The Way of the Lotsawa

Since my last post, which seems like an eon ago, much has happened. In the last blog post which was quite at the beginning of the Rigpa Shedra 2011, I wrote about my experience of a dharmic life studying and teaching in Nepal. The shedra concluded at the end of April. At that point four months of teaching Tibetan on three levels, studying Mipham Rinpoche’s commentary on the great treatise Abhisamayalamkara, and being part of the shedra staff was behind me. Leaving the little hillside village of Pharping, I flew to New York City to reunite with my woman and meet friends. The first evening I found myself having dinner with four close buddies from Rigpa, all of whom participated in the Three Year retreat and only one who was actually American. I really love this international life of meeting people I know wherever I travel and especially connecting with my Rigpa colleagues.

After a few days in Massachusetts I journeyed to Hamburg, Germany to attend my brother and sister–in–law’s wedding celebration. Seeing my family and old friends charged my ‘family’ batteries which tend to run a bit low as I am rarely returning to my homeland these days. Less than 10 days later I went back to the US. I was able to continue studying Tibetan and finish off a translation I had begun but unfortunately not as much as I had planned. I became heavily involved in my hobby of photography as suddenly I had three exhibits to set up. After my first show at GoBerry in Northampton this past winter with the theme of ‘Tibetans in Exile’, I was given the opportunity to hang photos at Pleasant Street Tea Company in Gloucester. Additionally, I had two successive shows scheduled in Northampton taking place in July and August. The theme of these recent shows is titled ‘The Splendor of Asia’ (click to see all images) and contains photos from Nepal and India. This is of course a reason to celebrate. Despite the work involved and the time it takes away from my Tibetan affairs, I am still glad I can do these things as so many work aspects need to be considered and looked at. This means my organizational and communicative brain departments have become highly trained!

One of the photos from my exhibits: The Boudha Stupa, Kathmandu.

At the end of my trip to the US, Greta and I were able to attend the Wisdom of Awareness retreat at Garrison Institute in New York state. For five days, Sogyal Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche gave a number of wonderful teachings. In addition American teachers Daniel and Tara Goleman and Sharon Salzberg gave talks to an eager and engaged audience. For the first time, I witnessed the coming together of traditional Buddhist teachings and western psychological-therapeutic knowledge and research. As I have a certain amount of experience in both fields, I was glad to see both forms of mind analysis collaborating and cooperating more and more. As Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche had foreseen, “Buddhism will come to the West as a psychology”. Practising the Buddha’s teachings without a knowledge and awareness of the neurotic patterns present in so many western people can become what some call ‘spiritual bypassing’, i.e. not dealing with our fundamental emotions and mental complications. I had been asked to document the retreat with photos which I was happy to do. I feel having good photos of our lamas is something very important, for our personal present use and for posterity.

Sogyal Rinpoche during the Garrison Retreat

Soon again I found myself hopping onto planes which would bring me to the Indian business metropolis of Bangalore. Having arrived there in the middle of the night, a high standard bus (the only kind of bus I’m taking in India after my accident last year) dropped me off in Kushal Nagar after a five hour drive. A fifteen minutes rickshaw drive led me to my final destination, Namdroling Monastery or the Golden Temple, as the local Indians call it. I arrived later than planned, yet still in advance to help set up Rigpa’s second Tibetan Translator Training. Despite some previous correspondences with the monastery, a good amount of organizational work was still necessary. After a few days and in time for the training to begin we had arranged a class room, a khenpo to teach, and monk and nun lobpöns who would be our conversational partners. Now the second week is almost over and I am happy with the format and schedule of the programme.

Our Translation class with current khenpo Karma Tsering.

The Tashi Delek Restaurant Gang

Here at Namdroling, in the early mornings I am speaking to a lay Tibetan, a friend of ours, practicing my colloquial Tibetan. Later on a khenpo teaches the group on a text and we take turns attempting to interpret. The khenpo’s dialect pronounciations are different. For instance vowel sounds are different than how they are taught to be pronounced in books. But after all, not a single Tibetan speaks according to them anyway. After lunch I have another tutor session with a lobpön from Khenpo Jigme Phüntsok’s monastery of Larung Gar in Tibet. He and I are getting along very well but his accent is so strong making it a challenge. One of the exercises that we do is to go over the part of the text which was covered in the class, using a mix of colloquial and classical Tibetan to describe its content. The whole point is to concentrate on Dharma Tibetan. In the afternoon my last class is a grammar class for colloquial Tibetan after which I have time for my personal studies. Our small group, which currently consists of three students plus two teaching members, resides in two guesthouses, one which is in Namdroling, the other is close by. I make daily circumambulations of the massive monastery which takes twenty minutes but which incorporates my walk to the surrounding restaurants where I eat and practice my language skills with the locals.

Admiring the Hero.

Giving way to India's holy cows

Besides attending formal classes and engaging in personal studies, I also try to have conversations with monks and whoever I can begin a talk with. In general, I’m trying to speak Tibetan as much as possible. Putting into practice what one is learning is the secret, no matter how hard and often discouraging learning Tibetan is. 

Tip: Double-click the photos to view them in larger size!

The Perfection of Wisdom

The afternoon sun is shining into my room, generously adding some warmth on a cold day. Looking out my window I see the prayer flags fluttering lightly in the soft January breeze between the buildings of the Nyingma Palyul Retreat Centre. I am back in Nepal, a country without heaters, but in which you can find and study the precious teachings of the Buddha better than in nearly any country in the world.  

It has been one month since I drove from Massachusetts with my girlfriend Greta down to the glorious city of New York to celebrate the end of the decade. It was the last few days of a seven week stay in the US. During these weeks I received crucial teachings on meditation and dying from my lama Sogyal Rinpoche at the Rigpa retreat in San Diego, arranged my first photography exhibits in the US, prepared for the upcoming months at Rigpa Shedra East in Nepal, and enjoyed the time with my better half and her family on the east coast. After experiencing New Year’s Eve in New York, where I missed the abundant fireworks I am so used to in Germany, it was time to move eastwards again. Flying part of my journey in the new Airbus A380 (how nice!), I reached Kathmandu 24 hours later.

Pharping Kids

Pigeon Dance in Boudha, Kathmandu

While I write, we are already coming to the end of the first of the four months of intensive study here. The time has been passing quickly. This year's Shedra East, the 6^th since its inception in 2006, has a different face. A bunch of older students who have been studying here regularly over the past few years have new jobs which prevented them from attending this year. You are missed! The management team also looks different. I myself belong to the small staff who put their minds and hearts into enabling students to learn what the Lord Buddha was trying to communicate. This is my second time teaching the classical aspect of the Tibetan language after 2009. In addition to the intensive six days a week beginners' class I am also leading the two upper levels of reading comprehension. Altogether I am teaching twice a day. And just like before, I am realizing that teaching is the best way to learn! 
 

Illuminating the World

Lords of the Boudha Stupa

The text class this year is focusing on Mipham Rinpoche's commentary on the Ornament of Clear Realization (in Sanskrit Abhisamayalankara) which is itself an illuminating treatise on the difficult to understand Perfection of Wisdom-Sutras. It was taught by the future Buddha Maitreya to Asanga, the founder of the Chittamatra school of Buddhist philosophy. It is the first time Shedra students have had to deal with no English translation of a text being available. Concentrated listening and revision are thus more important than ever this year. However this caused some advanced students to begin working on translating the text into English!

Puja above the Asura Cave

  

Even though a considerable amount of work still lies ahead of me before I am capable of sitting next to a Khenpo and translating, the months at Rigpa's Tibetan Translator Training in Namdroling last summer dramatically increased my understanding of spoken Tibetan. However without my existing experience in Buddhist studies many aspects of this text would surely induce headaches. Khenpo Sonam Tobden is teaching the Shedra for the 4^th time this year, and I am now often able to follow his Tibetan directly. Without a Buddhist studies background mere knowledge of the Tibetan language wouldn't be sufficient for translating Buddhist philosophical concepts! The moment a new idea is being introduced I often find myself understanding hardly anything. In order to increase our ability to understand this profound treatise we recite the Heart Sutra at the beginning of each class. It is the most popular sutra of the prajñaparamita collection.

 
I conclude my first description of my 2011 activities in Asia as the last rays of the setting sun reach through my window. More entries will follow.

Having Time

I am also happy to communicate that the Shedra East in 2012 will be endowed with two new aspects. It will be the first time that two text classes will be held simultaneously. It will also be the first time that experienced students can embark upon tantric studies here in Pharping! Click here for more info.

 
Tashi Delek.

Rainbow Land

Sogyal Rinpoche, 28.10.2009, Lerab Ling

An amazing double-rainbow on the way up to Lerab Ling

In this last phase of the 3-Year-Retreat Sogyal Rinpoche is revealing to his closest students the heart of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings. The 28th of October has become an historic date for all of us here in Lerab Ling. Everybody participating in these last weeks experiences the depth and unlimited vastness of what these teachings actually offer to whoever is willing to commit his- or herself fully to this Path. Eventhough Tibetan Buddhism can appear tremendously complex, often maybe even unaccessible to our ordinary mind, in its essence the teachings show that, behind the manifold aspects and features, the way things are is so simple and yet so profound.

And having a master like Sogyal Rinpoche who embodies the richness of the teachings so perfectly, is the greatest treasure. And as if nature wanted to emphasise the importance and beauty of what is happening in Lerab Ling, on our way up to the mountains this incredible vivid double-rainbow appeared a few days ago. So close I could swear I was able to see its ends. But also in Lerab Ling itself rainbows were visible.

Hill-top practice

Recently Lerab Ling's 'die hard'-practitioners gathered on the hill-top at an early hour to celebrate the Local Deities' day, Dzam Ling Chi Sang. Smoke and other ingredients were offered to the local deities on this day. The rest of the day the Sangha continued to practise in the main temple hall. Later that morning Sogyal Rinpoche practised with us via a conference call from Dzogchen Beara, Rigpa's retreat centre in Ireland.

Kalimpong 2007

Kalimpong, in the north-eastern part of India close to the border to Sikkim, was the home of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche after he had fled from Tibet. Here Sogyal Rinpoche received instructions by him when he was in his early twenties. On my way to Sikkim, during the Losar break of the Shedra, I stopped by in this interesting town to travel back a bit in time in the life of my master. The house of Dudjom Rinpoche, nowadays it is a retreat-place. I was only given access to it after I said I was a disciple of Sogyal Rinpoche and because of that I was on my own. I was also shown the actual room where Dudjom Rinpoche would grant teachings. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take any pictures in there. The Zangdok Palri-Temple of Dudjom Rinpoche. The main Guru Rinpoche statue inside the monastery.