Portraits of Tibetan Buddhist Masters 9780520930537, 9780520239739

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PORTRAITS OF TIBETAN BUDDHIST MASTERS

DON FARBER

PORTRAITS OF TIBETAN BUDDHIST MASTERS foreword by sogyal rinpoche

with words from the masters

and text by rebecca m c clen novick

university of california press berkeley los angeles london

frontispiece: dudjom yangsi rinpoche, a young boy recognized as an incarnation of the late his holiness dudjom rinpoche, siliguri, india, 1997. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2005 by the Regents of the University of California All photographs © 2005 by Don Farber. All rights reserved. Foreword text © 2005 by Sogyal Rinpoche. All rights reserved. Design: Nola Burger. Composition: Integrated Composition Systems. Text type: Requiem. Display Type: Akzidenz Grotesk. Printer and binder: Quebecor World Kingsport. library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Farber, Don. Portraits of Tibetan Buddhist Masters / Don Farber ; with words from the masters and text by Rebecca McClen Novick ; foreword by Sogyal Rinpoche. p. cm. isbn 0-520-23973-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Lamas—Portraits. 2. Lamas—Biography. 3. Lamas—Quotations. I. Novick, Rebecca McClen. II. Title. bq7920.f37 2005 294.3'923'0922—dc22 2005014067 Manufactured in the United States of America 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

CONTENTS Foreword by Sogyal Rinpoche Introduction

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portraits of tibetan buddhist masters his holiness the dalai lama: the spiritual leader of tibetan buddhism His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

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masters of the nyingma school His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche His Holiness Penor Rinpoche Trulshik Rinpoche Rabjam Rinpoche Dzogchen Rinpoche Minling Khenchen Rinpoche Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche Sogyal Rinpoche Khandro Rinpoche Thinley Norbu Rinpoche Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche Dzatrul Rinpoche Gyatrul Rinpoche Khamtrul Rinpoche Anzin Rinpoche Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche Namkha Drimed Rabjam Rinpoche Khenpo Thupten Mewa Rinpoche Sakyong Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche Adzom Paylo Rinpoche Kunsang Dechen Lingpa Rinpoche

18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60

Lama Tharchin Rinpoche Tulku Thubten Rinpoche Khempo Yurmed Tinly Rinpoche

62 64 66

masters of the kagyu school karma kagyu His Holiness the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje 70 His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje 72 Jamgön Kongtrul Rinpoche 74 Tai Situ Rinpoche 76 Gyaltsab Rinpoche 78 Kalu Rinpoche 80 Bokar Rinpoche 84 Thrangu Rinpoche 86 Tenga Rinpoche 88 Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche 90 Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche 92 Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche 94 drukpa kagyu Choegon Rinpoche 96 Khamtrul Rinpoche 98 Adeu Rinpoche 100 Togden Amting 102 Togden Achoe 104 drikung kagyu The Drikung Kyabgon, His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche 106 Garchen Rinpoche 108 Drikung Ontul Rinpoche 110 Ayang Rinpoche 112 Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche 114

masters of the sakya school His Holiness Sakya Trizin His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya Rinpoche Chogye Trichen Rinpoche Luding Khenchen Rinpoche Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk Rinpoche Dagmo Jamyang Sakya Khandro Tsering Chödrön Jetsun Chimey Luding Gona Tulku Rinpoche

118 120 122 124 126 128 130 132 134 136

masters of the gelug school His Holiness the One Hundredth Gaden Tri Rinpoche Ling Rinpoche Lati Rinpoche His Holiness the Ninth Khalkha Jetsun Dampa Khyongla Rato Rinpoche Arjia Rinpoche Tara Tulku Rinpoche Ribur Rinpoche Kangyur Khensur Rinpoche Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche Samdhong Rinpoche Gehlek Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche Geshe Lhundub Sopa Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen

140 142 144 146 148 150 152 154 156 158 160 162 164 166 168

Acknowledgments Glossary Sources for Quotations

171 175 178

FOREWORD As I look through this book, and my gaze falls on this marvelous collection of photos, three things take place. First, I am filled with a feeling of nostalgia, as countless memories dart through my mind of my homeland, of what it stood for, and of those great individuals, who were the masters and practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism. Growing up in Tibet next to my master Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, the teacher of a number of the lamas featured in this book, I was privileged to meet and know many of these outstanding spiritual figures. Some of them in fact were my teachers. The lamas portrayed here are bearers of a lineage of wisdom, passed down from teacher to disciple in an unbroken line since the time of the Buddha. Many of them became extremely learned, and some very deeply realized. Second, leafing through these photos brings me a vivid feeling of the heart of Tibetan Buddhism, which is what is realized and transmitted by these great masters—the innermost, essential nature of mind. In the Buddhist tradition of Tibet, the master has a unique significance, as the embodiment of the wisdom and compassion and limitless capacity of all the buddhas. Before he passed away, the Buddha said to his beloved disciple Ananda: Do not feel sad, Ananda. Ananda, do not lament. In future times I shall take the form of spiritual teachers, In order to help you and others.

He also said: Of all the buddhas who have ever attained enlightenment, not a single one accomplished this without relying upon a master, and of all the thousand buddhas that will appear in this eon, none of them will attain enlightenment without relying on a master.

Not only does the master personif y the truth, but he or she actively encourages us and enables us to discover the Buddha within our own minds. The love and devotion that master and student share for one another become the catalyst and pathway for spiritual realization. Third, looking at these faces, of teachers past and present, I am filled with a confidence, even exhilaration, at the realization that despite the tragedy that overtook Tibet, despite

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the fact that many of them have left this world, this living transmission of wisdom continues onward, undiminished. We witness it in the young masters, perfectly trained and embarking on the same journey of inner accomplishment that made their forebears so great. In addition to receiving the full training in the Buddhist teachings and practice, they are acutely aware of the wider world and are reaching out and responding to it with tremendous imagination, understanding, and compassion. Many of the masters here have played a central role in the transition and spread of the Buddha’s teachings to every country in the modern world, one of the great spiritual phenomena of the twentieth century. These teachings have an extraordinary message for men and women today, about the task of being human, about managing the mind and its emotions, about living a truly meaningful and compassionate life, and about the mind’s innermost nature and the deepest spiritual realization. It is a message that is beginning to be heard in all quarters, for it is a message that most desperately needs to be heard and enacted. This book is a work of history. Yet Don Farber has conjured something across the transparent boundaries of time. He has captured something magical. In the Vajrayana tradition of Tibet, there is a method called thong drol, “liberation upon seeing.” I believe that images of masters, such as these, are endowed with a real power of communication and transmission. I remember, growing up in Tibet, that whenever they sat for a photo, the great masters would always, quite naturally, already be in a state of the nature of mind, of unaltered pure awareness, which is what would be directly communicated to anyone seeing their picture, only depending, of course, on how receptive he or she might be. So how can we look at these pictures? First, let the presence of these masters guide your mind into a state of meditation. Let their peace work on you, to gather your scattered mind into a mindful state of calm, abiding naturally, undistracted and uncontrived. Let their clarity and purity and wisdom awaken in you the awareness and insight of clear seeing. Allow their warmth and kindness to play upon you and disarm all your anxiety and agitation. And let their courage dispel all your despair, and arm you with confidence and inner strength.

x

Look deeply, then, and celebrate the fact that one of the world’s great traditions of wisdom continues, alive and thriving. Perhaps when you put down this book, you may find that you feel more than usually inspired, inspired to become acquainted with your own true nature, the luminous mind of freedom, and so to embrace with all your heart what His Holiness the Dalai Lama has called “individual and universal responsibility,” doing whatever you can with your life to help others, as compassionate champions of peace in this troubled world of ours. My last look at the faces in this book takes the form of a prayer. May the masters of all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism live long and face no obstacles whatsoever as they offer the precious, liberating teachings of Buddha to people everywhere! And for each and every living being, may suffering be dissolved, and transformed into the bliss of omniscient enlightenment!

sogyal rinpoche

xi

INTRODUCTION My journey into Eastern spiritual traditions began in 1968 when I was sixteen and was introduced to yoga philosophy. That year I also took a photography class and saw Dorothea Lange’s work, which was so inspiring that I decided to become a photographer. In the early seventies I began to practice meditation and attended teachings by spiritual masters such as Swami Muktananda, Swami Satchidinanda, Krishnamurti, and Pir Viliat Khan. I was introduced to Buddhism in 1974 when I attended a seminar with the Tibetan master Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Three years later I discovered the Vietnamese Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles and decided to make a long-term photographic study of life there, becoming a disciple of the late Vietnamese Zen master Thich Thien-An, the founder of the temple and of the International Buddhist Meditation Center. That same year in Los Angeles I had a profound experience during an empowerment called the “Black Crown Ceremony ” given by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa. As I stood in the crowd inside the Shrine Auditorium, I watched the Karmapa as he sat on a throne, a black hat on his head and his hand on top of the hat. To the sound of Tibetan horns and gongs, he slowly lifted the hat up above his head. Suddenly, he appeared to become transparent, while his clothes and the hat remained opaque. He appeared this way for nearly a minute, until he placed the hat back on his head. This experience helped to build my faith in the dharma and my devotion to Buddhist teachers. It was a precursor to what would become a personal quest to study with and photograph Tibetan Buddhist masters. In 1986 I had an opportunity to photograph Kalu Rinpoche in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Then in his early eighties, Kalu Rinpoche had been a disciple of the Fifteenth Karmapa and the meditation teacher for the Sixteenth Karmapa. Kalu Rinpoche was teaching in a large tent in front of the stupa that he would be consecrating. It proved impossible to photograph inside the tent, so I decided to use the time to receive the teachings, which were some of the most profound I had ever heard. After a few days, it started snowing and the tent caved in from the snow. The consecration ceremony began outdoors with everyone sitting in the clear area where the tent had been. The sun shone brilliantly as Kalu Rinpoche performed the ceremony surrounded by his senior students, both Tibetans and Westerners.

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Here was the chance I had waited for, and I quickly photographed him in the clear winter light (see p. 81). Kalu Rinpoche returned to Los Angeles in 1988. He was very frail, and everyone knew this would be his last visit, but his mind was clear and his teachings were extraordinary. Once again I was given the opportunity to photograph him, and I went to the house where he was staying in the foothills above Pasadena. All the lamas whom Kalu Rinpoche had sent to run his North American centers were gathered there. After setting up my equipment, I waited with all the lamas seated behind me until Rinpoche entered the room and came to sit in front of the camera. I gave him a framed print of the photograph of him I had made in Santa Fe. As I looked through the viewfinder, he seemed distant, as if deep in practice. I looked at him over the top of the camera to get his attention. He seemed immediately to understand what I wanted and helped me to successfully make the portrait (see p. 82). It was a deeply moving experience to be with one of the greatest spiritual masters on the planet knowing this would be the last time I would see him, at least in his present form. Several months later I learned that Kalu Rinpoche had died, and I felt compelled to go and photograph his funeral. It had begun when he died and would continue for the traditional forty-nine days at his monastery in North India. I flew to Calcutta, caught a train to Siliguri, and then took a jeep up to Sonada—a small Tibetan refugee settlement near the town of Darjeeling—arriving in time to witness the last ten days of the funeral. In the shrine room where the ceremonies were being performed, monks and nuns, as well as laypeople from around the world, were chanting with a single focus: the swift rebirth of Kalu Rinpoche. During the last of the forty-nine days, the chanting and prayers continued around the clock, with people taking shifts. On the final day, a great procession carried Kalu Rinpoche’s kudum (his body preserved in salt in a decorated box) from the shrine room up to his house. As the procession moved along with the lamas performing sacred music with drums, gongs, and conch shells, I noticed that people were looking up at the sky. I turned around and saw a brilliant halo around the sun—an indication that the universe had affirmed the master’s enlightenment and that he was entering the “Pure Land” at that very moment.

2

The next day I headed back to Los Angeles to serve as the official photographer for the Kalachakra teachings and empowerments given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and hosted by my teacher, Geshe Gyeltsen. I worked every day for the next two weeks photographing His Holiness giving the Kalachakra, and I was fortunate to be able to have a portrait session with him. In the early nineties, I traveled extensively in Asia to photograph Buddhist life, and whenever possible I photographed the Tibetan masters and attended their teachings. In 1995 Bokar Rinpoche, the main disciple of Kalu Rinpoche, came to Los Angeles with the young Yangsi Kalu Rinpoche, the boy recognized as Kalu Rinpoche’s reincarnation. As Bokar Rinpoche gave teachings, this five-year-old sat motionless on the throne for hours. When I met him for a portrait session, he poked at my stomach as if, remembering our meeting in his previous life, to say, “You’ve put on weight,” which I had. I set up the portrait to duplicate how I had photographed his previous incarnation ( p. 83). My connection with Tibetan society deepened when I married a Tibetan woman, Yeshi Chozom. In 1996 I received a Fulbright scholarship to spend ten months in India and Nepal photographing and doing research on the religious life of Tibetan Buddhist refugees. With our two-year-old daughter, Palmo, we traveled to Yeshi’s village of Bir in Himachal Pradesh, India, a few hours by road from Dharamsala. There we lived with Yeshi’s brother, Lhundup, and their mother, Lhaga, who had escaped from Tibet in 1959 with her husband and her “cousin-brother,” Gona Tulku Rinpoche (the term “cousin-brother” is an expression of the closeness of cousins in Tibetan society). Gona Rinpoche, who also lived in Bir, was renowned for his divinations, so I would always ask him if my journey would be safe before heading out from the village. I traveled with Lhundup to various Tibetan refugee settlements in India and the sacred Buddhist pilgrimage places of Sarnath and Bodhgaya. During this period I was able to photograph many Tibetan masters in India and Nepal. I also had the opportunity to photograph His Holiness the Dalai Lama at his residence in Dharamsala, again during the Kalachakra he gave in Siliguri, and also when he went to Zanskar in the far north of India. Right after he finished giving teachings in Zanskar, a brilliant halo appeared around the sun directly overhead, similar to the one that had occurred at Kalu Rinpoche’s funeral.

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In the years since 1997, following our return home to Santa Monica, I have continued to photograph the Tibetan Buddhist masters when they have come to Los Angeles and other cities in North America. As the deadline for this book approached, I knew there was one master I absolutely needed to include—His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Thinley Dorje. This young man, the reincarnation of the Sixteenth Karmapa, had been receiving training at Tsurphu Monastery in Tibet. However, he could not freely receive teachings from the great masters who were in India, so with his sister and his attendants he made a bold escape to India via Nepal. I also wanted to photograph and interview several other great masters, so I made one last trip to India before the publication deadline. When I met the Seventeenth Karmapa, I was struck by his resemblance to the Sixteenth. I was deeply moved to finally be able to meet him and be in his presence. On my last day in India, I went to visit Tai Situ Rinpoche at his residence in New Delhi. Tai Situ, one of the four regents of the Sixteenth Karmapa, was trained by the Sixteenth Karmapa from a young age. He is now one of the Seventeenth Karmapa’s principal teachers. When I asked Tai Situ Rinpoche to compare the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Karmapas, he said, “They are the same, no different.” I told Tai Situ Rinpoche about my mysterious experience during the empowerment by the Sixteenth Karmapa in Los Angeles. He told me that he too had witnessed this. He had watched the Sixteenth Karmapa give the Black Crown Ceremony over one hundred times and on three occasions, he said, “the room filled with a golden light and he appeared to be transparent.” He explained that for someone experiencing this, it was a sign that person’s mind had “ripened” to receive the transmission. Rinpoche indicated how critically important it is to preserve the continuity of the lineage through empowerments—the mind-to-mind transmissions associated with the wisdom deities that the Tibetan Buddhist masters give to their disciples. These empowerments are essential for the preservation of the Vajrayana teachings that emanated from the Buddha and are at the heart of Tibetan Buddhism. I feel incredibly fortunate to have met the masters presented in this book. The extraordinary quality of the teachings and spiritual presence of these Tibetan Buddhist masters gives

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me faith that the phenomenon of reincarnated masters (tulkus) is real, although so far it cannot be scientifically proven. Being in the presence of these masters or attuning oneself to them in our practice has a positive transformative effect. People may ask, “Where is my lama?” or “Why isn’t such-and-such master in the book?” My answer is that I never set out to make an encyclopedia of Tibetan masters. These are the masters that I had the karma to meet. Each of them, I feel, manifested the qualities of wisdom and compassion. It is true there are some glaring omissions, like His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, whom I didn’t have the chance to meet while they were alive. Although I tried to photograph Chadral Rinpoche in Nepal three times over the years, so far conditions haven’t allowed me to accomplish this. My photography of the Tibetan masters is a work in progress, and there are many more whom I hope to photograph and, as I have been doing more recently, to videotape. Many years ago, a fellow dharma student asked, “Why don’t you make a book with the master’s words next to each photograph?” This idea stuck with me, and it is wonderful to now have this idea come to fruition. Here I want to acknowledge the specialness of my collaboration with Rebecca McClen Novick, who has carefully worked with my audio and video recordings of interviews with the masters, as well as consulting many other sources, to write the biographies and select and edit the quotations. Julie Adler was also indispensable, networking with the masters and their students to ensure the accuracy of the text. It was moving to see the care the masters and their students took to make certain that what we published was correct, and in several cases the masters wrote something especially for this book. So many blessings came from them. I am full of gratitude. The situation has been tragic in Tibet. When the Buddhist masters were forced to flee their homeland and establish monasteries in exile, however, something extraordinary occurred. The body of wisdom and the precious Tibetan Buddhist way of life that had been practically unknown outside of Tibet and its surrounding regions were suddenly available to everyone. Scholars from around the world began studying these teachings and seeing how they could apply to life in modern society. His Holiness the Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace

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a painting of the late jamyang khyentse chökyi lodrö dzongsar institute, bir, himachal pradesh, india, 1997

Prize and became recognized internationally as one of the most important spiritual leaders of our time. A collaboration between the Dalai Lama and Dr. Howard C. Cutler resulted in one of the largest-selling self-help books in history, The Art of Happiness. Sogyal Rinpoche’s The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying also became an international bestseller. Other Tibetan masters continue to have a tremendous impact on people in many countries. These are not esoteric teachings suitable only for people from mysterious and distant lands. These teachings are at the heart of the human condition and can benefit anyone in any culture. The masters represented here all work to preserve their lineage by training young incarnate masters, as well as monks and nuns, and by giving guidance and teachings to laypersons. They constantly have to raise money to build and maintain their monasteries in exile and to restore their monasteries in Tibet. Those who receive permission from the Chinese government travel to Tibet to give empowerments and teachings to their disciples. The monasteries and nunneries are the lifeblood of Tibetan Buddhist culture, serving as the training grounds for future masters. Traditionally, the Tibetan people have supported these monastic institutions, but this has been very difficult to do under the Chinese Communist government and in the face of the economic and social challenges of exile. I would encourage anyone who makes a connection with the masters to find out how to assist them in maintaining their monasteries and the monks and nuns they house and feed. It is a wonderful way not only to return a favor for their sharing their extraordinary teachings with us, but also to help ensure that there will be a Tibetan Buddhist way of life in the future. We are at a special moment in time when only a few of the masters who received their training in Tibet before the Chinese occupation are still alive. As I look at their faces, I am reminded of the portraits of the American Indians made by Edward Curtis and Adam Clark Vroman at the turn of the twentieth century, and how those portraits reveal precious ways of life that are now practically lost. It is with a sense of urgency that I have tried to document the presence of the Tibetan masters, for if Tibetan Buddhist culture does not endure, all of us will lose.

don farber

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PORTRAITS OF TIBETAN BUDDHIST MASTERS

It is said that any teacher of the dharma must have at least three qualities. These are knowledge, humility, and kindness. The men and women in this book are generously qualified in all three regards. They have immense spiritual knowledge, the humility not to declare it, and the kindness to pass it on to others. No matter what our faith, our stores of empathy, altruism, patience, and joy can become enhanced through contemplating their lives, words, and expressions. The biographies of the masters presented in this book cannot come close to doing justice either to the extent of their activities or to the depth of their spiritual attainments. With limited space, we have tried to give the reader a sense of what a life unequivocally devoted to spiritual development for the benefit of all sentient beings is like. The brief quotations from each master are like a few choice notes in a millennia-old symphony, and can be truly appreciated only within the broader context of the literature and practices of Tibetan Buddhism as a whole. Don Farber’s photographs give us a glimpse into the end product of this vast and profound spiritual system, and as such, into the face of enlightenment itself. It is our own limitless potential as forces of good in the world that these masters are here to awaken, and I hope that everyone who reads this book, regardless of their spiritual path, feels this potential stir a little more keenly as a result.

rebecca mc clen novick

HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA the spiritual leader of tibetan buddhism

“By referring to authentic scriptural sources, by employing all sorts of reasonings most suitable to your mind, by considering examples from the lives of past masters . . . you should be able to see the great benefits of relying on a spiritual master. It is a very profitable venture! Therefore, develop your conviction that you should properly rely on him or her. Rejoice in the fact that you have such an opportunity. You should not have the notion that ‘spiritual master’ only refers to high lamas who give teachings from high thrones; rather, the reference is to the spiritual master to whom you relate daily, who leads you on the spiritual path step by step. . . . Therefore, the kindest spiritual master is the one who gives you teachings, because he is the one who leads you to the achievement of enlightenment.”

HIS HOLINESS THE FOURTEENTH DALAI LAMA After the Thirteenth Dalai Lama died in 1933, a search began for his reincarnation. Four years later a search party of lamas went to the village of Taktser, in the Amdo province of Tibet, the home of a remarkable two-year-old boy named Lhamo Dhondrub. The head lama, a monk from Sera Monastery, disguised himself as a servant, but the boy immediately recognized him and identified items that had belonged to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, claiming that they were his. The monks were assured that the boy was the reincarnation of the Great Thirteenth, the seventyfourth manifestation of the Buddha of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara. At the age of four the boy was ordained as a novice monk. He moved to the Potala Palace and entered a life of strict religious study. When the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, the Tibetan government sought guidance from the Nechung Oracle, who pronounced that the young monk’s time had come to be enthroned 12

as the temporal and spiritual leader of Tibet. Four years later he received full ordination as a Buddhist monk, and in the spring of 1959 he earned the geshe lharam monastic degree. In March, after a Tibetan popular uprising was brutally crushed by the Chinese army, with no hope of cooperation from the Chinese government, the Dalai Lama reluctantly left Tibet, escaping to India to appeal for international help. He set up a government in exile in the North Indian town of Dharamsala, where he established a Tibetan democratic constitution in 1963. The Dalai Lama’s devotion to nonviolent methods to achieve political autonomy for Tibet earned him the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize. He is a master of all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and has written widely on the subject. The universality of his message of compassion and tolerance has made him internationally revered as a global ambassador for peace and unity.

santa monica, california, 1989

dharamsala, india, 1997

mirik, india, 1997

MASTERS OF THE NYINGMA SCHOOL

“Everyone takes the three roots as their refuge And leaves behind the three unfortunate births.* Immutable mind transcends all efforts to abandon or cultivate. This is the very nature of primordial purity. Although bad times are called degenerate, Their nature is emptiness and compassion. What are called the echoes of good and bad Have the very nature of emptiness and compassion. Emptiness embodies the true heart of compassion; Empty of samsara and nirvana, it is also the essential dimension. What is called nonexistent is a fabrication traced on water. The true heart of everything is the awakened mind.”

HIS HOLINESS MINDROLLING TRICHEN RINPOCHE Trichen Jurme Kunzang Wangyal, the eleventh throneholder of the Mindrolling lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, was born in 1930 in Eastern Tibet. He was the son of the previous throneholder, Gyurme Dhondup Wangyal, as this lineage is passed down from father to son. He entered the Mindrolling Monastery in Central Tibet and underwent a comprehensive Buddhist education. He received numerous teachings and empowerments from highly distinguished masters such as his root guru Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, as well as from Kongtrul Rinpoche, Chung Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche, Rabjam Rinpoche, Dordzin Namdrol Gyatso, Dordzin Dechen Choedzin, and Gelong Kunzang. Upon finishing his studies Mindrolling Trichen went into retreat for fourteen years at the Thegchog Chöling Retreat Center to deepen his spiritual under-

standing. He escaped the Chinese occupation in 1959, when he was twenty-nine years old, and settled in India, where he lived with the great Nyingma master His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche. It was His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, along with His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who performed his official enthronement ceremony three years later. Mindrolling Trichen worked with these masters and His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa to establish and preserve the dharma in India. In 1976 Mindrolling Trichen moved from Zangdog Palri Monastery in Kalimpong to Dehra Dun and took his seat as the head of the Mindrolling Monastery in exile, where he resides with his family. Working closely with Khochhen Rinpoche, Mindrolling Trichen has since reinstituted a number of the traditional rituals and ceremonies of the Minling lineage at Mindrolling.

* The three roots are lama (the teacher), yidam (the meditational deity—a manifestation of the fully enlightened

mind), and dakini (a feminine manifestation of enlightenment appearing in various ways). The three unfortunate births are hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals.

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clement town, dehra dun, india, 1997

“The Buddha didn’t teach as an intellectual exercise. He taught out of an unbearable sense of compassion. If we can develop this same attitude it will lead us toward enlightenment. We need to develop an impartiality toward all beings and the wish to end their suffering. This intense and affectionate attitude is the pith of dharma practice.”

HIS HOLINESS PENOR RINPOCHE His Holiness Penor Rinpoche was born in 1932 in the province of Kham in Eastern Tibet and was recognized as the eleventh throneholder of the Palyul lineage, the third incarnation of Drubwang Pema Norbu Rinpoche. At the age of four he began his studies at the Palyul Monastery with a number of highly qualified masters and was enthroned by Thubten Chökyi Dawa when he was twelve. A year later he took the vows of a novice monk and received full ordination at Tarthang Monastery at the age of twenty-one. After receiving all the essential instructions and empowerments of the Nyingma tradition, he entered a four-year retreat at Tarthang Monastery with his master, Choktrul Rinpoche. Rinpoche’s other notable teachers include Khenpo Nuden, Khenpo Lekshe Jorden, Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, and 20

Khenpo Pema Jigme. Penor Rinpoche left Tibet for India in 1959 with a party of three hundred; only thirty survived the journey. In 1963 he founded Namdroling Monastery in South India, which has grown to become the largest Nyingma monastic institution outside Tibet. Since 1985 he has established many centers in North America and East and Southeast Asia and has rebuilt Tibet’s Palyul Monastery, which had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In 1993 he succeeded His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche and His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche as the third head of the Nyingma school and served as the representative of over four hundred monastic branches. In 2001 he transferred his responsibilities as head of the Nyingma school to His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche.

los angeles, california, 1996

“The Buddha’s teachings are innumerable and vast in scope, but if you were to summarize them all, their essence is that everything is interdependent. Things can only arise from their causes. Our suffering, in this life and beyond, is caused by our negative actions and emotions, so we must try to reduce these by applying the different teachings that all act as antidotes. In particular, the texts point out how all suffering arises from thinking of oneself, and all happiness from thinking of others. We therefore need to train our minds to think of others with tolerance, compassion, and love, and to develop the good heart from which all the qualities of enlightenment will unfold.”

TRULSHIK RINPOCHE Trulshik Ngawang Chökyi Lodrö was born in 1923 in Central Tibet. He was enthroned as the reincarnation of the great Nyingma master Trulshik Dongak Lingpa by Dzatrul Ngawang Tenzin Norbu Rinpoche. As is customary in Tibet’s mentor-student relationships that span across lifetimes, Dzatrul Rinpoche, who had been one of the main disciples of the previous Trulshik Rinpoche, became the first teacher of the young tulku. Trulshik Rinpoche sought out the greatest living Buddhist masters in Tibet and received a comprehensive education in Buddhist study and practice. He became one of the foremost masters of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism and one of the most prominent leaders of the Rimé movement. He was a close disciple of both 22

the late His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche and His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and Trulshik Rinpoche became the latter’s spiritual heir. When His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche passed away in 1991, it was Trulshik Rinpoche who led the search for his reincarnation. During the Chinese Communist invasion of Tibet, Trulshik Rinpoche went with his disciples to the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal south of Mount Everest—an area inaccessible to vehicles—where he spent many years in meditative retreat. He has visited the West on a number of occasions to give teachings, but he spends most of his time in his remote retreat at the monastery he founded, Thubten Mindrol Chöling.

new york city, 1999

“The law of cause and effect explains the subtle workings of life. There is a saying that if you want to see what you were in the past, look at your body; if you want to see what you will be in the future, just look at your actions. What you are did not come out of nowhere, without cause. It has not been imposed upon you by any predetermined destiny or divine creator, but is the result of a long chain of causes and effects. Therefore, if you want to avoid suffering and gain well-being, then you need to gather all the causes and conditions that are going to bring about well-being: your present actions, thoughts, and speech. If you want to know your future, you should reflect on what you are doing, thinking, and saying now. This simple analysis will allow you to recognize both the causes of suffering and the source of happiness.”

RABJAM RINPOCHE Rabjam Rinpoche, Jigme Chökyi Senge, was born in 1966, the seventh in the line of Rabjam tulkus. He is the grandson of the renowned Nyingma master the late His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. For twenty-five years beginning at the age of three, he took almost every teaching and empowerment from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and was raised under his personal care. He traveled with him around the world, visiting the West for the first time in 1976. The Second Rabjam Rinpoche had been the founder of Shechen Monastery in Kham, Eastern Tibet, and in the 1980s His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche reestablished Shechen Monastery in Nepal and installed Rabjam Rinpoche as its abbot. After his grandfather’s death in 1991, Rabjam Rinpoche took on his legacy and continues to pass on his teachings and 24

vision. He established the Shechen Philosophical College and the Shechen Retreat Center in Nepal, as well as a small monastery and study center in Bodhgaya, India, and has renovated Sisinang Nunnery in Bhutan. He also created the Shechen Medical Clinic in Nepal and the Shechen Mobile Clinic in India to provide medical care for the lay and monastic communities. One of Rinpoche’s priorities is the preservation of the endangered Tibetan culture; he founded the Tsering Art School to ensure the continuation of Tibet’s spiritual artistic tradition and revitalized Shechen Monastery ’s ritual ceremonies and ancient sacred dances, which have been performed around the world. Rinpoche is currently supervising the education of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s reincarnation, Ugyen Tenzin Jigme Lhundrup.

bodhgaya, india, 1997

“There is no past, no present, and no future. As soon as the mind goes there, the three times are there, past, present, and future. But we talk about beyond the mind—the truth of the mind—when you examine the mind you cannot find it. But if you don’t examine your mind, the mind pops up. Mind is like this. All the dharmas are like this. That is what we call the nature of the truth. When you examine your mind, the mind dissolves; examine your anger the anger dissolves; when you examine jealousy the jealousy dissolves. But when you don’t examine your mind, the mind comes back.”

DZOGCHEN RINPOCHE Dzogchen Rinpoche, Jikme Losel Wangpo, was born in Sikkim in 1964 and is the seventh incarnation of Pema Rigdzin. His father was the late Tsewang Paljor, who was the private secretary of the Rimé master Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. His mother, Pema Tsering Wangmo, came from a family known for being great patrons of the dharma in the Kham region of Eastern Tibet. Dzogchen Rinpoche was recognized by the Fourth Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Thupten Thrinle Palzang, who also officiated at his enthronement ceremony in 1972. Dzogchen Khenpo Rahor Thubten became the young tulku’s tutor for the next three years, and he also received teachings from Dodrupchen Rinpoche, His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche. By the age of twelve Rinpoche had 26

completed his ritual training and had memorized numerous texts. In 1976 he joined the Buddhist School of Dialectics in Dharamsala, where he stayed for the next seven years and obtained the certificate of Rabjampa. During this time he also studied under Khenpo Thupten Mewa Rinpoche and Trulshik Rinpoche. In 1985 he was invited to visit Dzogchen Monastery in Eastern Tibet. That same year his brother Sogyal Rinpoche invited him to the West, and Dzogchen Rinpoche taught in Europe, the United States, and Australia. Returning to India, he continued his studies while overseeing the construction of the new Dzogchen Monastery in the south. In recent years he has worked to improve the welfare and training of the monks of his monastery as well as the practical and spiritual needs of the local community.

bodhgaya, india, 1997

“Give rise to confidence in yourself because the truth you search for is nowhere else but within. Realizing this is itself liberation.”

MINLING KHENCHEN RINPOCHE The Ninth Minling Khenchen Rinpoche was born in the Drachi Valley of Central Tibet in 1970 and was recognized as the reincarnation of the Eighth Minling Khenchen by Lhatog Rinpoche. He entered monastic life at the age of six and studied reading, writing, and Tibetan medicine with Troru Khen Rinpoche Tsenam. When he was thirteen he was invited to the Mindrolling Monastery in Dehra Dun, North India, by Khochhen Rinpoche. Here, at one of the most important Nyingma centers of learning, he spent the next four years studying subjects such as Tibetan grammar and poetry as well as Mindrolling rituals and traditions with Dagpo Rinpoche. He attended the Ngagyar Nyingma Institute in Mysore to continue his higher studies, including ethical discipline, phenomenology, and logic. In 1990, at the age of 28

twenty-one, he received full ordination as a monk from Trulshik Rinpoche. He received important teachings and instructions from His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche as well as from his uncle, His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche, and Orgyen Tulku Rinpoche. In 1992 Rinpoche assumed the leadership of Ngagyar Nyingma College at Mindrolling and began to teach the approximately four hundred resident monks. He also traveled abroad to countries such as Japan to teach the Buddhadharma. Every year, on the anniversary of Buddha Shakyamuni’s first teaching, he confers monastic vows to over one hundred people, and since 1994 he has acted as deputy president of the annual Nyingma Prayer Festival in Bodhgaya, India. Rinpoche spends a few months of each year in closed retreat.

bodhgaya, india, 1997

“Profound and tranquil, free from complexity, Uncompounded luminous clarity, Beyond the mind of conceptual ideas; This is the depth of the mind of the Buddhas. In this there is not a thing to be removed. Nor anything that needs to be added. It is merely the immaculate Looking naturally at itself.”

NYOSHUL KHEN RINPOCHE Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, Jamyang Dorje, was born in 1932 in Kham in Eastern Tibet. He was an important lineage holder of the Longchen Nyingthik or Heart Essence Dzogchen tradition, and he became a respected teacher in the Rimé tradition. His father was a bandit who abandoned the family early on, but Rinpoche’s grandmother was a sincere practitioner who nurtured her grandson’s aptitude for the dharma. At the age of eight he enrolled in the local monastery. His first teacher was Lama Rigdzin Jampel Dorje, who helped to lay the foundation for his later studies in Middle Way philosophy and dialectics, epistemology, logic, and wisdom in preparation for his periods of solitary retreat. His root teacher, 30

Nyoshul Lungtok Shedrup Tenpai Nyima, was his first Dzogchen master and passed on the essential instructions of his lineage. Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche later became a close disciple of His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche. He escaped the Chinese occupation in 1959 and lived in India for twentyfive years, returning to visit his family in Tibet in the 1990s. He taught in Europe as well as the United States, but he spent most of his later years in Bhutan, where he had many disciples. Rinpoche was a poet and biographer who authored several books including Natural Great Perfection. He passed away at his home in Dordogne, France, in August 1999.

bodhgaya, india, 1997

“What is our life but this dance of transient forms? Isn’t everything always changing: the leaves on the trees in the park, the light in your room as you read this, the seasons, the weather, the time of day, the people passing you in the street? And what about us? Doesn’t everything we have done in the past seem like a dream now? The friends we grew up with, the childhood haunts, those views and opinions we once held with such single-minded passion: We have left them all behind. Now, at this moment, reading this book seems vividly real to you. Even this page will soon be only a memory. The cells of our body are dying, the neurons in our brain are decaying, even the expression on our face is always changing, depending on our mood. Our mind, in fact, is as empty, as impermanent, and as transient as a dream. Ask yourself these two questions: Do I remember at every moment that I am dying, and everyone and everything else is, and so treat all beings at all times with compassion? Has my understanding of death and impermanence become so keen and so urgent that I am devoting every second to the pursuit of enlightenment? If you can answer ‘ yes’ to both of these, then you have really understood impermanence.”

SOGYAL RINPOCHE Born in Kham in Eastern Tibet, Sogyal Rinpoche was recognized as the incarnation of Lerab Lingpa Tertön Sogyal, a teacher to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, one of the most outstanding spiritual masters of the twentieth century. Jamyang Khyentse supervised Rinpoche’s training and raised him like his own son. Rinpoche went on to study with many masters of all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, especially His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche and His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. In 1971 he went to England, where he received a Western education, studying comparative religion at Cambridge University. First serving as a translator and aide 32

to his masters, he then began teaching in his own right. He is the founder and spiritual director of Rigpa, an international network of Buddhist centers and groups in sixteen countries around the world. He is also the author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Published in twenty-nine languages and fifty-six countries, this book has been adopted by colleges, groups, and institutions, both medical and religious, and is used extensively by nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals. Rinpoche has been teaching for over thirty years and continues to travel widely in Europe, America, Australia, and Asia.

clear lake, california, 2004

“This life is the great fruition of many lifetimes of hard work: lifetimes of cultivating virtuous actions, abandoning nonvirtuous actions, and accumulating good causes. To have arrived at this point where so many good causes and conditions come together is due not so much to the blessings of others but very much to our own hard work. This culmination of accumulated virtue and development of awareness has enabled us to overcome nonvirtuous distractions and actions. In this precious lifetime the moment of fruition is now. The question is, will we actually work with this culmination of innumerable lifetimes of hard work, or will we let this pristine moment slip away? Although we carry an immeasurable treasury of conditions into this moment—virtue and accumulated merit, a human birth, motivation and commitment, teachers and teachings—we may let it slip away. And we may let the next moment slip away, and the one after that. Then we begin to understand what the Buddha meant by the suffering of sentient beings.”

KHANDRO RINPOCHE Khandro Tsering Paldron Rinpoche is the daughter of the Tibetan meditation master His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen, the fourth and current head of the Nyingma school. She was born in 1967 in Kalimpong, India, into a lineage renowned for producing accomplished female masters. She was recognized at the age of two by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa as the reincarnation of the Great Dakini of Tsurphu, Khandro Ugyen Tsomo. Khandro Ugyen Tsomo was a prominent female master, believed to be an emanation of Yeshe Tsogyal, the consort of the eighth-century Indian tantric master and founder of the Nyingma school, Padmasambhava. Khandro Rinpoche was born at the Zangdok Palri Monastery, as predicted by her predecessor, and is a lineage holder in both the Nyingma and the Kagyu schools. Along with a 34

Western education, she received teachings and transmissions from many great masters such as His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Trulshik Rinpoche, Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, and Tenga Rinpoche. Her root guru is her father, His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen. Fluent in English and Hindi as well as Tibetan, Khandro Rinpoche has been teaching the dharma since 1987 in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. She established and oversees the Samten Tse Retreat Center for nuns and Western female practitioners in Mussoorie, India. She is also involved in a number of humanitarian projects, particularly in the fields of health care and education. She is the author of This Precious Life: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on the Path to Enlightenment.

los angeles, california, 1994

“Love and faith have the same essence of deep caring. The only difference is that love is aimed toward sentient beings, including those who are less fortunate than we are, and faith is aimed toward sublime beings, including all Buddhas and enlightened guides. The nature of love is to give positive energy to others in order to benefit them and to release them from suffering. The nature of faith is to trust in sublime beings in order to receive the blessings of wisdom energy that benefit oneself and others. True faith creates the vast love of compassion that benefits countless beings.”

THINLEY NORBU RINPOCHE Thinley Norbu Rinpoche is a preeminent teacher of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the eldest son of the late His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, the former head of the Nyingma school. He is also a terton and a leading exponent of Dzogchen. A terton, or “treasure revealer,” is believed to have the ability to rediscover hidden dharma teachings known as termas. Termas either are accessed through meditative states (called “mind treasures”) or are found in physical form. Thinley Norbu Rinpoche is an incarnation of Tulku Drime Oser, son of Dudjom Lingpa, and is held to be an emanation of Longchenpa, the fourteenth-century 36

master widely considered the greatest scholar of the Nyingma tradition. As a young man Thinley Norbu Rinpoche studied for nine years at the prestigious Mindrolling Monastery in Tibet, where he says that he “received precious teachings from many different sublime teachers,” including his “holy father.” Since going into exile after the Chinese occupation of Tibet, he has written a number of books on Tibetan Buddhist practice, including White Sail: Crossing the Waves of Ocean Mind to the Serene Continent of the Triple Gems, Magic Dance: The Display of the Self-Nature of the Five Wisdom Dakinis, and The Small Golden Key.

corralitos, california, 1994

“I am a firm believer in the practice of cultivating a good heart. By cultivating a heart that embraces loving-kindness and compassion, we develop a sense of purpose in life—that of serving others. In doing this we also serve ourselves.”

DZIGAR KONGTRUL RINPOCHE Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche was born in 1964 in Himachal Pradesh in North India. Recognized at the age of nine as an incarnation of the great nineteenth-century Rimé master Jamgon Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye, he was raised in a monastic setting and pursued the vast training and learning expected of a tulku in all aspects of Buddhist theory and practice. He was particularly schooled in the teachings of the Longchen Nyingthik lineage of the Nyingma school from his root teacher, the late His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. The Longchen Nyingthik lineage can be traced back to the eighth-century founder of the Nyingma school, Padmasambhava, and the fourteenthcentury Dzogchen master Longchen Rabjam. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche’s other prominent teachers included Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, 38

Nyöshul Khen Rinpoche, and the scholar Khenpo Rinchen. In 1989 Rinpoche and his family moved to the United States, and a year later he began a five-year tenure as a professor of Buddhist philosophy at the Naropa Institute in Colorado. During this time he founded Mangala Shri Bhuti spiritual community and later established Longchen Jigme Samten Ling, a long-term retreat center in Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo mountains. Currently he is building Pema Ösel Do Ngak Chöling, a study and retreat center in Vermont, and he has developed other centers in India and Brazil. Rinpoche spends much of his time in retreat and guides students in long-term retreat practice. He is the author of It’s Up to You: The Practice of Self-Reflection on the Buddhist Path.

beverly hills, california, 2004

“When someone insults us, we usually dwell on it, asking ourselves, ‘Why did he say that to me?’ and on and on. It’s as if someone shoots an arrow at us, but it falls short. Focusing on the problem is like picking up the arrow and repeatedly stabbing ourselves with it, saying, ‘He hurt me so much. I can’t believe he did that.’ Instead, we can use the method of contemplation to think things through differently, to change our habit of reacting with anger. Imagine that someone insults you. Say to yourself, ‘This person makes me angry. But what is anger? It is one of the poisons of the mind that creates negative karma, leading to intense suffering. Meeting anger with anger is like following a lunatic who jumps off a cliff. Do I have to do likewise? While it’s crazy for him to act the way he does, it’s even crazier for me to do the same.’ ”

CHAGDUD TULKU RINPOCHE Chagdud Tulku was born in 1930 in the province of Kham in Eastern Tibet. His mother was a famous female practitioner, and at the age of three her son was recognized as the sixteenth reincarnation of the Nyingma master Chagdud Sherab Gyaltsen. Two years later he began his formal Buddhist education in a monastery of the Drukpa Kagyu tradition. When he was eleven years old he engaged in a three-year retreat and then entered the ancient monastery of Chagdud Gompa, the seat of his predecessor, where he studied Buddhist theory and practice, as well as Tibetan sacred arts, and became a doctor of Tibetan medicine. His teachers included Shechhen Kongtrul, Bat’hur Khenpo T’hubga, Tromge Tulku Arig, Tromge Trungpa, Khenpo Dorje Rinpoche, and later His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche and His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. In 1959 40

Chagdud Tulku fled the Chinese occupation and worked in Tibetan refugee camps in India and Nepal, imparting his medical knowledge and teaching the dharma. In 1979 he was sent by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche to teach in the United States and was first based at Dudjom Rinpoche’s Yeshe Nyingpo center. In 1982 Chagdud Tulku founded and became the Spiritual Director of the Chagdud Gonpa Foundation, which today has affiliated centers in the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Switzerland. He founded Padma Publishing for the translation and printing of dharma texts and the Mahakaruna Foundation, a charitable project to help impoverished Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal. He was the author of a number of books, including Gates to Buddhist Practice. Chagdud Tulku passed away in 2002.

los angeles, california, 1990

“All kinds of sufferings are born from selfishness. Complete enlightenment is born in the mind that cares about the well-being of others.”

DZATRUL RINPOCHE Like his present incarnation, the previous Tenth Dzatrul Rinpoche, Ngawang Tenzin Norbu, was born in Western Tibet and was known as the Buddha of Rongbuk, denoting his monastery on the slopes of Mount Everest. A contemporary of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and one of his spiritual advisors, the Tenth Dzatrul Rinpoche was educated in Central Tibet at Mindrolling, the main monastery of the Nyingma school, and was instrumental in revitalizing Buddhism in Tibet’s Khumbu region. He passed away in 1940, when his former student Trulshik Rinpoche took over as head of Rongbuk. The present Eleventh Dzatrul Rinpoche, Ngawang Tenzin Choekyi Gyaltsen, was recognized by Trulshik Rinpoche along with the Rimé master Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa. 42

Dzatrul Rinpoche also received most of his religious education at the Mindrolling Monastery. There he studied with many Buddhist masters, but it was his root guru, Khenpo Thupten Mewa Rinpoche, from whom he received most instruction. He also received initiations from the late Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and quintessential transmissions from the late His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche as well as instructions on Shantideva’s Bodhisattva’s Way of Life and Dzogchen from the Gelugpa lama Khunu Rinpoche. Dzatrul Rinpoche resides in Swayambu, Nepal, where in 1983 he established a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, Shree Do Ngag Chöling. He founded this monastic community at the request of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and also established two dharma centers in Taiwan.

los angeles, california, 2004

“What is the primary cause of this cycle of existence? It is nonvirtue, specifically the three nonvirtues of the body, the four of the speech, and the three of the mind. Those of the body include intentionally killing any sentient being, sexual misconduct such as adultery, and stealing, or literally, taking that which is not given. Engaging in these gives rise to suffering, so they are to be abandoned. Those that comprise the four of the speech include consciously telling that which is not true; abusive or harsh speech (true or false makes no difference); slanderous speech, which causes divisiveness and disharmony; and idle chatter and gossip, motivated by any of the mental afflictions of attachment, anger, ignorance, pride, and jealousy. Those of the mind include craving another person’s possessions; the intent to inflict injury on another sentient being; and holding false views, such as thinking that our actions have no ethical consequences.”

GYATRUL RINPOCHE Gyatrul Rinpoche was born in the Sichuan province of China near the Tibetan border in 1925. Recognized as the reincarnation of the great Sampa Kunkyap at the age of seven by the meditation masters Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and Tulku Natsog, he was reinstated as head of Payul Dhomang Monastery in Eastern Tibet. Tulku Natsog became Gyatrul Rinpoche’s root guru, and after receiving a full Buddhist education, Rinpoche spent many years in meditative retreat under his guidance. During his retreat he studied and practiced in the Nyingthik tradition of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as the teachings of Lama Mipham, Dorje Dechen Lingpa, Terton Migyur Dorje, and the 44

lineage of Ratna Lingpa. In 1959 the Chinese occupation forced Rinpoche to leave Tibet for India, where he remained for the next twelve years. In 1972 Rinpoche traveled to America at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to teach the dharma. Four years later he was appointed the spiritual representative of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche and Director of Pacific Region Yeshe Nyingpo. Rinpoche has established a number of Tibetan Buddhist centers on the West Coast of the United States, including Tashi Chöling in Ashland, Oregon, and Orgyen Dorje Den in the San Francisco Bay area. He has thousands of students in the United States and around the world.

ojai, california, 2005

“We need to practice in order to purify our defilements, and that is the purpose of tantra. First of all we need to receive an empowerment to ripen our mindstreams, and then we must receive an explanation of how to do the tantric practice. The primordial awareness that we all have is undefiled and uncontaminated, nor has it ever been defiled by any kind of obscuration. It contains the seeds of all kinds of realizations, which give rise to the enlightened body, speech and mind, as well as enlightened activities and great compassion. Many people in the past have actualized all these remarkable qualities, and many will attain them in our time and in the future.”

KHAMTRUL RINPOCHE Khamtrul Jamyang Dhondup Rinpoche is a renowned Dzogchen master and scholar in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in 1927 in Kham, Eastern Tibet, and was recognized at the age of eight as the third reincarnation of the master scholar Dorje Namgye. Rinpoche assumed his predecessor’s position as co-abbot of Garje Khamtrul Midrol Jangchol Monastery in the Derge district, and by the age of fourteen he had memorized a number of his monastery ’s texts. He engaged in several solitary retreats and became a master of sutra and tantra, astrology, and medicine. When he was twentyseven he became the monastery ’s administrator, but was exiled into India in 1960. For a number of years he served as General Secretary of the 46

Office of Religious Affairs of the Tibetan government in exile. He retired from this post in 1986 and has since traveled extensively outside India giving teachings and initiations. Rinpoche is the only living lama outside of Tibet who holds direct and unbroken empowerments, transmissions, and teachings of the complete works of the Fifth Dalai Lama. In 1996 he founded Chimey Gatsel Ling, a small monastery in Dharamsala, India, where he currently resides. He serves as the Nyingma Ritual Master for Namgyal Monastery (the personal monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama) and as one of the main Nyingma ritual instructors at the Nechung Monastery. Khamtrul Rinpoche is a terton, or “treasure revealer.”

santa monica, california, 1999

“Every dharma practice must have these three essential parts: the preliminary, the main part, and the conclusion. The preliminary is the development of bodhicitta because the basis for the entire dharma is the motivation of always wishing to benefit others. All beings wish to obtain happiness and avoid suffering, but they don’t practice the good actions that are the cause of happiness or avoid the bad actions that are the cause of suffering. We are fortunate to have gained a precious human existence, to have met the teacher, and received the Vajrayana teachings. So we must aspire to free all beings from suffering and lead them to Buddhahood. The main part of the practice is the meditation on ‘non-reference’ [the freedom from conceptual dependence]. This is emptiness, a naturally present clarity and a variety of manifestations through the power of compassion. The heart of the practice is to maintain this meditation without any distraction. The conclusion is to dedicate the merit, but without the concept of there being someone who dedicates and something that is being dedicated. These are the three essential parts of any dharma practice.”

ANZIN RINPOCHE Anzin Rinpoche was born in 1933 and was recognized as a tulku by the Rimé master Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. He was enthroned at the age of five and studied under Rigpa Jigmey Tsewang Chakdul in the Taksham lineage. Anzin Rinpoche received Getsul (novice monk’s vows) and Gelong Dampa (full monk’s vows) in Nyarong in the Kham province of Eastern Tibet with Lama Terchen Jangchup Lingpa and Shechen Kongtrul Dhemail. He also received Dzogchen teachings from these teachers and studied under Lama Phakchol Rinpoche, Pholund Sangyal 48

Tulku, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, and His Holiness Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche. After 1959, and the Chinese occupation of Tibet, Anzin Rinpoche escaped into exile to India. In 1966 he built a monastery called Ringo Thupten Ling in the East Indian state of Orissa. From 1972 to 1976 he served as a cabinet member, representing the Nyingma school in the Tibetan government in exile. He also provided aid to Tibetan refugees in Orissa. He passed away in 1999 on the anniversary of the death of his root guru, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö.

bodhgaya, india, 1997

“Every kind of teaching is transmitted through the culture and knowledge of human beings. But it is important not to confuse any culture or tradition with the teachings themselves, because the essence of the teachings is knowledge of the nature of the individual. Any given culture can be of great value because it is the means that enables people to receive the message of a teaching, but it is not the teaching itself. If one doesn’t know how to understand the true meaning of a teaching through one’s own culture, one can create confusion between the external form of a religious tradition and the essence of its message.”

CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU RINPOCHE Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche was born in Derge, Eastern Tibet, in 1938 and was recognized as the incarnation of a great Dzogchen master at the age of two. From the age of eight to fourteen he studied in a number of monastic institutions and received a traditional education in Tibetan Buddhism. In 1954, at the age of sixteen, he was invited to China and took up a Tibetan language teaching position, becoming fluent in Chinese and Mongolian. On returning to Tibet a year later, he met his root guru, Changchub Dorje Rinpoche, who gave him essential instruction in Dzogchen. After that he went to Sikkim, where he worked as an author and editor of Tibetan textbooks for the Sikkimese government. At the age of twenty-two he was invited to Rome, where he worked as a research associate in a project 50

sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. He subsequently took up a post as Professor of Tibetan and Mongolian Language and Literature at the Oriental Institute at the University of Naples, where he taught from the mid-1960s until 1992. In the mid-1970s he began to teach Dzogchen meditation and founded the first Dzogchen community in Arcidosso, Tuscany. He later traveled extensively around the world, establishing major centers in the United States and teaching in a nonsectarian style. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche is the author of many books on Tibetan Buddhism, particularly on the subject of Dzogchen, including Dzogchen: The Self Perfected State. He has also written numerous books and articles on Tibetan history, medicine, astrology, and Bon.

topanga, california, 1999

“Any disciple, regardless of obstacles that might afflict them spiritually, is inspired toward faith and conviction in the qualities of their guru by the compassionate blessings of the guru. These blessings transform or inspire the disciple and invigorate their mind, body, and speech with faith and the effects of that faith. The blessings of the guru are like the requisite factors that prepare the disciple’s character for spiritual transformation in the same sense that one nourishes hardened, arid earth to prepare it for the ability to yield.”

NAMKHA DRIMED RABJAM RINPOCHE Namkha Drimed Rabjam Rinpoche was born in Tibet in 1938. He is the spiritual head of the Ripa lineage of the Nyingma school and is the reincarnation of a terton and one of Padmasambhava’s closest students, Arye Sale. Rinpoche has discovered a number of termas in his lifetime and is renowned for his Gesar of Ling divinations. He studied the dharma with his father, Jigme Tsewang Chokdrop, also a famous terton who held the Ripa lineage at the time, and his mother was the granddaughter of the renowned Tibetan saint Sakya Shri. Rinpoche’s education was nonsectarian, and he received teachings in all traditions from a number of great teachers, including His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holi52

ness the Sixteenth Karmapa, His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, and the previous Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In 1959 Rinpoche fled Tibet for India, settling in Orissa, where he lives with his family and works to reestablish the Ripa monastic communities in exile. He founded Rigon Thupten Mindrolling Monastery and retreat center in Orissa and has also restored Rigon Tashi Chöling Monastery in Tibet, almost completely destroyed during the Chinese invasion. In 2005 he inaugurated the new Rigon Tashi Chöling Monastery and retreat complex in Pharping, Nepal. He travels widely and has taught the dharma in Tibet, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and the West.

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As his student Dzatrul Rinpoche remembers:

“He always used to tell his disciples: ‘You should not be greedy and should not seek to accumulate material things. See to it that your own behavior and character are in accordance with the teachings of the dharma. That is the way I try to lead my life, and that is the way that you should try to lead your life.’ ”

KHENPO THUPTEN MEWA RINPOCHE Khenpo Thupten Mewa Rinpoche received his early Buddhist education at Mewa Monastery in Kham in Eastern Tibet—a key Nyingma center that at its height supported a population of one thousand students. In 1955 Rinpoche continued his studies at Changma Ritro and was one of the four lamas who came to study together under the guidance of the Dzogchen master Bodpa Tulku Rinpoche. Bodpa Tulku Rinpoche (Dongag Tempey Nyima) is widely regarded as the greatest Nyingma philosopher of modern times and considered to have been an incarnation of Patrul Rinpoche. The other three students under Bodpa 54

Tulku Rinpoche were Tharthang Tulku Rinpoche, Khenpo Dazer Rincpoche, and Rahab Thupten Rinpoche. Khenpo Thupten Mewa Rinpoche, along with thousands of other Tibetans, fled into exile in India in 1959. He founded a retreat center and monastery at the Pangaon Caves in Manali in the North Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, a site with a special significance for the Nyingma due to its connection to the life of the founder of the Nyingma school, Padmasambhava. Khenpo Thupten Mewa Rinpoche passed away in November 2001.

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“Each morning we have the opportunity to make our life meaningful. We can always have the welfare of others in mind. Deciding to do that is being Buddha. It leads to joy. This is how we can make every moment of our life magical.”

SAKYONG JAMGÖN MIPHAM RINPOCHE Sakyong Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche was born in 1962 in Bodhgaya, India, and was later recognized as the reincarnation of the nineteenth-century meditation master and scholar Mipham Jamyang Namgyal. He is the eldest son of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, one of the first Tibetan Buddhist masters to teach in the West. As the lineage holder of the Mukpo family, who are descended from the Tibetan warrior-king Gesar of Ling, he holds the teaching lineage of the enlightened society of Shambhala. At the age of seven Sakyong Mipham left India and went to Great Britain to live with his father, continuing his Buddhist studies under his father’s guidance. When he was ten he followed his father to the United States, where he received a Western education, as well as teachings in Buddhist philosophy and practice. Rin56

poche is the holder of both the Kagyu and the Nyingma lineages. He has studied with such masters as His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, and His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, with whom he was very close. In 1995 Penor Rinpoche presided over his formal enthronement as the Sakyong or “Earth Protector,” the spiritual leader of the Shambhala lineage. In 2001 and 2004 he visited Tibet, where he works to support monasteries, schools, and orphanages through the Kunchok Foundation and the Mipham Institute. A poet and artist, he teaches throughout the world and is the author of Turning the Mind into an Ally. He continues his father’s work through Shambhala, a global network of meditation and retreat centers based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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“Don’t take dharma as some kind of story. Really practice. Have devotion in it. This is important. Your practice needs to be real and stable. Then many attainments are possible. Please proceed in this manner. The way to happiness is just this. Happiness comes from within, not from without. Keep this in mind.”

ADZOM PAYLO RINPOCHE Adzom Paylo Rinpoche was born in 1971 near Chamdo in Eastern Tibet. When he was one year old, the abbot of the Adzom Gar Monastery identified him as the incarnation of Gyalse Pema Wangyal, son of the great Tibetan Master Adzom Drukpa and his consort, the yogini Ma Yum Dra Hla, as well as an incarnation of the eighteenthcentury master Jigme Lingpa. Rinpoche began his studies at the age of five with his teacher Adzom Drukpa and the yogi Karmabenzra. He began retreat at eleven and was authorized to teach Dzogchen at thirteen. He holds both Dzogchen and Mahamudra lineages as well as the Adzom Drukpa Semtri transmission, and he is nonsectarian in his teaching. He also teaches through creations of dances and songs, some of which are recorded by his sister Jetsun Khacho Wangmo (who was also Rinpoche’s sister in his past life) and their 58

cousin Tulku Gyurme Tsering. In 1996 Anne Klein, Rice University professor and founding director of Dawn Mountain in Houston, Texas, met Adzom Rinpoche in Tibet. Dawn Mountain, already connected with the teaching lineage of Longchen Nyingthik through Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche, became Adzom Rinpoche’s Western urban seat and organizes all his activities in the West. Rinpoche also guides several centers in the United States, including Tara Mandala and White Jewel Mountain in Colorado, Copper Mountain in New Mexico, Osel Thegchog Ling in Northern California, and Longchen Nyingthik Samden Hlakang in Oregon. Adzom Rinpoche has a special connection with the communities of the late Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, particularly with Padma Ling in Spokane, Washington.

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“In order to create great blessings, great harmony, great joy, and great benefit in this world, we must practice the dharma. Dharma practice is really beneficial outwardly for the whole world, but it’s also good for the individual practitioner, because through the practice of dharma, he or she will experience personal peace, love, compassion, and well-being. This will expand outwards from the person and ultimately will benefit the whole world.”

KUNSANG DECHEN LINGPA RINPOCHE Kunsang Dechen Lingpa Rinpoche was born in 1929 in Lhodak, Southern Tibet, the son of a high Nyingma lama. He expressed a keen interest in the dharma from an early age, but both his parents died when he was only six years old. In his early teens he met his root guru, the Nyingma master His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche. Dudjom Rinpoche gave his student retreat instructions, and after two years in retreat he recognized Kunsang Dechen Lingpa Rinpoche as the reincarnation of a terton named Konchog Jungne, one of the historical students of the eighth-century Indian master Padmasambhava. In 1956 Kunsang Dechen Lingpa Rinpoche left Tibet and spent the next six years in retreat in the valley of Pema Kod on the Indian-Tibetan border. In 1962, as the Chinese encroached on this region, he relocated 60

to Arunachal Pradesh, India, where he married and began teaching. In 1989 he established a site for three-year meditation retreats and also constructed a nunnery. Arunachal Pradesh is out of bounds to foreigners without permits because of its sensitive location between India and Chineseoccupied Tibet, and the indigenous Buddhist community there struggles to continue with little international support. Kunsang Dechen Lingpa Rinpoche works to provide for the needs of his community of over 170 monks and nuns. Since 2001 he has established the Zangdokpalri Foundation and has traveled the world teaching the dharma, particularly Dzogchen, and performing the practice of chöd with a group of monks and nuns.

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“In Tibet the ultimate wisdom is introduced symbolically and visually through art. In Tibet many people can’t read, but they can view this symbolism and make a connection of the heart with the dharma. Tibetan art is unique. It has rules of proportion and color that never change. First an artist has to learn proportion, then he learns color, such as which colors can go together and which colors cannot. The art never changes because the knowledge has self-standing rules. Individuals cannot make it up by themselves. It comes from master beings and mahasiddhas who have visions of different pure lands. . . . If you engage in this art with faith and devotion, the Buddha really manifests in that place because Buddha’s emanations are unobstructed. Shakyamuni Buddha himself said, ‘During the degenerate times, if anyone thinks of me, I will be right in front of them.’ The realized wisdom beings in dharma art can invoke and stabilize wisdom within one’s mind. When you look at the expression of enlightened beings, wisdom and compassion naturally arise in one’s mind, and you can get a taste of enlightenment.”

LAMA THARCHIN RINPOCHE Lama Tharchin Rinpoche was born in Kongpo in Southern Tibet in 1936 and is a Dzogchen master in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the tenth lineage holder of the Repkong Ngakpas—a family lineage of yogis that was the largest community of lay practitioners in Tibet. Rinpoche was trained at Lama Ling, the monastery of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, a renowned Nyingma master and the first head of the Nyingma school. Lama Tharchin Rinpoche completed a five-year retreat and then spent another three years in retreat with three fellow practitioners. Along with His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, his teachers were Chatral Rinpoche, Lama Sherab Dorje Rinpoche, and Thinley Norbu Rin62

poche. He left Tibet by foot with his family in 1960 and lived in India and Nepal before coming to the United States in 1984 for health reasons. While in America he was asked by His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche to teach the dharma, and subsequently Lama Tharchin Rinpoche founded the Vajrayana Foundation, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. A householder with two sons, Rinpoche currently lives in Aptos, close to his retreat center, Pema Osel Ling, in Northern California. He combines his knowledge of Buddhism with his skills in Tibetan ritual music, art, and dance to pass on the dharma to Westerners.

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“The union of male and female deities symbolizes the union of wisdom and love. It also symbolizes great ecstasy. Some people ask why the physical union of male and female deities is used to symbolize the union of wisdom and love, but this shows that they really don’t understand the psychological and poetic aspect of this symbolism. In this ordinary world, perhaps the greatest ecstasy that people experience is from the physical union of male and female, and this is why it is such a powerful image to portray enlightened ecstasy—of course, enlightened ecstasy far greater and more sublime than any ecstasy you can experience in the human realm in this physical dimension. The word ‘ecstasy’ is a tantric way of describing the notion of enlightenment. Sutrayana or general Buddhism speaks about enlightenment as if it were some abstract dimension or philosophical state. They talk about the ‘awakening state’ or ‘realizing truth,’ but with no real indication that enlightenment is an experience. In tantra we don’t use the word ‘enlightenment’ so much as we use the word ‘ecstasy.’ This term indicates that enlightenment is actually experience—a great ecstasy, which does not depend on conditions—eternal and unconditional.”

TULKU THUBTEN RINPOCHE Born in 1968 and raised in the remote Golok region of Amdo in Northeastern Tibet, Tulku Thubten Rinpoche was recognized by Gompa Tulku Rinpoche at an early age as the incarnation of the great yogi Anam Lama Chöying Phuntsok (also known as Anam Tsetsampa). The young tulku began his formal Buddhist studies at the age of ten. He trained in the Nyingma tradition under Tsurlo Rinpoche at Mahr Do Tashi Ghakyil Monastery, which preserved and practiced the Katok lineage of the Nyingma school. Tulku Thubten Rinpoche trained with some of the surviving masters of the worst years of the Chinese persecution in Tibet, including Gonpa Tulku Jigme Dorje and Khenpo Chöpel. He escaped from Ti64

bet in 1991 and fled into India. After a year in exile, when he visited a number of Buddhist pilgrimage sites, he moved to California and, at the invitation of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, became one of the main teachers at the Vajrayana Foundation College of Buddhist Studies in Santa Cruz. Since that time Tulku Thubten Rinpoche has been teaching extensively and conducting meditation retreats all over the United States. Currently he writes books in Tibetan on Tibetan Buddhism and is serving as one of the main spiritual teachers for the Dharmata Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Berkeley, California. He teaches in fluent English and is an accomplished scholar and poet.

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“The lotus is a symbol of the speech of an enlightened being. A lotus is a flower that has its roots in the mud, but it rises out of the mud, and undefiled, blooms into something that is beautiful and pure. This is the symbol of the bodhisattva— the all-compassionate being who purposely goes into the mud and dirt and defilement of the ordinary world but rises above it and manifests the beautiful, compassionate teachings of the enlightened one in order to benefit living beings. Therefore, the lotus is a symbol of the speech of enlightened beings who speak in the language of living beings in order to liberate them from their misery.”

KHEMPO YURMED TINLY RINPOCHE Khempo Yurmed Tinly Rinpoche was born in 1950 in Kham, Eastern Tibet, and was recognized as a reincarnate tulku by His Holiness Nyoshul Lungtok Tulku. He was one of the youngest members of a group of two thousand Tibetans who fled into exile. Tied to a horse, the young tulku was one of only about two hundred who reached safety. Khempo Rinpoche pursued his Buddhist studies at Mindrolling, Dzogchen, Payul, and Tsopema monasteries in India under teachers such as Khochhen Rinpoche, Khenpo Tsondu Rinpoche, Khenpo Rabgye Rinpoche, Zonong Tulku Rinpoche, and His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche. At the age of twenty-five he received his master’s degree from Sanskrit University in Varanasi, the same year that His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche appointed him lecturer in charge of the university ’s Nyingma studies program. Two years later he was awarded the degree of khenpo. 66

He later taught at the new Nyingmapa Institute in Gangtok, Sikkim, which he was instrumental in opening. In 1994, after several years as abbot of Gantay Monastery in Bhutan, Rinpoche came to America at the suggestion of Professor Robert Thurman and the request of Chagdud Tulku. A year later he founded Osel Dorje Nyingpo in the United States and worked to further world peace through the principles of Vajrayana Buddhism and interfaith understanding. Soon thereafter he became abbot of Zilnon Kagyeling Monastery in Dharamsala, India, and in 2000 he was selected to represent the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism at the United Nations Millennium World Peace Summit. He passed away in January 2005 while visiting his family ’s home in the Tibetan settlement of Kham Khatok near Dehra Dun in North India.

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MASTERS OF THE KAGYU SCHOOL karma kagyu drukpa kagyu drikung kagyu

karma kagyu

“Our priceless pure heart is not something that can be purchased at a pharmacy, poured into our body, or obtained through a cure. If we went to a major city looking to buy it, we could not purchase this pure heart no matter what price we were willing to pay. How do we find it? With the sincere wish to discover it, we discipline our mind with our mind. When such a motivation is born within us, we and others are benefited, and so our lives become meaningful. With a pure motivation that does not wane and with great courage that does not despair may each one of us endeavor to make our lives meaningful.”

HIS HOLINESS THE SEVENTEENTH GYALWANG KARMAPA, OGYEN TRINLEY DORJE A little over three years after His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa passed away, Ogyen Trinley Dorje was born in 1985 into a nomadic family in the Lhathok region of Kham in Eastern Tibet. His early life included four years at Kalek Monastery before his discovery as the reincarnation of the previous Karmapa by the monks of Tsurphu Monastery was confirmed by Tai Situ Rinpoche and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 1992 the Chinese government made the unprecedented move of officially allowing the Seventeenth Karmapa’s recognition, and the enthronement at Tsurphu was held before a crowd of twenty thousand. The young Karmapa began his education in philosophy, debating, ritual practice, and sacred dance under the direction of Tai Situ Rinpoche, Gyaltsab Rinpoche, and Tsurphu’s abbot, the late Drupon Dechen Rinpoche. His 70

presence at Tsurphu revitalized the monastery, which revived its traditions and built a new monastic college for philosophical studies. On the night of December 28, 2000, he secretly left Tsurphu with his attendants. Eight days later, after a journey by jeep, on foot, horseback, and helicopter, the fourteen-year-old Karmapa arrived in Dharamsala, North India. He declared that he had escaped from Tibet to study with his lineage’s exiled teachers, and one year later he was granted formal refugee status by the Indian government. He temporarily resides at Gyuto Ramoche Tantric University near Dharamsala, where he offers public and private audiences and continues his training under his principal tutor, Thrangu Rinpoche. Since 2001 he has presided over the Kagyu Great Prayer Festival held annually in Bodhgaya.

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“For numerous lifetimes, we have been caught up in cyclic existence because we are fascinated with our habitual patterns. And they are what continually compel us to repeat what we have always done. However, as a result of previous virtuous activity, a degree of awakening has arisen within our consciousness, and it manifests as our connection to the dharma. Even though we may not be able to attain enlightenment in one lifetime, the blessings of our practice and the dharma continue. Dharma practice is of the greatest importance. It is so precious because it is so rare. The time to make use of this extraordinary chance is quite limited: it is a historic moment, a landmark in our lives. We must realize the value of this opportunity, and the best way to do this is to engage as sincerely as possible in the practice of the dharma. Otherwise, there is a real danger that this good fortune could fade and eventually vanish. The most important act we can do is to commit ourselves to a spiritual practice and then continue it.”

HIS HOLINESS THE SIXTEENTH GYALWANG KARMAPA, RANGJUNG RIGPE DORJE The Karmapas have played a vital role in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition since the twelfth century. They are revered by the followers of all schools, but as the heads of the Karma Kagyu lineage they are particularly important to the preservation and continuation of the Kagyu school. His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa was born in Eastern Tibet in 1924 into a noble family. The particular circumstances of his birth concord perfectly with the predictions that the Fifteenth Karmapa made in a letter to his attendant, which were later confirmed by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. The young Karmapa received his ordination and bodhisattva vows from the previous Tai Situ Rinpoche and Jamgön Kongtrul Rinpoche, the two foremost disciples of the Fifteenth Karmapa. He was enthroned by Tai Situ Rinpoche, 72

and he took up his seat at Tsurphu Monastery in Central Tibet. From 1941 to 1944 he spent much of his time in solitary retreat. He left Tibet in 1959, carrying with him objects sacred to the Karmapa lineage. The chögyal (king) of Sikkim invited the Karmapa to set up his seat in the ancient monastery of Rumtek, which had been established by the Ninth Karmapa. In exile the Sixteenth Karmapa worked to disseminate Tibetan translations of Buddhist texts to numerous monasteries. In 1974 he visited the West for the first time and gave teachings in the United States, Canada, and Europe. In 1976 he returned to the West, and again in 1980. He passed away in 1981 in a clinic near Chicago, Illinois. Several thousand students attended his funeral in Sikkim.

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“When we act according to our mistaken perception of the world and cling to it as fundamentally true, we react to chaos and dissatisfaction as if they came from the outside. Instead of recognizing them as our own, we think of them as problems existing outside of us and try to work them out externally. When we begin to have some sense of the relation between subject and object, we may begin to see that it is our own mental projections that are reflected back into our mind. If we look outside and try to figure out what is out there based on confused mental projections, we will never recognize who we are. What is fundamentally true is that the experience of pain or pleasure is not so much what is happening externally as it is what is happening internally: the experience of pain or pleasure is mainly a state of mind. Whether we experience the world as enlightened or confused depends on our state of mind.”

JAMGÖN KONGTRUL RINPOCHE Fulfilling the prophecies of His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa, the Third Jamgön Kongtrul, Karma Lodrö Chökyi Senge, was born in Lhasa in 1954 to a prominent family. Recognized as an incarnation of the great Rimé master Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, he was enthroned at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim at the age of six. He became a close disciple of the Sixteenth Karmapa, who supervised his education. He also studied with Thrangu Rinpoche and took many teachings and empowerments from the late Kalu Rinpoche. In 1974 Jamgön Kongtrul Rinpoche accompanied the Karmapa on a tour of the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia. After the Karmapa passed away in 1981, Jamgön Kongtrul Rinpoche, as one of the Karmapa’s four regents, became one of the foremost holders of the Kagyu lineage. He established the Rigpe Dorje Foundation with 74

centers in the United States, Canada, and France and the Paramita Charitable Trust in India. He was a frequent teacher at the Karmapa’s North American seat, Karma Triyana Dharmachakra in Woodstock, New York. He visited Tibet in 1984 and again in 1991, where he gave teachings and empowerments, ordained thousands of monks, and assisted in the reconstruction of Tsurphu Monastery. Among his many projects was the building of a primary school in Sikkim, a monastery in West Bengal, and a retreat center in Nepal. After offering sacred objects to fill the new Buddha statue in the main hall of Rumtek Monastery, Jamgön Kongtrul Rinpoche announced that he had now fulfilled all the wishes of his teacher, His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa. Jamgön Kongtrul Rinpoche died in a car crash in 1992 at the age of thirty-eight.

tai situ rinpoche, gyaltsab rinpoche, and jamgön kongtrul rinpoche sonada monastery, darjeeling, india, 1989

“Even major problems we face are not limitless. There is no such thing as a limitless loss or a limitless mess. Every single sentient being is, in essence, a Buddha, and that can never be lost or ultimately contaminated, so there is no problem that can equal this ultimate potential. Through gradual practice, we can come to realize this fully, and our potential can clearly arise.”

TAI SITU RINPOCHE “Tai Situ” means “far-reaching, unshakable great master, holder of the command” and dates back to the fourteenth century and the first Tai Situ Rinpoche, Chokyi Gyaltsen. His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa wrote a letter giving precise details of how the current twelfth incarnation of Tai Situ Rinpoche could be found, and the new incarnation fulfilled all the Karmapa’s predictions when he was born in 1954 to a family of farmers in Derge, Eastern Tibet. At the age of eighteen months he was enthroned at his traditional seat of Palpung Monastery, but with the advancement of the Chinese Communist army, he was taken to Tsurphu, the Karmapa’s monastery in Central Tibet, and then to Bhutan, where he was welcomed by the Bhutanese royal family. He then lived in Gangtok, Sikkim, home to many 76

displaced Kagyu masters, and trained under the guidance of His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa at Rumtek Monastery. At the age of twenty-two he established his own monastery, Sherab Ling, in the North Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. He made his first visit to the West in 1981, and in 1983 he founded the Maitreya Institute, an ecumenical forum for philosophy and the arts. He himself is an accomplished artist. He is also the author of a number of books on Buddhism and is one of the four regents of the Karma Kagyu lineage. In the early 1990s Tai Situ Rinpoche was instrumental in the discovery of His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa, who in 2000 escaped into India from Tibet and counts Tai Situ Rinpoche among his foremost teachers.

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“The purpose of Buddhism is to liberate all sentient beings by cleansing the mental impurities of ignorance, attachment, and anger, which are the causes of sorrow. When we try to end our sorrows, our success may only be limited to the material spheres such as food and clothing. However, if we practice Buddhism, we can solve the ultimate cause of sorrow. This is Buddhism’s main purpose: the purpose of the teachings of the historical Buddha, as well as all of the Buddhas of the past and those yet to come. For the preservation of the Buddhadharma, one should practice the laws of ethical living, and work to cleanse the mind of its impurities as the Buddha has directed.”

GYALTSAB RINPOCHE Born in Nyimo in Central Tibet in 1954 to a family of renowned Buddhist practitioners, Gyaltsab Rinpoche was recognized as a tulku by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa even before he was born. He is the twelfth in a line of reincarnate masters that can be traced back to a direct disciple of Padmasambhava in the eighth century and is one of the four regents of the Karmapa, the tulkus traditionally responsible for finding the Karmapas’ reincarnations. In 1959, soon after Gyaltsab Rinpoche had been officially enthroned, the Sixteenth Karmapa carried the four-year-old tulku across the Himalayas into exile in Sikkim. There he studied at the sixteenth-century Kagyu Monastery, which had been built by the fourth king of Sikkim. Gyaltsab Rinpoche’s father, believing 78

that his son should receive a modern education, enrolled him in a school in the capital city of Gangtok. The young Rinpoche chose to leave the school, however, and walked the ten miles back to the monastery at night so he could return to his Buddhist studies. Gyaltsab Rinpoche went on to study the teachings of the Karma Kagyu lineage through the commentaries by early Tibetan scholars and the translations of teachings by Indian masters. In 1992, together with Tai Situ Rinpoche, he enthroned the young Seventeenth Karmapa in Tibet. When His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa fled Tibet in 2000, Gyaltsab Rinpoche became one of his main teachers. The contemporary seat of Gyaltsab Rinpoche is Ralang Monastery in Southern Sikkim.

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“The mind is the root of understanding for practicing the dharma. It is the mind that wanders throughout samsara. It is the mind that experiences suffering. It is the mind that transcends suffering, that is to say, attains the state of Buddhahood, and then works for the benefit of all beings. Apart from mind there is nothing whatsoever in samsara or nirvana. It is most important for us to understand mind. Let us take an example of water mixed with earth. This muddy water is not useful to us, but the same water, when its impurities are eliminated, is clear, pure, and useful for drinking, boiling for tea, and so forth. Our mind in its gross state is like muddy water and is called the potential of individual consciousness. The mind in its natural purity is like clear water, the potential of primordial awareness.”

KALU RINPOCHE Born in 1905 in Eastern Tibet, the second Kalu Rinpoche began his higher studies at Palpung Monastery—the foremost center of the Karma Kagyu school—when he was fifteen years old. He studied at Palpung for over a decade, completing two three-year retreats. His teachers included His Holiness the Fifteenth Karmapa, Khakhyap Dorje, the Eleventh Tai Situ Rinpoche, Zhechen Gyaltsab Byurme Namgyla, and Drupon Norbu Dondrup. At the age of twenty-six Kalu Rinpoche left Palpung to pursue the life of a solitary yogi in the mountains of Kham for almost twenty years. He returned to Kham and became abbot of Palpung’s meditation center, tutoring His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa. Kalu Rinpoche left Tibet in 1957 and taught for a number of years in Bhutan before establishing his own monastery, 80

Samdup Tarjay Ling, at Sonada near Darjeeling, India, in 1963. He taught extensively in America and Europe and founded teaching centers in over a dozen countries. In France he established Naroling and Niguling, the first retreat centers to teach the traditional three-year retreats of the Shangpa and Karma Kagyu lineages to Western students. He passed away in 1989 at Samdup Tarjay Ling, the place where his reincarnation was born one year later to Kalu Rinpoche’s nephew and former secretary, Lama Gyeltsen, and his wife, Drolkar. Yangsi ( young reincarnation) Kalu Rinpoche was formally recognized at the age of eighteen months by Tai Situ Rinpoche and His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and was enthroned in February 1993. He visited the United States for the first time in 1995.

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kalu rinpoche, pasadena, california, 1988

yangsi kalu rinpoche, san dimas, california, 1995

“In general, the process of dying is a moment marked by suffering and anguish. When we are controlled by them, we must think, ‘I am not the only one suffering. At the time of death, all beings experience suffering and anguish as I do. Yet no one really wants to do so, and everyone would like to avoid it. But there is nothing they can do about it. Suffering and anguish are imposed upon them.’ If we do this, we will develop compassion for all beings. Then we think, ‘Today it is my turn to experience this suffering and anguish. I hope there is enough to experience as I do not want others to suffer. I agree to take on, within my suffering, the suffering of all beings who are dying.’ Then we do the sending and taking visualization, tonglen. When we breathe in, we think we are inhaling black light full of suffering and fear belonging to all beings. We think that we accept all the suffering and fear, and this melts into us. When we breathe out, we think, on the contrary, that we are exhaling white light full of happiness, merit, and all positive aspects of our mind. White light conveys this and gives these positive aspects to all beings. We imagine they receive them, are relieved and happy. We do this visualization several times. It is extremely beneficial.”

BOKAR RINPOCHE Bokar Rinpoche was born to a nomadic family in Western Tibet in 1940, and he was recognized as the reincarnation of Bokar Tulku Karma Sherab Osel at the age of four by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa. The Karmapa officiated at his enthronement at Bokar Monastery, founded by his previous incarnation, and gave him the name Tulku Karma Shedrup Youndu Pel Sangpo. He later continued his studies at Tsurphu Monastery, the main seat of the Karmapas in Central Tibet. He fled the Chinese Communist takeover of Tibet at the age of twenty and became a close student of Kalu Rinpoche, completing two threeyear-three-month retreats under his guidance, the first focusing on practices of the Shangpa Kagyu and the second on Karma Kagyu practices. In 1986 Bokar Rinpoche went on to establish 84

Bokar Ngedon Chökhor Ling, a retreat center in Mirik, in the hills of Darjeeling in West Bengal. He was appointed the retreat master of Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim by the Karmapa as well as retreat master of Kalu Rinpoche’s monastery at Sonada in Darjeeling. Bokar Rinpoche became Kalu Rinpoche’s successor as the head of the Shangpa Kagyu lineage and was the main teacher of his own teacher’s reincarnation, Yangsi Kalu Rinpoche. He guided a monastic college in Mysore, India, and taught in Tibetan Buddhist centers around the world, establishing the twelve-yearlong Mahamudra and Yidam Seminar Program for lay Westerners. An important holder of the Kalachakra lineage, Bokar Rinpoche passed away in August 2004 in Darjeeling.

siliguri, india, 1997

“Major obstacles to dharma practice are laziness and lack of confidence. If you lack confidence, you think, ‘I can’t practice. People like Milarepa can attain enlightenment, but not someone like me.’ But instead of this lack of confidence in oneself, one should remember that Buddha Shakyamuni was able to attain enlightenment because he had Buddha nature. Milarepa too was able to attain liberation because of his Buddha nature. We have this very same Buddha nature, and therefore we have the exact same ability to attain enlightenment. Whether we are rich or poor, male or female, educated or uneducated, we are able to practice the dharma and attain liberation.”

THRANGU RINPOCHE Thrangu Rinpoche was born in Kham in Eastern Tibet in 1933. He was recognized by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and the previous Tai Situ Rinpoche when he was four years old as the ninth incarnation of Thrangu Rinpoche, a tulku of the Karma Kagyu lineage. Rinpoche attended Thrangu Monastery for nine years from the age of seven. He then studied under Khenpo Lodrö Rabsel while in retreat and became a student of the renowned master Khenpo Gangshar. At twentythree he received full ordination from the Sixteenth Karmapa, but he left Tibet five years later in the wake of the Chinese Communist takeover. Rinpoche went to Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, the Karmapa’s seat in exile, and then to the Buxador monastic refugee camp in Bengal, where he studied for a number of years to become the first 86

Kagyu lama to obtain the prestigious geshe degree. Rinpoche returned to Rumtek and earned the khenpo degree. At Rumtek he became tutor to the four principal Kagyu regents. More recently His Holiness the Dalai Lama appointed Thrangu Rinpoche tutor to His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa, who escaped from Tibet in 2000. Rinpoche founded Thrangu Tashi Chöling Monastery and monastic college in Boudhanath, Nepal, and a retreat center at Nagarjunakot, Nepal. He also established a nunnery where nuns can study for their khenpo degrees, a children’s school, and a free medical clinic. In India he founded Vajra Vidya Institute in Sarnath, and he has centers in Asia, Europe, and North America.

boudhanath, kathmandu, nepal, 1997

“Whenever you’re engaging in any virtuous activity or participating in the dharma, whether you’re listening to the teaching, receiving an initiation, or practicing, you first have to develop the proper intention or motivation known as bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment. You must think that my purpose of listening to this teaching, the purpose of my practice, is to benefit all the limitless sentient beings and to develop the ability to liberate them. If you’re able to maintain the attitude of bodhicitta while you’re practicing, then the virtue or positive karma that you accumulate will increase and, like a healthy fruit tree, will continue to produce fruit until you’ve attained complete enlightenment. Without bodhicitta, any positive virtue you accumulate from practicing the dharma is subject to exhaustion and can be destroyed by any kind of negative intention. It is like a water plant that is able to bloom once, but never again after that.”

TENGA RINPOCHE Tenga Rinpoche was born in Kham, Eastern Tibet, in 1932. At the age of seven he was recognized as the third reincarnation of Tenzin Chögyal, a tulku from Benchen Monastery, by the former Tai Situ Rinpoche, who had predicted both the names of his parents and the year and place of his birth. From then on Tenga Rinpoche was trained in Benchen and Palpung monasteries, where he mastered Tibetan ritual, meditation, philosophy, and Tibetan medicine, under the guidance of his predecessor’s student Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche, Gelek Drubpe Nyima, and the former rinpoches Tai Situ and Jamgön Kongtrul. He was instated as a tulku at the age of sixteen, and, after receiving full ordination three years later, he entered a three-year retreat. When he escaped the Communist occupation of Tibet in 1959, His Holiness 88

the Sixteenth Karmapa invited Tenga Rinpoche to Rumtek Monastery in East Sikkim, and Tenga Rinpoche served the Karmapa for the next seventeen years. He first traveled to the West in 1974 with the Karmapa and since then has taught in the West numerous times and has established centers in Poland, Italy, and Germany. In 1976 he relocated to Nepal, and in 1986 he built a new Benchen Monastery in Swayambhu in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. The monastery later established a free clinic and includes a retreat center for the traditional three-year retreats. Tenga Rinpoche and Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche serve as coabbots of Benchen Monastery, an important center for the ritual practices of the Karma Kagyu tradition.

swayambhu, kathmandu, nepal, 1997

Auspiciousness That Lights Up the Universe During this twenty-first century that is one of such prosperity May struggle over wealth and gain disappear and not be seen again. Free from strife and violence, may all enjoy great abundance And by this may auspiciousness light up the whole universe! During this twenty-first century, science is advancing incredibly. Amazing and wondrous, these new machines that bring the gods’ enjoyments to human beings, May they be used with skill supreme to end violence and cause peace to reign And by this may auspiciousness light up the whole universe! May the sciences that explore outside be joined with the inner science of the mind To excellently put an end to mistaken views and confusion And by this may auspiciousness light up the whole universe!

KHENPO TSULTRIM GYAMTSO RINPOCHE Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche was born in 1934 to a nomad family from Kham in Eastern Tibet. His mother became a devoted dharma practitioner after the death of his father, and from the age of two Rinpoche accompanied her during pilgrimages, teachings, and even on extended retreats. Eventually he left home to train with his root guru, Lama Zopa Tharchin. He lived the life of a wandering yogi, engaging in solitary retreats in Eastern and Central Tibet. At Tsurphu, the seat of the Karma Kagyu lineage, he studied under the guidance of His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa while living in the caves above the monastery. A year later a group of Tibetan nuns escaping the invading Chinese soldiers sought his help, and Rinpoche escorted them over the Himalayas to safety in Bhutan. He built them a nun90

nery, retreat center, and school, which he still oversees. He also founded a nunnery and retreat center in Nepal that provides a progressive training program equal to that available to monks. After studying for nine years in the Tibetan monastic refugee camp at Buxador in Bengal, Rinpoche received both the khenpo and geshe lharam degrees. He helped to train a new generation of khenpos at the Nalanda Institute in Sikkim to continue the Kagyu lineage in exile, and he has traveled and taught throughout the world. In 1975 he began training Westerners as Tibetan translators, and in 1986 he founded the Marpa Institute for Translators at Pullahari Monastery near Boudhanath in Nepal, so that Tibetan dharma texts and oral commentaries can be understood in many languages.

los angeles, california, 2002

“When we talk about the tantric world, we are talking about this visual, auditory, sensory world, which has not been explored or looked at properly. Nobody has bothered to actually experience it. People just take it for granted. We may have been interested in our world when we were little children, but then we were taught how to handle it by our parents. Our parents already had developed a system to deal with the world and to shield themselves from it at the same time. As we accepted that system, we lost contact with the world. We lost the freshness and curiosity of our infancy a long time ago. And now, although the world is full of all kinds of things, we find that in communicating with the world we are somewhat numb. There is numbness in our sight, numbness in our hearing, numbness in all our senses. It is as though we had been drugged. The reality of the world—the brilliance of red, the brightness of turquoise, the majesty of yellow, and the fantastic quality of green—has not been seen properly. We have been indoctrinated, or we have indoctrinated ourselves. The point of tantra is to reintroduce the world to us. A direct relationship between teacher and student is essential in Vajrayana Buddhism. People cannot even begin to practice tantra without making some connection with their teacher, their vajra, indestructible, master.”

CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA RINPOCHE Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was born in the province of Kham in Eastern Tibet in 1940 and became one of the most influential figures in the development of Buddhism in North America. When he was a year old, he was recognized as the eleventh incarnate lama in the lineage of the Trungpa tulkus. He was enthroned as abbot of Surmang Monastery and received the vows of a novice monk in the Kagyu tradition at the age of eight. In 1958 Rinpoche received the monastic degrees of kyorpon (doctor of divinity) and khenpo and became fully ordained as a Buddhist monk. He fled the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959, and for the next four years he served as spiritual advisor to the Young Lamas Home School in Dal92

houise in North India. He then attended Oxford University in England, where he studied philosophy, comparative religion, and fine arts, and in 1968 he cofounded the Samye Ling Meditation Center in Scotland with Akong Rinpoche. After a period of solitary retreat in Bhutan, Rinpoche returned to lay life and moved to the United States, where he taught until he passed away in 1987. Rinpoche was the founder of the Naropa Institute, a Buddhist university, in Boulder, Colorado, as well as the Shambhala community, which has over one hundred centers worldwide. He is the author of more than two dozen books including Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism.

los angeles, california, 1980

“Because we take everything as real, solid, and permanent, we are not free from attachment to our body and possessions. The main way to become detached from the body and possessions is to understand that everything is impermanent. It is the same when we come to the mind, which we can also call the consciousness. In the past we have held very strongly to the existence of this consciousness, and to the feeling of its permanence and solidity. But if we examine very carefully, there is nothing permanent about it at all. We may think that our ideas and thoughts are permanent, but they change every instant. In feelings and consciousness there is change, there is impermanence. When we understand this, we are able to free ourselves from attachment to the existence of the self or the sense of ‘I.’ When you examine everything carefully—your physical body, your consciousness, and your sensations or feelings—you cannot pinpoint anything that is ‘I.’ What are you calling ‘I’ here? What is it you are attached to?”

KHENPO KARTHAR RINPOCHE Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche was born in 1924 into a nomad family in Kham in Eastern Tibet. When he was twelve years old he entered Thrangu Monastery, where he studied and practiced for six years, and at the age of twenty he received ordination vows from the previous Tai Situ Rinpoche. After his ordination Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche entered a one-year solitary retreat, and soon after he entered a three-year-three-month retreat at Thrangu, followed by another oneyear retreat. He wished to remain in retreat for the rest of his life, but his teachers encouraged him to continue his monastic education. In 1959 Rinpoche and a group of other monks fled Eastern Tibet in the face of the Chinese occupation. It took two and a half months to reach Tsurphu Monastery near Lhasa, where His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa gave them provisions to com94

plete the journey into exile. Rinpoche taught for eight years at the Tibetan monastic refugee camp at Buxador near the Bhutanese and Indian borders, and later at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, the seat-in-exile of the Karmapa. He served as an abbot of Tashi Chöling Nunnery in Bhutan and at Tilokpur Nunnery in North India. In 1975 the Sixteenth Karmapa bestowed on him the title of chöje lama (superior dharma master). In 1978 the Karmapa sent Rinpoche to the United States to teach the dharma and to serve as his chief representative. Rinpoche recently retired from the position of abbot of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Monastery in Woodstock, New York, and the head of over thirty affiliate centers throughout the United States, South America, and Taiwan. He is author of Dharma Paths and The Instructions of Gampopa.

woodstock, new york, 1999

drukpa kagyu

“It is difficult for me to fully express how my masters appear to me spiritually. I have never seen such a bodhisattva as my very first teacher, His Eminence the Eighth Khamtrul Rinpoche, who taught me from the age of seven to thirteen. His speech, his behavior, his every action seemed to me to be those of a bodhisattva. I never saw him do anything that was not in keeping with the bodhisattva ideal. I received more teachings from my second master, His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. For me, he represented Guru Rinpoche in human form. I am fully convinced his mind was always in a state of dharmakaya—one who knows everything. My devotion to these masters resides in my heart no matter what the circumstances. Through my prayers I can always feel their blessings. Therefore, as a dharma practitioner, I found that the key point is devotion, which will only come through meeting a perfect master.”

CHOEGON RINPOCHE Choegon Rinpoche is a master within the Drukpa Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the ninth in a line of reincarnated masters that stretches back almost five hundred years, when the first Choegon Rinpoche became the teacher of Padma Karpo, the sixteenth-century head of the Drukpa Kagyu. One of the two main seats of the Drukpa Kagyu was at Dechen Choekhor Monastery in Tibet, where Rinpoche’s predecessor was active in the archiving and preservation of rare Tibetan Buddhist teachings. Following the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959, the Eighth Choegen Rinpoche sought refuge in India and passed on the lineage teachings and transmissions to a new generation of Drukpa Kagyu students. The present Choegon Rinpoche was born in 1966 in the remote Indian region of Kinnaur in the Western Himalayas and was recog96

nized at the age of six by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and the Eighth Khamtrul Rinpoche. He was formally enthroned at Khampagar Monastery in Tashi Jong in the North Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and entered a period of intense religious training. He received the teachings of his lineage from Khamtrul Rinpoche and Adeu Rinpoche, and from His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche he received teachings from all the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He served as vajra master of Khampagar Monastery for eight years and then for three years as spiritual director. He has taught around the world in Western Europe, South America, Southeast Asia, and the United States. In 2001 he began building his monastery, Dechen Choekhor Mahavihara, in North India’s Kullu Valley, where he now resides.

santa monica, california, 1999

“In this time and in this world, economies are progressing, but our minds are moving more toward evil, and not progressing toward loving kindness. Because of this, we engage in lots of misconduct, and that’s why a large number of people suffer from war, hunger, epidemic, and natural disaster. So because all this suffering came from our negative emotions and negative acts, I think we must practice loving kindness. Through this practice we can survive with peace in this life and give peace to all beings, and also find peace in the next life.”

KHAMTRUL RINPOCHE The Eighth ( previous) Khamtrul Rinpoche, Dongyu Nyima, was recognized when he was four years old. His monastery of Khampagar in Eastern Tibet had over two hundred satellite monasteries, nunneries, and retreat centers. He became renowned for his skill in sacred dance and composed sixty volumes of Buddhist commentaries. He left Tibet for India in 1958 and worked to support the production of Tibetan traditional arts and crafts to alleviate the economic hardships of Tibetan refugees. To this end he founded the Tibetan Craft Community at Tashi Jong in the Kangra Valley, where he also reestablished his 98

monastery for Khampagar’s exiled community of yogi monks (togdens). In 1980, at the age of forty-nine, he passed away while teaching in Bhutan, and the Ninth Khamtrul Rinpoche was born that same year into a Tibetan family in Arunachal Pradesh. He was enthroned at the age of two and has been guided and educated at Tashi Jong by a number of togdens. By the time he was fifteen he had memorized the ritual texts and learned the lama dances of his lineage. He has received teachings and initiations from Dorzong Rinpoche, Khenpo Lhawang, His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and Adeu Rinpoche.

los angeles, california, 2002

“When I faced enormous hardship, I kept up my spiritual practice and tried my best to handle the situation through my understanding of Buddhism. Even when conditions were very challenging and difficult, the worse my situation grew, the more I tried to generate compassion and understanding, as well as the awareness that others are suffering even more than myself. If you only think about your own personal suffering, then it can drive you crazy. I used my difficult experiences to look into the true nature of mind and how to cut through the pain and suffering, which is the essence of Lord Buddha’s teachings.”

ADEU RINPOCHE Adeu Rinpoche was born in 1929 in the Nangchen district of Kham in Eastern Tibet. He is the eighth reincarnation in a line of tulkus from the Drukpa Kagyu lineage of the Kagyu school. When he was six years old he was enthroned at his official seat at Tsechu Monastery, destroyed during the Cultural Revolution but later rebuilt. Adeu Rinpoche studied under many great masters including his root guru, the previous Choegon Rinpoche, His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa, and Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. After spending over fourteen years in intensive retreat he was imprisoned by the Chinese Communists for twenty years. During his incarceration he and other masters such as Garchen Rinpoche continued their study and practice with the great Dzogchen master Khenpo Munsel. A sympa100

thetic doctor diagnosed the group with a contagious disease so they would be separated from the general prison population. With this relative freedom, Adeu Rinpoche pursued his spiritual practice and managed to secretly record sixty pages of Khenpo Munsel’s oral instruction, which he wrote on newspaper. Adeu Rinpoche first visited India in 1987 to help train the exiled tulkus and teachers of his tradition. Years later, as the only surviving holder of the entire Eastern Drukpa Kagyu lineage, he traveled from Kham to work on the Drukpa Kagyu Heritage Project in Kathmandu, Nepal, to collect and preserve this endangered tradition’s literary heritage. After the project was completed in 2003, Adeu Rinpoche returned to his monastery in Tibet.

los angeles, california, 1999

“Whatever kinds of good actions one is doing, one needs to seal that action with a dedication. One dedicates the merit of the positive action for the benefit of all sentient beings. This will cause the positive action to keep on increasing until one attains the state of Buddhahood. In the same way that the plantain tree yields fruit only once, positive action that is not dedicated will yield a limited result. Once the karma of that action ripens, it will cease to exist. Good action that has been dedicated is like a drop of water that falls into an ocean— as long as the ocean exists then that drop of water will not dry up.”

TOGDEN AMTING Togden Amting was born in 1922 into a poor family in Kham, Eastern Tibet. The Seventh Khamtrul Rinpoche told his parents that it would be beneficial if their son became a monk, and he gave him the name Trinley Lodoe, of which “Amting” is an abbreviation. Togden Amting moved to the nearby Khampagar Monastery at the age of fourteen and was inspired to follow the Khampagar tradition of togdens—an exclusive but dynamic order of hermits famous for their long solitary retreats, humility, and secret yogic practices. Like all the Khampagar togdens, Togden Amting became a fully ordained monk. He moved to a remote mountain retreat cave in his late twenties, 102

where he remained for a decade, often having to resort to eating the remains of animal carcasses to survive. He left Tibet in 1958 with the Eighth Khamtrul Rinpoche, the reincarnation of his teacher, who had passed away many years earlier. His other main teacher was Tsennyi Soten Rinpoche. For many years Togden Amting lived in a tiny hut on a hill in Tashi Jong, North India, with the exiled togden community. He then moved to a house where he spent much of his time receiving Tibetan and foreign visitors who came to him for advice, blessings, and teachings. He passed away in the summer of 2005.

tashi jong, himachal pradesh, india, 1997

“There are many realized dharma teachers. Someone like me cannot teach anything.”

TOGDEN ACHOE Togden Achoe was born in 1932 in Lato, in the Eastern Tibetan province of Kham. He was one of five children, three brothers and two sisters, and his parents were farmers and yak herders. He joined Khampagar Monastery when he was ten years old, and at the age of sixteen he went into retreat at Khampagar’s retreat center and began his training as a togden. In 1959, when he was twenty-seven, he escaped the Chinese occupation of Tibet and arrived in India. He first went to Tibet’s Southeastern province of Pema Khod and then into the neighboring Indian state of Assam. Later he rejoined his teacher, the Eighth Kham104

trul Rinpoche, in Kalimpong. Wherever the Eighth Khamtrul Rinpoche traveled, Togden Achoe traveled with him together with the other togdens. When the Eighth Khamtrul Rinpoche reestablished Khampagar Monastery in Tashi Jong in the North Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, Togden Achoe helped with the wood carving in the temple, continuing his retreat in his spare time. When the Ninth Khamtrul Rinpoche was enthroned at the age of two and a half, Togden Achoe became the young Rinpoche’s special attendant, and he also acts as an advisor to Khampagar’s monastic committee.

tashi jong, himachal pradesh, india, 2005

drikung kagyu

“I think that in this world it is very important to practice loving kindness. When we have lots of material comfort there is a danger of becoming increasingly separate from one another. People are becoming more and more separate from family and society because we do not care enough about others. But if you develop loving kindness toward others, you yourself will live a happier life, and things in your daily life and work will go more smoothly. As a result, your family life will be happier, and there will be fewer problems in society in general. So share your good fortune with others and think more about how to take care of our world, not just for ourselves, but for future generations. We cannot live as if we existed independently from everything around us—from the earth, the plants, and the animals. We are all interdependent. If you try to act as if you are separate, then you will create problems. But if you take care of other people and all sentient beings, your life will be happy and successful. I pray that I may also practice in this way.”

THE DRIKUNG KYABGON, HIS HOLINESS CHETSANG RINPOCHE His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche was born in Lhasa in 1946 into the prominent Tsarong family and was recognized at the age of four as the Thirty-seventh Drikung Kyabgon, head of the Drikung Kagyu lineage. At Drikung Thel Monastery, Chetsang Rinpoche received the main Kagyu teachings, transmissions, and empowerments from many great masters, but his spiritual education was interrupted when his monastery was overrun by the Chinese Communists. After attending a Chinese school in Lhasa for six years, Rinpoche was sent to work in a labor camp, where he endured years of physical hardship. In 1975 he set out alone across the Himalayas into Nepal to rejoin his family and followers in India. Rinpoche was formally enthroned again in India by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Three months later he journeyed to the 106

United States to reunite with the rest of his family after eighteen years of separation. For two and a half years he stayed with his parents and studied English and researched and documented the history of the Drikung lineage. After repeated requests from his students, Rinpoche left the United States in 1978 and resumed the duties of his position in India. He completed the traditional three-year meditation retreat under the guidance of Kyunga Rinpoche at Lama Yuru Monastery and received full monk’s ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1985. He continued his training in all the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism and founded the Drikung Kagyu Institute near Dehra Dun, India, and numerous Drikung Kagyu centers around the world. He primarily resides at Jang Chub Ling in Dehra Dun.

monterey park, california, 1993

“The ego, our constant reaffirmation of the deluded belief in the existence of a permanent self, is the total opposite of love and compassion; it is the opposite of the Mahayana path. As long as one’s mind is occupied by the ego’s games, then love and compassion will not fully arise in the mind. This ego, which contaminates the mind, can only be wiped away by the love and compassion that aim at benefiting others. If a mirror is dusty and full of dirt, no reflection can be seen in it. But if one wipes away all the dust and dirt from this mirror, everything can be reflected in it. If there is a lack of love, compassion, and bodhicitta, one is spiritually like a dead person. Likewise, without bodhicitta, one’s spiritual practice and accomplishment are meaningless, and there will be no realization.”

GARCHEN RINPOCHE Garchen Rinpoche was born in the Nangchen province of Kham, Eastern Tibet, in 1936. He was recognized and enthroned by the former head of the Drikung Kagyu lineage, Zhiwe Lodrö, as the reincarnation of the Seventh Garchen Rinpoche, Gar Tinley Yonkyab. All the Garchen Rinpoches have been the teachers to the Nangchen kings and are believed to be reincarnations of the thirteenth-century master Gar Chödengpa, a close disciple of the founder of the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, Jigten Sumgön. When Garchen Rinpoche was seven years old, he was brought to Lho Miyal Monastery. He studied under Chime Dorje, and from the age of thirteen he received the Drikung Kagyu lineage teachings from the master Lho Thubten Nyingpo Rinpoche. At the age of twenty-two, shortly 108

before completing the traditional three-year retreat, he was interned in a labor camp during the political turmoil of China’s Cultural Revolution and remained there for the next twenty years. While in the labor camp, he received meditation instruction from his root lama and fellow inmate, the Nyingma master Khenpo Munsel. Since his release from prison in 1979, Garchen Rinpoche has made great efforts to rebuild the Drikung Kagyu monasteries in Eastern Tibet, where he has built two boarding schools for local children. Rinpoche is the founder and spiritual director of the Garchen Buddhist Institute in Chino Valley, Arizona; Gar Drolma Chöling in Dayton, Ohio; the Drikung Mahayana Center in North Potomac, Maryland; and the Garchen Dharma Institute in Munich, Germany.

santa monica, california, 2003

“Rejoicing in the virtues of others is the opposite of envy and jealousy. It is where, instead of feeling uncomfortable or unhappy in seeing the pleasures of others, one rejoices in these things: understanding that the attainments, the possessions, the pleasures, the good qualities, and so forth of others arise from their accomplishment of virtue—their generosity, for example. One rejoices when one sees someone who is happy, someone who has good possessions, and so on. Even more, one rejoices in the good and meritorious accomplishments of others because this is the highest good that one can do for oneself. Therefore, the Buddha says that if, upon seeing the enjoyment and meritorious virtuous deed of someone else, you rejoice from the bottom of your heart, then the merit you produce in that rejoicing is equal to the merit produced by the person who actually engaged in that virtuous deed.”

DRIKUNG ONTUL RINPOCHE Drikung Ontul Rinpoche was born in 1950 in Kham in Eastern Tibet into a noble family. When he was four years old, His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche recognized him as the third incarnation of Ontul Rinpoche. “Ontul” means “incarnation of the elder brother,” as the first Ontul Rinpoche was the elder brother of a renowned terton named Orgyen Nuden Dorje. The current Ontul Rinpoche was enthroned at the monastery of Dong Med Ogmin Thubten Shedrub Ling, where his former attendant in his previous life, Kalsang Namgyal, became his elementary teacher, who instructed him in the basics of reading and writing. When the Chinese Communist army occupied Tibet, the nine-year-old Rinpoche fled with his tutor through Nepal to India. He continued to study the dharma with many Kagyu and Nyingma 110

masters such as Khenpo Thupten Mewa Rinpoche, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, Khunu Rinpoche, His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche, and the yogi Khyung Ka Rinpoche. In the remote North Indian region of Ladakh, Ontul Rinpoche spent a number of years receiving empowerments and oral transmissions of the Drikung Kagyu lineage from Chöje Togden Rinpoche. In 1971 he constructed Wogmin Thubten Shedrub Ling Monastery at the sacred pilgrimage lake of Tso Pema in Himachal Pradesh, where he currently resides. In 1983 he returned to Tibet to visit his old monastery, which is in the process of being rebuilt. Ontul Rinpoche is a master of Dzogchen and gives teachings around the world in both the Drikung Kagyu and Nyingma traditions.

los angeles, california, 1991

“When you take a dharma teaching it is for the purpose of practice. If you don’t do any practice, then the teaching is of no use at all, like a sick person who has received the medicine from the doctor, but who hasn’t taken it. Just keeping the medicine with you won’t cure your illness. The master is like the doctor, the Buddha’s teaching is like the medicine, and we are like the sick person. We have 84,000 different kinds of negative thoughts, including the five poisons: desire, anger, jealousy, pride, and ignorance. This is why we need to practice the dharma— to overcome these afflictions. You might think, ‘At this time I’m very busy. After this important work is finished, then I will do my practice.’ But after you have completed that task, there will be more work to do, and you will think, ‘Now, I must finish this.’ We have to do practice every day, even if we only do half an hour. It is through our practice that our negative karma can be purified.”

AYANG RINPOCHE Ayang Rinpoche was born into a nomadic family in Kham in Eastern Tibet and was recognized as an incarnation of a Drikung Kagyu lama by a delegation that included His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa. After completing his early education at the monastery of Drikung Thil Jangchub Ling, he went on to Nyima Thang Ra, the Drikung philosophical college, to pursue higher studies. His teachers include Chagchen Kundzod Chig She Kundrol, His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa, and His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Ayang Rinpoche is widely regarded as a preeminent master of phowa, a spiritual practice used es112

pecially at the time of death. He has completed extensive retreats devoted to phowa and is recognized as a holder of both the Nyingma and Drikung Kagyu lineages of this practice. Rinpoche has given many teachings in the West and offers phowa teachings every January in Bodhgaya in the Indian state of Bihar. Rinpoche is the founder of the Amitabha Foundation, which has centers in Europe, Asia, the United States, and Australia and which supports a number of charitable projects. He is also the founder of Thupten Shedrup Jangchub Ling Monastery in India at the Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe.

los angeles, california, 1991

“Our karma follows us; it is a part of us. A bird in the sky doesn’t cast a shadow, but as soon as the bird alights on the ground, his shadow appears. Karma is that shadow. Even a grain of karma, positive or negative, will increase; it will bring many, many results. The redwood tree starts as a small sprout, but it yields a tree whose stump can support the foundation of a sizeable house. Similarly, even a little karma will yield far-reaching results. So be careful of all the karma you create, positive or negative, and encourage yourself to do good things even if it’s reciting only one mantra or purifying the smallest negative karma. Be especially mindful of motivation because it, too, is an element of karma. When our attitude is altruistic, then no matter what we do, our actions turn virtuous. Conversely, we may perform a virtuous action, but if our mind is overpowered by afflictive emotions, then that action turns sour, nonvirtuous. So motivation becomes action, just as seed becomes fruit, just as a medicine tree’s bark, flowers, and leaves yield medicine. And if the seed is toxic, then its fruits will be poison. Thus, it becomes crucial to have a universal mind of kindness, compassion, and enlightened motivation in order to heal oneself and others, thereby manifesting an environment of clear, pure, and critical insight.”

KHENCHEN KONCHOG GYALTSHEN RINPOCHE Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche was born in Central Tibet in 1946 in a village in Tsari, a region held sacred by the Drikung Kagyu lineage. He fled the Chinese occupation with his family in 1959 and settled in Darjeeling, India. In 1967 he gained admission to the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Varanasi and graduated nine years later with distinction after receiving the Acharya (master’s) degree. During this time he also received full monastic ordination from Kalu Rinpoche. He continued his Buddhist education under masters such as His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and Khunu Rinpoche, and after completing a three-year retreat under the guidance of Khyunga Rinpoche, he received the title of khenpo. In 1982 he went to the United States to help establish the Drikung Kagyu line114

age in the West. In 1983 he founded the Tibetan Meditation Center in Washington, D.C., which has since moved to Frederick, Maryland, and today has affiliated centers throughout North America. In 1985 he traveled to the main seat of the Drikung Kagyu lineage, Drikung Thel, in Tibet, where he received teachings from Pachung Rinpoche. Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche tours Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia, giving teachings and lectures and leading retreats. He has translated a number of Drikung Kagyu practices, prayers, and histories into English and is the author of many books on Tibetan Buddhism, including Calling the Lama from Afar. He currently resides at the Drikung Kagyu Institute in Dehra Dun, India, where he gives extensive courses in Buddhist philosophy.

monterey park, california, 1992

MASTERS OF THE SAKYA SCHOOL

“The teacher-student relationship is very important because without the teacher one cannot find the spiritual path. Once one has entered the path, it is very important to receive the guru’s guidance. First you have to carefully examine who is a good master and who is capable of teaching and guiding you. Then you request the guru to accept you as a disciple. My own teachers are very important to me as it is through their blessings and kindness that I have been able to know and experience the dharma. It is they who have given me the light. But the gurus cannot reveal the fundamental truths just like showing an object. They can only give teachings on how to realize the ultimate truth, which is a long and difficult process. The guru teaches you about what is proper and beneficial in your spiritual practice. In this way you come to know the difference between the right and wrong ways to live your life.”

HIS HOLINESS SAKYA TRIZIN His Holiness Sakya Trizin, Ngawang Kunga, is the head of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism and the forty-first in an unbroken line of throneholders going back to the eleventh century. He was born in the Sakya Palace at Tsedong in Southern Tibet in 1945 and received his first major empowerment at the age of three from his father, the previous head of the Sakya Drolma Palace lineage. He became an orphan when very young and was raised by his maternal aunt, Trinley Paljor Zangmo, herself an advanced Buddhist practitioner. His elementary tutor was Genphel Ponlop Kunga Gyaltsen, and he later studied with Kunga Tsewang. At the age of five he entered Ngor Ewam Choden Monastery, whose abbot, Ngawang Lodrö Zhenphen Nyingpo, became his 118

root guru. He also studied with Ngawang Tenzin Nyingpo, Lama Ngawang Lodrö Rinpoche, and later Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. When he was eight years old he entered a seven-month retreat, and in 1959, at the age of fourteen, he was formally enthroned as the head of the Sakya school. He fled Tibet the same year and was given support by the royal court of Sikkim, founding SaNgor Chotsok Monastery in Gangtok and Ghoom Monastery in Darjeeling, India. He continued his education with exiled Sakya masters and went on to teach the dharma all over the world. He has founded a number of monasteries and centers, including the Sakya Center in Rajpur, Uttar Pradesh, where he lives at the Dolma Phodrang with his wife and two sons.

los angeles, california, 2000

“There are three types of faith—pure, aspiring, and absolute faith—and these are the causes which bring blessings. On the first level, which is pure faith, we feel happiness when we look upon the symbols of the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha, that is, lamas, tulkus, monks, nuns, temples, and monasteries. On the second level, which is aspiring faith, when you see symbols of the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha, we feel happiness and want to listen, study, and contemplate. We want to come inside the monastery, participate in activities, and receive the teachings. On the third level, which is absolute faith, we think about the Three Jewels twenty-four hours a day: the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha. We never have any doubts. Most importantly, we always remind ourselves that the Three Jewels will lead us, guide us, and show us wisdom. This faith leads to enlightenment.”

HIS HOLINESS JIGDAL DAGCHEN SAKYA RINPOCHE His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya Rinpoche was born in 1929 into the Phuntsok Phodrang branch of the Khön family, lineage holders of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. Dagchen Rinpoche received an extensive Buddhist education in preparation for his future succession to the Sakya throne when he would head the Phuntsok Phodrang branch of the Sakya dynasty, a position formerly held by his father, His Holiness Ngawang Thutop Wangchuk. Dagchen Rinpoche studied all the Buddhist systems of Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana and received a number of tantric empowerments along with the complete system of lamdre and meditation retreats. After the passing of his father, Rinpoche traveled to Eastern Tibet to study with a number of mas120

ters. Two in particular became his root gurus: the great Rimé teachers Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who helped to inspire his nonsectarian approach to the dharma. Dagchen Rinpoche went on to teach extensively in Eastern Tibet, where he established seventeen colleges and ten retreat centers. In 1959 he fled the Chinese occupation with his family and became the Sakya representative to the Tibetan Religious Office in India. A year later he was invited to the University of Washington in the United States to participate in a research project. He subsequently founded the Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in Seattle, where he resides with his wife, Dagmo Jamyang Sakya, and their family.

los angeles, california, 2004

“It cannot help but benefit us if we are able to live according to the teachings and practice loving-kindness toward those with whom we share our lives. Whether we are at home or out in the world, if we show more love and empathy for others, we will find more happiness in our lives. If individuals are able to dedicate themselves to a life of loving-kindness and compassion, then such people will make a great contribution to the well-being of the world and, as a whole, to the cause of peace and happiness. What is called ‘world peace’ only depends on how the citizens of the world behave toward one another.”

CHOGYE TRICHEN RINPOCHE Born in 1919 in Shigatse, Central Tibet, Ngawang Khyenrab Thupten Lekshe Gyatso is the Eighteenth Chogye Trichen or “throneholder” of the Tsarpa branch of the Sakya school, one of the three main Sakya lineages. Chogye Trichen Rinpoche lived from the age of seven to eight at the Shangpo hermitage, where his father and brother taught him to read and write. He was officially enthroned at the age of twelve at Tsar-Nalendra Monastery near Lhasa, becoming the twenty-sixth head of this monastery. Tsar-Nalendra was one of the most important Sakya monasteries in Tibet, one of a thousand that existed before the Chinese invasion. Chogye Trichen remained at the monastery until the age of thirty-nine under the guidance of his root gurus, Zimog Rinpoche Kunga Tenzin and Khenchen Dampa Rinpoche. In 1959 122

Rinpoche left Tibet for India, where he worked for a few years as the General Secretary of the Council for Religious and Cultural Affairs in the exiled Tibetan government and wrote textbooks for refugee Tibetan schoolchildren. In 1969 he went to Nepal, where he founded two monasteries: Tashi Rabten Ling in Lumbini (where he also founded the Lamdre Lobshey retreat center) and Jamchen Lhakhang in Kathmandu. There are thirty Sakya monasteries in exile, but Chogye Trichen Rinpoche is the only remaining holder of the Tsar lineage. He has centers in Hong Kong and Taiwan and is the director of numerous centers in Australia and New Zealand. He has taught in countries around the world and has written several books on Tibetan Buddhism, including Parting from the Four Attachments.

rajpur, uttar pradesh, india, 2005

“These days, in every corner of the world, many people’s minds are filled with hatred and anger. Thus conflicts arise, which in turn cause a lot of destruction to people and other beings. I feel that it is extremely important for us all to take individual responsibility. We should try to minimize our own anger toward other beings, and to instead generate love, compassion, and bodhicitta, the mind that seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. Of course, it’s extremely difficult to develop genuine bodhicitta, but we can at least have the desire to be able to generate such an attitude. Negative emotions are extremely difficult to eliminate; however, if we try to develop loving kindness, compassion, tolerance, and bodhicitta again and again, our positive thoughts will increase and our negative thoughts will decrease, and eventually we will see some positive results. Such results might be hard to see at first. Trust and faith are key for progress on the spiritual path. One should not expect to see results right away. It’s important to have a long-range plan and not expect that you can accomplish some great result in a short period of time.”

LUDING KHENCHEN RINPOCHE Luding Khenchen Rinpoche is the seventy-fifth head of the Ngor lineage, one of the three main lineages of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in 1931, in the Tsang area of Central Tibet, into a Tibetan family that had produced a long line of Buddhist masters. He was ordained as a monk at the age of ten by his teacher, Jamayang Thupten Lungtok Gyaltsen, and for the next thirteen years Rinpoche received instructions from this master on lamdre and other teachings at Ngor Monastery. Between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one, Rinpoche remained almost exclusively in retreat, and two years later he succeeded his teacher as the abbot of Ngor Monastery, a position he holds to this day. In 1960 he left Tibet for Dehra Dun, in Uttar Pradesh, 124

North India, and worked to preserve the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He founded Ngor Center in Sikkim, where in 1978 he reestablished Ngor Monastery. Rinpoche has ordained over ten thousand monks and hundreds of nuns. He gives numerous teachings and empowerments and has renewed the tradition of summer retreat in Sakya monasteries in India and Nepal as well as in his many centers overseas. Since the 1970s Rinpoche has made a number of visits to Tibet, where he helps to reestablish and support Sakya monasteries. Rinpoche headed the Ngor lineage until March 2000, when his nephew, Luding Shabdrung Rinpoche, was enthroned as Ngor Monastery ’s seventy-sixth abbot.

hacienda heights, california, 2003

“Just suppose that we have been born in a cinema hall. We don’t know that what is going on in front of us is just a projection. Everything we see on that screen— love, hate, violence, suspense, thrills—is in fact just the effect of light projected through celluloid. But no one has ever told us this, so we just sit there watching, fixated on the film. If somebody tries to attract our attention, we say, ‘Shut up!’ Now suppose that there is someone in the seat next to us who says, ‘Look, this is just a film. It is not real. This is not really happening. It is really just a projection.’ There is a chance we too might understand that what we are seeing is in fact a movie, that it is unreal and essenceless. Once we are certain that we can leave any time we like, we may not feel compelled to do so. We can choose to sit comfortably and watch. This is what the dharma practitioner needs to understand—that the whole of samsara or nirvana is as essenceless or untrue as that film. Until we see this, it will be very difficult for dharma to sink into our minds. We will always be carried away, seduced by the glory and beauty of this world, by all the apparent success and failure.”

DZONGSAR JAMYANG KHYENTSE RINPOCHE Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche was born in Bhutan in 1961 to a family of renowned Tibetan practitioners. His grandfather was the late His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, and his father is Thinley Norbu Rinpoche. At the age of seven he was recognized by His Holiness Sakya Trizin as the third incarnation of the nineteenth-century head of Tibet’s Khyentse lineage, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, who founded the nonsectarian Rimé approach to the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism. His reincarnation, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, was teacher to numerous Tibetan Buddhist masters from all schools. Rinpoche was enthroned in Bhutan by His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and studied the teachings of all four Tibetan schools in Bhutan, Sikkim, and India under the guidance of masters such as His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, 126

His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, His Holiness Sakya Trizin, and His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa. In 1989 Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche founded Siddhartha’s Intent, an international Buddhist association of nonprofit and charitable organizations with centers in Australia, North America, and the Far East. Siddhartha’s Intent aims to preserve the Buddha’s teachings and to expand understanding of Buddhist traditions in a nonsectarian way. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche supervises his traditional seat of Dzongsar Monastery and its retreat centers in Eastern Tibet and Bhutan, as well as his seat in exile in the North Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. He is also a filmmaker who has directed two feature films, The Cup and Travellers and Magicians. Rinpoche spends several months a year in solitary retreat.

bir, himachal pradesh, india, 1997

“The main merit of the practice of Buddhism is in the improvement or the evolution of the mind. It stops evil thoughts and instills the power of positive thinking. This will bring, in this life, a harmonious coexistence with all sentient beings. It will end the will to harm, it brings peace, and instills the will to help others and to be compassionate and caring. This thought will grow during a person’s life, during their death, after their death, even when they are reborn, and through many other rebirths until finally they reach the ultimate aim of Buddhist practice, which is enlightenment—a state devoid of any suffering, be it of the body or of the spirit. These are the merits of Buddhism that are not only for this life but also for all the coming lives until the attainment of Buddhahood.”

KHENPO KUNGA WANGCHUK RINPOCHE Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk Rinpoche was born in 1921 in Derge in Eastern Tibet, where he spent his childhood working on the family farm. When he was eighteen he took ordination as a novice monk at Dosib Monastery, where his uncle was abbot, in the Ngor lineage of the Sakya school. In 1939 he received the precepts of full ordination at Ngor Monastery from Ngor Khenchen Jampa Namkha Kunzang Tenpe Gyaltsen and went on to study with Öntö Khyenrab Chökyi Özer at his monastery ’s shedra (teaching center). For ten years he received many teachings from Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö at the shedra of Dzongsar Monastery. Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk Rinpoche became his uncle’s assistant, studying 128

most of the night and sleeping very little. Later he received many teachings on sutra and tantra from Dezhung Tulku Ajam Rinpoche and Yena Chöphel Rabgye. In 1951 he returned to Dosib Monastery. He taught at Vara Monastery until the Chinese Communist occupation in 1959 and was imprisoned for twenty years until his release in 1980. In exile in Sikkim, he reestablished the Dzongsar shedra, which then moved to North India. He is the author of numerous religious commentaries including one on the wisdom chapter of Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by the Indian Buddhist master Shantideva, a text that he has taught a total of sixteen times.

bir, himachal pradesh, india, 1997

“My life in Tibet was unique. When I married Rinpoche, I moved into a palace with several servants, and I received many teachings from highly realized Tibetan Buddhist lamas. Since coming to America, I have been a housewife, mother, and grandmother, as well as a lifelong Buddhist practitioner, so I teach directly from these experiences about merging the dharma with daily life. We lay practitioners cannot separate the dharma from our everyday actions. Acting, speaking, and thinking with mindfulness and loving kindness toward others is everyday dharma. For instance, when we get up in the morning and we have a positive attitude, this affects our family, friends, colleagues, and anyone else with whom we may come into contact. It’s important that we develop confidence in our own potential and think, ‘How may I use my life to do something of benefit for others and myself?’ Lay practitioners are right here in the community, so we can take advantage of that opportunity. We can talk to others and help them to change their lives in positive ways.”

DAGMO JAMYANG SAKYA Dagmo (Dagmola) Jamyang Sakya was born in 1934 in Kham in Eastern Tibet. The niece of the renowned Sakya master Deshung Rinpoche, Dagmola trained under his guidance from an early age, receiving the kind of spiritual education traditionally reserved for monks. At the age of fifteen she became the Sakya Dagmo (Holy Mother) of the Sakya Khon lineage when she married His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Rinpoche, the head of the Phuntsok Phodrang branch of the Sakya school. She continued her religious studies and received teachings from masters such as Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, His Holiness Sakya Trichen Ngawang Thubtok Wangchung, Ngawang Kunga Rinchen, and His Holiness Sakya Trizin, as well as from her husband, His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen 130

Sakya Rinpoche. In 1959 Dagmola and her family crossed the Himalayas into India to escape the Chinese Communist takeover of Tibet. In 1960 her husband was invited to the United States by the University of Washington to join a Tibetan studies research project. Dagmola subsequently settled in Seattle, where she raised five sons. With her husband and uncle, she helped to establish Seattle’s Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism, where she teaches and serves as Tibetan Cultural Advisor. Dagmola has also taught extensively in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. She has founded five dharma centers: Mother Tara Sakya Center (Tara Ling) in Pasadena, California; Tsechen Drolma in Mexico City; Potal Ling Center in Port Townsend, Washington; Khadaravani Tara Ling Center in Flagstaff, Arizona; and Kona Tara Ling in Hawaii.

malibu, california, 2003

As Sogyal Rinpoche remembers:

“Again and again, I have heard Khandro say that if your link with your master is kept really pure, then everything will go well in your life. Her own life is the most moving and exquisite example of this. Devotion has enabled her to embody the heart of the teachings and radiate their warmth to others. Khandro does not teach in a formal way, in fact, she does not speak a great deal; but what she does say can be so penetratingly clear that it becomes prophetic. To listen to her fervent and blissful chanting, or to practice with her, is to be inspired to the depths of your being. Even to walk with her, or shop, or simply sit with her is to bathe in the powerful, quiet happiness of her presence. Because Khandro is so retiring, and because her greatness is in her ordinariness, only those with real insight see who she is. We live in a time when those who thrust themselves forward are frequently admired the most, but it is in the humble, like Khandro, that the truth really lives.”

KHANDRO TSERING CHÖDRÖN Khandro Tsering Chödrön was born in 1925 and is perhaps the most respected woman practitioner in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. She was the spiritual wife of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, one of the principal upholders of the nonsectarian Rimé movement that flourished in Eastern Tibet in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1955, anticipating the tragedy that was to befall Tibet, Jamyang Khyentse made a long pilgrimage, first to the sacred places of Central 132

Tibet and then on to the holy sites of India. He took refuge in Sikkim, where he passed away in 1959. Khandro Tsering Chödrön has continued to live after his death in the simple residence on the ground floor of Sikkim’s Royal Chapel in the capital, Gangtok, where Jamyang Khyentse lived toward the end of his life, where he died, and where his relics are kept, enshrined in a stupa. Khandro Tsering Chödrön’s nephew, her sister’s son, is Sogyal Rinpoche.

gangtok, sikkim, india, 1997

“Most suffering is born from selfishness, from people always thinking about ‘I’ rather than about the needs of others. I sometimes see children and parents not getting along, but in Tibetan culture your parents are considered to be very important. Traditionally Tibetans give a lot of loving care to their parents. Your parents have given you your life. Without them you would not be on this earth. Your mother, in particular, has been very kind to you. She has kept you inside her body for nine months, she has gone through the pain of giving birth to you, she has cleaned up after you, fed you, and taught you to walk and talk. It’s a very important concept in Tibetan Buddhism to respect and care for your mothers and fathers.”

JETSUN CHIMEY LUDING Jetsun Chimey Luding, also known as Jetsun Kusho, was born in 1938 into the Sakya Khon family of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. She began studying the dharma at the age of five and took novice ordination at the age of seven. She performed her first practice retreat when she was ten years old and was giving teachings and empowerments by the age of eleven. She is one of only three women in the history of the Sakya tradition who have been authorized to pass on lamdre teachings, which she received from the Kangsar abbot, Dampa Rinpoche, and later from Ngawang Lodrö Tenzin Ngingpo. Only she and 134

one of her three siblings survived into adulthood, her younger brother, Sakya Trizin, who was to become the throneholder of the Sakya school. Orphaned at a young age, they were raised by their aunt, an accomplished Buddhist practitioner. After fleeing Tibet in 1958, Jetsun Chimey Luding returned to the lay life, and six years later she married Luding Sey Kushok. In the 1970s she settled in Canada, where she lives today with her family of five children. She founded a dharma center, Sakya Thubten Tsechen Ling, in Vancouver, and Sakya Dechen Ling in Oakland, California, and has plans to build a long-term retreat center.

los angeles, california, 1990

As told by Lhundup, the son of Gona Rinpoche’s “sister-cousin,” Laga, and his attendant, Wangyal:

“When Gona Rinpoche and a group of his followers, including my parents, were escaping from the Chinese army from Lhasa into India, every time they came to a fork in the road, having no idea which way to go, Gona Rinpoche would do a ‘mo’ (divination) to decide which path they should take. He told them that it was important that they maintain their morality and not steal, cheat, or lie. My father told me that one time they ran out of food, and in desperation, a few members of the party stole a yak from some nomads, though they told Gona Rinpoche that they had found the yak already dead. After everyone had eaten the meat, including Gona Rinpoche, some of the members of the group secretly tried to cover the tracks of their crime by burying the remains in a barren spot at the foot of a rocky hill, making sure that Gona Rinpoche wasn’t aware of what they were doing. Later on, the nomads came across the party and asked Gona Rinpoche to perform a mo to help them find their lost yak. Based on the divination, Gona Rinpoche directed the nomads toward the barren spot where the carcass was buried. The nomads went to the spot but returned saying that a yak wouldn’t wander where there was no vegetation to eat. They asked Gona Rinpoche to do another mo, and he complied. Once again his divination directed the nomads to the same place, but they didn’t believe him and continued their search elsewhere. His followers believed that their escape was successful only because of the wisdom of Gona Rinpoche.”

GONA TULKU RINPOCHE Gona Rinpoche was a learned practitioner of the Sakya school, but he was also a renowned scholar of all four schools of Buddhism, as well as the ancient Bon tradition. As a monk Gona Rinpoche trained under Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö at Dzongsar Monastery in Derge, in the Kham province of Eastern Tibet. Traditionally, Dzongsar Monastery had two abbots, Gona Chöje and Ngari Rinpoche, who together were referred to as “NgaGoNyi” (“nyi” meaning two). The Gona Chöje was usually continued through the appointment of a successor rather than through reincarnation, but after the last Gona Chöje died, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö recognized Gona Tulku Rinpoche as Gona Chöje’s reincarnation and installed him at Dzongsar. In the late 1950s, while many lamas were fleeing the Chinese occupation, Gona Rinpoche chose to return to Tibet from a pilgrimage in India to try to protect 136

his monastery. However, the situation soon became too difficult for him to remain, and he packed six mules with sacred texts and objects and fled the eastern areas. He traveled from place to place, away from the fighting and eventually left Tibet with a group of followers to seek refuge in India. In exile, Gona Rinpoche returned his monastic vows and got married, living a quiet life of practice, performing divinations, and providing counseling for the exiled Tibetan communities in Himachal Pradesh and New Delhi. He made a return trip to Tibet in 1983 and visited several monasteries, including his former monastery of Dzongsar, where he was given an emotional reception by the local community. Gona Rinpoche lived in the North Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and in New Delhi until his death in 2004. His precise age was not known, but he was believed to have been around eighty years old.

bir, himachal pradesh, india, 1997

MASTERS OF THE GELUG SCHOOL

“The Tibetan culture and way of life is passing through one of its most critical times, and the old Tibetan traditions are gradually being eroded. If people find that this ageold tradition is of some use to the world, then it doesn’t matter whether the people who are striving for its survival are Tibetans or not. If there is a person who truly feels that this tradition, if lost, will be a great loss to the whole of mankind, then they should help preserve it. Otherwise there is no other reason to cling on to it like some kind of wealth or land. If one is doing this for the well-being of others and not for personal gain, then that is very good. So, with Tibetans in front, working with others who agree with this idea, they should work hard to preserve this culture.”

HIS HOLINESS THE ONE HUNDREDTH GADEN TRI RINPOCHE Lobsang Nyima Rinpoche was born in Kham, Eastern Tibet, in 1928. He entered the local monastery of Tsawa Daye when he was twelve years old, and in 1945, at the age of seventeen, he left his village for the capital of Lhasa to attend Drepung Monastery, one of the three main Gelug monasteries of Tibet. There he received teachings from many Buddhist masters, particularly from Drepung’s abbot, Kyirong Jampal Sampel, as well as from Jamyang Nyima and Yeshe Thupten. He had almost completed his monastic studies to qualif y for his geshe degree when the Chinese Communist occupation forced him into exile. He subsequently earned the geshe lharam degree in India. For three years he continued his Buddhist studies at Varanasi University before 140

joining Gyumey Tantric College. After working to reestablish Gyumey ’s monastic community in Hunsur, he was subsequently appointed abbot of Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala and served in this position for six years. While still abbot of Namgyal, he was appointed abbot of Gyumey Tantric College in 1984. To become the Gaden Tripa (Throneholder of Gaden), it is not necessary for the candidate to be a tulku, but he must be a geshe lharampa and have served as abbot of either Gyuto or Gyumey Tantric Colleges. Lobsang Nyima Rinpoche was appointed Gaden Tripa in June 1995 by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, making him the one hundredth head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, a position he held for the traditional period of seven years.

mondgod, india, 1997

“Compassion is the essence of human life, for only compassion fulfills the happiness of both oneself and others.” (written by the nineteen-year-old Ling Rinpoche in 2004)

LING RINPOCHE The present Ling Rinpoche is the seventh in this line of reincarnate masters, a number of whom have acted as tutors to the Dalai Lamas of Tibet. In 1940 the Sixth Ling Rinpoche became tutor to the present Fourteenth Dalai Lama, becoming his senior tutor ten years later. In 1959 he journeyed with him into exile in India; later Kyabje Ling Rinpoche became the Ninety-seventh Gaden Tripa, head of the Gelug school. In 1985, two years after he passed away, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche’s reincarnation was born in the North Indian town of Dharamsala. His mother died a few months after his birth, and he was given into the care of Tibetan Children’s Village Baby Room until he was eighteen months old, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama recognized him as the rein142

carnation of his senior tutor. At the age of three he was admitted to Loseling College at Drepung Monastery in South India, and since 1996 he has been living at the monastery full time. Under the guidance of his two main teachers, Geshe Wangchen and Geshe Thubten Rapgay, Ling Rinpoche is working toward completing his geshe degree. He speaks English and has traveled a number of times to South Korea, coming to the United States in 1993. In March 2004 he received full monastic (gelong) ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the fiftieth anniversary of the date when the Dalai Lama had himself received full ordination from his tutor, the previous Kyabje Ling Rinpoche.

los angeles, california, 1993

“Renunciation is actually simply the willingness to escape the sufferings of cyclic existence. In our ordinary life we tend to see mundane happiness as something admirable and desirable, something worth striving for. But all this relative happiness of the mundane world is connected with various pains and problems. When we really understand that mundane happiness is nothing more than a different presentation of suffering, then we can generate a sense of willingness to renounce that. We begin to feel fed up with mundane enjoyments. If we nurture this kind of mind, there will come a time when such thoughts will come instinctively, without effort. That is renunciation—the willingness to achieve liberation from the cycle of suffering existence. Without the thought of renunciation, we will never be able to do serious and real dharma practice. We will not be able to generate great compassion, and without great compassion we will not be able to generate bodhicitta, and without bodhicitta we cannot become enlightened.”

LATI RINPOCHE Lati Rinpoche was born in 1923 in Tibet’s Eastern province of Kham. He was recognized as an incarnate lama at the age of five, and when he was nine years old he entered Dagyab Monastery. He studied at Dagyab for six years and then attended Gaden Monastery ’s Shartse College near Lhasa, receiving instruction from lamas such as Khensur Lobsang Chopel. At Gaden Shartse Rinpoche began an intensive course in the five great subjects—Logic (Pramana), the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita), Middle Way Philosophy (Madhyamika), Phenomenology (Abhidharma), and Ethics (Vinaya). In 1956 he received the geshe lharam degree. The following year Rinpoche joined Gyuto Tantric University to pursue his study of tantra and remained there until 144

1959, when the Chinese occupation forced him to leave Tibet. After spending a year at the monastic refugee camp at Buxador in Bengal, he went to Dharamsala, where for the following fifteen years he studied and worked at Namgyal, the Dalai Lama’s monastery. In 1976 he visited the West for the first time, teaching at the University of Virginia in the United States and later in France, Switzerland, and Germany. In 1977 Rinpoche was appointed abbot of Gaden Shartse Monastery in South India. He remained in this position until 1984 and continues to act as tutor to Gaden Monastery ’s young incarnate lamas. He has written and coauthored a number of books on Tibetan Buddhism, including Meditative States in Tibetan Buddhism.

long beach, california, 2004

“In Tibetan Buddhism guru devotion plays a very important role. In today’s modern society, however, this can be misunderstood as meaning simply serving or pleasing the lama. But the reason we practice guru devotion is to achieve enlightenment and to cultivate spiritual realizations. In fact, every practice should begin with the practice of guru devotion. Nowadays it is hard to find people who have achieved high spiritual realization because it is rare to find anyone practicing guru devotion very sincerely. Guru devotion starts by relying properly on a qualified teacher, but before you do this you should investigate whether the person is really qualified to lead you on the spiritual path. When you’ve undergone the proper practice of spiritual reliance, you receive the blessing of your teacher on your mindstream. If one’s mindstream is not blessed, one cannot achieve spiritual realization because one’s mental continuum has not ripened. No matter what teaching you practice, if you lack the practice of guru devotion, you will not achieve the highest goal of complete enlightenment nor the spiritual realizations along the path.”

HIS HOLINESS THE NINTH KHALKHA JETSUN DAMPA Born in Lhasa, Tibet, in 1932, His Holiness the Ninth Khalkha Jetsun Dampa, Jampal Namdol Chökyi Gyaltsen, was recognized at the age of four by Tibet’s regent, Reting Rinpoche. The office of Khalkha Jetsun Dampa, the head of Tibetan Buddhsim in Mongolia, was first conferred by the Fifth Dalai Lama in the seventeenth century, and, like the Dalai Lamas of Tibet, the Khalka Jetsun Dampas are revered by many Mongolians as living Buddhas. The Eighth Khalkha Jetsun Dampa passed away in prison in 1924, during the Russian Communist takeover of Mongolia and Stalin’s subsequent repression of Mongolian Buddhism. Russia declared it would not recognize the next Khalka Jetsun Dampa, so the identity of the present incarnation was initially kept secret. At the age of seven he entered Tibet’s Drepung Monastery, where he studied for fifteen years, mainly with the Mongolian teacher Geshe Thup146

ten Nyima and Geshe Tashi Gyatso. He is considered a reincarnation of the sixteenth-century Tibetan religious historian Taranatha and has incarnations in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. An important lineage holder of the practice of chöd, he has received teachings in all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In the Gelug school his teachers were the Panchen Lama, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, and Lhatsun Rinpoche; Kalu Rinpoche was his Kagyu teacher; His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was his teacher in the Nyingma school; and His Holiness Sakya Trizin was his teacher in the Sakya tradition. He fled the occupation of Tibet in 1959 and quietly taught in India until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama officially recognized him and publicly enthroned him in Dharamsala, where he currently resides.

long beach, california, 1999

“Everybody in Tibet, from the highest noble to the humblest beggar, recited the Mani every day, religiously. I can remember even a beautiful parrot in my father’s house in Yendum who would recite the prayer whenever he felt hungry. He was particularly fond of walnuts, and we youngsters would hold up nuts in our hands and tease him until he recited Om Mani Padme Hum! Tibetans believe that if even an animal repeats this prayer, though not knowing what it means, in his next life he will be born in some higher form. For in the lives of all Tibetans religion played a much greater part than it does in the modern secular world of the West. Every daily task and occupation was accompanied by prayer. Housewives, when shopping, carried rosaries on their wrists, and at every lull in the bargaining sent up prayers to the bodhisattva. At home the maids prayed between sweeping floors and washing clothes, and travelers, whether on foot, horseback, or riding yaks, lightened their weary journeys by continuously reciting prayers.”

KHYONGLA RATO RINPOCHE Born in 1923 in a sparsely populated region of Kham, Eastern Tibet, Khyongla Rato Rinpoche was discovered to be the reincarnation of the Ninth Kyongla Rinpoche when he was three years old. He was brought to his monastery, Katog Gonpa, at the age of five and remained there pursuing his elementary studies until he was thirteen, when he traveled to Rato Monastery in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa. There he studied the Five Major Treatises of Perfection of Wisdom, Middle Way Philosophy, Ethics, Phenomenology, and Logic, the latter being an area of study for which Rato Monastery is particularly renowned. The young Rinpoche became the student of Konchog Gyatso, receiving his novice ordination the same year. While attending Drepung Monastery, he was tutored by many learned teachers and be148

came the private pupil of His Holiness the Gaden Tripa. At the age of twenty he took full ordination from Pabongka Rinpoche, and in 1947 he received the degree of geshe lharam. He proceeded to Gyuto Tantric University, where he received a degree in tantric studies and served as disciplinarian. In 1959, as the Chinese Communists tightened their grip on Tibet, Khyongla Rato Rinpoche sought refuge in India. He served the Tibetan government in exile by helping to compose textbooks that would be used by Tibetan schools established in exile. He was then sent to Holland to help catalog the Tibetan collection of Holland’s Leyden Museum. In 1967 he moved to New York, where he resides and teaches today and where he established the Tibet Center for spiritual seekers of all religious traditions.

new york city, 1999

“When we help others, the most important thing is to have a good heart: to act with compassion and expect nothing in return, neither reputation nor gratitude. When we try our very best to assist another but fail, or we must say no to a request, some may respond with anger. At such times, rather than feel hurt or be vengeful, we should practice the perfection of forbearance.”

ARJIA RINPOCHE Arjia Lobsang Thubten Rinpoche is the only Tibetan reincarnate lama of Mongolian descent. He was born into a family of Mongolian nomads in Eastern Tibet and was recognized as the reincarnation of the father of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. As a young boy he received many teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the late Tenth Panchen Lama and later became abbot of Kumbum Monastery in Amdo, where he founded local schools and the Kumbum Red Cross. During the Chinese Cultural Revolution Rinpoche was forced to work as a farm laborer, but still secretly continued his Buddhist studies under his teachers, Jayak Rinpoche and Tsultrim Lhaksem. In the 1980s Rinpoche did postgraduate Buddhist studies at Qinghai University under Shardong Rinpoche. Arjia Rinpoche became a research 150

fellow in the Tibetan department at the College of Chinese Buddhism in Beijing, studying under the Tenth Panchen Lama. He became President of the Regional Buddhist Association and the Deputy President of the National Buddhist Association. Rinpoche left China in 1998 and now resides in the United States, where he founded the Tibetan Center for Compassion and Wisdom in Mill Valley, California. He is highly skilled in Tibetan arts and architecture. He constructed the world’s largest three-dimensional Kalachakra mandala, which was presented to the Dalai Lama, and restored the stupa of Tsongkhapa and Golden Temple Monastery in Xining, Tibet. Rinpoche speaks fluent Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian and hopes to facilitate future dialogue between the government of China and the people of Tibet.

toronto, canada, 2004

“If you’re in a country where there are many thorns and you set out to destroy them, you will never be finished. But if you put on a good strong pair of boots and chaps, you can go where you like, and the thorns will not harm you. As Shantideva said in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, it is easier to put on a pair of shoes than to cover the earth in leather. The universe is full of thorns, but one’s own mind is right at hand, and one can work with that. In other words, all of our experience, enjoyments, and possessions are capable of causing us suffering. But by understanding what the thorns are, and what the source of the pain is, one can fashion the shoes of tolerance, enlightenment, and patience. Then one can even help others to make their own shoes. But if one just rushes out into the thorns, one ends up simply hurting oneself and being unable to benefit anybody else. So, in the beginning, it is the pain of stepping on the thorns that gives us the wish to make a really strong pair of shoes.”

TARA TULKU RINPOCHE Tara Tulku Rinpoche was born in 1927 in Eastern Tibet and was recognized as a reincarnation at an early age. He began his studies at Sendru Monastery near his home in Kham and went on to spend almost thirty years at Drepung, one of the three most important Gelug monastic universities, near the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa. In 1956 he was awarded the geshe lharam degree. He then joined Gyuto Monastery for advanced study and practice of tantra, fleeing into exile with a small number of fellow monks in 1959. Reestablishing Gyuto Monastery in India, first in Dalhousie and later in Bomdila, he served as its abbot for over twenty years and was later appointed 152

abbot of Gaden Phelgyeling Monastery at Bodhgaya. He was given the affectionate nickname “Road Gang Lama,” since many refugees had to support themselves through the hard labor of building Himalayan roads for the Indian government, and Tara Tulku often traveled to their camps to perform services for them. During 1982–83 he served as Henry R. Luce Professor of Buddhist Ethics at Amherst College, beginning teaching tours of North American Vipassana, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhist centers, which continued through the 1980s until his passing. His young reincarnation currently resides at Drepung Loseling Monastery in South India.

tokyo, japan, 1991

“Many people experienced a great deal of hardship in prison in Tibet, but for myself, I found that all the practice that I had done in the past was very helpful. Most of the time I practiced ‘mind training,’ which prevented me from experiencing too much difficulty. I saw any suffering I experienced as the result of my numerous negative actions in previous lives—the consequence of my negative karma. So I was able to gain perspective on what was happening. I’ve noticed that people who do their dharma practice are able to handle painful and difficult situations—even those as extreme as torture—far better than those who do not. Those who don’t practice the dharma will regard such a situation as something terrible, something that they can’t even imagine surviving. All of us have accumulated negativities in the past, and this is where our suffering comes from—great or small. Generally we don’t realize the suffering nature of our lives until we have to face some crisis or tragedy. Then the suffering of cyclic existence becomes easy to see.”

RIBUR RINPOCHE Ribur Rinpoche was born in the Kham region of Eastern Tibet in 1923. When he was five years old the Thirteenth Dalai Lama recognized him as the reincarnation of the Buddhist scholar and meditator Lama Kunga Osel. All five of his previous incarnations had been teachers at Ribur Monastery. From the age of fourteen Rinpoche studied at Sera Monastery in Lhasa, where he received extensive instruction from his root guru, the renowned Gelug lama Pabongka Rinpoche, attaining the geshe doctorate in Buddhist philosophy when he was twenty-five. After years spent in isolated retreat in the forests of Kham, he returned to Lhasa, where for seventeen years he was confined by the occupying Chinese forces. He endured thirty-five “struggle sessions” of torture and interrogation during China’s Cultural Rev154

olution and spent over ten years in Chinese labor camps. In 1976, when the Cultural Revolution came to an end, Rinpoche worked with the Tenth Panchen Lama to restore Tibet’s plundered spiritual treasures. He successfully recovered Tibet’s two most revered statues of Shakyamuni Buddha from Beijing, the Jowo Chenpo and the Ramo Chenpo, and reestablished the desecrated stupa of Tsongkhapa, the fourteenthcentury founder of the Gelug school. Since his exile to India in 1985, Ribur Rinpoche has written numerous biographies of Tibetan Buddhist masters, including one on the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, as well as a religious history of Tibet. He has taught in many countries and presently lives in Aptos, California, where he gives teachings and leads retreats.

santa cruz, california, 2003

“We have all attained this precious human existence. Recognizing this, we should not waste a minute of our life and should bring it meaning through practicing the dharma. Furthermore, we must recognize that in samsara— the continuous cycle of death and rebirth—all sentient beings in all realms of existence have, without exception, been our kind parents at one time or another. We must think, ‘Just as I experience suffering, so do all mother-like beings experience this same suffering.’ This is the way that we must cultivate intense love and compassion for all mother-like sentient beings.”

KANGYUR KHENSUR RINPOCHE Kangyur Khensur Rinpoche was born in 1925 in Kham in Eastern Tibet. When he was three years old a local lama gave him the name Lobsang Thubten. His mother died around this time, and he remained at home for four more years under the care of his aunt, who was a nun. When his local monastery was destroyed by the Chinese, he and his uncle became traders to raise the money to rebuild it. At the age of eighteen, he enrolled at the Gelug monastery of Sera Je in Lhasa and was fully ordained two years later. In 1959 Kangyur Khensur Rinpoche left Chinese-occupied Tibet. For ten years he continued his monastic studies in Buxador, Bengal, in a Tibetan monastic refugee camp and earned the geshe lharam degree. He was chosen by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to give the oral transmission of the Tibetan 156

translation of the entire Buddhist sutra (kangyur) to the monastic community in Dharamsala in North India. This teaching event, which takes place only once every generation, took six months to complete. After a three-and-a-half-year retreat Kangyur Khensur Rinpoche worked to reestablish the monastic communities of Sera Monastery in the south. In 1982 he was appointed abbot of Sera Je, where he established the first monastic school to teach a modern curriculum. (The title of “Khensur Rinpoche” refers to a former abbot rather than a reincarnated lama.) He went on to serve as the resident teacher of Buddha House in Adelaide, Australia, and currently resides at Sera Je in South India, where he teaches Buddhist philosophy and engages in retreats.

toronto, canada, 2004

“People can easily observe the rise and decline of material wealth. But when we talk about the wealth of dharma, we’re talking about a process that takes place within our own mind. Only we can really know the internal riches that we ourselves possess or are lacking. We should always try to enrich our mind and to develop and increase whatever little good qualities we have. If there are qualities that we are missing, we should try to generate them anew, and if we know there is negativity, we should try to eliminate it as much as possible. This enrichment of our mind is something absolutely private. It’s not like moving into a bigger house or buying a better car. This is an inner change, an inner wealth.”

KIRTI TSENSHAB RINPOCHE Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche was born in the province of Amdo, in Eastern Tibet, in 1926. When he was six years old he was recognized as the reincarnation of Khensur Kramcho Phuntsog, a former abbot of Amdo’s Kirti Monastery. Three years later he entered a period of intense study, during which time he received teachings from many important Gelug lamas. As a young adult he was appointed to the position of abbot of Kirti, but in the mid-1950s, as the Chinese Communists threatened Tibet’s eastern regions, he relocated to Lhasa and continued his studies at Drepung Monastery. After his escape from Tibet in 1959, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche became a teacher to Tibetan orphans in Dharamsala, India, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile. In 1971, at the 158

age of forty-five, he entered a fifteen-year meditation retreat in a small stone cabin in the hills above Dharamsala. Seven years of his retreat were spent meditating on the lamrim, the genre of teachings that present a sequential path to enlightenment. For the next three years he meditated on Geshe Chekawa’s mind-training (lojong) text “Seven Point Thought Transformation,” as well as on the stages of tantra. He spent the last three years reviewing these practices. Rinpoche has taught in Europe and Asia, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. He is an important lineage holder of the Kalachakra tantra and is currently abbot of the reestablished Kirti Monastery in Dharamsala.

dharamsala, india, 2005

“The Tibetan way of life can only be preserved by living it. You cannot save the Tibetan way of life just talking about it or having sympathy for it. The tradition lives in the people themselves, not in the statues or in the monasteries. The tradition is the quality of the human mind. If you build your mind in this tradition, then you become a holder of the lineage, and you protect and preserve it. You hand it down to someone else, and it continues. We need to learn how to lead an authentic and original life. The human quality should not be lost. We need to all work hard to save this planet, and for this, human beings need to rediscover their original way of life. Wisdom with kindness can change the world, can preserve the world, can serve the world. Unless you have the combination of a kind heart and a clear mind, you will not be able to do anything for yourself, for others, or for the universe.”

SAMDHONG RINPOCHE Samdhong Lobsang Tenzin Rinpoche was born in 1939 in the town of Jol in Eastern Tibet. He was recognized as the fifth incarnation of Samdhong Rinpoche when he was five years old and was enthroned at the local monastery of Gaden Dechen Ling. He then attended the Gelug monastery of Drepung in Lhasa, until the Chinese occupation of the country forced him to leave Tibet in 1959, after which he continued his studies in exile in India. In 1968 he earned his geshe lharam degree from the reestablished Gyuto Monastery in Northeast India and earned the title of ngarampa (tantric specialist) a year later. He held a number of senior administrative positions at Tibetan schools in Shimla, Darjeeling, and Dalhousie and went on to become the 160

director of the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Varanasi, India. In the 1970s he served as vice president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, and in 1990 he became a member of the Drafting Committee of the Charter for Tibetans in exile and the Constitution for Future Tibet. He was later appointed to the Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and was subsequently elected chairman. Rinpoche serves on a number of boards of organizations working for global understanding and world peace. In 1996 he became a member of the Tibetan parliament in exile (Kashag), and in 2001 Samdhong Rinpoche became the Kalon Tripa, the Tibetan government’s first democratically elected prime minister.

ojai, california, 2002

“Modern development may be beneficial in terms of business, but in terms of real human values, what we Tibetans had is extraordinarily unique and fantastic. No one else really had anything like that at all. No matter how rich or powerful you are, when you look at your life, you can see that it is extremely limited. At the most it will last one hundred years. Within this time you go through so many changes. The Buddhist way of life that we Tibetans have inherited from our forefathers is very profitable. It provides a method of making yourself happy and of ensuring the happiness of your future lives. You can’t buy these things even with a billion dollars. We have to recognize and appreciate what we have. Once you’ve lost something, even if you realize how important it was, it is too late. So I hope our future generations will take this to heart.”

GEHLEK RINPOCHE Born in Lhasa in 1939, Gehlek Rinpoche was recognized at the age of four as the reincarnation of an abbot named Tashi Namgyal. One year later he was sent to Drepung Monastery, one of Tibet’s main Gelug monastic universities, where, after years of intensive study, he went on to earn the scholastic degree of geshe lharam. His main teachers were Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, the senior and junior tutors to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Gehlek Rinpoche continued his Buddhist education with these masters in exile after 1959. He gave up monastic life at the age of twenty-five and worked for a time as the head of the Tibetan service department for All India Radio. He also worked as an editor for the Library of Tibetan Works and 162

Archives in Delhi and has edited and translated over two hundred rare Tibetan manuscripts. In the late 1970s Rinpoche was directed by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche to begin teaching Western students. Traveling to the United States in the mid-1980s, Rinpoche subsequently founded Jewel Heart in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1988. This organization, dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture and Buddhism, now has chapters throughout the United States and in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Netherlands. Jewel Heart is also engaged in a number of humanitarian projects for Tibetan exiled communities. Gehlek Rinpoche currently resides in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and is the author of Good Life, Good Death.

new york city, 2003

“Those whose minds are more compassionate in nature, who are good-hearted, have much easier lives. Even though things don’t work out for you, you encounter many obstacles, your life is going wrong—none of this bothers you, your mind is undisturbed, because the first priority in your life is the happiness of others. This attitude brings so much peace and happiness into your daily life. In particular, with a good heart, compassion for others, whenever a problem arises, you experience it for others, on behalf of other sentient beings. If you experience happiness, you experience it for others. If you enjoy a luxury life, comfort, you dedicate it to others. And if you experience a problem, you experience it for others—for others to be free of problems and to have all happiness up to enlightenment, complete perfect peace and bliss. If you have that attitude, no matter how many problems you experience, when you encounter each one you feel like you have discovered a precious treasure. You see it as an incredible opportunity to dedicate yourself to others, a great chance to experience the sufferings of others, like bodhisattvas do, like Buddha did, like Jesus Christ did, to take upon yourself the suffering of others. Bodhicitta makes the person’s experience of problems a cause for happiness of all living beings by transforming problems into the path to enlightenment.”

LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE Lama Zopa Rinpoche was born in 1946 in Nepal near Mount Everest. He was recognized at the age of four as the incarnation of the Sherpa Nyingma yogi Kunsang Yeshe, known as the Lawudo Lama, a great meditator of the Sakya tradition who was also a master of the complete teachings of the Nyingma school. Lama Zopa Rinpoche was educated in monasteries in Nepal, India, and Tibet, but his plans to continue his studies at Sera Monastery in Lhasa, one of the three main Gelug monastic universities, were thwarted by the Chinese occupation of Tibet. He then traveled into exile to the Tibetan monastic refugee camp of Buxador in Bengal, with over one thousand other learned monks from all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. There Lama Zopa Rinpoche became the disciple 164

of the Gelug scholar and meditation master Geshe Rabten. Another of Geshe Rabten’s disciples, Lama Yeshe, was entrusted with the education of the young Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and they remained together until Lama Yeshe’s passing in 1984. Lama Zopa Rinpoche began teaching Westerners at the Kopan Monastery in Nepal, which he founded with Lama Yeshe in 1969. In 1973 he founded the International Mahayana Institute for Western monks and nuns and also established the Mount Everest Center for Buddhist Studies at Lawudo, near the site of his predecessor’s meditation cave. Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, which has over 130 affiliated centers around the world.

san francisco, california, 2003

“Shantideva said that the only true medicine, the only permanent cure for all the sentient beings who are in misery and suffering, is Buddha’s teaching. Ordinary, external medicine cannot compare to this. It may temporarily cure suffering, but it cannot completely purify and cleanse the inner obstacles, the three poisons: attachment, hatred, ignorance. We beings have so many mental problems. So Buddha’s teaching is mainly designed to purify the mind. How can we develop the highest peace, and the highest happiness? What are the obstacles to this peace and happiness, and what are the teachings on how to remove these obstacles? This is the essence of Buddha’s teachings. Try to avoid all negative actions, try to practice virtuous actions, and learn to control one’s mind.”

GESHE LHUNDUB SOPA Geshe Lhundub Sopa was born in the Tsang province of Central Tibet in 1923. At the age of nine he took the vows of a novice monk and entered Ganden Chökor Monastery. In 1941, at the age of eighteen, he entered Sera Monastery in Lhasa to pursue a higher education in Buddhist study under the tutelage of four renowned scholarpractitioners of the Gelug school: Trisar Lhundub Tsondru, Khensur Lhundub Thabkey, Geshe Ngawang Gendun, and Geshe Ngawang Rigsal. He passed his initial geshe examinations with honors and was picked to be one of the Dalai Lama’s debate examiners during Lhasa’s 1959 annual Prayer Festival. That same year, as the Chi166

nese Communists expanded their occupation of Tibet, Geshe Sopa sought political asylum in India, where he completed his geshe degree and was awarded the distinction of geshe lharam. He later went to the United States and taught at a Buddhist center in New Jersey for the next five years. In 1967 Geshe Sopa was invited to join the faculty of the recently formed Buddhist Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he taught for over thirty years. He is the founder of the Deer Park Buddhist Center in Oregon, Wisconsin, which offers instruction for those who wish to study Buddhism outside an academic setting.

pasadena, california, 2004

“If someone wishes to become a Buddhist, the most important thing is to take refuge in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha. Then if you want to attain personal liberation, you need to develop great renunciation along with ethical discipline, meditative concentration, and wisdom. However, if you wish to become a Buddha for the sake of other beings, then you need all of the above plus the generation of bodhicitta—the altruistic attitude that seeks enlightenment for the benefit of others. You need to hold all beings dear to your heart and generate the sincere wish to be able to help them out of suffering. When we examine our own situation, we find that right now we do not have this power, but looking ahead, we can see that if we attain the state of Buddhahood, we will have the ability to effectively help others. By seeing what becomes possible with the achievement of full enlightenment, we acquire a strong determination that we will try our very best to attain the state of Buddhahood in order to benefit others. To do this we need both bodhicitta and wisdom and to involve ourselves in serious spiritual practice.”

GESHE TSULTIM GYELTSEN Born in the Chamdo district of Kham, Eastern Tibet, in 1923, Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen attended his local monastery, Geden Champaling, from the age of seven to sixteen. He then traveled to Lhasa and enrolled at Gaden Monastic University, where he studied under many great lamas, including the renowned Geshe Lobsang Tenpa, Geshe Lobsang Choephel, and Zong Rinpoche. In 1959, when the Chinese occupation forced him to leave Tibet, Geshe Gyeltsen spent two months at a refugee camp in Assam, India, followed by three and a half years at Dalhousie, where he attended the reestablished Gyuto Tantric College. He took his final geshe examinations at the Buxador refugee camp in West Bengal, earning the geshe lharam degree. In 1963 he traveled to Sussex, England, and for seven years he instructed Tibetan refugee children 168

in Tibetan language, culture, and Buddhist philosophy. In 1975 Geshe Gyeltsen moved to the United States, where he taught Tibetan language and religious studies at the University of Santa Barbara and the University of California, Los Angeles. It was in Los Angeles in 1978 that he founded Thubten Dhargye Ling Monastery, which has since relocated to Long Beach, California. He has also established centers in Northern California, Texas, Colorado, Alaska, Mexico, Denmark, and Sweden. He actively works for Tibetan human rights and is involved in numerous humanitarian projects, including the support of a Tibetan elders’ home, a home for elderly monks of Gaden Shartse Monastery, and the education of Indian children, as well as training programs for Tibetan teachers.

los angeles, california, 1994

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS So many people and organizations have helped to make this book a reality. First, I would like to thank my first teacher, the late Vietnamese Zen master Thich Thien-An, who introduced me to the world of Buddhism. I would like to thank His Holiness the Dalai Lama for allowing me to photograph him on many occasions over the last twenty-five years, for his extraordinary and precious teachings, and for the inspiration he has given to all of us. Then, I would like to thank Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen, who has been a teacher, advisor, and friend for as many years. I would also like to express my gratitude to other Tibetan masters who have given me guidance, including Ayang Rinpoche, the late Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, the late Gona Tulku Rinpoche, Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, the late Tara Tulku Rinpoche, and Thrangu Rinpoche. Naturally, I would like to thank all the masters who allowed me to photograph them and, in many cases, to conduct interviews as well. I am also grateful to their students, who assisted me in arranging the photographic sessions and later in gathering and verif ying the text. I am especially grateful to Sogyal Rinpoche for believing in this project, for generously contributing such an inspiring and exquisite foreword, and for helping me to find a logical sequence to the portraits. I would like to express my gratitude to Rebecca McClen Novick, who used her remarkable research and writing skills, along with her knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism, to write the biographies and choose quotes rich in information and profound in meaning. Then, I would like to thank Julie Adler, who volunteered as production and research assistant, putting in countless hours and doing an exceptional job. I’m especially grateful to my wife, Yeshi Chozom Farber, for her support and to her relatives and friends in the Tibetan community, who were always there to help—in particular, my brother-in-law, Lhundup Tseten, who assisted me in India. Foundations and companies that have generously supported my work photographing Buddhist life include A&I Color Lab, Asian Cultural Council, Buddhist Association of Taipei, Bukyo Dendo Kyokai USA, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, Eastman Kodak

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Company Professional Division, Gere Foundation, Japan Buddhist Federation, Living History Center, Los Angeles Buddhist Church Federation, Metta Foundation, NPA Printing, Donald and Shelley Rubin Foundation, Teikyoku Security Patrol Company, and Wind Records. The following people have made substantial contributions that have made a major difference in the success of this project: Jimyo Culnan, Tom and Sonam Gottlieb, Mildred Holland, Ish Ishihara, Rob Jacobs, Irv Kramer, the late Tony Leitner, Lama Nawang, and Yutaka Takahana. Other people who have lent invaluable expertise at various stages of the project include David Blundell, Choegon Rinpoche, Rinchen Dharlo, Tenzin Geyche, Gaetano Maida, and Jacques Maquet. I would like to thank people at Rigpa, including Mauro De March, Patrick Gaffney, Shannon Parnell, and Kimberly Poppe, for all their help. I am especially grateful to the following people who skillfully translated the sources of the quotes from Tibetan into English: John Canti, Tenzin Dorjee, Ari Goldfield, Tseten Lhagyal, Michele Martin, Tenzing Nuba, Peter Alan Roberts, Ven. Tenzin Thokme, Ven. Geshe Lobsang Tsultrim, and Tsering Wangyal. I would like to express my profound gratitude to the staff of the University of California Press for their support and patience. I am grateful to Douglas Abrams Arava for helping me develop the concept for the book when he was at the Press. I would especially like to thank acquisitions editor Reed Malcolm, for without his faith and dedication, readers would not have this book in their hands. Sue Heinemann, who served as both editor and project coordinator, did an outstanding job to bring all the pieces together. I would also thank Nola Burger for her exquisite book design, John Cronin for his production expertise, and copyeditor David Anderson for his care and diligence. Also, I would like to thank all the people at UC Press behind the scenes, for without their effort and professional skills, this book would not be what it is. A number of people who have also made important contributions include Hideo Aoki, David Arndt, Sondra Bennett, Pamela Bothwell, Joni Boucher, Nelson Breem, Lara Brooke, Joanie Chodorow, Ani Chodron, Sharon Compton, Francis Cook, Jeff Cox, Don Delaquil, Tenzin Dhargyey, Kathy Dhyr, Shirley Dodge, Rose Farber, the late Rick Fields, Patrick Gaffney,

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Richard Gere, Alan Goldstein, Dhondup Namgyal Gonsar, Jennifer Greenfield, LeRoy Griggs, Ananda W. P. Gurugé, Ven. Lama Gyatso, Claudia Harris, Joe Hawk, Ed Heckerman, Frank Howard, Ven. Kuang Hsin, Claire Isitt, Ani Jampa, Evelyn Rich Jones, Laurie Beth Kay, Sangye Khandro, Rev. Takashi Kiuchi, Anne Klein, Greg Kramer, the late Rose Kramer, Vivian Kurz, Lew Lancaster, Teri Lim, T. T. Lingtsang, Linda McClain, Annie McCormack, Moke Mokatoff, Carol Moss, Jacqueline Nalli, Linnea Nan, Tanita Navarro, Beate Nielson, Ronny Novick, Linka Odom, Peter O’Hearn, Frank Olinski, Sandra Olney, Jetsun Dechen Paldron, Fabrizio Pallotti, Ven. Tenzing Palmo, Lee Pham, Lama Phuntsok, Matthieu Ricard, Rinzin Gyatso, Jordi Ros, Donald Rubin, Ikuo Sato, Gary Seaman, Greg Seton, Jamie Speyer, Adam Stern, Terry Sullivan, Robert Thurman, Gvido and Inguna Trepsa, Ani Trinlay, Lelung Tulku, Izumi Umeno, Ven. Nicholas Vreeland, Martin Wassell, Jeff Watt, Julia Weston, Rose Wong, Karen and the late Ed Wortz, Ken Yang, Bob Zaugh, Rebecca Zepp, Zimwok Rinpoche, and Hanna Zylberberg. I have tried my best to remember everyone, but inevitably I will have accidentally left people out, and I apologize to them. The work I am doing to document endangered traditional Buddhist cultures is being carried out alongside a team of dedicated professionals under the auspices of the Dharma Heritage Project, a fully integrated auxiliary of the Metta Foundation. A portion of the income from this book will go toward supporting the project. To find out more about the Dharma Heritage Project and how to get involved in this effort, visit www.BuddhistPhotos.com. On behalf of all the masters included in this book and everyone who has contributed to it, Rebecca McClen Novick and I would like to dedicate any merit from this project to the benefit and ultimate happiness of all sentient beings. Finally, we would like to express our most profound gratitude to the source of all of these teachings and the guiding light for all of these masters, Shakyamuni Buddha, and to all the disciples through the centuries who have kept the flame of his teachings alive to the present and are working to ensure that it continues to shine on into the future.

don farber

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GLOSSARY bodhicitta

bodhisattva

bon buddha buddhadharma buddhahood buddha nature chöd compassion cyclic existence delusions

dharma

dzogchen

emptiness enlightenment

gelug

The altruistic “mind of enlightenment” characterized by loving kindness and great compassion that seeks enlightenment for the sake of all other sentient beings. Bodhicitta is classified into relative bodhicitta and ultimate bodhicitta. Ultimate bodhicitta includes a direct perception into the true nature of reality. Someone who has generated genuine bodhicitta and who has dedicated his or her life to the attainment of enlightenment for the sake of all other sentient beings. The ancient pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet. One who has removed all mental obscurations to liberation and perfect knowledge. The teachings of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. See enlightenment. The potential for all beings to become enlightened. “Cutting through.” Meditational practices aimed at cutting through the ego. The wish for beings to be free from suffering. See samsara. Mental obscurations leading to suffering and preventing one from attaining personal liberation from cyclic existence. The three main delusions are ignorance, attachment, and aversion/anger. A term with multiple meanings, including object of mind, knowable phenomena, and realizations on the path, but it generally refers to the teachings of Buddhism. “Great Perfection”’ or “Great Completion.” The highest teachings of the Nyingma school referring to the mind’s original and natural nondual state. The true nature of reality characterized by the absence of an independent existence of self or things. The ultimate goal of Buddhist practice. In the context of Mahayana, enlightenment is a state of total awakening characterized by total freedom from all delusion (liberation) and all limits to perfect knowledge (omniscience). The most recent of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism; inspired in Tibet by Tsongkhapa in the fourteenth century and influenced by the teachings of the Indian master Atisha.

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geshe

geshe lharam guru kagyu

karma

khenchen khenpo khensur lamdre liberation madhyamika

mahayana

mantra

middle way nirvana nyingma phowa refuge

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A monastic degree somewhat equivalent to a doctor of divinity earned through many years of intensive study. Also the title of someone who has attained this degree. The highest level of geshe degree. A spiritual mentor; translated as “lama” in Tibetan. One of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism; inspired in Tibet by Marpa the Translator in the eleventh century and influenced by the teachings of the Indian master Tilopa. Literally “action.” The universal law of cause and effect in which positive actions bring happiness and negative actions produce suffering; the imprints that an action leaves on the mindstream, which must eventually ripen and produce concordant results. Literally “great khenpo.” A monastic degree of the Kagyu and Nyingma schools. Also the title of someone who holds this degree. The former abbot of a monastery. “Path and Fruit.” A system of teachings of the Sakya school. See nirvana. “Middle Way.” Refers to the doctrine of emptiness that avoids the two extremes of eternalism (that things exist independently) and nihilism (that nothing exists at all). Literally “Great Vehicle”; the path to complete Buddhahood that emphasizes the motivation to liberate all beings from suffering and its causes and also establish all beings in complete enlightenment. An essential aspect of tantric practice in which sacred syllables are recited to transform the mind from an ordinary state to an enlightened state. See also tantra. See Madhyamika. Liberation; the state of existence in which all mental delusions have been overcome and one is permanently free from all suffering. The oldest of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism; inspired in Tibet by the Indian master Padmasambhava in the eighth century. System of meditational practices often performed either for oneself or on behalf of another during the process of dying. A formal commitment of entrusting one’s spiritual well-being to the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha, as the essential aspects of the path to enlightenment. See also Three Jewels.

rimé sakya samsara sangha shedra suffering

sutra tantra

terma

terton three jewels

togden

tonglen

tulku vajra vajrayana wisdom

The ecumenical, nonsectarian school of Tibetan Buddhism that emerged in Tibet in the nineteenth century. One of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism; inspired in Tibet by Konchok Gyelpo in the eleventh century and influenced by the Indian master Virupa. The repetitive cycle of death and rebirth characterized by suffering and fueled by delusion and contaminated karma. A collective term for Buddhist monks and nuns. As an object of refuge, see Three Jewels. Monastic college of study and debate; a term popularly used in the Nyingma school. There are three types of suffering: manifest (obvious) suffering, the suffering of change, and the suffering of conditioned existence, which pervades all of life in cyclic existence. The discourses of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. Advanced meditational practices and their accompanying texts focusing on deity yoga, which are said to have the potential to quickly lead a practitioner to complete enlightenment. Hidden treasure; a sacred text or object that was hidden for posterity by the Indian tantric adept Padmasambhava and his consort, Yeshe Tsogyal, in the eighth century. A highly realized practitioner who discovers a treasure-teaching, or terma, either in the physical environment or while in advanced states of meditation. The Buddha (the teacher who manifests enlightened qualities), the dharma (the teachings and realizations), and sangha (the realized spiritual companions who assist practitioners on the path to enlightenment). Renounced yogis of Tibet known for their humility and long, isolated retreats. Togden means “holder of realized power,” and the togden lineage can include practitioners from all Tibetan Buddhist schools. Literally “giving and taking.” A mind-training exercise in which one visualizes giving one’s own happiness to others and taking their suffering to one’s self. The reincarnation of a high lama. The indestructible reality of the state of enlightenment. The term can also refer to a tantric ritual object symbolizing the method aspect of this reality. See tantra. Perceptual acuity. The discriminative awareness that understands the true nature of reality. Can also refer to the natural awareness of the mind of a buddha. 177

SOURCES FOR QUOTATIONS His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama: From his The Path to Bliss: A Practical Guide to Stages of Meditation, translated by Geshe Thubten Jinpa and edited by Christine Cox (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 1991).

Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche: From Gates to Buddhist Practice: Essential Teachings of a Tibetan Master ( Junction City, Calif.: Padma Publishing, 2001).

His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche: From the personal diary of His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche, with special permision by his daughters, Ven. Khandro Rinpoche and Jetsun Dechen Paldron.

Gyatrul Rinpoche: From Karma Chagme and Gyatrul Rinpoche, Naked Awareness: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2000).

His Holiness Penor Rinpoche: From the DVD Bardo, Life and Death: A Spiritual Transition (McDonough, N.Y.: Palyul Ling International). Trulshik Rinpoche: From a talk given by Trulshik Rinpoche in Paris, July 2003, as translated by Pema Wangyal Rinpoche and transcribed and edited by John Canti. Rabjam Rinpoche: From the teachings of Rabjam Rinpoche provided by his students. Dzogchen Rinpoche: Received directly from Dzogchen Rinpoche. Minling Khenchen Rinpoche: Received directly from Minling Khenchen Rinpoche. Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche: From the poem “The Mirror of Essential Points,” in Nyoshul Khenpo, Natural Great Perfection (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 1995). Sogyal Rinpoche: From Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, edited by Patrick Gaffney and Andrew Harvey (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993), pp. 26–27. Copyright © 1993 by Rigpa Fellowship. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Khandro Rinpoche: From This Precious Life: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on the Path to Enlightenment (Boston and London: Shambhala, 2003). Thinley Norbu Rinpoche: From White Sail (Boston and London: Shambhala, 1992). Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche: Received directly from Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.

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Dzatrul Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber.

Khamtrul Rinpoche: From Chö Yang: The Voice of Tibetan Religion and Culture, No. 6 (Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: Graphic Press, 1994). Anzin Rinpoche: Provided by his brother Nhamkha Drimed Rinpoche. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche: From his Dzogchen: The Self Perfected State (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 1996). Namkha Drimed Rabjam Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber. Khenpo Thupten Mewa Rinpoche: As remembered by his student Dzatrul Rinpoche. Sakyang Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche: Received directly from Sakyang Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche. Adzom Peylo Rinpoche: Received directly from Adzom Peylo Rinpoche. Kunsang Dechen Lingpa Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber. Lama Tharchin Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber. Tulku Thubten Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber. Khenpo Yurmed Tinly Rinpoche: Green Tara Puja Commentary, transmitted April 4, 1997; oral translation by Robert Clark, Ph.D. (T. T. Dorje) from www.khempo.org. His Holiness the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Thinley Dorje: From Michele Martin, Music in the Sky: The Life, Art, and Teachings of the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2003).

His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje: Compiled from “On Confidence in the Dharma,” Densal Magazine (1980), www.kagyu.org. Jamgön Kongtrol Rinpoche: From Awakened Heart, Brilliant Mind, www.kagyu.org.

The Drikung Kyabgon, His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche: From his The Practice of Mahamudra (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 1999). Garchen Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber.

Tai Situ Rinpoche: From The Essence of One’s Heart: How to Recognize the Nature of Mind, www.simhas.org.

Drikung Ontul Rinpoche: From Drop of Ambrosia: A Short Practice of Medicine Buddha, translated by Robert Clarke, transcribed and edited by Jeffrey Beach.

Gyaltsab Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber.

Ayang Rinpoche: From an audiocassette, Vajrasattva Teaching, 1991.

Kalu Rinpoche: From his Excellent Buddhist: An Exemplary Life (San Francisco: Clearpoint Press, 1995).

Khenpo Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche: From Transformation of Suffering: A Handbook for Practitioners (Frederick, Md.: Vajra Publications, 1996; rev. ed. in press).

Bokar Rinpoche: From his Death and the Art of Dying in Tibetan Buddhism (San Francisco: Clearpoint Press, 1993). Thrangu Rinpoche: From his Buddha Nature, translated by Erik Pema Kunsang (Hong Kong: Rangjung Yeshe Publications [www.rangjung.com], 1993).

His Holiness Sakya Trizin: From an interview with Don Farber. His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya Rinpoche: From Chenrezig Teachings, translated by Jeff Schoening, compiled by Jessica Baird, www.sakya.org.

Tenga Rinpoche: From the audiocassette Teaching on Chöd Practice (Los Angeles: Karma Thegsum Choling, July 1998).

Chogye Trichen Rinpoche: From The Way of the Buddha and the Practice of Green Tara (Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal: Trikal Maitreya Buddha Vihara, 2002). These teachings are available at www.chogyetrichen.com.

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche: Received directly from Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche.

Luding Khenchen Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche: From Journey Without Goal: The Tantric Wisdom of the Buddha (Boulder and London: Prajna Press, 1981).

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche: From his “Life as Cinema: On Being Told This Isn’t Really Happening,” Shambhala Sun (November 2003).

Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche: From his Dharma Paths (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 1992).

Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber.

Choegon Rinpoche: Received directly from Choegon Rinpoche.

Dagmo Jamyang Sakya: From an interview with Don Farber.

Khamtrul Rinpoche: Received directly from Khamtrul Rinpoche.

Khandro Tsering Chödrön. As remembered by Sogyal Rinpoche in Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, edited by Patrick Gaffney and Andrew Harvey (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993), pp. 143–44. Copyright © 1993 by Rigpa Fellowship. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Adeu Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber. Togden Amting: From an interview with Don Farber.

Jetsun Chimey Luding: From an interview with Togden Achoe: From an interview with Don Farber. Don Farber.

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Gona Tulku Rinpoche: As told to Don Farber by Lhundup, the son of Gona Rinpoche’s “sistercousin,” Lhaga, and his attendant, Wangyal. His Holiness, the One Hundredth Gaden Tri Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber. Ling Rinpoche: Received directly from the present Ling Rinpoche. Lati Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber. His Holiness the Ninth Khalka Jetsun Rinpoche: From an interview with Rebecca McClen Novick, translated by Geshe Lobsang Tsultrim. Khyongla Rato Rinpoche: From his My Life and Lives: The Story of a Tibetan Incarnation, edited and with a foreword by Joseph Campbell (New York: Rato Publications, 1991). Arjia Rinpoche: Received directly from Arjia Rinpoche. Tara Tulku Rinpoche: From an interview in Parabola: The Search for Meaning, vol. 11, no. 3 (Fall 1986 ), www.parabola.org.

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Ribur Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber. Kangyur Khensur Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche: From his commentary on the Gelug/Kagyu tradition of Mahamudra, 2004, Vajrapani, Boulder Creek, California, www .vajrapani.org. Samdhong Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber. Gehlek Rinpoche: From an interview with Don Farber. Lama Zopa Rinpoche: From his Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat (Weston, Mass.: Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, 1999). Geshe Lhundub Sopa: From an interview with Don Farber. Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen: From an interview with Rebecca McClen Novick.