MIGTSEMATHON

One Million Migtsemas for the flourishing of Dharma

What is Migtsema?

Migtsema is the praise and mantra of Lama Je Tsongkhapa composed by the great Sakyapa master Jetsun Rendawa in praise and appreciation of Je Tsongkhapa’s qualities and virtues. In this praise, we evoke the energies of the Buddhas’ Compassion, Wisdom and Spiritual Strength. This is a complete balance of the energies innate in us which can help us to find peace and happiness in our lives.

MIG-MEY TZE-WEY TER-CHEN CHENREZIG
You are Avalokitesvara, great goldmine of compassion untainted by ego’s delusion.
The entire universe is kept rolling through the power of love. Love without agenda in Buddhism is compassion and the Buddha’s visual manifestation of Compassion is represented by Chenresig, the great Buddha of Love and Compassion. This evokes the qualities of compassion within us to be able to help ourselves and fuel us on our spiritual path.

DRIMEY KHYEN-PE WANG-PO JAMPAL YANG
You are Manjushri, great master of stainless wisdom.
With knowledge, we understand the meaning of life. Through constant study, contemplation and meditation, we realize a purpose in our life when wisdom arises in us. It is a spontaneous realization which brings us to higher levels of thought to solving problems in our lives which we’ve never thought of before.

DU-PUNG MALU JOMDZEY SANG-WEY DAG
You are Vajrapani, great subduer of all the gatherings of demons.
We are faced with obstacles many a times in our life and yearn for protection from a higher Being for protection both spiritually and physically. The Buddha Vajrapani, who is also an embodiment of Lama Tsongkhapa provides us protection towards inner and outer interferences.

GANG-CHEN KE-PEY TSUG-YEN TSONGKHAPA
Je Tsongkhapa, crown jewel of the holy Masters of the land of snows,
Celebrated as one of the greatest scholar saints since the 14^th century, Lama Tsongkhapa is also dubbed as the Second Buddha during his lifetime. His teachings, influence and inspiration has spread across the globe, inspiring people towards the road of Happiness.

LO-SANG TRAG-PEY SHAB-LA SOL-WA DEB
At your feet, famed Lobsang Drakpa, I humbly bow and earnestly request
That all sentient beings achieve Enlightenment.
We make request at this last line of the prayer for ourselves and others to both the outer and inner Buddha nature in us. This creates causes for us to attain a state of peace within ourselves.

How does reciting Migtsema contribute to the flourishing of the Dharma?

By reciting Migtsema as a group we generate a vast amount of merits which is harvested from the blessings of the Buddhas’ compassion, wisdom and spiritual strength. By the power of the sound and vibration generated from reciting this prayer, we clear away the problems which arises in our minds. With a clear mind, we evoke upon these three qualities of the Buddhas in the form of Lama Tsongkhapa, enriching our mind stream with these virtues.

As a group, we come together combined to realize a spiritual community enabling Dharma to grow within ourselves and be able to influence others to find their spiritual path. Many spiritual seekers are out there looking for a path to follow and as we recite, we create the causes for Spiritual Guides from different traditions to have long life in order to be able to show the way to these spiritual aspirants.

Does Migtsema only help aspirants who are only inclined to Lama Tsongkhapa?

Buddhas manifest in many forms to help us realize happiness within our lives. In Modern Buddhist Fellowship, we propitiate Lama Tsongkhapa as He is the embodiment of a Spiritual Guide of all the Buddhas. As he is a living saint in a time close to ours, we find it easier to connect with Him, through his writings, teachings and experiences.

The teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa are based on the schools of old such as the Nyingma, Kadam, Kagyu and Sakya schools of Buddhism in Tibet. Lama Tsongkhapa’s realizations come from His study of the three scopes of Buddhism which is the smaller, middling and larger scopes. As such, regardless which lineage or school you belong, it does not matter as Lama Tsongkhapa is a fully enlightened Buddhas free of all labels and dogmas.

Why one million?

When we put ourselves to the challenge, we realize that there is a height in spirituality which we can put ourselves to achieve. Coupled with group effort, we create a community focused on collecting spiritual merits to fuel ours and others’ spiritual path. One million is a number which we put for ourselves as a challenge in order to dedicate towards this cause.

Big Bags of Love

Big bags of Love

Modern Buddhist Fellowship reaches out to the less fortunate

10 bright shinny people of MBF under the leadership of Cody Sim took 60 sets of dried goods and daily necessities and visited over 30 homes for the needy in Singapore. These items were first offered to the Buddhas during the opening ceremony of MBF’s new premise.

HE Tsem Tulku Rinpoche has been an inspiration for behind our work. Rinpoche has always been giving to the needy since young. He cannot bear to see anyone left without food and nourishment. Even when Rinpoche was in India, he would have food prepared and would go to town and offer food to the poor folks there. The poor people will be waiting in line in order to get food from Rinpoche.

In Singapore, we are fortunate enough to not have homeless people but we do have a group of old folks who are lonely and live off a meager sum of money from the government. This sum of money is not even enough to cover their rent! Hence we’ve prepared food and daily amenities for them in our package of love to help them cover whatever little we can offer.

As this is our first time doing this service, it has been a learning experience for many of us. It is definitely a wakeup call for us to appreciate what we already have in our lives.

May we be able to do more in order to alleviate their sufferings in the future. Let’s offer food now to nourish their bodies and may we be able to nourish the minds of others through the practice of Je Tsongkhapa!

Kindness in every Word

Kindness in every word
JJ Chong

Buddhism wasn’t a calling for me, it was IN me. I remembered vividly when I was young that images of enlightenment would capture my attention very much! From Buddha statues to books with line drawings, wall murals and you know what, joss stick wrappers with chinky chong(a pseudo I use back home referring to the colorful Chinese culture) Buddhas printed on them. Yes, I grew up in a community of gentle people who were not predominantly Buddhist but were pretty much open to the religion as my family was predominantly ancestor worshippers

Life did take a toll on me when my dad came under the spell of cancer. He was diagnosed with liver cancer and cirrhosis, a term used to describe the hardening of the liver. It was three months of pain for the family when he started to take his treatment. When it started, it seemed like a downhill ride for his entire life. It was for the first time I felt for my dad. We didn’t have a close bond at home as he was always out for work and spends his evenings drinking .

But it was a good three golden months for my family. We broke down and made the best out of each situation. I love my parents because I saw the dedication they had for each other. Yes, dad screwed up by not sharing his sickness with mom but mom stood by him nonetheless. She gave him her all in those three months and she gave us her all after dad passed on.

It was during this period which I found myself deeply soaked within my passion for Dharma. Prior to dad being sick, I was already active with Dharma activities via the school’s Buddhist Society and it just escalated further. Time waits for no one, so does death and it brings me to understand the need to help other people. When a person is hopeless and in need of help, all we can do for them is just to leave everything which we are doing and just attend to them.

This is not foreign for me as I found it to be the right thing to do. Setting up a fellowship here is a way we can reach out to people who are plagued with the need to be helped and we will help everyone all the way. I cannot leave one single person who is in dire need of help to be left unattended. Even a simple gift of encouragement for the other person will go a long way!

When we have received the kindness of others, we owe it to them to repay it onto them or others. Why? Kindness cannot be measured by monetary means but is definitely TANGIBLE! Think that the reason we are here today, we already have reasons to be grateful and bring life into a new frontier for ourselves by just giving help