I did not have the time to punch on the keys of the computer for a couple of weeks, as I was caught up with all the functions, mostly as you all know, it was my birthday that falls on the Tibetan 10th day of first month. Even though I personally am not too excited about this sort of celebrations, this always seems like a great opportunity for all my loving friends and students to come and join together. I also feel that there is a bit of positivity created by the gathering of all of us together in one temple or in one place.

After celebrating Losar in Darjeeling, I came to Druk Amitabha Mountain in Kathmandu, only to find that my nuns had done such a great job preparing for the birthday celebration for Thuksey Rinpoche and me and for Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo's enthronement. As I always tell my colleagues, I am such an uneducated person and therefore my nuns are also not academically trained. I was quite worried actually, after putting them in charge of the preparation. But their devotion and dedication to the lineage really sorted everything out quite nicely.

My friends and students told me how lucky I am to have all these wonderful nuns. I was also very moved by their efforts and I know they really tried their best. Now they have a project team, assisted by one of my monks Wangchuk that helps to oversee the construction work on Druk Amitabha Mountain and the office team that controls and oversees the budget. They were never educated and trained to run and manage projects and yet they did such a good job, becoming a role model for my other nunneries and monasteries and my Delhi office. As my guru told me, "Devotion is everything."

A spiritual guru's job is to teach and share the path of enlightenment. How unlucky to be gurus in this age? I felt like a donkey carrying the weight of an elephant, not only gurus have to give spiritual advice, we have to provide material support, otherwise we would be considered as irresponsible and unkind. It is truly very difficult. Most people came to me mostly demanding for something and I felt this would only end once I said "goodbye" to this world.

I don't want to praise the nuns too much, but I want to say that they have tried their best never to bug me with all the financial and operational issues and they have worked so well with my humanitarian groups in the west and the east. I was told that they provide weekly progress reports, supported with photos and project cost analysis. I sometimes feel very sorry that my poor nuns have to sacrifice their time for practice to do this kind of work. For example, during the 6-day celebrations, none of my office nuns came and joined in the prayer, instead they stayed in the office to help my friends and students with their enquiries and their needs. They said that working in the office for me, for my students and friends, is a form of spiritual practice for them. What a wonderful and kind thought they have? I believe that most people would have tried to join in the kora and the ceremonies, forgetting about their office work. I really feel that through my gurus' blessings, these nuns really came to brighten up my otherwise gloomy life. My student, Jigme Migyur, who has so kindly taken the heavy responsibility of Group Financial Controller, told me many times how moved he was by the dedication of the nuns and how one-pointedly they are serving me and our Drukpa Lineage. By the way, I want to thank Jigme Migyur for coming to Kathmandu and Delhi so frequently to help train my nuns in Kathmandu and my office staff in Delhi. I wish Delhi office will be working as efficiently as Kathmandu office soon.

It was also great to see Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo with her entourage of nuns and friends. She has been giving such great inspiration to help the female practitioners, while male masters like myself has not been doing much. I hope and pray that her activities will flourish and benefit many beings, especially the female practitioners. I was told that it was the first time that Khamtrul Rinpoche Jigme Pema Nyinjadh met Jetsunma. Rinpoche was constantly asking where was Jetsunma during the kora at Swayambhunath stupa and I know he felt an instant closeness the minute he met her. It must have been the effect of past karmic connection. Bodhisattvas have many manifestations. Our lineage is very lucky to have two Khamtrul Rinpoches serving the lineage and helping the beings from different aspects. Maybe one day they both will meet to discuss about the future of the lineage and how they can both work together to benefit the followers of the Drukpa Lineage. I would be so happy to see these young masters of our lineage sharing my heavy responsibilities.

Therefore, I am hoping that the Annual Drukpa Council (ADC) will provide a very good opportunity for young masters of our lineage to share their knowledge. By the way, I am very happy that Jetsunma has accepted my request to sit on the advisory board and both Jetsunma and myself also requested Khamtrul Rinpoche Jigme Pema Nyinjadh to be the organising chairperson for this time. Of course, since the ADC will be held on rotational basis, I hope that all the young generation of our lineage masters will eventually be given a chance to organise ADC together with their monastic entities and their friends and students.

My good friend, Venerable Master Minh Tri from Vietnam also came to join me in the birthday celebration and I was very moved that despite his busy schedule and that he had to rush to Poland after Kathmandu, he made such a great effort to come and join me. I felt so warm with this wonderful gesture of friendship and support. I am praying constantly for his good health and success in everything that he does. Due to the sincerity and devotion of Vietnamese followers, I have decided to spend more time there when I visit the next time, maybe a 10-day program will be arranged.

I was also amazed at how well the LIVE TO LOVE activities were organised by the nuns and my followers. I overheard that they have visited more than 40 families based on the household survey done by the nuns earlier and there are about 100 more villagers waiting to be helped. Anyway, I am sure my nuns will continue to carry out the Live to Love activities consistently and enthusiastically. It is very easy to start something good, but to follow through is really difficult. Let's see what will happen one year down the road, whether my friends and students are still working hard to benefit their communities of human and other beings through LIVE TO LOVE.

By the way, I want to tell you all something that I was really excited about. I have used some of my pocket money to construct a coffee shop for the nuns to run on Druk Amitabha Mountain. I hope that the coffee shop and the guesthouse will help them to slowly become financially independent and that they don't have to beg for their monthly expenses. I don't know whether my wish will come through, but if we never try, we never know. Now the guesthouse has about 40 over beds and slowly we will make it more and more attractive with solar heating system. I think my nuns need some advices on how to run these things.

Another exciting news to share is that a few very long-life fish will be coming from Japan to stay on Druk Amitabha Mountain, in the pond that is built for me by Jigme Phende. I think it's a very good omen that he is offering such a special kind of fish for my longevity. But I am not expecting myself to live over 300 years' old, I was told that this kind of fish will live for more than 400 years. It would be so sad for me to see all of my friends and students gone, one by one, leaving me alone with those long-life fish. Anyway, I appreciate all these small gestures that students such as Jigme Phende show as an expression of their love and care for me. I will try my best to stay healthy and live longer, but definitely not 400 years' old.

You might have heard that we have done 13 koras at Swayambhunath Stupa. Due to a lack of time and encouragement, I normally do 6 rounds in one go, but never 13 rounds in one go until this time. I had no problem of any sort this time to walk for that many hours and none of my friends and students had any problem too. Many of them told me that they did not feel that they were walking, it felt like someone had walked on their behalf. They thought that this had to do with me, but I wouldn't necessarily believe so because it was very much their devotion that led them complete 13 rounds of kora. I think that final enlightenment is also that way. Devotion makes everything possible in this life and lives to come.

I want to thank all of you from the depth of my heart for being there to support me and I think this is the main reason why we need very badly to take refuge in the Sangha for our practice. Not only kora, the 8-day Drubchen conducted by the nuns was also a great spiritual event, for all of us. Even for those who did not know how to join in the pooja or Drubchen properly due to language problems, they obviously could share the warmth and happiness of being together with the Sangha.

Well, I don't know when I will be writing again. If there is anything else that I can share with you all, I will try to say something, from time to time. Until next time, best wishes to all!