Tashi Delek everybody. I hope you all are doing well and are healthy. I myself and the monks, nuns and children at Menri Monastery all are very well.
We’re busy preparing Tibetan Losar on February 10th that this year is the first day of the new year. February 6-8th was Gutor ceremony where all the monks do rituals for three days, praying to stop negativities and obstacles for the coming new year. We also prepare for the new year by cleaning house and preparing decorations. So this is a really busy time.
February 14th is a day of celebration of Nyammé Sherab Gyalshen, the first Abbott of Menri Monastery. On February 18th is the Cham dance the whole day. We’ll Cham dance many different kinds of cham. A masked dance is what we call Cham.
On the 19th of February the Geshe ceremony starts. This year we have 17 new Geshes. The 23rd and 24th of February is Buddha Tonpa Shenrab birthday ceremony.
After new year all the dialectic students go for Mawe Senge retreat for one week. A retreat on Mawe Senge, the Lion of Speech deity. This is a wisdom deity. We do this retreat every year. It supports and helps increase your wisdom, your knowledge and your memory. This is why our dialectic school students have really good memory, wisdom and intelligence and is why we do this every year.
In April we have Mendrup. Mendrup means blessing medicine rituals, and this event we call Drubchen. The dates have already been announced in Tibetan and in English. (April 11-26). You can find information on many different center websites. And this specific Mendrup Drubchen ceremony is only done once in the lifetime of each Abbot.
So if you want, come visit Menri for this Mendrup blessing medicine ritual that goes for two weeks. We already prepared the blessing medicine. This is not chemical medicine, it’s herbal medicine blessing for any kind of health. If you want to visit Menri Monastery you can contact
This is our Yungdrung Bön Monastic Center office email address. Contact them on how to apply for PAP (Protected Area Permit), how to get a room, and they will arrange it and help with how to apply for the PAP from the Indian Government, which is important.
The weather in April is a little warm, not cold. Dry and not too hot and is not the raining season. It is the start of summer.
I’ll explain again about those who are Dragon year. If (on the western calendar) you are turning age 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, all those ages are Dragon and means one will have a little bit of obstacles in this Dragon year. We have rituals and activities of what to do and what not to do. Like in the Dragon year you don’t do construction of a house. And especially be stronger in your practice of the virtues or some spiritual practice, meditation, and especially the Long Life Ritual. Recite the Long Life mantra SO DRUM A KAR MU LA TING NA ÖD DU MU YÉ TSÉ NI DZA
You can also recite another Long Life Mantra:
SO A YAM RAM MAM KHAM DRUM DHU, A YU SHE TSU TSE NIR DZA DZA
So here I give two different Long Life mantras. Recite which one is easier for you. Which one is easy to recite you can do for yourself.
You can recite these two Long Life mantras and you can ask the monastery to accumulate these, you can ask Menri. Students at the Dialectic School can pray Long Life mantras and the little bit bigger ritual one of which is called Gya Zhi, which is good for cleansing obstacles and cleansing negatives. Gya Zhi means 400 types of rituals. – 100 butter lamps, 100 tsa tsa, 100 cake offering and 100 ransom offerings. This ritual you need for obstacles for this year especially if your year is Dragon.
And this year I’m planning to visit USA and Costa Rica. In the US I plan to teach on the east coast and west coast. I don’t have much time so this is organized by Gyalshen Institute, Geshe Chaphur Rinpoche, who invited me for these teachings. So I hope we will see you there face to face or through the computer, the modern window.
I hope everyone is very happy and I do pray for you and for your happiness and health coming this new year. And I also pray for all to be successful so everything is doing well and thank you so much and many, many Tashi Deleks to everybody. Tashi Delek for Losar.
From the Board of KWL:
Menri Ponlob was the honored guest at the opening of the Dolpo Society’s new monastery and center in Kathmandu at the end of January. The center includes a hotel and meeting site for residents of the Dolpo region of Nepal when they come to Kathmandu – not just for Bonpos but for Dolpo residents of all spiritual traditions. Hundreds of people met Ponlob at the airport when he arrived, and it was even covered by Kathmandu news programs. Many more people attended the opening ceremony for the center – estimated at about 5000 people.
Note from KWL:
Menri Ponlob will be teaching in the US and Costa Rica in May – July 2024. For information about Ponlob’s teachings in California and Costa Rica contact Gyalshen Institute: https://gyalshen.org/
For information about the Connecticut teaching contact Cheri Brady: cheribrady@aol.com
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For Dragons (see above) who would like to request special prayers or rituals to alleviate obstacles in this Dragon year, you can contact Menri through us at Khyungdzong Wodsel Ling.
Email nulle58@yahoo.com
We are currently rebuilding our KWL website, but in the meanwhile you can make donations by PayPal or credit card here: https://kwling.org/
Or mail a check payable to Khyungdzong Wodsel Ling to:
Dika Ryan/KWL
1977 N. New Hampshire Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027