Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo needs no introduction. As I mentioned several times, she is probably the best spokesperson for our 800-year-old legacy. Egoistically speaking, I am so proud to have her among my fellow colleagues. Even before many of us, the male teachers, begun to promote the importance of female practitioners, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo was already working very hard to make the world understand the plight of Tibetan Buddhist nuns and the difficulties they had been enduring on the spiritual path, mainly due to gender inequality.

I am writing this from Singapore, such a modern city, full of capable women, professional at work and loving towards family. I thought of the wisdom of Prajna Paramita, and then of course, I started to think about my own mother and then very soon, my mind was set on Tenzin Palmo. I can still remember briefly the first time I met her, I think I was about two years' old, she was teaching English to my father and other tulkus in Dalhousie. She was very kind to my parents, already then she was a great help to our great master, the late Khamtrul Rinpoche. After Rinpoche passed away, many of his students and disciples continued their studies and trainings with other masters, but Tenzin Palmo stayed in a retreat in a cave and continued to serve her guru in such a pure spiritual way, which I believe many of us would not be able to do so. To tell you honestly, to have pure devotion towards your own master who have passed away, and towards his reincarnation, this is very difficult to do. But Tenzin Palmo did this spontaneously.

I am nobody actually. However, since being placed in this position in the Dragon Lineage, I really want to encourage those of my colleagues, like Tenzin Palmo, who have spent almost all of their life helping beings and following the instructions of their masters with firm devotion. Therefore, I am thinking of promoting her, by giving her the title of "Jetsunma", which of course is something she doesn't need, but I want to give it to her, because she deserves it due to her spiritual quality. To be honest, whenever I feel disappointed and down with everything that is happening around me, whenever I feel betrayed or saddened by the fact that I can only do so much for our 800-year-old legacy and life is so short, I look at Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo and I tell myself, if she can be so encouraged despite all the difficulties and criticisms, people like me, supposed to be in better position, should be more encouraged.

I cannot do much for her, but I deeply believe that Tenzin Palmo deserves this title "Jetsunma", which means "Venerable Master". I would also like to request all my friends and students never to call nuns "Anis", because it is not respecting "nuns" being spiritual practitioners. "Ani" actually means "auntie", which is not "nun". If you want, you can call the nuns by their names. For Tenzin Palmo, from now onwards, I request all my friends and students to call her "Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo".

Birthday in Kathmandu

I don't know what is going to happen in Kathmandu this time for my birthday. So many people have requested me to celebrate my birthday again. I am not the kind of person who likes birthday celebration, there is nothing to celebrate about, every birthday is a reminder of impermanence, isn't it?

Well, this time, since I don't want to disappoint my friends and students, I will have my birthday in Kathmandu. But for public event, perhaps it's just a few hours of get-together on the actual day. What I would like to do, is to have the enthronement of Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, on my birthday in Kathmandu. I don't know if she will fufill my wish or not, but I am hoping that she would be there and this would be the best birthday gift for me. I hope someone will pass this news to her.

At the same time, I will be inviting the key people of my small organisation to join in a few private sessions, to meet together for the planning and execution of "The First Drukpa Council". The First Drukpa Council will take place on Druk Amitabha Mountain in Kathmandu between 22nd December 2008 and 1st January 2009. After that, I would like to keep the same dates every year for this council, so that it would be easier for people to plan their holidays and other samsaric programs.

Live 2 Love

Thanks to Gavin in UK, the Live to Love website is now ready for all of you to put your news up there. If I am not mistaken, the website address is www.L2Love.org. I hope I will be seeing more news about how everyone is doing on their 3rd Sunday of each month.

I watched the new music videos with songs composed by Kunga and Chow. I was very touched by their "Live to Love" spirit which comes through so nicely in their music. I was also very happy to see the new Drukpa UK and Drukpa Penang's website, and I was very touched to learn that Jigme Phende and Paul Thong have worked so hard to put together a press conference to launch the Chinese "Live to Love" song written by Chow. The orchestral music, fully sponsored by Phende, was definitely so encouraging for people to jump into the world and help others. I was laughing to myself that it is like encouraging my followers to be Superman to do something like "Live to Love". Anyway, I hope all this will come to positive results.

I just learn how to embed the Kunga and Chow's music videos into the website. In case you can't see them, please don't complain, I am not a webdesigner.

Let us all LIVE TO LOVE!

This is Kunga's "Live to Love", truly my favourite!

And this is Chow's "Live to Love", presented by Jeffery, who has such a beautiful voice!