Rinpoche – Behind the Scenes 活佛背后的故事

There is a Chinese saying “A low practitioner does retreat in the forest, a high practitioner does retreat in the cities”. A practitioner who moves away from the cities to do practice in the quiet and remote forest is only a low level practitioner; a high practitioner can do his practice amidst all the physical pollution and human complications of a city, he excels in that kind of environment, like a peacock who thrives on eating poisonous plants, He, is the REAL MASTER. 

This is a picture of Tsem Tulku Rinpoche when he was a model a few years ago, with his kind of look and a 6 ft 2 body, many current Asian superstars will pale in comparison. If you have his kind of look, what would you do? Try all means to maintain it hopefully till eternity? When Rinpoche was a model, he was so stunning that he made heads turn when walking down the streets, and he get suggestive signals implicitly and explicitly all the time, and he was always surrounded by handsome guys and beautiful women flirting to get his attention, but Rinpoche was never affected even minutely by all these seductions, it showed you the level of his mind which is very stable, strong and focused, any ordinary person would have fallen easily and miserably long time ago. 

Back then, Tsem Tulku Rinpoche had to temporarily put away his monk robes to become a model due to unusual circumstances (Rinpoche was never disrobed, the details will be told in his upcoming biography), and after 2-3 years when the time was right again, Rinpoche left the modelling scene and wore his monk robes again without any attachment to the look that he used to have, and he let his body “develop naturally”. If you think that is because Rinpoche is aging and age affected his body therefore he has no choice but to give up his gorgeous body and look, you are wrong,  take a look at the picture below, Rinpoche’s look and weight 12 years ago in 1998 was almost the same as he is now, Rinpoche is in FULL CONTROL of his look and physical body. 

Tsem Tulku Rinpoche can control his appearance and look according to his own will, he is completely not attached to his appearance, and he is not bothered by how others view and judge him even a tiny bit. On the contrary, some of us would spend a fortune on slimming programmes and do plastic surgery, and if we hear a word of criticism from others about our appearance, we would sink into depression and even become suicidal. What causes Anorexia? It is a mental obsession and paranoia about our own body and the way people look at us that develop into an illness. 

Today, Tsem Tulku Rinpoche does not have the look and body that he had before, but the number of disciples and followers around him grow even more than before. Rinpoche uses his own body to teach us a lesson, that you may lose your look and appearance, and you may not be physically attractive anymore like you used to be, but if you have a sincere heart, you are kind, and you develop compassion, you can still be attractive to people. The people around you, not only they will not leave you because you have lost “the look”, but they will flock to you because of your virtues and inner qualities that you develop. 

Tsem Tulku Rinpoche with his own physical body teaches us the kind of life we can live ourselves that is the most beautiful, and fulfilling.

“An ordinary man makes his own trap and create his own suffering; a Saint roams the samsaric world however he likes with total freedom.”  

  (Please forward this to you friends after reading it)

Tsem Tulku Rinpoche’s Personal Blog: http://blog.tsemtulku.com
Tsem Tulku Ripoche’s Website: http://www.tsemtulku.com
Tsem Tulku Rinpoche’s Dharma Organization (Kechara)’s Website: http://www.kechara.com

Tsem Tulku Rinpoche likes to tease his students, especially at the most vulnerable times – when you are carrying an offering bowl filled to the brim from the altar to the sink, or you are holding up a picture with both your hands up to hang onto the wall, or you are squeezing into the tight space under the bed to retrieve something, Rinpoche would suddenly spring into action (sometimes even from his “sleep”) and start tickling you, inserting his index finger into your ear, or pinching the tiny bit of skin at some of the most sensitive parts of your body, you wanted to scream and twitch your body to push off his invading finger, but Rinpoche would tell you “Stay still, mind over matter, mind over matter…” and that made you want to scream more, and just drop the bowl or just fling the picture frame right out of the window, but you can’t. Then you realized that it is not that Rinpoche wanted to tease you because he was bored, he is teaching you if you can’t even stand the pinch on 0.1 square inch of you skin, what about these burning monks (a few incidents caught on videos) who stayed in absolute calmness and composure? Then you believe that “Mind over Matter”, however much it seems ridiculous to you in the beginning, is actually achievable…Watch these amazing videos:

Few years ago, I think in 2005, Tsem Tulku Rinpoche and a few of us went to Kathmandu, Nepal to source for Buddha statues for our outlets in Malaysia, it was around July and it was a rainy season in Nepal, so it rained almost daily during the daytime and it made the shopping trip somewhat troublesome, because the statue shops in Nepal are mostly in Boudanath and it was not a covered shopping mall, you have to go from shop to shop in the rain. We were staying in Hyatt Regency Kathmandu then and it was raining quite heavily as we were waiting at the lobby for the taxis to bring us to Boudanath, Rinpoche commented that it was another tiresome rainy day, and he said to us “You guys wait here, I am going to talk to my friends”, then Rinpoche left the seat, walked towards the hotel entrance, and started staring at the gloomy sky while mumbling something. The few of us looked at each other, and all turned to stared at Rinpoche, this lasted for about 5 minutes, then Rinpoche walked back to us and said “It’s ok now, I just talked to them and they are OK with it, we can leave soon.” True enough, in about 5 minutes, the downpour turned into drizzle, and we hopped into the taxis, by the time the taxis were speeding along the bustling streets of Kathmandu, the rain stopped completely.

几年前，大概是在2005年的7月，我们一行人和詹杜固仁波切去了尼泊尔的加德满都，为克切拉的文物店采购佛像，当时正值尼泊尔的雨季，差不多每天白天都在下雨，很是郁闷，因为加德满都的佛像店大多聚集在Boudanath大佛塔周边，不像我们的有盖空调购物中心，从此店走到彼店，肯定会淋到雨。话说有一天中午，仁波切和我们在加德满都Hyatt Regency酒店的大厅等候前往Boudanath大佛塔的士，正望着滂沱大雨发愁，仁波切突然对我们说 “你们在这儿坐着稍等一会儿，我去和我的朋友们谈一谈。” 说完便起身走向酒店门口望着乌云密布的天空开始喃喃自语，我们一行人你看我我看你，面面相觑，然后转身面对着远处的仁波切发愣。。。大概过了5…分钟，仁波切便走回来对我们说 “行了，我刚和他们谈过，他们说没问题。我们就快可以走了。” 果真在5分钟以内，滂沱大雨就转为绵绵细雨，当时车也到了，我们一行人便跳上车，当车子在繁忙的加德满都街上穿梭时，车轮压过，路上水飞溅，但已经是雨过天晴了。。。

What if your husband tell you one day “I’m in Love!!” and he is not talking about you??

如果有一天你的丈夫突然兴奋地告诉你 “我恋爱了！”而他指的却不是你，你会怎么做？？

On one late night in July 2010, Rinpoche and a few of us were driving around Bangsar, KL, and Rinpoche spotted a lady with arm bandage sleeping on the pavement near Macdonalds, Rinpoche was very concerned and asked monlam to check out her condition, Rinpoche bought some food and water and unbrella from 7-eleven to give to this lady. Rinpoche also asked me to call Justin Cheah, Kechara Soup Kitchen’s Project Director to come and take a look. It was already 2am at night but Justin came right away upon calling, Kechara Soup Kitchen people always respond to calls of emergency anytime. After doing the initial investigation, Justin subsequently arranged to place this lady in a Homecare Service, read the full story in the link below. Another homeless person off the streets…

2010年7月的某一个晚上，仁波切和我们几个人开车经过吉隆坡孟沙时，仁波切看到一位无家可归的女士留宿孟沙街头，于是便买了干粮，水和雨伞给她，并通知克切拉香积橱的项目负责人Justin Cheah， 当时已经是凌晨2点多了，但Justin还是赶来了解状况。几天之后，Justin安排该的女士住进了吉隆坡的一所福利中心，让她从此告别了流落街头的日子。

Read full story here: http://www.kechara.com/soup-kitchen/sos/success-stories/helping-two-at-once/

著名英国能量治疗师Anne Jones 与詹杜固仁波切的心灵对话，精彩！

2008年在尼泊尔的某一个冬天晚上，仁波切在加德满都街上看到几只身上长满狗癣的野狗，便马上打电话叫人来捉！说到捉野狗，通常我们会想到它们的最终命运是被人道毁灭，但事实恰好相反，你可能很难想像到在贫穷落后的尼泊尔国家，竟然还有人会把街上的野狗捉来给于治疗，使它们重获新生！这个团体就是加德满都动物治疗中心 Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre (KAT)。仁波切有一天无意中在加德满都的一间餐馆的布告板上看到关于KAT的消息，就打算前往参观。参观之后仁波切对KAT的动物福利事业很是赞赏，便捐助了KAT的日常用品、动物药物、狗用品、KAT的招牌等等。

On one cold winter night in Kathmandu in 2008, Tsem Rinpoche saw a few street dogs with serious mange on their bodies, so Rinpoche immediately called people to round them up! Most of the time the street dogs (in most countries) will be rounded up and put to sleep (mercy killing), but in a poor city like Kathmandu, you will be surprised to know that there is actually a team of people whose job is to round up street dogs, give them treatment/medicine, heal them and give them a new life! This inspiring team is the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre (KAT).

The team from KAT arrived not long after Tsem Rinpoche called them after spotting a few street dogs with serious mange

It was not easy to catch the dogs in the dark!

Gotcha! 

The animal ambulance of KAT 

Putting in the dogs  
 

“Where are they taking me to?”   

Street dogs with serious mange 

Treating sick dogs in KAT 

Success story! And Many more!
 

Tsem Rinpoche and Kechara House sponsored some of the treament kennels

Tsem Rinpoche visiting KAT to understand the operation  

This dog was undergoing treatment after being hit by a car

Tsem Rinpoche talking with the person-in-charge of KAT, Jan
 

Rinpoche loves dogs!

Tsem Rinpoche donating cleaning materials, utensils, dog bowls, dog food, dog medicine etc. to KAT

Tsem Rinpoche sponsored the new signboard of KAT so that it is more prominent and more people will notice it 
 

*****

 Watch video of Tsem Rinpoche visiting KAT! 

When Tsem Rinpoche first came to Malaysia, Rinpoche once stayed in a student’s house whose son at that time was studying to become a lawyer, they became very good friends and Rinpoche shared a lot of Dharma knowledge with this person, and today this person is a very successful lawyer in town, and he recounted the incident that when he went to his bar exam that time, Rinpoche out of the blue slept on his bed, and when the exam result was out, he came out as one of the top 5 nationwide despite not studying much for the exam (There was no reason for Rinpoche to sleep on other’s bed, Rinpoche had his own Lama room and bed). This lawyer said it was a miracle and something he will not forget, ad will always be grateful to Tsem Rinpoche.

This is Mr Jhuplal, he is a guard in Tsem Ladrang (Tsem Rinpoche’s household) for almost a year, previously he was a guard somewhere else in Malaysia for 4 years. Today is his last day working in Tsem Ladrang as he will be going back to Nepal to do something else and to take care of his family. He said he has worked in many places and Tsem Ladrang is the first place he feels nice to stay, because Rinpoche and eveyone in ladrang are so kind to him and not treating him as just a foreign worker. Before he left today, Rinpoche presented him RM 500, Vajrayogini book, Vajrayogini pendant, Vajrayogini framed picture, Setrap pocket picture, mala (prayer beads) and DVD, Mr Jhuplal is very grateful and happy.

This is how Tsem Rinpoche treats everybody and every sentient beings, with loving kindness irregardless of their backgrounds.

This happened more than 10 years ago, in 1999. This baby was having serious health problems, jaundice etc. which were life threatening, Rinpoche did a lot of blessing, pujas, prayers for the baby a few times a week, sometimes with the help of the protector, and finally the baby was healed.

“Something” was following Kelvin for many years, and it literally wanted to take his life. He and his wife took a leap and faith to trust H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, and after months of hard works, things started to come their way. ”

一些”东西”跟着Kelvin许多年了，”他”甚至想要Kelvin的命。Kelvin和妻子最终决定相信詹杜固仁波切所说的，过了几个月的辛苦…

written and sent to my family on July 9, 2010 (my 34th birthday)

Dear my beloved family,

Attached are some pictures of grandma’s funeral, her remains is now placed forever in Miao Hsiang Lin temple in Penang , next to grandpa.So this is it, the final chapter of the oldest generation of the Loh family is officially closed. And from now onwards, most likely we will not meet each other again, it may sound negative, but that’s reality, no reason to gather together for Chinese New Year, no reason for you to come back to Penang , no reason for some of us here to go visit you overseas, that’s reality. We have had great time together, especially at grandpa’s old house in Sungai Ara, now only memories left, impermanence the true nature of this world.

So I would like to share some words with all of you.

Grandma’s passing was very peaceful, it was a miracle. Grandma was diagnosed with 4th stage cancer, she died of cancer, but on the final day of her life, July 3rd, she ate a whole big bowl of porridge BY HERSELF, and she got up and CHANGED HERSELF, and she went to sleep, and passed away WITHOUT A SIGN, without heavy breathing, without suffering. You can ask around, which terminal stage cancer patient could pass away in such a peaceful painless manner? 

And this is exactly what my Tibetan Lama His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche has requested the protector Setrap to help, a few weeks ago when He came to Penang specially to bless grandma, that if grandma were to pass away, please make it painless and peaceful, and we now saw it happening with our own eyes. Besides, Tsem Rinpoche also requested the Tibetan monastery in India to perform powerful pujas for grandma a few weeks ago: Vajrayogini and Lama Chopa pujas, both very powerful pujas done by hundreds of fully ordained monks dedicated to grandma, and Rinpoche sponsored all the pujas Himself.

If you remember, about 1 year ago, grandma fell down and was diagnosed with brain haemorrhage, she was wheel-chair bound and already seemed like she couldn’t make it, but my Lama told me it was not her time to go yet, and He asked me to do prayers to the protector Setrap. And what happened after that all of you know, grandma recovered miraculously as if nothing had happened, she could walk, eat, talk, and was as alert as before, and what’s even more surprising was, during the next check-up she went to, the scan showed that the haemorrhage had disappeared altogether.

Sorry to say, singing a few praises and songs to the Divine certainly did not and could not have helped grandma, THE DHARMA DID.

His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche is a high Tibetan Lama reincarnated for over 17 lifetimes now, if He can control his own death and reincarnation to come back again and again for so many lifetimes, helping grandma’s death and rebirth is “easy” for Him.

All of you know that I am grandma’s favourite grandson, I loved grandma the most too, and I have repaid her kindness with the best gift – a good death and a good rebirth. I have been graduating from university for ten years, I could have worked in a decent job and earn lots of money and gave grandma, bought her new house, nice clothes, I could have gotten married and produced beautiful great-grandchildren for grandma, but if I did those things, today it would have meant nothing to grandma already, NOTHING AT ALL. But I chose to do Dharma, because Dharma work collect merits, and only with the merits I could save grandma for this life and also her future life; it is also with those merits that I could request a high being like Tsem Rinpoche to come and bless grandma. I am no one special, I am not holy, but my Dharma work collect tremendous merits, thus I could transfer those merits to my beloved grandma.

I am not trying to brag about myself here, that’s not my purpose. My real reason of sharing these with all of you is to show you how you could really love your loved ones in the ultimate way. I will continue my Dharma work, because I still have my dad, mom, brother, sister-in-law, nephew…they are my immediate family, I can do the same thing to help them like I did for grandma, because of the merits. I wish help my relatives like you too, but you are far and most likely we will not meet ever again, so the best is for you to help yourself, and I have already shown you how, by the example of grandma’s miraculous good death.

You may ask, how to collect merits? The simple rule of thumb is, working and living for ourselves exhaust our merits, while working and living for others collect merits. So we check our daily lives, we work, we earn money, we live, for who? For ourselves or for others? We may say that we are working very hard to take care of our children, and we do not harm others, and we think that is good enough. It is NOT. To put it in a crude but absolutely true way, animals like horses and cows also work, they also have children and take care of them, and horses and cows also do not harm others, so do horses and cows collect merits? No they don’t, so do we, if we live solely for ourselves.

So, working for others will collect merits, Dharma is not limited to Buddhist work, they key here is not the religious label, but the motivation behind it, you could be an atheist but you are thinking and working to benefit others every day, then you also collect merits.

Do look at the pictures I attached, and contemplate for a moment, this could and will definitely happen to our next loved ones, one day they are alive, next day they are dead, next day only their bones are left, next day they are placed in an urn, only memories left, when all that happen, have we done anything to help them, if we say we love them?

I thank you my family, for all the love and care, for all the fun we had, from now on I wish you well, and it is not an empty wish, I share with how to really live a meaningful life and truly benefit our loved ones.

Like I said, I am not forcing any doctrine onto you, I have shown to you beyond doubt that Dharma worked, Dharma saved grandma, and Dharma benefitted grandma ultimately, I only wish you could gain the benefits too, because you are my family and I love you.

Thank you, and really wishing you all the best. Please do share this email with those in the family that do not have email access, or who are not listed in this email.

Love,
Piow

(grandma passed away on July 3, 2010)

In mid-June 2010, Rinpoche went all the way to Penang just to bless and do puja for my grandma

Rinpoche performing a powerful tantric puja to bless Grandma, and He also sponsored powerful Vajrayogini and Lama Chopa pujas at the Monastery for grandma

Rinpoche blessing grandma with holy items

Grandma passed away on July 3rd

Grandma’s ashes will be inside this urn forever

Grandma and grandpa in the 1930s, like us, they also had dreams, and they had also been through happiness, sadness, anger, joy…just like what we are going through now.
But today, all those were gone forever, all those meant nothing at all.
Only one thing is worth rejoicing, that grandma has taken a good rebirth to continue the Dharma path, and that is only possible with the blessing of –
His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

November 17, 2008

During the first few weeks of Rinpoche’s stay in Kathmandu, one evening Rinpoche went to Vijeshwari Vajrayogini Temple, and on the way back to Thamel, Rinpoche took a rickshaw and the rickshaw driver was a nice man called Batri, Rinpoche bought Batri a large bag of rice and some vegetables. During the following few weeks we also met Batri on the street a few times and used his rickshaw service, Batri is always pleasant and helpful, and never greedy, in fact he is always looking out for Rinpoche on street because he is grateful and likes Rinpoche a lot, and he refers to Rinpoche as “the tall one”.
 
Today Monlam and I met Batri again on Thamel street, and Rinpoche asked us to go to Batri’s house to check out his living condition. Batri’s house is 5 mins away from Thamel, he rented the top floor of a house, more like the attic. The room is extremely small (see pics), and has a very low ceiling of 4 feet. An adult cannot stand upright inside room. On top of that, Batri, his wife Sunitha, their two sons and two daughters, aged 16, 12, 10 and 5 respectively, in total 6 persons, all have to live in the small room, 3 on the bed and 3 on the floor. Cooking is also done in the room. The whole family has stayed in this rented room for 7 years.

 
Batri is 42 years old, and has been driving rickshaw for 5 years, before this he was selling bangles etc at Durbar square, where he learned some basic English from the tourists. He never went to school.
 
On average Batri earns 1500RP (RM68) per month, sometimes more sometimes less, depending on seasons. His monthly expenses are as follow:
 
room rental + electricity = 550 RP (RM25 per month)
rickshaw rental = 3000RP (RM136 per month)
4 children’s school fees = 4×250 = 1000RP (RM45 per month)
food = 1000RP (RM45 per month)
 TOTAL = 5550RP (250 per month)
 
So it is really difficult for the family to make ends meet. Batri has not been paying school fees for 2 of his 4 children for a year because he cant afford the school fees of RM12/month per child. And since the room is so small, Batri’s 16 year-old son always feels bored and prefer to go out loitering around, this is worrisome because he may be influenced by some bad street gangs.

 
After finding out Batri’s situation and discussing with a few of us: Paul, Wan, BK, Monlam, SP here in Kathmandu, Rinpoche decided to sponsor Batri to move to a bigger place to stay, preferably 2 rooms, 1 for sleeping and 1 for cooking, then we will monitor the progress and give him more material assistance as time goes by. It was also suggested that Rajkumar gets involve to help. After the discussion, Rinpoche did some prayers and announced that today is the beginning of Kechara Soup Kitchen – Nepal Chapter, and Batri’s case will be the first case, and although it is only one person, we will generate the cause and merits to help more and more people in the future.
 
In the evening, Rinpoche asked Monlam and myself to go grocery shopping with Batri, we bought him 10kg rice, some dhal, beans, tea, soaps, cooking oil, sugar, salt, toothbrush, toothpaste, blankets, total around RM 250, and Monlam and Batri delivered these things to Batri’s house, Batri and his wife were extremely moved, his wife couldn’t hold back her tears, she said they have given up any hope of receiving any help from anyone, and today’s offerings are like gifts from god.

Rinpoche’s kindness and compassion is without boundaries, be it in Inida, Nepal or Malaysia.