A few weeks ago, in July, I was in Australia for the first time. I was in Perth and I was in Canberra, Brisbane, all these 3 cities where it is very heavily populated with the Bhutanese community. Because they invited me one year before and they said “Rinpoche comes over there, teaching…”. So I said “too far, I don’t know, I have never been down there, I focus mainly in Europe and America, Australia is too far for me”, but I said “I will see”.
Then I find the event there and there was a very beautiful reception, every city that I visit in Australia there were over thousand people, crowded, the space was not enough for them, people have to seat on the stage also together, it was very cozy and beautiful.
But, also there are many of them who have children, they have children who are teenagers, who are young. They have seen Bhutan but they never lived in Bhutan, so they are growing outside of Bhutan. Then the family they said “Rinpoche, we want the Buddhism into our children, we want our Bhutanese culture into our children’s mentality”, you know, like that.
Then I said to them “you don’t thrust it on them, Buddhism on the children, but you lead by the example and they will follow, you speak with a sense of clarity, with a sense of wisdom in ones’ own mind, without too much of branding and religious implementation and then they will have a curiosity.” If you bring it with brute force like “this is your tradition, this is your culture and then I shove it down your throat” the less they will be interested. The more you speak about the quality, and then the curiosity will grow by itself. So that’s that.
When I was in Australia, I was taught that when there are many other religious figures or events, the parents have to tell the kids to “Ah, you have to come to the religious events.” But when I came over there, they said “the kids are telling the parents to come” [haha]. Because I made a lot of Internet jokes and I interact, and so on.
But, deep down, my mission is always to keep a relevant connection so then the spiritual connection is there, over time, the Dharma connection is there over time. So to have less of a barrier as possible in between is a way to connect with the other people. If you have too much barrier “Oh, this is this and that is that” and then with an empty shell, then it doesn’t work.
Niguma Long Life Empowerment – Vajradhara Ling France
August 29, 2025 – Morning session (26′ 00”)
To be continued…
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