New Year News 2025

A  message from Ringu Tulku Rinpoche to his students and friends:       On the occasion of New Year 2025 I am praying and wishing you a happy, healthy, harmonious and a most wonderful year ahead. May great beings live long and may there be wisdom and compassion in the mind and heart of every individual. May all wars, diseases, hunger and all causes of sufferings come to end.

Happy New Year 2025
Ringu Tulku

སྤྱི་ལོ་༢༠༢༥ གནམ་ལོ་གསར་དུ་བཞད་པ་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ་བ་དང་། ལྷག་པར་དུ་སྐུ་ལ་ཉེར་འཚེ་མེད་ཅིང་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་བཞེད་དོན་ལྷུན་གྱིས་འགྲུབ་པ་དང་། ཐུགས་དམ་གོང་དུ་འཕེལ་ཞིང་གཞན་དོན་རླབས་པོ་ཆེ་འབྱུང་བ་། ཡངས་པའི་རྒྱལ་ཁམས་ཀུན་ཏུ་ནད་མུག་འཁྲུག་རྩོད་སོགས་རྒུད་པ་མཐའ་དག་ཡོངས་སུ་ཞི་ནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཀུན་ཏུ་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་ཡོང་བའི་སྨོན་འདུན་དྲག་པོ་དང་བཅས་རི་མགུལ་སྤྲུལ་མིང་པས་གུས་ཕུལ།།

As we venture into the start of 2025, Ringu Tulku will be beginning his one month long visit to Australia and New Zealand, we wish him safe travels and good health.

 2024 has shown us how deeply flawed our ways of maintaining rights and justice in the public sphere have become, during a time when even more terrible wars are incubating, when man-made famine and climate catastrophe is denied: all are inflicted by one upon another on a scale not seen before in the lives of most of us living today. Rinpoche has often spoken of the tendency we humans have to dehumanise or ‘other’ those we don't understand, who don't share our views, or who are culturally different, by calling our fellow human beings locusts or cockroaches. We give ourselves permission in this ‘othering’ to deny and even purge their existence. Rinpoche’s message reminds us of the tremendous need for all of humanity to recognise that this fear and prejudice we wear as a protective shield either blinds us to injustice or renders feelings of helplessness, which reminds us of the great urgency to work on ourselves and our minds – to surrender into our innate wisdom.  As he has often said, we must discard the blessing-proof vest and be open to receive what is great and good. In taking refuge, we each have taken the responsibility to practise training our minds, locate our inner wisdom; and to have the courage to be endlessly kind.   

Looking back over the Bodhicharya activities of the last year here in Ireland: 

In 2023 we celebrated the culmination of many months of dedicated work by a number of the Irish Sangha, most notably Karma Trinley Paldron who burnt much midnight oil working with Rinpoche, selecting, collating and getting permissions to publish his chosen translations of prayers for inclusion in the official Bodhicharya Prayer Book, designed by Paul O’Connor so beautifully for our ease of use. This pecha style publication is  available to order directly from the Bodhicharya website.                

Rinpoche visited Ireland in July, and this year  he was invited to give  the first teachings in the Newly Built Temple at Dzogchen Beara, where he also placed fourteen offering vases from a boat into the Atlantic Ocean in view of the temple, the intention being to request the Nagas help restore peace and harmony where it is lacking in the world.

Hugh's niece Jenny Richardson is a Beara artist 

During his visit Ringu Tulku also met a niece of Sir Hugh Richardson who lives on Beara. Sir Hugh was the British envoy to Tibet, based in Lhasa between 1936 -1950. While there, Sir Hugh’s interest in photography led him to document the Buddhist ritual year day by day, in hundreds of black and white photographs which are now one of the most important records of life in Tibet before it was destroyed in 1949 and afterwards. Sir Hugh was a renowned Tibetologist and spent some time researching at the Institute of Tibetology in Sikkim, where Ringu Tulku met him. Sir Hugh Richardson’s many books are highly valued among Tibetans. (see links below).  

In August Bodhicharya Ireland held it’s annual 9 day retreat with Donal Creedon, at Teach Bhrid, Tullow, Co Carlow. Guests attended this very special week from all over Ireland, the UK and Europe. Keep the date for this year in your diary, August 15th-22nd, details will be released shortly. 

 In November Lama Tsering Paldron from Portugal led a weekend at the Sanctuary Retreat Centre in Glendalough, Co Wicklow which Bodhicharya member Susanna Bach co-manages with Paschal Gannon. The retreat was organised jointly between the venue and Bodhicharya Ireland. Tsering taught from her recently published book, Grow Your Own Happiness. The Sanctuary is set a short distance from the famous Glendalough lakes and Tsering managed to slip away for a quick tour of St Kevin’s monastic settlement.

Study and Practice.    We have had an ongoing Bodhicharyavatara study group* led by Ani Paldron, who also leads the weekly online White Tara sessions every Sunday lunchtime. Contact Ani Paldron via her email address if you would like to join the White Tara practice.   paldron@bodhicharya.org 

In November John and Isobel Keeling invited Ani Paldron to lead weekly meditation evenings at MYND, 5 Albert Walk, in Bray, Co Wicklow. This is open to all and they hope that this will develop into a regular event every Thursday at 7.30 pm. Everyone is welcome.  Ph. 0862623637

Throughout the year our Bodhicharya IT expert Andy Firman has continued to work quietly behind the scenes with Bodhicharya webmaster Paul O’Connor, Bob Whiteside in Dzogchen Beara, and Minna Stenroos in Finland to ensure that Rinpoche’s online talks take place without a hitch, while also generously facilitating the interactive Q&A sessions that make it possible for Bodhicharya sangha members from all over the globe to speak directly to Rinpoche online. Please see Bodhicharya.org for updates of  on-line teachings.

Sad news to end the year was that of the death of our treasured dharma friend, Dorothee Snoek, on the 9^th December 2024 at the age of 83. Dorothee was a founding member of Bodhicharya Ireland in 2007. She and her husband Michael moved from Hamburg to Italy in 1984 and then to Ireland in 1989 to set up permanent home. Their son Conor was born 1978 in Canada. Dorothee was a teacher of primary and secondary children in Germany, Togo and Ireland with a strong interest in linguistics, her mother tongue was German although she was  fluent in English, Italian, and French when she arrived here. 

Dorothee's interest in Buddhism had often taken her to India where she spent time studying with both His Holiness Dalai Lama and Khen Rinpoche, from whom she  received lessons in Tibetan and Sanskrit. It was her later work as a translator at the Chester Beatty library in Dublin that brought her into contact with Ringu Tulku, whose teachings she helped to transcribe and edit. She spent five weeks in retreat at Rumtek, Sikkim during ceremonies organised by Ringu Tulku for the young HHK17 Orgyen Trinley Dorje in the winter of 1999-2000. Dorothee later went on pilgrimage with Ringu Tulku and his students in India in 2007, where she met His Holiness Karmapa and took refuge at the sacred Dhamek stupa in Sarnath where the Buddha gave his first teachings.

 Her given dharma name was Saraswati; goddess of learning, creativity, arts and music, most fitting for someone who spoke 4 languages well and cultivated a very beautiful rose garden. Back in Dublin she gave lessons in Tibetan at Kagyu Samye Dzong. 

Dorothee made a habit of forming meditation practice groups wherever she was living or had connections, including at a health food shop in Enniscorthy and later in the beautiful home she and Michael built themselves on the south coast of Wexford overlooking the Irish sea to Keeragh and the Saltee Islands. It was here she made connections with Sister Gina and the Plum Village Irish sangha, many of whom saw her as their guide and mentor. During this time she became unwell, and Parkinsons disease was diagnosed. Even so her spirit remained indomitable – she later accompanied a friend to Bali (where she and Michael had twice spent some time) for a holiday, and she continued to attend teachings here in Ireland whenever possible.

At the request of her family a Buddhist ceremony was held in her home led by Ani Chodron of Palpung Buddhist Centre, attended by her family and a small group of friends, before her ashes were scattered into the ocean. 

Her mischievous smile, laughing eyes and razor sharp mind will be missed. Please remember Dorothee in your prayers.

2025 will bring about some new changes in our Irish sangha activities.  Ani Paldron will be leaving Dublin in the new year for Lismore in Co. Waterford where we hope over time she will create a small base for Bodhicharya Ireland and we offer her much encouragement and support for this very big move. In a set of  initiatives broadening the reach of Bodhicharya in the spirit of Rime, Paldron was again invited by Palpung Ireland to help to lead the annual New Year retreat at the Palpung Centre in Banteer. In January and February she will also be leading meditation sessions at Kagyu Samye Dzong, Dublin while Ani Yonten, the resident teacher at KSD is in retreat in Nepal, and she will share her knowledge of film by leading Friday film nights at KSD, giving us an opportunity to watch and discuss movies with a Dharma content.    Also at Kagyu Samye Dzong, Donal Creedon will lead dialogue sessions on Saturday mornings as well as some evening meditation sessions, in Ani Yonten's absence.  Please see the KSD website for details. 

Paldron will continue to lead the meditation evenings on Thursdays at MYND, 5 Albert Road, Bray, as scheduled (see above).

*The Bodhicharyavatara study group is now closed.

We don't yet have this year’s travel calendar for Ringu Tulku, you can subscribe to bodhicharya.org for updates on Rinpoche’s teaching schedule.

Bodhicharya Summercamp in Portugal will run 4^th - 10^th August, look out for news here www.bodhicharya.portugal

Our 9 day retreat with Donal will run from !5^th - 24^th August, at Tullow, Co Carlow. (Details here later.)

May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the causes of happiness!

May they be free from suffering and the causes of suffering!

May they never be separated from the sacred happiness devoid of suffering!

May they all remain in boundless equanimity that is free from attachment and aversion!

Wishing everyone a renewed dedication to practise and the best possible  New Year, 

from us all at Bodhicharya Ireland

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/1358267.Hugh_E_Richardson

Ceremonies of the Lhasa Year by Hugh E. Richardson

Chasing the Light  (a film to watch on the history of Dzogchen Beara, on general release, it is on RTE player for those living in Ireland)

WEEKEND RETREAT WITH LAMA TSERING PALDRON Glendalough Sanctuary, Co Wicklow, Ireland

NOVEMBER 15th - 17th 2024

Bodhicharya Ireland is delighted to announce a weekend retreat with Lama Tsering Paldron. at Glendalough Sanctuary, Brockagh, County Wicklow. 

The retreat will begin at 7.30pm on Friday, November 15^th and will end at 1pm on Sunday the 17^th. 

Lama Tsering Paldron was born in Lisbon, Portugal.  During the 1980s, she completed a traditional Tibetan Buddhist three year retreat at the Centre d'Etudes de Chanteloube, under the guidance of two great Masters, Dudjom Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. She continues to receive teachings from many lamas, including Ringu Tulku Rinpoche.

Many of you know Tsering from her previous visit to Dublin and from the Bodhicharya Summer School, which she has run for the past thirteen years. A popular and experienced teacher,  Tsering has travelled around the world for the past twenty-five years, giving regular courses, talks and meditation retreats. Her latest book, “Grow Your Own Happiness” will be the subject of our retreat.  Whether you are new to Buddhism or you are an experienced practitioner, this weekend will offer everyone practical steps towards cultivating a life of peace, contentment and authentic joy. Drawing on ancient teachings and contemporary practices, Tsering will teach us how to nurture gratitude, mindfulness and compassion while dealing with the overwhelming distractions and suffering of everyday life.

For more information about Tsering, see: https://tseringpaldron.com/eng/

Retreat costs: €120 per person

Retreat times: Friday, November 15^th  7.30pm-9pm

  Saturday, November16^th   9.30am-9pm 

  Sunday, November 17^th  9.30am-1pm

Venue:  Glendalough Sanctuary, Brockagh. County Wicklow.  A98 VK68

Accommodation at the Sanctuary is not included in the cost of retreat.

Reserving a place: Everyone is  welcome, but  places are limited. If you would like to join the retreat please reserve as soon as you can. (Email Ani Paldron at paldron@bodhicharya.org)

Accommodation: Glendalough Sanctuary can accommodate 12 people in single or shared ensuite rooms.  Bookings can be made through their website:  https://www.glendaloughsanctuary.ie/  (T.+353 (0)85 2501706 

E. info@glendaloughsanctuary.ie)  There are also a number of B&Bs in the Glendalough and Laragh area.

Food:  Breakfasts at Glenalough Sanctuary are self-catering.

    Lunch and supper will be provided on Saturday, November 16^th   

Rinpoche gives the first teachings in the new Dzogchen Beara temple, Ireland

 

Samsara, Bodhicitta, Buddha Nature.

Ringu Tulku Rinpoche has taught at Dzogchen Beara every year since 1990, so it was fitting that he was invited to present the inaugural teachings on the 12-14th July 2024, launching the Temple into its new role as the first purpose-built Tibetan Temple in Ireland.

With 280 people in attendance, many of whom had travelled from the US and different parts of Europe, Rinpoche began by teaching on The Four Noble Truths. Then over the following days, he taught on the foundation and meaning of Buddhist practice based on three words  Samsara, Bodhicitta and Buddha Nature, one theme building upon the next at each session across the weekend.* 

The Naga Vases

In the Tibetan tradition, Nagas are protective spirits who can manifest in serpent form and live under water; the Vases contain medicinal herbs and other precious substances beneficial to the Nagas, who can be disturbed and ill as a result of pollution and other negative human activities. The Vases are offered to the Nagas with a request that they bring peace and harmony to the earth.

Karma Baoguan, a young Chinese woman now resident in Dublin was instrumental in bringing two sets of the Vases to Ireland; one was intended for the River Liffey, and the other for West Cork. She explained that a descendent of the King of Derge made a commitment to sponsor the cost of making 108 sets of seven vases which are being placed in seas and rivers around the world. Rinpoche had already placed some in the Spree River, Berlin in 2023, and as he was unable to come to Dublin this year, it was decided he would place both sets in the Atlantic Ocean in view of Dzogchen Beara.

Ringu Tulku recited the Naga Sutras early on the morning of July 14th, and Bob Whiteside organised two small boats to carry Rinpoche and the Naga Vases, setting out with a small group that afternoon from Cahermore Harbour. As the boats came into view around the headland, mantras were chanted outside the new temple while Rinpoche placed the fourteen vases into the ocean.

The New Temple at Dzogchen Beara

The completion of the new Temple at Dzogchen Beara fulfils the extraordinary vision of Peter and Harriet Cornish and marks the beginning of a new era at Dzogchen Beara.

In 1973, Peter and Harriet bought one hundred and fifty acres of rocky land high above the sea on the Beara Peninsula with the aim of setting up a retreat centre. The holiday cottages they built and rented on the site helped raise funds to build a meditation hall, and soon people came from all over the world to learn to meditate.

In 1992, the land and buildings were offered to a charitable trust under the guidance of Sogyal Rinpoche, who was the founder of Rigpa and the author of 'The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.'

Designed according to the Tibetan science of geomancy, the placement and orientation is intended to have a positive influence on its surroundings, as well as being a source of healing and harmony for the people who visit it.

There is a meditation room above the main shrine room, along with facilities for torma making and tsok preparation. The temple faces directly out to sea, protected to the north by a vertical wall of granite; the area round about has been beautifully landscaped with plants and a waterfall. Nearby, a cut stone incense burner for Riwö Sangchö practice echoes the structure of the retreat huts on Skellig Michael.

Unusually for a traditional temple, the walls of the main shrine room are made of glass allowing a view of the ocean, which gives a sense it has magically materialised from some realm of air and light. Yet, rounding the headland by boat, the temple appears settled into the cliff as if it was always there, standing high above the Atlantic, its copper roofs reflecting sunlight to passing sailors, dolphins and whales.

Throughout the eight years that it took to build, Leon Rossiter and his team of craftsmen used local labour and materials, and oversaw every last detail of the construction. As a result, there is a real sense of local pride and investment in what is truly an amazing achievement.

Peter Cornish spent his last years in private retreat at Dzogchen Beara, passing away only a few months before the temple was finished. His last rites were observed in the shrine room, where his body, in a sky blue coffin, was placed in front of the statues of Buddha, Green Tara,  and Guru Rinpoche. He died knowing that his and Harriet's vision of bringing great benefit to the world was finally realised.

To read more about the temple, visit www.dzogchenbeara.org

*The talks are all available to Archive members to watch in the Bodhicharya Archive.

Thanks to the Dzogchen Beara trustees, Malcom McClancy, Katherine O’Flaherty, Anne Sheehan, and Leon Rossiter; attendant Bob Whiteside, and all staff and volunteers for organising and hosting Rinpoche at such an auspicious moment in time. May all beings, across time and space, benefit from this significant project. 

-- 

A New Year aspiration

May the year 2024 start with auspiciousness.

May it be auspicious in the beginning, middle and end.  May it start auspiciously with the motivation of kindness, love and equality in every heart.  May there be auspiciousness of friendship, respect and wisdom in the mind of all the beings.  May there be auspiciousness of peace, prosperity and genuine happiness in the life of each and every individual in the universe as the result.

Ringu Tulku 01.01.2024 Rinpoche is currently in Bodhgaya attending the Kagyu Monlam presided over this year by HE Tai Situ Rinpoche.  The Dalai Lama is also in Bodhgaya and Ringu Tulku expressed his delight at receiving a  precious blessing from His Holiness this week. He says:  'Today I had an audience with HH the Dalai Lama. He was so very kind to me. He took my head and touched his heart. Ringu Tulku, Bodhgaya, 15.01.2024'