As Khyentse Foundation Turns 20, Rinpoche Looks Back — and Forward

It is with great pleasure that we present Khyentse Foundation’s 2021 annual report, celebrating the foundation’s first 20 years in service to the Buddha, dharma, and sangha under the guidance and leadership of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. In this newsletter, we share Rinpoche’s remarks on this important milestone. May we continue to pursue Rinpoche’s grand vision to preserve and propagate the Buddhadharma for the next 20, 40, and 100 years!

Rinpoche on Khyentse Foundation’s 20th Anniversary 

I want to express this wish that we will never stop working for Dharma. Because being concerned about the Dharma, working for the dharma, propagating the dharma that is also a practice. That is equally a practice and sometimes it may be even better than thousand hours of  sitting or reciting mantras.   So I hope that we will continue thinking this way and ACT. 

— Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

“In the 20 years since Khyentse Foundation came into existence, we have had many opportunities to contribute toward the propagation and preservation of Buddha’s Dharma. However small, these opportunities are thanks solely to the blessings, kindness, and compassion of the Lion of the Shakyas and the merit of sentient beings.

We read in the sutras that just before the beginning of a Dark Age, a girl offered a bell to ornament a stupa, the stupa that held the relics of the past Buddha, beautifying it so that it would attract the attention of passersby. Her offering involved nothing more sophisticated than hanging a silver bell on a rock. She neither studied nor practiced, yet her simple offering lengthened and strengthened the life of that Buddha’s teachings for eons to come.”

O!

Great Bhagavati Arya Tara,

Dispel all the defilements of myself and all sentient beings.

Lead us to achieve enlightenment swiftly.

In our lifetimes may we experience favorable circumstances.

May outer and inner obstacles to enlightenment,

Such as disease, untimely death, nightmares, bad omens and fears, be dispelled.

May our minds turn to the dharma.

Force us to be diligent, compel us to see your face.

Provoke us to realize shunyata, the ultimate Bodhicitta.

Cause our rebirth in the realm of Amitabha.

How beautiful you are!

How powerful!

How infinite!

May we become like you.

Through this supplication, wherever we may be,

May there be no poverty, famine, or disputes.

May the dharma prevail.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche composed this Ode to Tara on April 3, 2017