Prostration Retreat Completed!
About two years ago, five of my students completed a 100,000 prostration retreat. Along with their sincere letters, they also offered some very well thought out gifts which I truly appreciate from my heart. This post is a little late in going up, but their deeds, the blessings of their retreat are timeless to share.
I have always encouraged my students to engage in retreat and I’m glad that many have done so. This will create the causes for Kechara to be a place where others can find deep meaning in their lives through spirituality. I urge others to do the same at least once a year, as it will benefit you greatly in your spiritual development.
Students who follow the Guru’s advice are rare and precious, and it is students like these, who take their Guru’s words to heart, that create the causes for the teacher to live long and continue turning the wheel of Dharma. The more you wish to advance, the more practice you do. Simple.
Thank you Adeline, Niral, Pat, Lilyn and Jimmy for your sincerity and commitment to Dharma practice. I am so happy for you. I wish all of you well and for you to continue to progress and excel in your Dharma journey to benefit countless sentient beings.
Tsem Rinpoche
Letter from Niral Patel
Letter from Niral Patel. Click to enlarge.
To my dearest Rinpoche,
Today we finished our prostration retreat, sealed with The King of Prayers. Pastor Yek Yee kindly joined as she was also there when we began our retreat. As the team member tasked with keeping the records during the retreat I would like to present you with the final count.
- Adeline Woon – 24,050
- Jimmy Tan – 22,010
- Lilyn Tan – 22,153
- Patricia Ng – 22,005
- Niral Patel – 25,025
- Total – 115,243
We dedicate this retreat to your long and healthy life, the smooth and swift manifestation of Kechara Forest Retreat, Menara Kechara and for the well-being of Kechara as a whole.
We would also like to present you with the final set of daily offerings made to your throne in the Gompa (candles, incense and malas), two turtle lights (symbols of longevity), a colorful Dzambala tsa tsa as our aspirational prayer for you to always have the resources for your vision to become manifest and also hand drawn bags. I drew the mantra of Manjushri in Siddham Script, a Tibetan “DHI” underneath it and “BAM” above it. For some reason, I thought it appropriate.
As per your suggestion I have completed 25,000 prostrations and am now preparing for what lies ahead of me to be able to serve you and the Dharma in any way I can.
Rinpoche was right about the purification from the retreat manifesting in different ways… and it has. But I know that this is just a drop in the ocean of what I need to go through.
Bowing again and again to you, my Guru, with lots and lots of love, your Indian-English and slightly Malaysian student,
Niral Patel
31/08/2013
P.S. I was just told that writing in red is not good but in my culture writing in red is extremely auspicious, I meant no offense.
Letter from Lilyn Tan
Letter from Lilyn Tan
Dearest Rinpoche,
Thank you for granting us this prostration retreat.
We dedicate this retreat for Rinpoche’s long life and continue to turn the dharma wheel to benefit countless sentient beings. May the building of Kechara Forest Retreat be swift and may Menara Kechara and Kechara World Peace Centre manifest quickly
Love,
Lilyn Tan
31 Aug 2013
Letter from Pat
Letter from Pat
Dearest Rinpoche,
Hope Rinpoche is in the best of health, I would like to thank Rinpoche for giving me the blessings to join in the prostration Retreat with Niral, Adeline, Jimmy, and Lilyn. I have completed my count of prostration 22,005x and I will continue to do my prostrations till I reach 100,000x. I rejoice and am very happy to be involved. The team was great. We backed up each other whenever possible because so much emotional problems arises during this period. Would also like to thank Pastor Yek Yee and Paul for being so patient with us. Feeling very lucky to have Rinpoche and nice Dharma brothers and Dharma sisters in my life. “THANK YOU”
Love,
Pat
Letter from Adeline Woon
Dearest Rinpoche,
In conjunction with the completion of our group prostration retreat, please accept the following offerings as a small token of our appreciation
- 1. 2x turtle lamps
- 2. 1x Dzambala tsa tsa
- 3. 1x individual drawn bag
- 4. 1x bouquet of flowers
- 5. The remainder of our daily offerings (candles, incense and mala)
The turtle symbolizes Rinpoche’s long life and stable health, while the lamp symbolises Rinpoche remaining to continue turning the wheel of dharma to dispel the darkness of beings. Number 2 symbolises Rinpoche as the well representation of the sutra and tantra lineages of Je Rinpoche’s school and that beings will realise The Two Truths through Rinpoche’s teachings.
The Dzambala tsa tsa represents growth of Kechara in all aspects with unlimited good resources and that it will become one of the Buddhist organisations that are conducive for all beings’ spiritual growth. The bouquet of flowers is for the detachment of my eye, nose and touch senses and to continue to create all necessary causes to attain the body adorned with 112 qualities of the Buddha.
The drawn pricture of mine is to express my deepest gratification for Rinpoche’s unconditional and unlimited love, care, kindness, compassion and support for my spiritual growth with the protection of Setrap. Setrap is represented by the flying saucer, my spiritual growth is represented by the flowers and leaves, while Rinpoche’s unconditional and unlimited love, care, kindness, compassion and support are represented by the roots of the plant.
The turtle drawn on the bag represents long lasting Guru-Disciple relationship and spiritual growth, while the snail represents the development of patience very much needed for my spiritual growth. Its colourful shell is the result of achieving the Paramita of Patience – highest attainments that will benefit others in all ways without limitations. Both turtle and snail also represent persistency and guru devotion that although I might be slow, not having the knowledge or skills to do all necessary practices, but I’m in the process of becoming a suitable vessel to carry those practices by surrendering my ego and being fully devoted to Rinpoche’s teachings. The shells of the snail and turtle mean that this vessel will be able to carry all beings’ sufferings and to lead them to final enlightenment.
Thank you Rinpoche for granting permission for us to perform this prostration retreat and for giving us clear and specific instructions to follow all the way together will all Rinpoche’s prayers, without which we would not be able to purify so much negative karma and to grow tremendously spiritually.
This is obvious as all five of us look clearer and cleaner, at the same time feeling much lighter after the retreat. Thank you is really not enough to express my deepest gratification and love for Rinpoche. May Rinpoche live long with good and stable health so to continue turning the wheel of dharma for the benefit of all beings! Sarva Mangalam!
With deepest gratitude and care,
Adeline Woon
31/8/2013 at Kechara House
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According to Buddhist teaching, prostration manifests the spiritual growth, faith of a person. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, prostration is an important element of practice. Traditionally, prostrations are more than a show of respect for Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Making prostration is a basic part of our lives in Buddhism. They are a method to purify our mind, or the antidote for ego-clinging. One of the general benefits of prostration is that in the future we will achieve a good rebirth . Prostration is a very powerful activity that can clear away obscuration of our body, speech, and mind as well as clearing our past and present negative karma. A huge merits for anyone doing prostration with proper visualization as well as the proper motivation.
Having seen practitioners doing prostration along the road at Lhasa and reading teachings on prostration on blogs had motivated me to do retreat on it. Its was during the MCO back in 2020, I did a prostration retreat then. Even though it took me a longer time somehow I have completed 100,150k prostrations . Now I am still continue to do but not as many prostration as before.
Well even though this is an old post I would to congratulate those involved in the prostration retreat at that time. It’s a good that Kechara is have a teachings on prostration and retreat .
Thank you Rinpoche.
At the time of writing this, a few of Kecharians and I have just started doing personal prostration retreats too ( we started last Saturday). We aim to finish it as one of the preliminary retreats that we have to do in one’s lifetime and also to achieve mind transformation, hopefully! It’s so meaningful and encouraging to have found this post and I’m very happy to read the notes.
It’s challenging and mind-boggling at times. Although only a week has passed, my mind seems so busy. That’s why we need to retreat, stay focused, and be mindful of our actions, especially our minds. We are asked to be aware of our speech too, to reduce chit-chatting. In my case, despite all that, I try to memorize more & improve my visualizations. Nonetheless, keeping up with the counting part too.
Most of the time, I’ve to remind myself of the motivation/intention as to why I’m doing this retreat. In just those few days, I saw some benefits of it. For example, I’m able to catch myself when I’m having downtime. When things didn’t turn out as expected, I take it as purification. Hopefully, by the end of it, I might reap some other benefits, especially the purification part. Thank you Rinpoche for this post.
Retreats of any kind pushes us to complete it no matter what happens in the time that is designated. Always joyful to see others complete their retreats. Retreats always brings us to a new level of our spiritual development.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this post. It’s been so long since the retreat, but the pictures and messages brought back a lot of fond memories.
Doing a group retreat is no different from doing it individually but I personally find that a group retreat speed up the purification process. The same retreat can be done on our own and there is less ‘distraction’ in a way that we only need to take care of our own set of problems and purification.
When we are in a group retreat, especially one that we do after work – meaning longer time needed to complete, can be really challenging as our perceptions on how things should be are constantly being challenged by our team members. Not like our team members did that purposely, but we get challenged due to our wrong perceptions.
I remember we were building the first phase of Kechara Forest Retreat at that time and most of us had to travel and stayed over there from time to time. We had to keep each other on the track to perform our daily prostrations regardless where we are and how tired we felt after a long day working in the construction site.
It all seemed impossible and falling apart at that time, but we manage to pull ourselves through and complete this meaningful retreat. Rinpoche has asked us to read the biographies and stories of the Great Masters during our retreat which was extremely useful as they gave different perspectives and keep us going – our problems is not such a big deal after all!
Very good and sincere bunch of disciples of Rinpoche- Congratulations on your prostration retreat and excellent guru devotion. May you all achieve your final goals.
Dear Sandra,
Thank you very much for your kind wishes. May you have the same and continue to practise the dharma for the benefit of all.
Take care and with best wishes,
Pastor Adeline aka Adeline Woon 🙂