It was almost like ages ago that I last visited Taiwan. I want to thank Jigme Namdag and his friend for taking me around for a short holiday so that I could familiarise myself again with Taiwan and its people before showing myself in the public. I didn't have any sort of pleasant or unpleasant expectation, but I knew that Jean or Jigme Pema Dekyid, a new refuge name that I have given her this time and that I hope she will be using all the time, and Evelyn Lee, my very old friend, have been working very hard to make sure that this visit to Taiwan would be successful.

Lama Sonam of course was working like nobody's business to get the new temple for our lineage in Chia Yi ready for me to inaugurate. So because of their hard work and efforts everything went smoothly. In fact, I was very happy and surprised to see many new faces at the welcoming dinner and 2-day retreat, there were only a handful of old friends and students who went for the retreat but instead most went to Chia Yi temple opening. Maybe my new style is not too appealing to the old followers, but more attractive to the few hundred new people. Any how I thought they could have done better.

Because the hard work and sincerity of this handful of people and as I definitely had a much more encouraging feeling about the prospect of our lineage in Taiwan, I have promised to visit Taiwan again next year in September, when the 800 years of legacy will be celebrated in a big way. I think I should give them one more chance and I believe this time they will be able to do very well, not only a few thousand people like this recent visit, but tens of thousands of people will join together.

The trip to my good friend Venerable Master Hsin Tao's Ling Chiu Mountain was very inspiring. Ling Chiu Mountain means Vulture Peak in English, it is located on the cliff facing the ocean, so we can hear the sounds of winds and waves almost all the time, if we can contemplate on this kind of sounds, the silence in between the sounds and the waves, we will be able to understand the nature of samsara which is impermanent, which is like waves. Master Hsin Tao, as I have said before, is one of the important tulkus of Kathog lineage, and he is one of the important spiritual disciples of my father Zhichen Bairo Rinpoche. I was very moved to know that many of Master Hsin Tao's nuns and monks have completed more than 4 sets of Longsal Nyingpo Ngondro. A few years ago, my father, despite his ill health, was there at the mountain giving the rare empowerment of Rinchen Terdzo, Longchen Nyingthig and many other Kathog teachings. I believe Master Hsin Tao is one of the very few qualified disciples of my father who will be able to spread the lineage of Kathog in the Chinese speaking regions so as to benefit countless beings. I am constantly praying for Master Hsin Tao's longevity, happiness and good health. This time, due to his specific request, I also gave instructions and transmission on Sengey Tsewa, as I trust that they will also be able to carry this lineage of Sengey Tsewa with pure motivation to benefit all beings.

I also had a very good opportunity to meet with another old friend of mine, Venerable Master Di Ching, who has been one of the most generous supporters not only for me, but also for my colleagues.

I am so happy that Master Di Ching's present temple has a much larger space and much better energy. He is constantly working hard to spread teaching of the Buddha to the prisoners, on television and radio and through different gatherings, so that the Dharma can stay active to benefit many beings. I am truly proud that he is able to carry out so many activities all the time. Therefore, I am trying my best to support him through prayers and any way that I know, hoping that his activities will flourish.

One of the highlights of this trip is the visit to Venerable Master Cheng Yan's hospital, primary school, recycling plant and TV station, all in the name of Tzu Chi, which means Compassionate Help, as I was told.

I think those of you who have followed my web would know that Master Cheng Yan is the Bodhisattva nun who has worked for 40 years to set up many humanitarian activities for the benefits of human beings. This time, from the depth of my heart, I want to thank 2 of Paul Thong's friends, Richard and Albert, who came all the way from Burma after helping the people there to Taiwan, just to make arrangement for me and my entourage to visit Venerable Master Cheng Yan and to see with my own eyes her activities. Before visiting her and her humanitarian activities, I think my entourage of Khenpos and monks couldn't imagine or understand why I keep promoting Live to Love, now I believe after these visits, they know that we Buddhist practitioners can also put our Bodhisattva vows into actions, and the benefits can be immediately enjoyed by many beings. I really want to thank all the supporters and volunteers of Tzu Chi and especially Master Cheng Yan for setting such a practical example for Buddhist practitioners like us to follow. I am truly inspired by her selfless dedication and her hard work. Comparatively, I think masters like us are living quite a good life. So we all have a lot of work to do. From the depth of my heart, I wish and pray for the longevity, good health and happiness of Venerable Master Cheng Yan and may all her wishes be fulfilled effortlessly.

Activities that benefit beings can come in many forms. I am very happy that I could use this visit to Taiwan fully to learn from my old friends and to make new ones so that I can improve myself and my activities.

Friendship is very important, whether on a personal level or on the level of benefiting one's lineage or helping one's gurus. I feel very sad whenever I see people who are friends becoming disappointed with each other because of very small things when they are actually supposed to be joining together to help me and my lineage. I see this happening a lot these days in Asia. Therefore, I am a great admirer of those masters who have thousands of volunteers with booming activities, without having to deal with friends and students who don't get along with each other, mostly because of very childish reasons. Therefore these great masters, unlike me, have so much time to do great activities, so their activities and their lineage grow and flourish.

Some of them even told me that they wishes to step back, resign or just be a supporter, without getting involved. I wonder how they can help me without getting involved, they should share this secret with me so that I can do that with my activities. I wish I can say that too to my organisations, because when I tell some of my students that there are a lot of things they can improve on, especially the way they live their life, the way they treat others, instead of taking this kind of comments positively, they become disappointed and upset. I thought as a teacher, I have the duty and responsibility to correct and remind my students and friends their propensities, so that they will improve. If they don't want to listen, I have no choice but to stop telling them, because I don't want to create disharmony between myself and my friends and students, this is not good for the mind and not good for the health. I can also understand that it's always easier to hear your teachers and friends praising you all the time, even when you are on the wrong track, so I am always telling myself that those teachers who point out my faults and those among my friends who caution me about my missteps, they are the ones who genuinely care about me, so I value them more and I believe more in them. Those who are diplomatic and always agree with what you say may not be the genuine friends. I am sharing this because I know most of you only like to listen to the people who say nice things to you.

When we are helping our own gurus and our own lineage, even if we have huge differences in the ways that we approach one matter or one issue, we have to listen to each other, we have to learn to be good listener and we have to be kind to whoever giving us a different opinion, because this is also a practice of Paramita. For me too, many of my people and colleagues may not understand or agree with my way, I don't mind, I am very happy to listen to their views and respect their ways. We cannot be dogmatic if we wish to live happily in this world without stress. A happy mind is a mind that is open and full of space. If our mind is narrow, then there is no space to even accept ourselves, this is when the stress comes. As I said in the teaching in Taiwan about stress, we should not have a fixed concept about anything, we should be flexible and allow room for changes and to accommodate others. This is also related to development of patience, development of love and compassion. How can we practise Live to Love if we cannot even keep harmony within our own community, among our handful of friends and our family? If little things such as a mosquito bite or a meal that is considered by us as not delicious can upset and disappoint us, how can we find happiness?

I was told that some members do not agree with what the organisers are planning, then they don't come to join in the events and to my teaching. I don't know whose lost is this. I am not bothered. But I am surprised that these same people tell me how much they love me and how much they love the lineage, and yet they cannot put behind their personal differences to work for a common goal for me. This is something I don't understand. People get jealous, disagree with each other, struggle with all kinds of funny things for very childish reasons. This makes me wonder whether they had truly understood my teaching or simply came for the teaching to show their faces. Disharmony is the best way to kill everyone's energy, including my energy. I am unfortunately very sensitive about this sort of things. So I hope this is only my imagination and that whoever more senior in my organisations should be practising patience so that we will have increasing harmony and whoever helping me from the depth of their hearts should also be doing the same by keeping an open mind and open heart without having any discrimination and negative thoughts of others.

Therefore when I arrived in Vietnam, I thought I would face the same complaints, but so far so good. I am very happy that everything works out very nicely, therefore more than 20,000 devotees attended the public teaching and initiation yesterday, which was much more than last year in the same place. Harmony will make everything successful and peaceful.

Whether old friends, new friends, old students, new students, everyone should be living in harmony, for the sake of your own happiness, for the sake of the lineage and for my longevity, if you truly want this to happen. I have a lot of photos to show. Some are in my attendants' camera. I  think I would put a few of them here just to share with you whatever is there and the rest will be in the photo section later on.