Finally, a section for you to clarify your Dharma questions with Kechara’s esteemed pastors. Just post your question below and one of our pastors will provide you with an answer.

Note: This section of H.E. Tsem Rinpoche’s blog is meant for Dharma questions or questions related to Kechara and our lineage. If the question is not relevant or out of our scope, we will respectfully request you to seek an answer on a more relevant platform. Before posting your question, we would also like to suggest that you look through some of the older posts (or do a search on this blog) before you post a question as your question may have been already answered in an older post.

Browse through previous question submissions and learn from the Pastors’ answers. Click on the different page numbers or arrow buttons to view older questions.

Question asked by Tommy

Dear Pastors, I have a question. I once asked my Guru what practices he recommended for me. He said two. Among them the practice of Medicine Buddha. However, sometimes I have little faith in this practice because it gives me the feeling that the Medicine Buddha is a very peaceful Buddha and sometimes I think that he is not effective in protecting because he does not have angry energy. For example, even in the practice of Green Tara, in the prayer to the 21 Taras, some of them are black, others are red, demonstrating that some of them are wrathful or semi-wrathful. Please advise me on this. Thanks.

Reply by pastor

Dear Tommy,

Sometimes when a guru assigns us a practice, it may be hard for us to develop faith in that particular deity, because we may not feel that affinity for whatever reason. However, if we stick to the practice and engage in it diligently, that faith will grow because we will see the effectiveness of the practice. Usually when assigned a practice, we see the benefits more easily than other practices because we actually do have an affinity with that deity, it’s just that for us at our level we may not feel it yet.

In regards to Medicine Buddha’s practice, even though his form is not semi-wrathful, or fully wrathful, his practice include immense energies of protection. This are all listed out in the full Medicine Puja – protection from spirits, negative energy, from physical danger, from accidents, from environmental disasters, from negative delusions, from lower rebirth, protection from poverty. The list goes on and on. He is actually a supreme protector. Usually we only equate his practice with healing and health, but his practice is one of the most profound practices in Buddhism. In fact, Tsem Rinpoche used to assign Medicine Buddha to people with spirit disturbances or in difficult situations to cure their obstacles and his practice really worked. I hope this helps.

Question asked by Harry

Professor Christopher Bell has done an new article on Dorje Shugden.
Tsem Rinpoche had in the past posted articles etc by this Professor. Here is a link to that article which your may want to repost.
https://journaloftibetanliterature.org/index.php/jtl/article/view/53/134
Pray for the swift return of our beloved Tsem Tulku Rinpoche.

Reply by pastor

Hi there Harry,

Thank you for letting us know. I’ll forward this link to our team for them to have a look.

And thank you for your prayers!

Question asked by Haneef

Is there and email I can send a question to

Reply by pastor

Dear Haneef,

Sorry for the late reply. Please email Care@Kechara.com, you can answer your questions privately there. I hope that helps.

Question asked by Bhavisha

Do initiation possible without having guru?
Do online initiation happen?(i know this is dumb question but some reiki initiation happens online now a days and this has nothing to do with initiation of deities but still want to ask)
Thank You

Reply by pastor

Dear Bhavisha,

From a Buddhist point of view, initiation is impossible without having a guru. The blessings of the practice must be transmitted from guru to disciple through the process of initiation.

Some traditions do have intiiations online. However, from the point of view of lamas of our specific tradition, deity-initiations need to take place in person. There are certain procedures and things that initiates need to do during the ceremony and recieving the blessings physically, etc.

Question asked by Jeredy

Questions about daily practice. I have went to the prayer section, however, I am confused on how to combine those prayers as some are repeated verse, some are new and do not know if it should be at the front or back or the prayer.

I am currently, reciting, Shakyamuni Buddha, Dzambhala and Dorje Shugden mantras and would like to do a proper daily practice, I believe is called Sadhana,please help.

Thank you for this section for clarification and assistance.

Reply by pastor

Dear Jeredy,

You can continue reciting the prayers that you reciting. Start off by taking refuge, then continue to Buddha Shakyamuni, Dzambala and then Dorje Shugden, finish with a completion dedication. You can take this to be your daily sadhana.

Usually, however in Kechara, most people use the Diamond Path as their Daily Sadhana – https://www.vajrasecrets.com/diamond-path

Alternatively, Tsem Rinpoche composed a new general daily sadhana here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/new-simplified-daily-prayer-to-dorje-shugden.html

Hope this helps. Thanks.

Question asked by Tyler

Hi, I've been assigned prostration preliminaries and ive been doing the half prostration due to space constraint will it be fine if i continue to do so as when I watched Tsem Rinpoches video on prostrations he said to the full length during a prostration retreat. Thank you

Reply by pastor

Dear Tyler,

If you have been assigned the prostration preliminary, please do check regarding this with your Guru. In general however, the prostration preliminary is always full-length. However, your guru may give you an exception. Please do check with him or her. Thank you.

Question asked by Ananya🌻

Can i keep Green tara and vahrasattva’s framed pictures at my home?

Reply by pastor

Dear Ananya,

Of course! This will be very good for you! Both Green Tara and Vajrasattva are extremely powerful and beneficial. If you want to go one step further you can set a small altar, with both of their images and make offerings to them daily. This will help to generate merit. If you want you can also engage in their practice and mantra recitation to call more of their energies into your life.

You can find high-resolution images that you can print out and frame here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/downloads/buddha-images.html

Question asked by A

Hello respected pastors, when tarot card readers say that one has ancestors’ blessings and one should connect or pray ! Surely ancestors would have taken lots of rebirths so how do they deduce such points! Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you.

Reply by pastor

Dear A,

The system of tarot cards is not related to Buddhist practice. The original tarot system came from part of very specific ideology and religious systems in Europe. Over time it has been distorted by influence of new age theories and mixing of various traditions and beliefs.

Within the Buddhist tradition, everyone takes rebirth. Hence, ‘ancestors’ have taken rebirth in varying realms throughout samsara. You would not be able to connect with them according to what other systems of belief say. However, if they are born in higher realms and have memory of their previous lives, they may have the power to help their descendants from previous lives. However, it is very difficult to be born in such realms and take tremendous amounts of positive karma. Hence you do not find any form of ancestor worship within Buddhist traditions. Hope this helps.

Question asked by Aaru

Will every being ultimately achieve nirvana? And if yes then will samsara stop one day?

Reply by pastor

Dear Aaru,

That is the goal and ideal of Bodhisattvas, to eventually empty samsara completely, so that all sentient beings achieve nirvana. When that occurs, then Samsara will stop as no beings will have the karma to make samsara exist. All sentient beings will be enlightened.

There is a famous verse in a dedication prayer from Chapter 10 of Shantideva’s Bodhisattvacharyavatara text:

“For as long as space remains,
For as long as sentient beings remain,
Until then may I too remain
To dispel the miseries of the world.”

From the above verse we can see first the mindset of a Bodhisattva and two infer that eventually samsara will stop. Hope that helps.

Question asked by Gigi

Hello! Its me again, i want to thank you all for answering me and for always trying to answer everyone, may that become the cause of everyone's rapid enlightenment! And i have one more question:

While I'm doing the vajrasattva's visualization I end up imagining that his energy is also the same energy that I have, as if my true essence was also pure like vajrasattva, is that right? Can I practice with this kind of thinking, without having initiation? or would that be too much 'pride of deity'?

Reply by pastor

Dear Gigi,

It’s better not to think in this way if you don’t have the appropriate initiation. Hence, when you are praciting, try to think that energies are different. Over the course of the visualisation, you can think and visualise that Vajrasattva is making your own energy/essence pure through his practice. At the end of the practice, you can think that your energy/essence has been completely purified by Vajrasattva’s energy. I hope that helps.

Question asked by Lucas

Hi pastors
What was Tsem rinpoches stance on being a Gelupa practitioner and studying from the other schools of Tibet such as sakya Ningyma etc ? Was he non sectarian?

Thankyou

Reply by pastor

Dear Lucas,

You asked a very important question. As a Gelugpa pracitioner Tsem Rinpoche was non-sectarian in the sense that he didn’t see any one sect as being ‘greater’ or ‘higher’ than any other. However, Rinpoche was very staunch in sticking to the practices and teachings of the particular lineage you are practising. The reason for this is because of the path of practice differs between lineages and you can get easily confused. In the end, you reach the same destination – enlightenment, but the route you took there is different from the route someone else took. I remember asking Rinpoche this directly on a number of occasions. So I’ll tell you what he told me.

He gave me one example, which is that the destination we want to reach is enlightenment. Each tradition is a specific road to get there. If you start going down one road, you are told how to practice, what buildings look like on either side, road signs to tell you where you are, etc. It’s very definied. If you try to take another road on the way there (switch to practice according to another tradition) then you are going to get confused, the buildings on either side are different, the sign posts are different, the path of practice is different. So before you set off down the road, decide which route you want to take, decide which lineage/tradition you want to follow, and then go all the way with it. Only then will we get to the destination of enlightenment without getting confused and in the fastest time possible.

Rinpoche said it was good to learn how different lineages practice, etc. But in terms of personal practice, stick to whichever tradition are already praciting. I remember a few times, some pracitioners were considering switching to the Gelug tradition, but they had formal commitments from their own tradition. Rinpoche encouraged them to continue the pracitice of their own tradition instead and gave them advice on how they could make their pracitice and faith in that tradition stronger. I hope that helps.

Question asked by Corey

Dear friend

I wonder if you can point me in the direction of a excellent quality Vajrayogini statue, a smallish one maybe 30 centimetres high that is accurate and made with devotion

Thank you so much 💖

Reply by pastor

Dear Corey,

Thanks for your question. We do have some Vajra Yogini statues available here: https://www.vajrasecrets.com/buddhas Hope you find what you are looking for. Thank you.

Question asked by Jae B

Hello! I have been a practicing Zen Buddhist for awhile. However over the past year I have been interested in Tibetan Buddhism. My birth Buddha is Green Tara and I have always had a connection to her before finding this out. At some point I would like to take refuge vows but as a beginner on this path, what would you recommend for me as far as building a daily practice? I work nightshift so long practices would be a challenge for me. Thank you for your time! 🙏🏾

Reply by pastor

Dear Jae B,

Thank you for your question. Since you quite new to the path, as a daily practice you can recite the Praises to 21 Taras with as many Tara mantras as you would like. This would be really beneficial. You can just recite the text and while reciting think of Green Tara and ask her for blessings. You can find the prayer here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/prayers-and-sadhanas/sadhana-prayers.html#17

Tara is incredible powerful. As you do her prayer and mantra request her from your heart to help open up your spiritual path and provide the conditions necessary to find the help and guidance that you need. She is very in this regard and is known to be extremely quick in help us. Hope that helps.

If you are able it would be good to set up a small altar to her and make offerings to her daily. Even a printed and framed picture of her will be good. We have some images for download here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/downloads/buddha-images.html

Hope this helps. Thank you.

Question asked by Duy

Can I make offering coffee to Dorje Shugden or just tea and water ?

Reply by pastor

Hi Duy,

Yes of course you can offer coffee to Dorje Shugden. In fact, we can offer any type of beverage to Dorje Shugden. Any offering made from the heart he will accept as being sincere.

I know people who offering him cola, juice, other softdrinks, etc. They are all offerings made from the heart.

Question asked by Jake.

Hi pastors
I was recently reading about Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhāva he is supposed to have had 5 consorts I just want to why he had so many what was the purpose and did he do karmamudra practice with them ?
Thankyou

Reply by pastor

Dear Jake,

Guru Rinpoche did have multiple consorts, but you must realise that they were not ordinary women. In their own right they were highly realised beings. Through their practice together both Guru Rinpoche and his sacred consorts achieved incredible feats, helped countless sentient beings, and taught the Dharma.

As part of the Gelug tradition, we don’t learn a lot about Guru Rinpoche, but yes he did practice Karmamudra with them. But that just goes to show his high level of practice and that of his consorts. In the Gelug tradition we are taught that Karmamudra practice should only be practiced by the highest level calibre practitioners. If not, then all it does is increase desire. Hence in the Gelug tradition physical Karmamudra practice is not practiced. Instead it is done with a Jnanamudra, or visualised consort.

Hope that helps. Thanks.

Question asked by Lee

Hello Pastors!
I'm so sorry about to write this question here again but your last answer was different answer with my questions.
I would like to ask about one deity name's Dorje Dermo:
What's benifits of her practices and mantra?
I saw one verses in her sutra had remind about samayas to recite her mantra:
དེ་ནས་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་དེས་གཟུངས་འདིའི་དམ་ཚིག་གསུངས་པ།
dené khandroma dé zung di damtsik sungpa

The ḍākinī then pronounced the samayas for this dhāraṇī:

སློབ་དཔོན་སྤྱི་བོར་འཁུར་ཞིང་དབང་དང་དམ་ཚིག་བསྲུང་། །
lobpön chiwor khur zhing wang dang damtsik sung

“Respect your master and guard your empowerments and samayas.

མན་ངག་ཀུན་ལ་མི་སྤེལ་དགོན་པར་གསངས་ལ་སྒྲུབ། །
mengak kün la mi pel gönpar sang la drub

Do not disseminate the pith instructions, but accomplish them secretly in solitude.

ཚོགས་ནང་མི་འགྲོ་དམ་ཚིག་ཉམས་དང་ཁ་མི་སྲེ། །
tsok nangmi dro damtsik nyam dang kha mi sé

Do not wander among crowds or mingle with those of degenerated samaya.

མཆོད་དང་གཏོར་ཚོགས་འཁོར་འདས་དུས་བཞིར་བྱ། །
chö dang tor tsokkhor dé dü zhirja

Make offerings, oblations and feast offerings to the beings of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa during the four times.

ལྟ་བས་ཐག་བཅད་སྒོམ་བསྒྲུབ་དད་པར་བྱ། །
tawé takché gom drub depar ja

Resolve through the view, practise meditation, and be faithful.

སྤྱོད་པ་མ་དོར་དམ་ཚིག་ལྡན་ན་དངོས་གྲུབ་ཐོབ། །
chöpa ma dor damtsik den na ngödrub tob

By maintaining the samayas, without rejecting the secret conduct, you will receive the siddhis.

ཚེ་འདིའི་རང་དོན་མ་བྱེད་གདམ་ངག་ལོངས། །
tsé di rangdön ma jé dam ngak long

Follow the oral instructions without prioritizing the pleasures of this life.

རང་སེམས་དབང་དུ་ཚུགས་ལ་དངོས་གྲུབ་དོན་དུ་གཉེར། ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ་དང་།
rangsem wang du tsuk la ngödrub döndu nyer zhé mepa dang

Learn to control your mind and pursue accomplishment.”

Could you explain for me about this samayas or how i should understand this samayas if i have wishes to recite her sutra and mantra?
Example for a lay person like me that quite difficult to do tsog offering 4 times each days or wander among crowds and quite hard to recognise who is degenerated samaya.

Thank you so much.

Reply by pastor

Dear Lee,

The points listed in the prayer refer to specific commitments/samayas that are formally promised during tantric initiation, specifically of deities belonging to the Highest Yoga Tantra class. When you receive those initiations, there are many commitments/samayas to be kept in order to be successful in the practice of that particular deity.

For those without such intiations, they can just read these lines and practice the Dharma to best of their ability. All of the points mentioned are only commitments for those with the highest type of intiations. For now, in your case, just continue to develop faith, practice the teachings to transform your mind, make as many offerings as you can and help others. All of these, plus reciting the sutra, will help to progress your spiritual path and created the causes for you to receive the higher practices in the future. I hope this helps you. Thank you.

Question asked by Lee

Hello Pastors!
I would like to ask about one deity name's Dorje Dermo:
What's benifits of her practices and mantra?
I saw one verses in her sutra had remind about samayas to recite her mantra:
དེ་ནས་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་དེས་གཟུངས་འདིའི་དམ་ཚིག་གསུངས་པ།
dené khandroma dé zung di damtsik sungpa