Tsoknyi Rinpoche's Blog, page 19
September 24, 2013
Discovering the Essence of Mind: Steamboat Springs, CO 8/16-18/2013
Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Jean Chang & Julie Green at the benefit for the Tsoknyi Nepal Nuns
The Steamboat Springs Buddhist Center and Tim Olmsted welcomed back Tsoknyi Rinpoche to teach after a seven-year hiatus. He began with a public talk on Essence Love Friday night at the Bud Werner Public Library where there was standing room only! Rinpoche has graciously made this talk public available for all to listen to at the following link: http://www.steamboatbuddhistcenter.org/_/Recorded_Talks_files/Talk%20%231%20-%20Friday%20night%20-%20Essence%20Love.mp3
Saturday morning began with a public talk (both public talks were attended by weekend retreatant participants, as well), followed by exquisitely beautiful and energetic pointing out instructions in the afternoon. This was an unprecedented event, as Rinpoche generally does not give pointing out during shorter teachings—Steamboat was truly blessed.
The Saturday night benefit for the Tsoknyi Nepal Nuns (http://www.tsoknyinepalnuns.org/) at Julie Green’s house was complete with a 15-minute Gong Concert by two Colorado women who were deeply touched by a photo they saw of Rinpoche and the Nepal Nuns and offered this as a gift towards a fundraising effort. Julie and Jean Chang showed a 5-minute slide show about Tsoknyi Gechak Ling, and Rinpoche answered questions. The crowd of 75 included a dozen children who loved Rinpoche–he even played horseshoes, while raising $4,500 for the Nepal Nuns that evening.
Before each of Rinpoche’s teachings starting on Saturday morning, Tim gave a lovely recap which was very helpful and informative. Rinpoche gave the Vajrasatva Empowerment on Sunday and left with khatas waving and many people with tears in their eyes. Rinpoche has already committed to returning to Steamboat in May 2014.
September 18, 2013
Dzogchen Practice Intensive Recap; 8/9-15/2013 Crestone, CO
Another luscious week of rain and hummingbirds graced Rinpoche’s teachings on The Precious Treasury of The Basic Space of Phenomena (Longchen Rabjam). Rinpoche continued to use humorous and creative animal metaphors to instruct retreatants in practice–the chicken and the egg; yak meditation (grounded & alert) vs. cow meditation (unconscious & spaced out) alternating with monkey mind. He gave exquisite core teachings and instructions on relative bodhicitta, practicing the 6 paramitas in meditation and post-meditation whenever the mind waivers from thought-free wisdom, interdependency, and analytical meditation. Rinpoche continued teaching on the process of sweeping or scanning (“A little more than imagining, but less than doing”) down the lung during vase breathing. Many students brought offerings of semi-precious stones and jewelry items, which Rinpoche blessed, for the future filling of the Dorje Yudronma rupa on the Yeshe Rangsal retreat land. Julie Green and Michael Kunkel presented on the Tsoknyi Nepal Nuns, showing an informative slideshow. And many thanks to Meridel Rubenstein for her photographs of retreat events as they unfolded.
September 12, 2013
Happiness for No Reason: Crestone, CO 8/2-8/2013
Rinpoche taught Happiness for No Reason: Uncovering Essence Love and Rediscovering Mind Nature during the first Crestone, CO retreat August 2 – 8, 2013, to approximately 140 students at the Yeshe Rangsal retreat land. He focused on working with the distorted subtle body in order to make it balanced and healthy, giving instructions on and physically demonstrating the practices of lung and vase breathing. He spoke extensively on the distinction between the gross and subtle bodies, as well as how the nadis, prana, and bindus work within the subtle body. All in attendance gratefully received pointing out instructions, and approximately 50% of the retreatants were new to Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s retreats, with 10 people taking refuge. Julie Green and Jean Chang presented on the Tsoknyi Gechak Ling nunnery in Nepal (see http://www.tsoknyinepalnuns.org/ for more information) amidst visitations by hummingbirds and much needed rain. And much gratitude to Alan Rabold for these photographs of Rinpoche, retreatants, Yeshe Rangsal, and Crestone.
September 3, 2013
2014 Tsoknyi Rinpoche Retreats
Here is Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s retreat schedule for 2014. His complete 2014 schedule along with titles, descriptions, contact information, and prerequisites will be forthcoming. This schedule is confirmed, however other retreats may be added, so please check back then for more detailed information.
March 14-20, 2014: Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 7 – 13: Pundarika U.K.
April 14 – 20: Pundarika DaCH I
April 21 – 27: Pundarika DaCH II
May 2 – 8: Angela Center (Santa Rosa, California)
May 9 – 12: Upaya Center (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
May 16-18: Steamboat Springs, Colorado
August 8 – 14: Crestone I (Crestone, Colorado)
August 15 – 21: Crestone II ( Crestone, Colorado)
September 25: Westchester Buddhist Center (Irvington, NY)
September 26 – October 2: Natural Dharma Fellowship (Wonderwell Mountain Refuge, Springfield, New Hampshire)
October 17 – 19: Naropa University (a ‘for credit’ course; Boulder, Colorado)
October 24 – 30: Casa Tibet (Mexico)
Additionally, Rinpoche as added three more retreats in Asia during the month of October 2013:
October 4 – 8, 2013: Pundarika Malaysia
October 10 – 13: Tergar, Hong Kong
October 22 – 30: Tergar, Taiwan
Unfortunately, we do not know any more information about the above retreats at this time. When we do, we will be sure to post it and send out an announcement on FaceBook. Thank you for your patience!
The Pundarika Staff
July 30, 2013
Phakchok Rinpoche: August/New York Teaching
Creating Space in Daily Life
August 6th at 7:00 p.m. at Rigpa New York City Center
Open to the Public: Click here for more information and online registration!
Fees: $40. No one will be turned away for lack of funds – and work/study available. ”Friends of Rigpa NYC center” discount apply.
July 25, 2013
Crestone’s New Support Building
July 24th, Finished!
As of July 24th, our new support building is done, passed inspections and ready for the retreats. We had a great crew who worked very hard to get this done on time, showing up for long days for 3 months straight despite some heavy rain at times, lots of bugs (now gone) and high temperatures. We are excited for Rinpoche and all of you to see this new building, which although not exactly the Taj Mahal, does provide some very important functions (clean, new bathrooms for one)!
Patrick, Kalou, Gary & Diego: tired and done!
Steve and Gary working on the water system.
July 23, 2013
Tsokyi Gechak School Inaugurated
As school inauguration was scheduled for the first day of our second term – July 9th, on the afternoon of July 8th all the school teachers gathered at the school to help with the final preparations. Ms. Pratibha ran the students through a final rehearsal of the short play she prepared with them. Click here for the full story!
July 10, 2013
Yeshe Rangsal Support Building
Here is a photo of our new support building just after the finish coat of stucco was applied. When complete, it will have an attractive willow screen in front of it to break up the wall mass and eventually, trees and shrubs, too. Gary, John and Art have worked long hours (around 60 per week in June) to get the building done in time for about 250 students coming to the two Crestone retreats this summer. The building will not only have a private bathroom for Rinpoche, as well as bathrooms for retreatants and facilities for disabled persons, but it will also house a small kitchen. We are all very thrilled about this new addition to the Yeshe Rangsal retreat land.
July 8, 2013
Administrative Director’s Statement
(A 20-year Overview of Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s Activity)
“You might say the words as sincerely as you can, but it’s your actions that really count–that really determine whether or not you’re clinging to coziness, to self-importance, to separateness.”
~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche
from Open Heart, Open Mind
Recently, while reviewing retreat title possibilities to present to Rinpoche, I glanced at the overall number of teachings Rinpoche has given from 1993 to the present—a 20-year span. And what struck me is how much he has continuously traveled and taught students around the globe since his first “accidental” teaching at Bodhgaya to Westerners in 1991.
What follows is at best a partial accounting of his teaching activity in the West and an estimate of the many teachings, pujas, and dharma events held in Tibet, Nepal, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore, as well:
He has taught and turned the wheel of dharma in America, Europe, South and Central America, the Middle East and Australia, over 250 times in the form of retreats of varying lengths, public talks and events, panel discussions, film festivals, and other events. This means that per year, he teaches (mainly 6-day retreats) over 12 times per year in the West, and this would expand to perhaps 20 per year, if Asia were also included. This averages up to one-third of a year (120 days) of teaching alone, not counting travel time, which over the course of the year adds weeks of time on jets, airports, hotels, and local transit. If this is counted up over a 20-year span, the number is astounding—over 2,400 full days of teaching thousands of students—with over 40,000 people who will have had a personal exposure to authentic dharma: hearing, contemplating, and practicing across the world. Also, Rinpoche’s time spent on films, Mind and Life and other conferences, and writing books, reaches many additional people who often have had little or no exposure to dharma. His 2012 Open Heart, Open Mind book tour in the United States alone reached over 3,000 people at bookstores and dharma centers (30 talks and teachings across the country from Portland, Oregon to Boston, and New York).
However, teaching retreats is only one aspect of his larger humanitarian work, which involves the support, at many levels, of nuns and monks in Tibet and Nepal: building schools, providing education , food, shelter and medicine; countless responses to help answer students’ dharma questions and counsel on what to do regarding serious life events; overseeing three Pundarika foundations in America and Europe and a center in Malaysia; writing books and participating in book tours, participating in Mind and Life seminars, inspiring two films (Blessings and When the Iron Bird Flies); preserving ancient Drukpa Kagyu Lineage texts and making them digital; fund-raising to benefit nuns and dharma centers, and the list goes on and on (please visit www.tsoknyirinpoche.org for more details).
What is quite amazing to me is that all of this enormous activity is directly for others and never for personal gain, or as he says, “There is no final retirement plan” as long as there is suffering and the need to do something to help. Also, “Never give up!” is a motto Rinpoche uses sometimes, and when you step back and see his activity—the hundreds of thousands of miles on jets traversing the globe and attendant jetlag, 18-hour plane rides from Kathmandu to New York, little (if any) time for exercise, taking a walk, or just relaxing—it’s a great reminder that bodhisattvas are tireless and do all they can to help our struggling world, and in a larger sense, all sentient beings endlessly imprisoned in samsara. Bodhicitta in action has a rare and compelling beauty that can also inspire us to follow in his footsteps as best we can—“thinking globally and acting locally”—one step at a time.
~ Esteban Hollander
Administrative Director, Pundarika Foundation
July 1, 2013
Nangchen Nuns Endowment Fund Makes First Distribution to Nuns
After nine years of fund-raising and careful investing in the rather wild financial markets, the first distribution of $60,000 was wired to Tibet this May 2013. These funds are combined with a one-time donation of approximately $130,000 from Pundarika DaCH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) to provide financial help in the construction of a gompa (shrine hall) for the nuns at Gebchak monastery this year.
The Bridge Foundation, a worldwide NGO with offices and staff in Tibet, will distribute and oversee the use of these funds as well as provide financial reporting.
The longer-term plan is to distribute, from the US, the yearly earnings from the endowment fund for specific projects and needs that Rinpoche, in consultation with his senior nuns, will decide upon annually. These funds will provide essential food, medicine and shelter, bringing the nuns up to the poverty level of Tibet so they can practice under Rinpoche’s direction. This continues a practice tradition that was initiated in the mid-19th century with Tsoknyi Rinpoche I’s radical idea to teach women the most profound and transformative dharma. Renowned as powerful and vital practitioners, this “experiment” boldly initiated by Tsoknyi Rinpoche I and continued by his second incarnation is now coming to a new fruition with the most promising nuns being trained to teach in the West in the future. This bridge—dharma from the remote monasteries of Eastern Tibet coming to the West in a feminine form—is a remarkable event of seeds planted by Tsoknyi Rinpoche I over 160 years ago.
We will provide periodic updates on the endowment fund as it manifests for the Nangchen Nuns in the coming months and years. Our deep appreciation to all of you who have helped this come to be.
