Wilhelm II.: "Völker Europas, wahrt Eure heiligsten Güter!"
mailto: payer@payer.de
Zitierweise / cite as:
Payer, Alois <1944 - >: Materialien zum Neobuddhismus. -- 4. USA und Hawaii. -- 6. Tibetischer Buddhismus in den USA. -- Fassung vom 2005-07-11. -- URL: http://www.payer.de/neobuddhismus/neobud0406.htm. -- [Stichwort].
Erstmals publiziert: 2005-06-21
Überarbeitungen: 2005-07-11 [Ergänzungen]
Anlass: Lehrveranstaltung Neobuddhismus, Univ. Tübingen, SS 2005
Copyright: Dieser Text steht der Allgemeinheit zur Verfügung. Eine Verwertung in Publikationen, die über übliche Zitate hinausgeht, bedarf der ausdrücklichen Genehmigung des Verfassers.
Diese Inhalt ist unter einer Creative Commons-Lizenz lizenziert.
Dieser Text ist Teil der Abteilung Buddhismus von Tüpfli's Global Village Library
Unter tibetischem Buddhismus ist hier der mongolische und kalmükische mitinbegriffen.
Tibetan Buddhism, (formerly also called Lamaism after their religious gurus known as lamas), is the body of religious Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and the Himalayan region. It is a school within Tantric Buddhism (also called Vajrayana Buddhism), which in turn is part of the greater Mahayana school. Distinguishing characteristics
Tibetan Buddhism may be distinguished from other schools of Tantric Buddhism by a number of unique traits including:
- belief in reincarnation lineages of certain lamas (known as Sprul-skus) such as the Dalai Lama
- a practice wherein lost or hidden ancient scriptures (gter-mas) are recovered by spiritual masters (cf. gter-stons)
- belief that a Buddha can be manifest in human form, such as in the person of Padmasambhava, the saint who brought Tibetan Buddhism to the Himalayas
In common with other Tantric schools (primarily Shingon Buddhism in Japan), Tibetan Buddhism is esoteric and tantric. It is esoteric because it believes the religious texts or sutras can only be interpreted by a religious master. It is tantric because it believes the path to enlightenment is greatly accelerated by the use of certain external rituals and ritual objects (see below). Special utterances known as mantras aid in achieving a higher state of awareness.
In common with Mahayana schools, Tibetan Buddhism believes in a pantheon of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and Dharmapala, also known as Dharma protectors. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who themselves are able to escape the cycle of death and rebirth but compassionately choose to remain here in this world to assist others in reaching nirvana or Buddhahood. Dharma protectors are mythic and often fearsome figures incorporated into Tibetan Buddhism from various sources including Hinduism and the Bön religion. They are pledged to protecting and upholding the Dharma. A town or district may have its own Dharma protector with its own local mythology.
Rituals and ritual objectsTantric practitioners make use of special rituals and objects. Meditation is an important function which may be aided by the use of certain hand gestures (mudras) and chanted mantras (such as the famous mantra of Spyan-ras-gzigs: "om mani padme hum"). A number of esoteric meditation techniques are employed by different traditions, including mahamudra, Rdzongs-can, and in the Bka'-rgyud school the Six yogas of Naropa. Qualified practitioners may also study or construct special cosmic diagrams known as mandalas which assist in inner spiritual development. A lama may make use of a Rdo-rje, a small eight-pronged dumbell-like object representing a diamond-strong sceptre which represents method or compassion, along with a handbell known as a 'Bril-bu which represents wisdom. A ritual dagger or 'Phur-ba is symbolically used to kill demons, thus releasing them to a better rebirth.
Non-initiates in Tibetan Buddhism may gain merit by performing rituals such as food and flower offerings, water offerings (performed with a set of bowls), religious pilgrimages, or chanting prayers (see also prayer wheel and prayer flag). They may also light butter lamps at the local temple or fund monks to do so on their behalf.
Villagers may also gain blessings by observing or participating in cham dances. Energetic dancers wearing masks and richly ornamented costumes perform each sacred dance while accompanied by monks playing traditional Tibetan musical instruments. The dances offer moral instruction such as non-harm to sentient beings and are said to bring merit to all who observe them. In Bhutan the dances are performed during an annual religious festival known as tsechu which is held in each district. At certain festivals a large painting known as a thongdrol is also briefly unfurled — the mere glimpsing of the thongdrol is believed to carry such merit as to free the observer from all present sin (see Culture of Bhutan).. Cham dances are prohibited in Tibet by the PRC government.
Schools of Tibetan BuddhismTibetan Buddhism has four main schools (the suffix pa means sect):
- Nyingma(pa), The Ancient Ones, the oldest and original school founded by Padmasambhava himself
- Kagyu(pa), Oral Lineage, headed by the Karmapa and having four major sub-sects: the Karma Kagyu, the Tsalpa Kagyu, the Baram Kagyu, and Pagtru Kagyu; as well as eight minor sub-sects, the most notable of which are the Drikung Kagyu and the Drukpa Kagyu; and the once-obscure Shangpa Kagyu, which was famously represented by the 20th century teacher Kalu Rinpoche.
- Sakya(pa), Grey Earth, headed by the Sakya Trizin, founded by Sakya Pandita 1182-1251CE
- Geluk(pa), Way of Virtue, also known as Yellow Hats, whose spiritual head is the Ganden Tripa and whose temporal head is the Dalai Lama, who was ruler of Tibet from the mid-17th to mid-20th centuries.
And one minor one:
- Jonang(pa), suppressed by the rival Gelukpas in the 1600s and once thought extinct, but now known to survive in Eastern Tibet.
There is also an ecumenical movement known as Rime (alternative spelling:Rimed).
See Tibetan Buddhist canon for a list of important tantric texts recognized by different sects.
History of Tibetan BuddhismCertain Buddhist scriptures arrived in southern Tibet from India as early as 173 CE during the reign of Thothori Nyantsen, the 28th king of Tibet. During the third century the scriptures were disseminated to northern Tibet (which was not part of the same kingdom at the time). The influence of Buddhism was not great, however, and the form was certainly not tantric as the earliest tantric sutras had just begun to be written in India.
The most important event in Tibetan Buddhist history, however, was the arrival of the great tantric mystic Padmasambhava in Tibet in 774 at the invitation of King Trisong Detsen. It was Padmasambhava (more commonly known in the region as Guru Rinpoche) who merged tantric Buddhism with the local Bön religion to form what we now recognize as Tibetan Buddhism. In addition to writing a number of important scriptures (some of which he hid for future tertons to find), Padmasambhava established the Nyingma school from which all schools of Tibetan Buddhism are derived.
Tibetan Buddhism exerted a strong influence from the 11th century CE among the peoples of Central Asia, especially in Mongolia and Manchuria. It was adopted as an official state religion by the Mongol Yuan dynasty and the Manchu Qing dynasty of China."
[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Buddhism. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-31]
"The Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism traces its origin to the Indian adept, Guru Padmasambhava, who came to Tibet in 817 C.E. at the invitation of King Trisong Deutsan (742-797) in order to subdue the evil forces then impeding the spread of Buddhism. Guru Rinpochey, as he is popularly known, bound all evil spirits by oath and transformed them into forces compatible with the spread of Buddhism. In collaboration with the great Bodhisattva Abbot Shantarakshita, Guru Rinpochey then built Samyey monastery, which became a principal centre of learning and the site where many of the texts that would make up Tibet's vast Buddhist literature were first translated into Tibetan. Guru Rinpochey also gave widespread teachings from the highest classes of tantra and in particular to his twenty-five principal disciples. These first Tibetan adepts are renowned for their spiritual accomplishments, for example, Namkhe Nyingpo for his feat of travelling on beams of light, Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal for reviving the dead, Vairochana for his intuition, Nanam Yeshe for soaring in the sky, Kawa Peltseg for reading others thought and Jnana Kumara for his miraculous powers.
Contemporary Indian masters Vimalamitra, Buddhaguhya, Shantipa and the tantric adept, Dharmakirti, also came to Tibet and spread tantric teachings. So, although the study of logic and Buddhist philosophy was not yet prevalent, the practice of tantra in extreme secrecy was much favoured. Even the work of translating such esoteric texts as Kun-byed rgyal-po, mDo-dgougs-'dus and the Mahamaya cycle of teachings by Vairochana, Nyag Jnana Kumara, Nubchen Sangye Yeshe and others, was carried out in great secrecy.
Seeing the disciples unripe and the time inappropriate for many of the other teachings he had to reveal, Guru Padmasambhava hid hundreds of Treasures in the forms of scriptures, images and ritual articles, with instructions for their revelation for the benefit of future generations. Subsequently, more than one hundred masters have revealed these Treasures and taught them to their disciples. So, besides the tantric teachings, it is these lineages of revealed teachings combined with the Great Completion or Dzogchen doctrine taught and disseminated successively by Garab Doyjer, Shri Simha, Guru Rinpochey, Jnana Sutra, Vimala Mitra, which are distinguished in Tibet as Nyingma doctrine.
The Nyingma tradition divides the entire Buddhist teachings into Nine Vehicles: the Three Common Vehicles comprising the Hearer, Solitary Realizer, and Bodhisattva vehicles dealing with those categories of teachings included in the sutras taught by Buddha Shakyamuni; the Three Outer Tantras consisting of Kriya Tantra which places greater emphasis on practising proper external behaviour, physical and verbal conduct aimed at purification and simple visualisation practice; Upa Tantra which lays more emphasis on developing both external and internal faculties with the goal of achieving a deeper affinity with the meditational deity; and Yoga Tantra, which I mainly aimed at developing the strength of inner psychophysical vitality as taught by Vajrasattva. Finally, the Three Innermost Tantras comprising Mahayoga, primarily emphasising the Generation Stage practice in which the ordinary level of perception and attachment are eliminated through sacred vision and divine pride; the Annuyoga, emphasising Completion Stage practice in which the vajra body is used as a serviceable means to actualise primordial awareness and the Atiyoga, in which all emphasis is directed towards full activation of the generation and completion stage practices, enabling the yogi to transcend all ordinary time, activity and experience, as taught by Samantabhadra Buddha.
The first six of these nine vehicles are common to all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, whereas the last three, the Innermost Tantras, are exclusive to the Nyingma tradition.
Due to the slightly different approaches of various lineages in presenting Dzogchen three sub-schools have developed: The Mind School (Sems-sde) is attributed to Shrisimha and Vairochana's lineage, the Centredness School (kLong-sde) is attributed to Longde Dorje Zampa, and Shrisimha and Vairochana's lineage, whereas the Quintessential Instruction School (Man-ngag-sde) is attributed directly to Guru Padmasambhava's lineage of the Heart's Drop (sNying-thig) cycle of teachings and practice. Although Dzogchen is the unique feature of Nyingma practice, even among the lay followers the practice of reciting Guru Rinpochey's prayers, observing the 10th and 25th of every lunar month as a day for feast offerings, and even retiring into retreat for three years and three months individually or in company are common.
According to the history of the origin of tantras there are three lineages: The Lineage of Buddha's Intention, which refers to the teachings of the Truth Body originating from the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra, who is said to have taught tantras to an assembly of completely enlightened beings emanated from the Truth Body itself. Therefore, this level of teaching is considered as being completely beyond the reach of ordinary human beings. The Lineage of the Knowledge Holders corresponds to the teachings of the Enjoyment Body originating from Vajrasattva and Vajrapani, whose human lineage begins with Garab Dorje of the Ögyan Dakini land. From him the lineage passed to Manjushrimitra, Shrisimha and then to Guru Rinpochey, Jnanasutra, Vimalamitra and Vairochana who disseminated it in Tibet. Lastly, the Human Whispered Lineage corresponds to the teachings of the Emanation Body, originating from the Five Buddha Families. They were passed on to Shrisimha, who transmitted them to Guru Rinpochey, who in giving them to Vimalamitra started the lineage which has continued in Tibet until the present day.
This last mode of transmission is most commonly employed for ordinary people. However, the former two lineages may still exist amongst the highly realised Dzogchen masters.
There is yet another tradition which enumerates six lineages for the origin of the tantras by adding: the Commissioned Instruction Lineage (bK'a-babs lung-bstan-gyi-btgyud-pa), the Treasure Doctrine Lineage of the Fortunate One's (Las-'phrn gter-gyi-brgyud- pa) and the Lineage of Trustees Established Through Prayers (sMon-lam gtad-rgya'i-brgyud-pa).
The Nyingma tantric literature and its transmission is classified into three groups: the Oral, Treasures, and Visions. These three may be further subsumed under two categories: the Oral comprising primarily the tantras and associated texts belonging to the cycle of Mahayoga tantras; the root and explanatory tantra belonging to the cycle of Annuyoga tantras; and finally, the Atiyoga or Dzogchen cycle of tantras.
The Treasure transmission comprises the innumerable treasure texts revealed by subsequent Treasure Masters, which were hidden by Guru Rinpochey himself in 9th century as well as numerous teachings later revealed through enlightened minds and meditative visions of Nyingma masters. Hundreds of masters have appeared who have revealed treasures. Among them, Nyangral Nyima Özer (1124-92), Guru Chowang (1212-70), Dorje Lingpa (1346-1405), Padma Lingpa (b.1405) and Jamyang Khyentse (1820-1892) are renowned as the Five Kings of the Treasure Masters. Their revealed treasures concern, among others, the cycle of teachings and meditations related to Avalokiteshvara, Guru Rinpochey's sadhanas, the Dzogchen teachings, the Ka-gyey cycle of teachings, the Vajrakila or Phurba cycle of teachings, medicine and prophecies.
Hence, in addition to the standard Mahayana Buddhist canon of the Kangyur and Tangyur, many further teachings may be found in the Collection of a Hundred Thousand Nyingma Tantras, compiled in thirteenth century by Tertön Ratna Lingpa (1403-1473) and organised by Kunkhyen Longchen Ramjampa (1308-1363). Besides this, numerous works such as the sixty volumes of the Rinchen Terdzod compiled by Kongtrul Yonten Gyatso (1813-1899) and the writings of Rongzom, Dodrupchen, Paltrul, Mipham and many others have added to the rich collection of Nyingma literature. The oldest Nyingma institution is Samyey temple completed in 810 C.F. by Shantarakshita and Guru Padmasambhava under the patronage of King Trisong Deutsan. Subsequently, no big monasteries were built until the 12th century, when Nechung Monastery was built in Central Tibet by Chokpa Jangchub Palden and Kathok Monastery was founded in Kham by Ka Dampa Desheg (1112-92) in 1159. This is an indication that unlike the other Buddhist traditions the
Nyingmapas did not become institutionalised until much later in their history. From the 15th century onwards, great monastic universities were built, such as Mindroling, founded in 1676 by Rigzin Terdag Lingpa, otherwise known as Minling Terchen Gyurmed Dorje (1646-1714) and Dorje Drag founded in 1659 by Rigzin Ngagi Wangpo in central Tibet; and Palyul established by Rigzin Kunsang Sherab in 1665; Dzogchen built by Dzogchen Pema Rigzin in 1685 and Zhechen established by Zhechen Rabjampa in 1735, all in Kham province. Dodrupchen and Darthang monasteries were established in Amdo.
Principal monastic institutions re-established in exile are Thekchok Namdrol Shedrub Dargye Ling, in Bylakuppe, Karnataka State; Ngedon Gatsal Ling, in Clementown, Dehradun; Palyul Chokhor Ling and E-Vam Gyurmed Ling in Bir, and Nechung Drayang Ling at Dharamsala, and Thubten E-vam Dorjey Drag at Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, India.
The Nyingma tradition is presently headed by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpochey, who succeeds Kyabje Dudjom Rinpochey (1904?-1987). Besides, Minling Trichen Rinpochey, Trulzhig Rinpochey, Taglung Tsetrul Rinpochey and Penor Rinpochey are some of the living spiritual masters.
NB. The present head of Nyingmapa is His Holiness Penor Rinpoche. "
[Quelle: http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism/nyingma.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-31]
"The lineages of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism derive primarily from two sources: Marpa Chökyi Lodoe (1012-1099) and Khyungpo Nyaljor (978-1079). The former was trained as a translator by Drogmi Yeshe (993-1050), and then travelled three times to India and four times to Nepal in search of religious teachings. He studied at the feet of one hundred and eight spiritual masters and adepts, principally Naropa and Maitripa. Marpa received the lineage of tantric teachings called the Four Commissioned Lineages (bK'n-babs-bzhi) - concerning the Illusory Body and Consciousness Transference, Dreams, Clear Light, and Inner Heat directly from Naropa (1016-1100), who had been given them by his teacher Tilopa (988-1069). Their original source was Buddha Vajradhara. Marpa brought these lineages to Tibet, passing them on to his foremost disciple Milarepa (1040-1123), the most celebrated and accomplished of Tibet's tantric yogis, who achieved the ultimate goal of enlightenment in one lifetime. Milarepa was given responsibility for his meditation lineage and others such as Ngog Choku Dorjey, Tsurton Wangey and Meton Chenpo became holders of Marpa's teaching lineage. This is how the dual system of philosophical training (bShad-grva) and the meditation training (sGub-grva) are found established in Kagyu monasteries. Among Milarepa's disciples, Gampopa (1084-1161), also known as Dagpo Lhaje and Rechungpa (1084-1161) were the most illustrious. The former received the teaching and practice of the Great Seal (Mahamudrn) and the Six Yogas of Naropa from Milarepa and synthesised them into one lineage. The resultant combined lineage came to be known as Dakpo Kagyu, the mother lineage of the Kagyu tradition. Gampopa also pioneered a fusion of Milarepa's Mahamudra tradition with the stages of the path tradition of the Kadampa order. Gampopa's Jewel Ornaments of Liberation is prominent amongst the stages of the path literature of Tibet. The Kagyu Mahamudra lineage was later incorporated into the Gelug tradition by the First Panchen Lama, Lobsang Chökyi Gyeltsen (1570-1662) and is known as the Ganden-Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra.
The Dakpo Kagyu tradition gave rise to four major schools founded by illustrious disciples of Gampopa. These are the Tselpa (Tshal-pa) Kagyu founded by Zhang Yudakpa Tsondu Dakpa (1123-1193), whose chief teacher was Wangom Tsultrim Nyingpo. He founded the Gungthang monastery and had many learned disciples. The Barom ('Ba-rom) Kagyu was founded by Barom Darma Wangchuk. He built Barom monastery, from which the tradition took its name. The Phagtru (`Phag-gru) Kagyu was founded by Phagmo Trupa Dorje Gyelpo (1110-1170). He was one of Gampopa's main disciples particularly noted for his realisation and transmission of the Mahamudra teachings. Many of his disciples attained high realisation, such as Taglung Thangpa, Kalden Yeshi, Ling Repa Pema Dorjey, Jigten Gonpo and Kher Gompa. Phagmo Trupa also built a monastery in the Phagmo locality which was later called Densa Thil. Many sub-schools grew from his lineage of disciples.
The Kamtsang or Karma Kagyu was founded by the first Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa (1110-1193). This tradition has remained strong and successful due in large part to the presence of an unbroken line of reincarnations of the founder, the successive Karmapas. Famous among them were the Second Karmapa, Pakshi (1206-1282), the third Karmapa, Ranjung Dorjey (1284-1339) and the Eighth, Karmapa Mikyo Dorjey (1507-1554). The most recent incarnation was the Sixteenth Karmapa, Ranjung Rigpe Dorjey (1924-81), who in exile was also appointed bead of the whole Kagyu tradition. In Tibet, Tsurphu, located in Central Tibet was the main monastery of this tradition. After coming into exile, the tradition has re-established its headquarters and principal monastic university at Rumtek in Sikkim. It has also developed hundreds of centres throughout the world. In the present absence of the Gyalwa Karmapa's incarnation four high lamas who were his disciples are acting as regents. They are Shamar Rinpoche, Gyaltsab Rinpochey, Situ Rinpochey and Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpochey.
Eight sub-school developed within the Phagdu Kagyu. The Drikung ('Brigung) Kagyu, founded by Drikung Kyopa Jigten Gonpo (1143-1217) is presently headed by the 37th Successor, Drikung Kyabgon Che-Tsang (b. 1946), who resides at his monastery in Ladakh. The Taglung (sTag-lung) Kagyu, founded by Taglung Thangpa Tashe Pel (1142-1210). The present head of this school is Shabdrung Rinpochey, who now lives in Sikkim. The Drukpa('Brug pa) Kagyu founded by Choje Gyare Yeshe Dorjey also known as Ling Repa (1128-1189), is headed by the 12th Drukchen Rinpochey, who has re-established his monastery in Darjeeling, India.
Among the eight sub-schools only these three survive to the present day, with the Drukpa being numerically the largest, followed by Drikung. Unfortunately other subsects of Kagyu tradition such as Trophu (Khrophu) founded by Rinpochey Gyaltsa, a nephew of Phagmo Trupa, who built Trophu monastery; Martsang (sMar-tsang) founded by Marpa Rinchen Lodoe; Yelpa (Yel-pa) established by Yelpa Yeshe Tseg; the Shungseb (Shugs-gseb) started by Chökyi Sengey and Yamzang (gYa'abzang) Kagyu founded by Yeshi Senge have ceased to exist, at least as separate institutions. Although a few lamas of the other major Kagyu traditions may still maintain some of their teaching lineages.
The Shangpa Kagyu, one of the two original forms of the Kagyu tradition, was founded by the great adept, Khyungpo Nyaljor (978-1079). Dissatisfied with his training in Bön and Dzogchen practices, Khyungpo Nyaljor left for Nepal where he met Acharya Sumati. From him he received training as a translator and travelled on to India. After having received teachings from one hundred and fifty scholar-adepts he is said to have mastered the entire exoteric and esoteric doctrine as well as meditation on it. His principal teachers include Sukhasiddha, Rahulagupta and Niguma, the consort of Naropa. Besides receiving practical guidance from masters in human form, he also received transmissions from the Dakinis (celestial beings). After returning to Tibet, he received the vows of a monk from the Kadampa master Langri Thangpa.
In accordance with the prophecies of the Dakinis, he established the Shang-Shong monastery at Yeru Shang, in central Tibet. As a result the tradition he founded came to be known as the Shangpa Kagyu. Later, he is said to have established further branch monasteries also. In early times, there were more than a hundred monasteries belonging to this tradition in Tibet. Amongst his followers, Mehu Tonpa, Mogchogpa and Shang Gomcho Sengey are some of the most famous. Amongst the later lineage, it was Tsurton Wangi Dorje, from whom Buton Rinchen Drup obtained the lineage of the Guhyasamaja tantra which was subsequently passed down to Tsongkhapa.
The Shangpa Kagyu main practices concerned Mahakala, Chakrasambhava, Hevajra, Mahamaya, Guhyasamaja, the Six Doctrines of Niguma, Mahamudra, and others. The principal contemporary exponent of this tradition was the late Kalu Rinpoche (1905-1989), one of the leading Kagyu meditation masters of this century. It should be noted that while there are many sub-schools within Kagyupas, the fundamental principles of their doctrine are rooted in Mahamudra and the Six Yogas of Naropa. The different schools have arisen only due to slightly different individual approaches to the fundamental teachings.
Mahamudra, the unique feature of Kagyu tradition, can be explained according to interpretations of sutra and tantra. Both aspects of the teachings are aimed at direct understanding of the real nature of the mind. The approach to Mahamudra, which differs slightly within each Kagyu school, generally follows through the stages of foundation, path and fruit. Tantric practices unique to Kagyu tradition are the Six Yogas of Naropa, Cakrasambhava and Mahakala. In the context of tantric practice, the application of Mahamudra becomes much more profound and sophisticated.
The training of monks in Kagyu monasteries consists mainly of the study of the Perfection of Wisdom, Madhyamika, Valid Cognition, Discipline and Phenomenology common to all traditions, except that each tradition has its own monastic texts and commentaries to facilitate understanding of the original Indian texts.
The present head of the Karma Kagyu tradition is H.H. XVII Gyalwa Karmapa Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje."
[Quelle: http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism/kagyu.html. -- Zuriff am 2005-05-31]
"The Sakya tradition is closely bound up with the Khon ancestral lineage, which derived from celestial beings. The lineage has descended intact up to the present time from Khon Könchok Gyelpo(1034-l 102), founder of the Sakya tradition. From the doctrinal point of view the tradition traces its origins to the Indian Yogin Virupa through Gayadhara. His disciple Drogmi Shakya Yeshe (992-1074) travelled to India where he received teachings on the Kalachakra, the Path and its Fruit and others from many Indian masters and returned to Tibet. Later, Khon Könchok Gyelpo, one of his main disciples, built a monastery in the Tsang province of central Tibet and named it Sakya, or Grey Earth monastery. So the school took its name, Sakya, from the location of the monastery. Khon Könchok Gyelpo's son Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158) was a person of extraordinary skill and spiritual attainment, who held all the lineages of tantra and sutra teachings of Arya Nagarjuna and Virupa. He had four sons - Kungabar, Sonam Tsemo, Jetsun Dakpa Gyeltsen and Palchen Rinpochey. The second son Sonam Tsemo (1142-82) became a learned scholar at the early age of sixteen. He had visions of many meditational deities and also produced many realised disciples. Jetsun Dakpa Gyeltsen (1147-1216) received lay celibacy vows and showed strong signs of spiritual maturity in his youth. At the age of eleven he gave his first Hevajra teaching.
The principal disciple of Jetsun Dakpa Gyeltsen was his nephew, son of Palchen of Öpochey the famous Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen (1182-1251). Sakya Pandita studied Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophy, logic, Sanskrit, poetry, astrology and art with countless Indian, Nepalese, Kashmiri and Tibetan masters and achieved mastery over them. When he was twenty-seven years old, after meeting with the Kashmiri Pandita Shakya Shribhadra, he became a fully ordained monk and maintained his vows without least infraction. His works such as the Treasury of Logic on Valid Cognition (Tsod-ma rigs-gter) and the Discrimination of the Three Vows (sDom-gsum rab-dbye) are famous even to this day.
In 1244, Godan Khan, grandson of Chingis Khan, intrigued by Sakya Pandita's reputation, invited him to Mongolia, where he gave Buddhist teachings. Later, in 1253, after both Sakya Pandita and Godan Khan had passed away, the emperor, Sechen Kublai Khan invited Drogön Chögyal Phagpa. nephew of Sakya Pandita to his court. Phagpa invented a new script in which to write the Mongolian language. Kublai Khan was so impressed by Phagpa's performance that he declared Buddhism the state religion of Mongolia and presented him the rule of the three provinces of Tibet. Thus, Phagpa was the first person in Tibetan history to gain religious and secular authority over the whole country. He was succeeded by his brother Chagna and altogether the Sakyapas ruled Tibet for more than a hundred years.
Eventually, Tishri Kunglo (1299-1327), eldest of the fifteen grandsons of Sakya Pandita's brother, founded four dynastic houses: Zhithog, Rinchen Gang, Lhakhang and Ducho, of which only the last two dynasties have survived. However, in fifteenth century the Ducho dynasty split into two sub-dynasties, or palaces the Dolma Phodrang and Phuntsok Phodrang. The present hierarchs of these two palaces are Sakya Trizin.
Ngawang Kunga Theckchen Rinpochey (b. 1945). who is the current head of the Sakya tradition, and lives in Dehra Dun, India and, Dagchen Rinpochey (b. 1929), the founder of Sakya Thegchen Choling in the United States of America. Succession to the position of head of the Sakya tradition has been hereditary since the time of Khon Könchok Gyelpo and traditionally alternates between the two palaces. Sakya Dagtri Rinpochey, the present incumbent is the 4lst occupant of the Sakya Throne.
Amongst the principal holders of the Sakya tradition, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158), Sonam Tsemo (1142-1182), Dakpa Gyeltsen (1147-1216), Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen (1182-1251) and Drogön Chögyal Phagpa (1235-1280) are known as the Five Patriarchs of the Sakya tradition. After them, were the so called Six Ornaments of Tibet: Yaktuk Sangyey Pal and Rongton Mawe Sengey, who were reputed for their authority on sutra teachings; Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo and Zongpa Kunga Namgyel, who were learned in the tantras; Goram Sonam Sengey and Shakya Chogden who were learned in both sutras and tantras. These were famous spiritual masters of Sakya tradition. Amongst them Gorampa Sonam Sengey, instituted the formal study of logic in Sakya tradition.
Like other traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, a number of sub-divisions emerged within the main Sakya tradition. The lineage of teachings within the discipline instituted by Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (1382-1457) and successive masters such as Könchok Lhundrup, Thartse Namkha Pelsang and Drubkhang Pelden Dhondup have come to be known as the Ngor lineage, whereas, the lineages of Tsarchen Losel Gyatso (1502-56), called the whispered-lineage of Tsar, concerning the Thirteen Golden Texts of Tsar, including the secret doctrines of the greater or lesser Mahakala, Vajra Yogini, Jambhala and others, is known as the Tsar tradition. Thus, the Sakya school of the Khon lineage represents the main trunk of a tree, of which the Ngorpa and Tsarpa schools are branches. These are, the three schools (Sa-Ngor-Tsar-gsum) in Sakya tradition.
The central teaching and practice of the Sakyapa, called Lamdrey (Lam-'bras), the Path and Its Fruit, ultimately leads a practitioner to the state of Hevajra. The Path and Its Fruit is a synthesis of the entire paths and fruits of both the exoteric and esoteric classes of teachings. The Path and Its Fruit teaching originating from the Indian teachers Virupa, Avadhuti, Gayadhara and Shakyamitra, a follower of Arya Nagarjuna, were brought to Tibet by the Tibetan translator Drogmi and have been passed down through an unbroken lineage of masters until today. During the time Muchen Sempa Chenpo Könchok Gyeltsen, a disciple of Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (1382-1457), the Path and Its Fruit transmission broke into two sub-traditions: the Explanation for Private Disciples (sLob-bshad) and for Assemblies (Tshog-bshad) traditions. The philosophical viewpoint expressed in the Path and Its Fruit is the inseparability of samsara and nirvana. According to this, an individual cannot attain nirvana or peace by abandoning samsara or cyclic existence, because the mind is the root of both samsara and nirvana. When obscured, it takes the form of samsara and when freed of obstructions it is nirvana. Hence, the reality is that a person must strive through meditation to realise their inseparability.
In the Sakya monastic universities eighteen major texts are thoroughly studied. These deal with the Perfection of Wisdom, Monastic Discipline, Middle Path View, Phenomenology, Logic and Epistemology, as well as commentaries unique to the tradition, such as the Discrimination of the Three Vows, the Treasury of Logic on Valid Cognition and the works of Gorampa Sonam Sengey and others. On graduation, a monk is granted the degree of Kazhipa, Kachupa and Rabjampa on the basis of merit. The main tantric practices of the Sakya school are the Hevajra and Chakrasambhara tantras, Mahakala and so forth.
The major Sakya monasteries in Tibet were Nalanda in Phenpo built by Rongton Sheja Kunrig, Lhakhang Chenmo, founded by Khon Könchok Gyelpo, Tsedong Sisum Namgyel, established by Namkha Tashi Gyeltsen and Ngor E-Vam Chodhen, founded by E-Vam Kunga Zangpo in Central Tibet; Dhondup Ling, founded by Dagchen Sherab Gyeltsen and Lhundup Teng founded by Thangtong Gyalpo in Kham; and Deur Chode built by Chodak Sangpo in Amdo. Presently, Tsechen Tenpai Gatsal in Rajpur, Uttar Pradesh; Ngor E-Vam Shadrup Dargye Ling in Bir, Himachal Pradesh, Tsechen Dhongag Choeling in Mundgod, Karnataka State, and Ngor E-Vam Chodhen in Dehradun, Uttar Pradesh in India as well as Tashi Rabten Ling at Lumbini in Nepal are some of the principal re-established monasteries of the Sakya tradition."
[Quelle: http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism/sakya.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-31]
"The Kadampa tradition founded by Atisha was the direct source of inspiration for the development of the Gelug tradition founded by Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419). He was born in the Tsongkha region of Amdo province. At the age of three he received full-fledged lay ordination from the Fourth Karmapa, Rolpey Dorjey, and the name Kunga Nyingpo. At the age of seven he received novice vows from his teacher, Chöjey Dhondup Rinchen, and was given the name Lobsang Drakpa. Even at this young age he had received many teachings and initiations of Heruka, Yamantaka and Hevajra, and could recite by heart texts like Expression of the Names of Manjushri. Tsongkhapa travelled extensively in search of knowledge and studied with masters of all the existing traditions beginning with Chennga Chökyi Gyelpo, from whom he received teachings on topics such as the mind of enlightenment and the Great Seal (Mahamudra). He was taught the medical treatises by Könchok Kyab at Drikung. In Nyethang Dewachen he studied the Ornaments for clear Realisation and the Perfection of Wisdom and, excelling in debate, he became famous for his erudition. He also travelled to Sakya where he studied monastic discipline, phenomenology, valid cognition, the Middle Way and Guhyasamaja with lamas such as Kazhipa Losel and Rendawa. He also received transmissions of the Six Doctrines of Naropa. the Kalachakra. Mahamudra, the Path and Its Fruit, Chakrasamvara and numerous others and transmitted them to his disciples.
In addition to his studies and teachings he engaged in extensive meditation retreats. The longest, at Wolkha Cholung, lasted four years during which he was accompanied by eight close disciples. He is reputed to have performed millions of prostration's, mandala offerings and other forms of purification practice. Tsongkhapa frequently had visions of meditational deities and especially of Manjushri, with whom he could communicate to settle his questions about profound aspects of the teachings.
Tsongkhapa studied with more than a hundred teachers, practised extensively and taught thousands of disciples mainly in the central and eastern regions of Tibet. In addition he wrote a great deal. His collected works, comprising eighteen volumes, contain hundred of titles relating to all aspects of Buddhist teachings and clarify some of the most difficult topics of sutrayana and mantrayana teachings. Major works among them are: the Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path (Lam-rim chen-mo), the Great Exposition of Tantras (sNgag-rim chenmo), the Essence of Eloquence on the Interpretive and Definitive Teachings (Drnng-nges legs-bshad snying-po), the Praise of Relativity (rTen-'brel bstodpa), the Clear Exposition of the Five Stages of Guhyasamaja (gSang-'dus rim-lnga gsal-sgron) and the Golden Rosary (gSer-phreng).Among his many main disciples, Gyeltsab Dharma Rinchen (1364-1432), Khedrub Geleg Pelsang (1385-1438), Gyalwa Gendun Drup (1391-1474), Jamyang Chöjey Tashi Pelden (1379-1449), Jamchen Chöjey Shakya Yeshe, Jey Sherab Sengey and Kunga Dhondup (1354-143S) arc some of the more significant.
Tsongkhapa finally passed away at the age of sixty on the twenty-fifth of the tenth Tibetan month, entrusting his throne in Ganden to Gyeltsabjey. So began a tradition which continues to the present day. The ninety-ninth successor to the Ganden throne, and thus the formal head of the Gelugpa, is Ven. Yeshi Dhondup.
Of the major Gelugpa monasteries in Tibet, Ganden Monastery was founded by Tsongkhapa himself in 1409 and was divided into two colleges, Shartsey and Jangtsey. Jamyang Chöje Tashi Pelden founded Drepung Monastery in 1416. At one time it had seven branches but these were later amalgated into four Loseling, Gomang, Deyang and Ngagpa. Of the, only two college. Drepung and Gomang have survived up to the present time. Another of Tsongkhapa's spiritual sons, Jamchen Chöjey Shakya Yeshi established Sera Monastery in 1419. This too initially had five colleges which were later amalgated into two-Sera-Jey and Sera-Mey. Similarly, Gyalwa Gendun Drup, the First Dalai Lama, founded Tashi Lhunpo Monastery at Shigatse in 1447, which was to become the seat of the successive Panchen Lamas. It originally had four colleges.
The Lower Tantric College, Gyumey, was established by Jey Sherab Sengey in 1440, and the Upper Tantric College Gyutö by Gyuchen Kunga Dhondup in 1474. At their peak there were more than five thousand monks in each of the monastic universities around Lhasa, Ganden, Drepung and Sera, while there were at least five hundred in each tantric college. Young men would travel from all three regions of Tibet to enroll at these monastic universities as monks in order to receive an education and spiritual training. The Gelug tradition lays special emphasis on the place of ethics, as expressed through monastic discipline, as the ideal basis for religious education and practice. Consequently, the great majority of Gelugpa lamas are monks and the master who is a layman is a rarity. In addition, the Gelug tradition regards sound scholarship as a prerequisite for constructive meditation, hence, the teachings of both sutra and tantra are subject to rigorous analysis through the medium of dialectical debate.
In general, the curriculum of study covers the five major topics-the perfection of wisdom, philosophy of the Middle Way, valid cognition, phenomenology and monastic discipline. These five are studied meticulously by the dialectical method using Indian texts as well as Indian and Tibetan commentaries to them, often textbooks unique to each monastic tradition, for a period of fifteen to twenty years. On completing this training, a monk is awarded one of three levels of the degree of Geshey (Doctorate of Buddhist Philosophy), Dorampa, Tsogrampa and Lharampa, of which the highest is the Geshey Lharampa degree.
Subsequently, if he so wishes the Geshey may join one of the tantric colleges to study the tantras and so complete his formal studies, or he may return to his local monastery to teach, or retire into seclusion to engage in intensive meditation. A monk who has completed a Geshey's training is respected as being a fully qualified and authoritative spiritual master worthy of devotion and esteem.
This tradition remains dynamic even after coming into exile. The major Gelug monasteries, Sera, Drepung, Ganden, and Tashi Lhunpo monasteries and Gyumey Tantric College have been re-established in various Tibetan settlements in Karnataka, and Gyutö Tantric College has been re-established in Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh, all in India."
[Quelle: http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism/gelug.html. -- Zugrif am 2005-05-31]
"The Jonang or Jonangpa school of Tibetan Buddhism was founded in the early 14th century by Sherab Gyeltsen, a monk trained in the Sakyapa school. The Jonangpa school was widely thought to have become extinct in the late 17th century at the hands of the Fifth Dalai Lama who forcibly annexed the Jonangpa monasteries to his Gelugpa school. Recently, however, researchers were surprised to discover that some remote Jonangpa monasteries escaped this fate and have continued practicing uninterrupted to this day. As many as 5000 monks may be members of the remnant Jonangpa school practicing in areas at the edge of historic Gelugpa influence. History of the Jonangpa
In the early 14th century the monk Sherab Gyeltsen broke away from the Sakyapa school and established the Jonangpa school at Jonang, about 160 km northwest of the Tashilhunpo monastery in Shigatse. There, the Jonangpa built a large monastery and constructed a printing press.
The Jonangpa school had generated a number of renowned Buddhist scholars, the greatest of whom was Taranatha (1575-1634). Taranatha placed great emphasis on the Kalachakra system of tantra which became an important part of Gelugpa teaching after the Gelugpa absorbed the Jonangpa monasteries. Taranatha's influence on Gelugpa thinking continues even to this day in the teaching of the present 14th Dalai Lama who actively promotes initiation into Kalachakra.
After several centuries of independence, however, in the late 17th century the Jonangpa order came under the attack by the Great Fifth Dalai Lama who forcibly converted their monasteries to the Gelugpa order.
Stated reason for Jonangpa suppression: the Shentong heresyWhile the Gelugpa embraced the Jonangpa teaching on the Kalachakra, they ultimately opposed the Jonangpa for another set of teachings. Sherab Gyeltsen, the founder of the Jonangpa, and subsequent lamas had developed a teaching known as Shentong, which is closely tied to the Indian Yogacara school and held that the external world is completely empty The Gelugpa school held the distinct but related Rangtong view. The Jonangpa interpreted Shentong to imply that there is a value in inaction and non-striving, which is associated with the teachings of medieval Chan Buddhism in China (which also gave rise to Zen Buddhism in Japan). This association with Chinese Buddhism tainted the Jonangpa in the eyes of the Gelugpa who considered the true teachings to derive from the Indian saints, particularly Atisha. An additional motivation in criticizing the Jonangpa sect as Zen-followers was that it enabled the Gelugpa to lay claim to the high moral ground previously held only by the rival Nyingmapa sect who were proud of their ancient and unsullied transmission from the Indian saints (and not being sullied by later transmissions as were the Sakyapa, Kagyupa, and Gelugpa).
Additional reasons: monastery financial reform and Tibetan geopoliticsModern historians have identified two other reasons which likely led the Gelugpa to suppress the Jonangpa:
First, the Jonangpa taught that large gifts of property to monasteries did not help one achieve enlightenment. This undercut the financial practices of the Gelugpa who were growing rapidly through exactly those means at the time.
Second, and more significantly, the Jonangpa had political ties that were very vexing to the Gelugpa. The Jonangpa, along with the Kagyupa, were historical allies with the powerful house of Tsang which was vying with the Dalai Lama and his Gelugpa school for control of central Tibet. This was bad enough, but soon after the death of Taranatha an even more ominous event occurred: Taranatha's reincarnation was discovered to be a young boy named Zanabazar the son of Prince Tosiyetu Khan, ruler of the Khan Uula district of Outer Mongolia. Tosiyetu and his son were of Khalkha lineage, meaning they had the birth authority to become Khan. When the young boy was declared the spiritual leader of all of Mongolia, suddenly the Gelugpa were faced with the possibility of war with the former military superpower of Asia. While the Mongol Empire was long passed its zenith, this was nonetheless a frightening prospect and the Dalai Lama sought the first possible moment of Mongol distraction to take control of the Jonangpa monasteries.
Current status and rediscovery by the outside worldIn accordance with the observation that "victors write history" the Jonangpa were until recently thought to be an extinct heretical sect. Thus, Tibetologists were astonished when fieldwork turned up several active Jonangpa monasteries, including the main monastery called Tsangwa located in Dzamthang County, Sichuan, China. Almost 40 monasteries, comprising about 5000 monks, have been subsequently been found, including some in the Amdo and Gyarong districts of Qinghai and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Presumably these remnant survived because they were far from the Gelugpa capital at Lhasa and closer to sympathetic powers in Qing Dynasty China.
Interestingly, one of the primary supporters of the Jonang lineage in exile has been the 14th Dalai Lama of the Gelugpa. The Dalai Lama donated buildings in Himachal Pradesh state in India for use as a Jonang monastery and has visited there during one of His recent teaching tours. The Karmapa of the Karma Kagyu lineage has visited there as well."
[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonang. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-31]
"The Rimé movement (Wylie: Ris-Med) is a Buddhist school of thought founded in Eastern Tibet during the late 19th century largely by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, the latter of whom is often respected as the founder proper. It seeks to unify the various traditions and their philosophies into one coherent school of thought, and is responsible for a large number of scriptural compilations. The school's name is derived from two Tibetan words: Ris (sectarianism) and Med (refutation), which combined expresses the idea of unification, as opposed to sectarianism. The Rimé movement therefore is often mistaken as trying to unite the various sects through their similarities, which was not the case. Rather, Rimé was designed to recognise the differences between traditions and appreciate them, while also establishing a dialogue which would create common ground. It is considered important that variety be preserved, and therefore Rimé teachers are generally quite careful to emphasise differences in thought, giving students many options as to how to proceed in their spiritual training.
Students who associate with Rimé do not leave their old traditions, but rather continue practising as their regular tradition would ascribe. Two of the founding voices of Rimé were Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, both from different schools. Thaye was from the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions, while Wangpo had been raised within the Sakya order. At the time, Tibetan schools of thought had become very isolated, and both Wangpo and Thaye were instrumental in reinitiating dialogue between the sects. Rimé was, to some extent, the re-establishment of a fading rule in Tibetan Buddhism: That to ignorantly criticise other traditions was wrong, and that misunderstandings due to ignorance had to be immediately alleviated.
Rimé is not a spiritual lineage, but rather a philosophical movement which seeks to establish, preserve, and cultivate dialogue between varying traditions, appreciating their differences and emphasising the need for variety. It was initially created to counteract the growing suspicion and tension building between the different traditions, which at the time had, in many places, gone so far as to forbid studying one another's scriptures. Rimé became thereafter an integral part of the Tibetan tradition, and continues to be an important school of philosophy in Tibetan Buddhism.
Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyatso and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche are two recent Rimé masters, known for their public influence and as being advisors to the 14th Dalai Lama. Other modern adherents include the late 16th Karmapa and Dudjom Rinpoche, both of whom gave extensive teachings from the works of Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro, as well as the late Akong Rinpoche who, with Chogyam Trungpa helped establish Tibetan Buddhism in Britain. The lineage of the late Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche, also a venerable master of the rimé tradition, is represented today in the teachings of Lama Surya Das."[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rime_movement. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-31]
Abb.: Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup und W. Y. Evans-WentzEs erscheint:
The Tibetan book of the dead; or, The after-death experiences on the Bardo plane, according to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup's [Zla-ba-bsam-'grub, Kazi, 1868-1922] English rendering, by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. With foreword by Sir John Woodroffe. -- London : Oxford university press, 1927. -- xliv, 248 S. : Ill. ; 23 cm.
"Evans-Wentz, Dr Walter Yeeling (1878-1965) Pioneer translator of Tibetan Buddhist texts. Born USA, educated University of Stanford, Oxford and Rennes, specializing in folk-lore; met W.B. Yeats. 1911: 1st book: Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries. An interest in the rebirth doctrine took him to East. 1919: met Kazi Dawa-Samdup in Sikkim; collaborated on translations of several texts, including The Tibetan Book of the Dead, The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines and Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa. Died near Encinitas, California at age 88 years. "
[Quelle: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/tibetans.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21]
"The Hermit Who Owned His Mountain : A Profile of W Y. Evans-Wentz
by David Guy
Walter Evans-Wentz didn't speak Tibetan and he never translated anything, but he was known as an eminent translator of important Tibetan texts, especially a 1927 edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which was for many Westerners the first book on Tibetan Buddhism that they took seriously. "He didn't claim to be a translator in his books," says Roger Corless, Professor of Religion at Duke University, "but he didn't mind leaving the impression that he was."
Like many figures who played important roles in bringing Buddhism to the West, Evans-Wentz didn't call himself a Buddhist, and he seems to have stumbled almost accidentally upon the texts he eventually published. With his naive sincerity flowery rhetoric, lofty vision, and messianic tone, he might be taken today for a proto—New Age crank. Nonetheless, he became a highly respected scholar. He even projected a vaguely British affect in his writings, signing his books "W Y. Evans-Wentz, MA, D.Litt; D.Sc. Jesus College, Oxford." But Evans-Wentz spent comparatively little time at Oxford and actually grew up before the mm of the century in Trenton, New Jersey.
The man who would later praise the hermit ideal was a dreamy, lonely youth who liked to spend his afternoons lazing beside the Delaware River, sometimes without his clothes. On one of those afternoons he had an "ecstatic-like vision," and remained "haunted" by the conviction that "this [was] not the first time that I [had] possessed a human body," but now "there came flashing into my mind with such authority that I never thought of doubting it, a mind-picture of things past and to come.... I knew from that night my life was to be that of a world pilgrim, wandering from country to country, over seas, across continents and mountains, through deserts to the end of the earth, seeking, seeking for 1 knew not what."
Evans-Wentz did become a pilgrim, wandering through Egypt, India, Sikkim, China, and Japan. He was particularly mobile between the two world wars, when he worked on The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Throughout his life, he kept diaries and he made extensive notes for an autobiography that served as a source for Ken Winkler's brief 1982 biography Pilgrim of the Clear Light. He also made substantial reference to himself in his books, especially in the long introductions in which he supplied background material. But there remains something essentially mysterious about the man. He wore his spiritual heart on his sleeve, but other parts he kept concealed.
Evans-Wentz had two brothers and two sisters, but was a solitary child. His father was of German descent, a businessman who had a problem with alcohol. His Irish mother may have inspired his early scholarly interests (his first book, written at Oxford, was called The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries).
Walter was raised a Baptist, but as he grew older the family began to embrace the ideas of spiritualists and freethinkers. He had a particular interest in the occult and was much taken with the work of Madame Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society. It was because Blavatsky claimed to have been inspired by lamas in Tibet that he first became interested in that remote Himalayan culture. Indeed, much of his work comes into focus in light of his interest in the Theosophists. He shared their visionary, exalted tone ("Over the bosom of the Earth-Mother, in pulsating vibrations, radiant and energizing, flows the perennial Stream of Life," he wrote in one introduction). He saw truth in all religions but held a lifelong grudge against Christianity, which he regarded as small-minded and petty. Reincarnation is the single thread that runs through all his work: insisting that Gnostic Christians had believed in rebirth, he could not understand why the mainstream faith had abandoned this doctrine.
Evans-Wentz had a fickle relationship to capitalism. The idea of an ascetic life attracted him, especially after he had visited the East, and he disliked any show of wealth or bourgeois comfort. But he followed his father into the real estate business and was remarkably successful, making substantial sums in "quick sales, mortgages, and land transfers." He would continue to deal in real estate all his life, and apparently funded himself with the profits.
He didn't get around to formal education until his mid-twenties.
He had followed his father to San Diego, partly because he was interested in Loma Land, the American headquarters of the Theosophical Society, and he enrolled at Stanford University at the age of twenty-four as a "special entrant." By the time he applied to Jesus College at Oxford in 1907, at the age of twenty-nine, he had earned both bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford. At Oxford he pursued his interest in "fairy faith," traveling through Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Man, collecting stories about pixies, fairies, and goblins.
By 1916, Evans-Wentz had a monthly income of $ 1,600 from his investments, a princely sum in those days. He visited two poets in Ireland, George William Russell and William Butler Yeats, both of whom had an interest in his work and in Theosophy; then he began his wider travels, heading first for Egypt, where he remained for 29 months. Roger Corless speculates that it was Evans-Wentz's probable knowledge of E. Wallace Budge's translation of The Egyptian Boole of the Dead that left us with the inaccurate title The Tibetan Book of the Dead. (A more literal translation would be The Book of Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate States.)
From Egypt he moved on to Ceylon and then to India, where he mingled with the prominent Theosophist community there. Until then, he had taken an occultist's interest in varieties of faith, not a practitioner's. But now he was in the land that had inspired Madame Blavatsky, and he began to wander in the foothills of the Himalayas, encountering the spiritual teachers about whom he would write in his books.
In Darjeeling, Evans-Wentz met the headmaster of a boys' school in Gangtok, Sikkim, named Dawa-Samdup. Dawa-Samdup had acted as an interpreter to the British government in Sikkim and was working on a Tibetan-English dictionary. But apparently he wasn't much of a headmaster. He was "cursed by the demon drink," according to the Winkler biography, and would wander away from the school for days at a time, neglecting his students while he "contemplated on metaphysical planes."
But Dawa-Samdup was devoted to his work as a translator. During his travels, Evans-Wentz had bought various sacred manuscripts; Kazi Dawa-Samdup possessed others. The two men would get together in the early mornings to pore over these texts, with Kazi Dawa-Samdup doing the actual translating and Evans-Wentz acting as his "living dictionary." According to Rick Fields in How the Swans Came to the Lake, Evans-Wentz was "unable to refrain completely from seeing Tibetan Buddhism through the lens of the comparative religion and folklore in which he had trained at Oxford," and "his version contained certain inaccuracies: the diction, for example, with all its 'ye's' and 'thou's,' suffered from biblical rhetoric, and Evans-Wentz had failed to adequately distinguish between Hindu and Buddhist terminology."
Yet Fields also acknowledges the vast influence this text had in introducing Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Three years before its publication, scholar J. B. Pratt had said that Tibetan Buddhism was "so mixed with non-Buddhist elements that I hesitate to call it Buddhism at all." But Evans-Wentz saw Tibetan Buddhism not as a corrupted but as a more elaborate and advanced form of Buddhism; not "in disagreement with canonical, or exoteric, Buddhism, but related to it as higher mathematics is to lower mathematics, or as the apex of the pyramid of the whole of Buddhism." Fields calls this insight Evans-Wentz's greatest achievement.
In 1922, just three years after the two men had begun to collaborate, Kazi Dawa-Samdup died. Evans-Wentz had become more serious about spiritual practice during this period, living in a grass shack and struggling, he later wrote, to "gain some actual insight into the actual practice of yoga." He considered himself Kazi Dawa-Samdup's disciple, though there is no evidence that the Tibetan saw himself as the guru. Evans-Wentz loved practicing in rural India and considered it a sacred space, a concept he continued to develop through the years. "All holy places," he wrote in The Theosophical Forum in 1942, "in varying degrees have been made holy by that same occult power of mind to enhance the psychic character of the atom of matter; they are the ripened fruit of spirituality, the proof of thought's all-conquering and all-transforming supremacy."
The period between Kazi Dawa-Samdup's death and the outbreak of World War II was one of almost frantic activity for Evans-Wentz. He traveled among the three places that had meant the most to him: India, England, and California. And he continued to work as a "compiler and editor" of the texts his teacher had translated, following The Book of the Dead with Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa in 1928. The earlier book had set out what Evans-Wentz called "the art of knowing how to die"; the latter he described as setting out "the art of mastering life."
He followed Milarepa in 1935 with what he regarded as the third book of a trilogy, Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrine, convinced that "it is only when the West understands the East and the East the West that a culture worthy of the name of civilization will be evolved." His work by that time had taken on a decidedly anti-Western tone. He believed not just in the texts he had discovered, but in the way of life he had found.
And then Evans-Wentz's life took a turn that seems both utterly bizarre and entirely characteristic: At the outbreak of World War II, the world traveler and renowned scholar fled to a small room in the Keystone Hotel in San Diego, where he lived out the last twenty-three years of his life. He chose the Keystone because it was near the city's only vegetarian restaurant—the House of Nutrition—and near the public library, where he sometimes checked out his own books because he had given all of his copies away. He also had discovered his own sacred space, Mount Cuchama, a few miles away near the Mexican border. Like the real estate speculator he had been all his life, he bought up as much of it as he could. He owned a small house on his land, and went there sometimes to practice "the Dharma, the Buddhist 'way of truth.'"
In one of his book introductions, he praised what he called the "hermit ideal," men who lived the "rigors of the snowy Himalayas, clad only in a thin cotton garment, subsisting on a daily handful of parched barley." Evans-Wentz had really been a hermit all his life, and with his threadbare clothing and spartan diet, he continued to live that way in San Diego.
"I am haunted by a realization of the illusion of all human endeavors," he wrote in a late diary. "As Milarepa taught: buildings end in ruin, meetings in separation, accumulation in dispersion and life in death. Whether it is better to go on here in California where I am lost in the midst of the busy multitude or return to the Himalayas is now a question difficult to answer correctly." But Evans-Wentz did finally answer it. He had found his sacred mountain, after all, and the spiritual practice he'd spent much of his life "searching, searching" for. He had no more reason to wander. "[Quelle: David Guy. -- Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VI, No.3 (Spring 1997). -- S. 14 - 17.]
Abb.: DVD-Titel
"Lost Horizon is a 1937 film in which a group of travelers find a utopian society in the Himalayan mountains. The film is based upon the James Hilton novel of the same name. It stars Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, John Howard, Margo, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton, Isabel Jewell, H.B. Warner, and Sam Jaffe. The film was adapted by Sidney Buchman (uncredited) and Robert Riskin, and directed by Frank Capra. The Streamline Moderne sets were by Stephen Goosson.
It was remade as a musical in 1973, in which Shangri-La was strangely reminiscient of Gilligan's Island."
[Quelle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Horizon_%281937%29. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-09]
Simon Grimes (1937 - ) wird angeblich von Dilowa Kutuku, dem Oberhaupt der mongolischen Gelugpa, als Panchen Lama (unter dem Namen Choskyi Paldan) anerkannt. Grimes wurde in einer Missionarsfamilie in Tientsin geboren. 1941 ging er mit seiner Familie nach Hawaii.
"Dr. Grimes's career as a spiritual teacher is not limited to his claim to be the Panchen Lama, however. In 1973, when he was 37, he founded the Pansophic Institute (renamed the Institute of Theosophy in 1990) in Reno, Nevada. Its aim was to foster dialogue between religious leaders, and, more specifically, to help establish Tibetan Buddhism in the West. One of its branches was in Ghana. Encouraged by the several thousand members that the Institute had in that country, of whom the most significant was undoubtedly the head of state in the mid-1970s. General Acheampong, Dr. Grimes tried to establish a Ghanaian Buddhism. He was invited to Ghana as a guest of the government in 1975 and performed a number of spiritual functions: meditation classes for members of the government; energizing power centres as future focuses of enlightenment; spiritual healing; combating practitioners of the black arts. How successful he was in any of these, I do not know—but the whole venture was certainly unusual." [Quelle: Rawlinson, Andrew <1943 - >: The book of enlightened masters : western teachers in eastern traditions. -- Chicago : Open Court, ©1997. -- xix, 650 S. : Ill. ; 25 cm.. -- ISBN: 0812693108. -- S. 571.]
Präsident Franklin Delanor Roosevelt möchte Tibet als Überlandverbindung für Nachschub fürs verbündeten China nutzen. Deshalb schickt er Agenten des Office of Strategic Services (OSS) nach Tibet und zum Dalai Lama
"move across Tibet and…observe the attitudes of the people of Tibet; to seek allies and discover enemies; locate strategic targets and survey the territory as a possible field for future activity."
"The first United States mission to Tibet, in 1942, a reconnaissance mission sent by the OSS to scout out a possible route to southern China during World War II was headed by Captain Ilya Tolstoy, a grandson of the novelist. He was accompanied by Lieutenant Brooke Dolan II who had previously engaged in extensive naturalistic explorations in Tibet. In Lhasa they were granted an audience with the Dalai Lama, then only 7 years old. A letter from Franklin Roosevelt was delivered which was carefully phrased as being addressed to the Dalai Lama as a religious leader but not as the ruler of Tibet. Gifts were given to the Dalai Lama and gifts were received from the Tibetan cabinet, the Kashag. Tolstoy remained for three months but did not attempt to raise the question of transhipment of supplies to China as he could see the unfavorable attitude of the Tibetans. In early 1943 Tolstoy continued into China arriving at Lanzhou in June, 1943. The notion of building a road or attempting to supply China through Tibet was abandoned but as a result of the relations which were established a wool import quota was granted to Padatsang, a Tibetan merchant from Kham who had aided the mission, and promised radio equipment was delivered to Lhasa, 3 transmitters and 6 receivers. While in Tibet Tolstoy and the British resident had raised the possibility that Tibet might participate in post-war conferences. This never came to fruition as both Britain and the United States in consideration of their relations with China eventually took the position that Tibet was not a sovereign country."
[Quelle: http://www.explore-dictionary.com/science/F/Foreign_relations_of_Tibet.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21]
Tibet sendet eine Handelsdelegation in die USA
"In 1947 the Tibetan foreign office began planning a trade delegation to visit India, China, the United States and Britain. Initial overtures were made to the US embassy in India requesting meetings with President Truman and other US officials to discuss trade. This request was forwarded to Washington but the State Department proved willing only to meet with the Tibetans on an informal basis. The delegation consisted of 4 persons, Tsipon Shakabpa, Tibet's chief financial officer, Padatsang and two others including a monk. Armed with the first Tibetan passports the delegation went first to New Dehli meeting with Prime Minister Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. Most foreign trade from Tibet passed through India and it was the practice of the Indian government to convert any foreign currencies received into rupees before payment to Tibet. The Tibetans were unable to negotiate any change in this practice which would have put hard currency into their hands. One of the goals of the trade delegation was to obtain gold or other solid backing for Tibetan currency.
It was the Chinese position that a Chinese passport was required. These were issued and the delegation entered China at Hong Kong using them and spend 3 months in China. For the next leg of the journey to the United States and Britain the Chinese took the position that they would only issue exit visas on the Chinese passports. However the Tibets managed to get a British consular officer in Nanking to issue a British visa on their Tibetan passports and again a US officer in Hong Kong thus defeating the efforts of the US State Department and the British Foreign Office to deny use of the Tibetan passports, a small victory for the supposedly unsophisticated Tibetans.
The delegation arrived in San Francisco in July, 1948 where they were met by the British Consul. They traveled by train to Washington where despite strong objections by the Chinese and reassurance that the United States recognized China's de jure sovereignty over Tibet the Tibetans were received by the Secretary of State, George Marshall. There was some language in the State Department's negotiations with the Chinese which noted that they exerted no de facto control over Tibet and noted the traditional American principle of favoring self-determination but no more definite statement was made regarding Tibetan sovereignty.
They requested aid from the United States in convincing India to free up their hard currency earning and also for permission to purchase gold from the United States for a currency reserve. They received no help on their problem with India but were given permission to purchase up to 50,000 ounces of gold.
Not meeting with President Truman they proceeded on to New York where they were greeted by their old friend, Ilya Tolstoy, who introduced them around. They met with Lowell Thomas who was interested in visiting Tibet and Dwight Eisenhower, then president of Columbia University and other eastern establishment personalities as well as Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark who had an interest in Tibet.
In November the delegation set sail for Britain where they spent 3 weeks but were received coolly. Returning though India they were able to free up some foreign exchange for the purchase of gold and adding money of their own effected a purchase of $425,800 in gold which was transported to Tibet by pack animals.
Being received more warmly in the United States than in Britain with whom they had a long established relationship set the stage for later expansion of the relationship with the United States as they attempted to deal with later Chinese efforts to reassert effective control."
[Quelle: http://www.explore-dictionary.com/science/F/Foreign_relations_of_Tibet.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21]
Die USA nehmen 800 Kalmükische Flüchtlinge auf
"In late 1951, the United States accepted 800 Kalmyk Mongolians who had been languishing in refugee camps since the end of World War II. These refugees were drawn from two waves that had fled the Soviet Union during the preceding decades. The first had departed Kalmykia shortly after the Bolshevik revolution; the second left in late 1943 after Joseph Stalin adopted a ruthless line against minorities and started deporting the Mongolians to Siberia aboard cattle cars. Once in the United States, the older wave of emigres settled around Philadelphia. The newer ones -- no more than seventy families -- established a small but vibrant community near Freewood Acres, New Jersey. " [Quelle: http://www.american-buddha.com/cia.secret.war.saipan.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-01]
Abb.: Geshe Wangyal
[Bildquelle:
http://www.american-buddha.com/cia.secret.war.saipan.htm. -- Zugriff am
2005-06-01]
Geshe Wangyal (1901 - 1983), ein kalmükischer Lama kommt in die USA und gründet das Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America
"Geshe Wangyal was born in 1901, among the Kalmyk Mongols , in what is today the Kalmyk republic in Russian Federation. He became a monk at a very young age of six and as a young man, he went to study in Lhasa, Tibet, just after the Bolshevik revolution was started. He studied at the Gomang College of Drepung Monastic University in Lhasa until 1935 when he decided to return to Klmykia to arrange some financial matters. On his way in Pekin, he was told of the seriousness of situation in Russia under the communism. Therefore he gave up his plan to go back to Klamykia, and instead found a job in Pekin. He worked on a Kanjur and Tanjur project, and was getting well-paid. After earning enough money which could support him until he receives his geshe degree, in 1937, he left Pekin to return to Tibet via India. While in Calcutta (Kolkata today), Sir Charles Bell, a well known British statesman, scholar, and explorer. Geshe Wangyal was hired as a translator to Sir Charles Bell, and accompanied him on a trip through China and Manchuria before returning to Tibet. He then received his geshe degree in Lhasa.
His relations with the British, such as working with Sir Charles Bell, made him suspectious to the Tibetan government. Therefore he could not stay in the monastery any longer. In the following several years, he constantly travelled between Lhasa, Tibet and Kalimpong, India to do business, in order to raise funds to help other monks to receive their geshe degrees. Many Mongolian monks who were cut off from their native land due to the communist revolution, received his assistance. When the Chinese were start advancing Tibet in the early 1950s, he escaped to India. Then in 1955, he went to the United States to work as a priest among the Kalmyk Mongols who were newly resettled in New Jersey, New York and Panselvania as refugees from the Soviet Union.In the United States, he established a monastery, Labsum Shedrub Ling, among the Kalmyks. He served as the monastery's head teacher until his death in January, 1983. He received many students of Western bakcground and taught them Buddhism, and made great contribution to the spread of Buddhism in America. Among his students is the well known religious studies professor and Buddhist activist Robert A. F. Thurman . Geshe Wangyal had also been offering great financial support to the Tibetan monasteries in India and sponsoring Tibetan monks' stays at his monastery.
In October, 1982 Geshe Wangyal transferred ownership of the Labsum Shedrub Ling monastery building in New Brunswick, New Jersey, which was supposed to be his lifetime work, to the Tibet Fund, as an offering to His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet.
Geshe Wangyal passed away on January 30, 1983 at the age of eighty-one. "
[Quelle: http://intermongol.net/diaspora/stories/geshe_wangyal.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-01]
Geshe Wanglyal hatte auch gute Beziehungen zum CIA:
"As an ethnic and religious anomaly, the Mongolians were initially ignored by their host country. By the early twentieth century, however, their mastery of Tibetan Buddhism eventually brought them to the attention of the Russian czars. Looking to outwit the British in the great game of colonial competition, the Russians sought to use a particularly gifted Mongolian monk named Agvan Dorzhiev to court favor with Lhasa. The task proved deceptively easy. A true scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, Dorzhiev (who hailed from a displaced Mongolian clan in Siberia) not only won an introduction to the thirteenth Dalai Lama but also was retained as a palace tutor and confidant for ten years. Through this inside connection, the relationship between Tibet and Russia had the makings of a close alliance. In 1904, however, chances for this were dashed when the Dalai Lama briefly fled to Mongolia following a British incursion from India. Dorzhiev was dispatched to plead for emergency Russian support, but he returned with nothing more than moral encouragement. Having just been humiliated in the Russo-Japanese War, the czar had little time to spare for Tibet.
The Russians never had a chance to make amends. In 1917, the czar was overthrown by Bolshevik communists, and Russia became the Soviet Union. By that time, Dorzhiev had settled among his ethnic relatives in Kalmykia and opened a pair of monastic schools. Tibet never strayed far from his mind, however, and shortly after the Bolshevik revolution he personally selected several of his best pupils to continue their studies in Lhasa. Among them was a prodigy named Wangyal. [8]
Born in 1901, Wangyal had started monastic life at age six. He was known for his ability to memorize several pages of Buddhist text in a single sitting, and he regularly excelled in class. Switching briefly to medical school, he again took top honors before reverting back to religious course work following the untimely death of his professor.
After being selected to study in Lhasa, Wangyal learned that he would be part of a larger expedition with ulterior motives. As the Bolsheviks still harbored the czarist desire to court Tibet, one of his co-travelers was a communist functionary who intended to offer Lhasa weapons as a sign of good faith. Having Moscow's obvious blessing did not ease the physical challenges of journeying to the Tibetan plateau. What was expected to take four months instead took fourteen and claimed the life of one apprentice in a blinding snowstorm.
Once in Lhasa, Wangyal enrolled at the prestigious Drepung Monastic University. Located on a high ridge eight kilometers west of the capital, Drepung had once been the largest monastery in the world (its population in the seventeenth century was a staggering 10,000 monks), Setting his sights high, the newly arrived Mongolian intended to become geshe (doctor of divinity) -- a title that can take up to thirty-five years of study to achieve. [9]
Rigorous study was not Wangyal's only challenge. He ran short of finances and was forced to leave Lhasa in 1932 to seek funds at home. Planning to return by way of China, he got as far as Beijing before hearing stories of Soviet repression back in Kalmykia. This led him to look for an alternative source of financing in Beijing, and eventually he was able to earn a good living translating Tibetan texts.
By 1935, Wangyal had amassed enough cash and headed back toward Tibet via India. Making his way to Calcutta, he had a chance meeting with Sir Charles Bell, a senior British colonial official and noted Tibetan scholar who, ironically, had earlier displaced Agvan Dorzhiev as the closest foreign confidant of the thirteenth Dalai Lama. Given his linguistic skills -- Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, and a smattering of English -- Wangyal was hired as Bell's translator during an extended tour of China and Manchuria.
Following these exhaustive travels -- including a four-month visit to England -- Wangyal finally made it to Lhasa. There he earned his geshe degree after just nine years of study. Though this was an impressive scholastic accomplishment, he found himself under a cloud of suspicion. His foreign heritage, coupled with extended time spent in China and service to the British, did not sit well among the xenophobes of the Tibetan court.
Not fully welcome in the homeland of his religion, Geshe Wangyal limited his time in Lhasa to the summer months. Winters were spent in Kalimpong, where he displayed pronounced entrepreneurial skills as a trader. Although this was financially rewarding, he yearned to open his own religious school. Stonewalled in Tibet, he instead targeted Beijing -- only to cancel those plans when the communists came to power in 1949. Figuring that he would give Tibet a second chance, he again ventured to Lhasa but was forced to flee upon hearing that the PLA was approaching the Tibetan capital in late 1951. [10]
Back in Kalimpong, Geshe Wangyal grew restless. China, Tibet, Mongolia, and his native Kalmykia were all under communist occupation, but wasting away the months in tiny Kalimpong lacked both mental and spiritual stimulation.
There was one attractive alternative, however. In late 1951, the United States accepted 800 Kalmyk Mongolians who had been languishing in refugee camps since the end of World War II. These refugees were drawn from two waves that had fled the Soviet Union during the preceding decades. The first had departed Kalmykia shortly after the Bolshevik revolution; the second left in late 1943 after Joseph Stalin adopted a ruthless line against minorities and started deporting the Mongolians to Siberia aboard cattle cars. Once in the United States, the older wave of emigres settled around Philadelphia. The newer ones -- no more than seventy families -- established a small but vibrant community near Freewood Acres, New Jersey. [11]
Hearing of this, Geshe Wangyal contemplated a move to the United States. His first several visa applications were rejected, and it was not until mid-1954, following introductions by a British acquaintance, that the U.S. vice consul in Calcutta processed his papers with a favorable recommendation. [12]
Arriving on American soil in February 1955, Geshe Wangyal found that word of his religious accomplishments in Tibet had already made him famous among his fellow Kalmyk Mongolians. With an instant audience, he opened a modest temple in a converted New Jersey garage.
Geshe Wangal's fame was not limited to his ethnic home crowd. As the first (and to that time, only) qualified scholar of Tibetan Buddhism in the United States, he soon came in contact with Norbu, who at the time was also living in New Jersey and teaching Tibetan at Columbia University. Out of mutual respect between geshe and incarnation, Norbu was given an honorary chair at the New Jersey temple.
The two cooperated in another way as well. Following Norbu's lead, Geshe Wangyal began teaching languages -- first Mongolian, then Tibetan -- at Columbia University in 1956. Having dissected Tibetan grammar during years of poring over Buddhist texts, he had a particularly deep appreciation for its written form. His extended time as Bell's interpreter had left him with reasonably good English skills. The U.S. government, for one, found his linguistic talents more than adequate: among his first Tibetan students at Columbia were two from the U.S. Army. [13]
Given this background, Geshe Wangyal was the perfect choice to instruct the Khampas about their own language. Having already been indirectly exposed to the U.S. government while teaching the army students -- and after being informed that Norbu was already involved -- the monk offered his cooperation and was soon en route to Saipan."
[Quelle: http://www.american-buddha.com/cia.secret.war.saipan.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-01]
Tibetischer Volksaufstand gegen die Chinesen. Flucht des XIV. Dalai Lama nach Indien, wo er in Dharamsala (Himajal Pradesh) eine Exilregierung bildet. Flucht von 90.000 Tibetern.
Abb.: Deshung Rinpoche
[Bildquelle: http://mypage.direct.ca/w/wattj/images2/dezh_4.jpg. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-01]Deshung (Dezhung) Rinpoche (1906 - 1987) kommt nach Seattle (WA) und forsch an der University of Washington (State)
"Biography of Deshung Rinpoche Kunga Tenpa'i Nyima In 1906, the Fire Horse Year, H. E. Deshung Rinpoche was born in the mountainous Ga region of East Tibet into a family famous for its skilled physicians. When he was only five years old, Rinpoche appealed to his parents to be sent to a monastery so that he could devote his life to the Buddhist path. Impressed by his request, Rinpoche's parents realized that this was no ordinary person, but one destined to a very special religious role. He then went to study and live with his uncle, Ngawang Nyima, a monk who spent most of his life in retreat at the Thaglung Monastery in Ga. Rinpoche began to learn letters and memorization and did chores for his uncle.
As a boy Rinpoche read the biography of Milarepa in whom his uncle had strong faith, and he was so inspired by the life of this great saint, Rinpoche himself wished to become a yogi. Instead, his future responsibilities bounded him to a more traditional approach to the Dharma. Much later in life, Rinpoche expressed his continued devotion to Milarepa with a pilgrimage to all places of importance in that saint's life.
The lama from whom Rinpoche took the vows of Refuge was Kunga Nyima, who along with Ngawang Nyima, practiced the meditation on Vajrayogini. He therefore instructed Rinpoche in the practice of the Black Demchog, a preliminary to Vajrayogini meditation. At age ten Deshung Rinpoche finally met the great Sakya lama Ngawang Legpa Rinpoche, who had just emerged from a fifteen year retreat. This master was to become Rinpoche's root lama, of whom he spoke with the greatest devotion and gratitude. When Rinpoche was fifteen years old, Legpa Rinpoche gave him his novice monk's vows, and Rinpoche subsequently became Lama Legpa's main disciple.
Rinpoche's early education included instructions in spelling, etymology, versification, and rhetoric, Mahayana and Vajrayana treatises, and in particular on the Madhyamika or Middle Way. Among his lamas at this time were the Gelugpa lama, Lozang Chokyi Gawa, and a Nyimgmapa lama, Shenga Chokyi Nangwa.
When Rinpoche was eighteen, he was recognized by the officials of the Deshung Monastery to be the third rebirth of Deshung Lungrig Nyima, and was accorded the appropriate wealth, position, and quarters in the monastery. He remained in residence at the Thaglung Monastery, however, rather than interrupt the precious teachings he was receiving from Legpa Rinpoche. Lama Legpa grounded Deshung Rinpoche in the traditional method of listening to the Dharma, contemplating the teachings, and then practicing them, and he directed Rinpoche to meet as many great lamas as possible.
Deshung Rinpoche describes Legpa Rinpoche as a very kind lama who kept the strict vows of a Bhikshu monk. Because of his great faith in Legpa Rinpoche, Deshung Rinpoche chose for his personal practice the development of compassion through meditating on Chenrezi, Legpa Rinpoche's primary practice. Lama Legpa's daily recitation of mantras of Chenrezi greatly inspired Deshung Rinpoche, who seems always to have this mantra on his lips.
Following the guidance of his lama, Rinpoche received extensive teachings and empowerments from over forty additional lamas, including the renowned Ri-me master, Jamyang Chokyi Lodro. These teachings included the major texts of Tibetan Buddhism. For example, Rinpoche received the Sakya Lamdre Tsogshe and Lamdre Lobshay four times and became a recognized master of these teachings. He was given the transmissions contained in the Druptap Kundu, a fourteen volume collection of meditational texts on a thousand deities, and as a part of his devotional tantric practices, Rinpoche completed over ten years of retreats.
Deshung Rinpoche's journeys took him to monasteries throughout Tibet, and his reputation as a scholar and skilled practitioner led to numerous appeals for teachings and empowerments. In Sakya, Rinpoche visited more than twenty monasteries where he expounded on a vast range of subjects. He imparted the Chenrezi empowerment to over ten thousand monks. During his late thirties Rinpoche lived and traveled among the nomads of East Tibet who constituted the supporting community of his Deshung Monastery. When lay people expressed the desire for explanations of the Dharma, Rinpoche held public meetings in East Tibet at which thousands gathered to hear him teach about Chenrezi. When his niece married Dagchen Rinpoche, a close relationship developed between Deshung Rinpoche and the Sakya Hierarchy, and Rinpoche later served as lama - tutor to Dagchen Rinpoche's eldest son, Minzu Vajra.
At the time of Legpa Rinpoche's passing, he appointed Deshung Rinpoche to succeed him as Abbot of Tharlam Monastery. However, soon after, Rinpoche and one hundred of his monks were forced to flee the approaching armies of Communist Chinese, and only forty monks survived the lengthy and dangerous escape to India.
Rinpoche came to the U.S. in 1960 to participate in a University of Washington research project on Tibetan culture and religion. During his twenty years in this country, he gave countless teachings and empowerments at centers across the U.S. and Canada and founded Sakya centers in New York City, Minneapolis, and Boston. Members of Sakya Monastery in Seattle have been most fortunate to receive extensive teachings from Rinpoche and to be inspired by his great compassion. Rinpoche spent most of 1981 in Katmandu, Nepal supervising the building of the new Tharlam Monastery and teaching the numerous Tibetan and Western students.
In the ensuing years between the founding of Tharlam Monastery and his passing in 1987, Deshung Rinpoche traveled between the US and Nepal giving teachings and raising funds for the new monastery. All who were fortunate enough to be able to see him were affected by his great knowledge and compassion.
Abb.: Sonam Wangdu, Deshung Rinpoches Wiederverkörperung (Tulku)Deshung Rinpoche's reincarnation, Sonam Wangdu, was born in Seattle, Washington on November 12, 1991. He was formally enthroned at Tharlam Monastery on March 8, 1994. His tonsure ceremony was performed by H. H. Sakya Trizin on April 6th of that year. At the same time he was given his formal name, Ngawang Kunga Tegchen Chokyi Nyima, by H. H. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya. He now resides and studies at Tharlam Monastery. "
[Quelle: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/4886/dbio.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-01]
Abb.: Robert Thurman
[Bildquelle: http://www.snowlionpub.com/pages/thurmanteaching1.php. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-26]Robert Thurman (1941 - ) wird als erster Westerner als tibetischer Mönch ordiniert
"Robert A. F. Thurman is a scholar, author, former Tibetan Buddhist monk, Director of Tibet House in New York City, a close personal friend of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, and father of five children including the Hollywood actress, Uma. He has lectured all over the world; his charisma and enthusiasm draw packed audiences. Robert Thurman's flair for the dramatic may be attributed to the weekly Shakespeare readings hosted by his parents, in which Robert participated alongside such guests as Laurence Olivier. He managed to get himself kicked out of Exeter just prior to graduation for playing hooky in a failed attempt to join Fidel Castro's Cuban guerrilla army in 1958. Harvard University admitted him anyway, but a deep dissatisfaction and questioning led him to drop out and he traveled on a "vision quest" as a pilgrim to India. Returning home to attend his father's funeral, he met a Mongolian monk, Geshe Wangyal, and thus began Thurman's life-long passion for Tibetan Buddhism.
In 1964, Geshe Wangyal introduced Thurman to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and described Robert as,
"...a crazy American boy, very intelligent and with a good heart (though a little proud), who spoke Tibetan well and had learned something about Buddhism [and] wanted to become a monk…. Geshe Wangyal was leaving it up to His Holiness to decide."
Thurman became the first Westerner to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He was 24 and the Dalai Lama 29. They eventually met weekly and His Holiness would quickly refer Thurman's questions concerning Buddhism to another teacher and turn the conversation to Freud, physics, and other "Western" topics of interest to him. Thurman describes this phase of his life:
"All I wanted was to stay in the 2,500-year-old Buddhist community of seekers of enlightenment, to be embraced as a monk. My inner world was rich, full of insights and delightful visions, with a sense of luck and privilege at having access to such great teachers and teachings and the time to study and try to realize them."
But when he returned to the United States, Thurman found that his career as a monk was not viable, so
"I decided that I wanted to learn more Buddhist languages, read more Buddhist texts.… The only lay institution in America comparable to monasticism is the university, so in the end I turned to academia."
Robert Thurman currently holds the first endowed chair in this field of study in the United States; he is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. He is a prolific translator and writer of both scholarly and popular works, including Tsong Khapa's Speech of Gold: Reason and Enlightenment in the Central Philosophy of Tibet, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Essential Tibetan Buddhism, and his most recent, Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness.
Thurman is not only a scholar, but a champion of the preservation of Tibetan culture. In 1987, he and actor Richard Gere founded New York City's Tibet House, a nonprofit institution devoted to preserving the living culture of Tibet. Thurman writes, "What I have learned from these people [Tibetans] has forever changed my life, and I believe their culture contains an inner science particularly relevant to the difficult time in which we live. My desire is to share some of the profound hope for our future that they have shared with me."
[Quelle: http://www.literati.net/Thurman/. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-31]
Abb.: Chögyam TrungpaChögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche (1940 - 1987) kommt in die USA.
"Chögyam Trungpa (1940 - April 4, 1987) was a Buddhist meditation master, scholar, teacher and artist. Born in Tibet, Chögyam Trungpa was the eleventh in a line of Trungpa tülkus, important figures in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1959, after having already achieved wide renown for his teachings in his native country, he fled the Chinese invasion and crossed the Himalaya on foot into India.
After familiarizing himself with the English language he studied at Oxford and then came to the United States at the invitation of several students.
In 1974, Trungpa founded the Naropa Institute, which later became Naropa University, in Boulder, Colorado. Naropa was the first accredited Buddhist university in North America. Trungpa also founded more than 100 meditation centers throughout the world.
In 1976, Trungpa began giving teachings, since gathered and presented as Shambhala training, inspired by his vision (see terma) of the legendary Kingdom of Shambhala. Shambhalian practices focus on connecting with one's basic sanity and using that insight as inspiration for one's encounter with the world.
Two of his famous and well known students are Pema Chödrön and Allen Ginsberg. Allen Ginsberg was also Teacher at Naropa University.
In 1986, Trungpa, in failing health, established his headquarters in Nova Scotia, where he shortly thereafter died of a heart attack.
[edit]Chronology
1940: Born in Kham, Eastern Tibet. Enthroned as eleventh Trungpa Tulku, Supreme Abbot of Surmang Monasteries, and Governor of Surmang District.
1944-59: Studies traditional monastic disciplines, meditation, and philosophy, as well as calligraphy, thangka painting, and monastic dance.
1947: Ordained as a shramanera (novice monk).
1958: Receives degrees of Kyorpön (Doctor of Divinity) and Khenpo (Master of Studies). Ordained as a bhikshu (full monk).
1959-60: Escapes to India during the Chinese invasion of Tibet and increasing suppression of the Buddhist religion.
1960-63: By appointment of the Dalai Lama, serves as spiritual advisor to the Young Lamas' Home School in Dalhousie, India.
1963-67: Attends Oxford University on a Spaulding scholarship, studying comparative religion, philosophy, and fine arts. Receives instructor's degree in Sogetsu School of Japanese flower arrangement founded by Master Sofu Teshigahara.
1967: Founds Samyê-Ling, a meditation center in Dumfriesshire, Scotland.
1968: Receives The Sadhana of Mahamudra terma text while on retreat in Taktsang, a sacred cave in Bhutan. (see Termas)
1969: Becomes the first Tibetan British subject. Injured in a car accident, leaving him partially paralyzed. Relinquishes monastic vows and robes.
1970: Marries Diana Judith Pybus. Arrives in North America. Establishes Tail of the Tiger, a Buddhist meditation and study center in Vermont, now known as Karmê Chöling. Establishes Karma Dzong, a Buddhist community in Boulder, Colorado.
1971: Begins teaching at University of Colorado. Establishes Rocky Mountain Dharma Center, now known as Shambhala Mountain Center, near Fort Collins, Colorado.
1972: Initiates Maitri, a therapeutic program that works with different styles of neurosis using principles of the five buddha families. Conducts the Milarepa Film Workshop, a program which analyzes the aesthetics of film, on Lookout Mountain, Colorado.
1973: Founds Mudra Theater Group, which stages original plays and practices theater exercises, based on traditional Tibetan dance. Incorporates Vajradhatu, an international association of Buddhist meditation and study centers, now known as Shambhala International. Establishes Dorje Khyung Dzong, a retreat facility in southern Colorado. Conducts first annual Vajradhatu Seminary, a three-month advanced practice and study program.
1974: Incorporates Nalanda Foundation, a nonprofit, nonsectarian educational organization to encourage and organize programs in the fields of education, psychology, and the arts. Hosts the first North American visit of His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyü lineage. Founds The Naropa Institute, a contemplative studies and liberal arts college, now fully accredited as Naropa University. Forms the organization that will become the Dorje Kasung, a service group entrusted with the protection of the buddhist teachings and the welfare of the community.
1975: Forms the organization that will become the Shambhala Lodge, a group of students dedicated to fostering enlightened society. Founds the Nalanda Translation Committee for the translation of Buddhist texts from Tibetan and Sanskrit. Establishes Ashoka Credit Union.
1976: Hosts the first North American visit of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, revered meditation master and scholar of the Nyingma lineage. Hosts a visit of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma lineage. Empowers Thomas F. Rich as his dharma heir, known thereafter as Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin. Establishes the Kalapa Court in Boulder, Colorado, as his residence and a cultural center for the Vajradhatu community. Receives the first of several Shambhala terma texts (see termas). These comprise the literary source for the Shambhala teachings. Founds Alaya Preschool in Boulder, Colorado.
1977: Bestows the Vajrayogini abhisheka for the first time in the West for students who have completed ngöndro practice. Establishes the celebration of Shambhala Day. Observes a year-long retreat in Charlemont, Massachusetts. Founds Shambhala Training to promote a secular approach to meditation practice and an appreciation of basic human goodness. Visits Nova Scotia for the first time.
1978: Conducts the first annual Magyal Pomra Encampment, an advanced training program for members of the Dorje Kasung. Conducts the first annual Kalapa Assembly, an intensive training program for advanced Shambhala teachings and practices. Conducts the first Dharma Art seminar. Forms Amara, an association of health professionals. Forms the Upaya Council, a mediation council providing a forum for resolving disputes. Establishes the Midsummer's Day festival and Children's Day.
1979: Empowers his eldest son, Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo, as his successor and heir to the Shambhala lineage. Founds the Shambhala School of Dressage, an equestrian school under the direction of his wife, Lady Diana Mukpo. Founds Vidya Elementary School in Boulder, Colorado.
1980-83: Presents a series of environmental installations and flower arranging exhibitions at art galleries in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, and Boulder.
1980: Forms Kalapa Cha to promote the practice of traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. With the Nalanda Translation Committee, completes the first English translation of The Rain of Wisdom.
1981: Hosts the visit of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama to Boulder, Colorado. Conducts the first annual Buddhist-Christian Conference in Boulder, Colorado, exploring the common ground between Buddhist and Christian contemplative traditions. Forms Ryuko Kyudojo to promote the practice of Zen archery under the direction of Shibata Kanjuro Sensei, bow maker to the Emperor of Japan. Directs a film, Discovering Elegance, using footage of his environmental installation and flower arranging exhibitions.
1982: Forms Kalapa Ikebana to promote the study and practice of Japanese flower arranging.
1983: Establishes Gampo Abbey, a Karma Kagyü monastery located in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, for Western students wishing to enter into traditional monastic discipline. Creates a series of elocution exercises to promote precision and mindfulness of speech.
1984-85: Observes a year-long retreat in Mill Village, Nova Scotia.
1986: Moves his home and the international headquarters of Vajradhatu to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1987: Dies on April 4th."
[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chogyam_Trungpa. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-26]
Hagiographie Chögyam Trungpas:
"The Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939-1987) was the 11th descendent in the line of Trungpa tülkus, important teachers of the Kagyü lineage, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism and renowned for its strong emphasis on meditation practice. In addition to being a key teacher within the Kagyü lineage, Chögyam Trungpa was also trained in the Nyingma tradition, the oldest of the four schools and was an adherent of the ri-me ("non-sectarian") ecumenical movement within Tibetan Buddhism, which aspired to bring together and make available all the valuable teachings of the different schools, free of sectarian rivalry. Throughout his life, he sought to bring the teachings he had received to the largest possible audience. Already installed as the head of the Surmang monasteries in eastern Tibet, Chögyam Trungpa was forced to flee the country in 1959, at the age of 20. Barely escaping Chinese invaders, he and a small party of monks made the perilous journey over the Himalayas to India on horseback and on foot. From 1959-1963, by appointment of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Chögyam Trungpa served as the spiritual advisor for the Young Lamas Home School in Dalhousie, India.
In 1963, Chögyam Trungpa moved to England to study comparative religion, philosophy, and fine arts under a Spaulding Fellowship at Oxford University. During this time, he also studied Japanese flower arranging and received an instructors degree from the Sogetsu school. In 1967, he moved to Scotland, where he founded the Samye Ling meditation centre, the first Tibetan Buddhist practice centre in the West. Shortly thereafter, a variety of experiences--including a car accident that left him partially paralyzed on the left side of his body--led Chögyam Trungpa to the decision to give up his monastic vows and work as a lay teacher. In 1969, he published Meditation in Action, the first of fourteen books on the spiritual path published during his lifetime. The following year represented yet another turning point in Trungpa's life, when he married Diana Pybus and moved to the United States, where he established his first North American meditation centre, Tail of the Tiger (now known as Karmê-Chöling) in Barnet, Vermont.
The ancient teachings and practical instructions that Chögyam Trungpa brought with him found an eager audience in the America of the 1970s, a decade during which he travelled nearly constantly throughout North America, published six books, established three meditation centres and a contemplative university (Naropa University). He became renowned for his unique ability to present the essence of the highest Buddhist teachings in a form readily understandable to Western students.
During this period, Chögyam Trungpa conducted six Vajradhatu Seminaries, three-month residential programs at which he presented a vast body of Buddhist teachings in an atmosphere of intensive meditation practice. The seminaries assisted in the important function of training his students to become teachers themselves. Chögyam Trungpa also invited other teachers, including His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa--head of the Kagyü lineage--to come to the West and offer teachings.
It was also during this period that Chögyam Trungpa founded Vajradhatu (headquartered in Boulder, Colorado), the umbrella organization for the many centres that were springing up throughout the world under his direction. In 1976, he appointed Thomas Rich to be his Vajra Regent, a traditional position giving someone the responsibility of carrying on the teaching legacy left by a teacher. Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin was the first westerner to be acknowledged as a lineage holder in the Kagyü tradition.
Beyond BuddhismLate in the 1970s, Chögyam Trungpa expressed his long-held desire to present contemplative practice to those who were not necessarilly interested in studying Buddhism. He developed a program called Shambhala Training, based on the legendary enlightened kingdom of that name. During the 1980s, while continuing teaching tours, Vajradhatu Seminaries, and book publication--and establishing a Buddhist monastery in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada--Trungpa increasingly turned his attention to the propagation of teachings that extended beyond the Buddhist canon. These activities included not only Shambhala Training, which was attracting thousands of students, but also Japanese archery, calligraphy, flower arranging, tea ceremony, health care, dance, theatre, and psychotherapy, among others. In planting the seeds for these many activities, Chögyam Trungpa sought to bring, in his words, "art to everyday life." He founded the Nalanda Foundation in 1974 as an umbrella organization for these activities.
The essence of the organization that Chögyam Trungpa had founded was the offering of meditation instruction and teaching programs at the more than 100 city-based centres (Dharmadhatus) spread throughout the world and at the several rural contemplative centres where intensive meditation and study programs were held. At these various centres, which formed a large and somewhat informal network, students were introduced to the possibility of integrating meditation practice and study into their everyday lives. Depending on their interests and inclinations, students engaged in any of the many contemplative activities that are now part of the Shambhala organization--from traditional meditation practice to flower arranging and dance.
A New EraIn 1986, based on his desire to establish the centre of his organization in a less agressive and materialistic atmosphere, Chögyam Trungpa moved to Nova Scotia, where hundreds of his students had already settled.
It would prove to be the last of his many moves. Not long after, in April 1987, Chögyam Trungpa's life came to an end. His passing was marked in an elaborate day-long ceremony, attracting more than 3,000 people, held on the Vermont land where he had first established a foothold in the West. Several years later, the Vajra Regent passed away as well. During the period following these deaths, the community and its leadership turned to one of Chögyam Trungpa's most revered and only living teachers, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, then supreme head of the Nyingma lineage.
Appointment of the Sawang Ösel Rangdröl MukpoIn 1990, at the urging of Khyentse Rinpoche, Trungpa Rinpoche's eldest son, the Sawang Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo (now known as Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, as indicated below) returned from a period of practice and study with Dilgo Khyentse in Nepal to lead the community and direct the work his father, Chögyam Trungpa, had begun. As the Shambhala lineage is passed from parent to child, Chögyam Trungpa had trained his eldest son from childhood to take on this role. The Sawang's first major directive was to bring the many activities of his father's students under the umbrella of Shambhala International and to declare each of the centers throughout the world a "Shambhala Centre," offering secular meditation, spiritual training, and cultural activities under one roof.
With this in mind, the Shambhala community, under the leadership of the Sawang, continued to explore ways to make the value of what it had to offer more broadly known. For example, the Shambhala Sun became available on thousands of newsstands and was internationally recognized for its insight into contemporary society and its captivating design. Geographic expansion occurred as well with the establishment of a major rural meditation center near Limoges, France.
Enthronement of Sakyong Mipham RinpocheIn May 1995, with the organization in its twenty-fifth year, Shambhala Centres expanding throughout the world, and a well-established Nova Scotian community, the Sawang was formally installed as Sakyong--leader of both the spiritual and secular aspects of Shambhala. The Sakyong enthronement also recognized the Sakyong as Mipham Rinpoche, a descendant of the revered nineteenth-century Tibetan meditation master and scholar. This ceremony marked an important milestone in the history of Shambhala International, recognizing the role of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in carrying on what his father envisioned when he set foot on North American soil twenty five years earlier."
[Quelle: http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/vctr/ctrbio.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-26]
Über Chögyam Trungpa:
Midal, Fabrice <1967 - >: Chögyam Trungpa : his life and vision / Fabrice Midal ; translated by Ian Monk ; foreword by Diana J. Mukpo. -- Boston : Shambhala, 2004. -- xxv, 550 S. : Ill. ; 24 cm. -- ISBN 159030098X. -- Originaltitel: Trungpa : biographie (2002). -- {Wenn Sie HIER klicken, können Sie einen Nachdruck dieses Buchs bei amazon.de bestellen}
Abb.: Karmê-Chöling
[Bildquelle: http://www.karmecholing.org/slideshow/slide01.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-26]Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche (1940 - 1987) gründet das Meditationszentrum Tail of the Tiger (heute: Karmê-Chöling) in Barnet, Vermont.
Webpräsenz: http://www.karmecholing.org/. -- Zugrif am 2005-05-26
Sonam Kazi, ein Laie und Nyingma-Meditationslhrer, kommt aus Sikkim nach New York City
Abb.: Tarthang Tulku
[Bildquelle: http://www.buddyzm.terramail.pl/html/gest.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-02]Tarthang Tulku, der 1968 in die USA gekommen war, gründet in Berkeley, CA Dharma Publishing
Webpräsenz: http://www.dharmapublishing.com/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-02
"1. What kind of organization is Dharma Publishing? Is it affiliated with a particular school of Buddhism?
Dharma Publishing is a non-profit corporation. No one who works at Dharma Publishing, including the directors, gets paid. All of our profits are donated to our Tibetan Text Preservation Project, which prints, collates, wraps and ships traditional sacred Tibetan texts and art to Tibetan refugees in India. Dharma Publishing was founded by Tarthang Tulku, a Tibetan lama who came to the United States in 1968, and is dedicated to making available teachings and texts that can benefit anyone who practices Buddhism or is interested in learning more about it. Tarthang Tulku comes from the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, which is a Mahayana (“Great Vehicle”) school.
2. How is the income from the sale of Dharma Publishing books and art used?
Dharma Publishing follows the ancient principle that no individual should benefit financially from the teachings. We have no employees and pay no salaries. Full-time volunteers receive a stipend, but even this money comes from other sources. Upon occasion, an individual or company with a specialized skill is hired on a contract basis, but 99% of our work is done by our volunteers. All income goes either into other Dharma Publishing publishing projects, or it is counted as profit. 100% of our profit is donated to the Tibetan Text Preservation Project, which produces and distributes books and sacred art to Tibetans in India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim. "[Quelle: http://www.dharmapublishing.com/page.cfm?doc=CustomerServiceFrequentlyAskedQuestions&wikiid=1164. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-02]
"Tarthang Tulku, a Tibetan lama, was one of the first who fled to India. He left with his teacher in 1958, before the big exodus of 1959, and brought with him rare teachings and texts. He recognized the urgency of saving the cultural treasures of Tibet and 10 years later decided to go to the West. In 1971, the pre-eminent scholar, teacher and author founded Dharma Publishing in Berkeley, California. A nonprofit organization dependent entirely on donations, Dharma Publishing is celebrating its 25th anniversary and the completion of the first phase of a massive project -- preserving the finest examples of Tibetan art and literature. Over one million pages of Tibetan texts have been collected, catalogued and published in 755 hand-bound, atlas-sized volumes. They have printed 108 complete sets. All are printed on acid-free paper designed to endure for at least three centuries. Some of the subjects include science of mind and consciousness, philosophy, metaphysics, medicine, art, science, poetry, grammar, history and biography. More than 500 of the finest Tibetan paintings have survived and high-quality prints have been made from the originals.
Dharma Publishing consists of 20 core people -- no one is salaried -- and hundreds of volunteers from around the world. Some of the countries represented are Brazil, Germany, Japan, and The Netherlands. Tarthang Tulku has been a great inspiration to many Westerners. He also opened the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, a school offering them the opportunity to study and practise Buddhist teachings. [Webpräsenz: http://www.nyingmainstitute.com/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-02] "
[Quelle: Jan Spence. -- http://www.shareintl.org/archives/religion/rl_jsTibetanBuddhist.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-02]
Abb.: Kalu Rinpoche
[Bildquelle: http://www.chagchen.org/piclist.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21]Kagyü-Meister Kalu Rinpoche (1905-1989) besucht die USA
Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche (1940 - 1987) gründet Shambala Mountain Center (SMC) in Feather Lakes, Colorado
Webpräsenz: http://www.shambhalamountain.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-06
"History Along with the increased immigration of Tibetan refugees in the United States, came His Holiness the Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa, holder of the Kagyu lineage of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. After being forced to flee Tibet in 1959, Trungpa Rinpoche initially traveled to India and England. However, in 1970, he moved to the United States with his British wife, Diana Judith. After establishing many centers throughout the country, he established the Shambhala Mountain Center in northern Colorado in Red Feather Lakes.
Trungpa Rinpoche and several of his students arrived in Red Feather Lakes in 1971 and were astonished by the breathtaking atmosphere of seemingly untouched land. Over the course of the following decade, the center expanded as the community built facilities on the land and held programs and seminars concerning Buddhist teachings and practice. When, in the mid-1980's Trungpa Rinpoche began holding his three-month long intensive Seminary program, preparing his students for initiation into the Vajrayana tradition, he oversaw the construction of several "tent cities" throughout the land which serve as housing to this day. Currently, additional indoor housing it available for visitors as well.After his death in 1987, the community mourned the loss of their great teacher who had successfully planted Buddhism in the United States. Having empowered a Westerner, The Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin, as lineage holder, Trungpa Rinpoche achieved his goal of passing the power and wisdom of his tradition to the West. When the Regent unfortunately died soon after, Trungpa Rinpoche's son, Jamgon Mipham, became the Sakyong and leader of the community. Currently, Shambhala International has 165 centers throughout the world including six residential centers, exemplifying the success of the tradition. To find the center nearest you visit Shambhala International .The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya Which Liberates Upon Seeing
At the time of his death, Trungpa Rinpoche’s students began what became a fourteen year process of building a stupa at Shambhala Mountain Center in remembrance of their teacher and his life’s work. As one of the consistent practices of Buddhism since the time of the Buddha’s death, the act of building stupas is a significant Buddhist activity and tradition. Recently completed, the stupa became the pinnacle of Shambhala Mountain Center and it impresses those who see it and use it because of its grandeur and symbolic value.The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya Which Liberates Upon Seeing has not only impacted the community at Shambhala Mountain Center immensely by providing a space for practitioners of all levels and serving as a meeting place for the community, but it has also changed the American Buddhist landscape and serves as a monument for peace, compassion and harmony.Currently attracting approximately 300 people a week, the center is amazed at the interest and excited at the prospects of the evolving Buddhist tradition in the United States. The stupa’s beauty, grace and energy touches people deeply, allowing many to connect with the goodness, compassion and wisdom the structure represents. While predictions of the Great Stupa’s impact are difficult to make, it is easy to imagine that the same reaction of visitors, workers, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike will continue to express amazement and respect for this incredible example of Buddhist architecture in the United States.Description
The 600 acre property of Shambhala Mountain Center, includes open fields and forested areas, surrounded by peaks. Aspens not only please the visual landscape but they also fill the air with a sweet, refreshing aroma. Several ponds are scattered throughout the land and a stream runs near the Great Stupa. The serene atmosphere of the land creates a peaceful momentum that runs throughout the community Trungpa Rinpoche established on its land.According to Executive Director, Jeffrey Waltcher, in the last four and a half years they have renovated approximately 35,000 sq. ft. of structures not including the stupa. The Sacred Studies Hall, a building with space for meditation, yoga, dharma talks, and programs and the Shotuku Children’s Center, a building with the specifically aimed at providing a positive space for child care were completed in 1999. Additional housing facilities including Red Feather Campus, and the Shambhala Lodge make possible the increase in programs and visitors. Despite the many structural additions, the land maintains its natural beauty and solitude.Shambhala Buddhism
Part of the reason why Chogyam Trungpa’s mission to spread buddhadharma in the West was so successful was because he found a way to relate to the Western mind. While he found it important to pass on the knowledge of the Buddhist teachings he received in Tibet, he also found other ways to cultivate the basic goodness in human beings. When his son became leader, he divided the organization into three groups all which are part of the larger “Shambhala International”: Vajradhatu, Shambhala Training and Nalanda. By dividing the organization into separate groups, he reached more people. The Vajradhatu programs and teachings are specifically Buddhist while Shambhala programs and teachings are secular, appealing to a wide audience of Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.Activities and Schedule
For upcoming programs and events, please visit the Shambhala Mountain Center's website. Call ahead to schedule a guided tour of the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya.Date Center Founded
1971Religious Leader and Title
The Sakyong Mipham RinpocheLay Leader and Title
Jeff Waltcher, Executive DirectorMembership/Community Size
Current Residents: 50; Internationally: 10,000; Guests per year: 15,000 (approximately).Ethnic Composition
AmericanAffiliation with Other Communities/Organizations
Shambhala International (http://www.shambhalamountain.org)
Prepared by Student Researcher Melinda Haley
Updated on October 11, 2002"[Quelle: Melinda Haley. -- http://www.pluralism.org/research/profiles/display.php?profile=71137. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-07]
Abb.: der 16. Gyalwa Karmapa
[Bildquelle: http://www.diamantweg-boeddhisme.nl/gallary_leraren.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21]Der 16. Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpei Dorje (Rang 'byung rig pa'i rdo rje) (1924-1981), das Oberhaupt der Karma Kagyu Schule, besucht die USA
Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche (1940 - 1987) gründet in Boulder Colorado die Naropa University.
Webpräsenz: http://www.naropa.edu/. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-23
"The Mission of Naropa University is to:
- offer educational programs that cultivate awareness of the present moment through intellectual, artistic, and meditative disciplines;
- foster a learning community (composed of students, faculty, staff, trustees, and alumni) that uncovers wisdom and heart;
- cultivate openness and communication, sharpen critical intellect, enhance resourcefulness, and develop effective action in all disciplines;
- exemplify the principles grounded in Naropa University's Buddhist educational heritage;
- encourage the integration of world wisdom traditions with modern culture;
- be nonsectarian and open to all.
[Quelle: http://www.naropa.edu/mission.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-26]
1974
Abb.: Lama Yeshe
[Bildquelle: http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/yeshe/gallery.asp. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-20]Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935 - 1984) kommt erstmals in die USA
"Lama Thubten Yeshe was born in Tibet in 1935. At the age of six, he entered the great Sera Monastic University, Lhasa, where he studied until 1959, when the Chinese invasion of Tibet forced him into exile in India. Lama Yeshe continued to study and meditate in India until 1967, when, with his chief disciple, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, he went to Nepal. Two years later he established Kopan Monastery, near Kathmandu, in order to teach Buddhism to Westerners. In 1974, the Lamas began making annual teaching tours to the West, and as a result of these travels a worldwide network of Buddhist teaching and meditation centers—the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition—began to develop. In 1984, after an intense decade of imparting a wide variety of incredible teachings and establishing one FPMT activity after another, at the age of forty-nine, Lama Yeshe passed away. He was reborn as Ösel Hita Torres in Spain in 1985, recognized as the incarnation of Lama Yeshe by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1986, and, as the monk Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche, began studying for his geshe degree in 1992 at the reconstituted Sera Monastery in South India. Lama’s remarkable story is told in Vicki Mackenzie’s book, Reincarnation: The Boy Lama (Wisdom Publications, 1996). Some of Lama Yeshe’s teachings have also been published by Wisdom. Books include Wisdom Energy; Introduction to Tantra; The Tantric Path of Purification; and (recently) The Bliss of Inner Fire. Transcripts in print are Light of Dharma; Life, Death and After Death; and Transference of Consciousness at the Time of Death. Available through FPMT centers or at www.wisdompubs.org.
Lama Yeshe on videotape: Introduction to Tantra, The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, and Offering Tsok to Heruka Vajrasattva. Available from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
Lama Thubten Yeshe was born in Tibet in 1935 not far from Lhasa in the town of Tölung Dechen. Two hours away by horse was the Chi-me Lung Gompa, home for about 100 nuns of the Gelug tradition. It had been a few years since their learned abbess and guru had passed away when Nenung Pawo Rinpoche, a Kagyü lama widely famed for his psychic powers, came by their convent. They approached him and asked, "Where is our guru now?" He answered that in a nearby village there was a boy born at such and such a time, and if they investigated they would discover that he was their incarnated abbess. Following his advice they found the young Lama Yeshe to whom they brought many offerings and gave the name Thondrub Dorje.
Afterwards the nuns would often take the young boy back to their convent to attend the various ceremonies and other religious functions held there. During these visits—which would sometimes last for days at a time—he often stayed in their shrine room and attended services with them. The nuns would also frequently visit him at his parents' home where he was taught the alphabet, grammar and reading by his uncle, Ngawang Norbu, a student geshe from Sera Monastery.
Even though the young boy loved his parents very much, he felt that their existence was full of suffering and did not want to live as they did. From a very early age he expressed the desire to lead a religious life. Whenever a monk would visit their home, he would beg to leave with him and join a monastery. Finally, when he was six years old, he received his parents' permission to join Sera Je, a college at one of the three great Gelug monastic centers located in the vicinity of Lhasa. He was taken there by his uncle, who promised the young boy's mother that he would take good care of him. The nuns offered him robes and the other necessities of life he required at Sera, while the uncle supervised him strictly and made him study very hard.
He stayed at Sera until he was twenty-five years old. There he received spiritual instruction based on the educational traditions brought from India to Tibet over a thousand years ago. From Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, the Junior Tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he received teachings on the lam-rim graded course to enlightenment which outlines the entire sutra path to buddhahood. In addition he received many tantric initiations and discourses from both the Junior Tutor and the Senior Tutor, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, as well as from Drag-ri Dorje-chang Rinpoche, Song Rinpoche, Lhatzün Dorje-chang Rinpoche and many other great gurus and meditation masters.
Such tantric teachings as Lama Yeshe received provide a powerful and speedy path to the attainment of a fully awakened and purified mind, aspects of which are represented by a wide variety of tantric deities. Some of the meditational deities into whose practice Lama Yeshe was initiated were Heruka, Vajrabhairava and Guhyasamaja, representing respectively the compassion, wisdom and skilful means of a fully enlightened being. In addition, he studied the famous Six Yogas of Naropa, following a commentary based on the personal experiences of Je Tsong Khapa.
Among the other teachers who guided his spiritual development were Geshe Thubten Wangchug Rinpoche, Geshe Lhundrub Sopa Rinpoche, Geshe Rabten and Geshe Ngawang Gedun. At the age of eight he was ordained as a novice monk by the venerable Purchog Jampa Rinpoche. During all this training one of Lama Yeshe's recurring prayers was to be able some day to bring the peaceful benefits of spiritual practice to those beings ignorant of the Dharma.
This phase of his education came to an end in 1959. As Lama Yeshe himself has said, "In that year the Chinese kindly told us that it was time to leave Tibet and meet the outside world." Escaping through Bhutan, he eventually reached northeast India where he met up with many other Tibetan refugees. At the Tibetan settlement camp of Buxa Duar he continued his studies from where they had been interrupted. While in Tibet he had already received instruction in Prajnaparamita (the perfection of wisdom), Madhyamika philosophy (the middle way) and logic. In India his education proceeded with courses in the vinaya rules of discipline and the abhidharma system of metaphysics. In addition, the great bodhisattva Tenzin Gyaltsen, the Kunu Lama, gave him teachings on Shantideva's Bodhisattvacaryavatara (Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life) and Atisha's Bodhipathapradipa (Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment). He also attended additional tantric initiations and discourses and, at the age of twenty eight, received full monk's ordination from Kyabje Ling Rinpoche.
One of Lama Yeshe's gurus in both Tibet and Buxa Duar was Geshe Rabten, a highly learned practitioner famous for his single-minded concentration and powers of logic. This compassionate guru had a disciple named Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and, at Geshe Rabten's suggestion, Zopa Rinpoche began to receive additional instruction from Lama Yeshe. Zopa Rinpoche was a young boy at the time and the servant caring for him wanted very much to entrust him permanently to Lama Yeshe. Upon consultation with Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, this arrangement was decided upon and they were together until Lama's death in 1984. "
[Quelle: http://www.lywa.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-20]
Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935 - 1984) gründet The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, eine international tätige Organisation mit Hauptsitz in Taos, New Mexico
Webpräsenz: http://www.fpmt.org. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-20
"The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition is an international, non-profit organization, founded in 1975 by Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935-84), a Tibetan Buddhist monk. The Foundation is devoted to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service. We provide integrated education through which people's minds and hearts can be transformed into their highest potential for the benefit of others, inspired by an attitude of universal responsibility. We are committed to creating harmonious environments and helping all beings develop their full potential of infinite wisdom and compassion. Our organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsong Khapa of Tibet as taught to us by our founder Lama Thubten Yeshe and spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Lama Yeshe died in 1984, his reincarnation Lama Tenzin Ösel Rinpoche was born to Spanish parents in 1985. Lama Osel is now studying in one of the main Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in south India. He will again take on the position as Director of the Organization once he has finished his formal monastic studies.
Every living being has the potential to be free from suffering and to develop limitless love and compassion for others. Working to help human beings fulfill this potential are the individuals, meditation groups, monasteries, retreat centers, publishing houses, businesses and members who are part of the FPMT. The FPMT strives to follow the example and inspiration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his compassionate service to humanity.
FPMT students try to serve others throughout the world with kindness and wisdom.
We are a rapidly growing non-profit organization participating in many aspects of the world community. Some of the projects which are part of FPMT are:
- Monasteries and nunneries in 6 countries
- Liberation Prison Project
- Leprosy Clinics
- Polio Clinics
- Health and Nutrition Clinics
- Meditation Centers in 26 Countries
- Hospices
- Building the world's largest statue: a 500ft/152m statue of Maitreya, the future Buddha, by the Maitreya Project in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India
- Publishing houses
- Universal Education Schools"
[Quelle: http://www.fpmt.org/organization/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-20]
Abb.: Odiyan Main Temple
[Bildquelle: http://www.odiyan.org/Tours/OdiyanTour/MainF1.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-02]Tarthang Tulku gründet das Odiyan Buddhist Retreat Center (alias Monastery)
Webpräsenz: http://www.odiyan.org/ . -- Zugriff am 2005-06-02
Odiyan hat riesige 1996 Ausmaße:
4,5 km²
1750 Stupas
6 Tempel
108 Meditationsplätze
1242 elektrisch betriebene Gebetsmühlen
108000 Statuen von Padmasambhava
800 Gebetsfahnen
Baukosten: 10 bis 12 Mio US$
Sogyal Rinpoche gründet das Rigpa Fellowship
Webpräsenz: http://www.rigpaus.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21
"RIGPA is a Tibetan word, which in general means 'intelligence' or 'awareness'. In Dzogchen, however, the highest teachings in the Buddhist tradition of Tibet, rigpa has a deeper connotation, 'the innermost nature of the mind'. The whole of the teaching of Buddha is directed towards realizing this, our ultimate nature, the state of omniscience or enlightenment - a truth so universal, so primordial that it goes beyond all limits, and beyond even religion itself.
Inspired by this, Sogyal Rinpoche gave the name 'Rigpa' to his work and to the vehicle he was developing to serve the Buddha's teaching in the west. Now an international network with centers and groups in fifteen countries around the world, Rigpa seeks:
To make the teachings of Buddha available to benefit as many people as possible, and
To offer those following the Buddhist teachings a complete path of study and practice, along with the environment they need to explore the teachings to their fullest."
[Quelle: http://www.rigpaus.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21]
1976
Abb.: Dudjom Rinpoche
[Bildquelle: http://www.tersar.org/Dudjomphotos.html. -- Zugrif am 2005-06-22]Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche (1904?-1987), das Oberhaupt der Nyingmapa, gründet Yeshe Nyingpo in new York
Webpräsenz: http://www.tersar.org/YesheNyingpoNYC.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-22
Abb.: Ösel Tendzin
[Bildquelle: http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/vrot/. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-26]Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche (1940 - 1987) ernennt Thomas F. Rich alias Ösel Tendzin (1943 - 1990) zu seinem Vajra Regent und "lineage holder" der Karma Kagyü und Nyingma lineages. 1977 bestatätigt der Gyalwa Karmapa, das Oberhaupt der Kagyü diese Ernennung. Ösel Tendzin ist der erste Weserner in einer solchen Stellung im Kagyü
Hagiographie Ösel Tenzins:
"On August 22, 1976, the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche empowered Thomas F. Rich, Ösel Tendzin, as his Vajra Regent, and lineage holder in the Karma Kagyü and Nyingma lineages. During his 1977 visit to the United States, His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa, the head of the Kagyü lineage, confirmed the Vajra Regent's appointment as a lineage holder. Ösel Tendzin was the first Western student to hold such a position in the Kagyü lineage. Born in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1943, Thomas F. Rich attended Fordham University, graduating in 1965. After graduation he worked as a physical therapist in New York and in Los Angeles. He first encountered the Vidyadhara in 1971 in Boulder, Colorado, and made an instant and strong connection with him. In 1973, he was appointed to the first Vajradhatu Board of Directors and was later appointed executive vice-president of both Vajradhatu and Nalanda.
After being empowered as the Vajra Regent, Ösel Tendzin taught extensively throughout North America and Europe. In 1977, when Trungpa Rinpoche went on an extended retreat, he left the management and primary teaching responsibilities of Vajradhatu in the hands of the Vajra Regent. Trungpa Rinpoche and the Vajra Regent worked closely together on many projects, including co-founding the Shambhala Training Program. In addition to his teaching and administrative duties, the Vajra Regent also practiced dharma art, including calligraphy, poetry, and photography.
For many years, Trungpa Rinpoche had indicated his intention to relocate the executive headquarters of Vajradhatu and Shambhala Training in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1985, the Vajra Regent and his family moved to Nova Scotia to take up residence there. He guided the sangha through this transition, as well as through the difficult period following Trungpa Rinpoche's death in 1987. In 1988 the Vajra Regent himself became gravely ill with AIDS and there was dissension in the community around the leadership of the organizations. On August 25, 1990, he passed away in San Francisco, California. The Vajra Regent's wife, Lila Rich, their four children, and a group of his students continue to live in Ojai, California.
The Vajra Regent was both an inspiring teacher and an effective administrator. His example was powerful as well as provocative. Through his inspiration, joyful energy, and hard work many students encountered the teachings of Buddhism and Shambhala Training and embarked upon the practice of meditation. He played a vital role in the task of planting these profound spiritual teachings firmly in the Western world."
[Quelle: http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/vrot/. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-26]
Während eines Seminars von Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche (1940 - 1987) weigern sich der Dichter W. S. Merwin (1927 - ) und seine Begleiterin Dana Naone, an einer nackten Halloween Party teilzunehmen, Trungpa befiehlt sie zur Teilnahme zu nötigen und sie gewaltsam nackt auszuziehen. (Merwin Incident). Dieser Vorfall führt - zu Recht - zu schweren Angriffen gegen Trungpa und Naropa.
1978
Es erscheint:
Kelder, Peter: The eye of revelation. -- Vista, Calif. : Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, [1978],©1975. -- x, 42 S. : Ill. ; 22 cm. -- Cover title: The five rites of rejuvenation.
Später ein Bestseller in Übersetzungen bzw. in der Adaptation:
Kilham, Christopher: The five Tibetans : five dynamic exercises for health, energy, and personal power. -- Rochester, Vt. : Healing Arts Press, ©1994. -- xi, 84 S. : Ill. ; 21 cm. -- ISBN 0892814500
"The system of five tibetan exercises (or rites) was described by Peter Kelder on the basis of Colonel Bradford's narrowing already in the 1930s. The exercise is similar, but not identical, to yoga, and is not linked to any religion. History
Colonel Bradford returned to England after 23 years and looked more younger. He was over 70 and looked as 45 old man – without his stick, youngful, movable, and his afore grey hair was dark.
How to perform the exercisesRegular daily exercising promises rejuvenation and sanifying.
- Clockwise rotation as in pirouette.
- Lifting of head and legs from lying on ground.
- Clining back in kneeing.
- Making "bank" from sitting.
- Making "roof" from lying face down on ground.
- (sixth, "secret" exercise) Deep expiration in deep decline down, fingers of hands to fingers to feet; very slow breath through the nose
[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_tibetans. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-05]
"One afternoon, Peter Kedler was sitting in a park, reading his newspaper, and engaging conversation with an old man, a retired British Army officer, whom he calls Colonel Bradford, though he admits that it is not his real name. It seems that during his travels to India, some years ago, Colonel Bradford had heard the interesting stories of a group of lamas who had discovered the secret of eternal youth. The lamas lived in monasteries, where the secret had been kept due to their remote location. Colonel Bradford, who had, like many other men, grown old at the age of forty (and was not getting younger since), told Kedler that he intended to go to India and look for this monastery. He asked Kedler to come along, but Kedler refused, wondering shortly after if this was the right decision. Many years later, Kedler received a letter from Colonel Bradford. The very exciting news were that not only had the Colonel found the fountain of youth, but that he was bringing it back to the USA, two months later. This was about four years after Kedler had last seen the Colonel. When he finally arrived, Kedler could not recognize him. His gray hair had mostly disappeared and he looked decades younger. The Colonel then went on to tell his story.
After many months of wanderings in northern India, the Colonel headed for Tibet. After a long and perilous expedition in the Himalayas, which followed a thorough investigation to find the location of the monastery, the Colonel finally arrived to the land of eternal youth. There, he found a group of lamas, composed of men and women, who didn’t seem to age the same way that Westerners do. They constantly kept their strength and vitality. The secrets to this “fountain of youth” was apparently a set of simple exercises that they performed everyday, along with a frugal existence away from the worries of the modern world. But the most important thing was their understanding of the “chakras”
The lamas explained to Colonel Bradford that the chakras, also called vortexes, are powerful energy centers, that govern the endocrine system of the body, which, in turn, regulates the process of aging. There are 7 vortexes or chakras, and anyone that has studied yoga is familiar with them. In a healthy person, the chakras are “spinning” at a normal speed, permitting the prana, or vital life energy, to flow through the body. What happens is that at some point, one or more of these chakras slows down, and then the flow of prana is inhibited, and that’s when aging starts. So the key to eternal, or at least greatly prolonged youth, is to keep the chakras spinning full spine, and one of the ways to do this is to practice the five Tibetans everyday.
He wrote: “The only difference between youth and vigor, and old age and poor health is simply the rate of speed at which the vortexes are spinning. Normalize the rate of speed, and the old person becomes like new again.”"
[Quelle: http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/fivetibetans.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-05]
1979
Der 16. Gyalwa Karmapa bestimmt Karma Triyana Dharmachakra in Woodstock zu seinem nordamerikanischen Regierungssitz.
Webpräsenz: http://www.kagyu.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-22
1979
Der Dalai Lama besucht erstmals die USA
1980
Gabriel Aiello, Patricia Aiello und Sidney Piburn gründen in Ithaca, NY Snow Lion Publications
Webpräsenz: http://www.snowlionpub.com. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-02
"Snow Lion was a grassroots, do-it-yourself press founded by a Gabriel and Patricia Aiello, a pair of Ithacans whose encounter with the Dalai Lama in 1979 inspired them to take action on behalf of causes Tibetan. But, other than a desire to help the Dalai Lama, the Aiellos knew very little about Tibetan culture. However, they did know Sidney Piburn, and knowing Piburn was like having a 24-hour Tibetologist at their side. A graduate of Cornell University, Piburn had made several trips to Dharamsala, India, the home of Tibet's government-in-exile. In 1974 and 1975, Piburn held a private audience with the Dalai Lama and it was partly through Piburn's efforts that the Dalai Lama made his first visit to the U.S. in 1979. Piburn, co-founder of Snow Lion, boasts no diplomatic credentials, but his familiarity with things Tibetan won him the confidence of numerous authorities- political as well as scholarly. The Aiellos could have had no better point man in their company when, in 1980, the fledgling publishers met with the Dalai Lama in Toronto to discuss a business plan.
At that point Snow Lion was not a purely Tibetan enterprise, but the Aiellos and Piburn wanted Tibetan texts to figure largely in their stock and trade. They sought advice from the Dalai Lama on the best way to go about publishing Tibetan literature and HH was far more than forthcoming. The Dalai Lama suggested a broad list of titles that would appeal to the general public as well as to practicing Buddhists and Tibetan scholars. His advice was well taken and the meeting, apparently winding down, was deemed successful. But the Dalai Lama had a surprise for the Ithaca trio. Without solicitation of any kind, he made a flat-out offer: His 1979 U.S. talks, translated and interpreted by Hopkins, America's master Tibetan scholar, were Snow Lion's for the taking.
The gift was like a mandate from God.
"At that point, Harper and Row wanted the book," said Piburn, who was astonished by the offer. "Here he turns around and gives it to some kids without any funds or experience, in Ithaca, New York."
It would take four years for Snow Lion to publish Kindness, Clarity and Insight, but having the Dalai Lama's imprimatur put the little house on the map. In the mean time, the Aiellos had by personal necessity bowed out of the venture. They turned the entire business over the Piburn. Snow Lion was incorporated and Piburn suddenly found himself promoted from consultant to owner and his Tibetan Buddhist training put to a stress test as he sweated out the lean years. In 1984, Piburn forged a partnership with Jeff Cox, a friend and associate with a business background and an abiding interest in Eastern religion and Tibetan culture. Together they worked to secure funding and to meet a nose crunching deadline for Kindness Clarity and Insight : The Dalai Lama was due for his second U.S. tour that autumn and the book was pegged to his arrival. Under pressure, Snow Lion managed to finish the book, which sold 10,000 copies and requried three reprints to meet demand. No small task under the circumstances.
The Dalai Lama's book synergized Snow Lion and spared it from an early grave. It was a close call: by the time Kindness, Clarity and Insight came out, Snow Lion's resources were depleted, its thin shelf of eight titles completely out of stock. On the tail winds of Kindness, Clarity and Insight , a growing relationship with Hopkins and the University of Virginia led to three new books and suddenly Snow Lion had momentum.
Cox, who helped to guide Snow Lion from red to black, initiated a free international newsletter, a project that not only boosted Tibet, but helped to spread Snow Lion's name throughout the Tibetan community-at-large.
"Up until then most Tibetan groups in America were disparate- there wasn't a unifying vehicle. The newsletter contained everything Tibetan," said Cox. "Interest in it grew quickly and it became a central force in getting our name out there."
In 1987, Snow Lion found an investor and jumped from publishing two or three books a year to publishing more than 10 books annually. Today, Snow Lion produces 20 new titles in a year. The small company's rise paralleled, even helped stimulate, a passionate global fascination with Tibetan religion, culture and political issues. Long before Tibetan struggles became a Hollywood cause celebe, Snow Lion was reaching an audience of people who normally would not have had access to Tibetan materials. In 1980, there were three Buddhist centers in the U.S.; today there are 500. Tibetan arts groups and performers and Tibetan teachers as well as monks appeared in diverse settings across America. These saffron and crimson robed emissaries were a cultural phenomenon that eventually influenced Congress to pass an immigration bill allowing for the Tibetan Resettlement Project of 1989 and 1990.Just about then, as far as Snow Lion was concerned, all heaven broke loose. Ten years after the Dalai Lama's personal offer galvanized the Snow Lion mission, HH again came to the aid of the determined Ithaca house. This time however, the blessing came through the will of the world.
"I woke up one morning in 1989 and turned on the radio and learned that the Dalai Lama had won the Nobel Peace Prize," said Piburn. "That changed everything."
With 12 Dalai Lama books to their name, Snow Lion's publishers worked furiously to produce The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness. Something of a Dalai Lama primer, it categorized commentary from HH on a variety of general topics. The Dalai Lama, Policy of Kindness served to portray the Dalai Lama as a worldly-wise, accessible leader of great character and appeal. The text was picked up as a Book-of-the-Month Club and more than 70,000 copies have been sold.
In 1990, Piburn helped arrange a Dalai Lama visit to Cornell University and almost inadvertantly positioned Snow Lion as a primary source for authentic Tibetan texts, from the popular to the esoteric.
Business ran apace and Snow Lion outgrew several locations in downtown Ithaca. Today, with 150 titles and several publishing sidelines such as gift cards and bumper stickers, Snow Lion is housed in a converted warehouse on the city's West End business district with offices in a modest residence next door. Small Tibetan prayer flags hanging outside a freight entrance offer some hint at the doings within, but otherwise the site exhibits little of the exotic.
True to its mission, Snow Lion continues to publish books that would likely never find their way into print.
"They don't abandon a book just because it doesn't sell and that's very, very important," said Hopkins.
And they tackle projects no bottom-line publisher would touch. For instance, the 1,027-page book Fluent Tibetan. Printed in four volumes, with 18 audio tapes and a CD ROM, it runs for $250. It's expensive to produce, but sales of more than 2,000 copies will keep Fluent Tibetan on the shelves for a long time to come.
Snow Lion's commitment — and it's growth, caught the attention of the National Book Network, a first rate North American distribution firm that handles a mix of 80 large and small, mostly independent houses.
"Snow Lion has the best selection of Tibetan materials of anybody in the business," said Victoria Metzger NBN spokeswoman. "Their growth came from demand, not venture capital investment. That's really nice- and rare- to see in this age of the mega-publisher with huge consolidations and changes in the book selling and publishing market almost every month."
Today Snow Lion employs sixteen people, including four members of the Tibetan community who have settled in Ithaca.
Since 1990, Ithaca also has become the site of Namgyal Monastery, the personal monastery of the Dalai Lama, and the first established in the western hemisphere. Piburn's efforts have figured significantly into the Tibetan resettlement in Ithaca as well as the arrival of Namgyal and the continued success of Snow Lion.Twenty years after a fortuitous meeting with the Dalai Lama sealed its fate, Snow Lion books can be found in stores and libraries throughout the world. There's even a bookstore in Dharamsala that exclusively stocks Snow Lion's publications. Ithacans traveling abroad are surprised to see the Snow Lion name in far flung shops around the globe. In a fiercely comeptitive trade, one that is as vulnerable as any to the ruthless barbarisms of modern commerce, Snow Lion holds its own. Created from a simple desire to help, its success- albeit modest- symbolizes a triumph of compassion over greed. Snow Lion's fate is now subtly interwoven with that of a fragile culture whose very survival is dependent upon the passage of information: undiluted, uncensored, unexpurgated truths bound within the body of knowledge to which books are like vital organs."
[Quelle: Franklin Crawford. -- http://www.snowlionpub.com/pages/slstory.php. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-02]
1981
Der Dalai Lama vollzieht die erste Kalachakra-Initiation im Westen in Madison, Wiconsin
1981
Abb.. Pema ChödrönPema Chödrön, Novizin seit 1974, wird in Hongkong zur Nonne ordiniert.
"Pema Chödrön (formerly Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, born 1936) is a fully ordained Buddhist nun in the Tibetan vajrayana tradition, and a teacher in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa. The goal of her work is the ability to apply Buddhist teachings in everyday life. She is one of the most successful interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism for westerners, noted for her approachable and down-to-earth teaching style. Pema Chödrön has conducted workshops, seminars, and meditation retreats in Europe, Australia, and throughout North America. She is resident teacher of Gampo Abbey, a monastery in Nova Scotia.
HistoryPema Chödrön was born in New York City and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She previously worked as an elementary school teacher before converting to Buddhism.
Chödrön began to study with Lama Chime Rinpoche in the French Alps, and became a Buddhist nun in 1974 while studying with him in London. She first met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1972, and at the urging of Lama Chime Rinpoche, she took him as her root guru. She studied with him continuously from 1974 until his death in 1987.
In 1984, Chödrön moved to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and became the director of Gampo Abbey. There, she published her first two books to widespread critical acclaim. Pema Chödrön is currently working on a commentary on Shantideva's Bodhisattva's Way of Life that is due to be published in 2005.
Pema has two children and three grandchildren."
[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pema_Chodron. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-10]
1986
Das von der Cherokesin (Tsalagi) Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo gegründete Sunray (Bristol, VT) wird von His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche und Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche als Nyingma-Center, durch His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche und Ven. Khenpo Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche als Drikung-Kagyu-Center anerkannt.
Webpräsenz: http://www.sunray.org. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-09]
"Sunray is an international spiritual society dedicated to planetary peace. Home fire of the Green Mountain Aniyunwiwa and a Tibetan Buddhist Dharma center of the Nyingma and Drikung Kagyu schools, Sunray is composed of three distinct schools: Native American Studies, Buddhist Studies, and Healing Arts. Sunray Practices embody three ancient intact spiritual lineages. The common thread: teaching practical means to realize compassion and right relationship with Earth and all relations. Sunray offers ongoing programs of education, service, and spiritual training, bringing together people from all walks of life to share and apply, at individual, family, community and international levels, skillful methods of peacemaking.
The activities of Sunray touch all levels of the family of life, from individual to clan, community, nation, and planet. International activities include peace building and skillfull transformation of conflict in many regions of the world.
Sunray was founded by Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo, holder of the Ywahoo lineage and chief of the Green Mountain Ani Yunwiwa. Trained by her grand parents, she is the twenty-seventh generation to carry the ancestral wisdom of the Ywahoo lineage. Charged with the duty to rekindle the fire of clear mind and right relationship in these changing times she is a guide to all, who walk the Beauty Road.
Sunray is also a recognized Tibetan Dharma Center. As early as 1976 Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo began contact with Buddhist teachers. In 1986 Sunray was acknowledged as a Dharma center in the Nyingma lineage, through the kindness of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche and Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, and in the Drikung Kagyu lineage, in 1986 though the kindness of His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche and Ven. Khenpo Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche. In 1986, H.H. Chetsang Rinpoche came to this area, after many divinations, seeking H.E. Changlochen Rinpoche, a high lama of the Drikung Kagyu school, who was believed to have been reborn in this time, and found him here.
The teachings and practice of Sunray are thus a beauteous lake receiving the streams of three ancient and intact spiritual lineages. In that many of the inner mysteries of the Native American religion can be perceived only through growing up in relationship with Native American culture and worldview, we are blessed to receive the Buddhist teachings which are available to all, offering perspectives, methods, and vocabulary that people of all cultures may understand and apply.
The common thread of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism and the Tsalagi way is compassion for living beings and care to create good relationships through mindfulness: Bodhisattva ideal.
Medicine Wheel Mandala Mirror’s Clear Mind
Let The Sacred Hoop Be Renewed In This Time"[Quelle: http://www.sunray.org/index.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-09]
Abb.: Dhyani Ywahoo"Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo Founder and Spiritual Director of Sunray, holder of the Ywahoo Lineage and Chief of the Green Mountain Ani Yunwiwa. Her training to carry the ancestral traditions began in early childhood, under the direction of her grandparents and elders. As repositories of the sacred knowledge of their people, they passed to Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo the spiritual duty and blessing to carry the traditions on which the work and teachings of Sunray are based. The elders foresaw Ven. Dhyani’s duty to be involved in the manifestation of world peace, and that this work would bring many people and nations again to see the clear light of right relationship.
“The Ywahoo lineage was established 2,860 years ago by the “Keeper of Mysteries,” the Pale One, a great teacher whose name is spoken only in ceremonies. When the people has forgotton their original instructions, neglected their spiritual duties, and become warlike, the Pale One came to rekindle the sacred wisdom fire. Born in a miraculous manner, his body emitted great light, he appeared in many places at once and he spoke the language of all creatures. The teachings of the Pale One flourished throughout the Americas. He re-established the building of temples and schools, reformed the priestcraft training, and gave methods for cultivating and maintaining peace within individual, family, clan, nation, and planet.
This great teacher was a living reminder of the unmanifest potential of all. He rekindled the holy fire and renewed the original instructions encoded within the Crystal Ark, that most sacred crystal that ever sings out harmony’s beauteous note, inspiring people to act as one with the sacred law and bringing all thoughts and actions to harmoneous resolution.”
The duties of each Ywahoo are to care for the Crystal Ark and to maintain ceremonies for universal balance. Thus the Ywahoo lineage is the caretaker of the crystal and of the crystal-activating sound formulas and rituals.
There have been twenty-seven Ywahoos entrusted to maintain the teachings, to ensure methods of stabilizing the mind in times of confusion. These teachings were passed to Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo from her grandfather, Eonah Fisher (Bear Fishing), who received the teachings from Eli Ywahoo, his father-in-law, who was Ven. Dhyani’s great-grandfather, and from her grandmother, Nellie Ywahoo.
For hundreds of years the sacred teachings were kept hidden. During 1969, elders of the Etowah Band and the Ywahoo bloodline conferred and decided that the general aspects of the teaching were now to be shared with all those of good heart who were dedicated to manifesting peace. The elders stated that the astronomical teachings were to be restored to the world; these are the basis for understanding the movements of the stars that give order to the ceremonial calendar shared by most native peoples of the western hemisphere. The elders said that the Medicine of the Twins was to be understood by all, so that even anger and fear could be recognized as opportunities to realize that clear wisdom fire within. And they said that the general teachings of the Pale One were to be shared, to give light to a new day.
These things are being done according to instructions. In 1969, Sunray Meditation Society was founded as a vehicle for the appropriate teachings of the Ywahoo lineage to be shared with those of one heart, and today students and practitioners of the Sunray teachings are flourishing as seeds of light and right relationship in communities throughout Turtle Island (North America and the world). "
[Quelle: http://www.sunray.org/Dhyani/dhyani.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-09]
"The Grand Council of Trustees is the only decision-making body in Sunray and consists of the following individuals: Spiritual Director: Chief Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo
Sunray Council of Trustees:Beverly Hunter, President
Katherine Marielle, Vice President
Aviva Schmuckler, Secretary
Laurinda Reynolds, Treasurer
Dechen Rheault
Mary Helen Eccher
Vince PalladinoCherokee Advisors:
Patricia DeAsis
Dr. J.T. GarrettBuddhist Advisors:
H.H. Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche
Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche
Khenpo Palden Sherab Rinpoche
Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche
Khenmo Nyima DrolmaAdvisors:
Dr. Louise Diamond, USA
Eberhard Jung, Germany[Quelle: http://www.sunray.org/Council/council.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-09]
"Peace Village News March 15, 2005
Dear Friends of the Sunray Peace village,
Warm greetings to each of you from those of us at Sunray.
It is a joyful time of year as the light returns and we begin anew. his has been an especially beautiful winter, with Mt. Abraham and the valley graced again with snow's sparkling white blanket.
We are writing to update you on the many activities at Odali Utugi, the Sunray Peace Village, and to invite you to participate in any way you can. First the news.
This past summer the Peace Village was host to the 20th Annual Native American Elders' Gathering. For two decades we have ben honored with the presence and teaching of our respected elders. It is wonderful that they come; and it is wonderful that the Sunray Peace Village Land Trust placed this land in trust that there will always be a ground for the Elders to gather to council with one another.
This winter, the Sunray Teaching Gadugi affirmed a decision to make the Peacekeeper teachings more widely available again. You can watch this website for news on when and where they will be offered in the coming year. The Peacekeeper Mission offers instruction in the foundational practices of the Sunray community.
As many of you know, Sunray has offered instruction in the meditation practices of Tibetan Buddhism since 1976, and Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo, also known as Pema Sangdzin Khandro, has received and offered many teachings in this tradition. Now, with the blessings of His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche, Pema Sangdzin Khandro, and His Eminence Changlochen Rinpoche, the first Tibetan Nunnery of the Drikung Kagyu lineage in the western hemisphere is being established at the Peace Village. For more information, you can visit the monastery link on this web page, or go to www. greentaracoffee.com.
Also, this past winter the four principal organizations related to the Peace Village (Sunray, the Green Mountain Band of the Cherokee, Sunray Peace Village Land Trust, and Vajra Dakini Nunnery) together established the Joint Council to coordinate and accommodate our growth.
These are some of the headlines. As always, the Cherokee ceremonial cycle is maintained at Odali Utugi, as are regular ceremonies of the Drikung Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. These sacred ceremonies, occurring at the Arbor, the Peace Stupa, and the 13-sided building are beauteous events conducted for the benefit of all beings in all realms.
It is always our hope to welcome you and your family back to this blessed land, recognized by many as a sacred place for prayer and meditation. Here the prophecies of both the Cherokee and Tibetan cultures are fulfilled as three ancient spiritual traditions flow into a mirror wisdom lake, the Aniyunwiwa or Cherokee and the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism These intact traditions offer teachings of compassion and loving-kindness to people from all over the world. We hope you will again be among them.
To fulfill our wonderful responsibility as hosts to so many people, this spring we will complete the new year-round bathroom/coatroom addition to the 13-sided building, as well as renovate the seasonal bathhouses. Our projected cost for this project is just under $46,000. Already $14,900 of that has been raised. The shell of the addition was built last fall. Building will resume when spring arrives and our intention is to have the bathrooms completed by the end of May."
[Quelle: http://www.sunray.org/Announcements/announcements.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-09]
1987
Abb.: Richard GereRobert Thurman (1941 - ) und der Schauspieler Richard Gere (1949 - ) gründen das Tibet House in New York City
Webpräsenz: http://www.tibethouse.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-26
1987
Abb.: Jetsunma Akhon Norbu Lhamo, 2004
[Bildquelle: http://www.kpc-sedona.org/Past_Events/Jetsunma_Ahkon_Lhamo/jetsunma_ahkon_lhamo.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-31]Alyce Zeoli (1949 - ) alias Jetsunma Akhon Norbu Lhamo wird von Pema Norbu Rimpoche, einem hohen Nyingma Lama, formell als Tulku (Inkarnation) von Akhon Norbu Lhamo anerkannt. Später gründet sie Kunzang Palyul Chöling
Webpräsenz: http://www.tara.org/. -- Zugrif am 2005-05-31
Abb.: Jetsunma Akhon Norbu Lhamo
[Bildquelle: http://www.tara.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-31]"Jetsunma2 was born in Brooklyn in 1949. In one sense, as she herself says, she had a thoroughly ordinary upbringing: her mother worked in a grocery store and was emotionally unstable; her father was a truck driver and drank too much. They both beat the kids. But she was also a bit different. Even as a child, "I was acutely aware that people were suffering . . . and that [they] were suffering from their minds, not poverty or disease" (interview).
2 A Tibetan title meaning 'Lord Protectress'. Kunzang Palyul Choling says that lamas have told them that it is actually a 'higher' title than 'Rinpoche' (which is how tulkus are usually addressed). I have used it throughout this entry even though it was not employed until her recognition in 1987.
From the age of 19, she had a series of dreams in which she received specific instructions in meditation (though she had never heard the term and did not call it that herself). These continued until she was 30 years old, by which time she was married with two children. In 1981, she and her family moved to Washington, D.C. She began to give 'consultations' and 'readings' to people she met, and gradually a group formed around her. They called themselves the Center for Discovery and New Life. At this point, she was definitely a teacher. "My whole life I felt that this was what I was going to do."
But her teaching was not Buddhist—at least, nobody called it that. Then in 1985, they heard about H.H. Penor [Pema Norbu] Rinpoche, an important Nyingma lama and tulku—he was elected head of the Nyingma school in 1993—who had left Tibet in 1960 and settled in Mysore in southern India. He had started a monastery there and was campaigning in the West to find funds for basic necessities for the monks under his charge—several hundred of them, of whom about half were young boys. In 1985, Jetsunma's group sent him some money (and a crystal, which he wanted for a ceremony). As a result, he came to Washington and met them.
He and Jetsunma immediately recognized each other. "I looked at him and knew that this is my teacher, this is my mind, this is my heart" (Washington Post, 26th September, 1988). He asked what she was teaching and unhesitatingly pronounced it to be the essentials of Mahayana Buddhism. "You have a rare gift," he said. "The teachings are in your mind and cannot be forgotten." And more than that, her students "were moving closer to enlightenment due to these teachings." In effect, he had already implied that she was a tulku— someone who embodies one or more of the qualities of enlightenment (see the Tulkus entry for more detail). But he did not actually say as much because no one in the group, including Jetsunma, had any knowledge of Buddhism, let alone the Tibetan tradition.
They kept in touch with Penor Rinpoche. On his advice (actually, he 'saw' the building without ever going there), they bought a large house with lots of land in Poolesville, Maryland. (This was in 1985.) Other Nyingma lamas came to visit the group and shared Penor Rinpoche's conviction that Jetsunma—still Alyce Zeoli at that time—was a tulku. Various divinations were done and it was agreed that she was the incarnation of Ahkon Norbu Lhamo. She was formally recognized in 1987 while she was visiting Penor Rinpoche's monastery in India. At the time, even she did not really understand what this meant.
The 'original' Ahkon Norbu lived in the seventeenth century. Naturally, there is a 'myth' concerning her. (I use the word myth to mean 'an imaginative construct that makes sense of something or someone', not in the sense of 'a false story'.) She was the sister of Kunzang Sherab, who founded a monastery at Palyul in Tibet in 1665. (The Palyul lineage is an important one within the Nyingma school and it has continued by means of the incarnation of tulkus until the present day. One of Jetsunma's principal teachers, Gyatrul Rinpoche, is the tulku of Kunzang Serab.) She was not a nun but she spent most of her life in retreat and her meditation was considered to have made the monastery strong. This is a traditional role for some women in Tibet, who are regarded as dakinis or embodiments of Dharmic forces; see below. When she died, she was cremated and several portents were observed: there was a rainbow, and her skull or kapala flew into the air and was found several kilometres away at the foot of the throne of her brother, Kunzang Sherab, inscribed with the seed-syllable AH and other auspicious marks. Penor Rinpoche says that it would float around the monastery or appear to people as a sign. Her relics used to be brought out once a year at Palyul; they were lost when the Chinese bombed the monastery. But around the time that Jetsunma was being considered as Ahkon Norbu Lhamo's reincarnation, a part of the skull/kapala with the AH on it was found. Penor Rinpoche brought it to Poolesville for safekeeping.
In 1988, Penor Rinpoche formally enthroned Jetsunma as a Palyul lineage holder, and the Poolesville centre, now renamed Kunzang Odsal Palyul Changchub Choling, was established as the seat of the lineage in the West. He is reported as saying, "We cannot say for sure who is going to be a tulku. They return only where they are needed. And they have the freedom to take any form they want." (Vajradhatu Sun, October-November 1988, vol. 11, no. 1, p. 5).
This is a fairly extraordinary story, I think you will agree.3 And Jetsunma accepts the essential myth without reservation. "When I heard the name [Ahkon Lhamo] for the first time, I recognized it"—and this despite the fact that she had not incarnated for 300 years. But hers is an unusual situation, not just because she is a Western tulku but because she is an untrained one. (They simply don't exist in Tibet.) Penor Rinpoche told her that she needed to apply herself to the traditional practices in the Vajrayana tradition and I'm in the process of doing them now. But the teachings I give still remain the same. I was not trained from birth as other tulkus are and I haven't had time to be trained in the traditional way. So I continue to teach from my own mind, (interview)3 And there's more. In 1994, Jetsunma was recognized by Penor Rinpoche and Gyatrul Rinpoche as an incarnation/ tulku of White Tara. Previous incarnations included Mandarava, one of Padmasambhava's consorts (letter from Kunzang Palyul Choling, November 1996). A prayer, translated from Tibetan and issued by KPC, contains the following verse: "In the pure realm, Dumatala'i of Orgyen, White Tara is the principal Dakini of Khachod, whose nature is the Dakini Lhacham Mandarawa, appearing in the land of Tibet as Ahkon Lhamo Changchub Dron, performing the dance of radiating and reabsorbing from the realm of the three kayas. Beautiful light of the white AH, Lhamo Metog Dron (Goddess Flower Light), I supplicate you to save beings in the western realm." This is about as traditional as you can get.
One of the defining characteristics of a tulku is that he or she performs his or her function just by embodying the dharmic virtues. I therefore suggested to Jetsunma that in effect she had been a tulku—and therefore benefitting beings—since birth, even though nobody knew it until she was in her mid-thirties. She replied,
If the teachings are correct, and I assume they are, then that must be so. I personally do not make any great claims for myself. I can look at my life and think that some good things happened but I don't feel a sense of puffed-upness and extraordinariness about it. I feel as if I am watching these events as much as anyone else.
Meanwhile, she has started a number of projects. Some of them are traditionally Tibetan: the construction of stupas (an auspicious structure, going back to the time of the Buddha himself—there are presently 14 stupas at Kunzang Palyul Choling) and a 100-foot statue of Amitabha. Some, like accumulating a collection of crystals and starting a Dharma school (that local children can also attend) could perhaps be called trans-cultural (since crystals figure both in the Tibetan tradition and in New Age America; and everyone has to be educated, Buddhist and non-Buddhist). Some are much more up-to-date: teaching meditation in prisons; encouraging the (American) nuns—the monastic community at Kunzang Palyul Choling currently consists of 37 monks and nuns—to train in the counselling of the terminally ill; providing accommodation for the elderly so that they can approach their impending death with a clear mind—"preparing to enter the Bardo state", as she put it; supporting animal rights activists who try to stop recreational hunting in the area—"as Buddhists, we can't just stand around and watch animals being shot." On the other hand, she does not consider herself politically active. Despite the fact that she has mentioned the plight of Tibet under Chinese control in the centre's newsletter, this is not her main concern. Rather, "we support those who can't help themselves: animals, prisoners, those who are dying" (interview).
At the same time, she offers workshops on such topics as 'Developing the Mind of the Dakini: the practice of supreme generosity.' According to a flier, "Jetsunma practiced this teaching of generosity for years before giving any public instruction and long before her recognition as a tulku. Later recognized by her teachers as a form of Chod, the practice of supreme offering is still her favorite practice and in many ways the basis for all her work."
While she stresses that she wants to maintain the strength and purity of the tradition, she is also quite prepared to nudge it in new directions. For example, she has a high regard for lay practitioners—she is one herself, of course— and says that they can teach just as effectively as those who are ordained. It is true that this view is far more acceptable in the Nyingma school than in the other three—Gelug, Kagyu, Sakya—but even so her recognition of the fact is significant in the context of Western Buddhism as a whole. She also hopes (and perhaps expects: she is after all a tulku, one who can accomplish more by a single gesture or word than ordinary beings can manage after years of effort) that the place of women in the tradition will be improved by what has happened to her.The obvious leaders of Buddhism are mostly males. The male lamas are held in the highest esteem because they functioned as heads of monasteries, lineage holders, carriers of direct blessings which have been maintained in an orderly, prescribed succession. The great females were rarely in these positions but were considered primordial wisdom beings, or dakinis . . . While the dakinis had teachers and also were teachers, their activities were outside of the monastic structures . . .
My being a Western woman recognized as a tulku, gives American and Western females a sense of a place in Tibetan Buddhism that they did not have before. In Tibetan tradition it is the reincarnate lamas who actually hold the religion and who are born again and again to transmit. The fact that a Western woman would be recognized so early in the implantation of Tibetan Buddhism into this country is a tremendously auspicious event. (Pathways, Winter 1988-89, 5ff)
Meanwhile, she considers her job, "and my teachers have also said this",
to stabilize the teaching so that it is strong and to do what I can to propagate it. I am just a plain ordinary Brooklyn girl, and I speak Brooklyn. I speak New York. I speak American and I speak a lot of different languages that my people speak, but I also have within my mind something that spontaneously comes forth, an intuitive under-Standing, even without formal training.
My teachers have examined the teachings here and find them to be appropriate and correct. / really want to get the message out that there is a technology for loving, that there is a way to end the suffering of the world!* I want people to understand that there is a path, there is a way. It's a hard path, it's a hardworking path, but it is a way for them to do what they've always dreamed of, and that, I hope, is to benefit all beings. I can speak that language, I can draw the essence of that teaching out, and I can tell you that I look at this teaching and I know it's about love. I look at these people, these Western people that I grew up with, and I understand them. I know that they are good people and they want to love. I'd like to make those two things connect (ibid., italics in the original).This is the voice of the new spiritual phenomenon of the West in full flow: based on tradition but not limited to it; Eastern in inspiration but Western in expression. It does not have to remain that way and no doubt there are many changes in store. But it's a good start."
[Quelle: Rawlinson, Andrew <1943 - >: The book of enlightened masters : western teachers in eastern traditions. -- Chicago : Open Court, ©1997. -- xix, 650 S. : Ill. ; 25 cm.. -- ISBN: 0812693108. -- S. 152 - 155]
Jetsunma Akhon Norbu Lhamo betreibt auch das Pema Khandro Choling - Dakini Valley, ein Naturschutzgebiet:
"The Pema Khandro Choling, also known as Dakini Valley, is a remote 158-acre site located five miles from the closest neighbor and surrounded by the three million acre Tonto National Forest. It is the perfect setting for mindfulness training and spiritual accomplishment. Formerly a working ranch, built over a hundred years ago, Dakini Valley is now the home of the Garuda Wildlife Sanctuary, where thousands of birds are fed year round and all wildlife is protected from hunting. A permanent stream flows through the valley. It is a place of serenity and sacredness, where visitors are encouraged to be aware of the environment and to practice active compassion. The views, the nature, and the wildlife are inspiring.
Although not currently open to the general public, our intention is to develop Dakini Valley into a retreat center for individuals, and Buddhist or other compassion-based organizations. "
[Quelle: http://www.tara.org/kpcretreat.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-31]
1987-04-04
Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche (1940 - 1987) stirbt
1989-02
Janie Floren gründet Padmasambhava Buddhist Center in Longwood, Florida
Webpräsenz aller Padmasambhava Centers : http://www.padmasambhava.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-07
"History Janie Floren established Central Florida's first Nyingma Tibetan Buddhist Center in Longwood, Florida in February of 1989 assisted by theTibetan lamas.
The initial years of the Center brought forth challenges for the new Buddhist group in the area such as finding appropriate places to hold their meditation meetings and finding students who wanted to participate or become actively involved with the group. At the time, there were many different people drifting into the newly founded Center to experiment with the Tibetan Buddhism that had become so popularized in American culture. Unfortunately, most of those "seekers" drifted out just as quickly, and assembling a core group of dedicated members presented some difficulty. The first five members met in a variety of locations from rented meeting halls to individual homes.The Religious Leaders
Today, the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center's religious leaders and teachers are lovingly referred to as the "Khenpos" (abbots) by the members and their official titles are: the Venerable Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and the Venerable Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. They play a pivotal role in the development and growth of the Center by visiting the area often to teach and hold retreats in Longwood as well as the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center in West Palm Beach. A visitor can sense the reverence and love the members hold for the Khenpos when they listen to them tell of the Khenpos' kind natures and great sense of humors. The Khenpos' pictures are also framed on the altar in the worship room and their bright smiles in these photographs seem to confirm the member's words about their personalities.Description
When a visitor attends a meditation meeting at the Padmasambhava Center in Janie's home in Longwood, they are warmly welcomed upon entering. An immediate sense of peace can be felt in the surroundings. The home resides lakefront, and one can see the stretch of lawn and foliage just beyond a beautiful decked porch. A white statue of Buddha is present on the lawn and images of serene oriental gardens come to mind. The walls are decorated with numerous pictures of Buddhist retreats, gatherings, family, friends and of course, the Khenpos.A specific worship room has been established and appropriately adorned. Beautiful hanging Thankas depicting White Tara, Buddha Shakyamuni, and Guru Padmasambhava are lined along the facing wall. Ornate, circular pillows of deep purple are placed beside each member for the purpose of holding worship books open. Greetings are kind and lighthearted before entering the worship room, but as the members filter in, a serious mood is felt as the members pay proper homage to the altar and prepare for the session in a devoted manner. Special comfort preparations are made for the visitor along the rear wall on soft futons to ease the burden of the lotus position for the unaccustomed.
The Session
The session takes the standard Nyingma Tibetan format, and the group's harmonious, melodic chanting (in Tibetan), fills the room revealing their seasoned dedication. The session is inspiring as a result of the intimate surroundings of the worship room with its soft lights and handful of participants. The quiet meditation portion of the session takes place in candle lit darkness and one feels a connection to all who are present. To summerize the feeling of this particular meditation session from a visitor's perspective, reference to Janie's words regarding why she chose this form of Buddhism seem to be ideal as she shared, "It seemed to be the kindest," and this is truly how it felt. It is, simply put, very kind.When the session is complete, the group leaves the worship room to reconvene in the dining and kitchen area where administrative business is attended to and refreshments are served. The visitor is engaged in lively conversation and is immediately made to feel "a part of" the group.
The Community and Activities
The members ethnic composition is predominately American, age thirty and up, well-educated, and well-versed in the history and roots of the Nyingma Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Presently, they have no affiliation with other communities or organizations. Being a small group, there are no organized programs for children either. The meditation sessions are held every Wednesday at 7:30 P.M. The group has other gatherings for special occasions where children and extended family and friends join them such as a "tsok" where they offer food to Buddha and the Dharma protectors. They also celebrate the New Year and Buddha's birthday. In addition, they have a monthly newsletter and a mailing list.
Regarding the Padmasambhava Center in Longwood and it's members, Janie relates, "After being the coordinator and founding member of this Dharma Center my realizations are: the quality of students far more outweighs the quantity of students, and as with anything valuable in this precious life one must have a sincere motivation, a genuine sense of gratitude and appreciation, and a heartfelt devotion in order to accomplish peace and equanimity on this extraordinary spiritual path."Central Belief
Adhering strongly to the fundamental practices of NyingmaTibetan Buddhism, this Padmasambhava Center stands firm as devoted representation of their beliefs in world peace, and the supreme good fortune and well being of all.
Contact Name and Title
Janie Floren; Founder and CoordinatorContact Phone/Fax Number
407-830-4458Date Center Founded
February, 1989Religious Leader and Title
Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang DongyalMembership/Community Size
10 membersEthnic Composition
American
Prepared by Dr. Yudit Greenberg
Updated on June 26, 2002"[Quelle: Yudit Greenberg. -- http://www.pluralism.org/research/profiles/display.php?profile=69688. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-07]
1989-03
Es wird bekannt, dass Vajra Regent Thomas F. Rich alias Ösel Tendzin (1943 - 1990) obwohl er wusste, dass er seit 1985 AIDS hatte über Jahre ungeschützten homosexuellen und heterosexuellen Verkehr pflegte und auch zwei seiner Sexualpartner angesteckt hat.
BUDDHIST SECT ALARMED BY REPORTS THAT LEADER KEPT HIS AIDS A SECRET / by John Dart
Los Angeles Times, March 3, 1989
The biggest branch of Tibetan Buddhism in America has been stunned with reports that its spiritual leader, whose homosexual activity was known to the movement's insiders, has been infected with the AIDS virus since 1985 but did not acknowledge the problem until last December when a companion was also found to be infected. Called by one official a "tragic catastrophe" in ethics, the scandal surrounding Ozel Tendzin, 45, American-born regent of the international Vajradhatu Buddhist organization, has been compounded by his recent decision to resume teaching and ceremonial duties in defiance of a request by the movement's board.
On Retreat in La Jolla
Tendzin went on retreat early this month at a private residence in La Jolla. Though he described his situation in special mid-December meetings at Berkeley and Los Angeles, several members said he was vague about his condition and why he did not alert others.
Sources close to senior officials of the sect confirmed in interviews that a male companion of Tendzin and a woman friend of the young man have tested positive for the AIDS virus.
"All we know is who slept with whom and that all three have tested positive for HIV," said one source, referring to the human immunodeficiency virus that leads to AIDS.
Some knowledgeable sect members are outraged by the situation. Lisa Goldblatt, coordinator of the Portland, Ore., study group and a board member of an Oregon AIDS coalition, wrote to other Vajradhatu leaders Dec. 31 that a "grave mistake" was made in not informing the organization about the regent's condition.
"The results of this situation--a tragic catastrophe--are that individuals have been infected and will die. Our community is seriously injured and even the dharma (Buddhist teaching) in the West has been marred," Goldblatt said in a letter.
Membership of 3,500
"All this would not have happened if the regent or his colleagues had informed our sangha (community) in 1985, which was the only responsible action to take. That the regent has AIDS is tragic," she wrote.
The Vajradhatu network of about 35 meditation centers in North America and Europe has about 3,500 members. It was founded in 1970 in Boulder, Colo., by the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who named Tendzin as his successor before he died in 1987.
Though rather traditional in doctrinal teaching, the two leaders were not celibate monks as is common in Tibetan and other Buddhist branches. Both Trungpa and Tendzin married but engaged in other sexual liaisons--a practice that is not considered immoral in the organization.
The Vajradhatu movement has been influential in the spread of Buddhism among Caucasians. It was a principal founder of the fledgling American Buddhist Congress and also publishes a newspaper read widely by Buddhists and edited in Boulder by Rick Fields, a popular historian of U.S. Buddhism.
In its latest, long-delayed issue, the Vajradhatu Sun newspaper depicts a transparent broken heart drawn over the sect's logo--symbolizing the disorder and impasse evident in the organization. Accompanying the drawing was a statement, which one reader called "pathetic," that the regent and the board have prohibited the newspaper from reporting on its dilemma.
Tendzin went into retreat without responding to the request by the Vajradhatu board to withdraw from duties for an indefinite period.
Vajradhatu is part of the India-based Kagyu tradition--one of four wings --of Tibetan Buddhism. The regents of Kagyu had also advised Tendzin to withdraw for the sake of harmony and avoiding "negativity" toward Buddhism, according to a Vajradhatu board document dated Jan. 10.
Not Attended by Physician
Tendzin, at times said to be "very sick," apparently has hoped he could improve his health while on retreat. The San Francisco Chronicle and the Boulder Camera quoted from a Jan. 17 letter the newspapers said Tendzin wrote to his followers, saying, "In working with disease, dharma (Buddhist teaching) is the best medicine."
A one-time disciple of Trungpa Rinpoche who is close to senior Vajradhatu officials said he was told Tendzin is being attended by specialists in "the healing arts" but no medical doctor. A board member confirmed that no physician is with Tendzin but declined to elaborate or say where in La Jolla the regent is staying.
In his Jan. 17 letter, Tendzin was oblique about his culpability, referring to the "faults of myself and others. . . ." The Chronicle said a person who was at the Berkeley meeting with Tendzin said the regent apologized for his ignorance, saying that "he somehow believed that he and the people in contact with him were protected from AIDS."
In telephone calls last week to various leaders, Tendzin said that after he ends his three-month retreat, he will resume teaching and perform the abhisheka ceremony. That "empowerment" rite, in which advanced students are said to get a glimpse of the "enlightened" mind, is scheduled May 16 at the organization's contemplative center near Barnet, Vt.
'A Painful Point'
If Tendzin does insist on doing the ceremony, "that would force things to a painful point," said an influential figure in the organization who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Some people on the board hoped it would be a long leave," he said.
The Vajradhatu board, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has declined to say what its next step will be. It has repeatedly refused to confirm or deny that Tendzin has a health problem, citing in a statement Friday that "overriding principles of medical confidentiality" were at stake.
Speaking in general terms the statement also said, "Although there have been a few cases of HIV infection among our worldwide membership, the number of cases is in fact lower than would be expected" in a group of its size. Members who fear they are at risk were advised to be tested for the virus, the statement said.
Board member Martin Janowitz, in a telephone interview, denied speculation within the movement that the board fears it may be held liable for Tendzin's actions. He said there was no concern, despite the $21.75-million award this month by a Los Angeles jury to Marc Christian, a lover of Rock Hudson who said the late actor did not tell him he was dying of AIDS.
Tendzin, who was born Thomas F. Rich in Passaic, N.J., has a wife and children living in Halifax, officials said.
"I know that he made love to men and women outside of wedlock," said an East Coast source. A Los Angeles center member who did want to be identified said, "(Tendzin's) bisexuality has been considered an open secret for as long as I've known him, since 1974." Another Los Angeles member, interviewed separately, concurred: "It is fairly common knowledge that he has had homosexual relations."
Yet, homosexual relations are not the issue, said board member Janowitz. "We don't have a view within our religion of moral or immoral sexual practices. We don't view, as do some other religions, homosexual relations as any kind of sin," he said. "If anyone has AIDS, our concern would be for their health."
Show Compassion
Many officials in the organization, reluctant to comment at all, mostly say they want to show Buddhist compassion to Tendzin and preserve the unity of the community.
"His actions have caused a lot of pain, chaos and confusion. (But) people are working with the situation and practicing more than ever now," said Marcy Fink, a Vajradhatu representative in Los Angeles. "There is a lot of chaos, and it would be silly to deny it." She added that none of the 100 members of the Los Angeles center have quit.
Some Vajradhatu members, however, have sought the counsel of the Buddhist AIDS Project in Los Angeles. Recent events "have caused a great deal of pain and questioning for many people," Steve Peskind and Ken McLeod, the project's coordinator and spiritual adviser, respectively, said in a joint statement."
[Quelle: http://www.american-buddha.com/sect.alarmed.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-26]
1990/1991
Gründung des Mind and Life Institute mit Sitz in Boulder, Colorado
Webpräsenz: http://www.mindandlife.org. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-10
"Vision
To establish a powerful working collaboration and research partnership between modern science and Buddhism-the world's two most powerful traditions for understanding the nature of reality and investigating the mind.Purpose
Mission
To promote the creation of a contemplative, compassionate, and rigorous experimental and experiential science of the mind which could guide and inform medicine, neuroscience, psychology, education and human development.
To contribute to the epistemological revolution which is taking place through modern physics as well as philosophy, in order to extend our understanding of knowledge to one that integrates the diverse dimensions of our world.
The Mind and Life Institute is dedicated to fostering dialogue and research at the highest possible level between modern science and the great living contemplative traditions, especially Buddhism. It builds on a deep commitment to the power and value of both of these ways of advancing knowledge and their potential to alleviate suffering. It realizes its mission through a range of inter-related activities:The Mind and Life Institute is a non-profit tax-exempt organization incorporated under section 501(c)(3) in the United States. "
- Extended semi-private meetings between prominent scientists and leading figures from the contemplative traditions, most notably, the Dalai Lama of Tibet
- Public conferences to stimulate interest in the potential of these scientific dialogues within the larger scholarly community
- Intellectually rigorous yet accessible publications, based on Mind and Life meetings and conferences to share the power and potential of these collaborative exchanges with the general public
- Collaborative research projects and meetings focused on designing research, between laboratory scientists, scholars and practitioners of Buddhism and other forms of contemplative practice
- Educational programs based on our research findings that teach people proven, effective techniques to enhance human development and ameliorate suffering
[Quelle: http://www.mindandlife.org/mission.org_section.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-10]
"The Mind and Life dialogues between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Western scientists were brought to life through a collaboration between R. Adam Engle, a North American businessman, and the late Dr. Francisco J. Varela (1946-2001), a Chilean-born neuroscientist living and working in Paris. In 1983, both men independently had the initiative to create a series of cross-cultural meetings between His Holiness and Western scientists. Engle, a Buddhist practitioner since 1974, had become aware of His Holiness' long-standing and keen interest in science, and his desire to both deepen his understanding of Western science, and to share his understanding of Eastern contemplative science with Westerners. In 1983 Engle began work on this project, and in the autumn of 1984, Engle and Michael Sautman met with His Holiness's youngest brother, Tendzin Choegyal (Ngari Rinpoche), in Los Angeles and presented their plan to create a week-long cross-cultural scientific meeting. Rinpoche graciously offered to take the matter up with His Holiness. Within days, Rinpoche reported that His Holiness would very much like to participate in such a discussion, and authorized plans for the first meeting.
Convergence and CollaborationVarela, also a Buddhist practitioner since 1974, had met His Holiness at the 1983 Alpbach Symposia on Consciousness. Their communication was immediate. His Holiness was keenly interested in science but had little opportunity for discussion with brain scientists who had some understanding of Tibetan Buddhism. This encounter led to a series of informal discussions over the next few years; through these conversations, His Holiness expressed the desire to have more extensive, planned time for mutual discussion and inquiry. In the spring of 1985, Dr. Joan Halifax, then the director of the Ojai Foundation and a friend of Varela, became aware that Engle and Sautman were moving forward with their meeting plans. She contacted them on Varela's behalf and suggested that they all work together to organize the first meeting collaboratively. The four gathered at the Ojai Foundation in October of 1985 and agreed to go forward jointly. They decided to focus on the scientific disciplines that address mind and life, since these disciplines might provide the most fruitful interface with the Buddhist tradition. That insight provided the name of the project, and, in time, of the Mind and Life Institute itself.
It took two more years of work and communication with the Private Office of His Holiness before the first meeting was held in Dharamsala in October 1987. During this time, the organizers collaborated closely to find a useful structure for the meeting. Varela, acting as scientific coordinator, was primarily responsible for the scientific content of the meeting, issuing invitations to scientists, and editing a volume from transcripts of the meeting. Engle, acting as general coordinator, was responsible for fundraising, relations with His Holiness and his office, and all other aspects of the project. This division of responsibility between general and scientific coordinators has been part of the organizational strategy for all subsequent meetings. While Dr. Varela has not been the scientific coordinator of all of the meetings, until his death in 2001 he remained a guiding force in the Mind and Life Institute, which was formally incorporated in 1990 with Engle as its Chairman.
A Unique ForumA word is in order concerning these conferences' unique character. The bridges that can mutually enrich traditional contemplative disciplines and modern life science are notoriously difficult to build. Varela had a first taste of these difficulties while helping to establish a science program at Naropa Institute, a liberal arts institution created by Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa as a meeting ground between Western traditions and contemplative studies. In 1979 the program received a grant from the Sloan Foundation to organize what was probably the very first conference of its kind: "Comparative Approaches to Cognition: Western and Buddhist." Some twenty-five academics from prominent North American institutions convened. Their disciplines included mainstream philosophy, cognitive science (neurosciences, experimental psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence) and, of course, Buddhist studies. The gathering's difficulties served as a hard lesson on the organizational care and finesse that a successful cross-cultural dialogue requires. Thus in 1987, wishing to avoid some of the pitfalls encountered during the Naropa experience, several operating principles were adopted that have contributed significantly to the success of the Mind and Life series. These include:
Continuing Progress
- Choosing open-minded and competent scientists who ideally have some familiarity with contemplative traditions
- Creating fully participatory meetings where His Holiness is briefed on general scientific background from a nonpartisan perspective before discussion is opened;
- Employing gifted translators like Dr. Thupten Jinpa, Dr. Alan Wallace, and Dr. Jose Cabezon, who are comfortable with scientific vocabulary in both Tibetan and English; and finally
- Creating a private, protected space where relaxed and spontaneous discussion can proceed away from the Western media's watchful eye.
The first Mind and Life Conference took place in October of 1987 in Dharamsala, and was later published as Gentle Bridges: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on the Sciences of Mind. The conference focused on the basic groundwork of modern cognitive science, the most natural starting point for a dialogue between the Buddhist tradition and modern science. The curriculum for the first conference introduced broad themes from cognitive science, including scientific method, neurobiology, cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, brain development, and evolution. At our concluding session, the Dalai Lama asked us to continue the dialogue with biennial conferences.
Mind and Life II took place in October 1989 in Newport Beach, California, with Robert Livingston as the scientific coordinator. The conference focused on neuroscience and the mind/body relationship. Coinciding fortuitously with the announcement of the award the Nobel Peace Prize to His Holiness, the two-day meeting was atypical for the Mind and Life Conferences both in its brevity and its Western venue. It has been published as Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism.
Mind and Life III was again held in Dharamsala in 1990. Daniel Goleman served as the scientific coordinator for the meeting, which focused on the relationship between emotions and health, and has been published as Healing Emotions: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health.
During Mind and Life III a new mode of exploration emerged: participants initiated a research project to investigate the neurobiological effects of meditation on long-term mediators. To facilitate such research, the Mind and Life network was created to connect other scientists interested in both Eastern contemplative experience and Western science. With seed money from the Hershey Family Foundation, the Mind and Life Institute was born. The Fetzer Institute funded two years of network expenses and the initial stages of the research project. Research continues on various topics such as attention and emotional response.
Dharamsala was once again the setting for the fourth Mind and Life Conference held in October 1992, with Francisco Varela again acting as scientific coordinator. The dialogue focused on the areas of sleep, dreams, and the process of dying, and has been published as Sleeping, Dreaming and Dying: An Exploration of Consciousness with the Dalai Lama.
Mind and Life V was held in Dharamsala in October 1995. The topic was altruism, ethics, and compassion, with Richard Davidson as the scientific coordinator. The dialogue has been published by Oxford University Press as Visions of Compassion: Western Scientists and Tibetan Buddhists Examine Human Nature.
Mind and Life VI opened a new area of exploration beyond the previous focus on life science, moving into the new physics and cosmology. The meeting took place in Dharamsala in October 1997, with Arthur Zajonc as the scientific coordinator. The volume covering this meeting is in preparation.
At the invitation of Anton Zeilinger, who was a participant in Mind and Life VI, the dialogue on quantum physics that had begun in Dharamsala was continued at a smaller meeting, Mind and Life VII, held at the Institut fur Experimentalphysik in Innsbruck, Austria, in June 1998. That meeting has been described in the cover story of the January 1999 issue of GEO magazine of Germany.
Mind and Life VIII was again held in Dharamsala in March 2000. The topic was destructive emotions with Daniel Goleman as the scientific coordinator. The volume covering this meeting is in preparation.
Mind and Life IX was a two-day meeting held in Madison, Wisconsin in May 2001, and was organized in conjunction with the HealthEmotions Research Institute and the Center for Research on Mind-Body Interactions at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with Dr. Richard Davidson as the scientific coordinator. Participants presented an overview of modern methods for investigating human brain function and discussed with His Holiness the application of these methods in new research aimed at understanding the changes produced by meditation practice. Dr. Francisco Varela, who was instrumental in the planning of the meeting, was unable to attend due to illness. He passed away a week later on May 28, 2001. We were fortunate that in his last days he was able to observe the meeting and communicate with His Holiness via a live video connection. Dr. Varela's presence with us at that time was a moving reminder of the immeasurable contribution he has made to the dialogue between science and Buddhism, and his deep personal connection to His Holiness and to the Mind and Life Institute. "
[Quelle: http://www.mindandlife.org/history.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-10]
1991
Abb.: Lama Surya Das
[Bildquelle: http://www.dzogchen.org/surya/surya.htm. -- Zugriff a, 2005-06-23]Lama Surya Das gründet die Dzogchen Foundation
Webpräsenz: http://www.dzogchen.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-23
"Lama Surya Das is one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers and scholars. Born Jeffrey Miller, he was raised in Valley Stream on New York's Long Island, where he celebrated his bar mitzvah and earned letters in basketball, baseball, and soccer at Valley Stream Central High School (class of 1968). While a student at the State University of New York at Buffalo, he attended antiwar protests, marched on Washington, and attended Woodstock. After graduating with honors from college, he traveled throughout Europe and the East, and he has spent nearly thirty years studying Zen, vipassana, yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism with many of the great old masters of Asia. Today, Lama Surya Das teaches and lectures around the world, conducting dozens of meditation retreats and workshops each year. Based on his relationship with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Surya Das founded the Western Buddhist Teachers Network and has organized three week-long conferences of Western Buddhist Meditation Teachers with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. He also teaches regularly at Esalen, Open Center, Omega Institute, Interface, at universities in the United States and abroad, and at spiritual centers of all kinds.
...
When he's not meditating, teaching, or attending a retreat, Surya Das enjoys music, dogs, swimming, bicycling, hiking, and haiku poetry.He resides in Concord, Massachusetts, outside of Boston."
[Quelle: http://www.dzogchen.org/surya/surya.htm. -- Zugriff a, 2005-06-23]
1991-08-09
Eine Frau zerstört als Protest gegen buddhistischen Totenkult ein Kalachakra-Sandmandala, das für eine Ausstellung im Asian Art Museum, San Francisco in den letzten vier Wochen hergestellt worden war.
1992
Beginn des Tibetan U.S. Resettlement Project (TUSRP)
"One thousand Tibetan refugees have begun arriving in the United States from India as part of a resettlement program which the Dalai Lama believes will benefit "the Tibetan people as a whole." According to Ed Bednar, director of the Tibetan U.S. Resettlement Project, this immigration is particularly gratifying to the five hundred Tibetans already in residence (through student visas or marriage) who can foresee their community here strengthened and their culture in exile perpetuated.
No federal money is involved in this operation. It's purely a private-sector enterprise, organized and financed by a national network of volunteers in the United States, and is the result of several years work to circumvent the U.S. government's political sensitivity to China on the Tibet issue. To allow Tibetans into this country as "refugees" under existing immigration laws, the United States would have had to acknowledge that the Tibetans could have a "well-founded fear of persecution" from the Chinese. Despite overwhelming evidence to validate this claim, the Bush administration was unwilling to offend China. The current solution, proposed by Democratic Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, was a special provision to the 1990 Immigration Act : which provided entry as "qualified \ displaced Tibetans." The new I arrivals are being resettled in nine-l teen cities across the country, ; including New York, Boston, i Chicago, San Fransciso, and Seattle. According to Bednar, his small volunteer staff has been working around the clock to help facilitate this historic effort, but the recession has slowed the fund-raising efforts and both money and sponsors are still needed."[Quelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. II, No.1 (Fall 1992). -- S. 85.]
Abb.: Tibeter in den USA (2000)"Prior to the advent of the Tibetan U.S. Resettlement Project (TUSRP) in the early 1990s, the Tibetan population in the United States was about 500. These earlier immigrants arrived without organized program assistance and settled in the northeast, north central and western states. The TUSRP project brought 1000 Tibetan adult settlers between 1992 and 1993, with subsequent family reunification more than doubling the number by 1996. In addition to program settlers, it is estimated that a further 2,000 to 3,000 Tibetans have come to the U.S. from the mid-90s to 2002, primarily on tourist visas. An undetermined, but substantial number of these visitors have stayed beyond their visa limits and are living in the U.S., mainly in New York City. It is estimated that currently there are between 6,500 and 8,500 Tibetans in the United States, however, we have no means to accurately count the number of undocumented community members."
[Quelle: http://www.tibetanculture.org/pdf/survey_pdf/Overview_Timelines.pdf. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-07]
1992
Abb.: Namgyal Monastery
[Bildquelle: http://www.namgyal.org/MAC/MAC_Namgyal_Monastery_Institute_Of_Buddhist_Studies.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-23]Der Dalai Lama bestimmt das Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, New York zu seinem nordamerikanischen Regierungssitz
Webpräsenz: http://www.namgyal.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-23
"In 1992, Namgyal Monastery began an important new chapter in the history of Buddhism and Tibetan culture in America. Monks from the monastery traveled from Dharamsala, India to Ithaca, New York to establish an actual branch of Namgyal Monastery in North America.
Six Namgyal monks, including a Geshe (the equivalent of a Ph.D. in the Geluk tradition) and others with the Master of Sutra and Tantra degree were selected to establish the Institute which would serve as the North American seat of the personal monastery of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
Although the Namgyal Ithaca curriculum has undergone several changes from the time of its inception, the basic study program is a three-year program, with emphasis on a systematic combination of Tibetan language, philosophy and practice in both sutra and tantra. Classes are taught by monks on exchange from the parent monastery in Dharamsala, India. The Namgyal Institute program is distinguished by providing an authentic Tibetan Buddhist learning environment with continual contact with the resident monks and visiting lamas. The regular schedule of ritual practices followed by the monks, which Western students are welcome to attend, set the tone for ever deeper attunement to the Tibetan Buddhist way of life.
Open to qualified men and women, the Institute offers a unique three-year program (plus short courses, workshops, retreats and public programs) based directly on the curriculum of the parent monastery. The program enables students to deepen their understanding of Tibetan Buddhism with confidence and well-qualified direction without having to travel the 7,000 miles to India.The Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies, which is open to women and men from all over the world, provides an opportunity for the systematic study in English of Tibetan Buddhism in a traditional monastic setting. As an Institute of Buddhist Studies, Namgyal combines its Tibetan faculty with an adjunct faculty of preeminent Western scholars of Tibetan Buddhism. The Institute thus acts as a hub in the academic world of Buddhist Studies, connecting scholars and institutions throughout North America. "
[Quelle: http://www.namgyal.org/MAC/MAC_Namgyal_Monastery_Institute_Of_Buddhist_Studies.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-23]
1992-04-05
Abb.: Colin Turnbull
[Bildquelle. http://www.colinturnbull.com/photos13.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-14]Der Anthropologe Colin Macmillan Turnbull (1924 - 1994) wird in Dharamsala (Indien) zum tibetischen Mönch ordiniert. Sein Ordensname ist Lobsong Rigdol.
"Colin Macmillan Turnbull (November 23, 1924 - July 28, 1994) was a Scottish-born anthropologist who gained fame with his book The Forest People (1962), a detailed study of the Mbuti Pygmies. In 1972, he wrote his most controversial book, The Mountain People, which portrayed Uganda's hunger-plagued Ik tribe. Turnbull was an unconventional scholar who rejected objectivity. He idealized the Mbuti and reviled the Ik. Turnbull became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1959 and lived in New York and Virginia with his professional collaborator and partner of 30 years, an African American Dr. Joseph Towles, as an openly gay and interracial couple. After his partner's death in 1988, Turnbull retreated to a Buddhist monastery where he lived out his remaining years under the name Lobsong Rigdol before his death in 1994. Both Drs. Towles and Turnbull died from the complications associated with AIDS."
[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Turnbull. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-14]
1993
Abb.: FilmplakatEs erscheint der Film Little Buddha / Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
Inhalt: "Der Lama Norbu reist von Bhutan nach Seattle, wo er die Reinkarnation seines Lehrmeisters in dem Jungen Jesse gefunden zu haben glaubt. Er erzählt dem Jungen die Geschichte des Prinzen Siddharta, der vor 2500 Jahren alle Reichtümer hinter sich ließ und auf dem Höhepunkt seines asketischen Lebens zu Buddha wurde."
1993
Lama Chuck Stanford und Mary Stanford gründen die Mindfulness Meditation Foundation, heute Rime Buddhist Center, Monastery & Tibetan Institute of Studies in Kansas City, MissouriWebpräsenz: http://www.rimecenter.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-20]
"The Rime Buddhist Center, Monastery & Tibetan Institute of Studies is a non-profit (501c3) religious and educational organization located at 700 West Pennway in Kansas City, Missouri. The Rime Center provides weekly services and Dharma teachings on Sunday morning, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. It also sponsors meditation retreats and hosts special interest group meetings related to the teaching and practice of Buddhism in everyday life. The Rime Center offers Tibetan language and sand mandala courses in association with Ottawa University, an accredited institution of higher education in Overland Park, Kansas. To date, these have been taught by Lama Champa Tenzin Lhunpo, who has previously taught Tibetan language and philosophy to Western students for college credit through Cornell University) at the Namgyal Monastery & Institute of Buddhist Studies in Ithaca, New York. Non-credit courses are also offered through Communiversity.
Historical BackgroundOriginally founded as the Mindfulness Meditation Foundation by Lama Chuck and Mary Stanford in 1993, the Rime Buddhist Center & Monastery & Tibetan Institute of Studies has evolved to reach an ever-increasing number of people interested in the study and practice of Buddhism in and around Kansas City. Lama Chuck and Mary continue to serve on the Board of Directors and Lama Chuck serves as the Center’s Executive Director and spiritual leader.
On June 14, 1999, the name was changed to better reflect the goal of providing a monastery for Tibetan monks seeking to live, work and teach in the U.S. heartland. We recieved a favorable determination letter for 501c3 (religious organization) tax exemption on Oct. 25, 2000."
[Quelle: http://www.rimecenter.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-20]
1994
Abb.: EinbandtitelEs erscheint:
Kamenetz, Rodger <1950 - >: The Jew in the lotus : a poet's rediscovery of Jewish identity in Buddhist India. -- San Francisco, Calif. : HarperSanFrancisco, ©1994. -- x, 304 S. ; 22 cm. -- ISBN: 0060645768. -- {Wenn Sie HIER klicken, können Sie dieses Buch direkt bei amazon.de bestellen}
"IN autumn 1990, a Jewish Buddhist, a poet and eight distinguished Jews traveled to Dharamsala, India, for a four-day exchange of views -- a reciprocal teaching -- with the Dalai Lama, the titular head of Tibetan Buddhism, who has been living in exile for more than three decades. The Jewish Buddhist (or JUBU, as some say) was Marc Lieberman, a San Francisco ophthalmologist, who, with Moshe Waldoks, a scholar and editor, organized the meeting in Dharamsala as well as a preliminary discussion between the Dalai Lama and a Jewish contingent the year before in New Jersey. The poet and chronicler on the trip to Dharamsala was Dr. Lieberman's friend Rodger Kamenetz, and the eight distinguished Jews included Mr. Waldoks and representatives from all over the Jewish doctrinal map: Orthodox and Reconstructionist rabbis, rabbis active in Jewish renewal and professors of religious studies and modern Hebrew thought. As implausible as that meeting in the Tibetan enclave in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh sounds, the two sides -- Buddhist and Jewish -- were drawn together by what was at first an almost impalpable sense of correspondence between their traditions and by the real need for the group experiencing a new diaspora to learn something of the arts of survival from a very old diaspora.
In 1959, when the Dalai Lama left Tibet for his refuge in Dharamsala, the Chinese had already occupied his native land for nine years. In their continuing hold on Tibet, they have systematically destroyed its monasteries and temples, imprisoned and executed its people and encouraged the settlement there of ethnic Chinese. "All told," Mr. Kamenetz writes in "The Jew in the Lotus," "an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a result of the occupation." It has been the Dalai Lama's task to preserve his gentle religion not only against the predations of the Chinese Army but also against the anger of Tibetans living in exile, to prevent Tibetan resistance from becoming merely political and thereby losing the soul of his people's identity.
The Jews who traveled to Dharamsala, particularly those from the United States, were confronting a different side of the same problem. In America, the spirituality of Judaism has been depleted by the very adaptability of its people, by their increasing secularism. Mr. Kamenetz, who teaches English at Louisiana State University, speaks for many when he says: "The house of Judaism in North America has not been satisfactorily built -- it does not have a spiritual dimension for many Jews. Too many Jews are like me: our Jewishness has been an inchoate mixture of nostalgia, family feeling, group identification, a smattering of Hebrew, concern for Israel, and so forth." What he believes he witnessed in India and America was a spiritual exile, Jews becoming Buddhists in order to find something the religion of their birth had come to lack. For many readers of "The Jew in the Lotus," the surprise will not be making the acquaintance of the Dalai Lama or his adherents in the enclave called McLeod Ganj in the Himalayan foothills. The surprise will be making the acquaintance of Rabbis Zalman Schachter and Jonathan Omer-Man, who made presentations before the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala on the cabala and Jewish meditation.
"Our teachings have been kept secret even from Jews for a long time," Rabbi Schachter said. "So every day, when people get up and say their prayers, there is an exoteric order. But hidden inside the exoteric is the esoteric, the deep attunement, the deep way."
Nearly every major religion has developed a tension between its exoteric forms -- accessible to all practitioners -- and its esoteric secrets, which are restricted to a small band of initiates, if only to prevent the misuse of that esoterica. In a series of remarkable discussions, the Dalai Lama and these two learned, ebullient cabalists, Rabbis Schachter and Omer-Man, compare notes on the character of meditation, its structures, rhythms and traditions. To read these chapters is something like walking through a mythic garden, and they are cause for reflection on many subjects, not least of them the shape of human consciousness and what might be called a bending of tradition to such an extent that the richness of its resources becomes inaccessible. "The Jew in the Lotus" is the kind of book that seems, at first glance, to have been written for a carefully delimited audience: Jews, Buddhists and Jewish Buddhists. But that is an illusion. It is really a book for anyone who feels the narrowness of a wholly secular life or who wonders about the fate of esoteric spiritual traditions in a world that seems bent on destroying or vulgarizing them. It is a narrative about an extraordinary moment in history, of course, but it is also the chronicle of Rodger Kamenetz's discovery of what he says is a more nourishing Judaism, though anyone who reads "The Jew in the Lotus" as a spiritual autobiography will quickly find that Mr. Kamenetz is uncannily revealing about his religious past and cannily uncommitted about his religious future. Along the way the reader meets many notable people: the Dalai Lama, the profundity of whose presence Mr. Kamenetz finds hard to translate; Ram Dass, a Jewish Buddhist who was once named Richard Alpert; Richard Gere, who says in Dharamsala, "It's not a good idea to argue with poor people"; and Allen Ginsberg. Insights are here for the gathering. I have saved one that was given to Mr. Kamenetz, who is skeptical and, evidently, somewhat irascible, by a lama from Montreal: "You doubt everything else," the lama said. "Why not doubt anger?" Copyright 1997, The New York Times Company.
-- Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New York Times, July 24, 1994"
[Quelle: http://literati.net/Kamenetz/KamenetzReviews.htm. -- Zuriff am 2005-07-08]
1994
Abb.: Beastie BoysAdam Yauch von den Beastie Boys entdeckt für sich den Buddhismus. Sie sponsern Namgyal-Mönchen am Lollapalooza Music Festival. Die Mönche führen vor dem Auftreten von anderen Musikgruppen Rituale und Tänze auf.
"Adam "MCA" Yauch One of the two remaining founding members of the Beastie Boys, Yauch has provided rhymes and bass guitar to our favorite songs. Following the Licensed to Ill tour, Adam joined forces with some old friends like Tom Cushman and recorded under the band name Brooklyn. Recently, studio recordings of this band have been circualting among collectors. The most memorable riff to come out of this collaboration was what would eventually become the bass line for the Check Your Head song "Gratitude."
Although his interest in Tibet began while recording Check Your Head, it was not until 1994 during the Lollapalooza tour that Beastie Boys fans were made aware of band's involvement with the Free Tibet movement. By 1996, Yauch had organized the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco, CA. Since then, membership support for two organizations, Students for a Free Tibet and the Milarepa Fund, blossomed. As a result, these organizations (along with the Tibetan Freedom Concerts) have increased the pressure on the Chinese government to change their tradition of human rights violations.
When he's not behind the microphone, Yauch is working on the band's music videos using the alter ego "Nathanial Hornblower," who has directed more Beastie Boys music videos than anyone else. More recently, he was instrumental in the release of the Beastie Boys Video Anthology DVD project. "
[Quelle: http://www.beastiemania.com/whois/yauch_adam/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-14]
Abb.: CoverAuf dem Album
Beastie Boys: Ill communication. -- CDP 7243 8 28599 2 5 Grand Royal/Capitol Records. -- Hollywood, CA : Grand Royal, ©1994. -- 1 CD ; Lyrics on insert.
Contents: Sure shot -- Tough guy -- B-boys makin' with the freak freak -- Bobo on the corner -- Root down -- Sabotage -- Get it together -- Sabrosa -- The update -- Futterman's rule -- Alright hear this -- Eugene's lament -- Flute loop -- Do it -- Ricky's theme -- Heart attack man -- The scoop -- Shambala -- Bodhisattva vow -- Transitions.
{Wenn Sie HIER klicken, können Sie diese CD direkt bei amazon.de bestellen bzw. Hörproben dieser Songs hören}sind zwei tibetisch-buddhistisch inspirierte Songs:
- Shambala
- Bodhisattva Vow
Bodhisattva Vow, Lyrics: "As I Develop The Awakening Mind I Praise The Buddha As They Shine
I Bow Before You As I Travel My Path To Join Your Ranks,
I Make My Full Time Task
For The Sake Of All Beings I Seek
The Enlighted Mind That I Know I'll Reap
Respect To Shantideva And All The Others
Who Brought Down The Darma For Sisters And Brothers
I Give Thanks For This World As A Place To Learn
And For This Human Body That I'm Glad To Have Earned
And My Deepest Thanks To All Sentient Beings
For Without Them There Would Be No Place To Learn What I'm Seeing
There's Nothing Here That's Not Been Said Before
But I Put It Down Now So I'll Be Sure
To Solidify My Own Views And I'll Be Glad If It Helps
Anyone Else Out Too
If Others Disrespect Me Or Give Me Flack
I'll Stop And Think Before I React =
Knowing That They're Going Through Insecure Stages
I'll Take The Opportunity To Exercise Patience
I'll See It As A Chance To Help The Other Person
Nip It In The Bud Before It Can Worsen
A Change For Me To Be Strong And Sure
As I Think On The Buddhas Who Have Come Before
As I Praise And Respect The Good They've Done
Knowing Only Love Can Conquer In Every Situation
We Need Other People In Order To Create
The Circumstances For The Learning That We're Here To Generate
Situations That Bring Up Our Deepest Fears
So We Can Work To Release Them Until They're Cleared
Therefore, It Only Makes Sense
To Thank Our Enemies Despite Their Intent
The Bodhisattva Path Is One Of Power And Strength
A Strength From Within To Go The Length
Seeing Others Are As Important As Myself
I Strive For A Happiness Of Mental Wealth
With The Interconnectedness That We Share As One
Every Action That We Take Affects Everyone
So In Deciding For What A Situation Calls
There Is A Path For The Good For All
I Try To Make My Every Action For That Highest Good
With The Altruistic Wish To Achive Buddhahood
So I Pledge Here Before Everyone Who's Listening
To Try To Make My Every Action For The Good Of All Beings
For The Rest Of My Lifetimes And Even Beyond
I Vow To Do My Best To Do No Harm
And In Times Of Doubt I Can Think On The Dharma
And The Enlightened Ones Who've Graduated Samsara"[Quelle: http://www.lyricsdepot.com/beastie-boys/bodhisattva-vow.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-05]
1994-09-30
Abb.: Captain Larry Rockwood
[Bildquelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. IV, No.4 (Summer 1995). -- S. 91.]Captain Larry Rockwood von der U.S. Army, ein Anhänger des tibetischen Buddhismus, geht auf eigene Faust Missständen im Nationalgefängnis von Haiti nach.
"Captain Larry Rockwood faces court martial by the U.S. Army this month—not for being a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism (which he is), but for taking President Bill Clinton at His word. On September 15, 1994, President Clinton announced to the nation that U.S. forces on their way to Haiti were preparing to "stop the brutal atrocities that threaten tens of thousands of Haitians." When U.S. forces arrived in Haiti, however, it was a different story.
Rockwood, who was deployed to Haiti as a counterintelligence officer for the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army, had begun making requests for information on confinement facilities in Haiti as early as August. But when he arrived in Haiti, he was told by superiors that human rights issues were not a priority of the Haiti mission. Rockwood, whose father had helped to liberate a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia during World War II, said later in a letter to General David C. Meade, the Commander of the Multinational Forces in Haiti, "I found it difficult to conclude that the U.S. government could not to some degree be held ethically, morally or legally responsible for human rights violations being carried out with the knowledge of the [U.S. military] command...."
With these considerations in mind, Rockwood began a weeklong effort to solve the problem by going through all the official channels. When it became apparent that no action was intended, he filed an official complaint with the Command Inspector General, a risky step for a career soldier of fifteen years. Then, finally, on the night of September 30 he decided to go it alone.
Climbing over the compound fence because he could not bear to lie to guards, Rockwood found his way to Haiti's National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, where he proceeded to conduct his own human rights inspection. He was shown a few crowded cells but was told by prison officials that the main segment of the prison could not be opened until ten the next morning. He decided to wait. Two hours later a U.S. Military-Liaison officer was dispatched to bring Rockwood home, and he agreed to leave the compound. As he later told a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, "You understand, after fifteen years of military training I simply couldn't bring myself to disobey a direct order."
Following his return to the compound, Rockwood was read his rights and subjected to two separate psychiatric evaluations, both of which pronounced him sane. Afterward, he reported to his superior officer, Lieutenant Colonel Frank B. Bragg, Jr., who asked him, "Do you realize you are a soldier?" to which Rockwood replied, "Yes, I know. And I am an American soldier, not a Nazi soldier."
What would Rockwood have found had he been allowed into the main prison block at Haiti's National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince? On February 24, Congressman Dan Burton testified at a hearing of the House Committee on U.S. Policy and Activities in Haiti: "I went to that prison and found that there had been one cell where 500 prisoners had been housed for six months, standing in six inches of excrement. . . . Some of their feet became gangrenous—I guess that's the proper term—and they had to be amputated, and many of them suffered from hepatitis and other diseases."
Of course, the U.S. Army would like to have been finished with this potential public-relations disaster, but, by declining the offer of a discharge, Rockwood has refused to let the military off the hook. Instead, he is prepared to stand trial on May 8 for, among other charges, "conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman."
Is Captain Lawrence P. Rockwood a good soldier? Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the attorney provided to Rockwood by Amnesty International, said that his client had correctly placed his obligation to defend human life ahead of Army pro-toco!. "'The idea that this could be considered conduct unbecoming of an officer is the worst idea that the military could project," he concluded.
And what does Rockwood say? In a letter that he sends to people who inquire about the trial, Rockwood encloses a list of relevant quotes on human rights and the limits of military obedience. The list contains quotations from sources as diverse as George Bernard Shaw ("The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity") and the Dalai Lama ("It is not enough to be compassionate, you must act") but also includes the voices of great soldiers such as General Douglas MacArthur:
"The soldier, be he friend or foe, is charged with the protection of the weak and unarmed. It is his very essence and reason for being. . .. The traditions of fighting men are long and honorable. They are based upon the noblest of human faiths—SACRIFICE.""[Quelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. IV, No.4 (Summer 1995). -- S. 90 - 92.]
"One of the more intriguing and troubling incidents of Uphold Democracy from the Army's point of view was the case of Captain Larry Rockwood. Assigned to the mission of counterintelligence for the 10th Mountain Division, Rockwood arrived in Haiti on September 23, 1994. There, he had extensive access to sensitive information from sources throughout Port-au-Prince. Although informed that his first concern was the collection of information that might bear on the security of American forces in Haiti, so-called "Haitian-on-Haitian violence" was also a priority interest. Rockwood soon became deeply disturbed at information contained in numerous reports that indicated serious and continuing human rights abuses in government prisons in the capital. U.S. intelligence had identified five centers for incarceration and torture in Port-au-Prince and knew of a body dump north of the city. What especially bothered Rockwood was that the 10th Mountain Division was apparently taking no action, either to verify conditions in the local prisons or to establish a roster of prisoners that would enable the Army to hold prison administrators accountable for the well being of their wards.
Beginning with the legal section, Captain Rockwood pressed his concern through various channels inside and outside his chain of command and was dissatisfied at the lack of urgency that greeted his reports and queries. Finally, on September 30, he complained officially to the division inspector general, fully aware that this action was hardly routine and might adversely affect his career. Believing that he had already "crossed the Rubicon," Rockwood unilaterally resolved to pay a visit to the infamous National Penitentiary to demand a full accounting of the prisoners and the right to view the facility. Although he had no specific information on torture at the national prison, Captain Rockwood chose to visit it because he knew its exact location and believed he could get there easily. If he could obtain a list of prisoners, he would in effect establish the responsibility of the prison administration for their condition. In executing this plan, he violated an explicit order from his command.
Rockwood subsequently defended his action on the ground that he was carrying out the spirit of President Clinton's mission statement, which included human rights concerns. By implication, he asserted that he had received an illegal order not to intervene. This claim received no support from any figure in the administration. Rockwood's arrest stemmed specifically from violation of a direct order from a superior, a fact that he fully understood. Although he underwent a psychiatric evaluation that verified his mental health, some speculated whether Rockwood had been predisposed, either emotionally or philosophically, to create an incident due to his well-established interest in human rights and law of war issues. His father, as a GI, had participated in liberating a German concentration camp at the close of World War II and had sensitized Captain Rockwood to questions of rights and prisons. In fact, while a student at Fort Leavenworth, he had researched a paper on the massacre at My Lai. In any case, the implications of Rockwood's action were many and controversial. One officer of Task Force Mountain cautioned that, in the confusion prevailing at the time, Rockwood's hasty action potentially could have precipitated politically motivated murders in the prison of the very sort that the captain wanted to prevent. Furthermore, deplorable, even dangerous conditions, could be found in many parts of Port-au-Prince, not just the prisons. However, another officer who was serving in Haiti with civil affairs at the time sympathized with Rockwood's intent and believed that the Army should have moved more aggressively to inspect the prisons. Ultimately, Rockwood chose to subject himself to a court-martial rather than accept nonjudicial punishment. One result was his removal from the service.
Though fascinating in its own right, the Rockwood case is significant to the history of Uphold Democracy, both because it reflects the ambiguity of the American position and because it invites further conjecture about the posture of the 10th Mountain Division. Rockwood's legal defense sought to establish an obligation to intercede on the basis of the law of armed conflict or international law. The Army, in turn, maintained that the timing of any intercession was up to the MNF commander. No legal obligation to inspect the prisons existed, Army lawyers argued, because the United States was not in Haiti as an occupying power within the meaning of the Hague Convention, which would have implied specific obligations for the well being of the population, but as part of an MNF that entered the country through a negotiated agreement with the Cedras regime. Furthermore, according to the Army, customary international law does not impose any such requirement. Despite this legal position, early revisions of the rules of engagement did authorize members of the Multinational Force to intercede to halt Haitian-on-Haitian violence.
Perhaps the real point is not whether any legal requirement existed but whether it would have promoted American aims in Haiti had an inspection of prisons been made an early priority. A more proactive stance on the part of the 10th Mountain Division might well have garnered public support and mitigated concerns that Americans were not doing enough to put down the FAd'H. The fact that Rockwood's actions made him a hero to many Haitians is evidence to this effect. Broadly speaking, concern over the prisons may have been shoved aside as a result of command concern in the 10th over force protection and the urgency of establishing order in the streets of Port-au-Prince. Months later, Brigadier General James T. Hill of the 25th Infantry Division confirmed, in a public interview, that horrific conditions still existed in the prison in January 1995 and emphasized that alleviating those conditions was a priority concern."[Quelle: Kretchik, Walter E. (Walter Edward) <1954 - > ; Baumann, Robert F. <1952 - > ; Fishel, John T.: Intervasion, intervention, "intervasion": a concise history of the U.S. Army in Operation Uphold Democracy. -- http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/kretchik/chapter3.asp. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-09]
1995
Abb.: Inserat in Tricycle : the Buddhist
review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. V, No. 2 (Winter 1995). -- S.
1.
1995
Abb.: Gyuto Wheel of Dharma Monastery in Minnesota
[Bildquelle: http://www.pluralism.org/research/profiles/display.php?profile=71769. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-08]Gründung des Gyuto Wheel of Dharma Monastery in Minnesota
"History In 1990 the US government enacted the Tibetan Resettlement Project. This project granted visas to 1000 Tibetans. In 1992, 162 displaced Tibetans arrived in Minnesota. Two Tibetans, including Thupten Dadak, had been living in Minnesota since the mid- eighties. Dadak’s house quickly became known as the “Tibet House” for the many immigrants who slept at his home in the early days. In 1992, Dadak also founded the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota (TAFM). The organization became the main welcoming post for Tibetans coming to the state. Their job was very difficult in the first couple of years, because the U.S. government did not grant the immigrants refugee status. Dadak and his supporters had to find jobs for the arriving Tibetans with out knowing them, their skills or their ability to speak English. The INS began the family reunification program, in 1997, bringing more and more Tibetans into the Twin Cities. Currently the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area hosts close to 1000 ethnic Tibetans, the second largest Tibetan community in the United States, next to New York.
In the beginning the community would gather in churches and halls to celebrate and worship. In 1994, His Holiness the Dalai Lama granted his permission and blessing to establish the Gyuto Wheel of Dharma Monastery in Minnesota, the only Gyuto branch outside of India and Tibet. In November of 2001, the monastery found a residence in a northern suburb of Minneapolis. It is presently the home to three monks and many activities. Although, the establishment of the monastery provided the Tibetan community with monks and a place to gather, the space soon became too small. The community rents out the National Guard Armory Hall in St. Paul for its large gatherings and celebrations.The community is presently seeking land for the construction of the Tibetan Community Cultural Center. The center would provide a place to gather and a means to preserve culture. Fundraising efforts for the center were assisted by a visit from His Holiness in May of 2001. His Holiness’ visit was very successful. In addition to the fundraising effort, of which His Holiness only took $40, the event educated Minnesotans about the Tibetan community.
Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota
TAFM was founded in 1992. TAFM has created a variety of programs to support the Tibetan community. The Tibetan Cultural School teaches Tibetan language, history, and culture to children. It meets every Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at Grace Unity Church in Minneapolis. TAFM organizes traditional dance and music groups, which perform at celebrations and other events. They offer social service referrals, which connect families with needed services, in addition to educational and cultural outreach programs that share the history and culture of Tibet with Minnesotans. The foundation also hosts conferences. The last major conference drew members from other Tibetan associations located in different community clusters around the country. The newly elected Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in exile spoke at the event. TAFM also provides the community with a quarterly newsletter, Yakkety-Yak. An executive director and a board of local community members head TAFM.Gyuto Wheel of Dharma Monastery
This Geluk monastery was established with the blessing of His Holiness in 1994. Only 50 of 900 Gyuto monks escaped Tibet in 1959. There are now over 400 Gyuto monks in India. Gyuto monks traveled to Minnesota many times before the establishment of the monastery. The monastery is currently located in Columbia Heights, a northeast suburb of Minneapolis. The monastery hosts classes for anyone interested on Saturday and Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. On Saturday, the class hears a lecture on a sacred text and other religious instruction from a resident monk. On Wednesday the class participates in chanting. On Sunday night about 100 Tibetans gather to prey and chant, and westerners are invited to observe the ritual.Although the monastery serves the entire community, many Tibetans choose to practice their religion primarily in the home. Some reasons for this are the foreign nature of a monastery in an American context, specifically its size and architecture, and its affiliation with the Geluk sect. Some members of the Nygima, Sakya, and Kagyu sects prefer to worship at home.
A number of active and retired monks of various sects live outside of the monastery.The Tibetan New Year (Losar) includes prayers by monks, traditional dances, food and fun. In Tibet and India this holiday is traditionally celebrated by families in their own homes. However, the Minnesotan expression of this event involves a community gathering. Minnesotan Tibetans follow many of the traditional observances, including painting the door and presenting gifts to deities on a shrine. However, they are not able to visit the high lamas as they do in Tibet and India. Members of the community will visit each other during the day, and at night they gather at a hall to celebrate.Activities and Schedule of the Tibetan Community
The Tibetan community celebrates a number of annual religious occasions and life cycle events. The three most notable religious celebrations are the Tibetan New Year in February, His Holiness’ Birthday in July, and the anniversary of His Holiness receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in December. There have also been five weddings in the course of Minnesota Tibetan history. They have followed along traditional lines and are remembered fondly by some community members.The birthday celebration is usually held in a park. Tibetan officials will give a talk and read the annual speech by his Holiness. Monks provide prayers and chants, local youth participate in traditional dances and songs, and there is sports, games, and food. Although Tibetans and westerners alike attend all of these events, the anniversary of the His Holiness’ Nobel Peace Prize is the most diverse event. It is described as a party where the achievements of His Holiness are honored.
Contact Phone/Fax Number
(763)789-4478Date Center Founded
1995Membership/Community Size
1000Ethnic Composition
Tibetan
Prepared by Student Researcher Michel Boudreaux
Updated on August 5, 2003"
[Quelle: Michel Boudreaux. -- http://www.pluralism.org/research/profiles/display.php?profile=71769. -- Zugriff am 2005-07-08]
1995
Abb.: Geshe Michael Roach
[Bildquelle: http://www.enlightenedbusiness.com/profiles.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-01]Michael Roach (1952 - ) erwirbt als erster Amerikaner den Geshe-Grad
"Geshe Michael Roach is the founder and spiritual director of Diamond Mountain. He was born in Los Angeles in 1952 and was raised in Phoenix, AZ. As a student at Princeton University he concentrated his studies in religion and ancient Sanskrit and Russian language. He met his teacher Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin in 1972 in the U.S. and studied very closely with him after that time. He was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1983 and is entirely fluent in the spoken and written Tibetan language. After approximately 20 years of daily intensive study with Khen Rinpoche in New Jersey and at Sera Mey monastery in Southern India, Geshe Michael received the Geshe degree in 1995 (akin to a Doctorate of Divinity). He has also studied extensively at Sera Mey with Geshe Thubten Rinchen, one of the great living scripture teachers. " [Quelle: http://diamondmtn.org/roots/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-01]
""The whole point then is to make money in a clean and honest way, to understand clearly where it comes from so it doesn't stop, and to maintain a healthy view toward it while we have it. As long as we do these things, making money is completely consistent with a spiritual way of life; in fact, it becomes part of a spiritual way of life." From The Diamond Cutter by Geshe Michael Roach
Geshe Michael Roach is a fully ordained Tibetan monk. After two decades of study he is the first American ever to earn the degree of Geshe (Doctor of Philosophy). Geshe Michael completed these rigorous Tibetan studies in 1995 at Sera Mey Monastery with Sermey Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, who was appointed Abbot of Sera Mey by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.
Geshe Michael is an honors graduate from Princeton, a scholar of Tibetan, Sanskrit and Russian, and a recipient of the Presidential Scholar Medallion. In 1981 he joined the diamond division of Andin International Corporation [Jewelry manufacturer and wholesaler; Webpräsenz: http://www.andin.com/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-02] where he worked for seventeen years, reaching the position of Vice President. During that time he helped build that division to more than $150 million in annual sales and more than 500 employees worldwide. At the same time, Geshe Michael has been instrumental in the restoration of Sera Mey Monastery in Southern India, the preservation of ancient Tibetan texts and has taught and translated Tibetan scriptures in the New York area. "[Quelle: http://www.enlightenedbusiness.com/profiles.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-01]
Hintergrund: der Geshe-Grad
"The Geshe Degree
Origin of the Geshe DegreeThe first Tibetan Buddhist tradition to award a degree at the conclusion of the course of studies were the Sakyas and like the geshe degree, it was granted on the basis of proficiency in dialectical debate. It was called Ka-shi - four subjects, or Ka-chu - ten subjects. The subjects were examined together, so one exhibitory debate could prove a candidate's proficiency in all the subjects. Several of these were held. In Tsongkhapa's time this degree was awarded at Samphu, Kyormolung and Dewachen (later Ratö) monasteries.
The Geshe Degree
A monk's curriculum is divided into six principal subjects organized into fifteen classes. These subjects were;
Collected Topics (bsdus-gra) which were preliminary to the syllabus proper.
Perfection of Wisdom (Prajraparamita, Par-phyin)
Middle View (Madhyamika, dbuma)
Valid Cognition (Pramana, tshadma)
Discipline (Vinaya, 'Dul-ba)
Knowledge (Abhidharma, mDzod)The number of years spent on each subject varied from college to college but typically it was as follows;
Collected Topics - one year
Perfection of Wisdom - five years
Middle View - two years
Discipline - one year
Knowledge -two years
Valid Cognition being studied intermittently throughout the course.Colleges such as Gomang in Drepung, spent as long as eight years on Collected Topics alone, though this period could be abbreviated by special permission for monks coming from afar. Monks who had completed their studies, but were waiting to take their geshe examination, spent the time perfecting their debating skills and studying the last two subjects. Tulkus (recog-nised reincarnate lamas) were allowed to take their exams as soon as they had completed the cur-riculum and most returned to teach in their own monasteries in other parts of Tibet.
Each year the monks rose one class and an annual examination was held for those who had completed their studies, in which their performance was evaluated by the abbot of the particular college. The topics for their dialectical examination were drawn from the whole course of study, but students were unable to do any specific preparation because the topic to be debated was selected by the abbot on the spot. Thus, it was a real test of a student's abilities and the depth of his study. At the conclusion the abbot assigned each candidate to a category of geshe according to his ability. There were four such categories, Dorampa, Lingtse, Tsorampa and Lharampa, Lharampa being the highest. Prizes were awarded to the most successful candidates, which the abbot pro-vided out of his personal funds, and an announcement of the results was made in the monastic assembly, where the candidates received scarves. After this, the geshe candidates were not allowed to miss even one of the three daily debate sessions during the subsequent eight months.
In the fifth month the Lharampa and Tsorampa candidates received a notice from the Dalai Lama's Debating Assistants (Tsen-shabs) to present themselves for examinations at the Nor-bulinka. These debates began at day break and were interrupted for the daily assembly, at which all the government officials gathered for tea and tsampa and those who had requested an audience with the Dalai Lama would be informed of the time of their appointment. The examinations were then resumed, and continued until sunset.
Ballots were drawn to determine the order in which the candidates would be challenged. The first candidate was then challenged by the second, he by the third and so on in succession. The same procedure was followed for each of the five subjects, the whole examination lasting six to seven days. The order of the debaters was regularly rearranged to ensure that each monk did not always face the same challenger.
At the conclusion, the Debating Assistants discussed the candidates' performances amongst themselves and assigned them ranks from one to seven, which were kept secret. On the third day of the New Year, the geshes who had been assigned to the first two ranks were generally required to debate before the Dalai Lama, leaving little doubt as to who would receive the highest honour at the formal conferrment of the degree during the Great Prayer Festival (Mon-lam Chen-mo). Though the examination at the Norbulinka was important, because as a result the geshe was as-signed a rank, the final decision was made at the Great Prayer Festival by the Debating Assistants. They would observe the evening exhibitory debates of the geshes they considered most promising and relied on reports of the candidates from the two abbots to draw their final conclusions. Every stage of the geshe's examination was important and the Lharampa geshe degree he was finally awarded had been very well earned. The actual day during the Great Prayer Festival on which the geshe was to give his exhibitory debate was decided during the preceeding twelfth month. The candidates went to Drepung where one of the two abbots collected their strings of beads, shuffled them together and picked them up again one by one. As each of their owners rose to collect them, he was requested to take a slip of paper from a ballot box, on which was written the date of his exhibitory debate. Although this custom was followed, rearrangement was often required since it was necessary that the best geshes gave their exhibitory debates before the fifteenth. This was done by the Debating Assistants who received the lists from Drepung.
The College Feast
In the eleventh month, at great personal expense, the candidate offered a meal to the rest of his college to mark what was to be the most momentous event of his academic career. Immediately prior to the meal, led by the head of his hostel, he circled the assembly of monks, holding a stick of incense and a banner inscribed with verses. Originally these verses were composed by the monk himself to demonstrate his erudition, but later became a mere formality for which any auspicious verse was acceptable.
The College Exhibitory Debate
The college exhibitory debates took place during the eleventh month. There were two, an exten-sive and a brief debate. One candidate was examined each day and the brief debate lasted from about 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. When all the candidates had completed the brief exhibitory debates the longer ones began. They started at the same time, but could go on as late as 10 p.m. The length of this college examination varied according to the categories of Lharampa, Tsorampa and Lingtse. Since each college had four or five Lharampa candidates per year and as many of the other two combined, these exhibitory debates lasted about eight days.
At some point before his exhibitory debate the geshe visited his Lama Shung-leg-pa (Hostel study supervisor) to ask him to recommend a subject to comment on at his exhibitory debate. On the crucial day the candidate invited the Lama Shung-leg-pa and all the other geshe candidates to his room. The Lama Shung-leg-pa took his place on a throne and the candidate prostrated before him.
All were then offered a substantial meal. Immediately after this the candidate lead the Lama Shung-leg-pa into the assembly. All the geshe candidates sat in a row, with the candidate of the day seated on the end to the right. Holding his fringed hat to his forehead, he recited praises to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and retold the story of the Buddha's life, Next, he commented on the verses given to him by the Lama Shung-leg-pa and continued to do so until the abbot interrupted him, when he began to recite subjects of debate. In the past, these were the ones from which the other debaters picked their topics on which to challenge him. Later, it became a formality and only auspicious subjects were recited. The geshe candidate concluded his recitation with an abbreviated recapitulation of the subdivisions of the five principal topics. Dried fruit was formally offered to the abbot and tulkus and thrown to the rest of the assembly.
A challenger then rose and choosing an auspicious topic, such as the mind of enlightenment, began to debate with the candidate. In the longer exhibitory debates the challengers were experienced geshes, who no longer attended the ordinary debate sessions. They were followed by the Tsogchen Tulkus, high ranking reincarnate lamas. The abbot determined the length of each de-bate. In the shorter ones the monks who were not yet geshes or geshe candidates and all the tulkus, even the youngest ones are expected to participate. The topics were Knowledge and Discipline, followed by Middle View. When the debates were over the Lama Shung-leg-pa rose and, praising the events of the day, dedicated all the merit to the spread of Dharma.
One more debate session was required of the Lharampa geshe candidate. This was an all night debate on the topic of Valid Cognition and took place at the winter congregation at Jang. The challengers were all advanced debaters and the event was eagerly watched by all the monks participating in the congregation.
The geshes were awarded their degrees on the twenty-fourth of the first month, at the end of the Great Prayer Festival. If the Dalai Lama was in Lhasa, he presided over the event which took place in the upper storey of the Jokhang. The geshe candidates waited outside the assembly hall, entering when their names and ranks were read out by a government official. They received gifts of robes and dried fruit and took their places in the assembly. Anxious crowds of supporters from the candidates' colleges waited outside trying to see who had attained the highest ranks.
If the Dalai Lama was not in Lhasa for the Great Prayer Festival, the conferrment of the Geshe degree took place in the Potala.
The geshe degree was formally established at the time of the fifth Dalai Lama in the seven-teenth century, but by the twentieth century, like other long standing institutions its conferrment had began to be regarded as a merely customary event. This came to the attention of the thirteenth Dalai Lama during a visit to Mongolia, where he was greatly impressed by the performance of local scholars. He returned to Tibet determined to reform the geshe system and raise the standard of scholarship. Until these reforms, Lharampa and Tsorampa geshe degrees were awarded entirely at the discretion of the abbots of the respective colleges. Sometimes elderly monks were awarded the degree merely on the basis of their seniority. In the year preceding the reforms, the Dalai Lama remarked that several Lharampa geshe candidates were not sufficiently qualified and warned that in future only worthy candidates should present themselves. The following year, the abbots were obliged to consult the Debating Assistants and the Norbulinka examinations were estab-lished. Several candidates were judged unsuitable, were disqualified and fined. The thirteenth Dalai Lama also made it compulsory for geshes awarded ranks to enter one of the two Tantric Colleges, Gyutöor Gyumey, in order to raise the standard of education in the Tantric Colleges and to oblige the geshes to complete their education with a thorough study of the Tantras."
[Quelle: http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism/geshe.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-02]
Geshe Michael Roach ist auch Gründer des Enlightened Business Institute
Webpräsenz: http://www.enlightenedbusiness.com/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-01
"Where Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Enterprise Welcome to the Enlightened Business Institute. At EBI, we provide traditional business services based on a unique world view that explains how and why we encounter certain people, events, opportunities and challenges in our professional and personal lives. More importantly, we teach you how to use this knowledge to bring meaningful change to your work and life. Drawing on the wisdom of The Diamond Cutter by our founder, Geshe Michael Roach, EBI helps you understand how we create and nurture mental imprints and how these imprints determine our experience. "
[Quelle: http://www.enlightenedbusiness.com/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-01]
“10 Principles of Enlightened Business”
Enhance the well-being of others
Respect your financial commitments
Act with absolute equanimity
Convey true impressions
Bring people together
Speak professionally and respectfully
Speak about meaningful things
Find happiness in what you have
Celebrate others' achievements
See the hidden potential of all things
[Quelle: http://www.enlightenedbusiness.com/Ten_Principles.htm. -- Zugriff a, 2005-06-01]
In
Roach, Michael <1952 - >: The diamond cutter : the Buddha on managing your business and your life. -- New York : Doubleday, 2000. -- vi, 226 S. ; 25 cm. -- ISBN 0385497903
deutsch:
Roach, Michael <1952 - >: Die Weisheit des Diamanten : buddhistische Prinzipien für beruflichen Erfolg und privates Glück. -- München : Dt. Taschenbuch-Verl., 2005. -- 304 S. ; 21 cm. -- (dtv ; 34198). -- ISBN 3-423-34198-X. -- Originaltitel: The diamond cutter (2000). -- {Wenn Sie HIER klicken, können Sie dieses Buch direkt bei amazon.de bestellen}
schreibt der Autor:
"Vorwort: Buddha und die Berufswelt In den 17 Jahren von 1981 bis 1998 hatte ich die Ehre, gemeinsam mit Ofer und Aya Azrielant, den Inhabern der Andin International Diamond Corporation, und mit der Kernbelegschaft des Unternehmens eine der weltweit größten Diamanten- und Juwelenhandelsfirmen aufzubauen. Für unsere geschäftlichen Aktivitäten standen uns anfangs lediglich 50 000 Dollar Startkapital aus einem Kredit zur Verfügung, und es gab, mich selbst eingerechnet, drei bis vier Mitarbeiter. Als ich 1998 aus dem Unternehmen ausschied, um mich ganztägig dem Ausbildungsinstitut zu widmen, das ich in New York gegründet hatte, betrugen die Jahresumsätze mehr als 100 Millionen US-Dollar, und weltweit waren in den Niederlassungen der Andin International Diamond Corporation mehr als 500 Mitarbeiter und Mitarbeiterinnen beschäftigt.
Während meiner Zeit im Diamantengeschäft habe ich eine Art Doppelleben geführt. Sieben Jahre vor meinem Einstieg in diese Branche hatte ich mein Studium an der Universität von Princeton mit Auszeichnung abgeschlossen. Zuvor waren mir im Weißen Haus die Forschungs- und Wissenschaftsmedaille des Präsidenten der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika überreicht und in Princeton der McConnell-Forschungspreis der Woodrow Wilson School für Internationale Angelegenheiten verliehen worden.
Ein Stipendium der Woodrow Wilson School ermöglichte es mir, nach Asien zu reisen und am Exilwohnsitz Seiner Heiligkeit des Dalai Lama im indischen Dharamsala bei tibetischen Lamas zu studieren. So begann meine Ausbildung in dem von alters her überlieferten Weisheitswissen Tibets. Diese gipfelte 1995 darin, dass mir als erstem
Amerikaner der Titel eines Geshe, eines Meisters der buddhistischen Lehre, zugesprochen wurde. Voraussetzung dafür waren 20 Jahre rigoroser Studien und Prüfungen. In den Jahren nach Abschluss meines Studiums in Princeton hatte ich in buddhistischen Klöstern gelebt -in den USA, aber auch in Asien - und 1983 die buddhistischen Mönchsgelübde abgelegt.
Nachdem durch den Schulungsweg eines buddhistischen Mönchs eine solide Grundlage geschaffen war, ermutigte mich mein wichtigster Lehrer Khen Rinpoche - sein Name bedeutet »Kostbarer Abt« -, in die Geschäftswelt einzusteigen. Ein Kloster sei zwar der ideale Ort, um mit dem bemerkenswerten Gedankengut buddhistischer Weisheit vertraut zu werden, so sagte er mir, doch die Betriebsamkeit eines amerikanischen Büros biete das perfekte »Versuchslabor«, um diese Ideale einer Realitätsprüfung unter Alltagsbedingungen zu unterziehen.
Eine Weile sträubte ich mich gegen diesen Vorschlag. Denn die Aussicht, die Beschaulichkeit unseres kleinen Klosters hinter mir zu lassen, erfüllte mich nicht gerade mit Begeisterung. Außerdem war ich durch meine eigenen Vorstellungen von einem amerikanischen Geschäftsmann - als einem habgierigen, rücksichtslosen und gleichgültigen Wesen - verunsichert. Nachdem ich jedoch eines Tages einem besonders inspirierenden Vortrag beigewohnt hatte, den mein Lehrer vor einigen Studenten hielt, erklärte ich ihm, dass ich seine Anweisungen in die Tat umsetzen und mir eine Arbeit in der Wirtschaft suchen werde.
Einige Jahre zuvor hatte ich während meiner täglichen Meditationssitzungen im Kloster eine Art Vision, und von da an wusste ich, in welchem Berufszweig ich arbeiten wollte: Zweifellos würde meine Tätigkeit mit Diamanten zu tun haben, obgleich ich eigentlich über diese Edelsteine wirklich nicht viel wusste und Juwelen mich im Grunde nie sonderlich fasziniert hatten. Ebenso wenig war je ein Mitglied meiner Familie in dieser Branche tätig gewesen. Ich ging also, arglos wie Voltaires Candide, von einem Diamantengeschäft zum nächsten und fragte, ob sich jemand bereit fände, mich als Praktikanten einzustellen.
Auf diesem Weg in das Diamantengeschäft einzusteigen ist ungefähr so, als würde man mittels eines Bewerbungsschreibens versuchen, einen Job bei der Mafia zu bekommen. Denn der Rohdiamantenhandel ist eine in sich geschlossene und überaus geheimnisvolle Gesellschaft, zu der normalerweise kein Mensch außerhalb des eigenen Familienkreises Zugang erhält. Den Handel mit größeren Diamanten - ein Karat oder mehr - hatten damals die Belgier unter Kontrolle. Die Israelis hingegen schliffen die meisten kleineren Steine, und die hassidischen Juden aus New Yorks Diamantenviertel auf der Siebenundvierzigsten Straße wickelten zum überwiegenden Teil den inneramerikanischen Großhandel ab.
Führen Sie sich zum besseren Verständnis bitte Folgendes vor Augen: Der gesamte Warenbestand selbst der größten Diamantenhäuser findet in ein paar kleinen Behältern Platz, die ganz ähnlich aussehen wie ein gewöhnlicher Schuhkarton. Und ein Diamantendiebstahl im Gegenwert von mehreren Millionen Dollar zum Beispiel lässt sich bis heute mit keinerlei technischen Vorkehrungen aufspüren: Man müsste sich lediglich ein oder zwei Hand voll Diamanten in die Tasche stecken und zur Tür hinausspazieren - etwas Ähnliches wie einen Metalldetektor, der die Steine erkennen beziehungsweise orten könnte, gibt es nicht. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellen die meisten Firmen lediglich Söhne, Neffen oder Cousins ein; niemals aber einen sonderbaren jungen Mann irischer Abstammung, der sich unbedingt mit Diamanten befassen möchte.
Soweit ich mich erinnere, war ich in zirka fünfzehn verschiedenen Läden, um zu fragen, ob man mich vielleicht für einen unqualifizierten Niedriglohn-Job anheuern wolle - und wurde überall prompt hinausgeworfen. Ein alter Uhrmacher aus einer nahe gelegenen Stadt gab mir schließlich den Rat, beim Gemmologischen Institut* der USA (GIA) in New York ein paar Kurse über Diamantengraduierung** zu besuchen. Denn mit einem Diplom in der Tasche würde ich die gewünschte Arbeitsstelle wohl eher bekommen, oder vielleicht würde ich unter den Kursteilnehmern auch jemanden kennen lernen, der mir weiterhelfen könnte.
Am Institut lernte ich Herrn Ofer Azrielant kennen. Genau wie ich nahm er an einem Kurs über die Graduierung - oder Klassifizierung - von qualitativ sehr hochwertigen Diamanten teil, so genannten »Investitions«- oder »Zertifikats«-Steinen. Um einen außerordentlich wertvollen Zertifikatsdiamanten von einer Fälschung oder einem entsprechend präparierten Diamanten zu unterscheiden, muss man beispielsweise winzig kleine Löcher oder andere Mängel von der Größe einer Nadelspitze erkennen können - während sich gleichzeitig Dutzende Staubpartikelchen auf der Oberfläche des Diamanten beziehungsweise auf dem Objektiv des Mikroskops ablagern und durch ihr verwirrendes Treiben leicht zu Fehleinschätzungen führen können. Beide wollten wir uns dort also die Kenntnisse aneignen, die man unbedingt haben muss, um in dieser Branche nicht sein letztes Hemd zu verlieren.
Ofers Rückfragen an den Kursleiter, seine Art, jedes Konzept dieses Mannes zu überprüfen und zu hinterfragen, haben mich sofort beeindruckt. Ich nahm mir vor, ihn zu bitten, mir bei meiner Stellensuche behilflich zu sein, und ihn auch zu fragen, ob vielleicht er einen Job für mich habe. Und so schlössen wir Bekanntschaft. Ein paar Wochen später - am Tag, an dem ich die Abschlussprüfungen über Diamantengraduierung in den New Yorker GIA-Laboratorien abgelegt hatte - machte ich mir Gedanken, unter welchem Vorwand ich ihn wohl in seinem Büro aufsuchen und nach einem Job fragen könnte.
In seiner Heimat Israel hatte er bereits eine kleine Firma gegründet. Und zu meinem großen Glück stand er gerade jetzt im Begriff, eine Niederlassung in den USA zu eröffnen.
Mit den passenden Worten verschaffe ich mir also Zugang zu seinem Büro und bitte ihn, mir die Grundlagen des Diamantengeschäfts beizubringen: »Ich bin bereit, alle anstehenden Arbeiten für Sie zu übernehmen. Machen Sie doch bitte einen Versuch mit mir. Ich werde das Büro aufräumen und saubermachen oder Fenster putzen. Was Sie mir auftragen, erledige ich für Sie.«
Seine Antwort: »Leider habe ich kein Geld, um Sie einzustellen. Aber wissen Sie was, ich werde mit dem Inhaber dieses Büros sprechen - sein Name ist Alex Rosenthal. Und wir werden mal sehen, ob er und ich Sie vielleicht gemeinsam bezahlen können. Dann könnten Sie Botengänge und sonstige Besorgungen für uns beide übernehmen.«
Ich fange also als Botenjunge an: sieben Dollar die Stunde, ein Princeton-Absolvent, der sich im feuchtheißen New Yorker Sommer genauso wie bei Winterschneestürmen und bei Eiseskälte zu Fuß seinen Weg ins Diamantenviertel bahnt und nicht näher gekennzeichnete Leinensäcke bei sich trägt - gefüllt mit Gold, das zu Ringen gegossen werden soll, und mit Diamanten, die darin eingefasst werden sollen.
Mit mir zusammen sitzen Ofer, seine Frau Aya und ein stiller, aber wirklich vorzüglicher jemenitischer Goldschmied namens Alex Gal rings um unseren einzigen - gemieteten - Schreibtisch, graduieren Diamanten, sortieren sie, skizzieren neue Entwürfe für Diamantringe und telefonieren herum, um Kunden zu akquirieren.
Gehaltsschecks gab es damals wenige, und wenn es sie gab, dann oft verspätet, während Ofer seine Londoner Freunde telefonisch zu überreden versuchte, ihm noch ein bisschen mehr Geld zu leihen. Ich hatte trotzdem bald genügend Geld zusammen, um mir meinen ersten dunklen Straßenanzug zu kaufen. Den habe ich dann monatelang getragen, Tag für Tag.
Häufig haben wir bis nach Mitternacht gearbeitet, und anschließend hatte ich noch eine lange Heimfahrt vor mir, bis ich schließlich wieder in dem Zimmerchen angelangt war, das ich in einem kleinen Kloster der Gemeinschaft asiatischer Buddhisten in Howell, New Jersey, bewohnte. Ein paar Stunden später würde ich schon wieder auf den Beinen sein und kurz darauf im Bus nach Manhattan sitzen.
Als unser Geschäft ein wenig besser lief, beschlossen wir umzuziehen, um dem eigentlichen Juwelenviertel näher zu sein, und gingen das Wagnis ein, uns einen Goldschmied eigens für die Schmuckherstellung zu leisten. Er saß allein in dem großen Raum, der uns als »Werkstatt« diente, und widmete sich der Fertigung unserer ersten Diamantringe.
Und ich genoss schon bald genügend Vertrauen, damit mein Wunsch in Erfüllung gehen konnte: Ich durfte mich an ein Päckchen loser Diamanten setzen, um sie der Graduierung entsprechend zu sortieren. Dann fragten mich Ofer und Aya, ob ich die Verantwortung für die neu gegründete Abteilung »Diamanteneinkauf« übernehmen wolle (die damals aus mir und einer weiteren Person bestand). Voller Begeisterung über eine derartige Gelegenheit stürzte ich mich geradezu auf dieses Projekt.
Für die Arbeit in einem normalen Firmenbüro hatte mein tibetischer Lama mir ein paar Leitsätze mit auf den Weg gegeben: Mein Bekenntnis zum Buddhismus für mich zu behalten, mir einen Haarschnitt in der üblichen Länge zuzulegen (anstelle des für einen Mönch typischen kahl geschorenen Kopfes) und mich ganz normal zu kleiden. Wann immer ich mich in meiner Arbeit nach buddhistischen Grundsätzen richte, habe dies stillschweigend zu geschehen. Ich solle keine Worte darüber verlieren - und es schon gar nicht an die große Glocke hängen. Innerlich müsse ich ein buddhistischer Weiser sein, von außen betrachtet jedoch ein gewöhnlicher amerikanischer Geschäftsmann.
Und so begann mein Versuch, die Abteilung nach buddhistischen Grundsätzen zu führen, ohne dies jemand anderen wissen zu lassen. Mit den Azrielants habe ich frühzeitig folgende Vereinbarung getroffen: Ich war in allen Belangen für die Diamantenabteilung verantwortlich und hatte dafür zu sorgen, dass die Steine einen guten Gewinn einbrachten. Auf der anderen Seite hatte ich uneingeschränkte Handlungsvollmachten, wenn es darum ging, Mitarbeiter einzustellen oder zu entlassen. Nur ich ganz allein hatte über ihre Bezahlung oder über Lohnerhöhungen zu entscheiden, über die Anzahl ihrer täglichen Arbeitsstunden und darüber, wer für welchen Bereich die Verantwortung übernahm. Ich musste lediglich zum vereinbarten Zeitpunkt das Produkt abliefern, und zwar mit ansehnlichem Profit.
Dieses Buch beschreibt, wie ich - gestützt auf überlieferte Prinzipien buddhistischer Weisheit - die Diamantenabteilung bei Andin International so aufgebaut habe, dass sie aus dem Nichts zu einem weltweit operierenden Unternehmen wurde, das jährlich viele Millionen Dollar Gewinn erzielte.
All dies habe ich natürlich nicht im Alleingang auf die Beine stellen können. Ebenso wenig hat sich bei uns alles nur nach meinen Auffassungen gerichtet. Ich darf aber sagen, dass während meiner Zeit als Vizepräsident bei Andin International die in diesem Buch dargelegten Prinzipien für die meisten Entscheidungen und Geschäftsstrategien maßgebend waren.
Worin bestehen, in aller Kürze zusammengefasst, diese Prinzipien? Im Wesentlichen geht es um drei Punkte:
- Das Unternehmen soll erfolgreich sein, also Gewinn erwirtschaften. In den USA und in anderen westlichen Ländern herrscht die Meinung vor, wenn Menschen, die ein spirituelles Leben zu führen versuchen, Erfolg haben und Geld verdienen, dann sei irgendetwas nicht in Ordnung. Doch am Geld als solchem gibt es aus buddhistischer Sicht nichts auszusetzen. Denn wer über größere finanzielle Mittel verfügt, kann der Welt ja tatsächlich mehr Nutzen bringen als ein mittelloser Mensch. Vielmehr stellt sich die Frage, wie wir Geld verdienen; ob wir begreifen, woher es kommt; wie wir dafür sorgen können, dass es uns auch weiterhin zufließt; und ob wir eine gesunde Einstellung zum Geld wahren können.
Entscheidend ist also, dass wir unser Geld auf ehrliche und anständige Art und Weise verdienen; uns genau darüber im Klaren sind, woher es kommt, damit es nicht versiegt, und eine gesunde Einstellung zum Geld wahren, solange wir es haben. Halten wir uns daran, so lässt sich beides sehr wohl miteinander vereinbaren - gutes Geld zu verdienen und ein spirituelles Leben zu führen. Ja auf diese Weise wird der Gelderwerb zum Bestandteil einer spirituellen Lebensführung.
- Geld sollte uns Freude bereiten. Mit anderen Worten, wir sollten geistig und körperlich gesund bleiben, während wir Geld verdienen. Die Aktivität, die uns materiellen Wohlstand bringt, sollte uns weder körperlich noch geistig derart auslaugen und erschöpfen, dass wir uns des Wohlstands nicht erfreuen können. Ein Geschäftsmann, der durch seine Tätigkeit die eigene Gesundheit ruiniert, macht den eigentlichen Sinn und Zweck seiner Arbeit zunichte.
- Wenn Sie schließlich auf Ihr Berufsleben zurückblicken, sollten Sie aufrichtig sagen können, dass all die Jahre Ihrer beruflichen Aktivität einen Sinn hatten. Das Ende jeder geschäftlichen Unternehmung, die wir in Angriff nehmen, wie auch das Ende unseres Lebens rücken unausweichlich näher - für jeden von uns. Und am wichtigsten Punkt unserer Tätigkeit - wenn wir schließlich auf alles zurückblicken, was wir erreicht haben -sollten wir erkennen können, dass unser Verhalten und die Art und Weise, wie wir unsere Aufgaben erledigt haben, einen bleibenden Wert haben und eine positive Prägung in unserer Welt hinterlassen.
Fassen wir diese Gedanken noch einmal kurz zusammen: Unsere berufliche Tätigkeit dient ebenso wie die überlieferte Weisheit Tibets, wie einfach jegliches menschliche Streben, dem Ziel, äußeren Wohlstand und inneres Wohlergehen herbeizuführen. Daran können wir uns allerdings nur erfreuen, solange wir körperlich und geistig weitgehend gesund bleiben. Und im Laufe unseres Lebens müssen wir herausfinden, aufweiche Weise wir diesem Wohlergehen eine tiefere und umfassendere Bedeutung geben können.
All das führt uns die Erfolgsgeschichte der Diamantenabteilung von Andin International vor Augen. Jeder kann diese Dinge lernen und sie in die Tat umsetzen, unabhängig davon, welchen persönlichen Hintergrund und welche Überzeugungen er oder sie hat."[Quelle: Roach, Michael <1952 - >: Die Weisheit des Diamanten : buddhistische Prinzipien für beruflichen Erfolg und privates Glück. -- München : Dt. Taschenbuch-Verl., 2005. -- 304 S. ; 21 cm. -- (dtv ; 34198). -- ISBN 3-423-34198-X. -- Originaltitel: The diamond cutter (2000). -- S. 7 - 14. -- {Wenn Sie HIER klicken, können Sie dieses Buch direkt bei amazon.de bestellen}]
"Zusatzinformation
Wie Sie bemerkt haben werden, beinhaltet ein Großteil der in diesem Buch enthaltenen Informationen ein Weisheitswissen, das über die Jahrhunderte vorwiegend mündlich weitergereicht worden ist, vom Lehrer an den Schüler, innerhalb der buddhistischen Klöster in Tibet und Indien. Und dafür gibt es einen guten Grund: Alle hier gegebenen Instruktionen - insbesondere die Einzelheiten zur Durchführung der wöchentlichen Klausur und der Waldklausur - können Sie am besten unter der Anleitung eines lebendigen Lehrers in die Praxis umsetzen. Sie brauchen jemanden, der Ihr Verständnis dieser Dinge überprüft; Sie benötigen jemanden, der Ihnen bei der Einschätzung Ihrer Fortschritte behilflich ist; Sie bedürfen subtiler, von lebendiger Hand vorgenommener Kurskorrekturen — ähnlich wie durch ein Lenkrad gewährleistet wird, dass ein Auto geradeaus fahren kann, allerdings nur mit Hilfe der ausgleichenden Eingriffe einer Hand am Steuer, die ständig geringfügige Korrekturbewegungen nach links und rechts vornimmt.
In einer kleinen, aber wachsenden Gruppe von Geschäftsleuten haben wir die in diesem Buch beschriebenen Methoden zur Verwirklichung unserer Ziele genutzt. Wir würden unsere Kenntnisse gerne auch mit Ihnen teilen, denn solch ein Wissen will einfach geteilt werden. Wenn dieses System wirklich funktioniert — und die Erfahrung von Andin International, dem Unternehmen, das mit einem 50 000 Dollarkredit als Startkapital begann und sein Geschäftsvolumen auf Jahresumsätze von über 100 Millionen US-Dollar gesteigert hat, macht deutlich, dass es funktioniert — und wenn immer mehr Menschen wirklich verstehen, wie sie es für sich einsetzen können, so wird dies einen zunehmend größeren Wohlstand für eine immer weiter wachsende Anzahl von Menschen zur Folge haben.
Auf Wunsch bringen wir Ihnen das System gerne bei. Wir haben zu diesem Zweck das EBI ins Leben gerufen, das Enlightened Business Institute, und führen das ganze Jahr über in aller Welt Seminare durch. Unseren Hauptsitz haben wir in Manhattan. Im Aufbau begriffen sind ein EBI-Tagungszentrum und eine EBI-Fachschule für Ökonomie in »Diamond Mountain«, einem weitläufigen, wunderschön gelegenen Stück Land in der Nähe von Tucson, Arizona: ein Ort, an den Sie sich für eine Woche oder ein Wochenende hinausbegeben können, um sich Aktivitäten wie dem Reiten, Golfspielen oder Bergwandern zu widmen. Hier können Sie ein paar Tricks lernen, wie Sie mit Hilfe einer speziellen Ernährung und durch Bewegungsübungen im Unternehmensalltag gesund bleiben, und vor allem können Sie eine sehr konzentrierte Dosis der Weisheit-des-Diamanten-Geschäftsphilosophie mit auf den Weg nehmen. Schicken Sie uns eine E-Mail, oder treten Sie über die nachstehende Adresse mit uns in Kontakt, um in Erfahrung zu bringen, wann in der Nähe Ihres Wohnsitzes ein Seminar durchgeführt wird; wie Sie selbst uns helfen könnten, ein Seminar zu organisieren; oder wie man am Veranstaltungsprogramm im Tagungszentrum teilnehmen kann. Wir freuen uns auf die Zusammenarbeit.
The Enlightened Business Institute
P.O. Box 1810
New York City, NY 10156-0610
++914-441-0011
www.enlightenedbusiness.com
training@enlightenedbusiness.com"[Quelle: Roach, Michael <1952 - >: Die Weisheit des Diamanten : buddhistische Prinzipien für beruflichen Erfolg und privates Glück. -- München : Dt. Taschenbuch-Verl., 2005. -- 304 S. ; 21 cm. -- (dtv ; 34198). -- ISBN 3-423-34198-X. -- Originaltitel: The diamond cutter (2000). -- S. 303f. -- {Wenn Sie HIER klicken, können Sie dieses Buch direkt bei amazon.de bestellen}]
1996
Die Produzenten des Film "Independence Day" erhalten so viele dankbare e-mails dafür, das sie in einer Szene ein Foto des Dalai Lama auf den Tisch des US-Präsidenten gestellt hatten, dass sie bitten mussten, dass man keine solchen e-mails mehr schicken solle.
1996-02-22
Abb.: Sogyal Rinpoche
[Bildquelle:
http://jmaes.free.fr/livredharma/maitres/sogyalrinpoche.htm. -- Zugriff am
2005-06-07]
"A lawsuit filed in the California Superior Court in Santa Cruz, California, alleging sexual abuse by Sogyal Rinpoche (head of the Rigpa Fellowship [Webpräsenz: http://www.rigpaus.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-07] and The Spiritual Care for Living and Dying [Webpräsenz: http://www.spcare.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-07] , which were also named in the suit), has reportedly been settled out of court. Santa Cruz Municipal Court files indicate that a dismissal was filed for the entire action on February 22, 1996. Rigpa spokesperson Sandra Pawula said, "It was resolved through mediation and I can't say anything beyond that," citing that the details of the resolution are confidential.
The suit, which was filed under the fictitious name "Janice Doe" in November 1994, claims that "Sogyal Rinpoche has used his position as an interpreter of Tibetan Buddhism to take sexual and other advantage of female students over a period of many years, and has caused extreme injuries to many students, including plaintiff." The suit asked for punitive damages in the sum of S10 million. Although no amount has been disclosed, sources say that a monetary settlement has been reached, including an agreement under which neither parry can discuss the case."[Quelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. V, No.4 (Summer 1996). -- S. 87.]
Über 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 masters of the twentieth century. Jamyang Khyentse supervised Rinpoche's training and raised him like his own son. In 1971, Rinpoche went to England where he studied Comparative Religion at Cambridge University. He went on to study with many other masters, of all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, especially Kyabjé Dudjom Rinpoche and Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, serving as their translator and aide. With his remarkable gift for presenting the essence of Tibetan Buddhism in a way that is both authentic and profoundly relevant to the modern mind, Sogyal Rinpoche is one of the most renowned teachers of our time.
He is also the author of the highly-acclaimed and ground breaking book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Over 2 million copies of this spiritual classic have been printed, in 29 languages and 56 countries. It has been adopted by colleges, groups and institutions, both medical and religious, and is used extensively by nurses, doctors and health care professionals.
Rinpoche has been teaching for over 30 years and continues to travel widely in Europe, America, Australia, and Asia, where he addresses thousands of people on his teaching tours and is a frequent speaker at major conferences. In 1993, Rinpoche founded the Spiritual Care Program which, under his guidance, aims to bring the wisdom and compassion of these teachings to professional and trained volunteer caregivers who work in end of life care."
[Quelle: http://www.spcare.org/about/sogyalrinpoche.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-07]
1997
Abb.: FilmplakatEs erscheint der Film Kundun
"Kundun is a 1997 film written by Melissa Mathison and directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the life and writings of the Dalai Lama. While it did not put up big numbers at the box office, it did win considerable critical acclaim -- some consider it to be the very best film by either Scorsese or Mathison. The majority of the film was shot in Morocco.
PlotSpoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
Except for brief sequences in China and India, the film is set entirely in Tibet. It begins with the search by Reting Rimpoche (the regent of Tibet) for the 14th Reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. Reting, following a vision he has had, discovers the location of a promising candidate: a child born to a poor herding family near the Chinese border.
Reting and other lamas administer a test to the child in which he must select from various objects the ones that belonged to the previous Dalai Lama. The child passes the test; he and his family are brought to Lhasa, where he will be installed as Dalai Lama when he comes of age.
During the journey, the child becomes homesick and frightened, but he is comforted by Reting, who tells him the story of the first Dalai Lama -- whom the lamas referred to as "Kundun". The story is touching, but it is also intended to show the interconnectedness of all incarnations of the Dalai Lama up to and including the child himself.
As the film progresses, Kundun matures both in age and learning. Following a brief power struggle in which Reting is imprisoned and dies, Kundun begins taking a more active role in governance and religious leadership.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Communists are making noises about Tibet being a "traditional" part of China and their desire to "unify" it with the motherland. Eventually, despite Tibet's pleas to the United Nations and the United States for intervention, China invades Tibet.
The Chinese are initially helpful, but when the Tibetans resist communist reorganization and re-education of their society (the Tibetans are particularly repulsed by the Communists' ban on religion), the Chinese become oppressive.
Following a series of incresingly horrific atrocities suffered by his people (and several attempts on his life) the Dalai Lama resolves to meet with Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing, feeling sure that Mao will make things right. However, during their face-to-face meeting on the final day of the Dalai Lama's visit, Mao makes clear his view that "religion is poison" and that the Tibetans are "poisoned and inferior."
Upon his return to Tibet, the Dalai Lama learns of even more awful horrors perpetrated against his people, who have by now repudiated their treaty with China and begun guerrilla action against the Chinese. Finally, after the Chinese make clear their intention to kill him, the Dalai Lama is convinced by his family and his Lord Chamberlain to flee to India.
After consulting the oracle about the proper escape route, the Dalai Lama and his staff put on disguises and slip out of Lhasa under cover of darkness. During an arduous journey, throughout which they are pursued by the Chinese, the Dalai Lama becomes very ill and experiences several visions of the past and future. Finally, the party makes it to a small mountain pass on the border with India. As the Dalai Lama walks to the guard post, an Indian guard approaches him, salutes, and inquires: "May I ask, are you the Lord Buddha?" The Dalai Lama replies with the film's final line: "I think that I am a reflection, like the moon on water. When you see me, and I am trying to be a good man, see yourself.""
[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundun. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-09]
"KUNDUN erzählt in farbenprächtigen Bildern das Leben des 14. Dalai Lamas, der heute im indischen Exil lebt. Von Hollywoods namhaften Regisseur Martin Scorsese auf Zelluloid gebannt, beschreibt KUNDUN die eindrucksvolle Geschichte des Dalai Lamas von seiner Kindheit in Tibet bis zu seinem Weg ins Exil 1959. Bereits im Alter von 15 Jahren wird der Dalai Lama als der geistige und politische Kopf Tibets mit der chinesischen Invasion konfrontiert. Aber auch das kann ihn nicht dazu bringen, sein Prinzip der Gewaltlosigkeit zu verraten; er ist seinem Volk nicht nur ein Bruder, sondern zugleich Seine Heiligkeit oder KUNDUN, was "die Gegenwart des Buddhas" bedeutet.
Das bildgewaltige Epos wurde fast ausschließlich mit Exil-Tibetern gedreht, die zum Teil aus dem direkten Umfeld des Dalai Lamas stammen und mit der Geschichte Tibets persönlich verbunden sind.
Mit KUNDUN hat Martin Scorsese (TAXI DRIVER, CASINO) ein Werk in der Tradition großer Filme wie DER LETZTE KAISER und GHANDHI geschaffen. Für die musikalische Untermalung zeichnet Philip Glass verantwortlich. Eine Leistung, die ihm 1998 eine Golden Globe-Nominierung in der Kategorie Beste Filmmusik einbrachte.
Die Schauspieler in KUNDUN sind Tibeter, die in Indien, Kanada und den USA leben. Sie wurden entweder im Exil geboren oder haben die meiste Zeit ihres Lebens im Exil gewohnt. Keiner von ihnen ist hauptberuflicher Schauspieler, allerdings gehören einige dem "Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts" an. Für die Dauer von vier Monaten verließen sie ihre Arbeit, ihre Studien oder ihre Klöster. Sie empfanden es als Ehre, in einem Film über Seine Heiligkeit, den Dalai Lama, mitwirken zu dürfen. Eine Reihe von ihnen sind Mitglieder der weitreichenden Familie des Dalai Lamas oder stehen in Kontakt mit seinem direkten Umfeld. Gewissermaßen spielen sie einen Teil ihrer persönlichen Geschichte - was dem Film eine besondere emotionale Tiefe verleiht. Der junge Dalai Lama wird in seinen verschiedenen Altersstufen von vier jungen Tibetern dargestellt.
Abb.: FilmszeneDie farbenprächtigen Bilder von KUNDUN wurden von Roger Deakins fotografiert, der für seine Kameraarbeit bei FARGO für einen Oscar nominiert wurde. Kostüme und Ausstattung gestaltete der bereits mehrfach für den Oscar nominierte Dante Ferretti (u.a. INTERVIEW MIT EINEM VAMPIR, DIE ZEIT DER UNSCHULD). Das Drehbuch stammt von Melissa Mathison, die für ihr Skript E. T. - DER AUSSERIRDISCHE ebenfalls eine Oscar-Nominierung erhielt. Thelma Schoonmaker hat seit RAGING BULL, für den mit dem begehrten Academy Award ausgezeichnet wurde, alle Filme Martin Scorseses geschnitten, der sie für KUNDUN erneut engagierte. "
[Quelle: http://www.kinoweb.de/film98/Kundun/film01.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-09]
1997
Ein Leserbrief:
"It was with relief and recognition that I read the interview with June Campbell in your Winter 1996 issue. For the first time, I have read of someone who acknowledged similar experiences to my own (and who implied the prevalence of that experience). I too had an affair with a rinpoche, and then a long-term relationship with a former Tibetan monk. While the former relationship was necessarily more secretive than the latter, I can personally attest to the layer of secrecy, shame, and internal conflict that continues to prevail in the male/female relationships of those who have been immersed in the monastic system. Whether the secrecy may be externally justified by these Tibetan men because of the sexual nature of the relationship (as with the young rinpoche) or because of the "Westem-ness" of the partner (as with the ex-monk), what is clear is that individuals who have been monastically trained hold a great deal of ambivalence towards their relations with women, and a need to contain the woman in specific, limited roles. This, as June Campbell indicates, should not be unexpected given their monastic training. But, as more monks leave the monastery for a layperson's life, and Tibetan culture changes and adjusts in response to continued exposure to the West, how will this training impact on the survival of Tibetan culture?
What is particularly interesting to me is the cultural role that Western women are playing in the perpetuation of this secrecy and ambivalence with regard to male/female relationships. I could relate and admit to the feelings of specialness and chosen-ness that June Campbell describes (these wise spiritual men had chosen me!); the possible allure of a Tibetan monk/ex-monk may be the obstacles he must overcome in order to be partnered with a Western woman.
Perhaps it is Western women's own lack of identity that encourages this objectification. It is my belief that Western women participate in these relationships for all the normal relationship reasons, but perhaps most significantly to achieve "wisdom" vicariously, and an "interesting-ness" or specialness through the lens of another person and culture. Western women collude in the secrecy, perhaps with the hope that their role will one day be integrated and recognized. It is my experience that it never will.
Anonymous
New York, New York"[Quelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VI, No. 3 (Spring 1997). -- S. 5f.]
1997
Abb.: Kalachakra : the watch for world peace
Inserat in: Tricycle : the Buddhist
review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VI, No. 3 (Spring 1997). --
S. 83
1997-02
Abb.: Steven Seagal
[Bildquelle: http://www.stevenseagal.com/photos.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-07]Penor Rinpoche erkennt den Schauspieler Steven Seagal (1951 - ) als tulku (Fleischwerdung) von Chungdrag Dorje
Webpräsenz von Steven Seagal: http://www.stevenseagal.com/. -- Zugrif am 2005-06-07
"Steven Seagal wurde als Sohn einer Krankenschwester und eines Lehrers in Lansing/Michigan geboren. Er entwickelte bereits als kleiner Junge ein starkes Interesse an asiatischen Kampfsportarten. Seagal nahm Unterricht in Karate und Judo, um dann zu Aikido zu wechseln, das stark vom Zen-Buddhismus und dem Samurai-Ehrenkodex Bushido beeinflusst ist und die wohl schwierigste Variante des Martial Arts darstellt. Seine Leidenschaft war so groß, dass er mit 17 Jahren den Entschluss fasste, nach Japan zu gehen. 15 Jahre lang erlernte er dort - bei den Großmeistern - neben Aikido den Schwertkampf Kendo, das Bogenschießen Kyudo und Jiu-Juitsu. Seagals Talent und exzellenter Ruf als Kampfsportmeister - er hatte in allen Disziplinen den schwarzen Gürtel erhalten - ließ ihm eine ganz besondere Ehre zuteil werden: Er durfte als erster Nicht-Asiate eine eigene Schule (Dojo) in Tokio eröffnen, die noch heute existiert und Ende der 90er Jahre rund 2000 Schüler ausbildet.
Während seiner Japan-Zeit, in der er auch als nebenberuflicher Sicherheitsbeauftragter des US-Geheimdienstes CIA arbeitete, lernte Seagal seine erste Frau Miyako Funtami, eine Aikido-Schülerin kennen. Die zehnjährige Ehe brachte einen Sohn und eine Tochter hervor.
Zu dieser Zeit knüpfte Seagal erste Kontakte zur Filmindustrie. Karatefilme waren recht populär und es schien zwangsläufig, dass auch Seagal, wie andere Kämpfer vor ihm, eine Filmkarriere anstreben würde. Doch er lehnte alle Angebote ab; vor allem, weil er fand, dass in diesen Filmen die Kampfsportarten in einem schlechten Licht dargestellt wurden.
1982 kam der Martial-Arts-Experte Seagal erstmals mit Hollywood in Berührung, als er beim Action-Film "The Challenge" (Wenn er in die Hölle will, lass ihn gehen / Er will in die Hölle, lass ihn ziehen) die Koordination der Kampfszenen übernahm.
Nach seiner Rückkehr in die USA arbeitete Seagal zeitweise als Leibwächter und eröffnete in Los Angeles mit dem Dojo Ten-Him eine weitere Schule, in der sich Hollywoods Filmprominenz alsbald die Klinke in die Hand gab. So auch Sean Connery und James Mason, der seinen Lehrer ermutigte, Schauspieler zu werden.
Abb.: NicoSuperagent Michael Ovitz nahm ihn einige Jahre später unter seine Fittiche und verschaffte ihm einen starken Einstieg mit der Hauptrolle in "Nico", die aus dem unbekannten Darsteller einen hochbezahlten Action-Star machte. Der nur 7,5 Millionen Dollar teure Film stürmte an die Spitze der Box-Office-Charts und entwickelte sich mit einem weltweiten Einspiel von 25 Millionen Dollar zum Überraschungshit.
Abb.: Hard to KillIm Jahr 1990 folgte "Hard To Kill", in dem Seagals Ehefrau Kelly LeBrock, die er 1984 geheiratet hatte, die weibliche Hauptrolle spielte und der ebenfalls zum Erfolg avancierte.
Seit 1987 führt Seagal mit Julius R Nasso eine eigene Produktionsgesellschaft, die Seagal/Nasso Productions.
Sein dritter Film "Zum Töten freigegeben" spielte an seinem ersten Wochenende 10,5 Mio. Dollar in den US-Kinos ein. Der Nachfolgehit "Deadly Revenge - Das Brooklyn-Massaker" stand dem in nichts nach, erschien in Deutschland allerdings nur als Videopremiere. Erst mit dem Sensationshit "Alarmstufe: Rot", der weltweit ein Nummer-Eins-Hit war und über 80 Millionen Dollar in den USA einspielte, schaffte Seagal auch hierzulande den Sprung vom Video- zum Kinostar. Dies führte natürlich zu einem drastischen Anstieg seiner Gagen. Und zu mehr künstlerischer Freiheit: 1994 übernahm Seagal erstmals bei einem seiner Filme das Zepter: Den Öko-Thriller "Auf brennendem Eis" inszenierte Steven Seagal selbst.
Zu "Glimmer Man" steuerte er auch einige Titel des Soundtracks bei, die er selbst eingespielt hat. Bereits für "Deadly Revenge - Das Brooklyn-Massaker" und "Alarmstufe: Rot 2" hatte Seagal zusammen mit dem Sänger und Songschreiber Todd Smallwood Titel geschrieben und aufgenommen.
Abb.: Exit WoundsNach dem Flop "The Patriot" meldete sich Steven Seagal mit dem Kinohit "Exit Wounds - Die Copjäger", der in den USA auf Platz 1 und in Deutschland auf Platz 2 der Kinocharts stürmte, eindrucksvoll als Actionheld zurück und feierte ein gelungenes Film-Comeback."
[Quelle: http://www.stevenseagal.de. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-07]
"Statement by H.H. Penor Rinpoche Regarding the Recognition of Steven Seagal as a Reincarnation of the Treasure Revealer Chungdrag Dorje of Palyul Monastery In February of 1997 I recognized my student, Steven Seagal, as a reincarnation (tulku) of the treasure revealer Chungdrag Dorje. Since there has been some confusion and uncertainty as to what this means, I am writing to clarify this situation.
Traditionally a tulku is considered to be a reincarnation of a Buddhist master who, out of his or her compassion for the suffering of sentient beings, has vowed to take rebirth to help all beings attain enlightenment. To fulfill this aspiration, a tulku will generally need to go through the complete process of recognition, enthronement and training.
Formal recognition generally occurs soon after a tulku has been identified, but only after other important lineage masters have been consulted. The newly identified tulku does not take on any formal responsibilities at the time of recognition.
The next step of enthronement may or may not occur for a tulku, depending on the circumstances. Enthronement formally invests the tulku with the responsibility of furthering the activities associated with their particular tulku lineage. Thus, if there are specific teachings and practice traditions associated with their lineage, and if there are perhaps monks, nuns, monasteries, retreat centers, lay communities and so forth for which the tulku traditionally takes responsibility, then the tulku is formally vested with those responsibilities at the time of enthronement. In the event that an enthronement ceremony is conducted, it may take place soon after recognition or some years later. If the tulku is too young to assume their responsibilities upon enthronement, others may be entrusted to take on those responsibilities until the tulku is ready.
Finally, a tulku needs to complete a formal course of training which includes years of study and meditation. This training reawakens the tulku's powers of insight and compassion and develops their skillful means for helping others. It is only after such training that a tulku is ready to take on the role of a teacher.
In the case of Steven Seagal, he has been formally recognized as a tulku, but has not been officially enthroned. He has also not undergone the lengthy process of study and practice necessary to fully realize what I view as his potential for helping others. When I first met him, I felt he had the special qualities of a tulku within him. According to the Great Vehicle (Mahayana) of the Buddhist tradition, all beings have within them the potential for becoming Buddhas. With Steven Seagal I perceived this potential to be particularly strong as accords with being a tulku. In the past, whenever I have met someone that I feel is a tulku, I have always consulted with other masters of the Nyingma lineage such as Dudjom Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and other senior lineage holders. Similarly, after my experience of meeting Steven Seagal, I consulted with another important Nyingma master and with his concurrence, recognized Steven Seagal as a tulku.
With regard to the particular circumstances of Steven Seagal's recognition, while it is generally the case that tulkus are recognized young in life, this is not always so. For example, the great master Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö remained unrecognized for many years while he was an ordained monk at Kathok Monastery. He was over 30 years old, perhaps 35, and had completed his monastic education when he was recognized and enthroned as the first reincarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Wangpo. In his case, he had devoted his life to study and practice and was thus prepared for taking on the full responsibilities of being a tulku at the time of his recognition.Prior to my recognition of Steven Seagal I myself recognized another tulku late in his life. Kalsang Yeshe Rinpoche, a monk originally from the Palyul branch monastery of Shibo in Tibet and later at Namdroling Monastery in India, was recognized and enthroned in 1983 at the age of 51. He too had spent his life studying Buddhism and meditating before he was recognized as a tulku. Because he had cultivated his potential through many years of diligent study and meditation, he was able to become a teacher and is currently the head of our Palyul Center in Singapore. So, in short, in the Tibetan tradition there is nothing unusual about recognizing a tulku late in their life. In fact, the recognition of a tulku who has been born in the West is especially likely to occur later in their lifetime because it will generally take much longer for all the conditions that are necessary for such a recognition to come together.
Steven Seagal has been recognized as a reincarnation of the 17th century hidden treasure revealer (tertön) Chungdrag Dorje (khyung brag rdo rje) of Palyul Monastery. Chungdrag Dorje founded a small monastery called Gegön Gompa near his native village of Phene in the Kutse area of Derge in Eastern Tibet. Though there are no monks there now, the small monastery building still exists and is well known in the area for its beautiful religious wall paintings.As a tertön, Chungdrag Dorje rediscovered teachings and sacred objects hidden by Padmasambhava in the eighth century. Such treasures (terma) were concealed with the intention that they would be discovered and revealed at a later date when the circumstances were such that they would be of particular benefit to sentient beings. Texts of the teachings discovered by Chungdrag Dorje have apparently not survived the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Sacred objects discovered by Chungdrag Dorje include an unusually shaped bell, a phurba (ritual dagger), the syllable 'A' carved in stone and pigments used to create the sacred wall paintings in his monastery mentioned above. Several of these objects have been preserved and are still kept at Palyul Monastery today.
In the Nyingma tradition it is said that there are a hundred main treasure revealers and an even greater number of secondary treasure revealers. Among the latter it is not uncommon for the line of their teachings to eventually lapse. Though they were beneficial during the time they flourished, for various reasons some tertön teaching lineages have ceased. This would seem to be the case with Chungdrag Dorje.
Now with regard to Steven Seagal, he was born centuries after the death of Chungdrag Dorje. It is not uncommon for there to be a lengthy span of time between the death of a master and the appearance of his or her subsequent reincarnation. My own tulku lineage is an example of this. There was a 130 years hiatus between the death of the First Pema Norbu in 1757 and the birth of the Second Pema Norbu in 1887. This is common in all the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. As for how these gaps come about, while tulkus are understood to have vowed to be continually reborn to help beings, it is not necessary for them to take rebirth in a continuous sequence of lives in this world. It is believed that they can be reborn in other world systems where they continue their compassionate activities, returning only later to this world system. This is how such lapses in tulku lineages are understood in Tibet.
As for Steven Seagal's movie career, my concern is with the qualities I experienced within him which relate to his potential for benefiting others and not with the conventional details of his life which are wholly secondary. Some people think that because Steven Seagal is always acting in violent movies, how can he be a true Buddhist? Such movies are for temporary entertainment and do not relate to what is real and important. It is the view of the Great Vehicle of Buddhism that compassionate beings take rebirth in all walks of life to help others. Any life condition can be used to serve beings and thus, from this point of view, it is possible to be both a popular movie star and a tulku. There is no inherent contradiction in this possibility.
As the head of the Palyul lineage of the Nyingma School and more recently as the Head of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, I have had the responsibility of recognizing numerous tulkus. The first time I recognized a tulku, I was ten years old. This tulku was the incarnation of the great Khenpo Ngaga. He is still living in Eastern Tibet and continues to strive, to this day, to promote the welfare of others. Since that time until now I have recognized over one hundred tulkus. In addition I have overseen the training and enthronement of over thirty khenpos (learned scholars) and I am responsible for the welfare of the many thousands of monks belonging to the Palyul tradition. My concern in seeking to nurture these tulkus, khenpos, monks, as well as sincere lay people, has been to benefit all sentient beings. It is out of this intention that I have recognized tulkus in the past and will continue to recognize them in the future as appropriate.
In the case of my student Steven Seagal, I initiated the decision to recognize him as a tulku based on my own feelings about him. Neither I nor any of my monasteries have received or sought any sort of substantial donation from him. What is important to me are the qualities I have seen in my student. For this reason I feel confident that recognizing him as a tulku will be of benefit to others as well as to the Buddha dharma.
Whenever there is a new incarnation born or recognized, I personally feel very happy because it is like you have one more brother or sister. I take delight in such occasions as they seek to further compassionate activity for others. Being recognized as a tulku is an acknowledgment of one's potential to help others. Such recognition does not mean that one is already a realized teacher. The degree to which tulkus have been able to actualize and utilize their potential depends upon how they have been able to use their past circumstances and how they currently use their present circumstances to develop their potential. Each tulku must work to develop themselves to the best of their ability. The essential point is that a tulku should strive to help others in whatever life situation they find themselves. It is out of such an aspiration to help all sentient beings that I have recognized many tulkus in my life and it is with this motivation that I recognized Steven Seagal as a tulku. If all beings seek to have this motivation, what need will there be for controversies and confusion over the motivations of others?
Penor Rinpoche"
[Quelle: http://www.tibet.dk/karmapa_trust/seagal.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-07]
1997-08-06
Gene (Eugene) Perry, ein Anhänger des tibetischen Buddhismus, wird in Arkansas hingerichtet
"Eugene Perry, of Tucker Prison death row in Arkansas, was executed by the State of Arkansas on Wednesday August 6, 1997. Gene began his last words by saying "I am innocent of this crime." Gene was Frankie Parker's best friend during the years they shared in prison. Both were interested in spiritual and philosophical exploration and were artistically very creative. Gene was a painter who has had many one man shows and has been praised highly for his artistic work.
As did Frankie Parker, Gene has studied world religions while in prison, with a growing appreciation of Buddhism. Gene took Buddhist refuge with Lama Tharchin Rinpoche of Pema Osel Ling, a Nyingma Tibetan Buddhist Center in Corralitos, California.
Convicted of murder in a jewelry store robbery in 1980, Gene Perry always stated that he was not in the state of Arkansas on the day that the crime was committed and that he was innocent of the crime. There were others who confessed to the crime prior to his death, indicating that Gene was not involved. He turned 53 in July 1997. "
[Quelle: http://users.aristotle.net/~anna/gene.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-07]
1998
"Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, grandson of the late Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, has found a way to integrate his practice at a Tibetan monastery with his family background in fashion. Over the past two years, he has launched a business selling upscale home furnishings inspired by the simple items used by Tibetan monks. Silk bedspreads ($2,200) and cotton bags ($70) are among the items made by monks who weave, dye, and stitch by hand the fabric for products that retail at tony New York stores such as Felissimo and ABC Carpets.
They are made by monks from the Rato Monastery in southern India where Vreeland is one of about seventy monks in residence. The budget of the monastery, already largely dependent on donations from the West, is under severe strain because of an increasing influx of refugees from Chinese-occupied Tibet. "We have no idea how many monks will come," the monastery's administrator is quoted as saying. "That is why we started this business."
The line is supervised by fashion industry friends of Vreeland's, designer Jason Chenyan and his wife Reena, and will soon expand to include metal items such as incense burners. Speaking at the monastery with a New York Times reporter, Vreeland commented, "Sadly, the upmarket aspect of our products does not reflect the situation here.""[Quelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VII, No. 2 (Winter 1998). -- S. 15.]
1998
Ein Leserbrief zum Dorje-Shugden-Streit:
"Thank you for the article on the Shugden controversy. You have once again proved your commitment to open dialogue and fearlessness and have raised the controversy to the level of an honest debate—a time-honored tradition of settling disputes in Tibetan Buddhism.
Within the debate, we must ask the question: Are Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan political cause inseparable? As Buddhists in the Tibetan tradition, are we automatically conscripts, willing or otherwise, in the Dalai Lama's political battle? Where is the line drawn between our loyalty to Buddha and our loyalty to the worldly political goals of the Tibetan govemment-in-exile?
This tug-of-war between spirituality and politics is reflected in the dual roles of the Dalai Lama himself. Is he a spiritual leader or a politician? True, it has been in his interest to blur the distinction, but no leader is immune to the tyranny that inevitably results.
The Dalai Lama is making spiritual decisions to address political concerns. The "unity" of the Tibetan people is illusory, at best, if it is achieved through religious oppression, documented intimidation, and spiritual degradation Where, in the maturing process of the American Buddhist movement, do we infuse the wisdom of "separating church and state"? I go for refuge to the Three Jewels daily, try to cultivate a peaceful mind, and dedicate this precious human life to benefit others, but I have a powerful and helpful protector who is currently out of favor with those in power. If this type of authority continues to be wielded, causing harm to Western practitioners, all students of Tibetan Buddhism must ask themselves: Am I next? Is my beloved practice the next one to be sacrificed on the "altar" of worldly political aims?
Linda Fane
Seattle, Washington"[Quelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VII, No. 4 (Summer 1998). -- S. 5.]
1998
Ein Leserbrief zu "Mitleid/Mitgefühl":
"There has been in recent years much justifiable condemnation of the Chinese government for its repressive policy in Tibet, not only by Buddhist adherents, but also by broader human rights groups. One of the bases of Buddhist practice is the practice of compassion. Therefore it is somewhat peculiar that the political compassion extended to Tibet is not and has not been extended to other repressive regimes—those in South and Central America, to Indonesia for its actions in East Timor, to many of the former and present African countries. I do not see much compassion extended to the many millions of our own people and those others immigrating here, many of them children, who are in extreme poverty in increasing numbers. It is only in the case of Tibet that we are in our compassion consonant with the foreign policy of our government. Perhaps some wise reflection on these matters is in order
Irving Stein
Oakland, California"[Quelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VII, No. 4 (Summer 1998). -- S. 14f.]
1999
Abb.: Paula Newby-FraserTriathlete Magazine ernennt Paula Newby-Fraser (1962 - ) zum "Greatest Triathlete in History". Paula Newby Fraser ist eine Anhängerin des tibetischen Buddhismus.
"Paula Newby-Fraser (born June 2, 1962) is a legendary Ironman triathlete. She won the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii an unprecedented 8 times in 1986, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 94, and 96. Her six consecutive victories between 1988 and 1994 are the longest winning streak in the history of the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. She is also referred to as "The Queen of Kona". Newby-Fraser won 23 Ironman races overall between 1986 and 2002. Among numerous other awards, the United States Sports Academy named her as one of the top 5 professional women athletes of the last 25 years (1972-97). Newby-Fraser is the current holder of the Ironman world record of 8:50:24."
[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Newby-Fraser. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-09]
1999
Abb.: "Walk with us-Inserat", mit Bild des 11. Panchen Lama, der 1995 "verschwunden". ist, und Ngawang Choephel, politischer Gefangener
[Bildquelle: http://www.uofr.net/~melissa/tibet/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21]Der kalifornische Schuhfabrikant Charles David [Webpräsenz: http://www.charlesdavid.com. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21] verbindet seine Reklame mit dem Eintreten für politische Gefangene in Tibet
"Charles David and the International Campaign for Tibet I found this Tibet Freedom advertisement campaign in the March issue of ELLE magazine. A 2 page advertisement on the right page it looked like any other fashion spread, a women in a gauzy red skirt shod in flat red sandels on the a sunny beach, foot prints trailed behind her. On the left side I found a stark contrast to this fashion dream, red and black duotone photos of Tibet children each looking in sadder and more sublime as they grow in age. In bold letters read the words "Walk With Us". The caption reads:
His name is Ngawang Choephel.
He is a Fulbright Scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont.
He is a gifted musician.
And, because he is Tibetan, he is now a prisoner. Every
day, countless innocent Tibetans are jailed and tortured for
the crime of pursuing their own beliefs.
Please join us as we seek to gather 1 million signatures in
a petition for Ngawang Choephel's release.
Give a voice to those who can't speak.This is the Charles David "Walk with Us" ad campaign. In collaboration with the The International Campaign for Tibet Charles David is "inviting consumers to vote with their feet and liberate political prisoners" (Advertising Age, Cordona) as part of their current ad campaign."
[Quelle: http://www.uofr.net/~melissa/tibet/. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21]
"Upscale footwear manufacturer Charles David is taking a big step to raise awareness—and funds—for a Buddhist cause. This spring, the California-based company launched a SI million print ad campaign to aid Tibet in major magazines like George and Elk. Called "Walk With Us," separate full-page ads picture the 11th Panchen Lama, who disappeared in 1995, and Ngawang Choephel, Fulbright scholar at Middlebury College, another political prisoner. The ads' goal: To garner one million names asking for their release to present to U.S. and Chinese governments. Signatures are being gathered on two websites: www.savetibet.org and www.charlesdavid.org. The
International Campaign for Tibet, partner with the company, helped designate Tibetan organizations to receive proceeds from fundraising events being held throughout the year.
One of the hottest is a website auction featuring khatas (www. charlesdavid.org) signed by luminaries such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Adam Yauch, each of whom designates which Tibetan charity will benefit. Proceeds from Billy Zane's and Harrison Ford's khatas went to New York's Tibet House, for instance, according to Rachel Taylor, marketing director of Charles David. Taylor, who also conceived the campaign, said,"No one at the company is Buddhist. But we've been wanting to do something for human rights for a while. When I saw Kundun, I realized so few people know about what was going on in Tibet. That inspired me, and the company said yes."
Other fund-raising events will include walks, auctions of celebrity items, plus proceeds from a portion of Charles David sales in stores—either a week's or a month's sales, still to be determined at press time."
[Quelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VIII, No. 4 (Summer 1999). -- S. 13f.]
1999
Ein Leserbrief:
"In a recent issue of New Age, Clark Strand, who identifies himself as a former senior editor of Tricycle, writes that Tricycle has been denied permission to reprint the work of Trungpa Rinpoche, and this became standing policy following your publication of an article that people at Shambhala felt was unfair and slanderous to Trungpa. I am writing to ask if this is true. Among my own friends it has been assumed that the absence of Trungpa Rinpoche in Tricycle was your decision and was based on your biases. Can you please clarify?
T. Z. Madden
Clark Strand is correct. Tricycle had published several excerpts from Trungpa Rinpoche's writings. Then an article about Trungpa Rinpoche and his successor appeared in the Winter 1994 issue. The material was not new, and the facts were not contested, but Tricycle's requests for permission to reprint writings of Trungpa Rinpoche have since been denied. —Ed."[Quelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VIII, No. 4 (Summer 1999). -- S. 7.]
2000
Abb.: EinbandtitelEs erscheint:
Sherrill, Martha: The Buddha from Brooklyn. -- New York : Random House, 2000. -- xix, 392 S. ; 24 cm. -- ISBN 0679452753. -- {Wenn Sie HIER klicken, können Sie einen Nachdruck dieses Buchs bei amazon.de bestellen}
"Buddha from Brooklyn begins like the biographies Crooked Cucumber and Cave in the Snow--a venerated Buddhist teacher from humble beginnings is surrounded by respectable Western students. Unlike the seasoned masters Shunryu Suzuki and Tenzin Palmo, however, Jetsumna Ahkon Lhamo, the red-headed woman from Brooklyn who wore a black leather jacket and stick-on nails, had no Buddhist training. And still she had managed to build up the largest monastery of Tibetan Buddhists in America. Martha Sherrill, a journalist for The Washington Post, introduces us to Jetsumna's monastery outside Washington, D.C., and to the world of Tibetan Buddhism. With a measured hand, she unfolds the life of Jetsumna and her acolytes, revealing the unshakable devotion, the enormous sums of cash, the ostracism, and the mysterious magnetism of the highest-ranked woman in Tibetan Buddhism. Jetsumna joined the illustrious ranks of Tibetan lamas after being discovered to be an enlightened reincarnation by the same lama who would later discover Steven Seagal. As Sherrill learns, Jetsumna did appear to be enlightened, and her students believed in her infallibility. They became model Tibetan Buddhists, doing prostrations, building stupas, saving all sentient beings. So why did the group occasionally seem like a cult? In a narrative of complexity and sensitivity, Sherrill struggles with the answers to this and other doubts even while she is attracted to the religion herself but troubled by its embodiment in this stretch of wilderness outside America's capital. --Brian Bruya" [Quelle: amzon.com]
2000-11-14
Abb.: Label®Die Tibetan Association of Boston Inc.startet mit Emack & Bolio's Free Tibet Golden Ginger Ale
2001
Abb.: UmschlagtitelEs erscheint:
Willis, Janice Dean: Dreaming me : an African American woman's spiritual journey / Jan Willis. -- New York : Riverhead Books, 2001. -- 321 S. ; 22 cm. -- ISBN 1573221732
Abb.: Jan Willis
[Bildquelle: http://www.ncf.edu/PublicAffairs/Documents/willis.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21]
""Jan Willis (BA and MA in Philosophy, Cornell University; PhD in Indic and Buddhist Studies, Columbia University) is Professor of Religion and Walter A. Crowell Professor of the Social Sciences at Wesleyan. She has studied with Tibetan Buddhists in India, Nepal, Switzerland and the United States for more than three decades, and has taught courses in Buddhism for twenty-five years. One of the earliest American scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, Professor Willis has published numerous essays and articles on Buddhist mediation, hagiography, and women and Buddhism." (Wesleyan University) "Willis, a coal miner's daughter, was born in Docena, Alabama. During the 1950s and '60s the town was a stronghold of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan where the commonality of economic oppression made the need to push blacks to the bottom of the heap even more desperate.
Willis was almost small enough to fit under the bed when the KKK burned a cross in the alleyway beside her home. At 4, she confounded her mother by falling in love with Dvorak and Rimsky-Korsakov and deciding to become a conductor. She was 5 when her mother pronounced her ''evil'' for being ''smart'' and 14 when baptized a Baptist.
But it was in 1963, that Willis left home, heading north to Ithaca, N.Y., for the Telluride Association's special summer program at Cornell University. She was a militant-leaning Black Power college student bearing white blood from three generations back, raised in the Jim Crow South. But at college, her intelligence was the norm, not the exception. She made friends who didn't see ''race'' when they looked at her. She fell in love with philosophers and with Buddhism, and she took an offer to study Buddhist philosophy in India for a year.
Willis had vowed to continue her studies in Nepal after college. But when Fred Hampton, leader of the Chicago Black Panther Party, was killed in 1969, it challenged her to take up the cause of civil rights at home." (Jackson Sun)"
[Quelle: http://www.alabamabound.org/AuthorPages/WillisJan.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-21]
2002
Abb.: Great Stupa of Dharmakaya
[Bildquelle: http://www.shambhalamountain.org/stupa_symbolism.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-10]Ein Leserbrief:
"In the Winter 2001 issue, Judith Lief exhorts us, in the wake of September 11, to face up to how attached we have been to our privileged and sheltered lifestyle. She identifies herself as a student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and says that he sometimes compared our lifestyle to a "god realm" existence. Lief goes on to write that the "pseudo-security of the god realm is based on deliberately ignoring the larger world and hunkering down in a safe haven where we can enjoy pleasures at all levels—material, emotional, and spiritual." "We need," she writes, "to go beyond 'yuppie dharma,' the trendy but shallow self-improvement approach that leaves our basic mindset unchallenged."
So I am wondering how this eminently profound view of both Ms. Lief and her teacher squares with Marilyn Webb's article on the opening of The Great Stupa in Colorado built by Trungpa Rinpoche's students to honor him and to contain his cremated remains. With a string of superlatives, the author, another student of Trungpa Rinpcoche, touts the stupa as the "first," the "biggest." The price tag is "$2.7 million—a bargain . . . for what it bought."
Indeed, this sounds a lot like "hunkering down in a safe haven" to me, and even more, it bespeaks a basic mindset—one that developed in old Tibet— that is going unchallenged. The conflation of religion and the politics of power have found their newer expression in an architectural extravagance that is far more ostentatious than it is devotional. However one might celebrate this structure in the United States, it seems that on some level, it cannot be presented as free of the impulses and indulgences of yuppie dharma, in which everything that is first and most and biggest is best.
Janice Vienbaas
Modesto, California"[Quelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. XI, No. 3 (Spring 2002). -- S. 11.]
