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!

The Mills of the God Grind Slowly BUT Exceedingly Fine

Very recently, I realized that life after death is fair. The present works determine where to go. There are two places to go; heaven and hell. Life is unfair now. Those who work hard get less. Those who devote themselves suffer the most. Those who live straight have crook lives. And cheaters, liars, killers, and other adulterers are rewarded with good lives. I wish those who commit bad deeds must be punished in front. It’s good there is a decider of our deeds now, not later. Those who cheat, bully, lie, kill, and commit other crimes are said to be going to hell and those who are good human beings should go to heaven. It’s slow but sure to come. The mills of the god grind slowly but exceedingly fine. There is cause and effect in everything we do here. And this hope keeps me that far away from bad deeds and keeps away from those people. It’s difficult to tune with life. But life is life; you go on with good things, good thoughts, good deeds, good soul, good; everything good. But, at last, we turned into a bad and fellable one. Nothing goes as per the deeds now. Those who went on cheating, they go on and those who tell lies, they go on…. Such is the life of man—no extremity; no very good, no very bad, but one must follow the middle path; the ‘badly good.’

The below is the song I like to sing when people grumble and do nothing.

Some people must-have.
Some people have not.
But they’ll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain.

Some people will work.
Some simply will not.
But they’ll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain.

Like this: It’s society’s fault I don’t have a job.
It’s society’s fault I am a slob.
I have potential no one can see.
Give me welfare. Let me be me!

Hey, Bud, you’re livin’ in the Land of the Free.
No one’s gonna hand you an opportunity!

Some people must-have.
Some never will.
But they’ll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain.

I don’t have a house. I don’t have a car.
I spend all my money getting drunk in a bar.
I wanna be rich. I don’t have a brain.
Just give me a handout while I complain.

Or this: I wanna stay in bed and watch TV.
Go out weekends in a limousine
And dance all night takin’ lots of drugs
And wake up when I wanna.

Hey, Bud, you’re livin’ in the Land of the Free.
No one’s gonna hand you an opportunity!

Some people will learn.
Some never do.
But they’ll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain.
Yeah, they’ll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain.

                                                                                                                                    -to be continued-

Reading Religious Books(NRY)

(To commemorate the National Reading Year (NRY)

I have read books, a great many books, and most of the books I have read were English literature. The books of stories, novels, and verses. But these days I have been reading philosophical books; books of religion. As my age is drawing closer to death, and old age is nicking in. It’s time now to prepare and practice some good things before DreyNagchung summons me in his court. As a matter of fact, we don’t know when we kicking our bucket but kick the bucket we must. And the fact we all die is known to all.

To understand more about life and  death, I have read books beginning from (some) Thich Nhat Hanh’s books, Wentz’s ‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead,’ Sogyal Rinpoche’s  ‘The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying,’ the Dalai Lama’s book series, Dzongsar Jamyang khyentse’s two books, and other books of Buddhism. All these books are philosophies, theories, and stories. All these books teach us to be good, helpful, and be altruistic. And these come through lots of practice. Because of laxity, these theories have been remaining as theories; I am so weak to practice every day and thereby comprehend better.

Today I am almost done with ‘The Way to a Meaningful Life’ by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Like his other books, this book teaches the meaning of ‘I’ and the realization of the meaning of the mind. I am a layman to understand all these, but as a human, a dying human, I feel it is very important to understand it. I would like to write some extracts from the above-mentioned book: “When Buddha taught the four noble truths, first he identified true suffering, sources, cessations, and paths, and then said: Sufferings are to be recognized, but there is nothing to be recognized. The sources of suffering are to be abandoned, but there is nothing to be abandoned. Cessation is to be actualized, but there is nothing to be actualized. The path is to be meditated, but there is nothing to be meditated.”(pg 156-157)

His Holiness also talks in ‘The Way to a Meaningful Life’ about ‘form and emptiness.’ He takes out from the ‘Heart Sutra:’ “Form is emptiness, emptiness is formed; form is not other than emptiness; emptiness is not other than form.” (pg 164) It has a very deep meanings. And another profound statement about the nature of mind that Buddha made is: “In the mind, the mind is not to be found; the nature of the mind is clear light.”(pg 171) The explanation for this statement was made by the Dalai Lama.

And there is a concise-15minutes read book called ‘The Path to Dharma’ published by Commission for Religious Organizations, 2012, Bhutan.  It’s both in English and Dzongkha. The short book discusses about Karmic Cause and Effect, Different lives, Virtuous and non-virtuous, and different acts, and nemesis of each act. It’s worth knowing where we are going before our death.