The Tibetan Year of the Female Wood Snake 2025

The Tibetan New Year, which this year is characterised by the Female Wood Snake,  began on the 28th February. You will find a video of the full message from Rinpoche on Bodhicharya.org 

The lightly edited transcript of Rinpoche's talk is below,  published in the newsletter of Maitreya Institute, Austria.  You can register for their updates with English translation here MAITREYA INSTITUT GUTENSTEIN  

The original message  from Rinpoche was transcribed by Sylvester and 

Li Lohninger of the Maitreya Institute with thanks.

‘I would like to wish Tashi Delek - and my best wishes especially to some of the centres that have asked me to send a message and to all my friends and people who have connection with me.

The Tibetan New Year is coming the 28th of February this year 2025

Generally the Tibetans are not celebrating this year’s Losar or New Year in an elaborate way, because in January there was this terrible earth quake in Tibet and lots of people died and lots of people suffered. However as it is a New Year, we will use this occasion to remind ourselves of the impermanence and also to try to look forward to the future in a more optimistic way.

The last year a lot of good things happened, and lots of bad things happened also.

And this New Year is the year of the  Wood Snake - I am sure lots of things will happen, lots of changes will happen, maybe there will be lots of challenges also - so we need to be prepared for any kind of challenges and take whatever comes as a challenge, as a practice, as a way to progress and transform ourselves.

From Buddhist point of view, sometimes even when difficult things are happening,

if we take it as a training, as a teaching, as a practice to work on ourselves and a way to react in a positive way instead of a negative way, then it makes us stronger, it makes us more acute in facing of whatever comes.

So therefore it can become a positive thing also.

Anyway, I would like to pray for everybody, for the world peace, for wellbeing and happiness of everybody, and maybe all good things happening, and all the negative things, problems and difficulties wars and diseases will not happen in this next year or in the future.

And so I wish a very happy, very joyful, very meaningful and very beneficial year for all of you!

Thank you so much, TASHI DELEK!“