A game? Or is it?
January 24, 2013
Today, we played a hilariously fun and hugely educational game on blog chat. 14 of Rinpoche’s writers came together to be tested on their Dharma knowledge, problem-solving skills, ability to stay calm under pressure… and arithmetic!
Questions ranged from the abbot of Gaden Shartse in 1959, to why Ekajati only has one breast, to how many legs there are between 6-Armed… Mahakala + White Mahakala + Dukkar – Hayagriva…y ou get the idea!
The winners were those who had given the most right answers, and they were allowed to select between three concealed sheets of paper, each with a prize written on them. After they had their pick of the prizes, they were given an option – give up the prize you have now for a potentially bigger one, or stick with the prize you have and forgo the chance to win something bigger.
The catch? If you give up the prize you have now, you have to choose from a few sheets of paper with the larger prizes written on them…and some of the paper had a big fat ZERO written on them. So it was a choice between giving up what you have to either get something bigger or lose it all.
It was interesting to see how people’s minds made them move towards their decisions.
Jamie Khoo who won a candle, chose to give it up for the chance of a bigger prize… but picked a sheet of paper with nothing written on it. Rinpoche said that this reflects our grasping minds which likes something only after we lose it.
Khong Jean Ai who won a Yamantaka statue, chose to stick with her statue and not risk a bigger prize. Rinpoche said that this reflects our minds which should sometimes just be happy with what we have.
David Lai who had won a figurine, chose to give it up for the chance of a bigger prize… and picked a sheet of paper with a sum of money written on it. Rinpoche said that this reflects that times when we give up what we already have, and taking the risk brings us greater rewards.
Even in what appears to be just a “simple” game with Rinpoche, things are not all that simple after all!
[Written and posted by Jean Ai on Facebook]
The participants:
Jamie Khoo, H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, David Lai, Philip Yong Kee Chung, Josh Bryan Ho, Joy Kam, Li Kim Phng, Sharon Saw, Sarah Yap, Abby Foo, Lanse Chiah, Andrew James Boon, Martin Chow, Pastor Loh Seng Piow, Shin and Elisa Khong.
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Hee hee this game is great and educational to test out how much knowledge the students have.
This quiz is a great idea to test out how much knowledge those people have.
But as we know a quiz with Rinpoche is a lot of fun,Rinpoche can turn things around and see if you can answer,then he will know how good you are at Dharma.
Of course the students were great at answering the question,as soon as Rinpoche ask a question the answer will come out in less than a minute.
I have to say that Rinpoche’s student are good at answering questions.
wow that is actually a fun and educated in the dharma game. it seems interesting and cool. i wish the participants had a good time or not… hehe. Rinpoche is such a nice person to ever spend time with us, because he is so attained and we have commited so many wrong deeds. Rinpoche is so creative in teaching us. Please live long Rinpoche
Thanks Rinpoche for organize such Fun and Learn game in blog chat.
I m in the chat room that day, but my eyes cant catch up to the answer just heard the “burd” “burd” “burd” sound.
The question was so funny, but when i go through deeper to the question i found that if we want to answer that is not that easy. Thanks Rinpoche once again that let us got the opportunity to learn in such Fun way…
It’s sounds interesting! Get to learn and win a price! Such fun and creative method to learn and I can feel the adrenalin rush when answering. Brain, fingers and eyes have to be moving fast and at the same time. Even though I might not know the answer to certain questions but I am very sure it’ll be very educational! Let’s see if I can join in the next round!
I had the honour to participate in one of these quiz a few days ago. It is super fast pace and needless to say, a lot of knowledge are absorbed. From Guru Tree to different deities, we were tested in many different ways.
Although I don’t know the answer to many of the question, and even though I know the answers, people like Jean Ai, David, Paris, etc are really super fast 🙂 I rejoice for their knowledge and even if they don’t know the answers, they manage to find answers super quick!
A temple is empty if there is no Dharma knowledge are being taught. With KFR coming up, we need a scholars, geshes, pastors Dharma teachers in KFR to teach, and this is Rinpoche’s creative way to help us learn up.
May we learn up more Dhamra and relieve sufferings of many.
even though is a game, but with add in extra conditions, it can show the people thinking and reaction . Nice sharing .
Congratulations to the winners and all the participants. The quiz is very fun and we learn a lot and gain more knowledge. Rinpoche always use many method and different way to give us dharma teaching to benefit many others. Thank you Rinpoche.
I really, really, really like the blog quiz.
There are so many folds to the quiz: you gotta be quick, alert, learn to type fast, learn to research fast, know your stuff at your finger tips, learn things you don’t already know, pay attention to the details of the question, set your motivation correct etc
Even if you win a prize, there is a teaching in the prize picking as well. Which prize do you pick, are you overly excited when you win, do you opt for another prize, are you upset if you don’t get anything etc.
This sort of multi-fold activities truly reflects how Rinpoche operates. For those fortunate enough to be around Rinpoche, everything is a teaching. Rinpoche uses his body, speech and mind completely for the Dharma.
I encourage whoever who watches to join in the blog quiz! In the previous quiz, a man called James won 3rd place. He was sitting in his bedroom, and got enough answers correct. He won a touch screen laptop!
An addition, a few days later!
Rinpoche arranged for another blog quiz about 2 nights later, this time with double the number of people and in a place where the internet wasn’t acting as hot. There were lags in the chatbox, so people weren’t getting the questions at exactly the same time – which of course affected who quickly everyone was able to answer each question.
The questions got harder too, so that we couldn’t just rely on the basics that we knew but would have to do a little research to find out. So there was the loophole – people who may not have known the answers (and couldn’t type fast) but were clever at research would still be able to get ahead.
This time, we also had guest players, who were playing away from the main venue that we were all at. It turns out that one of these guest players, James of Kechara Paradise ended up being one of the top three winners and took home a laptop for his winnings!
Oh yes, the prizes were MUCH more exciting this time round. Again, we had a chance to pick from a number of “doors”. After picking and before opening the prize to reveal what we’d won, we had a chance to pick from a number of “grand prizes”. And again, after picking that, we had a last chance to swap that in from a number of “final grand prizes”. Greedy David swapped his gifts all the way to the largest prize, only to walk away with this: “A hug from David”. When we looked back at the gifts that he had given up, he had forfeited first, “a kiss form david” and then “a bottle of sour plums”. Imagine that karma – that David would walk away, after all that, with just a hug from himself!
James too swapped out his gifts all the way to the final prize and won the laptop!
I swapped out my gift only once (forfeiting a pendant the first time round) and ended up with a cash winning of RM500! Sometimes, it does pay to not be greedy and just keep what you got the first time round. Lesson learnt with that candle the first time we played the game!
Anyway, do stay tuned – you never know when we’ll be playing the quiz on the blog chat again and remember that everyone is invited to join, so please do participate. It’s not just for the few of us. You could well be the next james walking away with a brand new laptop!
Yes, the blog chat quiz is fun! Is educational! Thanks to Rinpoche to always educate his students in alternative and effective ways! Games and fun in Kechara or with Rinpoche are never just for fun, is always with bigger meaning and teachings behind!
I enjoyed the other quiz we have last week, I hate myself having only one brain, two arms and 10 fingers and learn so little knowledge 🙁 This will be time to start study hard after knowing how little my knowledge is.. Thank you Rinpoche 🙂
A quiz? Not really, most important Rinpoche want us to gain our knowledge. Another way of learning, fun and excited. :))
Thank You Rinpoche for using other method to teach us. 🙂
Best Regards : Erickksiow
Such a creative and fun way to learn dharma in a game. Everyone had to think quick, act quick, learned something and got rewarded for the “right” answer. Sounded thoroughly fun and exciting to follow!
Wow! cool! The participants are very knowledgeable as one need to study and practice to be familiarized with the subject matter, and be able to recall quickly and answer accurately. Congrats to those who have won. You guys really inspired me who hasn’t being learning to put my time into studying. 🙂
That is such a beautiful Yamantaka statue!
Congrats to David, Paris and Jean Ai! It is much more than a quiz game. It is also a session where Rinpoche trains our mind and share knowledge with us. I had the good fortune to join the first few blog chat quiz and it was so much fun!
Rinpoche is so skillful to infuse learning and fun during the quiz! This monkey mind has much more to learn. hehe
Thank you for sharing Rinpoche, look forward to more quiz sessions! hehe
Rinpoche always uses different methods to teach the dharma and one of the ways is to make dharma creative and fun. Congratulations to all the 14 participants; you are all winners as you all received the best gift from Rinpoche which is the dharma.
The participants are knowledgeable in Dharma and hence were able to answer and type so fast. Any activity spent in Rinpoche’s presence is always infused with Dharma teachings taught skilfully in different ways. Many others on blog chat were also able to learn even though we were not present with Rinpoche. It was an educational and refreshing mode to learn and we could feel the excitement among the participants as we sit in front of our laptop screens to read along.
Rinpoche always come out with many different types of games for his students, reason being is not because he is bored or nothing to do, every of Rinpoche’s game always full of teaching, whether it is earring game, picking game or blog quiz session, there are always new things to learn.
This blog quiz is also to train us to learn the information at fingertip. If we want to have growth in our spiritual practice, we must always upgrade ourselves and not just sit there to chant or hearing the Dharma teaching. We must practice it continuously. Thank you Rinpoche for being always so creative to pass us the knowledge.
Yesterday in ladrang around 20 of us be invited play this blog quiz by Tsem Rinpoche. We are so lucky:)Aiyo…it is not easy to win, you have the knowledge but if your typing not fast enough also die. If your typing skill fast enough but your knowledge only 40-50%, also die. And a lots of questions given by Rinpoche must search the net in the spot…and you must super fast, if not also lost..haha…
Rinpoche was so created until all of us cannot predict what is the next step Rinpoche tried to play…this educational game is so fun!!! I thinking if we can apply in our dharma class that is so excited and interesting.
I trust that it must have been a very nerve-cracking moment for all the participants. Rinpoche has never-ending ways of creating ways to make life and dharma learning exciting and fulfilling.
Clearly, Rinpoche receives nothing from all these games. The kind thoughts behind all these motives are priceless.
Looking through last night’s blog quiz session on blog chat, i ‘ve come to a realization that for KFR to manifest,especially to be an institution of learning to produce Dharma teachers and pastors, and scholars, our minds must be full of knowledge at our finger tips already. Hence, Rinpoche has come up with this skillful way of ‘training’ the mind through these quizzes, which require quick responses.
Further mind transforming training is also built into these sessions, training in accepting ‘not winning’ and ‘criticisms’, training in not grasping in terms of changing one prize for a better one and being willing to ‘take risks’ to acquire/attain more(as in the case of David changing for a better prize).Also such quizzes show that we know so little when we can’t answer most of the questions; so must read more and study more and retain all.
That was a FUN night! From that one simple quiz, we learned how to respond quickly, how to focus and concentrate even Rinpoche purposely tease us. It tested our research skills as well. When the time to pick gifts for the winners, we learned also how people’s mind works. Some people would give up small thing to get a bigger thing, some would just stay wherever they are, and some even they want to get a bigger thing, but there are always possibilities to lose all.
On the surface level, we got fun and knowledge from the quiz, all in one; but what most precious is Rinpoche think of every single way to make our learning process fun and not bored, Rinpoche wants so much for us to get more knowledge and improve. No matter what Rinpoche does, the ultimate thing that Rinpoche wants all of us to have is DHARMA. Thank you Rinpoche for the quiz and the fun moments.
Guru is the one who persistently gives you Dharma and wisdom. Thank you my Guru.
Reading through this blog post and the previous blog chat messages clearly shown how fun, exciting and educational the game was!
Thanks Rinpoche for always using different method to bring Dharma to us. Even I am not participating in the game, I still learned from the previous blog chat messages. From how the winner chose the prize, we learned about ourselves too. This games needs one to be knowledgable, fast response, focus and concentration. I will push myself to learn to be like the winners and the participants. By being knowledgeable, fast response, it will be able to bring Dharma to more people.
Rejoice to the 14 that have the chance to participate in the game. You guys are great!
Its incredible how Rinpoche makes training and learning fun. But besides the fun, there was so much for us to observe and understand about ourselves and therefore it was much more than a quiz. All throughout the evening I couldn’t help think how fortunate we all were to be there and how much effort Rinpoche makes to get us to deepen our knowledge. The depth of some of the participant’s knowledge and the speed by which they can think is simply amazing and it goes to show how effective Rinpoche’s training is. I hope more people can join in in the future.
Fun, heart pumping, exciting and most importantly EDUCATIONAL! Who would have thought such a simple quiz would help improve my knowledge tremendously..seriously I learn more from this quiz than reading a book.
And you know what the best part is? I had fun learning! This quiz also helped me to push myself to think quicker and to focus. All thanks to Rinpoche for working tirelessly to think of methods to increase our knowledge for our own good.
I have never seen a person like Rinpoche who puts so much effort for another person’s welfare! Trust me when I say Rinpoche isnt doing all these for himself. If he had a choice he would be in the mountains now doing his retreats. But yet Rinpoche chose to be here with us to impart knowledge on us.
Thank you Rinpoche for always coming out with fabulous ideas to help us learn!
It sure was EXCITING and FUN – Che Kek is what we say in Chinese…
Rinpoche sure comes up with many interesting creative ways to make us learn and expand our knowledge, increase our memory and focus and grow. People often say meditation is the way to gaining realisations but I think and I find Rinpoche’s methods which egages us in all the 5 senses pushes us to do gaining realisaions while being in action, in a way we don’t even realise it until all is settled and we look back.
This game was like speed learning, a test on our memory and knowledge, our focus, a test in our characters as it all came out – LOL, we saw each others grasping when the winners got their prize and get a chance to get an even bigger prize or take the chance to lose it all and get a zero. We saw each others’ competitiveness, eagerness to win but most importantly we spread the knowledge and what Dharma we learnt during this fun game to all in an unconventional fun exciting way.
It was not so much the prize we were gonna win when we got the answers right but it was more the eagerness to win and get the right answers FAST that made it so fun. And boy was Paris fast! We also learn about our own self and where we each need to improve on and where we need to focus. Incredible teaching in action where instead of just sitting meditation, it all became a reality… and yes it was like a reality show with Tsem Rinpoche. Thank you Rinpoche for always pushing us to the next level and doing it so creatively fun!
Congratulations and much rejoice to the winners, Paris, Jean Ai and David Lai!!!
This was an incredible experience on many levels. Not only was it educational, it was a test of sheer wit, knowledge and effectiveness in getting information correctly and FAST!
It was also spiritual as we could see ourselves mirrored in the the actions of the winners, in how they chose to pick another prize forsaking what they had won earlier or even not choosing and being content with what they had won in the first place.
Whatever it may be, every minute spent with Rinpoche is a minute well spent and never is there a dull moment. Rinpoche has a treasure trove of exciting, interesting and ingenious methods to impart knowledge!
How blessed and lucky are we to be able to serve Rinpoche.
As a reader on the blog chat quiz, I was feeling anxious for you participants already. Imagine being there, participating and picking the prize. It must’ve been exhilirating!!
Anyways, just by reading the Questions and Answers from the Blog Chat Quiz, as a reader, I learned a fair few things. I was amazed at how fast questions were being answered. Man, you guys are machines!
It is true…If you have knowledge, it will definitely be at your fingertips – very handy! Knowledge is one of the things everyone should always seek to expand, for there is no limit to learning. With knowledge, we seal our own faiths and believes, and we can also help others.
What a creative way to learn, from debates to dharma teachings to blog quizzes. Rinpoche, thank you for your constant creative methods and ways to make learning fun. In that way, we can absorb it better.
Love,
Carmen
Dear Rinpoche,
Hehehe!!! I was following the quiz the whole time and yes it was very funny and at the same time educational. It is amazing how Rinpoche was able to think of such smart and amazing questions for the participants to be the first to think, type and answer the questions that Rinpoche asked.
It was also a wonder how the participants managed to type an answer so fast.
The second part of the quiz was even more funny because it involved not just using your Dharma Knowledge but also your maths skills.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing what you did with your students.
Love
Jutika
Oh gosh… I laughed till I teared! What was supposed to be a discussion on work ended up being a fun filled educational program for the 14 of us. I must say, I’ve learned a whole lot during this session and am thankful that I was a part of it.
Congrats to all the winners! I felt so anxious and excited while I watched the 3 of them picked out their prizes, imagine how they felt at that moment! Its so funny to see Rinpoche tease them about their winnings hehe…
Rinpoche is always so creative in his teachings of the Dharma. Not only does he imparts highly valuable teachings of the Dharma, he always makes it fun !!!
From looking at the photos, there surely was much fun and merriment shared by all . And i think everyone who was present in last night’s game – is a winner ! They all received the best prize – to have a teaching by Rinpoche and be in Rinpoche’s presence !!!
Congratulations to the 14 of you all !!!
I did not participate in the quiz but from the pictures, previous blog chat messages, I do feel the fun and excitement. This is Rinpoche’s another way of skillful mean to bring dharma/dharma knowledge to everyone.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this !
Gosh what a fun event! We had gone up to Rinpoche’s room to discuss some work and this turned into a whole evening of a fun, totally interactive, crazy learning session. I think perhaps some of us were fortunate enough to have that added little advantage of typing quickly, but still, no matter how fast you can type, you still need the knowledge at your fingertips to type out! It was such an adrenaline rush throughout the whole game that I could literally feel my heart thumping faster! haha (Being competitive will be the death of me, I’m sure!). It’s frightening to see the total stark truth of how much we do or don’t know, or how easily we might have forgotten very basic facts that Rinpoche has most definitely taught us before…There’s really no hiding with this one – you either know the details or you don’t… so heck, it really is better to start listening up in teachings and storing the info!
And then, the second part of the game – the prizes! haha It’s totally exactly as Rinpoche described about the way in which we reveal our minds in our choice of prizes, whether we choose to keep the prize or swap it. Amazing how a little game reflects how greedy we are, how much we’re willing to risk, how we sometimes want a bit of adventure or sometimes just want to stay happy with what we have, how we want something when we don’t have it, how we grasp for something more even if we already have something pretty good, how we hate ourselves no matter how good things might be…. Rinpoche had also mentioned that this is why we also love watching game shows – because the “tricks” that are played on the contestant reflect each of our own minds exactly too…
Anyway, I eventually got a pendant. And I decided NOT to gamble it. And I’m finally a happy bunny for it. (though it would have also been nice to have kept the candle hahahaha!!!!)
I was amazed by the swiftness of the replies. Its almost immediate after the questions were asked. It showed how fast the mind can think and respond with training, as well as the wealth of information it can retain. Congrats to the winners and thanks Rinpoche for lesson learnt.
The quiz was very fun and educational – Rinpoche is always very creative with methods to teach us Dharma. We had to recall what we had learned, and also learned new things about iconography of the various deities and history of our lineage and how to think quickly and do research. Congratulations to the winners… watching them pick their prizes and decide whether to trade them in was very fun too! What was nice was that although it was a competition, there was a great sense of camaraderie among the team. Thank you Rinpoche for a lovely evening.