When I was exactly eighteen, even though I didn’t have the mind of renunciation, the enthusiasm arose in me to drop out of school and become a monk. I proceeded to discuss this with neighbours who had knowledge about the monastic life but they discouraged me, saying, “The monastic life is just a waste for children and their future. Only…

Our life is like a stage and we are like the actors on it, who perform different roles in various plays. Without even questioning it, we seem to be enjoying the drama which is framed within the boundary of afflicted emotions and is contaminated by dualistic thoughts. Ignorance is the main cause of these deluded perceptions and, therefore, we are…

It is a universal fact that everyone in this world strives for peace and happiness, irrespective of different views and understanding about it. Many historic figures such as the Buddha, Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad and many others came to this world and bestowed various teachings about how to acquire peace and happiness. According to Buddhism, there are two levels of…

Love and care exist not only within mankind but are also seen among animals. Regarding this, I would like to share a real story that I came across, between a dog and a cat. It was in the year 2000, when my elder sister brought a puppy home that my mother named Norzang. We used to feed him with cow…

Mother, Mama, Mom and Mummy are some of the precious words that we use to call our beloved mother. What we all know is that however disrespectful and bad we behave towards our mother, or however wrong the decisions are that we make in our life, she will still love us unconditionally just the way she always does. She is…

Everyone says it’s the time of degeneration. Yes, I believe the degenerate age will be here sooner or later as Guru Rinpoche prophesied in his Seven Chapter Prayer, Spontaneously Accomplishing Wishes: “In the degenerate age of strife, in the last five-hundred years, all sentient beings will be beleaguered by the gross defilement of the five poisons.” Also in other Buddhist…

I would like to share my thoughts reflecting on the reality of life from the different levels of beings’ mental dispositions, in ascending order. The continuum of consciousness between birth and death occurring in living beings with the support of vital wind-energy and substantial causes is called life. The existences of lives are distinguished by their common distinctive characteristics and…

As the saying goes, ‘knowledge is wealth’. I feel this quotation has very relevant meanings for bridging secularism and spirituality. Education in this context means to educate people in the union of secularism and spirituality. The word ‘secular’ literally describes the things that do not have any connection with religion or spirituality. But if we take secularism and spirituality to…

The word ‘religion’ came from the West and it has various meanings and definitions, none of which suit the concept of Buddhism. If we conceive of Buddhism as a religion it has a negative implication that can result in wrongly conceptualizing the intrinsic nature of Buddhism. Here, I justify my stance against the notion that ‘Buddhism is a religion’, since…

I vividly remember the days when I was a child. We lived in a cloistered society. As children we would play for the whole day. There were no systematic games; life seemed to be beautiful in those days. We would neither worry about the future nor regret the past.  Those summers with my family, friends and loved ones still linger…