Tibetan Anniversary of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

According to the Tibetan calendar, today (28 June) is the 50th Anniversary of the great twentieth century master, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö.

Here's a new, wonderful short film about Jamyang Khyentse's life, courtesy of Remembering the Masters:



The Rigpa Sangha will be celebrating the anniversary today in centres around the world.

The Irish Times: The Art of Living and Dying

A quiet revolution in how we approach death is taking place in a Buddhist retreat centre on the Beara peninsula in Co Cork, writes MIRIAM MULCAHY.

Click here to check out this article in today's Irish Times.

Terchen Chokgyur Lingpa Remembered

In this week of anniversaries of great nineteenth and twentieth century Tibetan Buddhist masters, today marks the anniversary of Chokgyur Lingpa (1829-1870), one of the most famous treasure revealers (tertön) of Tibet.

A contemporary of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgön Kongtrul, Chokgyur Lingpa was one of the major tertöns in Tibetan history, whose termas (revealed treasures) are widely practiced by both the Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

In fact, one of the most familiar prayers among Rigpa's daily practices is a terma revelation of Chokgyur Lingpa - The Prayer to Guru Rinpoche for Removing Obstacle and Fulfilling Wishes, known simply as Du Sum Sangye.

Chokgyur Lingpa's amazing life story is vividly recounted by his great-grandson Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche in the book Blazing Splendor.

Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö's Fiftieth Anniversary - Photos from Lerab Ling

Here are a couple of photos from yesterday's celebration of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö's 50th anniversary at Lerab Ling.

Sogyal Rinpoche teaching

Sogyal Rinpoche, Khandro Tsering Chödrön and Mayum Tsering Wangmo

(Photos courtesy of Jurek Schreiner)

Fiftieth Anniversary of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of one of the greatest Tibetan Buddhist masters of the 20th century, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö.

Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö was born in 1893 in Kham, Eastern Tibet and passed away in Gangtok, Sikkim in 1959 after having fled Tibet three years earlier. He was recognized as an incarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo the Great and became renowned as a great Rimé, or non-sectarian, master, having studied with over fifty masters from all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Jamyang Khyentse was also teacher to some of the most important masters who brought Buddhism to the West, including Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, His Holiness Sakya Trizin and, of course, Sogyal Rinpoche, who he treated like his own son.

For more information about Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö's life, check out Remembering the Masters.

Sogyal Rinpoche, the Three Year Retreatants at Lerab Ling and Rigpa students around the world will be celebrating this anniversary together, and the events from Lerab Ling will be video-streamed live to Rigpa centres this evening. For more information contact your local centre.

According to the Tibetan calendar, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö's fiftieth anniversary will be celebrated on the 28th June 2009.

Saga Dawa Düchen: The Anniversary of Buddha's Enlightenment & Parinirvana

Statue of the Buddha in the Lerab Ling Temple

Yesterday, the Three Year Retreatants at Lerab Ling celebrated Saga Dawa Düchen with a full day of practice in the Temple.

Saga Dawa Düchen, one of the four major Buddhist holidays, is the anniversary of Buddha Shakyamuni's enlightenment at Bodhgaya and his parinirvana at Kushinigara. It occurs on the full moon (the 15th day) of the fourth Tibetan lunar month, which is called Saga Dawa in Tibetan.

The day was also celebrated in Rigpa centres around the world. To find a centre closest to you, click here.

Six thousand people hear Sogyal Rinpoche teach in Amsterdam

On 4 June 2009, Sogyal Rinpoche taught a crowd of 6,000 people in Amsterdam on Finding Peace and Stability in a Troubled World.

This teaching was part of the events organised for the visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to The Netherlands. His Holiness also gave a public talk yesterday on The Power of Compassion in Turbulent Times and taught on Shantideva's The Way of the Bodhisattava.

On the next day, Sogyal Rinpoche addressed a group of Dutch business, religious and community leaders, gathered for a seminar on Leadership for a Sustainable World.

The aim of this timely meeting was to address the need for innovative leadership to tackle major world-wide threats caused by climate change, energy shortages and financial instability.

Sogyal Rinpoche taught on Transforming the Mind and Heart. He said:

Understanding and managing our own state of mind may be the single most important quality for a leader in today’s world. And one of the best ways to tame our mind is through the unique and profound approach to meditation in the Buddhist tradition of Tibet...

The simplicity, spaciousness, humour and courage you find through meditation will help you to accomplish more with less effort and less stress. Even though your life may be complex on the outside you will have an inner simplicity that will enable you to meet difficulties, crises, problems and troubles and to understand, transform and overcome them with more wisdom and compassion. Whatever the difficulty, you will be able to learn from it, turn it to your advantage and transform the situation. A great Tibetan teacher of mind training once remarked that one of the mind’s most marvelous qualities is that it can be transformed. So we have to put our minds and hearts together, with vision and with courage, for the future good of humanity. And the crises that we are facing now are giving us an opportunity to learn and transform, and create a more sustainable society on every level.

New Temple Project at Dzogchen Beara, Ireland

In June 2008, Sogyal Rinpoche proposed building Ireland’s first Tibetan Buddhist Temple at Dzogchen Beara, Rigpa's retreat centre on the south-west coast.

Since then, a volunteer team has been investigating different options for its location and design.

Last month, Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche visited Dzogchen Beara to advise on the temple, especially its design, location and orientation.


Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche is a uniquely qualified Tibetan master, who has supervised numerous temple projects, including the Temple at Lerab Ling, Rigpa's main retreat centre located in France.

The volunteer design team presented the results of their initial research to Rinpoche during his three-day visit.

Using the ancient art of geomancy, and following advice given in traditional texts to determine the correct site and orientation of a temple, Rinpoche gave the team detailed guidance on different aspects of the project.

And a site for the temple, overlooking the meditation garden, was chosen.

Like the temple at Lerab Ling, the temple at Dzogchen Beara will be built in the style of a traditional Tibetan monastery, a unique form of architecture that is an inspiring symbol of the Buddha’s teachings.

The Temple at Lerab Ling

After Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche's visit, the design team have gone back to work assimilating all his advice into a new proposal – Scheme 15.

To learn more about Temple Project Ireland, to follow the Temple's progress, to join the Founder's Circle or to make a donation, go to www.temple.dzogchenbeara.org.