There's No Way But Up

Dear People who are karmically connected with me, As you know I love beautiful mountains, dwellings in the mountains. Pastor Seng Piow on his own initiative has been just looking through various beautiful properties. Some are just breathtaking and when I see something beautiful I just want to share with others whom I feel might…

A week ago, Tsem Rinpoche told us a wonderful story of the 1000-armed Kuan Yin. He had just received a book called Words of Power by John Blofeld. The author of the book wrote about his journeys to Hong Kong and China and his studies of Buddhism. In this particular book, he wrote a story of the…

Well, I love stories and was told quite a few in the last few weeks with Rinpoche. Some of which, I have never heard before and some of which Rinpoche had already told and was even recorded onto YouTube. I shall try to recollect the stories I have been told for posterity sake. There was…

Just two nights ago, Tsem Rinpoche asked Pastor Jean Ai, Pastor Niral and myself, which statue we would pick out of a selection of Amitabhas, Chenrezigs and White Taras. I pondered for awhile and finally, I forced myself to pick Tara. It’s a difficult choice! It’s not that I am so holy but I am…

Kyabje Zong Rinpoche was known to be an accomplished debater and Tantric master who developed occult powers due to his meditational practice.  Kyabje Zong Rinpoche is Tsem Rinpoche’s root Guru and is one of the greatest masters to have escaped Tibet after the Tibetan exodus into India. In the late 1980s, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche arrived…

All stimuli that serves to excite or disgust are based on lack of true permanence therefore only exist in a projected manner. Tsem Rinpoche http://www.tsemrinpoche.com  Recently on facebook, I was asked by Rinpoche to elaborate on this quote for the benefit of Victor Choi. This teaching was recently given to a bunch of students who…

Recently, Tsem Rinpoche shared another powerfully intellectual and yet practical teaching regarding the difference between the perception of an ordinary being and that of the Buddha or an enlightened being. I transcribed it for your reading pleasure. It’s a good thought-provoking read and if you have any questions, you can pop me one and I…

Kyabje Zong Rinpoche offering sticks into the fire – mouth of the deity.  Here’s another set of teachings that Tsem Rinpoche recorded on his phone and sent to a few people including myself. It was all about fire pujas also known as Jinsek in Tibetan. It took me quite a bit of time to transcribe…

A very old statue of Vajrayogini at a shrine in Nepal A week ago, Tsem Rinpoche forwarded a bunch of audio messages that formed an advice given to an old friend. It seemed that this person had made plans to fly over to the monastery to seek out his aging lama in order to request…

Happy belated Wesak guys! In Malaysia, we celebrate Wesak Day yesterday and this is the sacred day of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and parinirvana as many of you might already know. It is indeed a sacred day for us Buddhist and so, I was busy the entire day performing my Pastors’ duty to blessed children…

Last Christmas, which was nearly 4 months ago, I did a little Christmas Santa free giveaway of my books (http://www.davidlai.me/2013/11/26/christmas-surprise/). Interestingly, I received 4 requests and come 2014 New Year, I decided to fulfil them. My apologies for taking this long to blog about the winners of this little giveaway. The next time I do…

Hello cyberspace… Long time no see. I apologize for my long absence from blogging. I thought I come back with a bang and my big bang here is a post on my Pastor ordination. Yup, I am officially a Pastor now… A Buddhist one that is. I know some Christians lay claim to the fact…

Amidst the flurry of messages all over social media calling for people to pray for MH370 and various speculations as to what happened to the Boeing plane, there were some Buddhists telling people to “practice the Dharma while we can”. If you are Buddhist, you would instantly recognize the meaning behind this simple statement. If…

I had just watched this and I find this entertaining and interesting. At times, I couldn’t help myself from laughing at some of the remarks. Anyway, the video is about the negative feedback regarding an upcoming blockbuster movie featuring the life of Noah, one of the early prophets of the Bible. And because of this,…

The Dalai Lama is touring in the US now and he has recently met with the President Obama in the White House despite protests from the Chinese government. However, the White House took great pains to ensure it is not a meeting of two heads of state and President Barack Obama reiterated the US stand…

                                   The narrow street leading to Tahithy Chowk  Well, its been awhile and I am finally coming up with the second installment of the earlier post of the recent pilgrimage to Nepal. The pilgrimage was in December but fortunately,…

I love Buddha images!… particularly from the Indo-Tibetan tradition. I think I appreciate them both from an artistic as well as from a devotional standpoint. I guess I got this from Tsem Rinpoche’s passion for explaining, obtaining and giving out some of the most exquisite Buddha images. He said that as lay folks, we should…

Happy 2014 guys and I know I have been 2 weeks late in blogging about this but better late then never… Over Christmas last year, I took 22 (including myself, Su Ming (the main organiser) and Nicholas Yu)  intrepid pilgrims seeking an intimate spiritual journey – a pilgrimage of sorts to Nepal. Needless to say,…

Here a picture of my altar to Lama Tsongkhapa in the living room of my apartment.  Due to a request, I am going to share a thing or two about altars today. I think most Chinese families here in Malaysia have that little “Sun Toi” or ‘Altar to the Gods’ at home. That ubiquitous red…

Kechara recently celebrated the ordination of new Buddhist Pastors and the renewal of existing Pastors in our very own Wisdom Hall at Kechara Forest Retreat. I couldn’t make it…. Boohoo! Anyway, I heard that it was a simple affair but steeped in the Buddhist tradition of taking upasaka vows or layman vows. This is the 3rd…

Recently, I was requested by H. E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche to share my experience and knowledge of engaging in a Je Tsongkhapa retreat to people who would be interested to engage in it. This is fantastic despite the fact that the last time I performed a Tsongkhapa retreat was many years back. At that time,…

When Tsem Rinpoche first started the Kechara Paradise outlets, he noticed that some people would come to the outlets to leave simple offerings in front of the main image there. Hence, Rinpoche brought his personal statues to be placed in these outlets precisely for these people to make offerings. These statues are very holy because…

Just a few days ago, I was with Rinpoche sitting in front of his Manjushri altar. As the picture above shows, the dominating icon is this large wooden statue of Manjushri with a thousand arms fanning out around him in a complete circle. There were of course various other smaller forms of Manjushri and exotic…

This is the Sitatapatra statue that just arrived in Kechara Forest Retreat. Photo courtesy of Martin Chow. This magnificent 8-feet wood-carved statue of White Umbrella or Dukkar has recently just arrived at Kechara Forest Retreat. She is placed at the Dukkar apartments (aptly named Dukkar after this grand deity) within KFR where volunteers and those…

It’s been awhile since I last posted on this blog and I just received a wonderful sharing by Rinpoche just the other day. Rinpoche had been sharing a lot lately about gratitude on social media and he explained what dawned on him recently. He noticed that friends and students who transform and take on more…

Stephen Tang, a student of Zasep Rinpoche Recently, I got in touch with a young student of Zasep Rinpoche in Toronto over Facebook. His name is Stephen Tang and we were just talking over Facebook chat and out of the blue one day, he said he would like to offer little Lama Tsongkhapa hats onto…

I am in the mood to write about something deep and I thought about this topic for awhile. It is so fundamental yet it is clearly misunderstood by most people, from casual observers to practitioners who are in it for years. As Rinpoche put it very succinctly, ‘You may be in the Dharma but is the…

Tsem Rinpoche came over to Manjushri Hill (my office) and did some stuff with a few of us here. Then he shared an amazing Dharma talk with us. It was quite an extensive teaching on associating our mind with our bodies that creates our suffering. Rinpoche began by uttering something really profound, he said that…

Devadatta attempts to assassinate the Buddha The following is my comments after watching the video of Prof. Donald S Lopez explaining about Devadatta in Tsem Rinpoche’s blog:- http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/devadatta-blaming-others.html In this video, Professor Donald S Lopez tells a clear and vivid story of the Buddha and his infamous nemesis, Devadatta from the Dhammapada Sutta – a collected…

Caring for animals is linked to the Buddhist teaching on compassion. It is obviously a physical expression of compassion and one of the noblest because unlike humans, animals are basically unable to reciprocate kindness. And that’s one of the reasons why Tsem Rinpoche encourages people like me – a typical self-absorbed, self-centered modern individual to…