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Lama Norlha Tsok Bum
July 16 @ 5:45 pm – 8:45 pm +0545
On the auspicious day of Treldha Tsechu (July 16), the tenth day of the sixth month, the monkey month, celebrating the miraculous births of Guru Rinpoche, Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal, and Terchen Chokgyur Dechen Zhikpo Lingpa, we invite you all to join us in a Lama Norlha Tsok Bum.
Offering a Tsok or feast-gathering is praised as the supreme method for accumulating auspicious conditions (merit) and wisdom, restoring all breakages of samaya, and fulfilling the wishes of the gurus, deities, protectors, and vajra brothers and sisters. Thus all unfavorable circumstances will be dispelled and all practitioners’ wishes will be swiftly fulfilled. An immensely powerful way to perform the Tsok is to accumulate the Tsok a 100,000 times, called a Tsok Bum in Tibetan.
Lamas will assemble at the Asura cave, the sacred site where the Mahaguru attained awakening, and, for three days, will continuously offer the main feast offerings. Then on Guru Rinpoche Day, we, the international sangha, will join in the Lama Norlha tsok offering accumulations via the online gathering hosted by Samye Institute.
During the annual Treldha Tsechu Tsok Bum, this year falling on July 16th, Phakchok Rinpoche will introduce the Nekhor Webcast and recall the precious life story of Mahaguru Padmasambhava and elaborate further on this auspicious unfolding of events. Subsequent Nekhor webcasts will primarily take place on Guru Rinpoche Days, and we will announce these dates during the upcoming event.
The History and Significance of Lama Norlha
On the tenth day of the ninth month of the Earth Monkey Year (November 7, 1848), Terchen Chokgyur Lingpa was only twenty years old, yet the time was ripe to reveal what would become the most renowned of his treasures: the cycle known as the Guru’s Heart Practice, Dispeller of All Obstacles (Lamé Tukdrup Barché Künsel). Khandro Yeshé Tsogyal had hidden this vast treasure twelve years after Guru Rinpoché’s departure from Tibet. It lay concealed beneath the foot of Drak Palchenpo (Great Glory Cliff) at Danyin Khala Rongo (Sun and Moon Valley Pass), one of the twenty-five sacred sites of Kham that represent the enlightened qualities of Guru Rinpoché’s awakened body. Chokgyur Lingpa kept this treasure hidden for eight years, after which he presented the decoded treasure to Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo. Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo realized, as he began to read it, that both the meaning and the words were virtually identical to a treasure he had personally revealed. They therefore decided to combine the two practices into one. Khyentsé declared that, since Chokgyur Lingpa’s Dispeller of All Obstacles was an earth terma, its authenticity was the more clearly established of the two. At this, they mutually resolved to retain only the Dispeller of All Obstacles. With the help of Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé these teachings were spread throughout Tibet and, eventually, the world.
In the mandala of the Dispeller of All Obstacles, Mahaguru Padmasambhava appears surrounded by his twelve emanations, each offering unique and profound teachings and practices.
Kyechok Tsülzang (Sublime Being of Excellence), or Lama Norlha, is the third of these twelve emanations. As detailed in the famous Barché Lamsel prayer, Mahaguru Padmasambhava manifested in this form at Chumik Changchup, the Spring of Enlightenment in Nepal, on his way to Tibet. At this sacred site, he bound evil spirits and plunged his kila dagger into the rock, causing a stream of blessed water to flow, which continues to this day.
Mahaguru Padmasambhava assumed the form of Lama Norlha to aid practitioners in achieving wealth and prosperity. As Lama Norlha, the Guru inseparable from Jambhala, Padmasambhava embodies all deities of wealth and prosperity. He grants the “siddhi of holding the sky treasury” and presides over a retinue of wealth deities from all enlightened families. As Lama Norlha, the Mahaguru also embodies all the three roots—guru, yidams, and dakinis—and is renowned as the wish-fulfilling jewel.
Mahaguru Padmasambhava taught that increasing wealth involves making offerings and practicing generosity. By combining these fundamental Buddhist practices with the skillful means of the Vajrayana, the practice of Lama Norlha enhances outer, inner, and secret wealth. Outer wealth consists of material possessions, inner wealth involves personal virtues and fortune, and secret wealth is the understanding of emptiness and inner awareness leading to awakening for the benefit of all. The practice of Lama Norlha fosters both wealth and spiritual growth.
Event Details and Support Material
Date: July 16
Time: 5:45 – 8:45 PM Nepal time
You can check the time for your location here.
We will provide live interpretation into Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Thai, Indonesian, and Ukrainian.
Register and Pledge the Malas You Will Accumulate on Zoom
Zoom registration is required for everyone, regardless of whether or not you will join the gathering via Zoom or Youtube. Please follow these steps for registering, pledging the number of malas of recitations, and attending Zoom:
Register and pledge your malas here
Meeting ID: 893 7556 5763
Passcode: 113957
Joining via YouTube
At the same time that we are practicing via Zoom, we will be live-streaming aspects of the Samye Zoom meeting via YouTube. This recording will remain available for 24 hours after the event has concluded.
If you are not available at that time, then as a support for your practice the recording will be shared shortly afterward on Samye Institute’s Facebook page.
Remember: even if you decide to join via YouTube, you still have to register and pledge your malas on Zoom. Please note: translations in different languages are only available via Zoom, not YouTube.
Make an Offering
As a support for the practice of Lama Norlha, one can rely on a sacred image such as this thangka that authentically depicts the wealth deity.
Please find here the translation and resources of the Lama Norlha practice produced by Samye Translations.
If you would like to make an offering, you may click here.
If you have any questions, please email support@samyeinstitute.org.
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Samye is a place where students from all corners of the globe explore how to work with their minds in order to lead meaningful lives. Drawing from authentic Buddhist wisdom traditions, our online platform offers live teachings, structured courses, interactive forums, and community for the digital Dharma sangha. Samye Institute aims to be to the digital world what Nalanda was to India and what Samye was to Tibet.