Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Long Life Puja @ Kopan Monastery (Dec, 2009)

Pictures taken by LDC members

LDC Members Visit Nepal - Dec 2009

Pictures taken by LDC members

More pictures taken in Berlin

Pictures taken by Geshe Tenzin Zopa

Pictures taken in Berlin - Feb 2009!

Message all the way from Berlin!

Dear all,

I am doing very well here in Berlin. It’s snowing and the people who invited me here is taking very good care of me with very good hotel, good food, many parties to attend and many movies to view.

The Movie Unmistaken Child received many great reviews and the screening has been very very successful up to now. There were total 6 screenings and every screening had approximately 500 audiences and basically every seat is fully occupied. After each screening, I have to attend to questions and answers and that is where I have a chance to share dharma with so many people. Everyone loves the movie! It’s also regarded as one of the best “True Love” movie ever.

Very soon all countries are going to show this movie and that includes USA, Canada, Japan and in Israel the Unmistaken Child have been showing for the past two months and each time the theatres are full. This movie might also be brought in to Singapore during their film festival.

For the past few days, I had interviews with 11 different press including television from all over the world including the Middle East countries. By the way, Unmistaken Child movie was regarded as one of the best documentary movie in Berlin Film festivals. Many many people where so touched by the movie and it’s targeted that a few millions going to watch the movie this year. REJOICE!!!!

To all my Malaysian students and friends, see you all on 25th February which is Losar night for light offering. Take care all.

With lots of prayers,

Pictures taken during LDC group to Nepal - Dec 2008

Pictures taken by geshe zopa and courtesy of other members

Wesak in Malaysia, Singapore and Himalaya (TSUM)

This year Wesak was extremely meaningful. I had the opportunity to take 8 Mahayana Precept and various practices with the inspiration of so many people. At the same time I got the chance to travel to Amithabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore to attend Khen Rinpoche’s teachings joined by the large group from Malaysia to attend his long life puja which is very important practice for long and healthy life of both gurus as well as students.

The long life pujas was very well organized much to the delight of everyone. Although the journey from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore is quite long, everyone felt the trip was extremely fulfilling.

By the great merit of everyone in the group, we also had the opportunity to visit the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in China Town, Singapore. We were all greeted by Benny who’s one of the temple key personnel. He took us on a tour of the whole place including viewing the relics of the Buddhas, Tathagatas and holy beings. By viewing, these relics enable them to establish great connections with the holy beings. We were also fortunate to meet the Abbot of the temple. Everyone was very inspired and amazed with the size and how the temple was built.

Immediately after the long life puja, the Malaysian group had a private audience with Khen Rinpoche. With the permission of Khen Rinpoche and Ven Lhundup, we had the opportunity to view and receive great blessing of all the holy relics of the Great Mahasiddha Geshela Lama Konchog. This exhibition granted the opportunity to thousands of people in Singapore during the few days of Wesak hosted and organized by Amitabha Buddhist Centre. The director and members of both centres expressed great gratitude and rejoice in the great success of the exhibition. Through this exhibit, many people were introduced not only to Amitabha Buddhist Centre but in particularly to dharma and connection to the Buddha’s emanation body (the relics).

These holy relics were also placed for viewing and blessing in Thekchen Choeling Centre for one day.

By now, the holy relics have returned to Relic Shrine in Kopan Monastery. There are still a lot of invitation of hosting of relics to various parts of the world mainly Ladak in Himalaya, Taiwan as well as Australia. I would say all this depends on the sincerity and the merit of the people receiving the blessings.

So it is indeed really rejoicing and I hope that all the people from the different parts of the world had the most meaningful Wesak by accumulating extensive merits and purifying numerous obstacles.

On top of all that, one of the greatest satisfaction I had this Wesak is the opportunity to organize 1 million recitation of Guru Padmasambhava mantra and 1 million Compassionate Buddha mantra as well as many sets of the Compassionate Buddha Nyung Nya especially focussing on the practice of taking the 8 Mahayana Precept. These are conducted not only by sanghas but by the lay people of Tsum in Rachen Nunnery and Mu Monastery led by the founder Drukpa Rinpoche and the respected Geshe Tenzin Choklek. These practices are dedicated especially to the victim of the Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and Earthquake in Sichuan, China and for whatever present and future natural and manmade disasters in the world to be completely purified caused by negative karma.

May whoever sees this message, able to accumulate great amount of merits by rejoicing on this practices and immediately dedicate the merits accumulated for the same purpose. This will definitely benefit the victims.

Many thanks also goes out to all the sincere, humble and dedicated lifelong practitioners monks and nuns in Rachen Nunnery and Mu Monastery in Tsum and specially heartfelt thanks to Rinpoche and Geshela. Of course the root cause is all due to the kindness of our root guru Kyabje Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche and the late Geshela Lama Konchog.

Long Life Puja in ABC - Tsog Offering

Extensive Offering

The beautiful light and flower offerings at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

The abbot welcoming us

One picture for the album

Smile Everyone

Benny giving the group a tour around the Temple

Everyone listening attentively

Another pose with our 2 anilas and Benny

Group Photo
Pictures taken by Candy.


Pictures courtesy of Keng Yong during Singapore Wesak at the CD counter.

Choden Rinpoche visits LDC – April 2008

Once again we were so fortunate to have the opportunity to invite Choden Rinpoche to LDC and so blessed to receive the teachings on Heart Sutra and Clam Abiding. These 2 teachings are in fact the subjects from the Basic Foundation Course that LDC is conducting since January 2008 and all the students are indeed very fortunate to have the chance to receive direct teachings on these 2 topics. We also have the opportunity to receive the blessings of body, speech and mind of the Black Manjushri and many even had the opportunity to receive private blessing. Rinpoche also blessed the centre.

Rinpoche is very happy and his attendants expressed that this is one of the most enjoyable trip they have had. All the members, students and friends in LDC made their stay here in KL very comfortable and we all hope and pray that Rinpoche will again return to LDC soon.

At the same time, I had a surprise visitor who’s my former my classmate Chokor Rinpoche during Choden Rinpoche’s visit. He spend almost a month and even though I was busy with my duties in LDC and didn’t get a chance to attend to him but with the full support of our Venerables, I am sure Chokor Rinpoche enjoyed his stay and his wishes was fulfilled in every expect.

One of my friends, a Kopan monk also gave me a surprise visit and again due to my busy schedule I also didn’t spend much time with him but I hope he too enjoyed his stay in Malaysia.

Pictures courtesy of Emillie.

Chokor Rinpoche

Chokor Rinpoche with Choden Rinpoche's 2 attendants

Extensive mandala offering for Choden Rinpoche

Choden Rinpoche at Puja

Extensive mandala offering

Offering to Rinpoche

The large crowd at Puja

Tsog offering

CGC Fund Raising

This fund raising event organised by CGC, Penang was very successful. I can see the joy and smile on everyone’s face like Daniel who’s the director, his family members and all the fund raising committee, their family, student and friends of CGC.

They are very satisfied despite the hard work and tireless effort they have put in for the past months. Now that the event is over, they will all be able to sit back, relax and catch up on some good sleep to re-energize for the upcoming activities which are beneficial to the Penang members and students. I truly rejoice and very proud of the volunteers and on behalf of FPMT and Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, I sincerely thank all the supporters from Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and from other parts of the world to actualise this event and for ensuring that it is so successfully organized.

They are now looking for their own premises for CGC to expand which will only bring greater benefits to the larger number of people especially from Penang. I must say they are doing great. I pray day and night the CGC team can actualize their goal as soon as possible. I rejoice and rejoice!!

These pictures were taken by Bobby Yeoh during the fund raising dinner event.

Trip to Penang – April 1 - 5, 2008

During the first semester break of our Basic Foundation Course (BFC), I was very glad I had the opportunity to visit Penang - Choki Gyaltsen Centre (CGC). I took this great opportunity to fulfil their request to have teachings on various expects of Buddhadharma and I was also very happy and surprise that the number of attendance is three times more than my previous visit which was about a year ago. Many new comers were very interested especially to study the BFC. So I have initiated the study program base on the transcript that was accomplished by LDC. CGC president Daniel will lead the discussion for the coming 3 months and I will do a summary clarification on their doubts to prepare them for the exam. There are quite a large number of people interested in this program and some have started with the discussion and home study with the transcript. Those with queries or doubts may contact me via email or through my mobile for clarification.

It is one of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s (KLZR) holy wishes that I visit CGC since my arrival in LDC, Malaysia but due to many circumstances, I was unable to offer my service or be present there. But after the great blessings by KLZR and Khen Rinpoche (KR), the karma instantly ripen and also the program that LDC have organized allowed me to spare time for CGC without obstructing any LDC programs. I therefore feel satisfied and I hope and pray that I will be able to fulfil the wishes of KLZR and KR have for CGC and may I be able to offer the service without any further obstacles in future.

I felt so touched that the students there have shown great appreciation and much sincerity and even though they didn’t get to spend many days with me but whatever time spent together, we used for dharma talk, questions and answers sessions. Many expressed that the gathering we had as very enlightening moment.

Whatever merit accumulated by everyone is solely dedicated to the long and healthy life of our gurus and for all their holy wishes be fulfilled plus the well being and enlightenment path for all students, volunteers and benefactors of CGC.

I will visit CGC at least 3 times a year and they will study the same program and sit for the exam just like the LDC students. That way, they will also be provided the opportunity they deserve and at the end of this accomplishment of the BFC, everyone will receive great blessings from our most respected guru KLZR. Rejoice and rejoice!!

I also sincerely thank all the coordinators who put so much effort to make my stay there a most meaningful one.

These are some pictures taken by Bobby Yeoh.

December 2007 trip to Nepal

I arrived in Kathmandu on 20^th November 2007. The first thing I did was to pay respect to Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche and Khenrinpoche. We spent approximately one hour to talk about life in LDC Malaysia and other Kopan matters. After that Ven Rubina called up to say that we needed to start work immediately on the biography of Geshe Lama Konchog. This biography will be published by Wisdom Publication and I am now waiting for the final edited version by Ven Rubina. It could take six months to a year or more depending on her time and I also need to provide some materials, one of which is the collection of Geshe Lama Konchog’s advises written by him when he was in the cave. These materials need to be gathered from Tsum and I will only have the opportunity to get them few months later as Tsum is now totally covered with snow. They need to be translated into English by me and I also need to compile these amazing 400 over initiation implement drawings by Geshe Lama Konchog available for the book. Ven Rubina was still very keen to get more stories from some of the senior students who are still in life long retreat. Time is needed to get all these things done and I am very sure it will be a very interesting and remarkable book which talks about incredible stories in this 21^st century where somebody is able to live a life like Geshe Lama Konchog. When I look back on the script, it is really amazing, very touching, very inspiring and very down to earth and it shows us the exact life of a Kadampa master.

Ven Rubina kindly provided time from her busy schedule to work on this biography and even though it was a very tiring task, we worked from morning to night for three consecutive days. Then some of my friends from Singapore arrived and I took three days off to bring them around for pilgrimage and then continued with work right up to Dec 6. On that day, I sent Ven Rubina off in the morning and receive the LDC group in the afternoon. It felt so refreshing to see all the LDC friends because the time I spent with Ven Rubina was very rush but due to our efficiency, we managed to come up to the final stage. I must say we both did an excellent job. From the bottom of my heart, I felt thankful towards Ven Rubina for all her effort, time, courage and many other things she have help out. In fact I should say the work of this biography is one of my main completed tasks upon return to Nepal and it’s now had been fulfilled.

The pilgrimage with LDC group consisted of approximately 15 members and students plus some from Indonesia and Thailand. Most of them are new to dharma but they have been very cooperative, very understanding, full of tolerance and very enthusiastic in visiting holy places and doing practices to their best ability. In fact we are able to cover very important holy places like one place called “Sango” which is one of Vajrayogini’s holy place, cave of 80 Mahasiddha and the cave of Milerapa. Each individual had inspiring experiences and some of these holy places were missed out by the previous group. So I must say this group is very lucky to be able to make it but they had to make the effort to climb stairs. On the first day after they checked into the Hyatt Kathmandu Hotel, they managed to view the wishfullfilling great Boudhanah Stupa to make their wish. I was telling them the story that the first time they set their eyes at the Boudhanah Stupa, whatever wish they make will 100 percent be fulfilled and there were many evidence that this had happened. That made them excited and I am sure they made great wishes which will be fulfilled. Boudhanah Stupa is definitely one of the greatest places to visit when you come to Nepal. So don’t ever miss it! The other holy places are like Swoyambhunath Stupa which is self-emanated and this Stupa was also blessed by all the 4 Buddhas who descended near the mountain called “Langtalungten”. We also went to visit the Buddha Kashapa Relic Stupa and Nagajuna’s relic stupa and the entrance to the naga land where Nagajuna went to get the sutra into this world. Other sites are Manjushri’s throne, Vajrayogini’s holy place where the 2 “Phamdingpa” brothers who achieved Vajrayogini’s enlightenment and lineage of Vajrayogini’s practice. Until today the original statue which manifested in the actual form of Vajrayogini used by these 2 great practitioners are still around. We were also fortunate enough to pay respect to the very important Guru Padmasambava’s holy place, the self arising Tara and other holy sites in Kopan and Kathmandu valley.

Everyone felt very happy and fortunate to spend time with Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche and received his precious teachings, initiations and blessings together with the little holy child Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche as well as with Khenrinpoche who gave them a personal guided tour around Kopan Monastery. They also received blessings from Khenrinpoche and had the opportunity to have a meal together with him.

LDC group did offer extensive pujas, sanghas offerings and donations to the monastery and these offering were also participated by others from Malaysia. They also offered hundreds of light in holy places and everyone was so touched that everywhere we went, whatever virtue or prayers done was dedicated to the dharma brothers and sisters in LDC, CGC (Penang), RJL (Triang) and Kasih Hospice. These touching moments brought tears to some of them. It only shows the care and love among them.

Of course everyone is overwhelmed with shopping. That is not surprising. I think everything seems nice, cheap, wonderful and necessary to have, especially the good quality tangkas, statues, prayer wheels and many other things. I can see that their ten days trip wasn’t enough and there were many other holy places to visit. So everyone pray and hope to go back again and again in this life time.

My trip to Kathmandu this time was again a very meaningful and happy trip. I had the opportunity to meet other friends from other parts of the world who attended the November Kopan course. They are from Singapore, Hong Kong but mostly from America, Europe and Australia. There were over 60 of them including the LDC group. It was also very nice of Angie and Cecilia from LDC who attended the whole November course and this is very inspiring and rejoicing. The hardship they had to go through to adapt with the weather, people, culture and course schedule was amazing but they expressed much joy and I can see it written all over their glowing face. Of course I am sure they were happy to see me too as I am part of them from Malaysia. I was very glad to see them healthy, happy and learning. I very much wanted to spend time with them but due to my endless packed schedule, I was not able to do so.

In the end I didn’t even spend time with Phuntsok Rinpoche, Khenrinpoche or even my family members but I am still very happy because this trip had been very beneficial with a good purpose.

Teachings In Bangkok

We left Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok on November 9. It was a very meaningful dharma trip organized by a group of Thai devotees, Irene and friends. There were teachings, pujas, blessings and interaction between Tibetan Buddhism and Thai Buddhist. I presented myself as an example of being a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner with a very open mind and showing the equal respect to Theravadan teachings and practitioners. This was done through my explanation in Theravadan teachings that it is all interrelated and it is necessary to practice to achieve the purpose of becoming a Buddhist especially to become a Buddha. And without mastering all the teachings that Buddha have thought, it is impossible to become omniscient. It is important to clear whatever doubts between the limited knowledge of some Theravadan practitioners towards the Mahayana practitioners specially Vajrayana practitioners, which is actually the same as the Theravadan practice. I tried to prove it with logic, reasons and quotes from Buddha himself that this different form of teaching such as Theravadan teachings, Bodhisattvayana teachings and Tantrayana teachings are all Buddha’s teachings except that it’s taught in different “yanas”. This is because of the mental disposition of the different practitioners. I also told them about the great vajrayana ritual practices are not a form of superstitious. It is in fact a form of symbolism of the different stages of the 84,000 teachings. I emphasized ways to be a pure Buddhist is to take refuge and that refuge is the same whether they are Theravadan or Mahayanic practitioners.

There were over 200 people who expressed their appreciation and claim that the essence of the teachings had awaken their mind. I can tell that they respect the teachings especially my emphasis to proper gurus and tradition such as the importance to rely on His Holiness Dalai Lama. I also tried to connect this group of people directly to His Holiness, to follow his advice and to take him as the fellow of tradition and no matter whatever dharma books they should be reading. This was highly appreciated by them and they feel so blessed by this.

It was a very successful trip because the event was well organized. The organizer advertised this teaching event through television, radio, newspaper, posters and magazine. In fact, I regard the turnout as a great achievement. Everyone requested me to return soon and I am very sure there will be a bigger crowd next time.

With the blessings of the gurus, I really like to thank LDC Director and fellow members who strongly supported me to be there. Special thanks to the organizer and their teams for making my first trip to Thailand so memorable and beneficial. I can feel the karmic affinity in dharma with these wonderful people. In fact, I have tried to go to Thailand before but it never happen. So I regard this as a special event and we have definitely connected with dharma so we all pray for the best and rejoice.

It was amazing to explore the great holy sites. I don’t remember the names but I visited the largest reclining Buddha temple and there was one great golden stupa that hosted buddha’s relic. There were also many beautiful stupas in one medallion Buddha temple. It was really stunning. Every one was very respectful toward sanghas and I think they are also very interested in dharma especially to learn more about bodhisattva’s practices so I regard this as an auspicious start and I am sure it will be a success in the future. During the trip, I also met over 100 people from different countries such as China, Cambodia, Korea, Japan, Italy Germany, Russia, India, America, Canada, Egypt..etc. All these people had big smiles on their faces all the time and I was surprise when they requested me to take photographs with them. I can tell they are very happy with this meeting. I took this opportunity to make strong prayers by chanting of Om Ah Hum and requesting them to live happily and I explained to them the reasons they must be happy. I also told them we have definitely connected with a lot of auspiciousness. I can feel that I have connected with these people and will be going to these countries later to spread dharma. This special inspiration came to my mind.

We had the chance to try all sorts of Thai food. Even though I had gastric, I decided to give it a try and everything turned out to be very nice, my favorite food is Tom Yam. One night I called the delegates of LDC such as Ven Osel, Stanley, Emillie and Chung Han who informed me that some of them enjoyed the traditional massage very much. I too have my share of massage, pressing the points on my feet with my fingers while reading book on my bed.

We also visited the 4 face deity. It was interesting to see the different forms of worship and more interesting to hear the stories about it. Another fun place we visited was the night market. It was nice but I prefer the solace of my room.

On the last day we had some tour around the city, window shopping and then head straight to the airport.

Photo courtesy of Ven. Osel and Emillie

Trip to Kopan (September 2007)

It was a surprise visit to Nepal especially to my beloved guru Khenrinpoche, Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche and many of my other respected teachers such as Geshe Keychog who’s over 90 yrs old and is one of the most senior geshe in Kopan Monastery, my family members, dharma brothers and sisters. It’s was a very tight schedule but I managed to spend some time with everyone.

I also had a surprise companion in the flight with my dharma brother William, Candy and her mother. The flight was full of fun and at arrival we had tea at Hyatt Kathmandu. Due to their merits I also got the opportunity to visit many holy places from my busy schedule and it was a day before their departure to Malaysia when the film director Nati and the photographer Uri, both from Israel arrived in Kopan. That night we all had a wonderful dinner and wonderful chat shared by everyone about their encounters in Buddha dharma.

Nati,Uri and I left for Pokara the next day after William and Candy left for home. We could not get a direct flight from Kathmandu and in Pokara we were delayed for two days because of the heavy rain. However when we arrived in Tsum, we were greeted with bright sunny day which allowed us to have wonderful view of the mountains, rivers and waterfalls. So that made it a fantastic day to land in Tsum in front of Rachen Nunnery. Our tight schedule in filming started that day where we went to Tibet up to Tsolong Kyok (a holy lake). The lake which is located 4,500 meters above sea level posses great challenge for me and the film crew, a total of 15 of us together with many horses. We had to cross the river, high mountains and cliffs. It was dangerous but exciting and we were surrounded by beautiful mountain sceneries. It was great tracking and exploration of a very remote untouched mountain. When we returned some of us fell from the horse including myself. I got thrown from the horse and my hands got scratched. Our manager in Tsum Tenzin Lhundup fell down from the cliff together with the horse. It was a miracle and with the blessing of the Buddhas and the power of the pujas that was performed before the journey, both the horse and Tenzin Lhundup was safe without even a scratch on them. Then on the 15^th I returned to Kopan where we continued our filming till 11 am on the September 17^th. the day I had to rush to the airport and return to LDC, Kuala Lumpur and to receive the arrival of Khenrinpoche the following day.