Interlude

Monastery Life
A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws by hand.
He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.
The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."
He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.

So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing, "We missed the "R" ! , we missed the "R" !"
His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.
The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong, father?"
With A choking voice, the old abbot replies, "The word was... CELEBRATE !!! "

The Pope, Sai Baba and the Dalai Lama
It was a beautiful day along the coast, quiet, sunny and warm. The Pope, Sai Baba and the Dalai Lama had decided to take a day off from their various opinions and duties, rented a boat, and went fishing.
A couple hours pass, at the expense of several ocean-creatures. Then Sai Baba spots a McDonalds at the beach. "Hey, I'm dead hungry. I'm off for a Big Mac". He jumps from the boat and quickly steps across the water. The Dalai Lama goes: "Great, I'm in." Jumps from the boat, runs across the water to land, where Sai Baba is already ordering.
The Pope stands a little behind, having never walked on water. But if those two non-Christians can do that, it should be no problem for him. He jumps the boat, goes "plop", and disappears.
Sai Baba and the Dalai Lama, enjoying their freshly materialized burgers, watch the scene.
Dalai Lama: "That didn't look good."
Sai Baba: "No, we really should have told him about those underwater stepping stones."
Dalai Lama: "Stepping stones??"

Flapping flag
Four monks were meditating in a monastery. All of a sudden the prayer flag on the roof started flapping.
The younger monk came out of his meditation and said: "Flag is flapping"
A more experienced monk said: "Wind is flapping"
A third monk who had been there for more than 20 years said: "Mind is flapping."
The fourth monk who was the eldest said: "Mouths are flapping!"

The other side

A student is on one side of a raging river. There are no bridges. He has no boat. He shouts out to the master on the opposite bank. “How do I get to the other side?” The master shouts back: “You are on the other side.”

The afterlife

A Catholic, a Muslim, and a Buddhist are discussing their beliefs about the afterlife:

The Catholic: "I will spend eternity in heaven worshipping the Lord."

The Muslim: "I will spend eternity in Paradise with 10,000 virgins."

The Buddhist (after meditating on the question):
"I will be reborn as a Muslim."

(thnx to rudyh.org and some other sites)

Work in a Monastery part 2

Although slightly delayed, I still wanted to share some more pictures of the various activity's taking place in Orgyan Tobgyal Rinpoche's Monastery in Bir.

Here OT is overseeing the painters working on one of the three main Buddha statues in the main shrine hall. Next to him sits the main painter, who is also the teacher of all the other painters.

One newly arrived painter working on the top ornaments:

Scaffolds around one of the three Buddha's in the main temple:

Leaving the temple, we take a visit to OT's house which has a shrine particularly dedicated to Chime Phakme Nyingtik. Here an artist is working on the detailed decorations:

Artist working on a Statue:

In the shrine are all the deities of the CPN practice and the lineage masters. The artists worked very hard to get everything done before Losar, and this is the result:

But that's not all. Here a monk is purifying gold, in order to to decorate an old sword, which belonged to some famous Tibetan warrior, the name of which I can't remember. While purifying the gold was grey colored but somehow it turning into gold later on. The Khampa's at OT's monastery really enjoyed playing around with the sword, so you had to be a bit careful :)


Part 1 can be found here

Guru Rinpoche day at Dzogchen Monastery

Some years ago Tulku Pegyal started a new branch of Dzogchen Monestary in Kathmandu near Swayambunath. On each 10th day of the Tibetan calendar, they practice Rigdzin Dupa. Since I didnt have class that day I decided to join. The practice commenced at 8 in the morning, lasting until 4pm, with a lunch break in between ofcourse.


Below you can see litle monks from an area called something like 'tshom bu' (solo kombu?) learning how to read. The culture, religion and religious language of most Nepali's on the Himalayan range is Tibetan, but their everyday language is usually some local dialect. These ones though, I was told, speak Tibetan as their native language.



Another interesting fact was that some of the monks came from Larung Gar or Serta monastery in Tibet, which is Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok's monastery.

Advice from the Assasin

When you dont have obsession
when you dont have hangups
when you dont have inhibition
when you are not afraid that you will be breaking certain rules
when you are not afraid that you will not fulfill somebody's expectations
what more enlightenment do you want?

- Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in Words of my Perfect Teacher (the movie)

Tibetan shedra in Nepal: Karma Lekshey Ling

Due to Indian visa limitations, I had to relocate to Nepal. Although many Shedra's in Nepal have the habit of starting much later in the year, fortunately the Karma Lekshey Ling Shedra started straight after the Losar break. Most of the monks are nepalese, but they receive class in tibetan from a very young age and so their tibetan is very good (much better then mine). Normally you would think learning a language from non-native speakers (they're not tibetan after all) would not be a good idea, but actually it's not so bad because they speak tibetan in a very neat way. (that is unlike many Tibetans themselves, especially from our beloved rural Kham, who are pretty hard to understand)

The little monks eating with the Lama:

Currently i'm following classes on the Bodhicaryavatara, Uma gyan and tsema (logic). The Lopon's are Dargye, Ngawang and Donden:


The Shedra is on walking distance from the great Stupa of Swayambonath. View from the guesthouse, with on the right hill the new -work in progress- monastery of Trulshik Rinpoche:


Before the shedra started I joined the monks during the Nepalese version of the Kagyu Monlam, held in a big tent next to the big stupa at Boudha


Lekshey Ling is a very recommendable place to go. The guesthouse is very decent for nepalese standards, cheap, and you're also allowed to eat together with the monks.
For those interested in some tibetan texts and audio shoudl take a look here http://www.dharmadownload.net and for the website check http://www.leksheyling.net/

Pilgrimage to Sikkim with Orgyan Tobgyal Rinpoche and monks

Back in bir after two weeks of traveling, I did my best to write a short report about my experiences in Sikkim. Enjoy!


You can view it here: Pilgrimage to Sikkim with Orgyan Tobgyal Rinpoche and monks

Losar Tashi Delek

It seems Tibetans take every opportunity to have a party. Last few days have been pretty darn cold, heavy rainfall covering the surrounding mountains with big packs of snow. Therefore some fire to keep the outside of the body warm and some spirits to keep the inside of the body warm were much appreciated. Happy new year everyone!

Dani surrounded by one Japanese three Tibetan tanka painters