I haven't been talking much about my monks, even those young Rinpoches (they are male) have been complaining that I have been promoting and supporting the nuns and female practitioners more than the male, now the men in our community are feeling very sad and envious of the women. I didn't think that was the case because I had to bring up the nuns who had been suppressed for many generations, whereas the monks had always had all of our attention. So giving a bit more time to their female colleagues is necessary to bring about gender equality in our small community.

Anyway, it was lovely to see all the monks, quite a few hundred of them, in Darjeeling this time during Losar. I was especially very happy to see that they have improved in their manners. This time, I really felt a sense of brotherhood, or rather, a sense of them being my sons, which I think is very important for the future of our lineage and the development of the monastery. There seems to be a great hope for the lineage to grow and progress with the help of these young monks from Darjeeling, and of course from many other of our precious monasteries in the Drukpa Lineage, such as those in Ladakh, Kinnaur, Lahaul and other parts of Himalayas. Let's wait and see.

While I was writing this, my nuns from Kathmandu sent me news that one of our sheep gave birth to twin. They had even sent me 2 photos. I was not so excited. Just a while ago, we went through death of one of them and now two new ones came from a pregnant sheep. Isn't this a great teaching on wheel of life? The only thing I was glad about was that we managed to save all these sheep, otherwise we wouldn't have saved those poor babies in the mother's womb. By the way, someone was very concerned about the dog from Varanasi, whether I had punished him so badly that he almost died. I didn't do anything except to pray for him as well and also to put him away from the sheep.

Looking at the photos of the mother and the babies, I thought of the meaning of lineage, as it reminds me of the relationship of mother and children and the relationship among these different children when they grow up. Of course, all Buddhist lineages come generally from Buddha Shakyamuni himself and then within our Tibetan Buddhism, we have many other different branches, coming from great masters, such as in our case, Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, Mila, Gampopa, Phagmo Drupa, Lingre, etc., and then to me and my colleagues who are the Drukpa Lineage holders.

When I was in New York, someone asked me this very funny question which I didn't think about it very seriously until recently. He asked, "Is Drukpa an independent lineage?" I replied, "All of us are independent from each other, we have our different ways of practising and we followed different historical masters. It could be the same when it started but everyone went different ways, like brothers coming from one mother and they grow up to have their individual families, they do different things to make their living and have different connections and sometimes, they live in different countries. Some are successful and unfortunately, some are not."

In actual fact, we as individual lineages have a garland of great masters and our monasteries are managed independently, and historically, we did not have to report to the head monasteries of other lineages. As I said, these different lineages within a major Tibetan Buddhist branch are like brothers, of course some brothers do better than others, but that doesn't mean that those doing better could self-appoint themselves as the heads of other weaker brothers' households and take over their assets, wives and children, in the name of "helping" and in the name of "supporting". Not only this is not acceptable in the name of household or family, this is also not acceptable as a Buddhist practice. I have also mentioned several times that we as Buddhist masters who teach about the 5 precepts should ourselves be following them.

With this message, I am requesting that our spiritual lineage be known throughout the world firmly and clearly as "Dongyu Palden Drukpa", meaning the Spiritual Lineage of the Glorious Dragons or simply the "Drukpa Lineage". I hope and pray that as holders of the Dragon Order, all of my colleagues would be mindful of their activities and their efforts. They have to know and be clear about which household they belong to, and surely they need to be aware of others' ulterior intention. Without a lineage, there is no blessing. Lineage is simply a stream of blessing. As lineage holders and followers of the Drukpa Order, we have a serious and urgent duty to protect and guard this stream of blessing.

I will, a little by little, share with you history of the Drukpa Lineage, and stories of our great Drukpa Lineage masters, such as Gyalwa Gotsangpa, Yang Gonpa and Lorepa and the short stories of the 3 madmen. You as my friends and students, can start also to learn more about the beauty of the Drukpa Lineage and why it is now urgently needed for everyone who genuinely loves and cares about the lineage to keep it alive and protect it from all kinds of threats. Hopefully, with the blessings of our forefathers and with your support, the Dragons will continue to roar and its roars will continue to wake up all beings from the ignorance of samsara.

Writing this with a very heavy heart, that's all for now.