Dear Edoardo,

Kangso is the daily protector practice. You can choose Gyenze practice as your daily practice, you can also choose a more general Dorje Shugden practice as your daily practice, for example, Diamond Path composed by H.E. Tsem Rinpoche. If you are short of time, H.E. Tsem Rinpoche has kindly composed a Simplified Daily Prayer to Dorje Shugden for modern spiritual seekers. Below are the links:

1. Gyenze Practice:
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/prayers-and-sadhanas/dorje-shugden-gyenze-to-increase-life-merits-and-wealth.html

2. Diamond Path: A Daily Sadhana of Dorje Shugden: http://www.dorjeshugden.org/practice/diamond-path-a-daily-sadhana-of-dorje-shugden

3. NEW! Simplified Daily Prayer to Dorje Shugden:
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/new-simplified-daily-prayer-to-dorje-shugden.html

Dear Kannan,

And you have indeed asked the right question. Ultimately there is no “I” that attains liberation, because the “I” does not exist. But until we actually reach that point of ultimate realisation, we actually have and live by a concept of “self” and “I”. Even if we intellectually understand the concept of no-self, it is not the same as “realising” it. This is because intellectual understand does not equate living from this understanding, emotionally, mentally or physically. Everything we do is still limited by this concept of the “I”. Therefore the Buddhist approach is to actualise this concept of no-self by attaining liberation, which itself is marked by no sense of the “I”. I hope this has clarified things better for you.

Dear Shailendra Garud,

According to your description, you might be going through the process of so-called the activation of the pineal gland, or some people prefer to call it the “third eye”. The activation of pineal gland may not necessarily require a special practice. The process can last from hours to days or even longer.

Since we can’t confirm what exactly you are going through now, below are some of my suggestions:

1. If you are having other unusual physical symptoms such as prolonged headache, light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, nausea, vomiting, fever etc, please consult a medical doctor to rule out an actual physical problem.

2. If you have a meditation guru nearby, please always check with your guru.

3. If you are practising meditation on your own, and you have ruled out the above, I would suggest you always begin your meditation session with a simple Dorje Shugden prayer. This is to protect you from negative interferences.

Simplified Daily Prayer to Dorje Shugden:
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/new-simplified-daily-prayer-to-dorje-shugden.html

If you would like to know more about pineal gland:
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/etc/the-benefits-of-pineal-gland-activation.html

Thank you.

Dear Edoardo,

Thanks for the inquiry. Dorje Shugden is the protector of our time, He will help us even in the most difficult situations if we pray to him sincerely. Dorje Shugden manifests in five different forms for different purposes, one of which is increase form.

The increase form of Dorje Shugden is called Gyenze, his practice is very effective in bringing wealth and abundance to all aspects of our lives including both inner and outer wealth. You will be able to see the result very soon if you engage in Gyenze practice daily, sincerely and diligently.

This article provides all the information you need for Gyenze practice:
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/prayers-and-sadhanas/dorje-shugden-gyenze-to-increase-life-merits-and-wealth.html?nomobile

Dear Ling,
During meditation, it’s common for deep feelings or emotion to surface, and when this happens, don’t hold on to them, don’t try to differentiate if it’s good or bad, just feel it with a neutral mind. Nevertheless, if you have a guru near you, please always refer to your guru especially if you are engaging in higher tantric practice.

Dear Robert R.,
I am sorry to hear about what had happened to you. However, I am glad that you chose to forgive in order to move on. It can never be wrong when we choose to forgive. By forgiving, we have decided to stop the cycle of karma from keep rolling on.

Dear Yash Dixit,
Happy NavDurga. Yes, you can worship White Tara and Green Tara together, there is no contradiction between both Taras as they are enlightened beings. You can worship them, recite their prayers and mantras anytime or anywhere as you like and it will be very beneficial. Thank you.

Dear Sandhya,

Our actions create karmas and karmas affect our future, either this life or future life. However, karma is not destiny as karma can always be purified. Once the karma is purified, our future will be changed accordingly too.

In order to purify our karma, we need to apply the four opponent powers:
1. Power of Regret: We must strongly regret for the wrong deed that we have done.
2. Power of Reliance: We must take refuge in Three Jewels and generate bodhicitta just like we are the patients who need to rely on doctors to heal our illness.
3. Power of Remedy: We can recite sutras, mantras, meditating on emptiness, build statues, make offerings to Three Jewels, purification practices such as Vajrasattva practice, 35 Confessional Buddhas, etc.
4. Power of Restraint: Promise not to commit the same negativities again.

The above four opponent powers can be applied to all negative actions we have done. If we do it correctly with sincerity and full commitment, we will be able to cut down the negative results to a large extent.

Hope it helps.

Dear Liam,
I am glad that you are meditating on the kindness of your parent, that is wonderful. You are on the right direction, please continue to do so. You may not experience obvious result in the beginning, however if you continue to do so, after some time, you will see the changes in the state of your mind. Focus on his kindness, thank him for bringing you to the world and be grateful that he has raised you to where you are now. Do it daily and consistently. You will see the result.

Dear Lim,
Thank you for your question. I do not know what exactly happens between the two of you, but one thing you should always bear in mind is that everything that’s happening on us arises from our karma. Whatever we are going through now must be the result of our past actions. Since it’s the result of our past action, we should try to stop it by not reacting to it so that we don’t continue to create more karma.

With reference to your case, if he is really legally at fault, of course you may settle it via legal method, however, you should never let your personal emotion such as anger, hatred, jealousy etc to determine your decision.

It would be good if you can do protector practice such as Dorje Shugden practice to help you clear both inner and outer obstacles before you decide on your next move.

Dorje Shugden prayer: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/new-simplified-daily-prayer-to-dorje-shugden.html

Hi Valérie,
Thank you for your enquiry. There are two long life prayers for H.E. Tsem Rinpoche composed by His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and the grand Abbot Emeritus (Ex Abbot) Kensur Rinpoche Konchok Tsering of Gaden Shartse Monastery, both are available in the link below with phonetic pronunciation of the Tibetan words. Reciting either one of them is fine.

[b]Prayers for me by HH Trijang Rinpoche & Kensur Rinpoche Konchok Tsering[/b]
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/long-life-prayer-by-kensur-konchok-tsering-rinpoche-and-trijang-rinpoche.html

Dear Eric w,

I read your comment on your effort in helping your family. You sound concern, but slightly frustrated. I think it’s because you care about them, therefore, you are expecting some outcome from your effort.

Please always remember spirituality is not something we can force onto others. The realization doesn’t come from books or theory. We must learn, contemplate and practice again and again to achieve some realization. And how much result gain during the process itself is also dependent on our own merit and karma. Therefore, if you really want to help your family, perhaps you can help them by showing them different ways to collect merit. But first of all, you must show them love and care by being present and listening to their needs.

Do it skilfully and do one thing at a time. If you can do it consistently, patiently and with a lot of care, I believe you will see the result soon.

Recommended reading: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/cutting-through-delusions.html

Dear Lucas,
Thanks for your inquiry. Yes, our Kechara Saraswati Arts mainly focus on Buddha statues painting and repairing services.

Dear Marco,
Dzogchen is the central teaching of the Nyingma school, you may get the information from Nyingma tradition. There’s a book on Dzogchen written by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama too, you can easily find it online. Hope it helps.

Thank you.

Dear Samantha,

Mothers will always care and worry about their children regardless of the children’s age and their ability to be independent, this is the nature of a mother’s love. That’s nothing wrong. However, we need to be able to differentiate between love and attachment.

Love will not make us miserable but attachment will. True love is unconditional, without expectation, therefore easier to let go. Whereas attachment is clinging in nature and full of expectation, therefore very hard to let go. I believe in most cases, a mother’s love is a mixture of the above.

If it’s out of attachment, then whenever you feel that you can’t let go, please contemplate on the impermanence of life. We should always remember that we have no control over our life and body. Death may come at any time, and when it comes, everything we think belong to us now, whatever we believe we can’t let go now, will soon become a thing of the past. When death comes, we basically have zero control over everything.

Try to contemplate on this daily. I hope it helps.

Recommended reading: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/inspiration-worthy-words/why-non-attachment-is-one-of-the-keys-to-a-happy-life-relationship.html

Dear Dolker,

Thank you for your question. The possible answer to your question is it’s a blessing.

What is a blessing? A blessing is when someone, something, some event or some situation reconnect you back to your past, which could be this life or previous life when you did something good, and it makes you feel very touched and comfortable. In Buddhism, it always happens upon sight of certain lama or Buddha, and it opens up dharma seeds from your previous life.

Therefore, it doesn’t really matter what program you are watching. The blessing may come regardless especially when the object that you are watching is someone holy and attained, just like H.H. the Dalai Lama.

This article gives a simple but in-depth explanation about blessing, do read it when you are free: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/what-is-a-blessing.html

Thank you.

Dear as,
Thanks for your question. Throughout the world, there are many ways to predict or forecast our future, one of them is astrology. Human beings often seek information and assurance about their future as a way to solve their current situation and to aid their future decisions.

As we all know, astrology is the science of the effects of planetary movements on our lives, there is certainly some basis for that and it must have shown some accuracy to a certain extent else the astrology wouldn’t have existed for so long in human history.

However, as a Buddhist, we all know our future is actually depending on our karma. And karma though can decide our future, it’s not something fixed, and it can be purified if we transform, change or do something on it. For example, different types of purification practices.

Therefore, you can take astrological prediction as a reference if you like, but don’t be over-fixated on the result and take it as a fixed destiny. If our destiny is fixed and can’t be changed, then all religious practices are pointless. What’s the point of engaging in all types of practices if there’s nothing we can do to change our future? Think of this logic carefully.

There are many teachings on karma on this blog, I would encourage you to read through them if you really want to understand more. The link below is one of the teachings. Please take Dharma as the ultimate guide for your life and practice accordingly, you will see a change. May you always be blessed by the Three Jewels.

https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/discovering-yourself-a-teaching-on-karma-mindstream.html

Dear Jason,

You have asked some very interesting questions. The answers are complex, so I’ll try to explain them as best as I can.

1. You are right that all enlightened beings are free from transgressions and so do not need to be purified. This visualisation is only done by those with tantric initiation or those who have instruction or permission to so. However, I will explain two ways in which this aspect is necessary for Dharma protector practice:

> Dharma Protector practice follows a standard format. This part of practice occurs in all Dharma Protector practices, therefore when you practice those Protectors who are not enlightened, this step is essential. However, since Setrap is enlightened, even though it is not theoretically necessary, since he is a Dharma Protectors, his prayers follow the standard format of practice.

> From the side of an enlightened being, they do not need purification, because they have already purified everything. However, from our side this is necessary. Our prayers and even our visualisations all have a meaning. When we visualize the deities, since we are not enlightened, these visualisations themselves are tainted. Therefore, we purify these visualisations in stages during sadhanas or pujas until they are pure as possible. There are many stages in a puja or sadhanas to accomplish this. When our visualisations are as pure as possible, then the energies of the Buddhas enter and abide in our visualisations stronger, which means more benefit for us. Therefore this is an example of that. We are not purifying the actual deity, we are purifying our visualisation of the deity.

2. The Buddhas can take on the form of any being or object in order to benefit beings. This can include enlightened forms, unenlightened forms, even inanimate objects, like bridges or buildings. Setrap for example is an emanation of Amitabha but his form is wordly, meaning in a form common to existence (in this case, of a Yaksha being). Similarly, he could take the form of an unenlightened being, appearing to contradict the Buddhist teachings, in order to create the circumstances for the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to take new forms to “counter” him. In doing so, since they appear in new forms, they will have new practices, and these practices may be more efficacious for those in that particular time to practice in order to overcome the suffering and problems of that particular era. If you say that an enlightened being cannot appear in form a or form b, then you are actually limiting their abilities, which is not actually the case as Buddhas can emanate any form they like.

3. Other Enlightened Dharma protectors include Kache Marpo, Yumar Gyalchen, etc. Basically it is possible for any enlightened Dharma Protector appearing in worldly form to take trace in an oracle. That being said it is not outside the realm of possibility for an oracle to also take trance of an enlightened Dharma protector who appears in enlightened form.

I hope these answers help.

Hi Shakya,

Thank you for your question. Regardless of what, killing is still killing and the action of causing other sentient beings to die is bad karma. However, just like any action that we do, the degree of the bad karma may vary depending on the object we kill, our intention, the actual action and the completion of the action.

For example, the karma of killing a human being (object) is heavier than killing a mosquito (object); The karma of killing mosquitos for fun (intention) by gradually cutting their body into parts (actual action) must be heavier than if we kill mosquitos by spraying pesticides in order to protect ourselves from mosquito-borne diseases.

Therefore, If we are living in a place where there’re a lot of mosquitos, the best way to do is still through prevention not killing.

Dear Barbara,
Please check with your local museum regarding their opening days and hours. Different museum has different operating hours.