Tushita’s News December 2019

Pilgrimage

This year in August, the staff of Tushita did something remarkable following Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice; we closed our doors for a week and, together, went on pilgrimage! Our destination was Garsha, the Land of Dakinis: Lahaul in northern Himachal Pradesh. This spiritual adventure was filled with both trying and recurring obstacles, threatening safety and causing some to turn back, and for those who endured…powerful blessings!

To read about our incredible pilgrimage and see more breathtaking pictures, see the news item, Tushita Goes on Pilgrimage!.

Tushita Planet

As you may  have heard from our July Newsletter, this year we broke a big record: welcoming 100 nations to Tushita in the 11 years since we began keeping records. Not only did we make it to 100 by welcoming a student from Kuwait, in the second half of the year we welcome three more new countries: Laos, Kenya and Bosnia & Herzegovina! We rejoice deeply that we have been able to bring the Dharma to interested students from more than half the countries on the planet! Soon, we hope to celebrate an auspicious 108 nations since we began keeping records in 2009!!

For more about our amazing year, see our upcoming Special Statistics 2009 – 2019 Report!

Our Special Guest Teachers

On July 7th, Yangten Rinpoche very kindly returned to Tushita for the third time this year to confer the Heruka Vajrasattva Jenang for our Vajrasattva retreatants along with a preliminary teaching on Lama Tsongkhapa’s “The Foundation of All Good Qualities”. We welcomed around 100 guests to this precious teaching and initiation, which were expertly interpreted by Geshe Kelsang Wangmo.

It was our great pleasure to welcome Yangsi Rinpoche from Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon for a visit coinciding with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s public teachings and a Long Life Puja in September. Rinpoche had been teaching at Tushita last in 2000, giving over 2 months a commentary on Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lam Rim Chenmo, which was made into the book “Practicing the Path”.

We were thrilled that Rinpoche accepted our request to teach again at Tushita after 19 years! On the 9th & 10th our fortunate 120 residential students enrolled in three courses/group retreats enjoyed Rinpoche giving teachings in English on Emptiness and the Four Immeasurables. On the 11th, Rinpoche gave a private question and answer session to our Vajrasattva retreatants to support them in their practice.

Yangten Rinpoche returned on Oct 4th at the request of a group of Vietnamese students. Rinpoche gave a general Dharma teaching and answered questions that had arisen for students in response to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s public teachings on Nagarjuna’s “Precious Garland”. We are grateful to host Yangten Rinpoche and the Vietnamese group since 2015 and this year already for the second time.

Khyongla Rato Rinpoche honoured us with a second visit this year on October 27^th giving an inspiring explanation on the Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga (Ganden Lha Gyama). Our gompa with the statues of Lama Tsongkhapa and his two disciples provided the perfect background and made it easy for our 130 residential students from 2 courses and about 100 visitors to follow Rinpoche’s visualization. Rinpoche’s teachings were again skilfully interpreted by his close student Simon Houlton, which created an intimate and light atmosphere emphasizing Rinpoche’s humble and humorous style.

The last month of our season often proves to be one of the busiest and this November was no exception! It even had a few extra surprises in store…

Just after checking out 2 residential courses on November 1^st, we were welcoming back our dear teacher and friend Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo on November 2 & 3, who continued her teachings from March on Shantideva’s “Bodhisattva Way of Life” with teaching the 8^th chapter on Meditation. Jetsunma is always a guarantee for a full house, but this time blew all the records – 400 people were squeezed tightly into our gompa and another 60 sitting outside the opened windows, on the second floor and even hanging from the roof windows (which gave some of the organizers quite a scare)! Inspiring as always Jetsunma easily enchanted the crowd with her lively and direct presence, making sure to take much time for everybody’s questions.

Jetsunma devoted not only much time and energy for teachings, but spent every minute before, in between and after with eager students. We are grateful for a wonderful lunch with the Tushita Team and for meeting again with the ordained Sangha for lunch and a lively discussion.

Jetsunma had hardly left Tushita and we were already busy hurrying down the hill to attend His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s wonderful public teachings on the Heart Sutra in the mornings of November 4 – 6.

During these teachings (in our tiny break in between residential courses) we were hosting a big group of 90 Ladakhi students from the “Flowering Dharma”. These enthusiastic young Ladakhis had requested on short notice Geshe Kelsang Wangmo for a teaching on Emptiness & Bodhicitta on the afternoon of November 4^th. AND Geshe Lakdor for the same afternoon to give a review of His Holiness’ teachings.

On November 5^th Geshe Lhakdor la returned to continue his review of the Heart Sutra in his cherished humorous and insightful style. Geshe la being very familiar with the Ladakhi students, added some “extra spice” to his teachings by inserting phrases in Hindi, which created a light atmosphere full of laughter, but also many thoughtful moments.

But even more to come! Still dazzled by so many blessings, during the afternoon on November 6^th Yangten Rinpoche returned to Tushita as requested a third time this year by a group of 50 Vietnamese students, giving a detailed and comprehensive explanation of the Heart Sutra.

Wow wow wow amazing amazing. But no time to rest, a new batch of eager students waited already to be checked in on the next 2 following days for our introductory course and Chenrezig retreat.

Soon after in the morning of November 9^th Tushita had another very special visitor. Before leaving town the next day Jhado Rinpoche very kindly made some time to drop by for a kora around our gompa, the Ksitigarbha shrine and Lama Yeshe’s stupa before having some tea in Lama Yeshe’s room. Rinpoche had been teaching in Tushita last in 2015, due to Rinpoche’s extremely busy schedule teaching all around the world. Rinpoche joked that when people ask him where he is based, he would say his room is at Namgyel Monastery in McLeod Ganj, but he is only there for a few days at a time.

When entering Lama Yeshe’s Room Rinpoche first prostrated to Trijang Rinpoche’s seat and explained that His Holiness the Dalai Lama had done the same when coming here. Rinpoche then told us stories from the 80s, when Rinpoche attended many teachings at Tushita together with other high lamas. Rinpoche told us to keep these stories alive!

At some point our canine matron Nyinje Chenmo was sneaking into the room, walking straight to Rinpoche for a blessing and then lying down to Rinpoche’s feet. Rinpoche asked for her name and then told us many amazing stories about practitioner’s pets and how they refrained from eating meat on certain auspicious days or from killing. Although Nyinje, being almost 15 years old, has been manifesting this year being almost deaf, her ears were moving repeatedly like she was closely listening to Rinpoche’s words.

On the special holiday of Lhabab Duechen, November 19^th, we were delighted for Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche to return to Tushita for a second time this year. Rinpoche explained to us that in the Tibetan calendar this day is affectionately called Mother’s Day, hence Rinpoche taught on the Kindness of the Mother.

Rinpoche gave a very sweet and insightful teaching to 150 visitors, switching from English to Tibetan and back to English. He then shared with the audience that Tushita was a very special place for him, since he gave here his first teaching when he was 13 years old on the topic of the Guru Puja. Rinpoche revealed that he was so nervous, he could hardly see the lines of the text, so Geshe Tsering la (Lama Yeshe’s half brother who used to live in Tushita for a long time) had to help him.

And as you can see on the picture below, Nyinje Chenmo with perfect timing succeeded again to sneak into Lama Yeshe’s Room, where Rinpoche had tea, to get some blessings and a snack of cheese crackers.

Our Program

In the second half of 2019, we hosted 9 Introduction to Buddhism courses led by Venerable Drolma, Venerable Khadro, Glen Svensson, Jimi Neal, and Venerable Lhundup Jamyang. This makes a total of 18 courses with 1617 students in 2019!

In these courses we celebrated the attendance of three students in particular: Douangluethay Xayavong from Laos, Dolly Michira from Kenya, and Tatjana Cosic from Bosnia & Herzegovina our 101st, 102nd and 103rd nations represented at Tushita! We now have welcomed students from more than half the countries on the planet! Soon, we hope to celebrate an auspicious 108 nations since we began keeping records in 2009.

See all of our Introductory course students with their teachers and meditation leaders below.

In the second half we also completed 9 intermediate courses and group retreats including our biennial 3-month Vajrasattva retreat. These included courses and retreats with Venerable Drolma, Venerable Lhundup Jamyang, Richard Meijers, Glen Svensson and Jimi Neal.

In 2019 this adds up to a total of 11 intermediate/advanced courses (291 students), 1 Pre-Ordination Course (8 students) and 6 group retreats (100 students). This number of courses and group retreats is definitely a record and considering that we hosted our 3-month Vajrasattva retreat this year, it means that we often held not only 2 but 3 courses and retreats at the same time!

See all of our Intermediate & Advanced course and group retreat students with their teachers and meditation leaders below.

Vajrasattva Retreat Events

The 3-month Vajrasattva retreat is definitely a very special time with many high and many challenging times. Here we wanted to share some of the highlights:

Our 15 Vajrasattva retreatants together with their kind and ever so patient retreat leader Richard (who also attended the whole retreat) started their time at Tushita in a most auspicious way – the day they arrived here on July 5^th to prepare for their 3-month retreat, there was a Long Life Puja for His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Main Temple. Amazing timing!

The blessings continued on the next day, when we went to McLeod Ganj to see Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche in his room, where Rinpoche very kindly gave an inspiring teaching on how to set one’s motivation for a retreat. The day later, we were honored to welcome Yangten Rinpoche to Tushita to conferred the Heruka Vajrasattva Jenang with preliminary teachings on Lama Tsongkhapa’s “The Foundation of All Good Qualities”.

Half way through the retreat on September 11^th Yangsi Rinpoche met with the group to share methods for deepening their practice and answering their questions. And a couple of days later on September 14^th the retreatants had the opportunity to visit Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche again for practice advise and support.

During their last week the group had a very fortunate reintroduction to the outside world by attending His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s public teaching October 3 – 5.  They were also extremely fortunate to meet Khadro la on October 5^th, who generously gave advise on how to integrate the practice into everyday life and compassionately care for one’s parents.

Their tremendous efforts culminated on Oct 7th with a powerful Fire Puja at Tushita, which was led by our precious Lama Gyupa Thubten Dorje la and supported by 4 Gyume monks and the Tushita Team.

October 8^th marked the last day of the retreat and there was still a special perk waiting before some of the retreatants started their way home on the night-bus to Delhi: His Eminence Ling Rinpoche was in town and the lucky retreatants received His blessings and advise.

Non-Residential Activities

In addition to these residential courses, we also offered six non-residential short courses for those unable to commit to a full 10 days, or those who wanted even more teachings in addition to their residential courses. Venerable Khadro taught “How to Meditate” and “Emotional Intelligence”, David Marks taught “Mind, Meditation & the Meaning of Life”, Venerable Jamyang taught “Transforming Problems” and “Becoming Your Own Therapist”, and Venerable Tenzin Gache taught “The Philosophy of the Middle Way”.

In total we welcomed 552 students to these 7 short courses in 2019, including having sangha from both the sanskrit and pali traditions join three of the courses.

We also continued offering drop-in activities, like our ever-popular daily Guided Morning Meditation, our Video Day twice a week, regular pujas and special programs on wheel-turning days.

We started the second half of the year with a celebration for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 84th birthday on July 6^th by holding a puja called “How to Do the Great Festival of His Holiness’ Birthday in the Best Possible Way” as advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The 50 attendees enjoyed a lovely evening of celebration in our main gompa.

Finishing the year with the special holiday of Lhabab Duchen on Nov 19th, we offered an all-day program of Morning Meditation, Sutra Reading, Video Screening, a lovely teaching with Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche, followed by a Medicine Buddha Puja and a Meditation & Light Offering at Lama Yeshe’s stupa.

Check out our exciting upcoming events…

We are thrilled to be hosting a very special Vajrayogini Approximation Retreat with Paula Chichester and the beginning of our season next year, coinciding with the Days of Miracles and His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s public teachings.

Please see our Full 2020 Schedule and join us up on the mountain!

Fundraising

Generosity is the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude of compassion and loving-kindness 

– His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama

A fun and helpful way to support Tushita is through our two Amazon Wishlists! Select an item that Tushita needs and it will be sent directly to us. Super easy!

Tushita’s Wishlist: items that will really help improve the day-to-day running of things, including some larger items like computers and dehumidifiers.

Our Library’s Wishlist: select any titles from our campaign to expand our Dharma library with 108 new texts! These books will be available to thousands of students a year from all over the world including the wider community in our area.

Thank you for all your support in bringing the Dharma to so many beings around the world!