What does the growth or decline of the Buddha Dharma depend on? It depends on whether Buddhists’ minds are developing positively or not. So that is what we should pay attention to, rather than the outer costume people wear or the number of followers and so forth. སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པ་དར་རྒུད་ནི་གང་ལ་རག་ལས་ཟེར་ན། མིའི་བསམ་བློ་ཡག་སྡུག་གི་འཕེལ་རིམ་ཞིག་ལས་ཕྱིའི་ཆ་ལུགས་དང་ཆོས་ལུགས་པ་ཟེར་བའི་གྲངས་འབོར་ལ་མི་ལྟ།
If your idea of practicing the Dharma is simply to adopt new tasks or activities—thinking, “Now I’m going to recite this mantra or meditate on that deity”—while your fundamental way of perceiving life remains unchanged, holding on to your likes and dislikes, you can be certain that it will be impossible to become a true […]
What is the Buddhist path? At the beginning, we converted to the three treasures: Buddha as teacher, Dhamma as the way, and monks as the company. Then we learn and practice, gradually improving ourselves until we become the three treasures. This means – our bodies become monastic treasures, our words become magic treasures, our hearts […]
Recently, some of the children have been bringing me afternoon tea before I’ve had chance to go for it myself. The last couple of days, they also brought a few tomatoes with the tea. I assumed the tomatoes were put out for everyone, but today I asked the child who brought them, and it turns […]
FROM REFUGEE TO REFUGE The path of a Buddhist looks like this: We begin by going for refuge in the Three Jewels, which means taking the Buddha as our teacher, taking the Dharma as our path, and taking the Sangha as our companions on the path. Then we study and practise and improve ourselves until […]
THE TWO BENEFITS To benefit oneself, think less and do less; to benefit others, think more and do more. 9th June 2025, Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal
We fail to recognise our afflictions (negative emotions) due to our inability to consider the long term—we only think about our immediate and temporary circumstances. When we see only what is right in front of us, we may feel that committing negative actions driven by greed or anger has no immediate consequence. In fact, we […]
Understanding Buddhism is understanding desire; desire is not a tradition. Understanding Buddhism is understanding anger and ignorance; anger is not a tradition, and ignorance is not a tradition. Understanding Buddhism is understanding suffering; suffering is not a tradition. To learn Buddhism is to learn how to be kind; kindness is not a tradition. Buddhism is […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, Spring 2022
From what I have seen, most Western Buddhists are not so concerned about the buddhadharma. You have no real thought of learning the full breadth of the teachings in order to master them. Yes, to master them for your own development, but also in order to preserve the continuity of the teachings for future generations. […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, Summer 2022
My retreat lama, Karma Sherab, was something of a scholar in his younger years. At one point after he had served his root lama, Lama Tsepal, and had received mind instructions, Lama Tsepal said the only text he should read from then on is the Words of My Perfect Teacher. From that time onwards, for […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, Spring 2022
When I see the students I’ve guided leave retreat and then make no effort to pursue the dharma, it becomes clear that I haven’t helped them at all. It pains my heart when I see that. The fact that some of them stop practising and receiving dharma teachings shows that after teaching them daily for […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 15 May 2022
If you are serious about the dharma, try to let go of what you are attached to and try to accept what you find difficult to accept. At the very least try to question your likes and dislikes. This alone will open up a new path for you and you will be able to make […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 1st June 2022
A sign of a true lama is that they give up what normal worldly people like and pursue. If a lama gives up the chance to become famous, that would be a sign that they might be a real lama. Everybody wants more money, so if a lama has the chance to come into some […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, Spring 2022
A retreat lama once died in the retreat place where I and my main lamas and their root lama (Lama Tsepal) stayed. It was before my time though. The lama who had died was sitting upright on his seat in meditation posture, while other retreatants were doing prayers and meditating. When Lama Tsepal entered the […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, May 2022
Many people are very fond of doing voluntary work in the dharma centres and at dharma events {Rinpoche was addressing a predominantly Chinese audience}. But you should remember that the most important thing when relying on your Lama is to learn the dharma. Sacrificing the opportunity to attend a dharma teaching to do volunteer work […]
