7th Arya Kshema
30-31 March 2023
༄༅། །ཝ་རཱ་ཎ་སི། བཛྲ་བིདྱ་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་དུ། འཕགས་མ་བདེ་བྱེད་མའི་དཔྱིད་ཆོས་ཐེངས་བདུན་པ། དེ་རིང་རྩོད་དཔང་དུ་གདན་དྲངས་པའི་མཁན་པོ་རྣམ་པ་ལྔ་དང་། བཛྲ་བིདྱ་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་གི་མཁན་པོ་དང་། བཙུན་དགོན་བཤད་གྲྭ་ཁག་གི་མཁན་པོ་དང་བཙུན་དགོན་འདུས་མང་སྤྱི་ནས་ཕྱི་དྲོ་ཚེ་རིང་མ་ཚོགས་པའི་བརྙན་པར། ༢༠༢༣/༠༣/༣༠
Tseringma is one of the rituals always offered during the Arya Kshema. The Five Tseringma –Five Long-Life Sisters–are protectors of the Kagyu lineage. Tashi Tseringma is the principal deity of this group of female protectors who are known as the Tashi Tsering Chenga. Their special relationship with the Kagyu dates back to the time of Milarepa. According to tradition, the five sisters were originally mountain spirits living in the mountains on the Nepalese-Tibetan border. They were tamed by Guru Padmasambhava and ordered to protect the Buddhist teachings. When they encountered Milarepa, they tried to distract him from meditation in order to test him, but he resisted them. Subsequently, they received teachings from him— these dialogues are very well-known —and thus the link was forged and they became protectors of the Kagyu teachings. Milarepa declared, “In the human realm, my teachings are held by the Teacher from Central Tibet (Gampopa). In the non-human realm, they are held by Tseringma.”
During the time of the previous Karmapas, this practice was performed extensively at Tsurphu Monastery in Tibet, and the Seventeenth Karmapa has asked the Kamtsang nunneries to engage in the extensive practice of Tseringma annually.
The Arya Kshema nuns, joined by their teachers, khenpos and some students from Vajra Vidya, recited the Tseringma ritual in the afternoon sessions on 30th and 31st of March. Drupon Dechen Rinpoche presided.
