Purification

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“We can often say that our own sufferings and all the catastrophes, unwanted situations, disasters, wars, failures and sicknesses that are happening in our world these days are a combination of different results of a lack of merit and wisdom.
Therefore the practice of intensive and skillful purification is very urgently needed.
Purification in the sense of cleaning our defilement and obscurations accumulated since beginningless time until today, which have come in the form of the ripening negative karmic results.
Of course, besides spiritual practice, we all must be actively stopping all the negative actions, confessing about our negative activities by body, speech and mind and vowing never to do them again.
Practically also we should be going out there to help all the beings, whenever we can when the circumstances arise.
This goes without saying.”
(His Holiness Jigme Pema Wangchen, the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa)

 

This picture was shot at the entrance of Sheh palace which is facing the Himalayan hills of the Tibetan Plateau in Ladakh.

 

 

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Merit and Wisdom

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“In order for us to progress smoothly and swiftly on our spiritual path, we need the help of two things – merit and wisdom – they are like the 2 wings of a bird, lacking one will cripple our progress.
We need to accumulate merit and wisdom with joyful effort and enthusiasm.
Merit without wisdom or wisdom without merit will not help.”
(His Holiness Jigme Pema Wangchen, the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa)

This is the main door of the ancient palace in Leh, the capital of Ladakh in the Himalayan hills.
It was shot at sunset.
This palace was modelled on the Potala Palace in Lhasa (Tibet) and is the highest building in the world of his own times.
Leh has for centuries been an important stopover on trade routes along the Indus Valley between Tibet to the east, Kashmir to the west and also between India and China.
The main goods carried were salt, grain, pashm or cashmere wool, charas (cannabis resin) from the Tarim Basin, indigo, silk yarn and Banaras brocades.

“Prayers for Leh which has lost all contact”

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Sad news, there were hundreds of people killed in flash floods and thousand of houses washed away in Leh.
Over 500 people are still missing tonight (Sunday).
The cloudburst, flash floods and mudslides that hit Leh town around midnight on Friday washed away government offices, paramilitary camps and residential homes.
Among the worst hit are the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), many local hotels and shops.
With road and air connectivity disrupted and phone lines down, Leh has been cut off from rest of the world since Thursday night.
The disruption in communication system has affected the rescue work undertaken by the Army as well as other paramilitary personnel.
Over 6,000 army men and troopers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) are involved in the massive relief and rescue operation and are assisting the local administration.
Airtel whose network is still operating in Leh, has issued SIM cards to the local administration for setting up helplines.

I never thought that this could happen in such a place which was a piece of heaven.
The Indus River there, called Sênggê Zangbo, the “Lion River” in Tibetan, is so narrow that I keep on wondering how such a thing is possible…
All my prayers are going to the wonderful people of Leh, I have their smiles and happiness in mind forever…

www.dailymotion.com/video/xec0tk_leh-floods-omar-visits-h…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKbDX86klC4

This is a view of Leh, the capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh which is in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
It was shot from a terrace at Leh Palace, a former home of the royal family of Ladakh.
Leh is at an altitude of 3,524 meters (11,483 ft), it is spread over 45,110 sq. km, and comprises the main town and 12 adjacent villages..
For centuries it has been an important stopover on trade routes along the Indus Valley between Tibet to the east, Kashmir to the west and also between India and China.

The World Of Our Own Nature

“The world we live in is very negative.
However there is hope through the spiritual path to provide better conditions.
The conditions are the only things that we can create through our own effort and through the so-called blessings of the guru, dakinis, dakas, all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the saints…or “nature”.
These are all basically the blessings of “nature”.
The world of our own nature is the most important to attain.
If we can work with this sort of spiritual blessing, spiritual force and spiritual practice, then there is not much difficulty in turning the world into something positive.”
(His Holiness Jigme Pema Wangchen, the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa)

This was shot in front of a statue of Maitreya Buddha in one of the temples at Thiksey Monastery in the Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh which is in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

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Spinning a Wheel of Prayer

“The important thing is not the finding, it is the seeking, it is the devotion with which one spins the wheel of prayer and scripture, discovering the truth little by little.
If this machine gave you the truth immediately, you would not recognize it,”
(Ursula K. LeGuin – American Writer, b.1929)

Those Tibetan monks were talking in front of a Buddhist temple in Leh, the capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh which is in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
One was holding a prayer wheel.
Tibetan prayer wheels (called Mani wheels by the Tibetans) are devices for spreading spiritual blessings and well being.
Rolls of thin paper with copies of the mantra (prayer) Om Mani Padme Hum, printed in an ancient Indian script or in Tibetan script, are wound around an axle in a protective container, and spun around and around.
Tibetan Buddhists believe that saying this mantra, out loud or silently to oneself, invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion.

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The Good Shine from Afar

To Conquer Oneself

“To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others”.
(Siddhārtha Gautama, the Buddha)

This seated Buddha is sheltered in a room which is barely opened to visitors in Hemis Gompa which is a Tibetan monastery located in the Himalayan hills, on the opposite side of the Singge Tsangpo river (Indus) in Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir).
I was surprised by the beard and the turban which give a Muslim influence to the statue.
This unusual piece is surrounded by impressive painted walls of a high quality.
There was a natural light coming from the open door.

The Abode of Snow

 

“The good shine from afar Like the snowy Himalayas. The bad don’t appear Even when near, Like arrows shot into the night.” (Buddha – Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.) This is a view of the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayas very early in the morning. For those who know me it might be funny to know that I took this picture from the plane which was taking me from Delhi to Leh in Ladakh, as I have a strong flight phobia since I am a child… The word "Himalaya" means "home (or abode) of snow", it comes from Sanskrit hima "snow" and alaya "abode". Sanskrit himá "frost, snow" is also cognate to Latin hiems "winter" from PIE (Proto-Indo-European language) ghyem-. As words, the expression "Himalaya Range" is therefore similar to the Spanish-based mountain range called the Sierra Nevada. Everything is so connected…

The Wheel of Dharma

 

This is a close-up of a Tibetan prayer wheel made of metal and wood which is in Sheh palace, in Ladakh.
Here in the Himalayan hills, people believe that according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, spinning such a wheel will have much the same meritorious effect as orally reciting the prayers.

The most commonly used mantra in prayer wheels is Om Mani Padme Hum.
This mantra is the resonant vibration that helps tune a human being toward enlightenment energies.

The earliest recorded prayer wheels was written by a Chinese pilgrim around 400 CE. in Ladakh.
The concept of the prayer wheel is a physical manifestation of the phrase “turning the wheel of Dharma,” which describes the way in which the Buddha taught.

The Real Magicians

 

 

“We are the real magicians
For in actual fact nothing exists.
Pleasure and pain are created by attraction and aversion,
Grasping attractions magically creates things,
And if we analyze this thoroughly,
We can’t be certain that even we exist”.
(from My Crazy Tale, An Autobiographical Poem by H.H. the XIIth Gyalwang Drukpa)

Those Tibetan Buddhist monks were coming back from a ceremony that they had to perform in the hills.
I took this picture as they were entering the courtyard of Hemis Gompa, a monastery located in the Ladakh region of the Western Himalayas, at an altitude of 12,000 feet making it one of the highest settlements of the world.