the gompa, amidst many Buddhas. Towards the end of the puja, when we were doing our personal dedications of merits as well as when we were chanting the dedication prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life, I was a little touched with tears brimming.

This was the newly erected giant Prayer Wheel on the first floor. Inside the Prayer Wheel, it contains 156 billion microfilm of mantras. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said by turning and circumambulating one round of the prayer wheel, it is equivalent to reciting the “Om mani padme hum” mantra 156 billion times, and it is especially beneficial to people who are sick, for example, those suffering from cancer.

The highlight of the day to me was probably to have had the opportunity to go up and to view the 7th floor, the roof top where Rinpoche’s room and garden is. It is usually only accessible to Rinpoche. He stays here whenever he is in Singapore. Here, on the roof top was the Dharmachakra (Wheel of Law or Transformation) flanked by deers. The wheel’s motion is a metaphor for the rapid spiritual change engendered by the teachings of the Buddha. The Buddha’s first discourse at the Deer Park in Sarnath is known as the “first turning of the wheel of dharma”, and yesterday was the day Buddhists celebrate this auspicious day. 

 

We viewed the 100,000 light offerings which Rinpoche has specifically instructed ABC to install earlier this year, so that we can make light offerings to the Buddhas 24/7. It was a spectacular beautiful sight, surrounded by many prayer wheels outside Rinpoche’s room. Rinpoche’s room is a sacred place, hence it is not open for public viewing. However, once a few months ago, just after Rinpoche left Singapore, I had the honour of visiting his room for a very brief moment. The energy of the room is incredibly awesome, it is as if one is in Pureland.  

The 100,000 light offerings hanging from the roof top cascading down to the lower floors of ABC building. Awesome sight and highly significant and meritorious for ABC and its sponsors. Many thanks to ABC for the day’s programs which benefited many people present and those not present whom the merits  were  dedicated to. May we rejoice in the merits jointly accumulated by our positive actions on this day!  

Below is a newly uploaded video produced by the International Mahayana Institute in celebration of International Sangha Day 2010, which I saw last night from Lama Zopa Rinpoche FB Page. 

Beautiful short video with brief shots of Rinpoche and his infectious laugh and numerous Sangha from FPMT. See if you can sight Rinpoche in the video as well as some Sangha/members from ABC. It is accompanied by a very nice upbeat song, Do It For Others.  Hope you had a virtuous day yesterday. _/\_

http://www.youtube.com/v/DnwZE-aySQ4&hl=en_US&fs=1

Cherish others. Care for others. Do it for others.

It’s Chokhor Duchen on 15 July! Merits increased by 100 million times!

There are four days in a year which are highly significant for Buddhists. These 4 events/occasions (or ‘duchen’ in Tibetan) mark the great deeds of the Buddha, and they are also merit-multiplying days whereby both positive actions and negative actions are increased multiple-fold by 100 million times. The 4 holy days are:

1. Chotrul Duchen

– Buddha displayed a different miracle each day to inspire his disciples.

2. Saka Dawa (Vesak)

– Celebrates Buddha’s enlightenment, death and parinirvana.

3. Chokhor Duchen

– Commemorates the Buddha’s first sermon and the teaching of the Four Noble Truths. It is known as the ‘Turning of the Dharma Wheel’ day.

4.  Lhabab Duchen

–  Commemorates the Buddha’s descent from the heavenly realm following his visit there to teach his deceased mother.

This year Chokhor Duchen falls on 15 July 2010 (this Thursday).   

Forty-nine days after Buddha attained enlightenment, as a result of requests from disciples, he rose from meditation and taught the first sermon, Wheel of Dharma, which include the Four Noble Truths. It is because of the great kindness of the Buddha in turning the Wheel of Dharma that the people of this world have the opportunity to follow a spiritual path to the permanent inner peace of enlightenment. Without these teachings there would be no path for us to follow and so no possibility of bringing our suffering to an end.

“The door of Dharma practice is observing karma.” – Lama Zopa Rinpoche

 

Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC) will be having various activities listed below on this special day, 15 July.

• 8 Mahayana Precepts Taking Ceremony with Geshe Chonyi: 6am sharp
• Golden Light Sutra Recitation: 2pm – 6pm
• Shakyamuni Buddha Puja: 7.30pm

Please perform virtuous, meritorious deeds on this day.

Samantabhadra protection

Being an ABC member, I recently received this Samantabhadra Bodhisattva (普贤菩萨) card, which is a protection  card compiled, designed and blessed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Rinpoche explains: 

“This Samantabhadra protection is from the great lama Thrungy Chokyi Nyima. It eliminates any bad things and creates both outer and inner success. The main deity is the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Above are the three types of deities: Chenrezig, Vajrapani, and Manjushri. On one side is Hayagriva and the other side is Lion-Faced Dakini. Below are two kinds of Garuda (Multicolored and Black Garuda).

It is said by Vajradharma, who is the All Knowing One, that this instruction can stop any kind of harm. By displaying this protection in the house, those activities which have no meaning will become meaningful, and virtue will be created in the house. In this way, having this protection in the home becomes good feng shui, a way of creating an auspicious environment.”

We must first consecrate this protection card and then it can be put above the front door. It can also be placed in different parts of the house; above windows, to the side of front door (outside) etc. It is important that the image is protected and can not be destroyed by the rain.

In addition, of course, the best protection then on is to purify negative karma that one has already created and not to create more negative karma which creates bad feng shui and so forth.

Received with thanks!

Received a nice personalised email from Amitabha Buddhist Centre, an affiliate of FPMT. This is what CRM (customer relationship management) should be about…. except they didn’t have to be so precise of what my age is. Hahaha! This is especially meaningful to me because it is from ABC, and not from some insurance company or spa.

.

Dear (my name),

For your XX birthday, we wish you long life, superb health and every happiness!

To celebrate your special day, you are included in our prayers and dedications for our monthly Animal Liberation.

Wishing you many happy and auspicious returns! May you receive the blessings of the Three Jewels always!

With prayers _/|\_

Amitabha Buddhist Centre

BTW, thanks to all who sent me sms, emails, tweets and Facebook messages (and they’re still coming in). I’m not one who likes to celebrate my birthdays, as I do not think it should be a great deal and I’m shy. I even disabled my ‘wall’ in Facebook so that nobody can write on my wall, and so that not many people will know. Keeping a low profile (almost all the people in FB do not know about my blog actually). But instead, friends and even some celebrities sent FB private messages to me, which surprised and touched me greatly. Thanks to all my friends and acquaintances, may they all receive the same blessings I received in return and many times more!!!

Vesak 2554

Vesak 2010 celebrates 2554 years of Buddha Shakyamuni’s birth, passing into nirvana, and enlightenment. It has been a yearly practice for my family to visit the open field next to Aljunied MRT to offer our prayers. A gigantic tentage was erected and it was organised by Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC), for many years during Vesak.  Every year, thousands of people come together to engage in virtuous Dharma activities to create merits.

Tons of photos ahead….

There were mountains and mountains of offerings – fruits, flowers, lights etc.. Every offering has a specific meaning, for example offering light is to dispel the darkness of one’s ignorance, or offering incense to increase one’s ethical behaviour. Offering is considered a good training against greed and attachment.

On the holy birthday of Shakyamuni Buddha, we participated in the Bathing of the Buddha, in order to establish our karmic conditions with the buddhas and also to wholeheartedly beseech the empowerment of the buddhas and to pray for peace and well being. While bathing the image of the Buddha with auspicious water, we cultivate in ourselves in attaining the purity of their three karmas (body, speech, and mind) in the past, present, and future. We should receive the great and remarkable teachings and guidance of the buddhas and uphold the correct belief.  In this way, we can correspond to the great and compassionate vows of the buddhas and attain accomplishment with the Bodhi state without regression. Practitioners should carry out the cultivation of a bodhisattva life after life until they attain the supreme enlightenment of a buddha. 

This is a 20 feet Maitreya Buddha Statue on the grounds. Under the compassionate eye of Maitreya Buddha, this statue is a replica of a 500 feet statue which is in the plans to be erected in  Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. The holy Maitreya Project is headed by my root guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 

Maitreya Buddha, the Future Buddha, is typically pictured seated, with either both feet on the ground or crossed at the ankles, on a throne, waiting for his time. As a bodhisattva, he would usually be standing and dressed in jewels. Usually he wears a small stupa in his head dress that represents the stupa of the Buddha Shakyamuni’s relics to help him identify it when his turn comes to lay claim to his succession.

Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, abbot of Kopan Monastery, was here to give blessings to the Vesak Day crowd with a series of teachings and pujas.

In Tibetan Buddhism practice, many or all of the offerings use little bowls filled with water which symbolises the offering of water for drinking and foot-washing, flowers, incense, light, perfume and food. This relates to the ancient tradition of how a very important guest should be received. 

Offering flowers signifies the practice of generosity and opens the heart.  Offering incense symbolises moral ethics or discipline. Offering light signifies the stability and clarity of patience, the beauty which dispels all ignorance. 

Also, according to my root guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, installing a prayer wheel has the capacity to completely transform a place “…peaceful, pleasant, and conducive to the mind.” Simply touching and turning a prayer wheel is said to bring great purification to negative karmas and obscurations.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche said, “Building stupas is like creating Buddha’s holy mind. The dust, rain and anything that touches the stupa and then touches others is the cause of purification and helps us achieve a higher rebirth. Anyone who sees touches dreams of or thinks of a stupa plants the seed of enlightenment and becomes meaningful to behold”.  On the other photo, my nephew was doing tracing and writing the Sanghata Sutra. 

The crowds also circumambulated 3 rounds, offered light, flowers, and turned the prayer wheels around the holy statue of Maitreya.  Circumambulation is the act of going around an object of veneration, such as a stupa (a monument which houses holy relics of the Buddha or great masters), a Bodhi tree (which the Buddha sat under for shelter before he attained Enlightenment) or a Buddha image – for three times or more as a gesture of respect. It is done by walking clockwise meditatively, keeping one’s right towards the object of veneration. Doing so reminds us to keep the Buddha’s teachings in the centre of our lives.  So, through the simple gesture of turning a prayer wheel clockwise or circumambulating a holy object, one is paying homage, to doing what is right, and to following a true and enlightening path. 

There were many Dharma accessories available for sponsorship. Incense sticks, Buddha statues, engraved mani stones, thangkas, mala beads, incense burner, CDs, clothes….

Prayer wheels, brocades, mandala bowls, incense powder…etc….

The late Lama Yeshe was the inspiring founder of the Maitreya Project. Currently the  Maitreya Project is headed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The name Maitreya means ‘loving-kindness’. Throughout the world, the image of a buddha is recognized as a symbol of peace. The vision of Maitreya Project is to create peace at every level of society through the practice of loving-kindness: inner peace for the individual, leading to peace within the family, the community and the world. In the pipeline:
– a 500ft/152m bronze statue of Buddha Maitreya in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh.
– a 150ft/45m statue of Maitreya in Bodhgaya, Bihar.

After our prayers and before leaving,  I brought the family over to ABC to see the newly consecrated giant prayer wheel. After many years of planning, ABC has finally succeeded in erecting a 156-billion mantra prayer wheel on the ground floor. The copper prayer wheel was constructed with the instructions and blessings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. One turn of the wheel is equivalent to reciting the “Om mani padme hum” mantra 156 billion times. Hence it is so easy to collect unbelievably skies of merits as well as the cause for enlightenment.

In the evening, I went to Gaden Shartse Dro-Phen Ling for the Shakymuni Buddha and 16 Arhats Puja. I attend the weekly pujas at DPL, hence I do make it a point to visit DPL on Vesak Day for the special puja. There was also a light offering ceremony along with circumambulation of the centre around the holy objects.

In the main hall of DPL sits Shakyamuni Buddha with torma and mountains of offerings.  I quote Geshe Thubten Chonyi of ABC, “we need to make extensive offerings in order to seize that precious mind of bodhicitta. It is very difficult to generate bodhicitta especially when our minds are not purified of obscuration and negativities. We need to accumulate the collection of merit so that the favourable conditions for generating bodhicitta can arise“.

Similarly, offerings of food, flowers and light were laid on the altar. We also recited the Heart Sutra before the  puja and after the puja, we circumambulated 3 times around the centre, around the holy objects.  Notice the colourful prayer flags hanging high in the air. Traditionally, prayer flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The flags do not carry prayers to ‘gods,’ a common misconception; rather, it is believed that the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space. Therefore, prayer flags are thought to bring benefit to all. By hanging flags in high places, as wind passes over the surface of the flags which are sensitive to the slightest movement of the wind, the air is purified and sanctified by the Mantras.

This was where we bathed Prince Siddhartha (The Buddha), reciting his mantra “oṃ muni muni mahā muniye soha”.

 

Shakyamuni Buddha, the Fourth Buddha, whose holy mind is enriched with the ten powers, announced in the “Tune of Brahma” Sutra Clarifying Karma that there are ten benefits of making light offerings:

1. One becomes like the light in the world.
2. One achieves the clairvoyance of the pure flesh eye [as a human].
3. One achieves the devas’ eye.
4. One receives the wisdom of knowing what is virtue and what is non-virtue.
5. One is able to eliminate the darkness of ignorance, the concept of inherent existence.
6. One receives the illumination of wisdom, even in samsara one never experiences darkness.
7. One receives great enjoyment wealth.
8. One is reborn in the deva or human realms.
9. One quickly becomes liberated.
10. One quickly attains enlightenment.

Great news! The throne seat is for His Holiness Dagyab Kyabgoen Rinpoche, who arrived a few days ago.  The Dagyab Kyabgoens have been the spiritual head of the Dagyab region in Eastern Tibet, and carry the title Hothogthu Nomonhan (meaning the Noble King of Dharma). This title is exclusive to a group of most outstanding and highest-ranking Lamas.

 
Rinpoche was recognized as the reincarnation of the 9th Kyabgoen of Dagyab. Rinpoche studied at the Drepung monastery and has also achieved the title of Geshe Lharampa (a qualification which is equivalent to the PHD degree in Indian universities), the highest degree awarded in Tibetan Buddhism.

Rinpoche is known to hold the most transmissions of the Gelugpa lineage, as well as a vast number of transmissions of the Sakya and Kagyu schools. Rinpoche himself received many teachings from different Tibetan Buddhist traditions, particularly from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his two Tutors, as well as His Holiness Sakya Trizin and Kalu Rinpoche. He was also one of the closest students of the late Kyabje Trijiang Rinpoche. Rinpoche is a one of the rare living Masters today who holds almost all the transmissions and lineages of Tibetan Buddhism.

Dagyab Rinpoche joined us for the puja and he has also just started a series of teachings in DPL. Rinpoche is such a humble and friendly master, despite being such a high lama. This is the second time I have met Rinpoche but the first time with such close encounter with him. Rinpoche speaks fluent English, Tibetan and German. May his teachings benefit us greatly.   

There will also be a grand 3-day public program on 17-19 June. For details of the Grand Puja From The Three Jewels, please click here.

The auspicious Shakyamuni Buddha puja that night ended with us receiving blessings from Dagyab Rinpoche. Each of us received a special Vesak Day gift, a mala beads for our spiritual practice. There were many different types and colours of mala beads. Rinpoche gave me a turquoise-blue one. Many of us offered khata too. In a rare impromptu moment, I also managed to request a photo with Rinpoche, who very very kindly agreed. As it was a self shot photo using my iPhone, I could not clasp my palm as my hand was holding the phone (I usually clasp my palm if I take a photo with a guru, as a sign of respect).  Thank you, Rinpoche! I feel blessed indeed because there are masters and gurus who appear at different timings, at the right timing, to teach me and to guide me along my Dharma path.   _/\_

May everyone who has participated in any virtuous Dharma activities during Vesak Day everywhere in the world, be blessed by the Three Jewels and may we rejoice in the merits accumulated by our positive actions. On Vesak Day, our merits multiplied  by 100,000,000 (100 millions) times!