What is Shabten?

Shabten (Tibetan) means Long Life Pooja (spiritual practice). The long life of great masters depends on their disciples, so in this site we collect reports about Long Life practices, done by Drukpa monasteries and centres all over the world for His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, His Holiness Je Khenpo and all the precious masters of the ten directions. But also awareness and motivation for doing Shabten practice needs to be created. Human rebirth is very rare and precious, if used for the benefit of all the beings. So finding the Dharma in this human life is extremely precious and rare. Finding an authentic spiritual master as one´s teacher is even more rare. If we look for example at the continuous activities of His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa, guiding so many of us on our spiritual path towards enlightenment for the benefit of all the beings, creating compassion, love, peace, tolerance and understanding in this world, we start to understand the importance of His life and the importance of His Long Life. His activities are so important not only for us as individuals and groups under His spiritual guidance, but also for the well-being and future of our world, which is severely threatened by human activities. Neither wars nor economic wealth can change this. If there is hope, it is by spreading love and compassion, tolerance towards other cultures, religions, species, by protecting nature and environment and through the understanding, that all the beings are equal and their lives deserve protection.

Let´s hope and pray, that His Holiness and all the precious Drukpa masters in the Dragon Lineage will have a Long Life in order to bring forward these changes in human values and activities all over the world. In short: May "Live to Love" overcome hatred, aggression, destruction and other ego-motivated thoughts and actions all over the world. Actually His Holiness´ health is under an enormous stress by the way He is living: He hardly sleeps more than 3 hours each night, if at all, constantly working day and night to benefit us and all the beings through His wisdom and enlightened activities.

Prayers properly practiced with good motivation and devotion can produce enormous effects in curing diseases and prolonging life. So it was His Eminence, the 9th (Kyabje) Khamtrul Jigme Pema Nyinjadh´s idea and initiative to start this project. He asked me to setup and manage this website. I am very happy, that I can do this and want to dedicate the merits to the well-being and long life of all sentient beings, especially for His Holiness, the Gyalwang Drukpa.