The Gyalwang Drukpa

Anyway, the reality is that the world is suffering a lot. I personally will pray that this hole will be filled up soon and life will be back to normal. Therefore, at this very bad time, I was very surprised that one of my new students, Jigme Rigdzin Wangmo, offered a huge offering to me, means my projects, a few days ago. I hope and trust all the spiritual practitioners, even though they are going through a very bad time, will still be able to continue to support their masters and their spiritual lineages for the sake of all sentient beings, so that these practitioners will have some fruit of having wealth. The reason for having money is to help others, by helping others genuinely from the depth of heart without any egoistic intention, this is a very good and effective way to accumulate merit. If they can't even use money to accumulate merit for themselves and others, so what's the point of having material wealth? To have the fruit of material wealth, one should at least be able to do something for others.

I even received news from some of my close friends in other parts of Asia that my organisers in Taiwan have been requesting them to raise funds for my forthcoming trip in Taiwan, and I even heard rumours that some of the organisers said that because I had not gone to Taiwan, now my old supporters and students have disappeared. I am very surprised that this kind of news can be spread around. I don't believe my organisers in Taiwan would ever go around begging for support, because they themselves are more than capable to handle my short visit. None of my visit to any of the Asian countries can compare to my forthcoming visit in Vietnam. Because of the genuine devotion of Vietnamese people to Avalokiteshvara and therefore to Tsangpa Gyare's lineage, that is our lineage, Vietnamese devotees had even started preparing for my visit the minute I left Vietnam last year. Of course, I must also say that Khamtrul Rinpoche although living in Bhutan has been giving tremendous support to the Vietnamese devotees and of course tremendous encouragement.

I have not been back to Taiwan for more than 13 years, and it is quite discouraging to hear such kind of rumours going around even before I reach there. Anyway, we will see what happen. As Lama Sonam is very busy organising prayers for his brother's funeral and for getting the new Chia Yi centre that he has built for the Drukpa Lineage ready for my arrival, Jean Chen is about the only person who is working so hard from A to Z, supported of course by a few of my friends and students. I gave her the full authority for my visit because she must be one of the most trusted and most capable students that I consider to have in Taiwan. I have full confidence that such kind of discouraging rumours will make her stronger and more confident for the long term. I think if she does well this time, I will definitely go back to Taiwan to give longer retreat, instead of only 2 days this time. I am thinking also of adding up the programs to include Sengey Tsewa together with an initiation to go with it. Sengey Tsewa, as you know, is a practice that cuts the ego and that can eliminate a lot of mundane and spiritual obstacles in life. This is now a time where people in Taiwan need to do this practice very seriously and very urgently, so that their lives can be improved. Jean has put up a very nice program called "Goodbye Stress, Hello Self Nature" for me, I like it very much, it really sounds very lively and practical. You all can see the full details on the website that she has set up for my visit: www.drukpa-taiwan.org.

For my friends and students in Hong Kong, they have always been consistently supportive and they are always following my instructions without any hesitation or question. They are like my golden children among the Asian followers. Despite the recent crash in stock market, all of the key people like Alice, Connie, Cindy and Kin are still working so hard to provide funds to maintain Druk Amitabha Mountain. Of course, Drukpa Humanitarian groups in France and UK are also joining together. This time, I was especially moved to receive Cindy's emails, she was recently going through a lot of ups and downs because Ricky, her husband, has not been well. But still one-pointedly, she took care to raise funds for a main portion of maintenance of Druk Amitabha Mountain where almost 300 people are staying. I know this is a difficult time, but I also can assure her that the whole Drukpa Sangha is together praying for her husband and her family, not because she is fundraising, but because she is really like a golden child with a golden heart, helping her sisters who are the nuns on Druk Amitabha Mountain. I am grateful and very proud to have all these children. In a way, I am so moved whenever I think about all these golden children of mine, who would never create any headache or have any doubt.

I must also say that Drukpa Penang and Drukpa Butterworth, like Drukpa Vietnam, have been working very hard to organise my forthcoming visit since the day I left Penang last year. This is why I have tremendous confidence that their programs will do very well. In fact because of the enthusiasm and efforts they have shown through different channels and through different expressions, I have decided to give them 2 extra nights. I will teach at Drukpa Penang on 1st December and at Drukpa Butterworth on 2nd December on whatever topics they feel appropriate for their members. Requesting for teaching is one of seven branch of accumulations, some centres and organisers requested very last minute, therefore I just felt that there was no sense of devotion and then the outcome will definitely be very disappointing. Anyway, because of the recent financial crisis, I have finally decided that people in Kuala Lumpur will need more guidance in how to deal with stress. So on 3rd and 4th December, there will be two nights of teaching and guided meditation at Drukpa Kuala Lumpur. I have made up my mind on the schedule and I will put it on the schedule page.

Some more news are coming up... I have a new member that just joined my family. Tomorrow I will tell you more about Zhonu...