Spring at Tashi Choling

Dear Friends,

We hope everyone is having a lovely spring as we are here at Tashi Choling.

We are posting the photo of the completed Dudjom Lingpa statue that Lama Sonam Tsering has made for the Tashi Choling shrine room. It is exquisite and will be a central figure on the main shrine. Since LoB translates the terma revelations of this great master we thought it would be interesting for all of you to see what he apparently looked like. He was a yogi of the order of the white clad tantrikas and it is assumed that most of his followers were as well. Nervetheless the monastics are also devout practitioners of the Dudjom Tersar as well as Dudjom Lingpas profound terma revelations.

Lama Chonam and I had a very meaningful trip to New York where we taught and gave the refuge and bodhisattva vows to a group of students that have been studying under John Baker, Derek Kolleeny and other meditation teachers in the group. Folks were very interested in our work and we feel that the importance of supporting and participating in the process of translation is becoming an interesting and pertinent issue to more and more dharma practitioners.

Now that we are back we must work hard to prepare the rough draft translation to have before us during the up and coming teachings with Khen Rinpoche Namdrol. This will be the fourth year of the teachings that Khen Rinpoche is giving on the Treasury of the Genuine Meaning and this year he will teach only the eighth chapter which is rather long and pithy. This teaching will last for two weeks as usual. Unfortunately it is not open to the public, but that does not mean you cannot supplicate Khen Rinpoche to teach this or other important transmissions again in the future.

During the teaching we will hook up in person with our other translators and begin plans for the next group translation. Stay tuned for a preview of what that might be. Also it is anticipated that our translations of the longest commentary on the Guhyagarbha Tantra composed by Omniscient Longchenpa entitled Dispelling Darkness Throughout the Ten Directions will be available for purchase through Snow Lion publications in just a matter of weeks. Please be sure to get this book as it is full of the most profound instructions found in Vajrayana.

We will post again after returning home from the teaching. We wanted to also let you know that we now have a presence on Facebook and are trying to learn how to be active on that platform. You can go in through the link for Nanci Gustafson-Sangye Khandro or just go straight to Light of Berotsana's own page and become our friend. We will be posting on the LOB site and not so much on mine as that is merely a means to be able to open the LOB site. It has been fun to see many of you on the page already.

All our best wishes,
Sangye Khandro and Lama Chonam