Dear Gustov,

Thank you for your kind words regarding Kyabje Tsem Rinpoche’s Parinirvana. May you be blessed by the Three Jewels, always come under their care and protection. I pray that you are successful in your own personal transformation and spiritual journey. Thank you.

Dear Dawa Dema,

I believe the following posts may be of interest to you:

Tibetan Astrology:
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/tibetan-astrology/tibetan-astrology.html

Chinese Astrology:
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/horoscopes/the-chinese-zodiac.html

Both of these systems are based on the karma/energies at the time of birth. However, these are not set in stone, they are not final. That is because everything that happens to us in this life is due to karma. But you can change your karma, through your own efforts. His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche has given a very powerful teaching on this and how to go about changing your life for the better. You can watch the video and read the transcript here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/discovering-yourself-a-teaching-on-karma-mindstream.html

Dear Parth,

Thank you for your question. In terms of the preliminary practices, you can engage in them on a daily practice. That being said, if you are accumulating 100,000 of any particular preliminaries as a prerequisite for tantric practice, you actually need to do so in a retreat setting. This is not always possible for people, due to various situations, so what some people do is engage in 1-2 sessions a day until they have finished the count. But even in this case, they adhere to retreat guidelines such as maintaining a meditation cushion that cannot be moved, offerings on the altar, maintaining a retreat diet, etc. This can be done, even if for the majority of the day you have secular obligations that you need to fulfill. The procedures and prayers for this follow a normal strict retreat.

These preliminary practices can definitely be done any time for whichever amount, because they will ultimately be extremely beneficial to your own practice. For example, I have engaged in a 25,000 prostration retreat, while also working. At that time i was unable to engage in a strict 100,000 prostration retreat, however i still followed the retreat instructions. It is just that i needed to work during that time. Once i finished the count, I ended with a recitation of the King of Prayers, which you can find on our Sadhana and Prayers page. This mini-retreat however does not strictly count as part of my 100,000 preliminary practices retreat, because I only did 25,000 and not the prescribed 100,000.

If I had extended to 100,000, then it would have been counted as a preliminary retreat, because (a) I finished the count without a single day’s break, and (b) I kept the other retreat commitments, such as diet, etc.

I hope this helps. You can find some information about the various preliminary practices here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/preliminary-practice.html

Hello Jason,

Thank you very much for your question. I am glad to hear that you have such an affinity with Setrap, his practice is truly a beneficial one and will help you a lot.

I’m sure you have seen this, but here is a short prayer to Setrap that was composed by His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche and that is quite powerful: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/setrap-prayer-composed-by-tsem-rinpoche.html

In regards to the statues, you can contact Vajrasecrets directly using this email address with your query: support@vajrasecrets.com. They will be better able to answer on this.

Dear Margo,

Unfortunately, we are not aware what sort of image was used for Shangmo Dorje Putri’s installation at Tharpa Choling Monastery. It could have been in the form of a thangka, or statue, or even another medium. All we know for a fact is that she has her own special altar there. You can read the information we have on Shangmo Dorje Putri here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/shangmo-dorje-putri-the-bamo-of-sakya.html

As for the practice of Shangmo Dorje Putri, since she is not an enlightened being, it is advised not to engage in her practice unless authorised to do so by a high lama who can explain the practice to you. This is because Shangmo Dorje Putri is an unenlightened Bamo spirit, who can cause great harm to those who are not qualified enough or authorised to interact with her. It is better to rely on enlightened Dharma Protectors if we have not been assigned a Dharma Protector by our qualified Guru.

If you would like to practice a female Dharma Protector, then I would suggest that you practice Palden Lhamo. If you would like to continue to practice Dorje Shugden, then you are more than welcome to do so. In fact, when you practice Dorje Shugden, his mandala includes the Nine Mothers, that you can read more about here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/dorje-shugden-mandala.html. As emanations of Dorje Shugden, you can even have images of the Mothers on your altar, because they are in fact inseparable from Dorje Shugden, but appear in the form of females.

In regards to how unenlightened Dharma Protectors can cause you unintentional harm, you can read the addendum composed by Tsem Rinpoche on the article about Shangmo Dorje Putri.

I hope this helps. Thank you.

Dear Kunga,

Thank you for your question. The system of Tibetan Astrology we use on this website, unfortunately needs to know the date for it to work. There are many forms of astrology, and the system we use is called the Mewa system, which needs your date of birth to calculate.

Tibetan zodiac signs are actually based on the Chinese system, regarding animals, etc. which is a yearly cycle, meaning it changes every year. However the Hindu zodiac system is based on the seasonal change of the constellations through any one given year, meaning there are 12 signs within one year.

Therefore, there is actually no way to find her Tibetan Zodiac sign by knowing only her Hindu Zodiac sign, as the systems are not compatible in this manner. For this, we would really need to know the date of birth, specifically the year of birth.

I am very sorry that we cannot help you further in this matter.

Dear Irene Nelson,

Thank you for your question. I’m so glad to read that you want to know more about Buddhist practice. There is an article here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/books-that-are-a-must-read.html that might be interesting for you.

There are two lists of books in the article. The first is for beginners, and the second is for those who already have some grounding in Buddhist practice. These books were recommended by His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche and are very good reads. You can try some of the books on the list, hopefully they will help to deepen your understanding. I hope this helps.

Dear Dolma Lili,

I’m sorry to read that you have been so down and the reasons why. What you can do to help the situation is engage in the joint practice of Lama Tsongkhapa and Dorje Shugden. Everything that happens to us in life is due to karma, whether positive or negative. Therefore, we need to do something to stop ourselves from creating negative karma and promoting virtuous activity instead. At the same time, we need to purify the negative karma that we have.

One way in which you can do this is to engage in deity practice. Lama Tsongkhapa’s practice is very well-known to help calm and control our minds, especially when we are under a lot of stress and pressure, we have a lot of emotions or we are suffering from forms of depression.

Dorje Shugden’s practice removes obstacles so that we can achieve good things and at the same time creates positive conditions in our lives. You can find the practice here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/beginners-introduction-to-dorje-shugden.html

I hope this help. Thank you.

Quin：

你好。降头或巫术的形式有很多种，可以是通过利用小鬼、咒语、药物、食物等各种方式来进行，严重程度则看施降头的一方法力有多强，使用什么媒介，同时也看中降头者本身是不是曾经做了什么而招惹上这种事等。

佛教的确有许多法门可以帮人解决降头或巫术缠身，轻微的有时只需办几场法会，或当事人修习某些法门，一段时间后就可以获得平息。常见用来对治降头或巫术的法门包括狮面空行母、多杰雄登护法、大白伞盖佛母、扎泽护法法门等。

至于严重的情况，则需要请示真正有经验的大师们。毕竟这些大师们才拥有足够的修为和能力来看清楚问题的症结，继而才能对症下药。然而，请示大师之后，受降者必须严格遵从大师们所提供的忠告，方能有效解决问题。

针对你提出的“是不是所有的降头都可以化解呢？”，请恕我无法直接而片面地对这个问题提供一个可以或不可以的答案。修行证量高的大师们的确可以针对大部分问题提供解决方法。然而，就像医生治疗病人一样，诊断和治疗方案都提出了，患者能不能痊愈还要看他本身的情况，是不是遵从医嘱，按时吃药，而更关键的是，这个病人本身原本的健康状态是否良好，是否本来就患有各种难治的慢性病。套在降头或巫术这事上，就等同于被下降者本身的因果和业报。毕竟，一个人之所以会被降头缠身，除了施降者有意加害，也要看受降者是否有遭受降头的业报，以及业果是否已经到了成熟不可逆的阶段。

大师们的确能够给予各种帮助和忠告，然而因果却是个人的，最终还必须靠自己通过大师们指点的方式去净障积德，才能根治问题。这一点不容忽视。

Dear Stanley Robinson,

I’m sorry to read about your experiences. Anger is a very powerful yet negative emotion, therefore to discuss it in detail is beyond the scope of this answer. But I will try to answer and give you some things that you can do to help.

The first thing we need to remember when dealing with any negative emotions, or for that matter any Dharma teaching, is the Four Noble Truths. The first of these truths is that everyone goes through suffering in some form or another. Racism is a form of suffering. We need to accept the fact that we suffer and then we can move on from there.

Usually, when we come across racism or similar forms of suffering, we react to our habituation from countless lifetimes, and that is with anger. But when we get angry, this clouds our mind and we end up making decisions based on our emotions. This inevitably leads to the creation of negative karma, which only makes us suffer again in the future. Hence, the reason we should get control of our anger. Then when we have a calm and collected mind we can work towards removing racism through things like education. Something like racism cannot be removed from societal consciousness so easily, and takes time. If we have knee-jerk reactions then it will only lead to more suffering. Instead we should put our minds and actions to better solutions. That being said there are some things you can do to help this:

Contemplation: Buddhism is about the mind. Hence, when you continually contemplate the negativity of anger and how it leads to suffering, as explained in brief above, you affect a change in your mind. Over time you will see your mind become calmer and then you will be able to make better decisions and feel less angry.

Physical remedies: when you face situations in which you become angry you can find a physical remedy that suits you. Some people breath deeply, some people physically leave the vicinity to calm down and then come back to it once they are calmer. You can even try the methods listed here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/inspiration-worthy-words/a-method-to-release-anger.html

Deity practice: it is believed that each Buddha deity has a particular benefit that they grant first when you engage in their practice. The Buddha that is known to help overcome anger is actually Chenrezig, also known as the Buddha of Compassion. You can engage in his prayers and mantras everyday, as his benefits extend beyond just overcoming anger. See here for a short prayer and mantras: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/one-minute-story/powerful-and-short-praise-to-avalokitesvara-chenrezig
Coupled with contemplation on the negativity of anger, this will lead to a real change in your mind.

I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, please do ask.

Dear Bradley,

There are no plans to do a YouTube video on Shize’s practice in particular. You can read all about the practice and how to engage in it here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/dorje-shugden/shize-a-practice-for-healing-and-long-life.html. I hope this helps.

Dear A,

That is a very good question and one that we all seek the answer for. In Buddhism, real lasting happiness is only achieved when you reach enlightenment. That is the reason why Buddhists work towards become enlightened themselves, and this is something that is very much achievable. Here are two articles that can help you along the way.

Be Happy
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/be-happy.html

Eight verses to happiness and acceptance
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/eight-verses-of-thought-transformation.html

I hope these articles are useful to you. Maybe people have benefited from them and transformed their lives using this knowledge.

Dear Nijala,

It is very good to read that you are engaging in the practice of Vajrasattva. It is a very powerful practice when combined with the Four Opponent Powers. Sometimes people do have varied experiences when they do certain practices. May I ask if you have received Vajrasattva initiation? In that case you should refer to initiating guru.

Generally however, if such things occur, you move focus to another part of the practice. For example, if this happens when you visualise strongly, then you reduce the strength of your visualisation and concentrate on the sound of the recitation of the mantra. Try this for some time, and then go back to concentrating on the visualisation. You will notice that the spinning sensation has reduced.

There is nothing to be scared about when this happens. The reason for this is that when you engage in any meditational practice the psychic winds within the body start moving, even if you are not engaging in psychic wind meditation. This actually helps to start clearing any energy blockages within your body as such blockages are also the manifestation of negative karma. It is said the our mind rides on the psychic winds in our bodies, hence when we have less energy blockages, our minds improve as well. This improvement of the mind aids Dharma practice and you are able to understand and implement Dharma teachings easier, leading to real and lasting transformation.

When we are not used to the movement of the winds, then you can have certain physical affects. This can occur with any form of meditational practice, but is particular noted in some people when they engage in deity practices, this is because deity practices are very potent form of meditation. When this happens take a couple of deep breaths to calm yourself and relax. Then continue or move focus to another area of the practice such as mantra recitation. It the feeling persists, then stop the mantra recitation and visualization, finish of reciting the rest of the prayers and do a dedication. End your session there. You can then try coming back to it later.

Some people get put off doing deity practices because they have such occurances. But there is nothing wrong or negative about these experiences at all. Some people have them and so do not. Either way, it is best to take things slowly rather than to try and bulldoze through it. I hope this helps.

Kem Cho Lilaben!

Thank you for your question. Of course you can do Dorje Shugden’s practice! Anyone can do it, whoever you are, Dorje Shugden will help everyone. You can learn how to engage in Dorje Shugden’s practice through this website. You can start learning about Dorje Shugden and his practice here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/beginners-introduction-to-dorje-shugden.html

If you have any more questions, you can ask them here.

Thank you

Dear Gustov,

Please bare with us, there will be an extensive article on this topic, which will be published soon. It has taken some time to get the article together. Look out for it on the main page once published.

Dear Tommy,

The statue of Methar that you have seen pictures of was carved especially for Rinpoche. We have not produced any statues of Methar for people to invite home. I’m sorry that I cannot be of any more help. Perhaps, if you would really like a statue you can commission someone to carve one or make one for you. You can use the images of Methar in the article as a reference: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/great-lamas-masters/methar-of-tengyeling-monastery.html

Dear Tommy,

Thank you for your question. I cannot comment it they know about Methar or not. If they have a connection with Serkong Dorje Chang, who placed Methar under the care of Kache Marpo, then they may be aware. There are many deities with Tibetan Buddhism, some lamas focus and concentrate on certain deities and other lamas focus on other deities. Therefore they may or may not know about Methar. I suggest contacting them if you would like to find out. I hope this helps.

Dear Roman,

Apologies, but I do not understand the term “pikas” that you used. Are you referring to prayers and ritual services? In regards to finding a guru, you can need to do some research in whatever tradition you feel attracted to. After that, you should research about certain gurus to see if they are qualified or not. You can find information about the qualities of a Guru in the 50 Verses of Guru Devotion: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/complete-commentary-on-50-verses-of-guru-devotion.html.

Sometimes however, you may have an innate liking of a particular Guru, this means that you have affinity with them from previous lifetimes, and you will be drawn to them naturally. I hope this helps.

Dear Margo,

There are no statues of Yumar Gyaltsen and Shangmo Dorje Putri on the main altar of Wisdom Hall in Kechara Forest Retreat.

Yumar Gyaltsen is however represented on the altar in the form Kache Marpo, because they are simply too forms of the same being. Yumar Gyaltsen is also the site protector of Panglung Ritroe, here in Kechara Forest Retreat. An image of Shangmo Dorje Putri is kept at Tsem Ladrang (Rinpoche’s personal household). I hope this helps.

Dear Margo,

Kache Marpo is part of Dorje Shugden’s entourage, and is known Dorje Shugden’s minister.

Yumar Gyaltsen is also in Dorje Shugden’s entourage because he is the peaceful form of Kache Marpo.

Namkar Barzin is also a part of Dorje’s Shugden’s entourage.

Both Methar and Shangmo Dorje Putri are under Kache Marpo, so by extension as he is Dorje Shugden’s minister, they are also part of Dorje Shugden’s entourage.

That covers the Dharma Protectors that we have information on. However a Dharma Protector such as Dorje Shugden will have hundreds of thousands of beings under him, who he sends to aid practitioners. It would be impossible to know them all. Just like a King will have ministers, and under the ministers their will be aides, and also the army, etc. This is exactly how it is with Dorje Shugden and all major Dharma Protectors. I hope this helps.