Global prayer for peace echoes across Bhutan: Event festivities highlight compassion, harmony, and cultural heritage, writes Jitsiree Thongnoi in Bhutan — https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/3134848/global-prayer-for-peace-echoes-across-bhutan
(Ai assist:) In this swapcast episode I speak with Asoka from “Echoes and Story of Dharma” about the inaugural Global Peace Prayer Festival in Bhutan, scheduled from November 4-19, 2025. The discussion provides an accessible overview of Bhutan as a small Himalayan kingdom with a population of about 750,000, renowned as the world’s last Vajrayana Buddhist kingdom, a carbon-negative nation, and the originator of Gross National Happiness (GNH)—a holistic alternative to GDP that emphasizes contentment, environmental protection, and human well-being. Asoka delves into Bhutan’s history, including its self-imposed isolation until the 1970s, the influence of Padmasambhava (the “second Buddha”), and how Vajrayana Buddhism integrates compassion, wisdom, and power into daily life and governance.
The festival, centered around honoring the 70th birthday of Bhutan’s fourth king on November 11, has evolved from a single Kalachakra empowerment into a two-week event featuring large-scale pujas (rituals), mantra chanting for protection and peace, a three-day Kalachakra mandala ceremony (focusing on non-duality and interdependence), global prayers dedicated to the king, and a nuns’ ordination ceremony to advance women’s roles in Vajrayana. The event aims to promote global peace amid ongoing conflicts, drawing on Buddhist concepts like bodhicitta (Buddha nature in all beings) and the power of mantras to counter greed, hatred, delusion, ignorance, and jealousy.
They address misconceptions about Bhutan, such as the Sustainable Development Fee (SDF, now $100/day, covering most travel costs for high-value, low-volume tourism). The conversation emphasizes the festival’s timeliness in a world of war rhetoric, climate change, and AI-driven modernity, advocating for bridging ancient devotional practices with contemporary tools like a mantra-logging app (Guru App) to engage youth and foster a “butterfly effect” of positive energy. Participation options include in-person attendance (with visa and travel details), live streaming via Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) on YouTube, virtual mantra contributions, or organizing local watch parties. The episode concludes with reflections on preserving pure Dharma amid technological shifts, encouraging discernment and inner peace.
Overall, the podcast blends educational insights on Bhutanese Buddhism with calls to action for global harmony, making it appealing for Buddhists, spiritual seekers, and those interested in sustainable societies. The tone is conversational, respectful, and occasionally light-hearted
(Note: these timestamps are clickable to jump to that spot in the youtube version🙂
| Timestamp | Chapter Title |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Introduction and Greetings |
| 0:52 | Overview of the Global Peace Prayer Festival in Bhutan |
| 2:00 | Bhutan Basics: Geography, Population, and Vajrayana Kingdom |
| 4:01 | Bhutan’s Rise: Environment, Happiness, and Gross National Happiness (GNH) |
| 8:07 | History of Buddhism in Bhutan: Padmasambhava and Vajrayana Origins |
| 11:05 | Explaining Vajrayana: Third Turning of the Wheel, Bodhicitta, and Symbolism |
| 17:02 | Dharma Protectors, Wrathful Deities, and Parallels to Other Buddhist Traditions |
| 20:57 | Vajrayana in Bhutan’s Governance and Enlightened Leadership |
| 25:00 | Festival Details: Jhabi Puja, Kalachakra, Global Prayers, and Nuns’ Ordination |
| 32:18 | Host’s Reflections and Comic Relief on Bhutanese Culture |
| 36:40 | Clearing Misconceptions: SDF Fee, Tourism, and Visiting Bhutan |
| 42:38 | Why Now? Kalachakra, Kali Yuga, and Global Conflicts |
| 45:07 | The Fourth King’s Legacy: Stepping Down and Democratic Transition |
| 53:08 | Ways to Participate: In-Person, Live Stream, App, and Watch Parties |
| 59:02 | Empowerment Energy: Beyond Physical Attendance |
| 1:01:52 | Peace in Perspective: Inner Work, Butterfly Effect, and Sacred Bhutan |
| 1:06:35 | Bridging Traditions: Women’s Roles, Youth, and Modernity |
| 1:13:38 | Preserving Pure Dharma in the AI Era |
| 1:17:23 | Connecting with Bhutanese Communities and Final Thoughts |
| 1:22:18 | Closing Blessings and Farewell |
https://globalpeaceprayers.org
https://www.globalpeaceprayers.org/faq.html
https://globalpeaceprayers.org/old/registration.php
Enlightened Leadership — book by the current sitting Prime Minister of Bhutan: https://www.penguin.sg/book/enlightened-leadership/
FB page: https://www.facebook.com/people/Global-Peace-Prayer-Festival/61579817360896
IG: https://www.instagram.com/gppbhutan
These three event photo published with permission from copyright holder©️Michael Kenneally
Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) Official live streams:
iOS app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/global-peace-prayer-festival/id6754213180
Travel Agent:
- IntrekParo: https://www.bhutanintrek.com
- email: intrekparo1@gmail.com
- Whatsapp: +97577227840
Mantra app: https://www.guruapp.bt (will launch on November 4th the initial day of event)
Asoka’s Echoes & Stories of Dharma podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/echoes-stories-of-dharma/id1709712445
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/78a58d8c-70d1-411c-8c86-b9c49d76e696/echoes-stories-of-dharma
https://www.instagram.com/echoes_and_stories_of_dharma
https://www.youtube.com/@Dhammaonthesidewalk108
Audio: Bridging Ancient & Modern: Bhutan’s Landmark Global Peace Prayer Festival With Asoka
Unedited transcript via YouTube:
Hey, welcome. This is Josh of Innerskilled and Integrating Presence and today I have none other than Ahsoka
here to do a swap cast. Ahsoka from Echoes and Story of Dharma. Ahsoka,
how’s it going today? It’s going really good today and I
realize we are in a completely different time zone. So, good evening to you or is good morning to me.
That’s right. It’s like a 12 sound.
Yeah. You’re welcome. Well, thanks for having me, too. If you decide to, uh, crossost this. I remember back in the
days of the internet, you’re never supposed to crossost anything, but now it’s it’s totally cool to do that, I
think. So, um, so why we’re here today, I’m gonna throw it back to you. Uh,
Overview of the Global Peace Prayer Festival in Bhutan
we’ve got a big event coming up, and Ahsoka, what do we got going on? what’s going
on. So I think you’re talking you’re
mentioning the global peace prayer festival in uh it’s going to be held in Bhutan from the 4th to the 19th of
November and um it’s a large event and it’s a first time event. So this doesn’t
want to mean that Bhutan doesn’t organize large scale events. It does and
religious events as well. I mean such as um empowerments and ceremonies but
usually they are not as public and organized in a way that to attract uh
global audience and uh this one is very um special in that. So it’s a landmark
first time ever event. Would you like me to elaborate a bit on it? Well, you’re going to have to I
guess the background maybe some some background for these uh
Bhutan Basics: Geography, Population, and Vajrayana Kingdom
the people that are Buddhists and maybe just Terravada or people that aren’t even Buddhists, you know. What is what
is Bhutan? What even is Bhutan? Give the basic just a nutshell version for people
that don’t know anything. you know what is Vajriana and what is Bhutan or do we
even need to know anything about that for this event and and the event itself
global peace prayer festival I mean it’s kind of self-explanatory but we’ll get
into the details of what this is and why it’s so important and I’ll um echo the
importance of this I feel from what I’ve little I’ve read about it and what you’ve told me about it
Okay. So, let’s just start by saying Bhutan is uh a Himalayan kingdom. It’s a
very small geographically it’s a very small country uh of only 750,000
population wide. So, it’s quite small with uh only maybe up to 15 20% of the
population living in um Timu. Timu not being the capital.
Uh yes, I mean sorry Timu is the capital but it’s not where the airport is based.
So people get sometimes a little misguided. So Paro is because of the
mountainous uh so we are talking about 2,500 meter elevation as a minimum in terms of the
airport elevation. So that’s far and then timu is about an hour an hour from
there inside in western Bhutan. So it’s also called uh the last vajayana or the
only vajayana kingdom in the world. Why is it called like that? First of all,
Bhutan’s Rise: Environment, Happiness, and Gross National Happiness (GNH)
it’s um I think we need to go back a bit to uh
how come Bhutan is so much on the center stage at the moment in a number of on a
number of topic. It’s not just Vajayana, it’s environment because they are carbon
negative country. um because it’s a kingdom, it’s also a
very traditional society where you would see uh people wearing uh the traditional
their traditional clothing, men and women. So there are a number of aspect
that make Bhutan a very very peculiar very special country. It’s also known to
be the country the the country of happiness. So the happy country what
does this mean? So if you go back to YouTube and look and listen to all the
prime ministers who have been uh leading the country defining what happiness you
will hear this subtly that it’s not a country where only happy monk are going
around and people with smile on their faces and going happiness is defined as
contentment. Contentment with uh the lifestyle and contentment with uh
requirement for livelihoods to be fulfilled
and also environmental environmental protection. So for instance in Bhutan
the count the mountains are not a sacred so you cannot it’s not like in Nepal
where you can go and uh hike in the mountains. So everything is very uh
protected. Now to say that Bhutan is now out on the center stage, there have been
a number of steps for that. Up until 1975,
hardly anyone would have heard of uh Bhutan, not just because there were no
no internet. There was no internet or anything but because it it was basically
self self-seccluded and it’s publicly acknowledged that they
wanted to be like that. Um what happened around the year 2000?
the fourth king of Bhutan who is actually turning 70 years old on
uh the 11th of November is has decided that there has come to an
insight that there should be something alternative to the to the measuring of
growth of for a country. So usually economic in economic terms we talk about
GDP. So gross development um
uh gross domestic product product domestic product
sorry and gross domestic product. Yeah. And he said there should be something else.
There should be something that also takes that is more human friendly and then takes into account other aspects
that’s not just yes economic growth but economic growth with with a human face
in other words and a environmental face. So they came up and there was a lot of
um discussions there was a lot of cons uh consultations and they developed a
gross national happiness and he is a bit the face of that. So in 2008 it was
adopted by the United Nations as an indicator for Bhutan and as a matter of
fact it is also now um considered and try to be used as a
business model for some large corporations. So there are a number of
uh other other avatars I would say of the gross uh national happiness
indicators. So that’s one aspect of Bhutan. And um the other aspect is in
History of Buddhism in Bhutan: Padmasambhava and Vajrayana Origins
terms of Vajayana being a Vajayana kingdom. It has to go back to the history of
Bhutan. It shares a long border with uh Tibet
and it shares also a border with India but um on the southern side but also on
the uh western side. But let’s talk about how Buddhism arrived in uh Bhutan
about the same time more or less we are talking about the 8th century
more or less about the same time that Buddhism arrived
in Tibet. So I’m not sure if your audience is
familiar with uh the figure of Padma Sambaba
who is here behind me and Padma Sambba is also known as the
second Buddha. So Padma Sambaba or the Lotusborn master because of the legend
apparently as to how he was he was born. Padma Sambaba was born in what is now
Afghanistan near Takila in a in a kingdom that in a place that
used to be called Udana and in the course of his um of his life he crossed
um so you have to imagine that Himalayan region starting from Afghanistan and
basically finishing in Bhutan. Uh so it’s a whole range over several
thousands of kilometers. So he traveled eventually passed through India what is
now India and then uh Nepal and um continued to Tibet. So when he arrived
in Tibet about the 8th century he found um that there were lots of
scattered practices. So there was um a number there were a number of also including shamanic
practices and he offered that to the king at that time. He said well why
don’t we just try to put all this together I’m summarizing it right please bear with me I it’s not a course on
vajayana bism so it’s just to put the whole the whole pieces of the puzzle together so he basically federated this
all these practices which is now known as Tibetan Buddhism or vajayana and he
continued to travel because he was on tudong he was a nomadic he traveled and
eventually arrived in Bhutan about as still around the 8th century and found a
similar situation and he is considered one of the founding master of uh
well of Bhutan. There are other master founding masters and um you will see
them in in all the monasteries in uh in Bhutan. So, Vajayana Buddhism
Explaining Vajrayana: Third Turning of the Wheel, Bodhicitta, and Symbolism
is you can say it in two ways. I would uh put it in
a very simple way on on one way you can say that this is the third wheel of the
third the third turning of the wheel of dharma. The first one being the what is
called now but what is usually called ancient Buddhism the original the original Buddhism. So the first turning
of the wheel, we were talking about Sarnat earlier on. So that’s that’s it. The second turning of the wheel is you
would say it’s Mahayana. And the third turning of the wheel is Vajayana. You
can put it this way. And scholars would probably bash me because this is not
this is too much of a shortcut. But again, I’m not here to to to give a
scholarly course on Bajayana. just to give the full picture and then the other way of seeing it as it is a branch in
Mahayana right still it is a third turning of the wheel of dharma but it is like a I don’t
like to say a subschool but it is a branch of practice in the Mahayana and that’s a very important one because
that’s where the concept of bodhic sattva comes in and the concept of serving and the the
concept of you know uh compassion and compassion hand inhand with wisdom
and uh power right so that’s that’s that’s the way of putting it and the
concept of bodhicitta meaning that you you all have the Buddha nature it’s just
that there are clouds to not everyone can realize it but it’s possible to
realize it so this distinguishes itself self a bit from the Theravada and what is called Theravada or ancient Buddhism
where there is a Buddha and the practice is a practice of assetism and a practice
of between brackets restrictions and a practice of learning to work with our
senses and desires and we move and we move and we move and the path of
arahanch as you as you know so it distinguishes itself in the sense that
everyone has the Buddha nature that can be developed in this life.
And uh the bodhic sadva is the person who put it in simple word is a person who
becomes like a a light keeper for other persons to help them realize their own
Buddha nature. So that’s where all the serviceless
the service and selflessness comes in which you probably um
are more familiar maybe with the tiknatan tradition or you know the plum village there’s a lot of that sort of um
even in terms of communication you know the the the talk and the the service and
understanding others through the through the the filters of compassion not
necessarily so there’s less as now the other aspect of vajraana and that also
brings me back to describe uh which also describe Bhutan very well is highly
symbolic. You can see behind me there’s a Tara Tanka which is from Bhutan
actually. um the I don’t know if it can go closer, but the guru push uh you know
has a lot of um I would say uh tools you know there’s a mast and there’s a
there’s a vajra the vashra is a the symbol of power there’s also a vajra
right here there are a number of tools and it’s also highly symbolic in terms of how the
devotion is expressed and the mantra So it’s this is this comes from the tantra.
So this is um tantra school high tantra school and in that sense
coming back to Bhutan Bhutan has a lot of uh that it’s a country with very as I
said earlier with a very small population hundreds of monasteries everywhere
luscious uh mountains prayer flags um big masts with prayer white prayer flags
I would say everywhere almost and a lot of devotional work
devotional practices devotional work as well there’s this there’s it’s more even
than in Southeast Asia practices it’s really it’s embedded in um in how people
work and it’s also embedded in how they uh they function and that’s brings
brings me to uh even the government structure of Bhutan. So the king himself
has a name that relates to uh the dragon
because the land of Bhutan is called the land of the tander dragon and that goes
to the back to the legend of how Bhutan was between brackets discovered I would
say or graced by Padma Sambaba. So there are a
number of artifacts. The fact that men and men in men and women in official
position wear uh their traditional clothing but with different types of
accessories according to their status and this includes also the shoes. It
includes sometimes swords that they are wearing in parliament. So it becomes a
Dharma Protectors, Wrathful Deities, and Parallels to Other Buddhist Traditions
very um it’s you could say it becomes very theatrical but it’s also um one
aspect that is very important and that I’ve noticed over the years coming closer and closer to Bhutan that also
brought me eventually to be part of there and to work for this festival is
that it um uh Vajay the the the the the
religion itself or the the practice of Vajayana itself is embedded in the
governance with the principle of Rickong Goopa and the Ricksunga is uh
courage, wisdom, courage, compassion and wisdom and power.
So these are the three also the three pillars of Vajraayana Buddhism.
um Chenriik compassion, Mangushri the wisdom and Vajraani the
courage. So Vajraani is a is a figure that is has a tendency to be wrathful.
So in tantra there are like peaceful like this like peaceful figures and then
there are wrathful figures who have open mouth and they tend to have like very
wrathful figures and Rajapani is one of them and is in the it’s to repel and to
it’s also a way to um to work through and transcend greed, hatred and
delusion. So the three poisons. So that’s why there are three sc
Right. So we kind of circling around a dama protectors. Exactly. So we’re
basically circling all the you know this is something quite interesting and I
know that you you are definitely as well as I have had uh strong footing
into the Thai forest tradition. So this distinguishes itself completely in terms of the external. So
what is seen what is perceived what is reflected to you when you even when you go to Bhutan and when you enter a
vajayana uh monastery but
digging digging digging deeper one can find out that actually we’re just
circling around the same concept it’s greed hatred and delusion okay three
poisons in vajayana there are two more there is ignorance and there is jealousy
but if you just put them together. We coming back to the same to the same hot
part of how do we actually connect to our own nature and how we remove the
filters to actually work and and clarify this this nature considering that our
nature is pure but is obs there are obscurations that prevent us to see the
purity of our nature. So h how you enter that dharma ocean, how you enter it is
you’re still entering it. So you’re going to bounce or bump into any of the same similar concept. And interestingly
when I say that the vajayana is embedded in the governance structure in Bhutan,
it actually also seems to be very much um practiced that way. It’s in the
constitution. It’s not just lip service. It’s there
really is a a a strongly uh um willingness from the leadership to
maintain this as as such. So when we come to Bhutan and government
Vajrayana in Bhutan’s Governance and Enlightened Leadership
and leadership, we’re talking often you will see the word enlightened leadership
going together. And that’s because the enlightened comes from again the Buddhist perspective on
how do you work through your own demons in other words and um that is what is
that brings us to Bhutan today. So now how this does this relate to the global
peace prayer festival. So the fourth king whom I mentioned
earlier is the father of the fifth king, the current king who is a young uh young
king. I think he is only 45 and um he is
the face of modern Bhutan in the second phase of the modern Bhutan. So his own
father the third king was the face of modern Bhutan. He was uh he passed away
very uh very young. So he left uh his son the fourth king uh to reign
very young as well. And he grew up uh with this sense that maybe it would be
time to open Bhutan uh to you know to the rest of the world. mentioning that
the border with China I should say the border with Tibet but
yeah it’s a border with Tibet is closed so Bhutan has gone always to has a long
border also with India it’s a border that does a bit of a of a running around
because uh there’s a part of Assam that is uh in between in between it so India
and Bhutan and Nepal are not connected. There’s a piece of India in between. So
there’s a sort of a of a little sort of almost like a little enclave there. And
um so he thought it would be good to start opening the country. That started about yeah 197576.
And he is the one who is known to have
developed and suggested and got the insights about the gross national happiness.
which is now known and is now adopted also by the United Nations. And between
just a little note here is that when I used to work for the UN earlier on in my
previous incarnation, I had heard about the G&H already. When I worked in a completely different area
of the world, complete opposite side in Latin America and the Caribbean, we heard about the G&H and we were like,
“Oh, wow. It’s the first time we see a UN report with monks with Tibeta monks on I mean Tibet
Vajayana monks on the cover. So this king is turning 70
on the 11th of November. So the original idea was to have a celebration of his
birthday that would uh honor his contribution to the country etc etc. So this was the
seed idea and it’s a seed idea that uh came from his his son the fifth king and
was uh transmitted to the prime minister for you know discussing the logistics how it would happen and I got involved
in it because I met with the prime minister on a very auspicious occasion
and was offered to contribute to the project and um so So the project is
organized the event is has taken a lot of uh shifting
in terms of the content in terms of the duration. So now it is set to be for two
weeks and it has completely expanded with but if you look at the dates it
Festival Details: Jhabi Puja, Kalachakra, Global Prayers, and Nuns’ Ordination
still is the 11th of November is right in the middle. So there is a week before
the 4th of November and then a week after the 19th of November is closing the festival. I said it also goes into
four four stages. The initial idea was to focus on the
kala chakra and now kala chakra is the highest
tantra is the highest tantra in tantra tantric purism.
The kala chakra is a mandala which is most often represented in three
dimension and uh corresponds to the outer mandala, the inner mandala and
your secret mandala. So it’s basically the three gates of body, speech and mind
out and in. So basically it describes interdependence between
your reality if I would say and the reality outside knowing that there is no
disconnection between the two. So we talking about non-duality here. All right. So the idea was to have that.
This had never happened before in Bhutan in public. Uh and as you might know or
as your audience might know usually kala chakra empowerments are bestowed by his
holiness the dala lama. So the his holiness uh stopped
uh giving teachings as a matter of fact but stopped the kala chakra empowerment at the 34th kala chakra empowerment and
that was 2014 he stopped that. It’s a lot of work. It’s uh basically a
10 days 14 days teachings because it’s basically retraces the whole history
not just the whole history sorry the whole concept of Buddhism and uh brings
you to the realization of your pure the pure nature of your mind but because the
Dalama didn’t want to have just empowerments like this he wanted people to understand why is this so important
why what is what are the tenets in Buddhism that are so that makes it such
an as he would say an important science uh so you need to explain that so it
takes about two weeks so the idea was to have a kala chakra empowerment bestowed by the head of the sa in bhutan he’s
called the j ko that’s the patriarch of the sa eventually it’s not going to
happen this way so originally was on one idea for a week
and then now we have pala chakra at the center of the event during 3 days and
before and after that other events all very important events initially it start
with what’s called a jabi and again it goes back to the
uh the form that vajraana the form that it takes in terms of the practice
there’s a lot of mantra chanting uh there’s a lot of uh practice and uh
frustrations and you know dances and things like this. So it’s highly
visually very entertaining as well and mentally the mantra is also known to be
not just a tool for the destruct to prevent the destruction of the minds.
It’s also um a way to express energy to the outer world. If you believe into
understanding how the power of the spoken word or something like this, you know, you you
you you speak your mind out. Um the mantra carries energy and the mantra has
a protective as well as a apicious and aspiration power. So the first few days
four, five, six and seven if I’m correct there is this jabi and jabi is an
enormous puja. It’s a dharma protection cleansing puja
right then there is uh gala chakra then there
is a global prayer which is centers around the global prayer means chanting
protection chants and that’s basically entirely dedic dedicated for the king.
So there is the guru mantra guru as mantra and then there is the kala chakra
empowerment for three days and then nun’s ordination. So
for the women out there, Vajayana
uh has Mahayana and Vajayana have different um have a more flexible
access to for women to practice and for for women’s ordination.
And although there still are bottlenecks when it comes to uh higher lama and
higher teachings there are now changes in uh the way
these teachings can be uh offered for women as well by women as well and that
means that women can access one of now it is being uh allowed between brackets
I would say it’s In there’s a statement made by his holiness the dala lama that
the gisha so gish means high lama but also the teaching llama so he can be
teaching he can teach he’s he has studied basically it’s beyond the PhD
and the gish gish is a high lama professor it’s equivalent of professor
and now we can have also women so gisha and uh Bhutan has taken on uh the beacon
of that and has already had uh I think a previous one several years ago and now
there is a second one and this is going to be happening between the 14th and the
19th of uh November at a large uh nanory
near tempo. So from one event which was basically starting with the seed which
was kala chakra it became a full spectrum of
what vajayana uh offers in terms of devotion and
practices. Now this was in a nutshell. If there are any scholars out there, they might say that I forgot and forgo
forgone a lot of details. But this was not the purpose of giving a lecture on
vajra was just to give an idea of how it fits really well into uh Bhutan current
context. Now how does it fit into the outer outer context? Why now?
Host’s Reflections and Comic Relief on Bhutanese Culture
Well, go ahead. Yeah, I mean before ju I just um before we do I just wow you
covered so much there and and thank you because I know very little about I mean Mahayana Vajriana and Bhutan I
mean I watched a documentary and a little bit you know but like this tourist documentary you have these
little tidbits like um sorry I’m just going to cheapen everything Ahsoka said
by putting in something a little entertaining here um Sorry, I just throw it in here. It’s maybe a comic comic
relief. I don’t know. But like the they a phallic symbol. And take it out of context. This is It seems ridiculous,
right? Because I’m taking things out of context here. And then you’ve got like um what? Oh. Oh. Um monogamy, right?
Like they’re allowed to have multiple wives. Um and you have to you have to
pay to to right to foreigners have to pay like a hefty fee to get in. So these
are all kind of like I would say irrelevant tidbits but that maybe the
general public would focus on that are just completely out of context. So that aside, I just want to say thank you for
that overview and and kind of schooling because I mean if you get dumb Americans like me have no really no context or
like we don’t know hardly anything about the world, you know? Uh it’s it’s it’s um it’s pretty yeah I can’t speak for
all Americans but um and each one of those things you said like you like you
said it can go in depth. I mean this is a huge like multi-entury
um uh multicultural you know just the different schools in Vajriana too right
and that just all the different lineages all the different practices it goes
really in depth and complex and I know very little about it so try to distill it all down you know um if anybody’s
like complaining that that took too long to give some context I mean you’re was barely even scratching the surface on
any of it. So but it was sufficient you know it’s very very I mean yeah it’s
just I get anytime I try to want to study like vajrian or Tibetan Buddhist I just get overwhelmed because I just hear
so much and I don’t have context and I don’t have where it all fits in and I
don’t do any of the any of those really practices other than some of the core things that you know all these things
all the different schools and uh traditions of Buddhism have in common. So I think you did a really good job there. I appreciate that. So let’s yeah,
let’s jump into here the this the event itself and um why it’s so important now.
And I will just say the peace prayers uh with all the different wararmongering
rhetoric that’s out there today. I mean it’s it’s nothing new though as well. I
mean we we have people that are wanting to beat war drums to you know to control
other people to gain power um you know all these things and it’s even more
important too when we look at the historical Buddha in um in Terravada and
he intervened it said he intervened in a couple wars and then while he was intervening they stopped but as soon as
he he backed out so if Masam Buddha is is said in ter can cannot even stop wars
you know we’ve got a lot of work to do a lot of work to do and I would just say with
this law of polarity it allows for events like this too you know we can um
if there’s if there’s wararm mongers and people that are beating the war drums well then there’s the polarity allowance
for us to do peaceful things and to have peace prayers to do everything for peace, to promote
peace, to pour energy into it, to at the very least balance some of this out, if
not maybe tip the scales, you know. So, that’s that’s how I see it to to jump in
real quick about uh peace and why we need um festivals like this for it.
Clearing Misconceptions: SDF Fee, Tourism, and Visiting Bhutan
Would you would you mind me to touch base just one second also on the SDF on
the on the hefty fee and would you want me to because there’s there’s
yes pick up all of that stuff however you want to say it. Sorry for the little bit silliness here too and then
No, it’s not silly. It’s it’s being part of the festival. I mean I’ve
I’ve also always wanted to go to Bhutan and and earlier on said no I don’t think I will ever go there’s it used to be a
lot closer it used to be it they are acknowledge it it’s self self seclusion
it’s called self-secclusion and it’s not something I’m revealing here it’s been common knowledge they wanted it this way
but the current I mean the previous king and the current king at the moment said okay we we can change that we can but in
our own terms So the high value low volume is what is the driver for keeping
this sustainable development fee which is called the SDF. It used to be higher
before COVID. It used to be $250 a day and you would get a visa only you would
get a visa for 7 days. So your trip would be minimum $1,500.
But with that $250, you would get all the services, you would get everything.
It’s not like you pay, someone told me misunderstanding is that you pay that on
top of everything. No, it includes the service of the travel agencies, the the
meals, the accommodation, u the entries to all the, you know, the monasteries
and wherever you want to go, museum, whatever you’re there’s no hiking happening unless you go to Tiger’s Nest.
So it used to be higher and during COVID COVID hit every every country very hard
but the smallest and the small the exclus secluded country a little harder
especially those who have a lot of remittances on on external visitors. So
after COVID Bhutan decided to and discussing with the with the business
community we are going to drop it but we still need to keep a certain uh amount coming
in every year. So we need to increase the numbers but
keeping the value. All right. So the the the the SDF has been dropped to $100 a
day. In that $100 a day you get the same. So, it’s a minimum. So, you I’ve
known people who have gone to Bhutan and pay a lot more because they prefer to go to a $500 hotel every day, which is
available. If you want to be on the I would say on the simpler side, you can just simply go for $100 a day plus your
ticket, plus a little tip here and there, and you have a nice week in Bhutan. So high quality, low
high quality, high value, low um low volume is their
choice and I doubt it might uh it might change.
Um also the other comment I heard is people say clearing that country.
I just I had I had misunderstandings of that too. So I just want to say thank you for
clearing that up because I Yes. Yes. Many people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s not
new. So uh it’s only when I organized a trip myself. I organized a trip uh a
retreat there in 2020. I mean it was planned for 2020 2020 but it never happened in 2020. It happened in 23 24.
So I I also had misunderstood that. So I didn’t know it was going to So that’s one. But there’s a cor corollery to that
and um the the coronerary comment is uh often heard is oh I don’t like to go to
a country where I need to be always accompanied by someone I like to go and roam by myself. So the thing is in
Bhutan you cannot as a foreigner or as a non-resident which is very easy to
recognize because you probably would not be on your own or you would probably not be dressed like everyone else. You
cannot enter monasteries and you cannot f take photographs inside monasteries
and important places. Um you cannot enter by yourself. You have to pay a fee
and you uh you would not know what’s happening. You would enter the monastery
and you would not know. So you there is um you you are accompanied by by someone
who at least will give you basic understanding of what the punaka punaka
monastery for instance is beautiful is where the sa resides
uh during the winter because it’s a lowered altitude so it’s less cold so it’s cool it’s a yeah it’s warmer I
would say so it’s only 1500 m altitude so the sana the whole monastic sa the
central moves to Punaka. It’s a beautiful monastery. It’s a beautiful complex on a
river. So you enter there, you have to pay and then you would know what you would just go roam around and you can’t
take pictures inside. So it’s much easier to organize it this way. It also maintains some sort of integrity
of of uh of the place and that’s that’s the corollery. So but you can roam, you
can tell the guide, okay, I want to go and visit some shops. So you can say that it’s not like you have someone, you
know, next to you all the time. So there are a number of misconceptions. So I actually thank you for for mentioning
that. So it gives me an opportunity to to break that down. Now why the kala
Why Now? Kalachakra, Kali Yuga, and Global Conflicts
chakra now or why this event now? If you go back to the original idea of
having an event centered around the kala chakra, kala chakra does it mean? It
means awakening the wheel of time and I am not sure if your audience or if
yourself has heard of um Kali yoga. So the power of destruction.
We don’t need special glasses to actually realize the kind of times we
are living in. But as you mentioned as well, wars have or conflicts or skirmishes um have always existed during
and they are part of they’re part of the samsara. At the moment we actually do
have a lot of them and they are quite substantive. Maybe we are in a transition time.
The kala chakra is one of the highest is the highest teaching in tantric
Buddhism. So it comes as the opposite.
It makes you revise your inner
your inner your mind your inner world to try to project outside
a better outer world. So to work on this nonduality
in in peaceful terms the power of prayers are the are are
meant to be the power of the mantras as I mentioned before invoking invoking uh
the power and uh the energies of the figures that are representative. So
there’s guru pusher as the f one of the founder of Tibetan Buddhism so to speak
and one of the master founder of Bhutan but there are a lot of other um mantras
and tantras that are important. So why now? I think it’s just a matter of
honoring again the the contribution of the fourth king to
the modern face of Bhutan even if he’s not really the face of modern Bhutan but
he’s the second face or he’s to honor his contribution to honor his um the way
he also has decided to step down. So think about this. Think about this.
The Fourth King’s Legacy: Stepping Down and Democratic Transition
Sink this in in this current context. He has decided to step down
and to lead to let the country be led in democracy having a full fullyfledged
government with a prime minister who is going to be the leading leading of the
country. Where in the world has this happened before?
I’m not sure. I can’t think of any as matter beside he stepped down.
Well, he stepped down much earlier than so there is still a king or not. So
you’re saying that he just undid the whole monarchy? There’s still a king. So he didn’t undo
a monarchy. He just he he just resigned. which by the way, I will just remind you that in in Denmark, I’m pretty sure the
queen stepped down, she retired early and handed it over to her son, but I mean, it still continues
the monarchy. Um, but you’re saying he he kind of did the same thing. And I think this may be a trend. Who knows?
Um, because people are seeing this. It seems outdated in today’s society to have monarchy. I mean, most people
already know it’s just a symbolic position. They don’t hold the kind of authoritarian power that they once did.
And not to get too political here, but you have something like in the United States where I mean these executive
orders are kind of like dictal decrees and if that gets normalized then that’s
like a dictatorship and that’s not even a you know so anyway but put that aside and yeah explain that just a little bit
more and then I think we ought to start transitioning to uh if people are interested in actually going and
attending you know um maybe what do they need to know if if they’re going to be serious about this and everybody else
that wants to play a part you want you want to talk about it’s going to be an online offering as well so we can get
into all this right yes so first first the first question
he’s um he stepped down in terms of absolute monarch
the father passed on passed on the reign to the flame I would say to his son
who’s the current king the fifth king but it’s not an absolute monarch. So,
it’s a bit like um western monarchies. You have that in Belgium. There’s that
in uh in Denmark you mentioned and uh maybe in Norway as well. Correct.
I think so. Yeah. So, he established a parliament too. Established a parliament, right? So,
yeah. Okay. So, and parliament about it took a Yes. it if people are interested there’s
a book uh written by the actual current prime minister his excellency cherinto
it’s a book uh entitled enlightened leadership so it’s explains all of that it’s a very
fascinating book because it’s very personal he also tells his personal story as um as a child uh born in India
and who grew up in a in a boarding school in India and then with a family
of civil servants and then etc. I said how he become now twice prime minister.
But he explains that very well that transition uh from absolute monarchy to
uh basically a western democracy but with a monarch
and a high respect where actually when they had a referendum for there was a referendum
in 200 now I am a little lost with the actual dates but there was a referendum at some
point to say okay I’m going to step down we’re going to establish democracy would you believe that nobody Nobody wanted
that. Nobody wanted him to step down. He had to convince and go around sometimes
walking because uh there are lots of places in Bhutan that are still very remote yet. You can’t access them by
proper road. So walking is also something that is part of the the rural
life in Bhutan. He went around and explained to me sat down with people in the villages. You have a monarch here,
right? He respected Mo who goes and sit down in the villages and say, “I’m going to step down and I would like to explain
to you why I’m doing this.” And uh people people accepted it and then his
son so the current king also married a commoner not didn’t marry someone of uh
also royal extraction. And he he he does the same he has the same type of of I
would say template. He was he goes around talks to people. They are now
building a new city. He goes there and carries logs and bricks and things and
you know puts his hand into the mud. So that is the sort of role modeling that
is happening in Bhutan. Why they did it? It’s I think quite
simple to say that it was a necessity for the country to to start um to start
opening up and to start building trade relations um with India and to set
itself a bit up. Then there was another aspect as well that the country has
about 2,000 glassier and there’s a they are very much affected by what is
called climate change or anyway by global warming whichever way you want to put it. The glassas are melting and as
well as they have um they produce um so they’re carbon negative which
means that they’re very highly efficient in their the way in the way they
function. So they’re very being carbon negative is better even than being carbon neutral. Some people say that’s
normal because they don’t have any factories. So they also have very cheap way of producing electricity because of
these glass years they have had hydropower. So basically you taking these uh channels um so the agriculture
organic agriculture prevention from deforestation.
So 70% of all the land mass has to remain forest cover. that’s in the
constitution and agriculture that the hydrop power and you know building uh equal you know
building peaceful relation with the neighbors and places like this. So they he has decided that was the way to go
and he said okay in that I also need to go and we’ll be establishing a parliament and the constitution was uh
was um drafted over several years and take input of a lot of stakeholders and
there’s one aspect which I think is quite unique is that um you can’t be
working in the government or you can’t be in a position of power of decision
making including the monarch above beyond 65 years old. So as soon as you
hit 65 years old you become a normal citizen
which means you you also can’t be uh for instance a prime minister can’t be
elected more than twice. So the current prime minister will tell
you very simply I’ve been prime minister once I he was in the opposition party he’s been elected then at the next
election there was someone else another party and then he was reelected again
and he said that’s my when I finish my five years I’m done right and but also
if you hit 65 at that moment that also happens so they have their own way of
embedding a number of this now to come back to the festival.
Ways to Participate: In-Person, Live Stream, App, and Watch Parties
Uh there are a number of things actually happening in Bhutan in the month of November in that week surrounding the
11th of November. And there’s also a G&H G&H forum
which is a gross national happiness forum which is also the first time a landmark first time event and that’s
also for honoring his contribution to the G&H. So that’s this Bhutan tempu is
going to be very busy that that center week. how to
be part of it basically two ways no three ways actually to be to be
really the first is to come to Bhutan however time is a bit shrinking so it
starts the 4th of November and ends on the 19th of November but the central events are actually from the 4th to the
15 15th which is 10 days is there’s a registration I can give you
the website and there’s a registration you can register there and then but you need to I can also give you the name of
a travel agent and then you can organize your travel but from the US it becomes
quite a substantive amount of budget to travel from the US
and then you have to pay the SDF of $100 a day plus a visa of $50 for 7 days or
10 days. So that’s one way of doing it and I can give you details on how to do this. This is really a way to experience
Bhutan in a completely unique way. It’s going to be very busy but it’s going to be full devotion. It’s going there’s
going to be a lot of energy. It’s also a country where the energy is quite strong. It’s quite less oxygen but it’s
very strong. So the powers of all these monasteries and prayer flags are are
really doing their playing parts in it. So it’s uh it’s a it’s a unique place.
Air is pure and also November is the highest touristic season because of the
weather. It’s blue sky and uh crisp crisp air. So that’s one way of doing.
The second way of being part of it is to connect live stream. So this going to be
broadcast on uh the uh official broadcasting channel of Bhutan which is
the BBS. So we can have it on YouTube
and uh and now the time difference is going to play a big role but uh to have
it so we talking about about 12 hours if I’m correct. I mean the US has about two
three hours different but we are about there. We’re about 12 hours difference. So you can connect um via a live stream
on the BBS channel on YouTube. The third way of connecting is probably
a little more inner work or what we call also in
vajayana secret work which is your own you you know your own inner mind and
that is to connect with the application. So part of the whole project and I know
the prime minister was very keen I want an application he kept repeating that to me I want an application. So there’s
application being developed and it’s going to be launched on the 4th of November and that’s an application to
log in your mantra chanting. If you understand a bit of the butterfly effect
or if you know a bit about the you know the power of meditation but also the power of meditation and mantra chanting
it can be quite powerful to feel that you’re connecting with something that is
outside yourself bigger than yourself. So yes, you can log in your mantra by your sitting caution and but you can log
that in on the application which is I can give you the link as well for that that is called guru app and uh that’s
one of them but there’s actually now I realized there’s a fourth way of doing it first initially I said three but
actually four fourth would be to create a small watch party or
something a watch watch hub so to have a If you like a SA or your own community
or meditation community and you know have have a screen and actually be part of it then you can actually let us know
that this is happening. We would be happy to know uh that uh some communities are doing group live
streaming and being practicing. I think this is quite it was I have to say initially part of the idea which I put
in the document. So then there are technicalities to actually do it. that uh yeah that’s one that’s one way of of
of doing that and uh attending and being part of the kala chakra empowerment even
on screen once we understand what is a kala chakra
empowerment what is a kala chakra and that this is happening for the first
time in bhutan some work can happen can happen at the inner level as well as by
not being physically there. The Dalama would say his holiness the
Dalai Lama would say in Vajayana there are lots of empowerments and lots of
lots of things happening that doesn’t mean that the person sitting there actually understand what’s happening but
if your inner mind know already what a kala chakra is if you’re sitting there and even if you’re live stream and
you’re not in person you get you get the energy you get be be part of this mandala as well because the mandala
Empowerment Energy: Beyond Physical Attendance
connects at the different level not necessarily At the physical level
it connects like my like it connects us you know we are talking here about high
tantra and we are talking here about meditation and the power of the energies
you know you enter a manavati main hall after a rains retreat or after
a full day of a night long meditation you’ll feel the energy of the place a
little bit sensitive to that. So there’s the same happening with the mantra. So we also you and I right now on this
screen we are connecting at a different level than the physical level 12 hours difference between us but we are talking
about something that stands behind the the dual the dual world. So I think that
this is quite uh quite important to mention that attending the kala chakra empowerment is very
uh it’s very nice but one has to understand a bit what’s happening and
what the kala chakra is about. It’s not like just going to be self-enlightenment just like that on the spot. It’s not
doesn’t if it happened like that we would be living in a completely different world I think.
So the global peace prayer festival uh is going to be a large gathering of
ring pusher and a large large gathering of monastic. The
it would be when I say ripe it usually uh
goes to male male monastics. Uh the large part of the monastic who are going
to be uh present for the chanting are male. This is a reality that uh cannot
be hidden. I mean it’s out out there. It’s it’s mainly male. Now the idea is
to catch up and to to bring this up to speed with the presence of nuns, the
presence of other other um lama and the respect of the Vajayana
tradition which includes a number of of
uh women. So step by step we we we will get there. I’m sure one day we will we
will get there. So yeah, I hope I answered your question. I know it as you
mentioned it touches the surface of a number of things. The purpose is not to
the purpose is not to go in depth. If you want to go in depth, we can go in depth on a number of other aspect but
essentially the the main theme is that peace is necessary in this world at this moment.
Peace in Perspective: Inner Work, Butterfly Effect, and Sacred Bhutan
Not everyone sees peace in the same way. For some people, being at peace means
being contented. I’m at peace. That’s my own little thing. Now, if you go into
the microcosm, there’s a lot of fear mongering out
there. But if you think about it, it has always happened.
The color chakra says it’s time to awaken. It’s time to start thinking beyond our my own little environment and
my own little you know my own little greed and my own little uh things that I
like and like like and dislikes and my own little delusions that everyone is a good person. Yes. But not everyone
behaves in a good way. I I think it is also said somewhere in the sutras that
it’s going to get a lot worse than it is already. So if we can be a part of a
positive imprint, uh it’s not just good for your own inner
peace, it’s also good for a bit of a yeah butterfly effect and influencing
what’s what’s out what’s out there. And plus it’s happening in Bhutan which is I
have to say glo globally now to just close it on on the details of Bhutan and
caps encapsulate it as it’s really a very sacred country. It’s you entering a different dimension.
I call it a bit of a Harry Potter. You pass beyond something and you enter
a world where everything functions at a completely different pace
to the dot. I can give you a lot of details. It function completely differently and it’s not just visually
beautiful. As you said, tourism uh leaflets or tourism video have have have
a lot of that stereotype, but that’s how it is. That’s how Bhutan is. There are
no traffic lights. It’s a country. There are no traffic lights.
That doesn’t mean that there is no traffic. I’m I’m thinking it’s like a um
a Buddhist Iceland, you know what I mean? Like the the like the magical um
mystical um wild I mean uh just I’ve been to Iceland though, but I I hopefully it’s
not an oversimplification to say it is like the only Buddhist country, you know. I mean, it’s a little more
specific and involved in that. And yeah, I’ve I’ve heard some of your I’ve seen
some of your pictures and heard some of your reports on it and it just sounds
very wonderful and amazing and it’d be great. I won’t be able to get to go this
time. I’ve got other commitments, but I I really appreciate this um the the
other options to join too. And if people say, “Well, no, I don’t want to be involved in the world so much.” But even
if that’s the case, then you can still kind of give your own blessing to other people that are engaging in the world in
skillful ways, you know, and uh when we have to interact with the external
world, this is I can’t think of really much of a more high-minded um
broad and expansive, heartfelt way to to be engaged and um supportive of, you
know, ourselves and others. And it it and like you said the butterfly effect uh in the long term too
you know the Buddha historical Buddha always was talking about in the long term you know and so it’s uh every and
he also said that a drop by drop a water bucket’s filled so don’t think you know good won’t come to me or don’t think bad
won’t come to me because every little bit matters and so even just spending a few moments skimming through this
podcast or whatever or you know checking out or just thinking about it for a few
moments I think would be better than nothing at all and then it just goes up from there, you know. So, I think we
ought to start starting to wrap up and yeah, uh I think everything um Ahsoka
mentioned here I should probably be able to include in the show notes. I don’t know about the travel agent stuff. We’ll
we’ll work that out after the show what all should be put in on the show notes and stuff, but I’m sure I can do an
inbed of the YouTube stream on the uh on the blog post too. So, so wrap if you
want to address the rest. Yeah. Yeah, please. I wanted to add one thing just that
Bridging Traditions: Women’s Roles, Youth, and Modernity
stays on like a bit of a cherry on top of the cake and is that it seems to me
coming from also uh Zen tradition and then yes you know blending it with Thai
forest tradition and then eventually also as a woman I find myself more at ease with stepping back into Vajayana
practice. It seems also to me in in in in that
sense as well Bhutan is trying to comparative advantage to work on that.
It’s comparative advantage trying to not to do mistakes other places have made.
So they stepping is a bit like passing from 2G to 6G and you know they have a
they can they have a chance of letting go of all the the trouble of upgrading to 3G and 4G and then uh 5G in a way of
uh saying it’s a bit of a that’s their leverage they can do it this way. It’s a
country that is highly respectful of tradition and also this event sets itself into how to bridge
ancient tradition with all its wealth of and body of of
practices but also of you know there’s there’s a lot in tantra there’s a lot of secret teachings and lots of secret
places selfarising Buddha here and self-arising Ganesh there you have people mentioning I have
to take you there there’s a mountain over there there’s a self arising and you just go into this place and just to
see a self arising um so it’s a really sacred in that sense it’s it sets itself
a bit apart from other places so it has this um it’s very it has a big talent in
in in between between brackets to sell itself has a brand bhutan is a brand of
high quality but it comes really with a very sacred energy in it. It’s not just
a marketing hype, if I may say. It’s not just something we want to sell Bhutan as
being a high quality. it really uh the the the the the
open heart of the people working with them even like I’ve done in the past four months is really like
there is a completely different understanding and pillars foundational
for relations between between people. It’s very sacred. So it’s very special
and uh that’s one for the event. Uh yes,
the butterfly effect. I still try to see if you want to organize people to come
um if people are interested to come, jump in and do it because um Bhutan
offers a completely different perspect. It’s really a very sacred and very special place. Otherwise,
I think I said it all. I hope I pay respect to
to I hope that there’s not too much of scholarly uh details. I try not to be
too scholarly. I try to make it really but not knowing who I’m talking to in
the sense I’m not sure about your your audience. Well, that’s right. And we don’t really
we really don’t know who’s going to find it this on the internet, you know. And hopefully I didn’t offend anyone. if I
did, please forgive me for being a little bit, you know, flippant or glib there. And uh I just being a little
playful and I can imagine the depth of practice uh for centuries in Bhutan, you
know, having kind of this concentration and closed off and then now opening it
up relative recently and sharing these gifts and uh this this amazing energy
and all the the goodness that comes from these practices that have been kind of
hidden, you know, in that area for so long. So it’s quite it seems quite amazing.
So there’s another there’s a trend you you if I may just
have this moment with you because I know we understand each other. We’ve been chatting we know each other almost I
don’t know three years or something. We’ve been talking a lot about a number of topics, but um you may have realized
as well that um at at this moment we’re talking there’s um a shift of artificial
intelligence becoming it was always it was there before but becoming a a common tool for
practic more than it was before. Now our generation has one way of using it like
I double check for instance when I go on charity I ask are you really sure about
this and sometime I was like I’m not sure actually I made a mistake you’re right you picked it up but I was
recently in Bhutan at a mindfulness conference vajayana mindfulness and neuroscience and artificial intelligence
and it was um there were a number of presentation you can look you can hear
that there is a trend among amongst younger generation to rely exclusively
on this right. So what does Buddhism
suggest encourages you to always double check how youngsters doublecheing or is
the reality of Instagram as it has been even for us you know we put things on
Instagram but because we know we put it there because we like to put it there but there are people who actually do the
opposite whatever is on Instagram is actually the truth or on Tik Tok which I don’t even have Tik Tok So
that generation has a completely different mindset on how they use artificial energy. my purpose with this
you know this podcast as well as the way I have been putting myself heart and
soul I would say into this project of the gorba priest prayer has been I’m contributing
what by being involved in what I’m contributing to try to keep pure dhhamma
alive what is pure dharma is dhhamma without all the fluffy little things
I’ve heard some some podcast where they I mean gener AI generated podcast I mean
AI generated videos as well where Buddha is presented as a rockstar and Maitraa
is the next rock star in the stardom in the Buddhist stardom and I’m like okay okay this is
just terminology but if we start just by changing the terminology already where are we going so all the ns and the
dakinis are going to become you know so the idea is this event for youth with
Preserving Pure Dharma in the AI Era
youth in mind is trying to set itself at
this very moment as bringing ancient times in a language of modernity.
So it’s a very subtle line because
ancient times devotional practice might be considered something very
outdated for old people. It doesn’t change much. There’s another
way to work at peace. But to maintain that and to present it
and offer it in a more contemporary way that’s one way of doing
it and that’s Bhutan is trying to offer that this way. There are maybe flaws.
It’s there are failures. There are this it’s a first time event. It could it can always be better and it’s always easier
to criticize it. Oh there isn’t this and that. But when you are part of it,
you’ll realize you have to work with the context. So ancient bridging ancient
times with modern times is I think the the the trademark of this event.
This is so vitally important here and I I just hopefully I don’t come up with an like come off like an old fogy here. Uh
which nobody even uses that language anyway. But Soga makes such a great point. our generation we we’re the kind
that well I don’t I can’t speak for but I was the last generation to know a world before internet you know um that
they can’t that they don’t know so they don’t have that reference point like we do right um I’m not as super immersed
either so what what I’m what I and I find myself using AI more and more and what I
see it becoming where people eventually it might even happen faster than we think where people are being conditioned
to not even make decisions for themselves anymore to go to AI to make all the decisions in their lives and
then the internet is being flooded with like AI slop right now. Some people
might say deliberately even so that they might want to usher in a digital ID to
have you know and this is a whole another ball of wax I’ll just touch on real briefly but I I I think we can do
this without needing to do that because eventually they say it might be get so flooded with AI people won’t be able to
discern what is legitimate and what’s AI generated and so they need to lock down the internet and you have to get a
registered ID and you have to be you know every movement tracked and traced online and approved through social
credit systems and all this. So we I don’t think we have to go there. And one of the bridges I think where we don’t
have to go there where younger generations can kind of get a reference point and maybe more discernment is if
they do go offline and immerse themselves in like some more ancient
tradition like this. you know, this is an opportunity for them to know um what
it’s like without the and I’m not saying they’re the the lites there either, you
know, but it’s something that’s um there’s I don’t think there’s much reference to for something like this in
the West, at least in America, because America is kind of an experiment yet. And you know, some hipsters are into
throwing away all the tech and going lowfi and uh some people will never
consider anything like this. But I think it it is really um an alternative to
what’s going on now. And if people don’t have this reference point, this is one way to get it. I feel
Connecting with Bhutanese Communities and Final Thoughts
there is another way to connect. Um I I mean the US is is there are a lot the Bhutanese communities in the in in the
US are are quite uh substantive. So there’s a sub there’s a big community
around uh New York New York I mean east east side I’m not sure about where you
are but I know so that there is one in California. So it would be also possible to tap into
uh those communities to to check because they are certainly tuned in because that
was part of the project as well to tune into the communities um abroad and the
other way would be to um uh if people are interested is just to go to the I
don’t know where you are exactly in the US but when I was in California and
no I’m in the middle of a rural area. I mean, like country bumpkin as it can get where I’m at now. You know, the flyover
states in the middle of the middle of nowhere basically. Yeah. Right. Because as I mean what I have
experienced in some parts of the US is that there’s a monastery or there’s a sa every
I’m not saying uh maybe most of the major cities have that. Most of them made sure yeah
there’s some in Colorado and I’m don’t but anyway there there are many ways to
to connect with this and just the fact of listening to this would be also a way of to you know to connect that to
understand a bit more how Bhutan you know works and they really trying to make it completely different like you
know the government is paperless paperless government they all have uh
computers they they know they really try mm Mhm.
So, well, yeah, there seems a lot of modern innovations. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they they are trying really
hard to to to to as I said to build that ancient tradition with modern times and
to keep attracting the youth as well into that movement and say, “Hey, you know, you’re a Buddhanese. You have
there’s a lot here going on that we we cannot let that go.” In a way it’s very
rich and it’s recognized and respected by many not just himalayan people but as
well as South Asia and the west. So bridge that help us bridge that and that’s where also the application comes
in for logging in the prayers that’s one step then there might be we also have
small ress that have been produced asking people about what what peace
means. So these are little steps you know here and there uh to but
essentially it’s really about bridging and I think it’s an important bridge to create to not to deny we have a new
between brackets era coming in because it would be very difficult to live
without AI at this point you know for instance even where I am at the moment I cannot log into my bank account on the
website there are certain things I cannot do on my website on the web on the bank website. I have to use the app.
So, I have to have a phone to do certain things. It I I tried to conver it on the
website just because it’s more s soothing for the eyes. It doesn’t they told me no, you have to do that on the app only. So, that’s one thing you so
you cannot refuse that aspect. And on the other end, you can also not just
deny this is a big rich um tradition and say okay we leave that for there and we
step into it’s all about blending and it’s all about where is the bridging point the youth
your generations children I mean what is now called Gen Z
or you know even further even not not just Gen Z the one before Gen Z. So
those who are now in their 40s and 30s, 40s, you know, older generation, millennials may maybe millennials,
millennials are already. Yeah. But you know what I mean? All that that that group that is uh 15, 20 years before us,
those that are they need to to keep to keep that and
understand that consciousness is not your brain. your your brain is
your physical brain but the mind is not in your brain it’s not in here the mind is is is here but it’s not here you know
to understand that because otherwise we are going so and I think this festival helps a bit it’s a small step into into
into uh into that so I can we can have another podcast after I’ve been there
well that’s beautiful yeah well well that’s a possibility So very cool. Well,
Closing Blessings and Farewell
SOA, thanks for doing this. Thanks for reaching out and and uh asking me to do this. I really appreciate it.
So may all beings everywhere and oh yeah, be free from the co from suffering and
the causes of suffering. Absolutely. Bye now. Thank you. Bye.
You’re welcome.
Integrating Presence 