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 9th 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.
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 4th - 10th August, look out for news here www.bodhicharya.portugal
Our 9 day retreat with Donal will run from !5th - 24th 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)
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