The Gyalwang Drukpa

Today, we were at Daewonsa, another beautiful Buddhist temple. I met some old friends whom I saw when I visited South Korea more than 10 years ago. They were the monks and some lay people who were looking after me and driving me around when I last visited. Surprisingly, they still remembered the date of my last visit - 7th March 1996. I was very moved that they were able to remember the date that we met. Just now, I gave a short initiation of Amitabha and explanation of Amitabha, his qualities, activities and importance.

Looking at the faces of the audience, I could tell that they were very interested in the details that Vajrayana Buddhism could offer, which is a different angle. I promised them that I would return every year to South Korea to give more explanation each time. I don't know whether I did the right thing by promising this sort of visits, as you know my teaching schedules are getting so busy that now that I am thinking clearly, I could have put myself into troubles by promising them that I would come back again next year and year after year... and I cannot take back this promise!

And also, many people showed tremendous interest in coming for the First ADC. But I don't know how difficult or how easy this would be for them to travel to Kathmandu. I have asked my very old friend, Shim, to make arrangements and I will ask ADC web team to provide a Korean section for her and her soon-to-be set-up team on ADC website to translate all the details and provide registration assistance to any Korean who is interested to attend the First ADC. I think Jigme Kunzang Senge or Jigme Tobden of ADC web team should set up an email called This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for Shim to do that. Shim will coordinate for all the Koreans.

I hope and trust that many Koreans who have very long connection with my lineage and me will join everyone of us in the Dragon family together in the First ADC. Not only that, I know that from now onwards, these wonderful people from South Korea will be joining me everywhere, in different parts of the world, in different occasions, such as our many celebrations of 800 years of legacy, our millennium anniversary of Naropa, etc. because of our ripening strong karma.

I want to tell you about one of the respected Korean Buddhist masters that I met this time - Master Hyun Pong, a senior abbot of Korean Buddhism who had very kindly invited me to his retreat place. We had such a great time discussing about all sorts of topics. He was such a lively and open-minded master. Unlike many Koreans that I have met who only know one or two Tibetan Buddhist traditions and got stuck by thinking that in this world, in Tibetan Buddhism there are only one or two different lineages, they don't know the entire Tibetan Buddhism, they are not aware that there are so many different traditions and beautiful lineages with great enlightened masters in different traditions, they don't even know that for example Ladakh, Bhutan, Nangchen and Lahaul follow very much our lineage, instead they think that our lineage is a branch of another lineage and we are secondary to other lineage. They don't know that even in the Drukpa Lineage alone, we have more than 1,000 head and branch monasteries that exist independently from other schools. In this sense, Master Hyun Pong is very unique among Korean Buddhists. He knows about not only all the Tibetan Buddhist lineages in Tibet, but also those in India and other parts of Himalayas. No wonder he is respected as the Senior Abbot. I was truly amazed at his vast knowledge and open-mindedness. So I was so happy to be able to spend some time with him, even though it was such a short time. I really want to see him again next time and spend at least one day and one night with him in his retreat place, which is a brilliant site for meditation.

Overall, I am very happy to see many Koreans being interested and wishing to learn more about different aspects and different lineages in the Tibetan Buddhism. I came to know that many of the monks are studying at the great Gelugpa monasteries of Sera and Drepung. I am so happy that they have the good karma to be educated and to learn so many things about Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and traditions there. I also met some nuns who were ordained by our great yogi, the late Togden Amtrin who was from Khampagar in Tashi Jong. They also have learned a lot under the guidance of H.E. Khamtrul Rinpoche Shedrub Nyima. They speak excellent Tibetan and are very interested in the practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa. I can see great potentials for the future in South Korea for the development of Buddhism. I hope that overall Koreans will have the opportunity to learn and to experiment with all the different schools in Tibetan Buddhism, with thorough understanding based on unbiased information. So it is the job of Tibetan masters like us to inform them very clearly and thoroughly so that they will know the many different aspects of Tibetan Buddhism and the different lineages who are equal in quality, in substance and in the knowledge and wisdom. I personally do not see any difference in that. Anyway, we who belong to the Drukpa Lineage or the Dragon Order should at least be doing something to let known our own traditions and the legacy of our great yogi masters of the past and of the present.

Let us all welcome our new friends from South Korea to the Dragon family!

Before I go to the next destination, I am going to say that I have decided to fulfill the many requests of people in Garsha or Lahaul and Ladakh to visit them in this coming October. Tentatively I will be in Garsha between 6th and 10th October and then after that, to Ladakh to see my people there before I start my teaching tour in Asia.