I spent my Sunday listening to the Empowerment of Tengyur – one of the two holy canons of Buddhism. It was conferred to over 500 lamas and monks by His Eminence Samten Dorji – the former Tshugla Lopen (minister of monastic education) at the main hall of Tango Buddhist university.

While I didn’t understand a word, the readings were very soothing to my ears and mind. As our belief goes, I am sure my consciousness understood the teaching, because it is supposed to be beyond language or words. There is a religious legend that when Gautama Buddha gave his first sermon at the Deer Park in Sarnath, all the sentient beings of the Six Realms attended the teaching and understood every word he spoke.

As a lay person, I also took the opportunity to offer cakes (18 boxes) and cash – known as chhagyeb, to the Lama and to all the monks, so that the blessings of their prayers and practices rub on me and to all sentient beings.

May Buddha Dharma flourish for aeons to come.

Background info: What is the Tengyur?
Tengyur means “the translated treatises” and is comprised of the Tibetan translations of works written by Indian Buddhist masters, explaining and elaborating on the words of the Buddha.

In simple words, Tengyur provides interpretations, explanations, and elaborations on the teachings found in the Kangyur. They were made by various teachers such as Nagarjuna, Asanga, Shantideva, etc. It comprises of 208 volumes of scriptures and some 165,000 lines.

(The Tengyur Empowerment started almost a month ago and will go on for few more days. It is held at Tango Buddhist university hall in Thimphu. There are only few masters who can confer this empowerment)