Since it became common knowledge that we rely on Dorje Shugden, a few things have cropped up that I don’t understand: if you don’t like Dorje Shugden, why do you keep updated on news about Rinpoche? Why is what Rinpoche does any of your concern if you are not his student or a follower? if […]

Rinpoche gave us a powerful teaching today on the realisation of one’s potential, what it takes to get there and how much we have to ‘give up’ in order to realise our said potential. During this teaching, Rinpoche uttered one especially powerful sentence that stood out in my mind: Why do we make transformation like […]

[Prepared by the Kechara Pastors]   A Brief History The pastorship role was conceptualized by His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche to preserve the Dharma and to give laypeople an opportunity to commit to benefiting others. The first Buddhist Pastors were ordained on 24th October 2011 and every year since then, more have made this commitment to […]

Earlier in the week, Rinpoche took the team here to unwind and watch Dracula Untold. Ignore the reviews, it was good and I enjoyed it. Well, I thought the female lead was slightly annoying. Damsels in distress are not my thing, not especially when their attachment destroys an entire kingdom and leads to countless deaths…but […]

After a lovely Indian dinner, Rinpoche thought it would be nice to visit West Hollywood as some of us had never been. In the middle of samsara, Rinpoche gave us a profound teaching about how to generate a bodhisattva motivation. Everybody prays to be reborn in the best circumstances, with all of the comforts and […]

“Oh wow! Hey (Pastor) Niral, that book looks interesting!” I was sat amidst boxes and envelopes, all containing books and gifts that Rinpoche had bought online to send back to Malaysia. Of course being the greedy gumdrops that I am, I could not help but peruse the titles myself, to see if there was anything […]

A few of us were in Rinpoche’s room last night having a meeting. In front of Rinpoche on his desk were about 15 new statues, a mix of White Tara, Avalokiteshvara and Amitabha. After the meeting, Rinpoche casually asked us which statues we liked more. Pastor Niral and I both liked Avalokiteshvara; Pastor David said […]

For this week’s Throwback Thursday, I wanted to share with everyone this card that my sister made for me for my 21st birthday. At the time, I was just starting my third year at university and things weren’t great. My family was having some financial difficulties which my university were being nasty about, and I […]

A few nights ago, Rinpoche gave a profound teaching on the third of the Three Principle Paths, which is emptiness. Using relationships as an example, Rinpoche showed us through logic how chasing after attachments creates our samsara, therefore prolonging our suffering. Rinpoche also showed how clinging on to our attachments will hinder our spiritual progress […]

A couple of nights ago, we had a quiz on Rinpoche’s blog chat. The topic of the quiz was anything to do with Tsongkhapa, from his life story to his practices, to the achievements of his disciples and so on. During the quiz, Rinpoche asked me a couple of questions that gave me pause to […]