Before returning to Tergar Monastery, His Holiness visited the Royal Bhutanese Monastery in order to check on progress in making the Kagyu Monlam torma (butter sculptures). This year a film crew from US is making a documentary about the unique Tibetan tradition of butter sculptures, so His Holiness drew the... read more →
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Wednesday 24th December, 2008 In the afternoon the Gyalwang Karmapa distributed small presents – a bag and an umbrella from this year’s Monlam souvenirs – to the staff of Tsurphu Labrang and to members of the Kagyu Monlam Working Team.
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Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st December, 2008 Gyalwang Karmapa completed the reading transmission of the 9th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje’s The Lion’s Roar which Destroys Confusion. He described the Four Yogas of Mahamudra, one-pointed, simplicity, one-taste, and no-meditation, and the three stages within each yoga – lower, middle, greater – and... read more →
Dec
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Saturday 20th December, 2008 Displaying both erudition and a sense of humour, Gyalwang Karmapa continued his transmission and exposition of the text. He dealt with two new issues. The first was whether or not it was valid to rank the Consequentialist Middle Way School and the Autonomous Middle Way School,... read more →
Dec
19
Friday 19th December, 2008 Following some changes, the retreat began on Friday 19th December, a day later than originally planned, and will last for fifteen days, concluding on 2nd January 2009. There are 16 monks, drawn from all the Kagyu monasteries, in retreat. The retreat is a preparation for the... read more →
Dec
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Thursday 18th December, 2008 Gyalwang Karmapa gave a scholarly overview of some of the issues in the Tibetan canon, with particular reference to differences between Tibetan and Chinese texts. He focused on the Tibetan and Chinese versions of the Five Works of Maitreya, using internal evidence from the texts themselves... read more →
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Wednesday 17th December, 2008 Madhyamika is noted as being a very difficult area of study, yet, each day, the number of people attending the teaching has grown, and this prompted His Holiness to tell a funny story. Looking around the large assembly hall at Tergar, he told how a Geshe... read more →
