This is the highlight of year 2018 for Philippine Palyul Buddhist temple. HH Thubsang Rinpoche came to visit the Philippines for the first time to bestow four Buddhist empowerments. It was to fulfill the request of the members of the temple. The request was led by his long-time student Khenpo Tashi. He stayed briefly in Manila, from May 30 to June 4, 2018.
HH Thubsang Rinpoche, the seniormost lama of the Palyul tradition, is a contemporary of Penor Rinpoche while they were still studying in Palyul Town, in Tibet. During the early days, Thubsang Rinpoche would reminisce how diligent and serious Penor Rinpoche was in doing his preliminary practices (Ngondro). When the occupation happened, Penor Rinpoche left for India while Thubsang Rinpoche stayed in Tibet.
Rebuilding Palyul Monastery
Thubsang Rinpoche slowly rebuilt Palyul Monastery to what it is today. In his mid-80s, he is still working tirelessly to preserve the Buddha’s teachings. Thubsang Rinpoche is still collecting the Kama and Terma for posterity. As the story goes, when he went to the USA, he insisted on visiting the libraries there to see the rare manuscripts of the Kama and Terma. These worn-out texts were brought by past Buddhist masters in the USA during the occupation.
In the great library of Palyul Monastery in China, some of our members witnessed this. There are hundreds of volumes of woodblocks of the Kama and Terma being carved. This is so that the words of the Kama and Terma can be preserved for another generation.
Four Buddhist Empowerments
During his brief stay, he bestowed the empowerments of Amitabha Pureland, 1000-eye, 1000-arm Chenrezig, Medicine Buddha and Long Life Guru Rinpoche. All of these empowerments are from the Namchoe cycle of teachings.
Depending on our Karma, we pray that we can still meet Thubsang Rinpoche once more!
