The Gyalwang Drukpa

Because of their love for me and devotion towards the lineage, I have accepted the request of Ladakhis to celebrate my next birthday in Ladakh. So the birthday will be celebrated in Naropa Palace or Naro Photang in Shey. Some people may wonder why Shey again? It doesn't mean that Shey has some unique environment, it's because of the space and the temperature there are easier during winter to organise huge gathering. To me, I am having my birthday in Ladakh, not in Shey particularly, because of the love, affection and sincerity that the entire Ladakh or Himalayas give me. So I promised them to return to Ladakh for my birthday. My main desire is not to celebrate my birthday, there is nothing great about celebrating birthday. It is an excuse to encourage YDA and everyone to keep up with their activities of Live to Love and other humanitarian activities to help each other, including the idea of keeping environment clean and healthy, foresting, taking care of nature, etc. Wherever I go and whatever I do, the excuse can be anything, the goal is to encourage people to practice LIVE TO LOVE. I was looking at the Live to Love website and was very thrilled to see that even our friends and young people in Bhutan are actively involved in Live to Love. We should continue no matter what to promote Live to Love and to engage in the activities whole heartedly for the benefit of all beings.

I definitely would love to have any of my students and friends outside of Ladakh to come and join together for my birthday. I will be giving teaching on the Jewel Ornaments of Liberation by Gampopa. I don’t know whether that will be translated into English or not. Even if it’s translated, I don’t know if it will be well elaborated teaching or not, due to, as usual, the limited time for me to finish such a big volume of teaching. I will have not more than 13 days. Within 13 days, I don’t think I can elaborate that much, but I will try my best. If there is a demand from the English speaking people and if this crowd is big enough, I will ask organizers to provide simultaneous English translation.

I also want to thank Rigzin Namgyal whose family is predominantly Drukpa followers, no wonder whatever they are doing, they are doing without conditions, for me and our lineage. His older brother Gyalpo also did a great job for us for the last few pilgrimages, but this time, Gyalpo was very busy because of government services. Rigzin was great and everyone was very happy towards the end, everyone could not leave eyes off from Rigzin Namgyal, especially me. I am still missing his presence, hoping that we will be joining together and doing similar kind of things for the sake of Live to Love and humanitarian activities in the form of pilgrimages or any other forms.

I have nothing much to say as it's getting quite late. So that's all for now. I have put some photos of the pad yatra in the photo gallery to share with you.