Gyalwang Drukpa

"You need to develop the ability to look at yourself and see your own nature, to know that you are simply who you are, doing your best each day, looking to where you can improve now and tomorrow. Don’t waste your precious time and energy feeling guilty or regretful about the past, judging how good or successful you are as a person, in your work, in love. You are perfectly okay as you. And once you can truly accept this, you will begin to see the same is true in others."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

"Lovely pictures of receiving the blessing of the holy presence of Gyalwa Rinpoche, HH the Dalailama at Ladakh Airport today. Although I’m not there physically, I rejoice the presence of Skyabje Drukpa Thuksey Rinpoche, Khamdrag Rinpoche, Choeskyong Palga Rinpoche and other Rinpoches and spiritual leaders from different sects receiving Gyalwa Rinpoche and getting his blessings at the airport in Leh-Ladakh."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

༧སྐྱབས་རྗེ་འབྲུག་པ་ཁམས་བྲག་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།། HE Drukpa Khamtak Rinpochay

"Competitiveness may well bring you material or intellectual success, but if you can’t rejoice in the success of others, then you are missing out. That’s why I say the biggest gift I can offer you is acceptance. You don’t need to be cruel to others, just open up your heart --be more accepting and less critical. Every person is valuable, so why do we interrupt so much to scold or to judge?"

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

"I’m somehow very happy to hear that scientific knowledge is now catching up with great compassion and genuine love towards to animals. Otherwise, many of us somehow have a big misunderstanding about animals and whether they have pain or not when we abuse them for our own pleasure. I want this to be read by many of my friends and shared with a lot of people to understand more about animals going through horrible times, not only in this generation but millions of generations in the past.

I have a notion that all the animals are suffering equally when we abuse them, and when we kill them and torture them. I’ve had no doubt about it from day one. But I’ve heard many people saying different things using their own theory. Many different religions also have many different theoretical approaches to this issue. To my knowledge, most of those theories are designed to suit their own lifestyle, meaning that they don’t really apply to the reality of what animals are actually going through. Unfortunately, animals can’t speak our language. It’s quite obvious that many of them cry, but we don’t care. Many of them scream, but we don’t care. Many of them try to run, but we don’t care. Actually, we don’t want to know what they’re saying, not that we don’t understand what they’re saying. Very sad."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

Article: “Insects Probably Feel Pain, With Big Implications For How We Treat Them, Study Says”
https://www.iflscience.com/insects-probably-feel-pain-with-big-implications-for-how-we-treat-them-study-says-64349?utm_content=214135673&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&hss_channel=fbp-479163965435700&fbclid=IwAR1dkWT7xSpyDnkpoh-9mgrvcfDK-OySPAntVrPGsV-bSBHNG_QqsTiy3BY&fs=e&s=cl

Article: “Why insects are more sensitive than they seem: For decades, the idea that insects have feelings was considered a heretical joke – but as the evidence piles up, scientists are rapidly reconsidering.”
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211126-why-insects-are-more-sensitive-than-they-seem #:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20there's%20mounting%20evidence,are%20out%20of%20their%20control

[Photo: The Gyalwang Drukpa with rescued dog Karma, who was abandoned after losing his front legs in a traffic accident]

"I am confident that Gyalwa Lorepa will be the star of the Drukpa Lineage of his generation. The first Gyalwa Lorepa, a disciple of Tsangpa Gyare, the first Gyalwang Drukpa, contributed to the spread of the Dharma as did his successive reincarnations.
The present Gyalwa Lorepa was an excellent sportsman and a disciplined student - a sort of role model for his classmates - before his recognition. He was recognised as the reincarnation of Gyalwa Lorepa after a series of tests. He has proved his dedication to the Dharma after his enthronement and subsequent monastic education in Buddhist philosophical studies and practices."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

"It is always healthy to try your best, whatever your abilities, but when the ego grasps at competitiveness, it can become a chain around your neck; you are always looking forward, never content to simply enjoy the moment, never happy to just have a go. Our ego encourages us to look out for number one, fearful that no one else will. All of these characteristics are labels our ego clings to; they make up the story we tell about ourselves, but they also hold us back from being ourselves and living our life freely."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

“It was a pleasant surprise to hear about and see the pictures of Gyalwa Lorepa being fully ordained by His Holiness Je Khenpo of Bhutan. Therefore I am happily and proudly sharing some of his photographs, even though it is one day late… But still, we all should be very proud of him, and also proud of this lineage that was fully supported by His Holiness Je Khenpo and his Sangha community. I personally pay respect and bow in front of His Holiness Je Khenpo for his kindness and tireless efforts to benefit the lineage and all sentient beings in general. Once again, my appreciation goes to Gyalwa Lorepa himself for being so good in his own studies and practice as well. Last but not least, from my the depth of heart, I wish him to be living long with good health, and to have a successful and happy life.”

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

"Helping others definitely make us feel happier in ourselves, but like the chicken and the egg, it’s a question of what comes first. It is also about what is your primary motivation. So, don’t rush headlong into giving away all your love or your worldly goods. Take it slowly. Develop your faculties. Gradually, you will work out what you truly want to give to the world and to others.

Do whatever you can do completely and without forcing yourself in any way. Take it gently and slowly and begin with appreciation."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

"Everything you do can be done with a thought to others, even something as simple as entering a room or having a conversation. You will think of the others in the room, how you might connect with them, how nice it is to see them. You listen attentively rather than only thinking about what you want to say next."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

"Mindfulness is another term for giving attention to the things that are important, or for being considerate. It is simply to be conscious of your surroundings and your environment. It becomes a spiritual experience when you apply it to things around you – people, animals or anything. If you go through your day with such awareness and attention, then you are really mindful. And mindfulness is a gift."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

The Annual Hemis Festival in Ladakh is taking place 9-10 July, 2022. This is the most celebrated festival of the region, featuring many sacred rituals like the masked Cham dances that spread blessings to all.

Live to Love Germany has been bringing care packages and supplies for mothers and pregnant women who are now refugees from Ukraine. Helping others is about being thoughtful and also action oriented at the same time.

"Try to experience mindfulness by dedicating everything for others. By doing this, you will be doing yourself a favour on the path to spirituality."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

[Photo from March 2015 at Druk Amitabha Mountain DGK Nunnery]

"The more giving your heart is, the more you are able to receive. If we give and help without any expectation or any condition, that itself is a great practice and a great joy that cannot be measured by any mundane means. In fact, I can even say that when you help, give, or do anything that is beneficial unconditionally, whatever you get in return is also unconditionally beneficial. It’s a pretty fair deal, isn’t it?"

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

[Photo from March 2011 at Druk Amitabha Mountain DGK Nunnery, Nepal]

"You make others happy, you are happy too. You can check by yourself whether this is true or not. Try it. If you have a big heart that is willing to share your virtues, then your virtues will actually multiply."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

[Photo from March 2021 at Druk Amitabha Mountain DGK Nunnery, in front of the statue of the first Kyabje Drukpa Thuksey]

The office bearers and volunteers at the Gyalwang Drukpa’s offices wish Kyabje Chokyong Palga Rinpoche a very happy birthday and many happy returns. May you live long effortlessly for the benefit of all beings!

"Sometimes we get caught up in making ourselves happy, doing all sorts of silly and selfish things, without realising that actually by making others happy, we will be too. It is a double happiness."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

[Photo from Nov 2021 in Pokhara]

"Even if you have nothing material to give, it does not matter. You just have to open your heart and let go of your burning attachments to things or people. Give others freedom and you will be free yourself."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

[Photo from Bodh Gaya, November 2013]

"The nuns are enjoying wild strawberry picking on their way to Bumthang in Bhutan. Our close friend who lives in Bumthang came to welcome the nuns with tea offerings in Bumthang Chumey. Now they are going to visit the Nimaling monastery where my father and my mother stayed for more than 19 years. Bumthang is one of the most beautiful parts of Bhutan --it is very much blessed by Padmasambhava and you can find its name in many parts of his teachings. My father used to say that Bumthang is Paradise on this earth."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

“I want to thank Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo from the depth of my heart for her support on this happy occasion, and for her own extensive work in promoting equality for nuns over her lifetime. I send my warmest wishes and gratitude for Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.”

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

On this special occasion, the Gyalwang Drukpa shares his deep appreciation, joy, and praise for the senior Drukpa nuns who have just taken the Gelongma Vows (Bikshuni Vows) from His Holiness the Je Khenpo:

༄༄། །དོན་བརྒྱུད་དཔལ་ལྡན་འབྲུག་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྗེ་མཁན་ཆེན་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་འཇིགས་མེད་ཆོས་གྲགས་མཆོག་གི་ཞལ་སྔ་ ནས་ཀྱིས་སྐུ་ངལ་བ་དང་དུ་བླང་ཞིང་དཀའ་བ་ཁྱད་དུ་བསད་ནས་དེང་དུས་ཀྱི་སྙིགས་མ་ལྔ་བདོའི་དགུད་པ་སྤྱི་དང་། ཡང་སྒོས་སུ་སྐྱེ་བོ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་རིགས་ལྡན། མི་མོ་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་རིང་དུ་མནགས་པའི་འདོད་དོན་དཔྱིས་ཕྱིན་པ་ཞིག་མ་འགྲུབ་པའི་གདུང་བ་སེལ་བའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱི་བགོ་སྐལ་དུ་སྨིན་པའི་རབ་བྱུང་བསྙེན་རྫོགས་དངོས་པོར་བསྒྲུབས་པར་མཛད་པ་ནི་སྟོན་པ་བུ་རམ་ཤིང་པའི་བསྟན་པར་སྲི་ཞུའི་མཆོག་ཉིད་དུ་བསྒྲུབས་པར་མཛད་པ་དང་། འཛམ་གླིང་ཁྱོན་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་ཞི་བདེའི་མཐར་ཐུག་ཕོ་མོ་འདྲ་མཉམ་ལ་ཁ་བཤད་ཚིག་ཙམ་མིན་པར་དོན་ཕྱག་ལེན་གྱིས་རྗེས་སུ་བཟུང་བའི་བཀྲིན་ནི་བསམ་བརྗོད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ལས་འདས་པའི་མཛད་བཟང་གི་ནོར་བུའི་འོད་སྣང་སྲིད་པ་གསུམ་ན་ཁྱབ་པའི་ཆ་ཤས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བརྙན་འགའ་འཇིགས་མེད་པདྨ་དབང་ཆེན་ནམ་འཇིགས་བྲལ་བསྟན་འཛིན་བློ་གྲོས་སུ་འབོད་པ་འབྲུག་པ་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་ཁོ་བོས་རྗེས་སུ་ཡི་རང་གིས་གཟིགས་སྟར་དུ་འབུལ་བའོ། །

More information on the special Gelongma Vows and this event are available for download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D_RH6wwuFklWZK-vy5rCXkkHimC_ecTz/view?usp=sharing

In this joyful event, senior Drukpa nuns from Ladakh and Nepal have just received the Gelongma Vows (Bikshuni Vows) from His Holiness the Je Khenpo between June 21 and 23, 2022. This marks an historic event for nuns and for the Himalayas.

More information on the special Gelongma Vows and this special event are available for download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D_RH6wwuFklWZK-vy5rCXkkHimC_ecTz/view?usp=sharing

Announcement for live-stream: On this Dakini Day, the Khadro Tsogyal Thugtik Puja will be performed at Druk Amitabha Mountain today at around 5pm Nepal time (Thursday, 23rd June). For those who would like to participate remotely, the prayers will be live-streamed from the Gyalwang Drukpa FB page.

www.facebook.com/Gyalwang.Drukpa

Drukpa Thuksey Rinpoche has been visiting places across Ladakh, sharing blessings and teaching on environment, animal welfare, and the spiritual life.

June 22, 2022 - "From the mundane point of view the late Kyabje Bairo Rinpoche was my father, and from the spiritual point of view he was my Guru. A brief biodata of His Eminence is mentioned in the Facebook post of Drukpa Plouray and a more elaborate account is available in “Jewel of the Heart,” written by me after his demise. So I wouldn’t want to repeat everything again here. Kyabje Bairo Rinpoche (my father) dedicated his life to the service of the Dharma and welfare of the beings: he was a father figure in the true sense of the word, in both the spiritual and mundane sense, and for everyone who came in contact with him.

Perhaps by the force of prayers and aspirations made in the past, he has been a source of great kindness to many living beings. He was always utilising his own spare time for planting trees, taking care of the forest, releasing lives of animals, involving in different ancient arts as well as modern arts. He was especially interested in, and mastered, helping people around him repair all of their sophisticated modern scientific gadgets such as watches, calculators, telephones etc., and constructed different sorts of meditative Mandalas for one’s own individual practices. He was also very much interested in architectural work and scientific approaches. He was very fond of caring for the work of construction, along with solar panel systems. Overall, my father was a very constructive person. I am very proud of myself to be born as his son —not that I’m so talented like him, but I feel very proud of myself for being a part of him, his life, and at least became one of the eyewitnesses of his talented and beautiful work.

In his spiritual constructive work, he dedicated most of his time to looking after the welfare of Monasteries and Nunneries in different parts of Himalayan regions. He became a backbone of those settlements of the Drukpa Lineage in Ladakh, Nepal and Darjeeling. If one were to think and analyse, one would know that my father has contributed in every field for the preservation and resurgence of the Lineage.

He had a special regard for Drubpon Ngawang Tenzin of Plouray in light of the fact that he served his Guru, the 1st Drukpa Thuksey Rinpoche, with unwavering devotion and dedication until the end, in complete conformity with the sutra and ta**ra teachings. Due to this, my father was fond of Plouray and other Drukpa Centres in Europe. His fondness for the Plouray centre, where Drubpon Nawang is based, was special.

From around 2015, he insisted that I must take him to Plouray in 2017. So in 2017, we went to France and I drove him around wherever he wished to visit. Before driving to Plouray, we suggested that he should get a physical check-up done and he agreed on the condition that he must be taken to Plouray and he later passed away at the hospital.

Following his instructions, we took his body to Plouray and conducted offerings and puja, day and night, for more than 50 days. Considering his close connection with Plouray, I suggested that if a memorial statue of Kyabje Bairo Rinpoche is installed at the centre, it would be an auspicious connection and beneficial for Plouray and for all. I appreciate Dr. Thierry and family for volunteering to support the project. From the pictures, one can see that under the guidance of Drubpon Nawang Drukpa, Plouray is carrying out all the necessary groundwork and preparations for installation of the statue. I extend my warmest regards to all the disciples involved in the project. I am excitedly looking forward to its completion."

-The Gyalwang Drukpa

The book "Jewel of the Heart" is currently available for all to download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MJJ3frBRHyzcSVAwQy_0PJN-yZ4PQTUL/view?fbclid=IwAR3vyx47pSDFqx4tQB7emnaskZZn5KIddgyGExfnlhUG7k1K-uLBAHyHZFE

Drukpa Plouray in France is currently building a statue in homage of Kyabje Zhichen Bairo Rinpoche, father of the Gyalwang Drukpa. In this heartfelt statement, Drubpön Nawang Tenzin Pagsam Yongdu describes the history, the gratitude, and the special meaning of this tribute for the beloved Kyabje Zhichen Bairo Rinpoche.