Last year, the pilgrimage included in the Butterlamp retreat brought us to the famous wish fulfilling lake of Kachopelri in west-Sikkim to make aspiration prayers for the swift return of our beloved teacher. While practicing together at this beautiful and touching place, wishes were made to be given the opportunity to come back for a longer period of time and practice there together.

To celebrate this 20^th Butterlamps offering it is Tulku Ugen’s proposal to start the retreat at Khordong Byangter Monastery on December 25th, 2010 and follow the usual practice schedule for the first week, before to embark into an unusual turn of the retreat, to transform it into a retreat dedicated to the recitation of Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche’s swift reincarnation prayer at Kachopelri lake by all participants, with the wish to reach minimum 111.111 recitation of the prayer.

The idea is to do it over a period of 7 days, at a location by the lake, offering 1000 lamps daily and practicing the small Padmasambhava text, together with the aspiration prayer of the lamps, dedicating the rest of the day to the accumulation of Rinpoche’s reincarnation prayer.

To make it a real celebration whoever feels a connection with Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche is invited to take part in the recitation over these 7 days, either here in India or wherever you are at home in Europe or in Asia. The more aspirations the better, all you have to do is count your recitations and email us your result at the end of the period at thechhimedrigdzinsociety@yahoo.com

Once the project is finalized we will inform you of the starting date and we will post Rinpoche’s reincarnation prayer on the blog and the website. Please be sincere and accurate on your accumulation.

We believe that as a group it will be the most meaningful way to celebrate this now traditional butterlamp retreat. Not so much in counting the lamps this time, but more in calling Rinpoche back for the sake of all sentient beings, and in particular his lineage and his disciples.

Let’s see how much we can recite together for our teacher.

Om Soti…

A French practitioner from another Sangha came to India to make a retreat for 1 year.She had several occasion to come and spend time at Khordong Byangter Gompa and would like to share these few lines with you.

"The very first time, I passed the Gompa door, it was completely dark because of an electricity cut and, far away, a friend was swinging a light to show me the way.
Laughters were flying off the kitchen so I immediately felt most welcome.
The following morning, a powerful energy seemed to emanate from the surroundings:
a huge pale orange winter sun hanging in a white thick sky, vertical prayer flags floating in the still plain gave the whole scene an eery atmosphere and evoked the charnel ground, palace of dakinis where all concepts are cut sharply, the naked truth.

But Gompaland since became to me a place filled with joy, love and freedom. Spending some time here helps to understand that everything is the mandala, everything is Guru. The most subtle defilements -such as doubt, fear, anger, desire- explode as if under a burning sun but at the same time they can be completely shattered without any judgmental thought and be freed because as CR Lama used to say "everything is perfect".
Painful emotions, happy moments, snakes and kittens all have the same nature.

Gompaland is unique in itself: it is a fully living place for wild and farm animals, western practitioners, villagers and small monks, rice fields, orchards and flowers.  The young monks are so fortunate to benefit from so much space where to grow in harmony with nature. The gompa is also quite self-sufficient as it grows rice, veggies and fruits and get milk too.
The guesthouse even regularly shelters cancer patients from the nearby clinics who undergo chemotherapy. Such a relief for them and their kins to be able to enjoy some peace in the middle of nature, benefit from the pujas and get many blessings.

The scenery is often stunning. At night, millions of tiny lightbugs fill the dark with golden spots with the illuminated stupa in the background. By day, during the monsoon, fields turn suddenly into lakes and paths into rivers where the children play with sun reflections.
Just walking in this beautiful park between 2 sessions of practice, watch birds flying away or farmers working the earth is so relaxing.

Practicing in India seems essential. India is called by Tibetan Buddhists "Noble Land" because it is considered as slightly above samsara. It is said that all Buddhas from the past, present and future will manifest Enlightenment in India.
The energy is such that practitioner improve. Many realized beings meditated here such as Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal and many great Bodhisattvas choose to take rebirth in India.

C.R Lama, in His great love and wisdom gave this very special place to his lineage and students so that they can benefit from the "Noble Land" and improve faster. The conditions for practicing at Khordong gompa are excellent: We can just come, sit and practice. Everything is here! This is extremely rare and precious.
(Especially, for female practitioners in India, how many places such as this one allow us to practice in a respectful atmosphere? Where can ley westerners attend all pujas? Access is often restricted and we are only tolerated as sponsors.)

Rinpoche's presence is so strong at Khordong that I feel I am entering His home as soon as I get off the rickshaw. It is as if there is no difference between His monastery and Him, the whole gompa is C.R Lama, the whole mandala is the Guru.

C.R Lama seems to show that the passing away of a great master only exists in our narrow mind . He is always there and never leaves a single of his students. As promises Padmasambhava, " A Padmasambhava is always standing in front of the one who has faith in me". If we cannot see him, it is only because of our defilements.

Then, as every compounded phenomenon, the physical manifestation of a Guru arises when all the causes and conditions of his coming back are gathered. Most masters insist on one of the main condition of their being among us: devotion.
A harmonious Sangha, Vajra brothers and sisters getting on well together and thus respecting their samayas and devoted students who support their master's activity trustfully are essential because the presence of the master is like the achievement of all sentient beings' loving kindness. Students of holy Bodhisattvas have thus a big responsibility.
The link "tendrel" must be good from beginning to end-everything is interdependent.

Drolma,".

Today we are sad to inform you that our dear old Jacky is gone. Many of you know him as he has been garding and battling around the gompa for the past ten years with great tenacity. He always was free to go wherever he wanted but always chose to stand by the gompa. In his last few days he was so much full of energy that everybody shared the thougth that he migth live for another couple of years, but in fact it was like his last parade.

He ended his life under one of the palm tree in front the gompa and left peacefully in his sleep.

Our lamas gave him a warm fairwell and performed some pujahs with good wishes for his next life.

The rain has arrived a few days ago. Nights after nights of rain have transformed the surrounding here.

The new drain system helps contains some of it but it is still not enough. The main road is once again transformed in a river with a strong current of water coming from the surrounding fields.

The pond is completely full to the delight of the children and small fishes and frogs can be seen everywhere. It is festival time for the plants, trees and any kind of overgrowing greeneries, while flocks of green parrots cross the sky with a strident cry and the first teals turn around whistling. The air is of course heavy and wet but the nature and the skies are wonderfully beautiful. Here comes the time of the monsoon and the plantation of rice. The fields behind Rinpoche's Stupa are being prepared with the buffalos and women have already started planting the rice.

Two of the guests present at the moment had the chance to give it a try  and enjoyed it greatly. Please see the photos.

On July 4^th we received the sad news about the passing away of Maciej Grzeszczuk from Poland.

To honor the memory of his deep devotion for Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche and his precious commitment to see Darnkov gompa project start and come off the ground despite arduous conditions during the early stages,

Tulku Ugen requested 1000 lamps to be offered in his name together with the recitation of Zangdopalri monlan, Zangchod monlam and Nangwa Thayae monlam by the young monks of Khordong Byangter Monastery, lead by Lopon Choewang on July 5th.

It was a nice occasion to talk about him and remember him from the depth of our hearts while making aspiration for him to have a peaceful journey through the bardo and that he can meet his Guru soon and learn from him again the precious Dharma.