Dear MK,

Definitely Setrap practice can help you toward enlightenment. Setrap took a vow in front of Shakyamuni to do just that. Those of us who practice Shakymamuni’s teachings will do very well by Setrap for sure.

To improve your Setrap Practice:

1. Attend the dharma talks by students in Kechara.
2. Go on the youtube to listen to past dharma talks I have given if it suits you.
3. Read the WHEEL OF SHARP WEAPONS carefully once a week as a practice.
4. Volunteer in one of the 13 depts with a motivation to do dharma work and do not judge anything, just observe how your mind thinks.
5. Do not miss Setrap puja. Attend religiously.
This is how you can improve for now. I am happy with your question.
I am happy for you that you have connected with Setrap.
Tsem Rinpoche

Yes I am better today..thank you for asking..also today I am able to type more. Past few days was not able to type much due to pain. How lucky I can have pain for KWPC.
I have been getting wonderful treatment daily from Dr Jiang. He is also VERY GOOD when you have the flu…

Dear Anonymous,

Yes it is the result of past speech karma accummulated. Some remedies that will effect a result over time:

Take vows in front of the Three Jewels with a determination to keep them to:

1. Not Lie
2. Avoid all schismatic talk no matter how ‘appealing’ it may sound.
3. Do not speak harshly.
4. Do not speak anything that will hurt anyone and just observe.

If we take these vows sincerely, everyday we hold the vows, it will generate fresh positive karma to make our speech wonderful now and in the future lives.

Along with the vows:

1. Do PRAISE TO MANJUSHRI once a day and the mantra 1,000 times a day.
2. Do the praise 108 Names to Manjushri if you have.
3. Look people straight in the eye when you talk to them always.
4. When people talk, listen, look at them, focus and complement when appropriate.

5. The 35 Confessional Sutras will be very powerful if recited once a day.

It is through Buddha’s speech that we gain the knowledge to become Enlightened. Out of the actions of a Buddha, speech is most important. Buddha’s speech ‘becomes’ the Dharma. So in order to gain greater speech and in the future, the Buddha’s speech, holding our vows and practicing speech that benefits others is very important as it creates causes for Buddha speech.

I wish you luck.

Oracles are trained by highly qualified lamas. Simply to invoke or take trance of any deity can be harmful. One should never do this.

In short-

A oracle identified correctly should engage in the following:

Je Tsongkapa retreat of Migtzeyma (prescribed number according to lama and individual)

Yamantaka Retreat (number same as above),and then fire puja.

Hayagriva Retreat (number same as above), and then fire puja.

Retreat of one’s dharma protector (number same as above)concluding with fire puja.

Sometimes prostration retreat is required.

The lama must do a ‘clearing of your channeles’ ritual on you to open the passageways.

A training can last for 5 years under the guidance of a lama.

For each prayer, ritual, sadhana, practice there are always several versions. Over time, they can change to suit the needs of the people of that time, hence different traditions arise amounting to different versions. There is no right or wrong version. So do not worry. Just do the version you are comfortable with.

Good luck!!

That is good. Existence is geographical and symbolic. Not necessarily pervasive. So important not to get stuck on the examples set out to help your percieve something deeper.

Something that might exist in one place may not in another. In pramana, you are concerned with direct perception and inference and not get stuck on examples of it that may exist or not in your area.

So perhaps in Arizona you can substitute examples with a horned Tibetan instead?? Langdarma doesn’t count…haha

Good luck on your studies and very happy to hear you contemplating on Pramana. Wonderful.

What a refreshing question…Thank you.

I have spoken hundreds of times on meditation and philosphical studies in the last 17 years. I have spoken endlessly and some recorded and some not. I have been criticized for speaking too much about it!!!! Hahaha So I’ve decided to teach lifestyle Buddhism that is simple and adaptable and leave the hardcore practices for the Monastery.

I lessened the hardcore talks because most of the crowd not very interested in those. I can give a talk on meditation and why for three hours and at the end of it, people will raise their hands and ask to teach something simple as they don’t have time. So I have cut down dramatically on complicated, long discourses to suit the aptitude of most people who come to me. This I have done purposely.

You should meditate. You should study. You should practice. You should develop the qualities that will release your mind from the endless birth-death realms we are experiencing. Meditation and study are primary when applied for the purpose of enlightenment and not the sake of knowledge or making money off them.

I admire your thoughts and I admire your thininking in this direction and you must keep it up. It is a wonderful direction. At the same time while you are meditating/studying do supportive practices that should not be abandoned simultaneously such a tantric practice, not eating meat and preliminaries. My teachers advised doing them simultaneously is important as we lack time.

Buddhas manifest according to time, placed, need, karma, and degeneration.

As times gets more degenerate, and we get further away from Shakyamuni’s (now 2,600 years), some of the methods may not be applicable anymore while some methods that were ‘dormant’ or not as popular or ‘inappropriate’ in the past becomes the best method. And this can change again also. It’s flexible due to need.

In our time of degneration, the strongest driving impulse for many actions done is desire/lust. Vajra Yogini’s tantra is a direct opponent of this. So without immediately removing desire, in Her path, many ordinary actions we need to do daily are tranformed into actions of the path or for the path. Hence Vajra Yogini’s path is very swift. Ordinary actions daily become ordinary when we practice Her path hence quickening the collection of merits that lead to the destruction of projections. Projections that bind us still.
I have written other items on my blog under the category Vajra Yogini. You can take a look please.

Wrathful or peaceful deities are just deities acting according to our disposition. From their side, there is no wrath or peace. Just enlightenment. So don’t get caught up with the iconography alone.

I wish you the best.

I have no answer for this. I do not know all the emanations of Budda.

It will be simpler to think positive thoughts for practice.

Do not follow the guide. Do not travel to any city. Just don’t think about those things for now.

But Practice:

Good heart
forgiveness of enemies
generosity
patience
and do works that benefit society (charity of your choice)
Help stop global warming
save animals

There may not be a city to go to, but we can improve the ‘town’ we live in. Don’t get stuck in long distance, just focus on the immediate with a good heart passionately and all the way. Do not need to follow any guides to any promised destinations that you cannot percieve at this time, but believe in humnity and assisting in making this world a better place by living that belief.

That would be good enough for now.

Very good question. I like it very much. I like your honesty and indepth thinking.

Things are in a cycle. It’s good and then gets worse and then disappears then appears again. The cycle continues that way again and again endlessly.

When things go bad in samsara there is no surprise, the nature of samsara is suffering. It’s when things go right in samsara we should be surprised.

Perhaps because they felt it would be good for my mind and practice also?

Well it’ nice to be a divine dharma Hulk. I hope one day I do have the abilities to smash the egos of others and myself. Then much less sufferings.

Dear Allan,

I have not studied this and hence not qualified at all to answer this. But Malaysia so far as I have observed has a peaceful society, plenty of food, opportunities, cost of living comfortable, not many natural disasters, steady electricity, clean water, good hosptitals, and generally the necessities for life are easy and comfortable. For all this I am truly grateful and feel it is an honour to be here. Much better than other situations I have been in.

Do not have intercourse in any way that will harm the partner or bring them pain.

Do not cheat on your partner.

Do not be deceptive to your partner.

Not when they are unwell.

And never pass any harm to their body that you may have in your body.

Yes you can collect merits from any action that is not meant to harm and your intention is to benefit.

Many who do not have a chance such as people who live in places dharma is not readily available or animals may hear the recorded chanting and plant seeds in their mind or open seeds in the future. Mantras are very benefical and postive. So this is ok to do.

After I die, if I have a reincarnation, my students will have to consult a highly qualified lama or oracle. The lama and oracle will identify. Perhaps the child himself will partially ‘identify’ himself also.

As for Mumu, I will do my best he takes a favorable rebirth. If in a future life, he practices and makes good aspirations to benefit others, he could start a line of incarnations. After all, I was a dog many times in previous lives as well as many others beings….

Dear Paul,

Nice questions.

1. Kechara cannot be compared to any other centres in the world. Any centre cannot be compared with another centre. You have cultural, geographical, and mindset differences. Each lama/centre will have to work through these uniquely.

2.His Holiness the Dalai Lama has indicated he is a humble monk and wish to be humble, yet look at his activities and his word is the final word for me and many. Although I am very far from the Dalai Lama, when you work hard to open a centre and you have put your energies, youth, time, effort, resources into a centre and it is fledgeling, you have to keep a close watch to make it thrive. Would you let others raise your children when they are very young? Of course not. As your children grow, mature, and become adults they will come across many teachers in life and they are ready/stable for it. Anyone from Kechara can leave at any time. Some have left, many have stayed. It is ok.

3.My relations to Gaden Shartse is not distant. I have had a very close relationship with them for many years and raised tremendous amounts for their sacred projects. I am sure they are very grateful to me and Kechara for the tremendous service we have done for the sangha. And we have tremendous gratitude for being allowed to serve the sangha. I have brought over 280 students to Gaden Shartse and I still send students to Gaden Shartse from time to time. I do have visiting monks also, in fact one is coming soon. Visas, language barriers, permits, and culture add to some travel plans at times. Because of my presence in Malaysia and Singapore four other centres directly affiliated with Gaden Shartse has sprung up over the last decade. I rejoice in this. I do not wish to open centres in other parts of the world at this time although requested. I rather build a learning institution that will continue after my death rather than many centres dissolving.

4. FPMT no doubt is a great organization. But in the beginning decades ago, Lama Yeshe had to work very hard to get it to what it is now. The rules, regulations and procedures were all set out by him very firm and clear initially and everyone followed. It is only in the last two decades you see more and more teachers from Sera being invited to help with the many centres around the world as it is too much for a few persons to handle.

5. If you see Tsu chi organization which has over 800 chapters in the world is run, operated and conducted by one single nun in Taiwan. Her sacred name is Rev Chen Yen. Her centres/cafes/relief places throughout the world and here in Malaysia only carry her teachings/ practices and doctrine only yet they are not incomplete. It has worked out very well. That is her style. Same as was Mother Teresa’s. I like this style for the East.

6. I know of many other lamas and centres that are only affiliated with the teachings of their lama and not so much their Monasteries as it suits them. I know of lamas/centres who are affiliated with their Monasteries and that works too. There is no hard and fast rule. So I do not presume any nor judge.

7. Whatever structure I have set out for Kechara and my students is through 17 years of experience here in Malaysia. I’ve taught and travelled to so many dharma centres of all lineages all over Malaysia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong. I have concluded it is best to respect all lineages, encourage others toward their own lineages and encourage them toward strong guru devotion towards their teacher and be stable and firm in that. I have met hundreds of people who have recieved countless initiations from lamas they cannot remember the name nor the practice and are very worried. I have met people who go from one centre to another and another year after year not benefitting the centre nor themselves. I have very firm ideas and very firm direction. My projects are not pet projects but stem from a strong vision of how to benefit society from my lifetime experiences in various ‘sufferings’. I will make the depts grow and become very beneficial and that is for sure. That is my unique style and those who have aptitude and affinity may join. Again Kechara is not the best for everyone, but Kechara is wonderful as Kecharians make it wonderful.

The teachings I share in Kechara come from a firm basis, true lineage and has confirmed results..they are not a narrow range of Gelug teachings. Even the great monks at Sera, Gaden, Tashi Lunpo, Tashi Kyil, Gyuoto, Gyume, do not go to other lineages to study or get practice. Nothing wrong. The great Sakya, Kagyu, Nyingma Monasteries do not come to Gaden, Sera and Drepung to study either and that is very ok. They are all nearby eachother also. Even within Gaden we have many great teachers, but we do not go to all the great teachers for teachings. We stay and serve our teacher and learn from him. When we have exhausted learning the knowledge he has, then he will send us somewhere else..and that would be near impossible.. But we respect all teachers in Gaden and their students.

Will you ever see Gaden Tripa giving a Vajrakilaya initiation? Will you ever see a Kagyu throne holder give a Je Tsongkapa initiation and explanation? Will you ever see Gelugs going to a Kagyu Monlam or vice versa? No you don’t and that is ok. Once you graduate from Harvard PHD, you do not need to go Cambridge. It is fine. Both Ivy leagues are fine. All lineages of Tibetan Buddhism teach the authentic path and each one is fine. Even in Gaden, many monks do not know the full corpus of Gelug teachings as elucidated by the Incomparable Tsongkapa, and they spend all their time in the dharma. How do expect lay people here, who have family, work, bills, entertainments, doubts, heavy karma, distractions, fun to learn even a fraction of what I have shared with them here, let alone, the whole corpus of teachings of Tsongkapa and forget about the other sacred teachings of the other lineages.

I do not recommend my students to participate in other centres and I strongly discourage other centre students to participate in other centres and in Kechara. I strongly discourage centre hopping. I encourage everyone to stick to one teacher, one lineage, one practice, one direction. Avoid confusion and avoid overload.

I have thought this through thoroughly and consulted my teachers. And yes this is the best direction for Kechara. It may not be the best for others, but not everyone needs to join Kechara. Kechara is not right for everyone and that is alright. Hence there are so many centres, traditions and lamas and everyone is free to choose what you like. Once you choose, stick to it all the way. Be loyal.

I will remain humble, because everything at death is left behind, even my reputation, so by contemplating on the senselessness of many worldly activities not motivated by the dharma, I gain great fear at wasting time on anything else besides bringing dharma to others in a short, concise and simple way. I am humble, because my only aspiration is for dharma and I feel very fortunate to be blessed to meet the Buddha’s teachings and great masters that have set my direction over 30 years ago. Humility is knowing you are just an instrument and not the source and that is what I am.

Remember, I never chose to be a dharma teacher. I do not want to be a dharma teacher. It was H. E.Kyabje Lati Rinpoche who insisted I do so. I respectfully debated with him regarding this in Pukhang Khangtsen over a decade and a half ago and he chided me. Even last year, I wanted to bring a senior monk from Gaden to take over and I wish to retire into retreat in North India, Nepal or Chiang Mai, but my teachers did not accept.

Whatever I do is not perfect, but I do the best I can. I am not the greatest dharma teacher in the world, but I do have genuine concern for those I teach and 100% have trust in the Buddha Dharma.

I thank you for your questions. And I hope my taking time to reply you will make you and many others understand better.

Tsem Rinpoche

Some parts of it are accurate and some are not. Thanks

Marriage vows do not take you to enlightenment, nor plant the seeds of enlightenment and it is not sworn to anyone but the one person in front of you. It is a promise.

Vows taken from a master, come from their master stemming back to the Buddha who originally gave the vow. Hence since it arises from the mind and speech of a Buddha, these vows come to be causal for the resultant enlightenment manifested in a Buddha.

Once you have taken the vow, it may be renewed during Daju for tantra or in front of an image.

I will answer your questions below…please see:

*******************************************************************

Dear Rinpoche, is it normal for a practitioner to choose a meditation deity because they feel drawn to it?

Yes, of course you may choose a deity because you feel drawn to it. You might subconsciously know you need this particular manifestation for this life or an imprint of your practice from another time or connection from another life/lives. It is perfectly ok to choose your own deity. But stick with it and keep it secret. Be humble about it then attainments will come.

Or should they wait until they have a guru who can assign them a particular deity based on his knowledge of their spiritual needs?

If you wish a guru to assign, they you may practice any deity until a guru assigns or you can wait till a guru assigns. Again anyway is ok because all the deities are enlightened beings so there is no way you can go wrong.

For example, you had visions of Vajrayogini as a child, but at what point did you realize that she would be your main practice (and not say, Yamantaka, or the other deities which you also made a connection to)?

I didn’t have any visions of Vajra Yogini as a child unfortunately for me. The deities I practice was assigned to me by my root teacher without me asking. So I just followed up till now (thirty years already) what he assigned and have no doubts. Others may have visions and follow their visions..and that is ok. But we must make sure with a qualified guru our visions are genuine. But a long story short, for me, I practice what my teacher gave me and will continue doing so with no change until I die. I trust my teacher fully and commit fully.

Did someone advise you to choose Vajrayogini, or was it your own decision? Thank you! _/|\_ (hands folded)

I didn’t choose this or that, it was my teacher who so kindly in his great wisdom choose for me all my practices. I just prostrated, offered mandala, and promised I will follow. I will only follow the practices my teacher has given me. Mind you, I have to do over 100 different yidams a day to keep up the various initiations I have recieved so I can pass it to others. But I do not recommend that for you or anyone. I am not advanced, just keeping up my commitments.

I hope this helps you. I sincerely wish you to follow your practice all the way through thick and thin.

Most happy for you and your questions, Tsem Rinpoche