Dudjom Tersar Yeshe Nyingpo Temple NYC & Orgyen Cho Dzong Upstate NY

09/29/2026

The authentic Buddhadharma is not something outside the mind. It dwells within. This is why Buddha has said:

Abandon every evil deed,
Practice virtue well,
Perfectly subdue your mind:
This is Buddha’s teaching.

If we condense this verse into a single point, it means that every action, whether great or small, that is motivated by the three poisons of craving, aversion, and ignorance, is negative.

This is what we must strive to eliminate. If we completely give up harming others and eradicate the negative intentions that are the root of this, the pratimoksha vows will be perfectly observed. Again, all actions, big or small, that are not defiled by the three poisons are positive. This is what we must accomplish.

If we are not stained by the three poisons, we will gradually acquire the altruistic attitude of wishing to benefit others. The whole of bodhichitta is complete in this altruistic attitude and the activities that bring benefit to others.

It is through virtuous or nonvirtuous intentions that negative and positive actions are perpetrated. The source of all virtue and nonvirtue is thus the mind alone, and it is over our minds that we must mount an unceasing guard. All the eighty-four thousand teachings of the Buddhadharma were set forth for one reason only: to tame the mind. If we succeed in bringing our wild, rough minds to heel, all ordinary perceptions and clingings will naturally dissolve, and the “infinite purity” of all phenomena will become manifest.

In this way, the samayas of the Secret Mantra are complete and perfect. Subduing the mind leads naturally to the development of a good heart. This is what we are referring to when we use the beautiful word bodhichitta.

Furthermore, the samayas of the Secret Mantra relate not to the actions of body and speech (which are the specific preserve of the Vinaya) but to the mind. And they can be damaged in a single instant. For example, as soon as you feel strong and genuine hatred toward one of the Dharma kindred, you have committed the third downfall of the Vajrayana.

If you have genuine contempt for a non-Buddhist religion (to say nothing of other Buddhist tenet systems), you have committed the sixth downfall. You must repair your samaya as soon as it is damaged. The more you delay, the heavier the fault will be. Consequently, if you commit even a small infraction or allow the samaya to degenerate even slightly, do not dismiss it as unimportant but diligently confess it at once.

Once you have received the empowerment of any deity of the three roots, you are bound from then on to consider the yoga related to the body, speech, and mind of that deity as your essential meditation. This is your samaya. Of course, you may not be able to perform lots of meditations and recitations on all sorts of deities, but if you meditate on Vajrasattva, the sovereign of all mandalas, you will in fact be meditating on all of them.

This meditation is praised as a way of purifying all breaches, downfalls, and negativities. It is very important to make an effort and recite the hundred-syllable mantra at least twenty-one times daily, within the framework of a confession practice. To sum up, if you are able to extract the essence of the empowerment you have able to extract the essence of the empowerment you have received by maintaining a virtuous lifestyle and a good meditation practice, you yourself are the one who will benefit.

Here we all are. Despite the fact that no announcement was made that these empowerments were to take place, we have managed to come together, drawn by our past pure connections with the Dharma, our karma, and our aspirations.

If we continue to pray and make the repeated aspiration to meet again in the buddhafields in our next lives, I am sure that this will happen. I therefore request you all, masters and disciples, to have the utterly pure attitude of bodhichitta. Aspire constantly and pray without ceasing that this precious Buddhadharma, the source of every prosperity and joy, should prevail and spread.

Pray that His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the head and crown jewel, the supreme protector of the snowy land, together with all the great holders of the doctrine, should live long and that their activities may constantly increase. Pray too that all the beings in the world, particularly of this noble land of India, and especially of Tibet, the Land of Snow, be swiftly freed from the suffering and torment inflicted in this decadent age, and that they be set before a feast of fresh and perfect happiness and prosperity.

Lamas and tulkus, there is just one last thing. I want to tell you of my great hope and expectation. I am an old man, and my health is not so good. In any case, it will be hard for me to continue to teach and spread the empowerments and transmissions of the kahma teachings to any great extent. But now I have been able to give them to you in their entirety, and this has made me very happy. You have inherited the and this has made me very happy.

You have inherited the riches of your forefathers, and you must not allow these profound instructions, which are like wish-fulfilling jewels, to decline. This is the great responsibility that you must feel.

All the scriptures of the Nyingma kahma were completely destroyed, except for this one set of mine. If one single folio is lost from it, the cycle in its entirety will be destroyed. So I request you, lamas and tulkus, to copy and publish these books as much as possible. Practice and accomplish them for your own sake and for the sake of others. Teach them.

Propagate them, so that the stream of the teachings is not severed but remains forever. Give the greatest attention to upholding and preserving the teachings. This is of the utmost importance, and from my heart, I entreat you.

- Dudjom Rinpoche - Counsels From My Heart

09/28/2026

Hearts of 108: HE Kathok Situ Rinpoche and HE Trulku Kencho Tshering

Their Eminences Kathok Situ Rinpoche and Trulku Kencho Tshering have offered one Jangchub Chorten towards Project 108, with deep reverence and gratitude to the King and Bhutan.

Kathok Situ Rinpoche dedicates this offering to the benefit of all sentient beings, with prayers for peace, clarity and freedom from suffering.

“May His Majesty’s Royal aspirations be spontaneously fulfilled, and may the merit of this offering bring lasting peace and happiness to all”.

Their Eminences will also be in Gelephu Mindfulness City from 1–4 November to join the prayers and sacred activities surrounding Project 108.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Their Eminences for this offering and prayers for Project 108.

09/28/2026

How amazing!

From the beginning, the essential original nature of luminosity,
Simplicity that is the spontaneous display of union’s great exaltation,
Co-emergent Vajra Queen, consort of sublime secrets,
Come as a consoling companion, of all phenomena manifesting as dharmakaya.

In the realm of the essence, primordial purity, complete in the original ground of the nature of phenomena,
The unique vital sphere is realization of wisdom’s immediacy.
I turn the wheel of the ta***ic feast gathering of impartial view:
Dharmakaya dakinis of empty awareness, enjoy this festival of delight!

In the realm of the nature, spontaneous presence, continual luminosity,
Wisdom’s uncontrived naturally settled state transcends dualistic mind.
I turn the wheel of the ta***ic feast gathering of meditation, free from reference points:
Sambhogakaya dakinis of empty luminosity, enjoy this festival of delight!

In the realm of spontaneous and infinite wisdom’s all-pervading compassion,
The fearless activity of non-action transcends keeping or releasing, coming or going.
I turn the wheel of the ta***ic feast gathering of conduct, free from accepting or rejecting:
Nirmanakaya dakinis of empty appearance, enjoy this festival of delight!

In the great essence of the six lights’ enclosure of rainbow light,
The inner radiance of awareness is unobstructed—the assemblage of kayas and wisdoms.
I turn the wheel of the ta***ic feast gathering of luminosity’s four visions:
Enjoy this festival of delight, the exhaustion of phenomena beyond mind!

The great sphere of profound clarity has no edge or boundary.
The four naturally manifest lights neither increase nor decrease.
Whatever appears is the wheel of wisdom—why strive or struggle in practice?
I now release my original knowing into openness.

All phenomena of dualistic delusion’s perceptions are liberated within birthlessness;
Existence’s and enlightenment’s uncontrived all-pervasive equality is self-manifest Buddhahood.
I have found the original protector’s kingdom within me;
The sun of spacious happiness has dawned in the center of my heart.

If we are Kuntu Zangpo’s and Lotus-Born’s lineage children,
Let us rely upon the swift path of the definite secret, the supreme vehicle’s special features—
The vajra drama of the great transference rainbow body—
And depart to aid beings, emptying the very depths of existence’s three realms.

Fortunate vajra brothers and sisters gathered here:
Faith and devotion without doubt or hesitation guide your aspirations and acts.
Your conduct is the fearless activity free from concepts concerned with purity and impurity.
Enjoy this festival of delight, the ta***ic feast-wheel of great exaltation!

I make this aspiration prayer:
May the power of our ta***ic feast and of the truth of the profound inconceivable nature of phenomenaThe Celebration of Fortunate Ones
Lead us together to take pleasure in the resplendent enjoyment of stainless indestructible great exaltation
Among the gathering in the Highest Pure Land’s celestial city.

- Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdral Yeshé Dorjé - Wisdom Nectar

09/27/2026

In the form and formless worlds there is no manifest suffering of suffering, but the gods there are never exempt from the suffering of everything composite. Because the ordinary beings in these realms become, as it were, intoxicated with concentration, they do not make any progress in increasing their good qualities. Once they have tasted the flavor of concentration, they dare not be parted from concentration as an experience, and as a result, their concentration fades and they die.

In particular, when the propelling action they performed in a previous life is exhausted, the ordinary beings in these realms again take birth in the world of desire. Although they have had an apparently blissful experience in their earlier meditation of worldly concentration and now in the concentrations of the form and formless realms, when the propelling force for this tainted bliss is spent, they will again fall into the lower realms without any idea where they are going, like an arrow being shot into the sky.

Letter to a Friend says:

A Kamaloka god, one gains such bliss,
As Brahma, bliss that’s free from all desire;
But know that after that comes constant pain:
As firewood one feeds Avici’s flames.

So, wherever we are born in the three worlds of cyclic existence, there is suffering. Whatever the place, it is a place of suffering. Whoever accompanies us is a companion in suffering. Whatever we experience, it does not go beyond the experience of suffering. As is stated in the Sublime Continuum,

Just as in excrement there are no good smells, for the five kinds of beings there is no happiness;
Their sufferings are like the ever-continuing sensation of fire, weapons, caustic salts, and so forth.

That is what we have to understand.

- Dudjom Rinpoche - A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom

09/26/2026

09/26/2026

In accord with the saying “You accomplished half of the Buddhist teachings when you left your native land,” you turned your back on your homeland to wander in unfamiliar lands. Now that you have parted company from your friends and relatives in a positive way, do not listen to those who try to discourage you from pursuing your spiritual practice. Now that you’ve given away your possessions, rely upon whatever meritorious donations come your way. Once you’ve recognized all your pleasures as obstacles created by bad habits, cultivate an attitude without desires.

If you are not contented with few possessions, as long as one “need” after another arises, the deceptive demon of your pleasures will enter without much trouble. Do not take as true anything others say, good or bad: Do not regard it with hope or fear; do not affirm or deny it. Allow others to say whatever they like, as if they are talking about a co**se. Except for a
qualified Lama, no one can give correct advice, not even your father or mother. Be the judge of your actions and do not let others lead you around by the nose.

- Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdral Yeshé Dorjé - Wisdom Nectar

09/25/2026

It is with great joy that we announce that H.H. Dungsey Namgay Dawa Rinpoche will bestow the Dudjom Tersar Troma Nakmo Wangchen for the first time in the United States, at Thinley Khachöd Ling on Sunday, September 27th.

Rinpoche is the son of the late H.H. Dungse Shenphen Dawa Norbu Rinpoche and a grandson of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje. He is a principal lineage holder of the Dudjom Tersar and carries the spiritual direction of numerous Dudjom Tersar centers around the world. Many of you will remember his previous visits to Big Indian, when he blessed the land, made aspiration prayers for the unfolding of the center, and consecrated our shrines. That he now returns to confer the great empowerment of Tröma in the very room where our Tröma Nakmo shrine stands is an auspicious continuity which we are deeply grateful for.

Troma Nakmo, the Black Wrathful Mother, is the feminine embodiment of wisdom and the innermost secret aspect of the dakini practice within the Dudjom Tersar. The central core of her cycle of practices is Chöd, the severance that cuts directly at dualistic clinging to a self, the root from which all our suffering grows. The Wangchen is the major empowerment of this cycle, the highest of the Troma wangs, encompassing all the deities of the mandala and opening the door to the whole path from ngöndro through trekchö and tögal. To receive it in person from a lineage holder of this stature is rare, and we encourage everyone who is able to come.

The day will begin at 10am and run until the early evening, with a break for lunch. Generous donations of any amount to the center are greatly appreciated to apply to the Tsok offerings, the Torma making, meals, texts and the many other facility expenses. For more details on how to register and donate, visit us here https://www.bodhivastu.org/events/long-life-empowerment-with-hh-namgay-dawa-rinpoche