Je Khenpo and the Blessing

Gedu Moelam Choemo

"To be blessed" means 'to be favored by God'. Blessings, therefore, are directly associated with God and come from God.

A blessing is very important to get rid off negative things from our souls and bodies. We are immersed in a culture filled with negative attitudes, offensive language, violence, and insolence. The very air we breathe can lead us to feel cursed or that something will wrong us, just because of the environment we are exposed to and the judgments others make against us. False judgments against us are like curses and can affect our health and break down our immune system. The potentially negative physical results of people who live under false judgments are extraordinary. We are not only under the curse of judgments placed on us by others, but we may also tend to judge ourselves harshly. When these self-criticisms are excessive, we need to recognize them as being like curses and break them with the authority of God. So when you consider how much people are bound up by judgments and curses, it's easy to see how desperately we all need blessing. This is what every lama would say in any kind of wang or blessing.

The Moelam Choemo in Gedu is a yearly religious congregation for a week, and the fact it happens once a year shows how important Moelam Choemo is. There is a kind of culture from different schools to sponsor something during this gathering. Like last year, Darla school gave a Tokha(lunch) to the public and the worshippers on 18/10/2016. But this year, I was taken by surprise, as the school was not given a day off for receiving blessings. I heard our Je Khenpo will conduct the last kind of ‘Tshewang’ blessing to the people here. Distant schools like Arikha, Pashikha and others called off their classes for the day, but it was SAD that Darla school (so near to Gedu) had a normal class. To tell the truth, there were grumbles especially from our faithful students and teachers' devotees. That normal class didn’t deter many from going to receive a blessing. The head of the school called an informal meeting saying that any teacher willing to go can go for the ‘wang’. And that was a real headache; almost all teachers went leaving few students behind in the classes. And that didn’t daunt students too; almost all students went saying that their parents were waiting for them. And a result, the school went haywire with few teachers and students. It was a pandemonium!! I really wonder why our school was not called off when other schools have. I also really wonder if we can promote religion (tradition and culture) when important functions like this take place and we are not allowed to attend it. I really wonder if this is the reason why Darla community has a large number of Christians. REASON!