June 20, 2009  - Dear Dharma Friends,

I pray that all of you are well and were greatly enriched by the spiritual experience of the First Annual Drukpa Council that was held in Druk Amithabha Mountain, Nepal.

The event was a wonderful success and I truly felt great admiration for all the selfless concerted efforts and contributions of all the Drukpa Centres and Sanghas;

my heartfelt gratitude and thanks to all the Drukpa spiritual family for making the great wish of His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa of benefiting countless sentient beings a reality.

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas manifest themselves according to sentient beings’ positive karma, devotion and faith generated; however these Buddhas and Bodhisattvas may also be compelled to leave these very same sentient beings due to the negative karma generated as the Buddha or Bodhisattva’s teachings are not able to help them and therefore unable to fulfill the purpose of benefiting sentient beings.

As some of you may already know or have heard, from a traditional Tibetan viewpoint, the next 4 years are considered ‘obstacle’ years for His Holiness from the astrological point of view. Though Buddha himself like His Holiness are beyond the dualistic concepts of obstacles it is extremely important for us lay devotees, as well as nuns and monks living in the samsara with dualistic concepts to perform spiritual activities dedicated for the longevity of His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa. These merits should also be dedicated for His Holiness Je Khenpo Jigme Choedra, His Eminence Bairo Rinpoche and Mayoumla and for all the great masters whose mere presence, if prolonged for even a second, can greatly benefit numerous seen and unseen beings.

Therefore I would like to make this heartfelt request to all my Dharma brothers and sisters, and the various Drukpa centers around the world to participate in the practice of requesting for His Holiness's longevity and good health. In these dark times, we are in even greater need of His Holiness’s wisdom, compassion and teachings to act as the beacon of light guiding our spiritual and humanitarian endeavors.

 To give you a better understanding of the origins of the practice of requesting the longevity of spiritual masters, I would like to share a brief story of the Buddha Shakyamuni.

Some time before Buddha Shakyamuni passed away, perceiving His eminent death, He spoke to His disciple Ananda about how all Buddhas having exhausted all their karma were free from the cyclical existence of samsara and had the freedom to choose to live for as many eons as they choose to do so.

It is said that Buddha Shakyamuni mentioned this to his disciple Ananda three times; however Ananda was unable to hear Buddha Shakyamuni’s words as he was obscured by ignorance or Mara.

Mara then appeared to Buddha Shakyamuni and requested Buddha Shakyamuni to enter Para nirvana as He must be tired from being in the world.  Due to the negative karma accumulated by people of the time along with Ananda's obscuration, and due to Buddha Shakyamuni's compassion for Mara, despite understanding his evil intentions, Buddha Shakyamuni accepted his request.

 Upon understanding that Buddha Shakyamuni had consented of His Para nirvana, His ahrats unable to bear the thought of losing Buddha Shakyamuni passed into nirvana before Him.

One such disciple, the ahrat Tsungda, upon hearing of the news was overcome with deep grief, he immediately requested Buddha Shakyamuni to stay forever. However Buddha Shakyamuni explained that He had spoken to Ananda three times, but due to negative karma Ananda’s clarity was so obscured that he failed to hear His words, and therefore accepted Mara’s request.  The ahrat Tsungda was so distressed that Lord Buddha Shakyamuni felt great compassion and extended His life for three more months at ahrat Tsungda’s entreaties.
 Thus the tradition of requesting master's longevity originated from this particular event.

There are many known ways to request the longevity of our masters through various methods and means.  For the next four years, I have requested all Drukpa monasteries to perform various longevity prayer ceremonies, especially the Amitayu prayer and Namgyalma along with various other longevity prayer ceremonies. 

I would also like to request all Drukpa Centers and Sanghas to coordinate its
 members to:

*It is requested that the life releases be performed on the 10th day of every lunar month as it coincides with His Holiness's birthday.  For those Drukpa Centers where life releases are difficult due to restrictions, we ask that those Sangha members practice vegetarianism for that day.

I have also requested His Eminence Thuksey Rinpoche to coordinate such efforts so that we may jointly embark upon this endeavor.  I am also greatly appreciative for those centers, monasteries and individual Sangha members who have already begun their Shabten practice.

 It is our wish that within these four years we are able to release 1 billion lives
 and recite over 1 billion long life prayers at the least!!

We ask that you send your accomplishments to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it AND ENTER THE NUMBERS ON THE 
WEBSITE FORM. 
Such activities should be reported to www.drukpa-shabten.net so that we may all support and rejoice in each other's accumulation of merit for His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa.

 Once again my sincere gratitude to all my Dharma brothers and sisters combined efforts for enabling our precious wish for our spiritual master’s longevity and good health.

May all the precious masters live long and may the Drukpa Lineage thrive under their guidance benefiting all beings.

His Eminence Khamtrul Rinpoche
&
His Eminence Thuksey Rinpoche

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