dren chog tub pa chog dang or jen jayde say pak pay tsog chay chab yul nammon pay pang por jon la dag chag gidung way me ngag dir gong jin chen tsol Supreme Muni, our Supreme Leader, Lord of Oddiyanaand your children, the Arya assembly—all you sources of refuge,please approach, bear witness to this […]
On Blazing Wisdom Institute's Upcoming Twentieth Anniversary In early 1998, about a year after I became his translator, His Holiness Orgyen Kusum Lingpa visited for the first time my home in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, New York. At night he kept a scribe busy recording his vajra words, and in the morning he gave his seal […]
Summer 2015 Newsletter RECENT EVENTS This has been an extremely busy time at BWI. In late May we held the 9th Annual Rimay Monlam (Non-Sectarian Tibetan Buddhist Peace Prayer Gathering), and the first at our new facility, Guru Rinpoche House in Saugerties, NY. Lama Surya Das offered a wonderful talk on 'deprivatizing' meditation in an […]
It occurred to me, including because of the difficulties at times in communicating from Nepal, that many of you may be interested to know how I spent my time there. So I jotted down some of the highlights that I remember. From these you can see that, if anything, I am even busier with the study, practice and teaching of dharma in Nepal than I am here in the U.S., or anywhere else.
Shortly after I arrived in January, I participated in an all-day (12 hour) chod ritual called tsog lay rin chen treng wa, or "the rosary of jewels feast ritual," an elaborate practice that I last did during the final week of my forty month Lama retreat in 1990. We were at least 500 people all playing the large chod drums and bells in unison. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche bestowed the chod empowerment, and in the course of the day, we consecrated large statues of the eight great bodhisattvas that will go in the new temple in Lumbini.
Several days later, Rinpoche invited me for a private lunch and visit at his personal retreat house in the mountains outside Kathmandu, where we had a good opportunity to discuss many matters of shared interest, a rarity given his very busy schedule and many responsibilities. He graciously agreed to do special prayers on behalf of Ivy's father who had just passed away in Singapore, and our family also made a number of offerings to the monastery dedicated to Mr. Loo's welfare and in gratitude for their support.
Afterwards, over the course of five days, one of the senior khenpos at the monastery taught the complete (short) text by Rongzom Mahapandita called nang wa lha drup, or "establishing all appearances as divine," an important text that sets forth the Nyingma view of deity yoga and the nature of the two truths.
