The Gyalwang Drukpa

I am very proud of my godfather who has been not only one of the biggest supporters for me and my lineage, but also one of the most generous businessman to help people in need. I know he had done many things, but so far I had only managed to get him send me photos of what he recently did.

I've forgotten to tell all of you that our own Rigden Rinpoche and our Alice Tsang from Hong Kong also represented all of us, visiting the affected sites in Sichuan, China. They went to check on our behalf what we should do to provide direct relief help to the school children in Sichuan.

This is what she said to me after visiting the earthquake affected sites, "On 12 May 2008, the earthquake that shook most of Wanchuan, Sichuan Province, PRC, affected the three cities near the Long Men Mountain range near Chengdu City: De Yang City, Mian Zhu City, and Si Fang City. They form a triangle some 1-3 hours' drive from Chengdu. The visit on 25 May 2008 covered only 2 places: De Yang City and Han Wang Town of Mian Zhu City. The photos shown are sights of destruction caused by the earthquakes. Government announced closing of school year, until 1 August 2008 when schools will resume again. This allows re-building of many schools in the interim period. Our focused area is to provide supplies to school children. After discussing with Rigden Rinpoche, he agrees that we shall provide direct assistance, instead of going through a 3rd party. The school year will only start again from 1Aug08, as schools need to be rebuilt, there is no rush to get things done soon. We have from now until say mid July to act." In the afternoon of 25 May, I was told that they experienced a strong after-quake of 6.4 on Richter magnitude, and could feel the building shaking for about 5 seconds in Chengdu, luckily they left the sites some 3 hours ago, and they returned safely.

Although we started not too long ago with Live to Love activities, in our very small and manageable ways, I am quite happy to say that gradually people now understand what I was trying to promote. It's sometimes very easy to talk in theories and philosophically about benefitting all beings, loving all beings and tree planting, all these things. Talking is easy, but actual doing is really not. You can see clearly in Live to Love website how much can be done by one person or by groups, not much actually. But I am very sure and confident that by doing these virtuous activities with a clear motivation, without ego and selfish intention, our activities will slowly grow to benefit so many others. I want to especially highlight one activity by Drukpa Peru members. I know they are very restricted in terms of manpower and also in terms of financial ability, but they are helping the school children consistently. I think even when we do our own little Live to Love activities, we should also constantly check the progress of improvement in the state of living of those we are helping. Are they better off materially and spiritually? Is our help improving their life, not only that, is it improving their mind? For example, life release, I know that life release will have the effect of prolonging one's own life or even some people said in the web that they dedicate life release for my longevity and my parents' longevity, but I think this should not be the first priority. The first priority should be helping those beings who are in trouble. Firstly are we releasing them in the environment that they like and they can survive? Secondly, can they continue to live happily after we release them? Some home animals when released in the wild die shortly after we release them. Some salt water fish are released in river, instead of giving them life, we kill them. So this knowledge must be there without any sort of superstitious beliefs whatsoever.

I am sorry I am nagging too much this time. I think the various translators of my website probably are having a hard time these few days. But I can also choose not to write too much and just be superficial on my web, talking about who I met today, what I did today and what important ceremonies I did today or how high my throne is, how many thousands of people came to see me. I am sure that my friends and students wouldn't appreciate such kind of reports.

Anyway, I think I better stop now, otherwise all the translators may be having lots of stress. If that is the case, I think they may consider reading my last message. Sorry for that and have a very good night!