Birthday Celebration

Now my birthday is over and when I reflect on the last few weeks, it seems that I had experienced so many inspiring moments within such a short time. In our lives, moments of happiness and sadness are all not actually separate. They are simply not truly existing substantially but existing depending on how we grasp and interpret our emotions. When you see things in a joyful way, they appear to be pleasant but if we see things in a sorrowful way then no matter how wonderful things are, they will also appear to be unpleasant. So even if we can’t cut the root cause of this complex net of emotions right away, we could at least gradually take certain steps to progress towards enlightenment. The steps we should take are actually transforming adverse situations into the path, which means whether experiences are happy or sorrowful, they are truly favorable conditions. Accordingly, we appreciate whatever is happening as directly or indirectly it benefits our development very much. If that kind of thought is developed then mental stress or anxiety will disappear because there is no basis for them to sustain.

Birthday is to me a moment when feelings developed can last very long and such feelings may be fuel for my motivation to do more to benefit others. The celebration of my birthday was almost a month to me as very early on when I was in Kuala Lumpur, the KKDS members held the first celebration and made offerings of body, speech and mind and also bought a big cake. I think you may have read my earlier blog post on this.


At Johor Bharu Malaysia...

Offering of Mandala along with body spech and mind at JB Malaysia.

Cake cutting

Singing Birthday Song

Afterwards when I visited Johor Bahru for their program, they gave me a surprise at the end of the program as they had prepared a big birthday celebration. Also the members made an offering of body, speech and mind and requested me to live long for the benefit of all sentient beings. I told you that how long I will live is not within my own control yet sincere aspiration does have some impact and such wishes may be fulfilled to a certain extent, that is for sure. They also bought two different cakes, one which is a normal design and another which is in the Chinese style. It was really a joyful moment for everyone of us there and I expressed my joy and thanked them for their devotion and sincerity.

Lama being mischieviously playing with peach like cake and make every one lough..

Back to Singapore...

More then 3000 Lamp offerings at Chagzog Damcho Ling Centre. 

Next one was at Chagzog Damcho Centre at Singapore, more than 150 people are gathered and the members, headed by Vicky, requested me to give them an Amitayus initiation. At that time, they  prepared more than 3000 lamp offerings on the rooftop of the centre. It was due to their great devotion and sincerity in offering to the Triple Gems that caused them to be able to prepare the offerings in great detail, neatly and cleanly. The candles arranged were in different colors and in different sizes. Some of the bigger ones were meant to last until my actual birthday. It was really a touching moment to me to witness such wonderful offerings to the Triple Gems dedicated towards world peace and my longevity.  After the initiation, they also had a cake and Tibetan style rice and tea to celebrate the joyful event. After offering prayers, they did a Singaporean style of bottoms-up of the tea by saying loudly “Yam Seng”. They then drank the tea and ate the rice and cake. It was really a nice atmosphere and I can see that the people were expressing their good wishes and joyfulness through their perfect expressions.

Cutting cake at Chagzog Damcho Centre with Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche.

Karma Kagyud Buddhist Centre....

Back to Karma Kagyud Buddhist Centre in Singapore, the Sangha and devotees performed two long days of Guru Rinpoche’s longevity ritual and on the evening of the last day, I received all the substances of longevity. I felt that I was blessed by the great puja of Konchog Chidu (union of all refuges) on the eve of my birthday. 

Releasing life of animals.

Midnight celebration  by group of devotees.

My actual Birthday falls on 12th September. At midnight, a number of devotees waited for the clock to strike twelve and came in two small groups to wish me happy birthday. One group brought two very delicious cakes for me to cut and make birthday wishes. Another small group of disciples made an offering of lamps in a beautiful setting and presented that to me. It all took me by surprise as I could not fathom that anybody in the centre would come to see me at such a time.

Day time puja with offring of Mandala and body speech and mind.

Members and devotees gethering and below Ren Hui and August are singing long live prayer and playing instrument.

On the actual day there were many people visiting me the whole day and everyone wished me longevity and health and some of them presented gifts to me. I gave each person a pouch of incense powder that I specially prepared from Nepal. I selected good quality incense with some special herbs that have some effect of healing through smell. It was also blessed during the 8 pairs of Nyungne retreat by our Sangha at Pokhara. I thought this should be beneficial to everyone and so I gave incense pouches to everyone on the occasion of my birthday. The actual programme started at 3:30 pm. The KKBC members and devotees made an offering of body, speech and mind dedicated towards my longevity and Ren Hui sang my longevity prayer with August playing the accompaniment on keyboard. Everybody enjoyed her very nice and soothing voice. For the last part of programme, they really surprised me by managing to get a video of my mother giving me good wishes for my birthday. They suddenly showed this to me near the end of the programme and my tears almost fell when I saw my dear mother speaking.

Then all of us chanted the prayer of "Repaying the debt of kindness to our mothers" by the 3^rd Karmapa with remembrance of our mothers' care and love. In the prayer, we make the wish that mothers will be able to end their sufferings and Avalokiteshvara will lead our mothers to the perfect state of enlightenment. It was really a very touching moment to me and I thank the committee members who quietly arranged everything to make me feel so close to my mother during my birthday.

At night there was a dinner prgramme which was sponsored by one of my disciples from Indonesia, Mrs. Budiman. It was a very nice dinner for everyone and around 350 people attended. Many nice programmes were arranged where devotees showcased their great skills in singing and playing musical instruments. A highlight was the performance of the world famous harmonica player, Mr. Chong (chairman of KKDS KL) who came from KL to celebrate my birthday. Altogether, the programme was really enjoyable and entertaining.

( I do not have night programme photo so can't present here but only can imagine)

Birthday celebration at Nepal.....

At same time, in my monastery in Nepal, they also celebrated my birthday with 2 days of continuous puja of longevity and releasing of animals. They also cut a cake and made special meals for all the monks and guests. They called me to say that they enjoyed the event very much and also greeted me with longevity wishes. Likewise, Kirtipur sangha invited my close disciples and some guests, around 80 people altogether, to celebrate birthday and they raised a prayer flag and did lamp offerings. They also cut a cake and made good wishes for me. Similarly in Tharpa Choeling Nunnery in Muktinath, the nuns did a whole day Tara puja and in the evening they celebrated birthday by cutting a cake and preparing special meals for the anis (nuns) and all the disciples. In Lumbini, a few hundred lamps were lighted at the holy places by the Sangha at Drubgyud Choeling Monastery and good wishes were made. These reports came to me by phone and there were really great blessings to me from every direction.


I made a lot of wishes for everyone to have good health and happiness blended with spiritual development. I also expressed my happiness to all the members of Karma Kagyud Buddhist Centre for their efforts and whole-hearted work in carrying out many beautiful activities that have benefited so many people.

Here are some words that I expressed to the Committee and the volunteers for their works:

I wish to thank all the wonderful people of Karma Kagyud Buddhist Centre and the devotees who really showed their whole-hearted devotion towards the lineage by putting every effort to make this event a great success. Each person played a very important role and without every person’s effort, the event could not have happened. Just like for a vehicle, each part is very important. When all the parts play their role perfectly, altogether we call the whole a vehicle and it can move towards its destination.

I really admire the people who came forward to help with joy and never showed how tired they were although they worked day and night for the centre’s activities but displayed a fresh face and friendly smile to everyone who visited the centre. I started to realize that we actually have many wonderful people who make Karma Kagyud Buddhist so beautiful and a comfortable place for resting the mind and practicing Dharma. I think the environment that you create is actually very important and I can see the future seed of the great development of Karma Kagyud Buddhist Centre. If we can create a serene and joyful environment then the land of bliss is not elsewhere but already can be found here. So let’s not slow down our motivation of benefiting sentient beings by developing our centre.

There are so many people with different talents, like different flowers which make the whole garden so beautiful. Every single flower contributes to making up the whole garden. Likewise, the management, the administrators and each volunteer who does different work and the sponsors; they all do their part to make the centre so beautiful and pleasant that people start to come to alleviate their stress and joyfully receive the nectar of Dharma in this comfortable and pleasant garden-like environment.

I am really impressed with all of you joining your hands together and putting every thought and action for the noble Dharma activities of the centre with great unity. I am sure such ability does not come without a cause and the cause must be partly the understanding of Dharma knowledge. Just knowledge itself cannot change a person much so the cause must also be the integration of the Dharma into oneself that makes the whole thing happened. I am very happy with such qualities of yours and feel that it is nice to live within such an environment. It gives me immense joy and inspiration. 

 That’s why I am happy and enjoy being with you all, not just because you celebrate my birthday with some good words and gifts.

That’s all for now, I will next write next article soon. 

This little nomadic boy thinks cake is what kind of animals name? ? ?

This big Birthday boy thinks cake is for cutting.!!!

Different moment or situation, arises a different conceptual towards things but they are not truly exist as what we think and even conceptual thoughts are momentarily changed. Dependently changing its appearances shows phenomenon are not truly establish as what we think and our emotional thought are also not truly reliable as well.

In this case subject is a cake to us. Not an animal name or not just for cutting purpose only. Perhaps hungry person sees it for only eating stuff just to relief hunger and not even will see as cake and its beauties.    hahahaha