Talk on relational karma & international Sangha at Kechara
(By Tsem Rinpoche)
Dear friends,
Buddha Dhamma Sagararanna had their new temple opening ceremony at Port Dickson last Sunday. Many sangha members from around the world attended the ceremony… including nuns from Taiwan, nuns of Myanmmar and local Dharma practitioners. How beautiful! I was invited to attend the opening, due to hectic schedule I was not able to attend, but Kechara’s Liaison Irene Lim attended and presented gifts on my behalf.
The sangha members were led by Venerable Chang Ern from Buddha Dhamma Sagararanna Buddhist Association. Venerable Chang Ern also serves as the Chief of Malaysia Buddhist Association (MBA), Negeri Sembilan branch.
Kechara’s liaisons Irene was contacted by Venerable Chang Ern, and Irene immediately offered to host the group of sangha members for dinner at Kechara Oasis (KO), Jaya One. This was a Dana offering on behalf of Kechara at our own Vegetarian Restaurant!
At KO, Irene gave a warm welcome to this group of sangha members with an opening speech thanking them for giving her the opportunity to offer Dana. Pastor Ngeow and Liaison Paul Yap were also there to represent Kechara House. The group was offered delicious, healthy and vegetarian food… I was told that they liked the food offered to them very much!
After dinner, Irene and the group of sangha members went to the Kechara House gompa for a visit. The sangha members and other lay Dharma practitioners were then given a tour of our Kechara Gallery.
During this time, Ven Chang Ern and the group of nuns from Taiwan left to another Dharma center to escort Venerable Chuan Dao (4th abbot of Miao Xin Si, Taiwan) and Venerable Zong Hong (abbot of Jin Gang Chan Si in OUG, Kuala Lumpur) to our center. Venerable Zong Hong is the Head of MBA’s Youth Section.
I only got to know of the visit a few hours before they arrived at KO! As it’s very meritorious to make offerings to sangha members, I decided to go to Kechara House to meet the group and present a few offerings to them. So while the monks and nuns were having dinner, I was with Paris and my Private Office arranging offerings for these holy monks and nuns.
When I arrived, I was surprised to see so many of our Kechara members upstairs at the main prayer hall! They only got to know about the last minute visit 30 minutes before I arrived, so I did not expect it at all… I was happy to see all of them. After I presented the offerings to the sangha members and their assistants, they had to leave because it was quite late already. I did not want to keep them up for too long, especially the older sangha members who had very kindly changed their schedule to visit KH…
I felt inspired to give a short Dharma talk to our Kechara members on why we make offerings to the sangha. I don’t like my students to do things blindly without understanding why they are doing it. I feel with knowledge, Dharma activity and study and practice becomes more meaningful.
I explained that our karma with each other is relational. This means the weight of our karma depends on the person’s relationship with us. For example, the karma of hurting our family and friends is heavier than the karma of hurting total strangers who we have never met before. Likewise the karma of hurting our parents is much heavier than the karma of hurting our brothers and sisters. The karma of hurting our mother is also heavier than the karma of hurting our brother, because she carried us in her womb for 9 months. Now that is at an ordinary level. Then our relational karma with strangers, friends, parents, spouse and sangha are explained in brief here in this talk.
Actually I have spoken about this many times before but I wanted to share it with Kecharians again because I feel it is very very important that we make offerings to the Sangha to support their dharma practice and generate merits for our KWPC or Kechara World Peace Centre which is our retreat land in the mountains and our own attainments. I hope you will listen to this talk and really put it into your mind. It will greatly benefit your understanding of why supporting the sangha is important.
Tsem Rinpoche
Part 1 of the video
Part 2 of the video
Kechara Oasis – Dana Offering
Liaisons Irene giving a welcome speech with Paul helping to translate at Kechara’s own vegetarian restaurant (Kechara Oasis).
Those in the room are all Dharma practitioners… assistants and sangha members.
Peaceful gathering of Sangha members and lay people at KO
Nuns from Myanmar visiting Malaysia
Nuns from Taiwan visiting Malaysia
Lay Dharma practitioners who visited KL along with the sangha group
Irene making sure our guest are well taken care of
Pastor Ngeow receiving gifts from our honorable guests
Pastor Ngeow having a discussion with Ven Chang Ern regarding Kechara
Kechara’s award-winning cuisine as dana offering!
Sangha and friends arrive at Kechara House
Liaison Paul and Siong Woan leading the group for a tour at Kechara Gallery after dining at Kechara Oasis
Sangha members and their assistants touring the Kechara Gallery
Liaison Paul introducing Lama Tsongkhapa boxset made by Kechara Media & Publications
Pastor Ngeow speaking to one of our guests
Bryan introducing my Gurus to the group
Everyone gathered in the video room to view a video on Kechara World Peace Centre
Even though it was already 10pm… so many Kechara members came by to join our session last minute!!
Ven Sucinti from Myanmar helping to translate my talk
Gifts from me for the sangha members.
A beautiful Tsongkhapa statue offered to Ven Chang Ern.
A delicate Kuan Yin statue offered to Ven Zong Hong… turns out, Kuan Yin is his main practice!
A beautiful upasika statue offered to Ven Sucinti the translator nun.
Gifts for all our guests present.
Offering a Buddha statue to Ven Chuan Dao, a senior monk from Taiwan.
Kuan Yin for Ven Zong Hong. I was happy they can visit Kechara.
A beautiful Tsongkhapa for Ven Chang Ern.
I also offered a Medicine Buddha thangka to Ven Chuan Dao… may he live long to spread the Dharma.
A Manjushri thangka for Ven Zong Hong. As the Head of Youth section in MBA this thangka is very suitable for him. He liked it so much, he gave a thumbs up!
Offering of Buddha statue to sangha members from Taiwan.
Paris presenting a Fasting Buddha statue to the nuns from Myanmar.
A beautiful Upagatta statue for the translator nun… she translated my teachings from English to Burmese that night!
I also gave out some Dharma books to those present. They are all beautifully published by KMP.
A group photo in Kechara House. I welcome the international Sangha very much!
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Its wonderful to know other Buddhist center interact with each other.
It is important to understand why supporting and make offering to the Sangha,as explained by Rinpoche. Its a beautiful moment where there is so many Sangha from locals, Taiwan and Myanmar gathered together visited Kechara and been introduced about Kechara Forest Retreat at Bentong. Monks,nuns and visitors were offered gifts such as statues,thangkas by Rinpoche.Rejoiced to all of them.
Infuture hoping more and more international Sangha could come over and see for them selves the beauty of this Buddhist institution.
Thank you Rinpoche for these wonderful explanations and sharing the video with us.
Thank you Rinpoche for making offerings to the wonderful Sangha here. Very happy to see so many Sangha from Taiwan and Byammar visited Kechara. The whole Gompa filled up with very positive and pure energy. Specially thank to the POs that has been taking very good care of them. I hope to see more Sangha visiting Kechara in future. May we create the course to have our own Sangha in Kechara soon.
This is a great story to share. Offering of dana and gifts to monks and nuns. Kechara is growing in many level.
It is such a great honour to see so many monks and nuns of different traditions gather in Kechara. It is very meritorious to make offerings to the sangha and through this giving Rinpoche showed us the practice of generosity that is put into action
i should address Tsem Rinpoche as His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche and not people.
people like tsem rinpoche should come to this world earlier or before.in my opinion,it is a bit late though to spread the buddha’s teaching,because as everyone would know it those days many problems in the society occur and this should be rectify immediately,but still Buddhas teaching is not available to the masses.In the old days, there is no internet.But now,Buddha’s teaching can effectively spread through internet and this has made a great impact on human’s lives.But still,although Buddhas teachings available to many people these days,it is the attitude of the human that matters.If buddhas teaching right in front of us and we do not practice,then it is of no use either.we should make this world a better place to live although this world is not perfect.
It was wonderful to witness and be part of this event.
Rinpoche always shows us by his own example how to put dharma in action.
May KWPC be the confluence point for Buddhism in all the different lineages.
It was a memorable night!!Was so fortunate to be there to witness Rinpoche making offerings to the international sangha and listen to Rinpoche’s teaching.May Rinpoche be in good health always and with KWPC manifest swiftly.
It is always wonderful to see Sangha from various traditions coming together.We are all aware that there are differences in the external forms and methods used in all religions and even within the same religion.However what matters most is what is shared in common by all – cultivating a good heart.This is what can overcome whatever differences and disagreements in the name of peace and harmony for all.
Thank you Rinpoche for all these for everyone, to make offering to the sangha to create tremendous merits for everyone. In Malaysia, many people do know the benefit of it and why we make offering to the 3 jewels, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
It is so nice to see all 3 yanas of sangha gather together to make the dharma grow in this region as a big Dharma family.
Ouch!! By watching the video I can feel the paid caused by the slap on David’s face. It was an awkward moment, best served as a reminder to all us to always have our ethics on check, before or after puja, or at any time and at any place, for should we misbehave, we are slapping the Buddha’s face after receiving all the loves and cares from the Buddhas.
Mr Hee Peng, who is David? Are you talking about me but I don’t get what’s it got to do with this video. What’s with the slap by Rinpoche? I don’t get the relevance and I feel you are trying to make a point about something or perhaps, you made a mistake about posting this message. Perhaps, you were actually referring to another post?
Anyway, I think this post have a natural universal appeal for all Buddhists because making offerings to the Sangha is really part of our spiritual practice. It is always advocated to make offerings to the Sangha to generate a lot of merits. I remember reading somewhere that the Buddha mentioned in the Vinaya that even if a 10th stage Bodhisattva makes bows to a member of a fully ordained and ordinary monk, the Bodhisattva will generate merits. That shows how beneficial it is that the vows that a monk hold.
It was a joy to have so many sangha members in Kechara that evening. Looking at these pictures sure brings back very happy feelings. The robes of the sangha members were of different colors due to different traditions but all share the mutual goal,… to eliminate sufferings for themselves and others, to achieve lasting happiness for themselves and others.
If you like what you see here, then I highly encourage you to keep supporting Rinpoche’s works and Kechara. No matter where you are, we can all contribute towards making a difference in this world together.
peace to all.
We travel to see wonderful monasteries, stupas and numerous Buddha statutes and we are happy as we believe we have gained merits just by having set our eyes on such holy sites and objects. We have done our pilgrimage.
Sponsoring and giving to the monastic sectors are forms of perpetuating these “wonders” to benefit many for years and years into the future. Rinpoche’s teaching on Dana offerings is of such a tremendously large scope, as sponsoring is not only financial but rather with all that we have and in my mind most importantly our time.
We live in an era of accumulating and the most important thing to accumulate is great quantity of merits that will help us in this life and many more to come.
The dharma that Rinpoche always espouses is dharma-in-action. What’s the use of getting attainments with nothing to show for? If dharma practice leads one to gain the virtues of kindness and generosity but it’s all bottled up inside, then it’s probably not really kindess and generosity. What strikes me always is how effortless Rinpoche’s act of giving is. There is no evidence of any attachment, agenda, holding back and hesitation or expectation of anything in return. If I look at my own miserable effort at giving, it’s always tainted with the 8 worldly concerns the complete opposite of what I see in Rinpoche. What I keep seeing in Rinpoche is a mirror to my inner piteous self and constant reminder and inspiration to aspire towards.
But rather than stop doing everything since the motivation is suspect, we should thrudge on. Rinpoche’s recent quote rings deep in my ears. He said, “Doing some good grudgingly is better than doing something bad happily”. I do have hope after all that something good will result.
I couldn’t have said it better myself, ECheah.
“Doing some good grudgingly is better than doing something bad happily”. Words of wisdom from Rinpoche. Yes, it does give us hope till we have enough merits to correct our motivation till we “do good happily at all times”.
So happy to see the beautiful pictures of offering DANA to sangha at Kechara. I missed the event, fortunate to view the teaching in video.
Thank you all for the hard work!
Very very beautiful.. Offering to sangha is the best gift one can make to show our support and develop our compassion 🙂
I am so happy I was there. So many monks of different traditions gather in Kechara. Such an honour for Kechara!
Making offerings to monks will allow us to collect a lot of merits so that our KWPC will manifest soon to benefit even more people!
I felt so fortunate that day to be able together with Rinpoche and the rest to make offering to the Sangha members. Together we make dedication for the growth of Kechara works & KWPC manifestation.
Rinpoche’s teaching on why we do offering to Sangha and the karma relationship was very profound. It’s so wonderful to see so many Kecharian there too to witness and receive the teaching from Rinpoche.
Thank you Rinpoche for giving such a great opportunity to be part of this meritorious act.
I rejoice that so many sangha members visited Kechara, receive gifts, blessings and connections from Rinpoche. Rinpoche’s message is clear, we are all the same, even in different robes.
Kecharian spirit is everywhere, thank you for all the hard work of the pastors, all the liaisons, Private Office and a dedicated team from Kechara Care.
May all of Rinpoche’s wishes all come to fruition!
so beautiful
Wow, so many beautiful pictures, I rejoice for the gathering of all sanghas in Kechara.
What a wonderful, uplifting, story! It is always good to see Dharma practitioners together – and even more wonderful when the various schools are represented! Just seeing all of these wonderful, compassionate, beings together is very beneficial.
I apologize for using the word people…they are not people they are higher beings!
Kechara and Rinpoche are the most generous and honorable people in the world. Thank you again and again for everything you are doing!