Today we join Ringu Tulku in sending birthday wishes to Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa. May you be well and your retreat be of benefit. We look forward to the time when our paths can once again cross with yours. 

Birthday wishes for His Holiness Karmapa’s 36th birthday

I and all the followers of His Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje in Europe celebrate his 36th Birthday on the 26th of June. May he live long and turn the wheel of dharma to help countless beings. May all the obstacles to his health and activities be completely cleared so that he will be able to bring great benefit to the whole world. May all our prayers and good wishes, that we earnestly offer, be effortlessly accomplished.

Ringu Tulku 
Sikkim, 25 June 2020

Calling all Writers, Poets, Musicians, Filmmakers, Hillwalkers, Sea Swimmers, Painters, Photographers, Birdwatchers

                                  Image clipping  from 'The Boy, Tthe Mole, The Fox and The Horse'. by Charley Mackesy, Ebury Press

Please consider bringing your thoughts, images and stories to Many Roads e-magazine. 

 Many Roads was established as a virtual hub for the Bodhicharya Community  to share dharma related activity––whatever your medium for creative expression––to the attention of others who may or not be like minded, but are potentially kindred souls travelling a path for the betterment of all.  

It is compiled and edited by Albert Harris who is now collecting and collating articles and images for the next publication  Many Roads welcomes anyone who is interested, all are invited to contribute and read what might inspire and help other people on the road, regardless of background or belief. 

So if the mountains or wildlife instil you with a sense of wonder, or if lockdown has given you fresh insight into life (and death); if you have had an experience or heard a dharma teaching that might give others hope or help their engagement with what has been a truly challenging year, or if you have something that will purely and simply entertain us, please send your article, or image, or recipe, or video link, or book/film review) to Albert. The deadline for submissions is Sunday 14th March 2021 

                                                         

Hi everyone.   

I'm compiling articles for the next edition of Many Roads for Bodhicharya. Submissions   can be made under the following titles: Personal Stories; Fiction/Creative Writing; Poetry; Recipes; Video Links; Humour; Reviews of Music, Poetry, Literature, Film, etc. If you would like to be published in the next edition, please send articles to: manyroads@bodhicharya.org (or to my personal email) The deadline for articles is Sunday March 14

Albert Harris         avrom@fastmail.com

On the Western [Gregorian] Calendar] Friday 12th February marked the first day of the Tibetan and Chinese New Year. It is the Year of the Ox,  traditionally considered to be  bring calmness and stability,  to be welcomed following the turbulence of 2020.  In the previous post, Rinpoche offers reminders in his aspiration prayer to set the focus of the mind on effortless harmony and peace, love and joy  - the ultimate objective of dharma practice, as in The Four Immeasurables. 

Rinpoche will begin a new series of teachings on the Bodhisattvas Way of life, the Bodhicharyavatara, on Thursday February 18th, summarising the 10 chapters in weekly sessions until July. The series is free but a donation can be made if you wish, to Tibet House, who are hosting the event. Please click on the link for details. The teachings will also be made available on the Bodhicharya Archive.

There will be more teachings from HH 17th Karmapa, Orgyen Trinley Dorje, on the life of the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje starting on Monday, 15th February, daily for one month until 14th March and details of those can be found here.   

For regular updates of Ringu Tulku's teachings schedule, and more, please visit Bodhicharya.org and sign up to receive information via email. 

New Year Wishing Prayers for the Year of the Iron Ox

 This humble offering of wishing prayers is made on the New Year of Iron Ox Year.

May you have a constant smile on your face and live long and healthy.
May there always be laughter in your speech and bring solace to countless lives.
May your heart be ever filled with loving kindness, joy and peace.
May all your wishes come true in this year without making any efforts.

ལྕགས་གླང་གནམ་ལོ་གསར་ཚེས་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་པའི་སྨོན་འདུན་གྱི་མཆོད་སྤྲིན་འདི་གུས་སེམས་དྭངས་མས་འབུལ།།

སྐུ་ཚེ་རིང་ནད་མེད་འཛུམ་མདངས་འབྲལ་མེད་ཤོག།
གསུང་ཀུན་ཕན་སྙན་འཇེབ་དགོད་སྒྲ་འབྲལ་མེད་ཤོག།
ཐུགས་ཟབ་ཡངས་བྱམས་བརྩེ་ཞི་བདེ་འབྲལ་མེད་ཤོག།
ལོ་གསར་པར་ཅི་བསམ་གང་འདོད་ལྷུན་འགྲུབ་ཤོག།
རི་མགུལ་སྤྲུལ་མིང་པས།

Ringu Tulku
Gangtok, 12th Feb 2021

His Holiness 17th Gyalwang Karmapa will lead the Kagyu Monlam

Online prayers led by HH Gyalwang Karmapa.

    20th – 27th January 2021

    The events will be live streamed here:

    Facebook/Karmapa

    Youtube/Karmapateachings

His Holiness 17th Karmapa will lead Monlam (Wishing) Prayers online for 8 days beginning Wednesday 20th January at 1 pm GMT.  An e-prayerbook to accompany the sessions has ben published by KTD ebooks, and can be downloaded as a PDF here.   Ringu Tulku has postponed his Q&A teachings for next Sunday, 24th January.

   

  

 Rinpoche has informed us that his mother, known fondly to his students as Ama-la,  passed away quietly after a short illness on Christmas Eve, 24th December. The whole family were with her in Gangtok.  Her cremation took place in Sikkim on Sunday 27th December and prayers were said by Lamas from Rumtek, Dodrupchen and the Sakya monasteries in keeping with principle of the all inclusive rimé school central to the teaching and practise of Ringu Tulku Rinpoche.  If you would like to make an online donation for prayers to be said for his mother, there is a link at the bottom of this page https://bodhicharya.org/about/.  Rinpoche has asked specifically that we keep Ama-la in our own prayers at this time.  Please see his message below.

My mother passed away a week ago.
I miss her deeply but not sad.
68 years I basked at her loving presence.
This is the time to celebrate that fortune.
She only thought of what to give.
Never lost her genuine smile and good heart.
Even in our worst days
She never let any visitors to leave
Without a cup of hot tea.
I wish to thank all who sent me love
And kind messages
I wish you all a wonderful New Year
With health, wealth and harmony
And lots of kindness.

Ringu Tulku
31.12.2020
Gangtok

Bodhicharya Winter Teaching 2020 – LIVE Teaching Prayer of Samantabhadra (Kunzang Mönlam) 14th – 21st December 2020 Daily at 2:30pm (GMT/UTC) Rinpoche has very kindly accepted our request to give a teaching on the ‘Prayer of Samantabhadra (Kunzang Mönlam)’. This direct and important text is not only an aspiration prayer, but also a very profound teaching and an introduction to the Dzogchen approach. The popular and well-known prayer is especially recommended to be recited during special times like earthquakes, eclipses and solstices, utilising such times as an opportunity for liberation. The eight day Winter Teaching will start on Monday 14th December on a solar eclipse, and end on Winter solstice on Monday 21st, when we will recite the prayer together. During this week of teachings Rinpoche will go through the text and also provide us some background and perspective. There will be one session each day at 2.30 pm UTC (GMT). The sessions will be on Zoom and the recordings will become available for registered participants. The root text is available in different translations in English and other languages, for instance, here at Lotsawa House. The Winter Teaching is open for all and given freely. Without Bodhichitta even the highest teachings will not benefit us and can even harm us. Rinpoche often recommends that we study the Bodhicharyavatara. This famous Mahayana text by Shantideva on the Bodhisattva’s way of life and the Six Paramitas is taught by Rinpoche as an ongoing course here in the Ringu Tulku Teachings Archive. Study and Practice of the Bodhicharyavatara will lay a good foundation for those who wish to participate in the Winter Teaching. Please visit the Archive to Register and find out more.