Rigpa News

Remembering Dzongsar Ngari Tulku

2008-05-20T21:11:00.011+02:00

We have just received the sad news that Dzongsar Ngari Tulku, one of Sogyal Rinpoche's closest childhood friends and an important tulku from Dzongsar Monastery, passed away yesterday following a tragic car accident in Germany. Rinpoche has asked the sangha to think of him in their practice and prayers.

Here is an extract from an interview Rigpa students conducted with him several years ago:

Question: Was there a particular incident that you remember when you got to know Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö? When you felt like you had an interaction with him, for the first time?

Ngari Tulku: Oh yes, oh yes. I was a very cowardly boy from my childhood and I was really very scared of dying. Until, at a certain time, it became almost unbearable. And I wanted to go to see Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, but it was also not a very proper time. But I went to see him, almost in tears. He was walking in his wang khang, the initiation room, and he saw me coming in, and he sat down and said: "What's happened to you? What's happened to you?"

Then I said to him: "Rinpoche, Rinpoche, now you must help me. Because, you know, everybody's dying. Everybody's going to die. I'm going to die, I know. But how can I make it so that I will never die? Because I don't want to die."

And Rinpoche was really looking at me and laughing. He said: "Yes, everybody is dying. You're right. I will die. You will die. Even the Buddha Shakyamuni passed away as well. But, you know, when you get older, you will understand this: physical dying is one thing, but spiritual continuation is another thing. And in that there is also a point at which you don't die."

And I said to him: "Do you think that I'll understand this?" He said: "Yes, you will understand one day."

As small as I was, that was a great moment for me. And I must also have returned back happily with that understanding. And I think it is also very useful for us all.

Rinpoche teaches Australian Business and Community Leaders in Sydney

2008-03-07T06:21:00.017+01:00

At the seventh annual Practical Wisdom Retreat in Sydney this year, forty-five business and community leaders gathered at the Royal Motor Yacht Club overlooking Sydney Harbour for one and a half days of teachings with Sogyal Rinpoche (7-8 March 2008). For some of the participants, this was their first introduction to Rinpoche and Tibetan Buddhism. However, about two-thirds of the participants had attended previous Practical Wisdom Retreats with Rinpoche and were inspired to return once again this year.

Rinpoche taught several times throughout the Retreat, giving instruction on meditation. He also shared teachings of the Buddha on how to use meditation to directly face and overcome difficulties and negative emotions like anger, in both the personal and professional lives of the participants.

All the participants expressed enormous gratitude for the opportunity to receive these precious teachings and many of those who have attended Practical Wisdom Retreats in past years said how important they have been in changing their personal lives and helping them in their leadership roles.

The first Practical Wisdom Retreat was held in Sydney in 2002. Since then, the number of students has grown consistently each year, from twelve in 2002 to twenty-six in 2006 to forty-five in 2008.

The Practical Wisdom programme aims to bring the teachings of the Buddha to people who, because of their position as leaders in the community, are able to have a beneficial influence in the world. The participants are personally invited into the programme and they come from the business world, as well as from community, arts, non-profit and philanthropic organisations. In addition to the annual Practical Wisdom Retreat, some of the participants meet once a month to watch teachings and to study and practise together. These sessions are led by senior Rigpa instructors.

Practical Wisdom and some of the programme's participants, have given substantial support to Sogyal Rinpoche's activities over the last few years, including sponsoring students to attend the Three Year Retreat at Lerab Ling, donating to the Terton Sogyal Trust Endowment Fund, and supporting various Rigpa Australia activities including the Australian Building Fund. This year Practical Wisdom will also support the Tenzin Gyatso Institute in the USA and the Spiritual Care Centre at Dzogchen Beara in Ireland.

Chagdud Khadro visits Rigpa's Berlin Centre

2008-03-01T06:47:00.021+01:00

Chagdud Khadro (centre) with members of the Rigpa monastic and lay sangha.

Berlin, Germany, February 2008.

Chagdud Khadro, the spiritual wife of His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche who passed away in 2002, visited the Rigpa Centre in Berlin to give a weekend of teachings (15 – 17 February 2008).

Chagdud Khadro received many teachings from Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche and was ordained as a lama in 1997. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche invested her as the Spiritual Director of Chagdud Gonpa Brasil, one of the four retreat centres he established.

While visiting the Rigpa Berlin Centre in February, Chagdud Khadro gave a public talk about the Six Bardos according to the “Bardo Thödol” of Padmasambhava.

She also gave a Phowa empowerment and taught the practice of Amitabha Phowa of Rigdzin Longsal Nyingpo. She then generously answered many students' questions about the integration of this practice in caring for the dying.

Khadro joined the sangha for the Tendrel Nyesel tsok practice on Tertön Sogyal's anniversary (16 February).

About 140 people, mainly from the Rigpa sanghas in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic attended the teachings. They found Khadro's teachings very inspiring. In turn, Chagdud Khadro said she was inspired by the sangha and their practice questions.

Khadro's visit was a great success and an auspicious and joyous occasion.

Australian Retreat at Myall Lakes 2008

2008-01-22T23:47:00.001+01:00

The main retreat of the annual Australian Rigpa retreat at Myall Lakes has just finished. Four hundred people from all over Australia, as well as from the United States, Switzerland, Singapore, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom, attended the ten-day retreat (17th-27th January) with Sogyal Rinpoche.

In the beautiful setting on the shores of Lake Wallis on the east coast of Australia, Rinpoche continued the extraordinary teachings he began in Kirchheim in December 2007 on four methods to overcome difficulties in our daily lives.

With these profound but highly practical teachings, Rinpoche showed how we can use shamatha meditation, the compassion practices of loving kindness and tonglen, contemplation on shunyata and realisation of the true nature of our minds to transform difficulties of all kinds, whether due to outer circumstances or our inner emotions.

In the context of his teachings on these four methods, Rinpoche also taught extensively on bodhichitta, setting out a clear and simple, but complete daily practice.

Sixty-five children also participated in the retreat through Rigpa's programme for children and parents, Rigpe Yeshe. The children, ranging in age from 3 to 18, attended daily dharma and meditation sessions, where they focussed on loving-kindness and stillness. The older children watched some of Rinpoche's earlier teachings, including on meditation and loving-kindness, while some of the teenagers came to Rinpoche's teachings every day. Rinpoche also taught all the children directly.

The retreat now continues for a further two weeks (27 January-10 February) for students following the Home Retreat, an intensive programme of study and practice that allows people at home to participate in the Three Year Retreat currently being held at Rigpa's main retreat centre, Lerab Ling, in France.

Kirchheim Winter Retreat 2007

2008-01-03T08:27:00.000+01:00

The twenty-second annual Rigpa winter retreat at Kirchheim, Germany has recently concluded.

Sogyal Rinpoche taught for ten days (28 December - 6 January), giving profound, but highly practical, advice on how to work with our minds in every moment of our daily lives, from the moment we wake up in the morning until we go to bed at night.

He also shared insights gathered from Three-Year Retreatants at Lerab Ling and Home Retreatants from around the world, on how they apply the teachings in their daily life and in their spiritual practice.

The retreat was attended by about 700 students from around Germany, as well as from France, The Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, India, Australia and the United States.

At midnight on New Years' Eve, Rinpoche joined the celebrations to pray with the sangha for an auspicious 2008.

Christmas Lights at Lerab Ling

2007-12-25T20:03:00.000+01:00

In Memory of Ian Maxwell

2007-12-04T13:27:00.000+01:00

Ian Maxwell, one of Sogyal Rinpoche's oldest students, passed away in Paris on 4 December 2005.

Ian first met Sogyal Rinpoche in London in 1977. He began to work for Rigpa shortly afterwards. While in London, he met all the great teachers who passed through the centre in those early years. He received teachings and empowerments from Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche and Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche on many occasions. In the 1980s, he was one of the first Western students to complete a traditional three year retreat.

Ian's contribution to Rigpa was enormous. He established a long-term retreat programme at Dzogchen Beara, Rigpa's retreat centre in Ireland, where so far more than 100 people have successfully completed long-term retreats.

He also worked hard to establish the Rigpa Shedra, or 'centre of learning', which is now in its sixth year and which has attracted many of the most eminent teachers of Tibetan Buddhism and numerous students from all parts of the world.

In the 1990s, Ian traveled extensively throughout America, Australia and all over Europe, giving talks, guiding countless students and clarifying their practice.

Ian played a central role in the development of the Rigpa curriculum which established a structured programme of study and practice for students throughout the whole Rigpa Sangha. He also played a major part in the planning and development of the three year retreat currently being held at Rigpa's main retreat centre, Lerab Ling, in southern France.

Toward the end of his life he became increasingly excited about developing new ways for Rigpa to take the Dharma into the business and professional world as an expression of the ideals in the 'Servants of Peace' chapter in 'The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying'. In fact, there is hardly an area within Rigpa today that Ian did not contribute to.

Ian Maxwell had a great command of Buddhist teachings and had an extraordinary talent for communicating the meaning of Vajrayana teachings and sadhana practice, making them accessible to everyone.

Towards the end of his life he placed great emphasis on the practice of loving kindness. He was an inspiration to many who knew him as an outstanding student of Sogyal Rinpoche and for his exceptional ability to communicate. Whatever question was thrown at him he not only displayed an extraordinary comprehension of the subject in question but also the student felt completely understood and grateful for his empathetic response.

In 1992, at the inauguration of Dzogchen Monastery in South India, he caught the eye of no less than His Holiness the Dalai Lama when he made a speech in his presence. His Holiness was impressed and was later heard to remark, “He seems a very capable person.”

Ian Maxwell passed away in Paris with several of his closest Dharma friends by his side. Phowa practice was performed on his behalf by many great lamas, including Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche who was in Lerab Ling at the time. His funeral included, on his request, loving kindness meditation and chanting the Vajra Guru mantra.

Please post your own memories of Ian here!

Take Charge of Your Mind

2007-11-16T17:23:00.001+01:00

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR MIND
Liberating your Thoughts and Emotions and Transforming your Life
through the Buddhist Wisdom of Tibet

Kirchheim Winter Retreat in Germany
27 December 2007-6 January 2008
with Sogyal Rinpoche
world-renowned Buddhist teacher from Tibet
and author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

As His Holiness the Dalai Lama has pointed out:
“A great Tibetan teacher of mind training once remarked that one of the mind’s most marvellous qualities is that it can be transformed.”

Mind is both our greatest asset and our worst, and most dangerous enemy. The mind can recognise, in the matter of an instant, its own nature, or it can grasp and chase its own deluded perceptions of reality, provoking negative thoughts and emotions, which perpetuate and intensify our suffering. The key to finishing with suffering, then, is to understand and tame this mind of ours, and this is the very essence of the teachings of the Buddha.

During this years’ Winter Retreat in Kirchheim, Germany, Sogyal Rinpoche will share teachings from the heart of his lineage that clearly show us the nature of delusion and of emotion, and will offer practical, authentic methods for working with our minds and for defusing the destructive power of our negative emotions and habitual tendencies. In particular, he will share the importance of training the mind in meditation, and its elements of carefulness, mindfulness and awareness; compassion, or lojong, and bodhichitta, the heart of the enlightened mind; and devotion, the entrance way for blessings, the ultimate method for arousing the wisdom of realization in one’s mind.

This retreat will provide a unique opportunity, not only to receive these teachings, but also to draw out the crucial points needed to be able to remember and actually apply the teachings to ourselves. Because, at the end of the day, even if we have been fortunate enough to receive many teachings, what do we really remember, and of that, what do we actually apply and integrate in our everyday lives? This year at Kirchheim, we will explore together how we can truly live a spiritual life in every moment of every day so as to bring meaningful transformation and a glimpse of our enlightened nature. We will experiment with working with our minds from the moment we wake up in the morning, until the moment we go to bed at night, in order to discover practically how we can avoid harming ourselves and others, always have good hearts, bring our minds back home and avoid falling into the vicious cycle of samsaric tendencies.

For upcoming on-line registration and more information, click here!

If we can tame the mind then nothing can frighten us, because all fear comes from a mind that is untamed.
—the Bodhicharyavatara

His Holiness the Dalai Lama Receives US Congressional Gold Medal

2007-11-12T10:24:00.000+01:00

The United States Congress bestowed upon His Holiness the Dalai Lama its highest civilian honour, the Congressional Gold Medal. This historic ceremony took place in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington D.C. on 17 October 2007.

US President, George Bush, and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, presented the medal to His Holiness in front of an audience of four hundred. Sogyal Rinpoche and Patrick Gaffney were among the guests.

Seven thousand people gathered outside the US Capitol to watch the ceremony on giant screens, while tens of thousands of people in 172 different countries watched the ceremony on a live web cast.

The retreatants at Lerab Ling also watched from the Lerab Ling Temple.

President Bush spoke of others who had received the Gold Medal, including past US presidents, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Elie Wiesel. He said:

Over the years, Congress has conferred the Gold Medal on many great figures in history -- usually at a time when their struggles were over and won.
Today Congress has chosen to do something different. It has conferred this honor on a figure whose work continues -- and whose outcome remains uncertain. In so doing, America raises its voice in the call for religious liberty and basic human rights. These values forged our Republic. They sustained us through many trials. And they draw us by conviction and conscience to the people of Tibet and the man we honor today.

The Gold Medal depicts His Holiness standing in front of three holy mountains—Kawalurig in Kham, Amnye Machen in Amdo, and Chomalungma (Mt. Everest) in Central Tibet.

The back of the Gold Medal quotes His Holiness, and reads:

World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not the absence of violence. Peace is the manifestation of human compassion.

In accepting the Gold Medal, His Holiness said,

It is a great honor for me to receive the Congressional Gold Medal. This recognition will bring tremendous joy and encouragement to the Tibetan people, for whom I have a special responsibility. Their welfare is my constant motivation and I always consider myself as their free spokesperson.
I believe that this award also sends a powerful message to those many individuals who are dedicated to promoting peace, understanding and harmony.

Read the complete transcript of His Holiness' speech.

Photos courtesy ICT/Sonam Zoksang.

Sogyal Rinpoche Teaching in Bhutan 2008

2007-11-05T14:47:00.000+01:00

In 2008, Sogyal Rinpoche will teach in Bhutan for five days from 11–16 March.

As Rinpoche visits Bhutan rarely, this will be a special opportunity to receive teachings from him in this Buddhist kingdom.

For more information and to register, go to www.bhutanretreat.com.

The Making of the Buddha Statue for Rigpa's New Berlin Centre

2007-11-01T13:02:00.001+01:00

Inauguration of the New Rigpa Centre in Berlin

2007-11-01T12:01:00.000+01:00

On 4 October 2007, Sogyal Rinpoche officially opened Rigpa's new Centre in Berlin, Germany, in the presence of officials from the Mayor's office, representatives of other Buddhist groups, and 350 sangha members also attended.

At the opening ceremony, Rinpoche gave a moving speech about the future of the centre and its purpose. He said:

I feel a great sense of joy and inspiration to be here with you this evening, and to take part in this opening of the new Rigpa centre in Berlin.
This centre has come into being through the vision, generosity and commitment of a number of my students here in Germany, and today, as we gather in this magnificent building, I would like to pay tribute to their kindness and dedication.

This centre is one of the largest Buddhist city centres of its kind in Europe... It is a truly remarkable achievement, something that we can indeed celebrate and feel proud of. And it offers tremendous possibilities for our activities in the future... The whole point of a centre such as this is to be of service and of benefit to as many people as possible.

We can sum up the essence of the Buddhist teachings in just two words: wisdom and compassion. If you were to ask me what is the purpose of a centre such as this, it is precisely that - to bring the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha's teachings directly into people's lives, in a way that can truly be of help to them. That is the goal of our centre here.

The building has been painstakingly and beautifully renovated and has three shrine rooms. The main shrine room houses a three metre Buddha statue, a replica of the seven metre Buddha statue in the Lerab Ling Temple. These statues are made in the likeness of what is universally recognised in the Buddhist world as the most sacred representation of the Buddha, the renowned statue at Bodhgaya in northern India, the place where the Buddha attained enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago.

The centre also has 28 apartments, a vegetarian cafe, the "Lotus Lounge”, a bookshop & library.

New Rigpa Shedra Website

2007-10-31T22:27:00.001+01:00

Click here to sample the new Rigpa Shedra website, replacing the old shedra website and Shedra East blog.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama Receives the Congressional Gold Medal

2007-10-13T12:17:00.001+02:00

As you may know, the US House of Representatives voted on 13th September to award His Holiness the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal, which is the country's highest civilian honour, in recognition of his long-standing advocacy of religious harmony, non-violence, and human rights throughout the world and for his efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Tibet issue through dialogue with the Chinese leadership.

The award ceremony will take place in Washington D.C. on Wednesday 17 October. Sogyal Rinpoche and other lamas will be there to witness the event, and it will be broadcast live on the internet.

For more details and to register for the free webcast, see the official website: http://webcast.savetibet.org/ .

Irish President Visits Dzogchen Beara

2007-09-23T09:45:00.000+02:00

The President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, visited Dzogchen Beara on the 12th of September to give her support to the Spiritual Care Centre that is currently being built there.

The Spiritual Care Centre will be a home away from home, a refuge where those who are sick or facing death can come, with family or friends, for periods of rest in a welcoming and healing atmosphere. It will bring together the Buddhist perspective on death and methods for caring for the dying along with insights from modern hospice work in order to benefit people from all walks of life and of any religious orientation.

Speaking to a crowd of over five hundred people including clergy, medical professionals, politicians, the local community, and Rigpa sangha members, President Mc Aleese said, “what a particular joy it is to be in the company of Sogyal Rinpoche, whose wonderful work…so well known to so many people right around the world…bring[s] home to us a subject that so many of us want to run away from. That we don’t want to face.., that we cannot face… and then when we do face…, discover how ill prepared we are for the journey that we are about to embark on. [It is] so wonderful to see how your work and the work that is being done here and the work that will be done here, through the new Spiritual Care Centre, will complement, underpin, and work so well with the new mood…in palliative medicine, in hospice care, which is all about the same business of trying to allow us the dignity of dying well, of good deaths, of deaths that don’t terrify, of processes towards death that don’t convulse us with terror, but rather help us to release in ourselves and for our families something that is good, is healing, is uplifting…I think that is one of the great things that you are helping us to do here. To make a friend of death, which actually seems in so many ways, such a strange journey to cope with, such a very very important journey to [take].”

During her visit, President McAleese also dedicated a plaque to Harriet Cornish. Peter and Harriet Cornish bought the land where Dzogchen Beara is located in 1973 with the dream of creating a place that would address the spiritual needs of people in modern society. In 1992, they made a gift of the land and buildings to a charitable trust under the spiritual guidance of Sogyal Rinpoche. Harriet died in 1993 and her death, and the way she was cared for, was an inspiration for building the Spiritual Care Centre at Dzogchen Beara.

The full details of the Presidents visit, her speech, as well as a twenty minute video piece (excerpts of which will also be broadcast on prime time national television throughout Ireland) will be shown to Rigpa students at the next Sangha day in early October.

The Great Gathering

2007-09-09T21:11:00.001+02:00

This year's All Mandala Retreat was a huge success, with some 1,800 students visiting Lerab Ling for three weeks of teachings and practice.

Sogyal Rinpoche taught every day of the retreat, focusing in particular on bodhichitta and the four thoughts.

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche (pictured right) visited Lerab Ling during the retreat and gave five days of teachings to students following the Three Year Retreat. He also gave a lung (oral transmission) of a text to the All Mandala Retreatants, as well as a short teaching.

The All Mandala Retreat culminated in a tenshyuk (long life ceremony) for Sogyal Rinpoche, offered by his students.

On the final day, at the request of those living in far away places and those in small Rigpa centres where Rinpoche has not the opportunity to visit very often, Rinpoche granted a brief Tendrel Nyesel empowerment for all sangha members which was streamed via the internet to Rigpa centres worldwide.

The terma of Tendrel Nyesel was revealed by Tertön Sogyal, Lerab Lingpa and to receive an empowerment from his direct incarnation, Sogyal Rinpoche, is in deed a great honour. Sogyal Rinpoche gives formal empowerments extremely rarely, but the right auspicious circumstances prevailed on this day.

All Mandala Retreat Begins

2007-08-14T18:24:00.000+02:00

This year's All Mandala Retreat got under way at Lerab Ling last weekend, with more than 1,200 people squeezing into the temple for Sogyal Rinpoche's first teaching on Sunday.

Students from all over the world have arrived for Rigpa's biggest event of the year, and a further 300 are expected to arrive over the next week.

The teaching focus for the first part of the retreat will be bodhichitta.

Tsoknyi Rinpoche at Lerab Ling

2007-08-13T10:00:00.000+02:00

Lerab Ling received another important visitor last month, when Tsoknyi Rinpoche gave teachings to the students following the Three Year Retreat.

The main focus for the teachings was how the lung, or 'inner air' (prana in Sanskrit) aspect of our psycho-physical system can lead to 'speediness' in life and affect our meditation practice.

Rinpoche explained how lung is understood in the Tibetan tradition, and suggested some simple ways to keep the lung under control by using the breath. He also answered questions from retreatants about their practice and gave advice about how to be on retreat.

1st International Congress on Buddhist Women’s Role in the Sangha

2007-07-29T13:45:00.000+02:00

Four of the nuns from Lerab Ling's monastic community have just returned from Germany, where they took part in a conference for Buddhist nuns which was attended by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The 1st International Congress on Buddhist Women’s Role in the Sangha: Bhikshuni Vinaya and Ordination Lineages was held at the University of Hamburg from 18-20 July. Its main purpose was to discuss how Bhikshuni ordination, full ordination for nuns, could be introduced in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Lerab Ling's nine nuns have all taken Getsulma vows, the basic ordination, but several of them would like to take Bhikshuni ordination, which is mainly confined to the Chinese Dharmagupta tradition.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave the keynote address on the final day of the congress, voicing his support for research and discussions to continue with a view to introducing full ordination in the Tibetan tradition in the future.

His Holiness is pictured above with leading monks, nuns and scholars from Buddhist schools of Tibet, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Korea, Burma and Thailand, all of whom took part in a panel discussion.

For more information on the International Congress, click here.

One Thousand Buddhas

2007-07-26T19:24:00.001+02:00

The inner decoration of the Lerab Ling Temple took another step forward recently with the completion of the 1,000 Buddha Shrine.

There are two parts to the shrine, one on either side of the main statue of the Buddha in the temple, and each contain 500 small statues of the Buddha. The statues (pictured right), which are filled with relics and sacred materials, were all sponsored by students and friends of Rigpa. They were cast at a workshop in Thailand and modelled on an image of the Buddha made by one of the most respected statue-makers in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The central image in the shrine on the left if you are facing the main Buddha statue is the Buddha of the Past, Dipamkara (pictured above), while on the right is the Buddha of the Future, Maitreya.

The 1,000 Buddha Shrine was built on the advice of Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche, who indicated that it would help to ensure that Lerab Ling thrives in the future, and that the Buddha's teachings bring benefit to as many people as possible in the West.

It is still possible to sponsor other aspects of the inner decoration of the temple, such as statues, thangkas and shrines. For more details of how to do so, click here.

Enter Deeply into Study at the Rigpa Shedra

2007-07-22T00:39:00.000+02:00

Inspired by the vision of Sogyal Rinpoche and the achievements of great centres of buddhist learning from the past, such as Nalanda in India, Shri Singha shedra at Dzogchen Monastery, Kham-jé at Dzongsar and more recently, Larung Gar, established by the great Khen Rinpoche Jikmé Phuntsok, the Rigpa Shedra seeks to provide a thorough and comprehensive Dharma education of the very highest standards.

The approach is traditional, based on the proven methods of the unbroken lineage of learning and realization that dates back to ancient India, and encourages not just formal study, but also deeper integration of the teachings through contemplation and meditation.

For more information, see the informational video above and click here for details about the upcoming 2008 course of study!

The All Mandala Retreat with H.H. Penor Rinpoche

2007-06-26T12:58:00.000+02:00

Rigpa’s first retreat of the summer came to an end on Tuesday as Lerab Ling bid a fond farewell to His Holiness Sakya Trizin. His Holiness concluded the retreat by carrying out a blessing (rab né) of the temple and the main Buddha statue.

The next major retreat at Lerab Ling will be the All Mandala Retreat, from 11-30 August, which will include a visit by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche.

His Holiness will bestow the transmission of Nyingtik Yabshyi, the most important empowerments associated with the Nyingma and Dzogchen teachings, and the most crucial for students to follow the path of Dzogpachenpo, as well as several other empowerments.

The All Mandala Retreat is open to the entire Rigpa sangha. Students of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche are also welcome to attend the period when His Holiness is present at Lerab Ling. For more information, click here.

Vajrakilaya Empowerment bestowed by H.H. Sakya Trizin

2007-06-24T12:11:00.000+02:00

His Holiness Sakya Trizin bestowed an elaborate empowerment of Vajrakilaya at Lerab Ling on Friday and Saturday which was received by almost 2,000 students around the world. In addition to the students who were in the temple at Lerab Ling, a further 1,000 students received the empowerment via video streaming to 50 Rigpa centres in 13 different countries.

On Monday, His Holiness will conclude his visit to Lerab Ling by giving a special blessing (rab né) of the temple and the main Buddha statue.

H.H Sakya Trizin arrives at Lerab Ling

2007-06-20T20:30:00.000+02:00

His Holiness Sakya Trizin received a traditional Tibetan welcome on Wednesday evening as he arrived at Lerab Ling to give teachings and an elaborate empowerment of Vajrakilaya, according to the Khön family lineage of which he is a direct descendant.

Nearly 1000 students lined the road down to the temple and offered white scarves as His Holiness arrived and was greeted by Sogyal Rinpoche (above).

It is the first time His Holiness Sakya Trizin has visited Lerab Ling since the temple was built, and he is being accommodated in an apartment on the third floor of the temple.

H.H. the Dalai Lama in San Jose 1989

2007-06-17T16:12:00.000+02:00

Here's one from the archives. In this video from San Jose in 1989, Sogyal Rinpoche congratulates His Holiness the Dalai Lama following the news that he is to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.