dorjeshugden.com
About Dorje Shugden => General Discussion => Topic started by: Ven. Lozang Gyaltsan on August 28, 2011, 02:00:23 PM
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]My name is Lozang Gyaltsan. I am a Gelug monk and a devout Shugdenpa. I have the great fortune to have been invited to teach English to young monks at Serpom Monastery, Bylakuppe Tibetan Colony, Mysore District, Karnataka State, South India.
I am finally getting settled in here at Serpom Thoesam Norling Monastery in the Bylakuppe Tibetan Colony, Karnataka State, South India. I arrived here late in the evening on August 10th. In retrospect, it could not have been a more suitable arrival for a monk at a monastery. My luggage was lost and I arrived at the gates of Serpom with little more than the clothes on my back, not even a set of robes to wear. I cannot think of a more salient lesson in attachment, especially for a Buddhist monk. The impact of the lesson was immediate; with a wave of his hand my new friend Sopa said, “not to worry.” I did not and have not since that moment. I arrived safely, under the protection of Dharmapala Dorje Shugden, Protector of the precious and flawless Ganden lineage, the Protector of Serpom Monastery, and my Yidam and Protector for countless lifetimes.
After a surprisingly restful sleep, despite the jet-lag and , often, bone-jarring 5-hour ride from Bangalore to Bylakuppe, I was taken to the nearby town of Kushalnagar and fitted with a new set of monastic robes, the kind gift of the monastery. I was permitted the luxury of sleeping away most of the next two days to adjust to the 11 hour time-shift before being introduced to my three classes.
The administration at Serpom has undertaken to provide room, board, and medical during my stay. But much more than that, they have been kind, generous and helpful in wyas that can scarcely be recounted. They are patient in helping me improve the limited Tibetan I already know and in making sure that my adjustment to life in a monastery, as well as in India, is as easy and peaceful as possible.
This really is the adventure of a lifetime. I spent the first few days getting to know my students [very few of whose names I have committed to memory just yet – more than 60 Tibetan names to remember] teaching them some introductory English phrases from my Tibetan phrasebook and getting to use the Tibetan with which I am familiar. One of the first things I taught my students was the Refuge Prayer, “I take Refuge in the Lama. I take Refuge in the Buddha. I take Refuge in the Dharma. I take Refuge in the Sangha.” I am greeted each morning with a hearty “Good Morning, Sir !” followed closely by Refuge recited in full voice by the 20+ students in each of my classes.
The last few days have been very intense. It is the annual Rigchung Ceremonies. Please visit http://www.serpommonastery.org/spiritualprograms.html for an explanation of this centuries-old tradition that is exclusive to the Sera Monastic Colleges. With the ending of Rigchung Ceremonies, I begin an intensive and detailed introduction to English Grammar which will consume most the time remaining for this trip to Serpom which will end with my departure for home on December 3rd. It is my fervent wish that this will be the first of many stays at Serpom. I hope to serve these young monks well and to help Serpom Monastery establish an on-going program of providing a native English speaker to teach classes along with the monks who already teach here.
I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the kind gift of $800 from the Administrative Staff of dorjeshugden.com to cover expenses while at Serpom and, if all goes well, my return trip here in 2012.
I will be posting here on this wonderful website and on my Facebook page about my experiences At Serpom and in South India. Please feel free to add me as a friend on Facebook and join the Facebook Group: Friends of Venerable Lozang Gyaltsan.
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Dear Lozang Gyaltsan,
Thank you for sharing your experience at Serpom. It's wonderful that the monks at Serpom will get the opportunity to learn English so they can benefit people from many other countries who don't speak or understand Tibetan, like me!
I look forward to your next update!
Wishing you all the best at Serpom... and enjoy your "adventure of a lifetime"!
x
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Re the mosquites from your facebook post:
Dear Ven Lozang,
Please purchase a metal bed with metal frames (seperate cooling cocunut mattress that inserts into the bed perfectly. Mattress around 2 inches to 3 inches thick.) that can be removed during the day and assembled at night easily. Then they have special mosquitoe nets you throw over these metal frames in the nearby town. They are standard. Ready made at times. The bed and nets are standard. We have sponsored many of these for the monks in the past. Very easy to get and not expensive. It will help you sleep at night. Please get a floor fan and keep it on rotating at night which is very important. That will help you also. If you wish you can have mosquito netting put up in your room windows, that would be a very good idea also. It doesn't require much carpentry. Will benefit the next person that uses your room and also you when you return to the room in the future. You will return to teach after December for sure. You wish very much to contribute to the growth of your lama's lineage we are sure. We will sponsor all these necessities. Just use the funds you have now and let us know how much it all cost. Do not worry. Again, we support you for serving the sangha and your lama.
On another note, your video with the young monks at Serpom chanting Gangloma is exceptionally beautiful and inspiring. We will post up please to share with the world the activities of sacred Serpom. It is wonderful to know the activities in Serpom. We hope it is ok with you.
In the future, when you post other videos/information, we will post some of them if you do not mind, and share with the world. More exposure and more awareness created about this great institution is vitally important. Creating awareness with videos, write ups and information is very important for the survival of all these Monastic places of study. We thank you ahead of time.
Admin
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See what the teachers of tomorrow do early in the morning in Serpom:
http://dorjeshugden.com/wp/?p=9008
If many more could have this type of training.
Admin
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What a rejoicing news Ven. Lozang Gyaltsan!
You are doing a great deed teaching English these young monks (future teachers and masters).
Thank you for sharing your experience and definitely looking forward to your updates, pictures and videos while you're in Serpom Monastery.
Through your sharings many more will be inspired...
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Dear Ven Lozang Gyaltsen,
Your sharing of your first arrival in Serpom brought back a a fond memory that I have experienced some 10 years back when I first visited Gaden Monastery in India. The monks are always so helpful, friendly and sincere. The friendliness and sincerity is very different from that I encounter in the world I live in. The monks have very little basically but they are more than willing to share whatever they have with a stranger like me. It was indeed an experience of my life time.
I rejoice in your great works in teaching the young monks English. May they all become great teachers to help spread the buddha dharma far and wide.
Looking forward to your updates on Serpom Monastery.
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Dear Lozang Gyaltsan,
I'm so rejoice for you to be able to teach in Serpom to benefit the young monks.
And I'm also glad that the Administrative Staff of dorjeshugden.com has sponsored you to cover your expenses. What a joyful and meritorious work they have done.
This website administrative not only providing the platform to share and learn but also contribute in such way to benefit more future young grand master to be.
This is so great.
I truly respect what you all have done.
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Tenzin K, I have noticed that during the time i have been browsing this website, the admin of dorjeshugden.com always puts his money where his mouth is and openly supports Shugden practitioners who wish to do Dharma work. This is in addition to their providing all this information on this website for interested Shugden practitioners (or wannabe practitioners!). It's great to see that Lozang Gyaltsen is appreciative of the sponsorship from dorjeshugden.com also for his work at Serpom.
This is really working together to spread Dharma and Dorje Shugden's practice. Wonderful news to rejoice at!
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Fellow Practitioners & followers of this website,
For many years before being offered the opportunity to come here to Serpom Monastery and teach, I was on the receiving end of the great kindness of many great masters of the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. Some I had the great joy of meeting and taking teachings from only once or twice. I was able to spend longer times with others. They all gave endlessly and tirelessly, without hesitation. Their individual and collective generosity and kindness could never be fully repaid. I consider this experience to be an opportunity for me to, in some small way, repay their kindness. But most of all, the kindness of my Root-Lama Chodag Tulku Rinpoche, my Ordination Master Khyabje Dagom Rinpoche, and my kind and precious friend Geshe Thupten Lama of Dagom Choling in Minnesota. Without the constant attention and tireless effort of these three Lamas in particular, I would be adrift in this world and bereft of the peace and contentment that graces each morning I awake. Now, to be blessed with the kindness and generosity of the marvelous monks here at Serpom who treat me wonderfully, seeing to my every need, like my unending fondness for buttered-tea, and my constant requests to find sacred texts and ritual items that are hard-to-find or very expensive in the West. And to be the recipient of the generosity and support of the Admins. of this marvelous website which, in the years following the passing of my Root-Lama and then my Ordination Master, sustained and nourished this isolated Shugdenpa, is nothing less than a validation of what our great Lineage Masters have repeated to us generation after generation. This is the fruit, the result, of dedicated and tireless practice of the precious Buddhadharma that has been so carefully and lovingly passed to us. You should see and understand my great fortune as just one example of the genuine benefit of adhering to this pure and flawless lineage. Keep your faith. Maintain your practice. Embrace your Lama's teaching. Keep your Lamas in your mind constantly. Repay their kindness as freely and tirelessly as they gave it. Think of it as the ultimate form of "paying it forward" because that is exactly what is.
Your humble servant,
Lozang Gyaltsan.
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Dear Ven. Losang Gyeltsen
Your postings have so much for us to rejoice in. Thank you for your updates and giving us a glimpse into your life. The sponsors of your trip there are fortunate indeed to be able to sponsor such meritorious and wonderful work. Thank you for what you are doing for the monks of Serpom and helping the lineage of your exalted teachers such as Dagom Rinpoche to grow evermore.
It is inspiring for us to see what can be accomplished if we commit and dedicate ourselves to Dharma practice and work as you have. I love your story about losing your luggage. How many of us - in fact, probably the whole world - fears what will happen if they lose everything. But there is nothing to really lose, as you have shown us. We will still be okay, even if we have nothing in the world. In fact, it is a chance to grow more. I am happy for you being there with all the monks, teaching as well as learning. I'm sure your Tibetan will be great after this time in the monastery!
Please do keep us updated with what is happening there. We are like flies on a wall, waiting to hear more news from you - they are much appreciated.
PS: Perhaps your young students would also like to do some reading practice via the many articles this website!
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Dear Ven. Lozang Gyaltsan,
Thank you for sharing your inspiring teaching experience in Serpom Monastery. I rejoice in your devotion and dedication to Dharma.
Your effort in teaching the young monks English will make a huge difference in spreading the teachings of the Ganden Lineage and especially Dorje Shugden far and wide to benefit the whole world. When these young monks graduate with the knowledge of English, they will be able to transmit Dharma to the English-speaking World who knows little of Tibetan Language. This effort is very meritorious and highly commendable!
I totally agree with your sharing on the benefit of following this pure lineage of Tsongkhapa and the kindness of your lamas and all the people who has helped you along the spiritual path. There is no other better way of repaying their kindnesses than to serve the Dharma and the Sangha like what you are doing now!
Please continue to share with us your spiritual experience at Serpom Monastery. I look forward to hear from you again.
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Dear Venerable Lozang,
Thank you for taking the time to share what you are doing at Serpom monastery and connecting us to this illustrious monastery. Have you met Kyabjye Yongyal Rinpoche, there is so little information about him on the net would be great if you could share more about this great lama and other great masters coming from Serpom.
I think the world do need to who are the great lamas who is taking the Gelug tradition into the 21st century.
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Dear Ven. Lozang Gyaltsan
I rejoice very much to read about your spiritual journey, your devotion to your lama, yidam and protector and your first experience of arriving and settling into the monastery :) I hope you have settled in well and have the bedding, netting and any other necessities put in place.
Looking forward to your sharing of the work and life in serpom.
wishing you well always
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Gen-la, you write beautifully and with such love for your path and Protector... please continue!
And administrators, thanks once again for more concrete results in spreading the Protectors practice... I posted in another thread that what Gen-la is doing is helping the next generation of teachers bring the Dharma even further. You lot put your money where your mouth is!
PS: Perhaps your young students would also like to do some reading practice via the many articles this website!
Or perhaps Gen-la will be able to post teachings and comments from the lamas and monks themselves! ;) thatd be fantastic, Im sure the monks there have a lot of knowledge to share.
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Ven Lozang Gyaltsen,
It is with much interest that I have been reading your posts on this forum, and occasionally on Facebook. I am touched and humbled by your writings, and your intense desire to help the young monks at Serpom. I have never been there, only to Shar Gaden, but I believe it is much the same. The most inspiring thing about these two monasteries, is that they will be preserving the lineage for future generations. And I have much respect for the sangha who choose to be in these monasteries, enduring the disdain and dislike from the Tibetan community at large, remaining true to their Gurus.
Ven Lozang, may I request that you continue to update this thread on the forum with much more news, pictures, videos etc of your stay in Serpom. It will inspire many. You are not the first to teach English at Serpom and Shar Gaden but you are ONE OF THE FIRST. I hope, through this, many others on this forum will also gather their courage to serve the Sangha as you have.
I look forward to reading more beautiful writings from you.
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I saw the video of the young monks chanting. It's refreshing to see videos like this. So glad you are internet savvy to post up videos and photos which we don't usually see daily. How rare ... so thank you.
In your previous life, you must have made an aspiration to bring dharma to others and English is your tool to do so. The time has come where Tibetan Buddhism will spread far and wide throughout the world. It would be much easier with english-speaking teachers as english is after the international language. Buddhism is going international.
I am so happy to come across this website/forum and find such news as this. People behind this website who sponsored you are extremely generous and kind.
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The past 2 weeks here at Serpom have been quite busy. From 31 Aug. until 4 Sept. the Mid-Term Oral Exams were administered. At the beginning of each school year, the monks are assigned texts to be memorized. The elementary-age boys to whom I teach English are given shorter texts to memorize than the older students and get a one-day respite from the regular schedule to take their exams. Each one lasts about 30-60 minutes. The older monks are given much longer texts for memorization, usually 200-300 pages. The exams are, quite naturally, much longer lasting from 2-6 hours and taking a total of4 -5 days to complete. As the exams begin every morning and afternoon, each monk sits patiently waiting his turn. After prostrating to the master, he sits and must begin reciting the text assigned. I was very fortunate to witness this event. It has given me a much deeper insight into the rigorous nature of the monastic curriculum of Serpom Monastic College. The annual Rig-Chung Exams just recently completed are the culmination of three years of concentrated study for the monks who are nearing the end of 20 years of monastic training and are required of those who wish to take the Geshe Exams. These Mid-Term Orals occur annually and are required of every student.
The curriculum of the monastic schools of Tibetan Buddhism is rigorous and demanding. By their standards, the curriculum of most other schools systems, certainly those in the U.S. where I taught, fall seriously short. Students in the U.S. attend a school-day lasting about 6 hours of which, perhaps, they might receive 4 hours of actual instruction time, if they are lucky. Then it’s off to home to plant themselves in front of one media device or another, “diverting” themselves with some mindless video game, equally mindless social network, or spending hours with a cellphone or ipod glued to their ears. And then will spend more time complaining and whining about the dismally small amount of homework they have been assigned, usually encouraged by the commiserate whining of their parents about the unreasonable expectations that teachers have of their offspring. Many of those who do manage to graduate from high school are, perhaps, qualified to push burgers and fries through a tiny drive-through window or wield a rag at the local car wash. Only those who really excelled and constantly pushed themselves to succeed in a particular field of study have any chance of gaining entrance to college or pursuing a meaningful career.
Meanwhile, the students at Serpom Monastic School, who have been in classes since 9 AM [with a 2 hour break for lunch] are only beginning their day when the 3 o’clock dismissal bell rings. They have a two-hour break until dinner time in which to work on assignments for the next round of daytime classes or to find time for some physical activity. After dinner, there are classes from approximately 6-8 PM and then 9-11 PM. Only then are they done with their school-day and return to their quarters to complete any unfinished assignments and retire for the night. They will then rise at 5:45 AM when the gong sounds calling them to morning puja at 6 AM. This is the schedule these monks faced each day as they prepared for the Mid-Terms Orals just completed.
The photos are from the Mid-Term Oral Exams which the administrator kindly allowed me to take and post.
As Always,
The devout Shugdenpa Lozang Gyaltsan
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Dear Ven.Lozang Gyaltsan:
What a wonderful post!
Thankyou for letting me into your world. It is nice to see how is life in monastery and how are the future young dharma teachers doing. With your effort, it will make a huge difference! So many will be able to converse and teach in English. Dharma will spread wide and far with your action. I totally rejoice!
To see your posting and updates on this forum bring us hope and please continue to do so.
Thankyou very much for your wonderful post and updates.
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@ven lozang thank you for sharing news with us on this forum good to know the Gelug lineage is being preserved by hard working monks.
I was having a thought that some of the young monks especially the tulkus, they have to do so much even when they are so young. Seems almost brutal to subject them to so much rigorous training. But then you think about how samsara is even more brutal it is relentless and no escape form it if we go deeper into it. At least if the younger monks train initially or during their younger days, it gives them hope not to be sucked into samsara. And some of the young monks because they went through proper training they benefit many people tremendously.
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@venLozang... good analogy, I agree with the view of western education in todays time. Very funny, study for 4hrs if that then, go home to glue yourself to the media of your choice.
Question:
How do the instructors(esp.) get to test soo many monks in such a short time? Especially since it is an oral examination.
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When the more rigorous tests are being given, regular classes are canceled. I got a look at the written exams for the primary school this year and they are demanding. They are in five subject areas, one of them English { focusing largely on sentence structure and syntax. They are no cake-walk. The exams last two hours each and are much harder than the ones I give. I'm concentrating exclusively on an in-depth Parts of Speech regimen. Tomorrow, they have their final exam of the semester in my classes. It's an "Identify all the different kinds of nouns and pronouns" matching-columns test. I am not the only English teacher here, though the only native English speaker. The school administration here at Serpom wants them exposed to native speakers as much as possible. While the curriculum is demanding and the school year longer, it is that to which they are accustomed. For them it is just regular school.The monastic education, at least in Tibetan monasteries is thorough and well-designed. We are not just trying to get them through primary and secondary school curriculi. The intent is for them to continue until they are prepared to take the Geshe Exams sometime in their late twenties or early thirties. The debate classes for the younger monks requires them to explain, debate, and develop on-the-spot defenses of topics like "why is the color white "white" and the color black "black". These young monks will the Geshes and Rinpoches who continue the unbroken, profound lineage of the Buddha and the comprehensive education that has long been the hallmark of Tibetan Buddhism.
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Dear Gen-la, thank you for the insight into the monastic system. It sounds far more disciplined than anything a Western education system could deliver. Its no wonder when Tibetan monks go on tour and the like, they never lose themselves and their traditions. And no wonder then that with so much discipline and training from young, they remain sharp as a tack even when their older. Fantastic to see Lama Tsongkapas lineage is being preserved so well.
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When the more rigorous tests are being given, regular classes are canceled. I got a look at the written exams for the primary school this year and they are demanding. They are in five subject areas, one of them English { focusing largely on sentence structure and syntax. They are no cake-walk. The exams last two hours each and are much harder than the ones I give. I'm concentrating exclusively on an in-depth Parts of Speech regimen. Tomorrow, they have their final exam of the semester in my classes. It's an "Identify all the different kinds of nouns and pronouns" matching-columns test. I am not the only English teacher here, though the only native English speaker. The school administration here at Serpom wants them exposed to native speakers as much as possible. While the curriculum is demanding and the school year longer, it is that to which they are accustomed. For them it is just regular school.The monastic education, at least in Tibetan monasteries is thorough and well-designed. We are not just trying to get them through primary and secondary school curriculi. The intent is for them to continue until they are prepared to take the Geshe Exams sometime in their late twenties or early thirties. The debate classes for the younger monks requires them to explain, debate, and develop on-the-spot defenses of topics like "why is the color white "white" and the color black "black". These young monks will the Geshes and Rinpoches who continue the unbroken, profound lineage of the Buddha and the comprehensive education that has long been the hallmark of Tibetan Buddhism.
Wow! Thank you Ven Lozang Gyaltsan for that wonderful insight into monastic way of life. Some people think monastic life is a great escape. It is not an escape but a liberating way of life. I can't imagine immersing my whole life towards studying Buddha's teachings and applying it directly. How wonderful and fortunate! It is just so hard to find time to read a few Dharma books already. A lay life is filled with innumerable distractions that never ends.
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Dear Lozang Gyalsen
I appreciate your sharing very much. It sure does give us, the westerners an insight into what Tibetan Buddhism is all about, especially the discipline that is required.
I may be generalizing it but, we are brought up to "think" and make life to be what we could "think up". It is great but can be a disadvantage as well.
Buddhism encourages us to think and ask questions but students are actually taught how to even question and debate out the teachings which are being presented. it is said that it's harder to debate with non-believers.
much appreciation
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My time teaching English at Serpom Monastery is drawing to a close. I have only a few days left. My time here has been far too short and has passed much too quickly. I have only been able to complete the English Grammar syllabus I designed through the sections on Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, and Adjectives, leaving Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions and Interjections for the teacher who follows me here. This has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It was my first trip to India and, health permitting; it will not be my last. I have learned a great deal about the daily life of a monk that I did not know and even more about the inner workings of a Tibetan monastery.
The monastic education program at Serpom Monastery is thorough and rigorous. It covers a broad subject area. You can get an overview of the program on the website www.serpommnastery.org (http://www.serpommnastery.org) . This monastery operates under pressures that most others do not. There are still attempts to disrupt the activities here and to create hindrances from the neighboring monasteries because Serpom refuses to disavow Dorje Shugden practice. The other two Sera monasteries and local supporters of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama here in Bylakuppe are not happy that the Indian government would not let them also drive the monks expelled from Sera Mey out of the Tibetan Colony of Bylakuppe completely. To the contrary, Pomra House, by far the largest of the Sera Mey Khangtsen, retained the ownership of all its property and the Indian government provided them with even more adjacent property on which to build the new prayer hall of Serpom. This wonderful place deserves your support both spiritual and financial. I strongly encourage you to help them. They continue to provide a free monastic education to all who come here. You may contact them through their website. I would like to once again express my deep gratitude to the kind administrators of www.dorjeshugden.com (http://www.dorjeshugden.com) for their generous and kind contribution to finance my stay here, as well as the admins. and members of Dharma Bridge Foundation http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2659025833933&id=1204502491# (http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2659025833933&id=1204502491#)!/groups/dharmabridge/ {please support their projects} and the members of Friends of Venerable Lozang Gyaltsan http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2659025833933&id=1204502491# (http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2659025833933&id=1204502491#)!/groups/Lozang.Gyaltsan/ for their contributions as well. This group will begin soliciting funds to support my next trip to India in the near future. I will continue to post to this website in postings called Personal Observations of An American Shugdenpa. Thank you all, Ven. Lozang Gyaltsan
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There is a typo... the website for Serpom is www.serpommonastery.org (http://www.serpommonastery.org)
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The Dharma Bridge will be sponsoring an English teacher to travel to Serpom in January in order to teach English. Two other friends have expressed interest in teaching there as well.
:)
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Thank you Ven Lozang Gyaltsan for your insight into life at Serpom Monastery and all the words and actions that come with it.
So Serpom Monastery pushes themselves to excel this is the reason I could come up for them to apply so much pressure on themselves.
Just a thought Losang Tenpa given that China's ascendancy is ever present and many top professional Westerners have been going into China in droves and they take local packages too, this then is the indication of China being the next superpower that will be maturing soon. So won't studying Chinese be a step in the right direction as well given the influence China will wield in the coming years. Just a thought.
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Studying Chinese is ot a bad idea. I have heard that Gaden Shartse offers classes in Chinese.
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Studying Chinese is not a bad idea. I have heard that Gaden Shartse offers classes in Chinese.
Studying Chinese is not a bad idea. I have heard that Gaden Shartse offers classes in Chinese.
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Chinese is indeed rapidly becoming a vitally important language for international discourse and this makes it an important one for monastic institutions as well. My granddaughter {now 8 years old} has long been attending a Spanish Language Magnet School in California where instruction is almost exclusively in Spanish. Two years ago, she came home and said she'd learned that Chinese was an important language to learn and asked to be allowed to attend a local Chinese school on Saturday to learn Mandarin. She is now in her third year of studying Chinese. Many of the students here are from Nepal and Sikkim. Upon arrival, they must immediately begin learning Tibetan, as it is the basic language of life, as well as instruction. English class is also begun right away. Even the youngest receive constant lessons in basic English vocabulary long before instruction in formal English grammar is begun. Additionally, they begin to learn and use the local language of Karnataka which they must also know to communicate with locals who do business here in the colony and in the nearby towns. Monks today are and must be multi-lingual. Marshall McLuhan was correct when years ago he wrote that the world is becoming a Global Village.
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Yes, studying the Chinese language will be very good to reach the multitudes in China.
Mainland China should be quite ready to adopt DS practice now as the practice will help bestow the condition for them to have the material benefits ( which the people pursue fervently) in order to walk the spiritual path.
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Yes, I believe that the government there will find many unintended consequences of their having been so generously accepting of the practice of Dorje Shugden in an effort to further drive a wedge between the people of Tibet and HHDL.
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Ven Lozang Gyaltsan, you are right being multi-lingual means the dharma can spread everywhere and much easier and reach out many people who thirst for the dharma. Well I suppose the Chinese do adopt the stance of the enemy of my enemy is my friend :) . Chinese emperors were practitioners of Lama Tsongkhapa's tradition for hundreds of years especially during the time of the Manchus. Though I think it was reserved for the elite as the practises were so effective they probably did not want the masses to have it as well.
Lama Tsongkhapa is no stranger to them, Dorje Shugden will once again introduce Lama Tsongkhapa to the Middle kingdom!
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Dear Ven Lozang Gyaltsan is such an inspirant for future English-native-speaking Sugdenpa to teach in Serpom and Shar Garden. Thank you for your detail updates.
I surely think that Chinese language will be a world important language both for commercial and spiritual reasons. When I was in Beijing recently, I observed many mainland Chinese have mala prayer beads worn around either their necks or hands as if a fashion. On enquiring further, they do mantra recitations. Many have Tibetan gurus. One traditional courtyard hotel where I was staying has photo of their Lama on the wall. The owner and his staff always wear mala beads and do mantra recitations. Apparently their guru comes from Qinqhai and visits them frequently. This is a case in hand but there could be more.
My point is Dorje Shugden will hit the Chinese market like wild fire. Anything materialistic sells well in this emerging market with huge population. They are becoming more affluent in the cities and they will hunger for more materialistic spirituality. I would to like to see and experience when this happens.
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I have been reading some old posts, and I am to find this post!!
Venerable Lozang Gyaltsan, I rejoice for everything I read in all the posts here. I pray I have a chance to serve the monastery one day, and until the day I die...
Your posts are about 1 year ago. Do you have any updates lately? What have you been doing, and have you been coming back to the monastery? I would really like to hear more from you, either in monastery or wherever you are now.
Keep up the good work and come back here to write more :)
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China now has a huge market for Buddhism. Many of the Tibetan monks in Tibet have penetrated the Chinese market, literally and more and more Tibetan monks are actually reaching in China and learning Chinese alongside with english and their native language. Although, at the moments, learning Chinese may have implications in confirming the rumors and lies about Dorje Shugden practitioners being spies of China. But having said that, it would have benefitted even more people who are currently residing in China and bring them to the authentic tradition of the Ganden Lineage. Then, there are also other Chinese residing in other places around the world that could benefit greatly from Chinese speaking monks such as Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong to name a few. So having Chinese as one of the subjects is actually quite important but due to the current political situation, it could be counterproductive.
That aside, I am actually very touched to see someone in the western world coming all the way to Ganden with the motivation of wanting to benefit the monastery as opposed to taking from them. how many people are willing to give up everything just to teach the monks there on how to speak english so that they can out reach to many more people? This is a very interesting development for Shar Ganden, so to speak, and would even be the beginning of the dawn of a new education system that encompasses all subjects, globally.