Happy New Year! The Year of the Snake is ending, away with all the worries and displeasure of yesterday. The Year of the Horse is tiptoeing near, along with the hopes and quests of tomorrow. Overnight, gone is the Snake and in comes the Horse; in a flash of thought, gone is ignorance and in comes wisdom.

Today is the 10th anniversary of H. H. Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok’s parinirvana. My tribute to commemorate this special occasion is this: Without you, nothing about me here and now would exist. Without His Holiness, none of us here would be what we are today. To repay his ultimate kindness, we must do our very best to spread the Dharma and benefit all beings.

We should promote two forms of charity: material and spiritual, because some of the people around us lack basic living necessities, while others require spiritual sustenance, both just as painful. With money, material charity can be performed; with Buddhist Dhyāna (Zen) such as meditation teachings, spiritual charity can be attained.

When the basic physical needs such as food and shelter are satisfied, we should immediately seek mental and spiritual belonging, the lack of which will otherwise intervene in our material life. With this intervention comes invidious comparisons, showoffs and discontent into our lives, whereupon the stress in our lives will progressively worsen until finally our minds completely collapse under the tremendous pressure of desire.

There was a fire at the Larung Five Science Buddhist Academy on the evening of January 9. The news spread far and wide and generated lots of discussions. The fact is that it was not as serious as some of the versions portrayed on the internet and there definitely were no casualties. Please do not worry, our fellow practitioners. The photo here was taken after the fire.

People often say, “Come what may, we aren't afraid,” but become dismayed by what actually does come. Hence we should have some reverence for the concept of positive and negative causes and effects.

What are the trendy colors for 2014/2015? Please don’t just follow blindly! All such colors exist only in your head. Your clothes, when put into the closet with its doors shut, don't have colors. Ha! Interesting, isn’t it?

A man and a dog were locked in a house for five days without any food or drink. The first moment they are released outside, both would pursue the exact same things: food and drink. All their effort would be directed toward this aim. In this value system, nothing else compares with food or drink. None of art, philosophy, or religion serves the purpose. Once well-fed, however, the dog's values would remain the same while the man’s values should somehow evolve.

Buddhism attacks not bad people, but only the causes for bad people to become so bad.