Tsem Rinpoche paying homage to White Tara, the saviouress. A student and devotee of White Tara had commissioned a 5-foot statue for his home. Having requested Rinpoche to bless and consecrate the statue, White Tara was escorted to the Ladrang where, upon sight, Rinpoche immediately paid homage to her and gave a short teaching on […]

Tsem Rinpoche blessing gifts for our visiting monks. For the past two months, we have had monks from Phelgyeling Monastery in Nepal visiting and staying with us. On the day they performed a Vajra Yogini ruchok and daju (self-generation), Rinpoche offered them a Vajra Yogini statue each. Auspiciously, these statues had just arrived in the Ladrang […]

Just wanted to share with everyone this great photograph that I came across. I am not sure who took it but it is a lovely, candid snapshot of what Rinpoche is really like. For me, it captures the depth of Rinpoche‘s commitment towards Kechara and Kechara Forest Retreat. Rinpoche has his head down, fully concentrated on […]

I glance over at my laptop’s clock. It is coming up to 3am and a small group of us are sitting here with Rinpoche as Rinpoche goes through the blog for what must be the 200th time tonight. We’ve been here for 12 hours already, writing and clicking and checking, and then checking and rechecking […]

Been wanting to write about this for a while! Early last year, I was headed back to Malaysia from the States and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t have a home to go back to. While I’d been in Los Angeles, the lease on the place I shared with my old […]

ང་འཆི་བས་འཇིགས་ནས་རི་ལ་ཕྱིན། ། ནམ་འཆི་ཆ་མེད་བསྒོམས་བསྒོམས་པས། ། འཆི་མེད་གཉུགས་མའི་བཙན་ས་ཟིན། ། ད་འཆི་བའི་འཇིགས་པ་བོར་ཏེ་ཐལ། ། In horror of death, I took to the mountains – Again and again I meditated on the uncertainty of the hour of death, Capturing the fortress of the deathless unending nature of mind, Now all fear of death is over and done. ~ Milarepa. I include this […]

Whew! We’ve been having a busy few days showing Geshe Sopa-la and Kelsang Tsultrim (aka Tomtom) around Kechara. It is a long overdue visit, the history of which goes back to our first meeting in 2014! Geshe-la and Tomtom are the types of people you read about, whose guru devotion and ability to sacrifice inspires […]

To the uninformed (or the misinformed?), tantra is a badge of pride meant to be worn loud and proud on your chest – “See? I got such and such initiation.” So these days, you will find some practitioners running from one teacher to another, gathering as many practices as they can. Yes, due to the […]

“Psst. Here,” KB hissed as he shoved something into my hand. “From Rinpoche.” I looked down and there was this note wrapped around some money. I guess what I want to say is that Rinpoche’s care for his students is all-encompassing. As if the gift of Dharma is not enough, Rinpoche can often be found […]

Today I had the honour of meeting a very special person who is respected by millions around the world. The Panglung Kuten (or Choje-la) is the official oracle of Dorje Shugden who was personally trained by the previous Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche. He has been taking trance for over 30 years and consulted by the highest […]