I don't know why I am so interested in tree planting. I think I am a nature lover. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about my trip to Ladakh recently, I was so thrilled to see the number of trees being planted in the surrounding of Naropa Palace in Shey, which is just next to the Druk Padma Karpo Insitutue or Druk White Lotus School. Today, I received a great news that thousands of trees have already been planted up until now, in the same area. For those of you who have been to Shey in Ladakh, you'd know how barren the land is. Let me show you a photo of Naropa Palace and its surrounding that I copied from Ladakh website:

You can imagine how happy I am to receive news of tree planting. Trees are very important for all sorts of living beings on this earth. It wouldn't be possible without Tessa's help and without the help of the irrigation engineer and the Ladakh Hill Development Council. I am truly hoping that they can send me some photos of Shey as soon as possible for me to have a look and to share with you here. It's a pity that I have to cancel my forthcoming trip to Ladakh as I have to complete a set of teachings to my nuns and the Rinpoches here on Druk Amitabha Mountain. Otherwise, I would really love to see the thousands of baby trees in Shey.

I also want to congratulate Corinne and her husband in Tahiti who helped to plant some precious trees on the island and Drukpa Butterworth to continue planting more trees in the school. These are wonderful virtuous deeds that will benefit many beings for a long time, provided that the trees are well taken care of and that people don't start to cut down trees after 10 or 20 years. We human beings are very strange, we always destroy our own virtues all the time. This is why I said yesterday that we need to keep our spiritual practice going, without any break, because our propensities to destroy our merits are very strong. With consistent spiritual practice as a support, we reduce the likelihood of our negative propensities to mature and ripen. For example, many people always talk about good and bad luck, positive and negative karma, kind and evil people, etc. What I want to say here is that everything depends on your mind. Your mind creates the actions and then repeated actions become a habit, all the habits take the form of personality and then at the end your personality decides your destination. That's the way karma is developed, whether it is good or bad karma, good or bad life, it's your choice.

As I said many times in my gossips, nothing is impossible, everything is in your own hands. If you have a mind to benefit others genuinely, everything that you do becomes a beneficial deed, whether you had expected that or not.

I am hoping that many places in Ladakh will have lots of trees like the photos below, so that many beings will benefit and many lives will be saved:

People can call all these activities that we are doing different names. Recently I found many of my colleagues actively promoting the concept of "Dharma in Action" and "Eco-Buddhism", etc. I think it is a great idea that we spiritual teachers are guiding our followers to live a meaningful life. In our case, we put our activities under the umbrella of Live to Love, without commercial intentions.

I thought about the setting up of the constitutions for people who are interested to participate in Live to Love as a support to our lineage's non-denominational activities, especially those commercial companies which belong to my friends and students who want to help in a bigger and more visible way. Again, 5 main directions should be followed strictly. Firstly, no political involvement, meaning that Live to Love activities should not be provoking political sensitivity; secondly, work with the local communities so that we start helping our own societies, I like what some people told me, "charity starts from home"; thirdly, stick to the five core activities; fourthly, use the Live to Love logo and wear the uniform t-shirts, please don't have your own versions; fifthly, any funds raised using Live to Love should be provided to legally authorised Drukpa Trusts and Centres or approved organisations for disbursement for the rightful causes so that misuse of Live to Love for own or commercial purposes and disputes about the use of funds would not be there; and on the funds received and used, we need to be transparent so that our Live to Love activities can last forever. However if Live to Love name is not being used for your own fundraising, then it's okay to do whatever you want, we have no say in it.

Beneficial activities that give excuses for others to have doubts and criticisms will not be beneficial later on. I really ask all of you, my friends and students, to be mindful whenever you do Live to Love activities as every of such activity carries the weight and responsibility of our 800 over years' legacy and the responsibility of everyone who is selflessly supporting the Live to Love activities in every corner of the world. I request all of you to take extra caution with Live to Love activities, as if you are taking care of your own new-born babies.

Felix, my one and only beloved godfather, also supported Live to Love in a marvellous way that I must share with all of you. He did not use Live to Love as the name, but he did it with the Live to Love spirit. In just 2 weeks, his company, which is developing something that I don't quite understand, which I think will reduce the use of petrol and is environment friendly, raised ten million Chinese RMB or US$1.45 million, to help the victims and survivors of the earthquakes in China, so that they will be able to rebuild their homes.

This is Felix's report to me on what his company, Mazoil, did for the victims, I copied everything from his email:

"Wudu district, one of the poorest areas in Gansu Province, is located 250 km from the epic center of the Sichuan Earthquake and it is 2000 meters above sea level. Local population is 550,000 with 85% making a living as farmers-- per capita income is RMB2000 (US$290). All the houses have collapsed in the quake and causing 116 dead and 1276 injuries. The residents have lost everything. Some are housed in temporary tents. Most have nothing above their heads. While Sichuan Earthquake has grabbed international headlines and donations, very little donation filtered down to Wudu district. Mazoil has started a charity program aimed specifically at helping the quake survivors in Wudu. Mazoil plans to raise RMB10m to buy winter proof tents and sleeping bags to give them proper housing for the next couple of years as they rebuild their homes . Winter is very punishing as the temperature drops to minus 15C- 20C. In the first shipment, Mazoil has used its own fund to purchase enough supplies to house 5000 residents in winter proof tents and sleeping bags. This shipment is due to arrive in Lanzhou, Gansu by first week of June."

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!