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Tsem Rinpoche
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I must thank my dharma blog team who are great assets to me, Kechara and growth of dharma in this wonderful region. I am honoured and thrilled to work with them. I really am. Maybe I don't say it enough to them, but I am saying it now. I APPRECIATE THESE GUYS VERY MUCH!
Tsem Rinpoche
H.H. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche Explains Dorje Shugden Initiation and Benefits (With English Subtitles)
Dear everyone... This is a good condensed talk I gave on Guru Yoga of Tsongkapa. This is the one you should share with others when they are interested in a not too lengthy explanation. It is the perfect practice for everyone who wants simplicity yet effective blessings. You can share this with more people, it will be good.
~ Tsem Rinpoche
Powerful Dorje Shugden's mantras
Tsem Rinpoche on National TV's Wesak Day Documentary
'The Promise' book launch featured on NTV7 Primetime
"If you say you don't have money to help a animal shelter, why then do you have money to buy meat?"
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Eating animals is not our God-given right, but being kind to them is."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"What makes us good humans is not how we abuse animals, but how much we allow them to live and be happy freely."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"We need another and wiser and perhaps a more mythical concept of animals.... We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complex than ours they moved finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth."
~ Henry Beston, The Outermost House
"Not eating animals is only unnatural when we are not used to it."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"We may encounter defeat, but we must not be defeated."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"What you are today, is the choice you made yesterday."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"You think you can choose your life? What an ego trip!"
~ Lama Yeshe
"If TODAY you are dissatisfied, you must make the changes to create different results for TOMORROW."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
“Meditating on Dorje Shugden while reciting his mantra will open the gateways to higher dimensions, blessings and protection.”
~ Tsem Rinpoche
“If one does the recitation of the Lama Tsongkhapa guru yoga prayer for even one month using one of the visualizations for great or clear or quick wisdom, one will definitely see development of that wisdom. It is proved by experience. There is no doubt that by doing the Lama Tsongkhapa guru yoga practice one can meet Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings from life to life. And furthermore, it gives one the opportunity to be born in the pure realm of Lama Tsongkhapa, Tushita, whenever death happens.”
~ Pabongkha Rinpoche
"I was 18 years old in 1983. That was a very special year as I met His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche and received innumerable precious teachings and empowerments from Him at Thubten Dhargye Ling Centre in Los Angeles, California. It was the best time of my life. A time that seems so magical and surreal to me. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche is Heruka Buddha and I met Heruka."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"If being me offends you, maybe I'm not the problem."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Never abandon your spiritual teacher no matter how many inner obstacles you need to overcome."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Actions to force something to be permanent makes all the karmas arise."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"The dharma is not easy to listen to… because some people take it as criticism. But Dharma should not be just feel good only for the moment but for deeper contemplations."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Whether we do work and suffer but for others or we do work and suffer for ourselves, either way we have to suffer. That is the nature of samsara. So let us suffer for others and then suffering has meaning."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Those who really want the dharma to grow within themselves and to grow for others should never fear hard work, timing, difficulties, struggles, disappointments because it is for a good cause. Working for Dharma is not a prison or work, but it is purely spiritual practice. It is purely collection of merit and purification. Actually not doing dharma work is the real prison."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"His Holiness Zong Rinpoche stressed the need to continue to practice even when we come up against obstacles, and that we should continually review our progress. He stated that a happy, luxurious life was like a good dream, and that obstacles and difficulties were like a bad dream. We should give them no significance, but simply carry on working towards real, everlasting happiness."
~ Ngala ’ö-Dzin Tridral
"Things in samsara always go wrong. That's its nature. Don't be surprised."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Knowledge never quenches the thirst, only application."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"I pity men who occupy themselves exclusively with the transitory in things and lose themselves in the study of what is perishable, since we are here for this very end-that we may make the perishable imperishable, which we can do only after we have learned how to approach both."
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Money amplifies negative characteristics and that can cause problems. To walk away from that was actually very easy. I didn't even consider it."
~ Angeline Francis Khoo
"I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud."
~ Carl Jung
"There is a devil there is no doubt, but is he trying to get into us or trying to get out?"
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"If you love someone, show it by being honest, respectful & honorable with them."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."
~ Henry David Thoreau
"If I can just be the way I am & you the way you are & we accept each other, world peace is near."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"I am Asian, you are some other beautiful color. Together we make diversity so beautiful."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"It's amazing how some people have never met me or know who I am, but based on a few things they read here & there & rumours, they have formulated a new personality for me & all the things I've never done they passionately speak about....I find it funny and entertaining now. I guess we can't spend our lives fighting rumours...we just have to work hard & then rumours get proven wrong on it's own as a by product. No point explaining repeatedly. Just do our work & show results!!"
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"There's a difference between patience and laziness. Patience comes from respect while laziness from disrespect of others."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Although outwardly we have so much, we have so many conveniences, inwardly we have become more unhappy, so, acquisition is not the secret to happiness. The more we get, the more we have, the more unhappy we become."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Before we experience any pain, we already had a fixed view of how things should be. When the experience we encounter contradicts our views, then the pain arises. The pain arises due to our fixed views not so much the experience itself. So the secret is changing the views. Re-educating ourselves on our views."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"You know since very young, for better or worse, I always did the things that others told me not to do. I wasn't really good at following the rules. Even now with how I share Dharma and my practice, I just do it the way I think it should be done but I do it sincerely. Not what others tell me what I can and can't do."
~ Tsem Rinpoche
"Love me or hate me, both are in my favor... If you love me, I'll always be in your heart... If you hate me, I'll always be in your mind."
~ William Shakespeare
"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous or honest."
~ Maya Angelou
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Comments I like from
Hui Keng Bruneian Meghna
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This is the most wonderful introduction to highest yoga tantra teaching I ever got in my life. It is simply marvelous! Rinpoche elucidates the teaching in the most precise, ... Read More Everytime when I browsed through the articles on Rinpoche's blog, I would click on any article except those that have to do with Buddha or anything that relates to religion. ... Read More To Tsem Rinpoche :) A very, VERYYYY happy birthday to you!! Thank you so, so very much for all that you have done and still do so. I cannot even ... Read More
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Dear Kent,
Thank you for your question. The three animals were chosen for the wheel of life because they represent what are known as the Three Poisons in Buddhism. These three are hatred, desire and ignorance, they are the three root causes of our suffering, and what underpins our continued existence in samsara. Once these three are overcome, we can become enlightened and reach the stage of Buddhahood, which is free from all suffering.
It is believed that it was the Buddha himself who designed the drawing of the wheel of life, to encompass his teachings so that ordinary people could understand them in pictorial form. It is commonly painting on the outside walls of monasteries, primarily to teach those that are not studying the teachings in further detail (as the monks/nuns inside would be). However, real study of the wheel of life is very complex as it holds within it, all the major explanations about life and suffering. Understanding this, can lead us to a better understanding of our precarious state in existence and how this comes about, knowing this we can work on improving ourselves and working towards the complete elimination of all suffering – full enlightenment.
The painting itself has many layers each with their own detailed teachings within the scriptures, but the centre of the painting are the three animals representing the Three Poisons. Hatred is represented by the snake, desire by the rooster and ignorance by pig. This is because in ancient times, these three animals were associated with these afflictions. Snakes represent hatred or anger, because they can strike at the slightest provocation, even if a person is simply walking nearby. Therefore the snake represents the qualities of hatred. The rooster represents desire because in ancient times it was believed that roosters were very attached to their partners, and that their aim in life was simply to procreate. Lastly, pigs were considered to be an ignorant animal because they would live in filth and eat whatever it could find, without thought of if it could be food or not.
While these animals represent these qualities in art, it is not to say that that we should look down on them, it is simply that some common imagery was necessary to get the message across about the Three Poisons. In fact, as sentient beings, we should strive along the Mahayana path to gain enlightenment for them, so that we can help them overcome the sufferings that they face.
In many depictions the pig holds the tail of the rooster, which in turn holds the tail of the snake, which holds the tail of the pig. This is to signify that all three poisons are the causes for the other two to arise. For example ignorance about the true nature of existence leads to the creation of attachment/desire for things, which in turn can lead to hatred. This is because hatred arises when we do not get what we want, or it arises due to aversion towards things that we are not attached to or desire. Both of these feed and strengthen ignorance about the true nature of existence. Hence it is a vicious cycle that we must break in order to overcome all forms of suffering. His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche has a book on this called Snakes, Roosters and Pigs, which is about overcoming these poisons and transforming our lives for the better. You can find a review of the book here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/snakes-roosters-and-pigs-by-tsem-rinpoche.html, and the book itself can be purchased online via our online shop called Vajrasecrets: http://www.vajrasecrets.com/snakes-roosters-and-pigs. I hope this short explanation helped.
Thank you.