# 20 Spring 2016

Meet the Washington sangha

Study at Lishu Institute
The Bon Refuge Tree
Shadow work and the Path to
Enlightenment

LIGMINCHA EUROPE MAGAZINE 2016/20 CONTENTS

GREETINGS
3

Greetings and news from the editors

IN THE SPOTLIGHT
4
5
6

Focusing and Calming Your Mind

Long Life Mantra Accumulations Requested for His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche
A Conversation with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

GOING BEYOND
16
17
18
20

Connecting to your Inner Source of Creativity

Now Accepting Applications for The 3 Doors Academy
Lishu Institute: Second Year Programme
Applications Accepted for Second Year Program at Lishu Institute

THE SANGHA
23
27
33

I don't need to have an Identity

What's Been Happening in Europe
What do Your Dreams Predict?

ART IN THE SANGHA

34
35

The Sacred Elements

Ode to a Flower

PREPARING TO DIE
36

The Tibetan Book of the Dead

THE TEACHER AND THE DHARMA

44
51
55
56

From Buddha Kuntu Zangpo to Chamma Ling Poland

Bodhicitta and Great Compassion
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's 2016 on-line Teachings
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's 2016 European Seminars

THE LIGMINCHA EUROPE MAGAZINE

is a joint venture of the community of European students of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.
Ideas and contributions are welcome at [email protected].
You can find this and the previous issues at www.ligmincha.eu,
and you can find us on the Facebook page of Ligmincha Europe Magazine.
Chief editor: Ton Bisscheroux
Editors: Frits de Vries and Jantien Spindler
Editorial assistance: Marcy Vaughn
Proofreaders: Bob Anger, Lise Brenner and Thomas Danalloyd
Technical assistance: Ligmincha.eu Webmaster Expert Circle
Cover layout: Nathalie Arts

Contents

page
2

GREETINGS AND NEWS FROM THE EDITORS

Dear Readers, Dear Practitioners of Bon,
Again, there is plenty to read in this Magazine,
but most important is to practice and to integrate the wisdom of the Bon teachings in your
daily life.
When Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche was asked if the
teachings offered by Ligmincha and The 3 Doors
Academy are complementary to each other, he
answered:

Yes, I say both are complementary to each other

because in the tradition there is a very deep elaboration and understanding of the dark side or the
shadow of our own personality: practices exist to
tame your ego, cultivate compassion and purify
afflictions. All these form the core essence of the
teachings. But while this is the case it is very seldom that these teachings become personal in people's lives. Many teach about the need to tame the
ego and purify afflictions but this does not become
something personal for a practitioner, teacher,
and dharma group. The belief is that personality is
something one works with a therapist while
dharma is just meditating peacefully, sitting quietly and not really reflecting on one's own concrete afflictions as one does in a therapy session. I
am one of very few teachers who is encouraging
reflection on a constant daily basis. (page 7)
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche offers us a great variety
of teachings you can choose from. In April you can
participate in a free online workshop, every
month there are free internet teachings, you can

meet Rinpoche personally during his teachings in

Europe, you can apply for The 3 Doors Academy in
Europe and the US, and you can apply for the second year programme at Lishu Institute in India.
There are also other Bon teachers in Europe. Now
we introduce Geshe Gyatso, who is the resident
lama of Chamma Ling Poland since March 2015.
He also explains why the lineage plays an important role in the Bon tradition, and elaborates
about the Bon Refuge Tree.

The importance of the connection to the lineage is

also made clear in the article about The Tibetan
Book of the Dead the edition compiled and
edited by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz, with a psychological commentaries by Carl Gustaf Jung is criticized by John Reynolds and others. There is a new,
first complete translation of the text with an Introductory Commentary by His Holiness the XIVth
Dalai Lama.
We have interviewed one of the sanghas in the
US, reprint an article about Bodhicitta and Great
Compassion from the Voice of Clear Light from
January 2004, and as always, there is poetry from
our sangha.
And last, but not least, prayers are requested for
His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche
(photo).

In Bon,
Ton Bisscheroux, chief editor

Greetings

page
3

FOCUSING AND CALMING YOUR MIND

Free two-week online Workshop for beginners
with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
begins April 16
For the past six years Geshe Tenzin Wangyal
Rinpoche has been providing meditation instruction through his popular Glidewing.com
online workshops. Now, for the first time he
will offer a two-week workshop free of
charge. The course will take place from April
16 through May 1. All that's needed to participate is a high-speed Internet connection.
Meditation for Beginners: Focusing and
Calming Your Mind is tailored for beginning
meditators but will be beneficial for anyone
including experienced practitioners who
needs support in stabilizing their thoughts
and their mind. The course gives comprehensive instruction in the zhin, or calm abiding, practice, which has its source in the
ancient Bon Buddhist tradition of Tibet.
Through this practice you will learn to quiet
and calm the mind by focusing attention on a
single object. Three forms of zhin are taught:
focusing on a visual support; focusing on
sound; and focusing on the Three Precious
Pills stillness of the body, silence of the
speech, and spaciousness of the mind.
A short meditation practice each day can
bring many benefits, including enhancements
to physical, emotional, and psychological

wellbeing. More specifically, the practices of

this workshop can help you to:
improve your focus in all areas of your life
clear negative emotions, unblock creativity,
enhance your productivity, and improve
your mood
find more sense of peace, quietude, and
inner calmness
become more connected and grounded in
all experiences of body, speech and mind
stabilize clarity of mind and cultivate
awareness
come closer to your true self.
Rinpoche instructs and guides the practice
through a series of videos that can be
watched at home on your own schedule. A
discussion forum lends a sense of community
and permits you to share experiences, ask
questions, and engage in mutual support. A
course moderator will ensure that forum
discussions are appropriate and supportive.
To learn more about the course and register
now, go to: www.glidewing.com.

This article also appeared in the April 2016

issue of Voice of Clear Light.

In the spotlight

page
4

LONG LIFE MANTRA ACCUMULATIONS REQUESTED

FOR HIS HOLINESS LUNGTOK TENPAI NYIMA RINPOCHE
Everyone is encouraged to recite the Long Life Prayer and Long Life Mantra for the health of His
Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche, spiritual leader of the Tibetan Bon Buddhist tradition.
His Holiness recently arrived in the United States for an extended visit to rest and restore his
health. Read a letter from Rob Patzig, chair of the Ligmincha International Board, for details.

Mantra accumulations may be submitted to: ligmincha.org/long-life-hh-feb-2016.

You can find the Long Life Prayer for His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche at
www.ligmincha.org.

In the spotlight

page
5

A CONVERSATION WITH TENZIN WANGYAL RINPOCHE

Accessibility of the Teachings, Shadow Work and the Path to Enlightenment
Santiago Villaveces Izquierdo interviewed
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche a couple of
times over Skype last year. Their conversation was mainly on the complementarity of a traditional approach to the teachings with The 3 Doors. Within that frame
they touched upon other topics such as
shadow work, embodiment of the teachings, inner refuge and hosting. Here you
can read an edited and compiled text of
these interviews.
Santiago Villaveces Izquierdo: After more than
two decades of following the Yungdrung Bon tradition and after recently completing a three-year
training designed by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche,
my teacher for over twenty-four years, I have realized very deep shifts within myself. A different
way of being in the midst of the ups and downs of
daily life has emerged together with a deep feeling of freedom, expansiveness and connection. At
the same time I have began to realize that the
teachings have come much more alive in myself,
not as intellectual constructs but as embodied and
experienced realizations. In sharing this wonderful
adventure of discovery and healing I found myself
engaged in a series of heartfelt conversations with
Rinpoche during 2015.
For the last several years Rinpoche has been
engaged in creating a novel system that blends
the strengths of an 18.000 year old tradition with
the openness and candidness of acknowledging
our own personal obstacles and afflictions. Merging the best of East and West while at the same
time waning down the effects of emotional overintellectualization or emotional denial. Our conversation departed from this unique blend touching upon issues ranging from his motivation of
expanding the accessibility of the teachings to
anyone interested in transforming their own afflictions, to the embodiment of the teachings by
working through one's shadow and finding in this
work not just transformations of old patterns and
the healing that comes from liberating ourselves
from blockages, but also deep embodied realizations that bring the teachings alive within.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche with Santiago Villaveces Izquierdo.

Our conversation started off with a distinction

that Rinpoche was keen on making: that between
Ligmincha the organization he established in the
mid 1990s that has since grown to a worldwide
network of centers and Sanghas for the preservation of the ancient teachings and practices of the
Yungdrung Bon tradition of Tibet and The 3 Doors
Academy a secular training based on three of
these ancient practices that allows participants to
work through physical, energetic and mental
obstacles that deter us from reaching selfrealization. As the conversation developed we
touched upon the two most fundamental pillars of
spiritual work: reconnecting to the inner refuge,
that is, reconnecting through our conscious
awareness with our own true nature; and developing the inner skills of hosting all our experiences
by allowing them into our expansive nature rather
than grasping and identifying ourselves with
them.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche: It is important for people to understand the basic differences between
Ligmincha and The 3 Doors Academy. First of all
the purpose of the latter is not preserving the tradition but emphasizing in allowing individuals who
have no association with Buddhism, Bon or
Tibetan culture to have access and benefit from
some of these teachings. This of course does not
mean that people who are following a traditional
Buddhist path would not benefit from the methods and approaches used in The 3 Doors, as has
already been proven by over one-hundred practi-

In the spotlight

page
6

tioners that have graduated from the Academy.

Another difference is in the way The 3 Doors is
structured. People who enter the Academy work
as a group for a period of three consecutive years
within a set up that provides more intimate support systems that are otherwise absent in a
sangha (1) or dharma (2) center: closeness to the
teacher or mentor, closeness amongst practitioners, a deep level of commitment towards each
other and towards the practices, and a continuous
communication amongst all as a basis for growth
and support. For all these reasons The 3 Doors is
also extremely beneficial for all those practitioners who are following the tradition of Yungdrung
Bon and who are connected to any of our worldwide centers.
I feel it is also important to mention that all of us
that are following a tradition such as the Yungdrung Bon have pledged a commitment to
develop a meaningful sense of compassion. This
means acting in practical ways so as to allow people who have no interest in following this tradition
to benefit from the dharma. I care about all
human beings not only those who follow my tradition. If one has a sectarian view one does not truly
understand Bodhicitta, the spontaneous wish to
attain enlightenment motivated by great compassion for all sentient beings. For sectarians Bodhicitta is just a mental abstraction about helping
other sentient beings.

For me The 3 Doors Academy is very important

because it is a means to include people who otherwise would not have access to the teachings
simply because Buddhism or Yungdrung Bon are
of no appeal to them. And I wanted to offer this
opportunity within a strong system of support and
commitment.
So you see, there is no conflict or contradiction
between Ligmincha and The 3 Doors Academy.
One might have preferences, people can choose
one over the other, but you cannot judge based
on what you like or dislike. You cannot say The 3
Doors Academy is not right because it does not
follow the tradition. This is not only a wrong judgment but also a lack of understanding of Bodhicitta. I am encouraging all my students to follow
the approaches of both Ligmincha and The 3
Doors. This is very important.
SVI: This provides a very nice introduction that
allows the unfolding of various topics each with a
different degree of depth. The first, at a more
superficial level, is that of the audience: Ligmincha
and The 3 Doors are conceived as distinct means
to reach different audiences. Second, beyond the
issue of distinct audiences lays a deeper difference: The 3 Doors provides a more integral support system to the person who is working with the
practices. Third and deepest is that in the personal
development of a practitioner both tracks Ligmincha and The 3 Doors Academy are complementary

In the spotlight

page
7

to each other. Can you elaborate more on this

complementarity?
TWR: Yes, I say both are complementary to each
other because in the tradition there is a very deep
elaboration and understanding of the dark side or
the shadow of our own personality: practices exist
to tame your ego, cultivate compassion and purify
afflictions. All these form the core essence of the
teachings. But while this is the case it is very seldom that these teachings become personal in
people's lives. Many teach about the need to
tame the ego and purify afflictions but this does
not become something personal for a practitioner,
teacher, and dharma group. The belief is that personality is something one works with a therapist
while dharma is just meditating peacefully, sitting
quietly and not really reflecting on one's own concrete afflictions as one does in a therapy session. I
am one of very few teachers who is encouraging
reflection on a constant daily basis. This is my bad
quality, my unique quality, my special quality,
whatever you want to call it. I emphasize work
with the personality. The 3 Doors is a formal structure that supports such work, and that is where
the sixty-three transformations are coming from
(3). This is how dharma should work. People are
used to count sixty-three afflictions but never recognize and work with the ones they have!
SVI: Rinpoche if you allow me I would like to talk
through my experience as a 3 Doors Academy
graduate and follower and practitioner of the
Yungdrung Bon. When one does not integrate
one's own personal issues and obstacles in one's
own practice but rather engages in very deep and
beautiful practices one falls into a delusion. I have
felt this very strongly in my own growth throughout the years. After attending many summer

retreats at Ligmincha I recall the feelings that

emerged when the three weeks of teachings and
practices came to an end. I recall many of us recognizing these feelings, dreading them and even
joking about them: the fall after the high. During
the retreat one inhabits this space of containment
that nurtures very deep and significant experiences but when the three weeks come to an end
something like a post-retreat syndrome arises
when you go out and you face your daily reality.
You lose those experiences, you cannot really hold
the space of containment and you are once again
back into the miseries and sufferings of your
normal daily life. The retreat becomes something
like an oasis in your own suffering. You are walking in a desert and you reach this beautiful pool of
crystal water, you rest there for three weeks and
then you are back into your old same old usual
desert. But all this is a delusion on how one is
engaging with the teachings because the teachings are not embodied in oneself. They are not
integrated with one's own suffering or with the
challenges that one is facing in one's own daily
existence. The beauty in the approach of The 3
Doors is that it allows you the possibility of actually embodying the teachings and understanding,
through your own transformations. The three root
poisons are not this abstraction that makes sense
within a very comprehensive philosophical canon,
but are something that is actually inside yourself,
alive and playing out and manifesting in multiple
manners in your life all the time.
TWR: Yes absolutely!
SVI: So the way of breaking with this delusion is by
integrating the teachings into your daily life by
accessing the concrete possibilities that arise
while working through your own obstacles.

In the spotlight

page
8

TWR: What the dharma and the teachings say

when making reference to our afflictions and
three root poisons is that they are actually happening at every single moment: in the way you are
viewing the world, in the way you are responding
and interacting with the world. All of one's own
afflictions are right there, producing deeply
rooted challenges, deeply rooted patterns in our
relationships with each other and our surroundings. All of it is there! But very often people who
practice dharma seldom touch the concreteness
of their own afflictions. They go to the beautiful
pool and when they come back they are as confused as before. They end up finding no relationship between the teachings and their own daily
life. There is an immense gap. What The 3 Doors
emphasizes is bridging that gap, actualizing that
connection.

shadow.

SVI: Would you say that embodying the teachings

and truly understanding the nature of mind begins
with the transformations in your daily life? In
other words, if you do not work with your shadow
systematically using tools like the ones proposed
by The 3 Doors for example, it is quite impossible
to embody the teachings and understand the
nature of mind.

TWR: Right.

TWR: Absolutely! There is no doubt of this. That is

why so many people who are practicing for so
many years, even if they have higher and higher
positions within any social structure (religious or
otherwise), and are very knowledgeable and have
read a lot, attended more retreats and do more
practices, do not necessary embody change and
transformation. These qualifications do not necessary mean that they have a clue about the nature
of mind. There is no way to understand the nature
of mind unless you work and overcome your own

SVI: So if you want to embark in the path of discovering the nature of mind you have to begin
with what you have in your own life right now
with your own mud that is right there in front of
you at that present moment.
TWR: That is the only place. The I (pain identity)
that has been created by all the shadows, that is
the place to begin. But the smart ego can totally
dismiss this and do something in parallel for years
and years (i.e. working with the teachings without
engaging with the shadow). And that is the biggest
damage that the smart ego can make.
SVI: And this is the biggest delusion one can fall
into when in the dharma.

SVI: So following the metaphor of the pool of

water, integrating the teachings by embodying
them in your daily life would be to discover that
the oasis is always present because one has
acquired, through one's own work with the
shadow, the ability to hold the space and allow for
the concrete transformation and liberation of
one's afflictions.
TWR: Yes, and that the oasis is present everywhere, even within the shadow. It is in the
shadow that you discover the pool and if you opt
not to look at it you won't see it. My concern is
that there are people who follow me, who follow
the dharma that do not see any value in The 3
Doors. It is important for this people to hear what
I am saying here. The 3 Doors is good for you as
well as for others who do not follow the dharma

In the spotlight

page
9

and you should be open enough to understand

this. The ways teachings are taught traditionally
and in The 3 Doors are complementary to one
another; one is not the replacement of the other.

SVI: Rinpoche, I would like to ask you a couple of

questions at this point that might provide an
interesting backdrop to our discussion. What triggered you to create The 3 Doors?

SVI: Would you say that they are not only complementary but actually the methods proposed by
The 3 Doors in working through one's own afflictions are actually the starting point to engage with
the teachings?

TWR: My main motivating factor was seeing the

benefits of the teachings in bringing direct transformations to the lives of many, regardless of
their background, age, or culture, and regardless
of how familiar they are with the texts and the
tradition. We want to bring the Nine Breathings of
Purification and meditation to elementary schools
as we have been doing in Chile. We have been
doing so in prisons for the last fifteen years in
Virginia, and also with patients at a cancer center
in Houston. We want to bring these teachings to
people in many places and allow them to benefit.
These teachings are not only for declared Buddhist. They are for all sentient beings. I am not
advocating that we disregard tradition. The whole
purpose of Ligmincha and Lishu Institute (4) is this
emphasis on tradition, and I have dedicated enormous energy toward these two projects as well.

TWR: Yes. If you do not understand it that way

there is no genuine way of entering into the
dharma. A true way of entering into the dharma
would be through methods like The 3 Doors.
SVI: So the key message here is highlighting the
importance of The 3 Doors, in particular emphasizing that if you do not touch anything of your
shadow there is no way you can actually understand and come to realizations of what the teachings are all about.
TWR: That's what I have been saying for years.
SVI: When one doesn't engage with the shadow
the teachings become experiences that are not
embodied in yourself, or when you embodied
them you do so when you have unique circumstances as in a retreat and in such cases they
cannot be sustained or accessed in your daily life.
TWR: Yes, I have been emphasizing this all the
time. Many people who have a deep knowledge of
the teachings have a hard time hearing this. They
are somehow closed to it despite the fact that all
the texts have specifics lines emphasizing this
approach.

SVI: This leads me to the second question. In the

West, we picture monastic traditions of Tibet as a
system in which persons are taught from a very
young age and in a very strict manner the canon,
dialectics, debate and the array of meditation
techniques. Within these settings, how are the
emotions dealt with? How did you, being a monk
from a very young age in the monastery, cope
with your own afflictions and emotions?
TWR: I think the interesting part is not that in the
monastery we were not taught how to deal with
afflictions and emotions. We were taught in a very
sophisticated and detailed manner, but many
times this became intellectual and not personal. It

In the spotlight

page
10

is very different to say: When anger arises, do this,

than to say: Are you getting angry at me now?
Then, do this. That is not the emphasis in the monastery. If you messed up and did something
wrong, you were punished. In the monastery
there is no emotional support system. So emotions and afflictions became intellectualized.
SVI: And intellectualizing leads to delusion, having
the knowledge but not embodying it.
TWR: Exactly. So my own anger is the most important thing for me, because if I have any realization
of my anger, I have chances of success, and not
because I have incredible knowledge of anger and
how it works. When you become a geshe (5)
within the system, while you have very sophisticated knowledge about afflictions and emotions
all categories and subtleties still you can be a
very angry person with no understanding of how
your own afflictions work and manifest. Without
this personal understanding, there is no possibility
you can gain any realization. Not acknowledging
your personal emotions is a challenge in Eastern
traditions.
SVI: I think we are getting closer to the core of the
treasure that is The 3 Doors. You are connecting
an immensely rich tradition of practices and an
understanding of the human mind with the
acknowledgment of your own emotions that is
more available in the Western mindset.

TWR: Yes! I feel that the system that is embedded

in the teachings is incredibly powerful if you apply
it in yourself. I believe the experiences that all of
you in The 3 Doors have had the deep inner
transformations that you have come to realize
are not accessible to that many people. When
lamas come with me to my teachings they are
amazed because they see how deeply the teachings touch people. They see how easily people can
connect and relate to the teachings. They are
amazed because the teachings become something
personal, something that people can use in their
daily life as tools to work through their own afflictions. The question here is: How can we communicate what we are discussing here in a way that
people will relate to?
SVI: The greatest thing about The 3 Doors is that
you are integrating an 18.000 year old tradition
with its technology for inner development with
our own present condition of imperfections,
obstacles, lack of clarity, and delusion in short,
our painful, afflictive shadow. It is in this union
where one begins real work. This is the opportunity to truly understand, in a non-intellectual
heart-connected manner, what the teachings are,
and have a direct experience of how they open
you up. This is the path towards understanding
our own true nature.
TWR: Sure. And I think it is good to talk about
these things because we need to communicate

Graduates from the European 3 Doors Academy with the teachers Raven Lee and John Jackson.

In the spotlight

page
11

this in a way that is understandable to anyone. It

is not a question of what approach is more important, the traditional approach or The 3 Doors
approach. What is important is who you are at the
present moment and what is beneficial for you.
SVI: So, here you are also saying that if you are on
the path and you don't do The 3 Doors Academy
that is fine, but if you do not engage in working
with your shadow while you are on the path you
won't go anywhere.
TWR: Exactly. That's all I have been saying all
these years in every teaching. This systematic way
of working with your own personal obstacles and
afflictions is not as common in Buddhism, as it is
for example, in therapy. The structure that facilitates working with one's own emotions is often
lacking in the dharma, and that gap is what I have
been trying to bridge.
SVI: Throughout the years, all your teachings and
your recent books have emphasized the importance of accessing one's own true nature by connecting to one's inner refuge. Can you explain
what inner refuge means?
TWR: The inner refuge is the three bodies or
kayas the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nir-

manakaya. The three kayas or inner refuge

refer to the enlightened state, an illuminated consciousness, our own true being. Now the process
of accessing the inner refuge can be dual or nondual. At the beginning, there is somebody who is
taking refuge and somebody who is giving refuge,
so there is a sense of duality there. For beginners,
taking inner refuge is a dual process, where inner
refuge conveys the sense of seeking help when
one is suffering, when one is lost, when one is in
pain, when one feels helpless and without a direction forward. So this process is similar to that of a
shaman who encounters the sacred mountain or
the Great Spirit, or when a Christian devotee,
after years of practice, has a vision of Christ, or
when a Buddhist monk after praying and meditating, finally sees the Buddha while in practice.
Imagine how much joy, trust, openness, inspiration, and devotion that person will feel! When one
finds that inner sacred space, one experiences
those feelings. The dharmakaya is the unbounded
sacred space of one's being. The sambhogakaya is
one's infinite awareness. The nirmanakaya is a
sense of genuine warmth, or you can just say finding one's self. When you are fully in inner refuge
you are it. This is when taking refuge becomes a
non-dual process. You connect with it, you are it.
When you're not fully able to be in that nonconditional space and awareness and experience

In the spotlight

page
12

the warmth, you long for it. Approaching the inner

refuge by praying is a more conventional sense of
taking refuge.
SVI: Here you mention two different things: one is
that in our deluded state, in our normal way of living and experiencing the world embedded in our
own suffering, there is duality because we are trying, from this ordinary space, to connect with the
source of all manifestation
TWR: When people are lost in suffering and in
pain, duality arises. In those challenging moments,
duality arises because one has lost the connection
with the inner refuge and
its three qualities. Reconnecting to inner refuge
means the closer you are to
it the more protected you
are. Even the idea that
there is something inside
that one can access already
creates a sense of protection. When one has full realization of inner refuge,
that is, when one becomes
inner refuge, that is when
one is fully protected.
SVI: So it's all about connecting. Being refuge is
connecting with your true
self, which is the same as
the source of all manifestation. Correct?
TWR: Yes. And inner refuge
is not only the source of
yourself, but of all the qualities that you need in
life.
SVI: So it's the source of all the potential and all
the perfection.
TWR: Yes.
SVI: Rinpoche, how do you respond to those who
react to this and say: Well that all sounds good but
isn't this escaping your reality or dissociating from
your own miseries.
TWR: It is not dissociating from reality, because
one's ordinary existence is already dissociated

from reality. The reason one is lost, suffering, and

in pain is the outcome of dissociation, the outcome of disconnection. So when you seek inner
refuge you are not dissociating but rather reconnecting. When you are in deep pain you are already fully dissociated there is nothing more to
dissociate. So when people say that seeking inner
refuge is dissociating, this is the mistake of a
vision based on duality. This is a wrong view. Suffering begins with dissociation and the reality you
perceive while suffering is not ultimate reality. So
in such cases a person is associating reality with
the hardship, the challenges, and the suffering,
not with the source of perfection and enlightened
qualities.
SVI: So the bottom line is
that our daily existence is
determined fundamentally
by our own disconnection,
and inner refuge is actually
reconnecting
with
our
source.
TWR: Not only are we disconnected from our source,
but from who we are! When
people speak about dissociation and meditation, they
are asking if they are dissociating from the ordinary
challenges of life. The key
thing to realize is that one
has already dissociated
from one's true self and
those appearances, those
challenges in our life, are
the outcome of that dissociation. So identifying yourself with those appearances is dissociating from your true self.
SVI: This discussion leads very nicely to the issue
of hosting. In all your teachings you are emphasizing two pillars: one is taking refuge, which you
described, and the other is hosting the method
that allows transformation of the pain in one's
life, which leads to realization of what your own
true nature is. Can you explain what hosting is?
TWR: Many times when physical, psychological,
and emotional challenges and pain arise in our life
we fight against them. We dislike them, we try to
suppress them, we try to change the story, we try

In the spotlight

page
13

to do all sorts of things that in the end disconnect

us from them. Instead of being aware of our multiple disconnections, we try to disengage from
them. Hosting is two things. One is that you are
lost when you are in full-blown pain so when you
are hosting your experience you try to feel that
there is something else besides the pain. There is
a space where pain exists that is bigger than the
pain itself. There is a mind that is experiencing the
pain from a place much bigger than pain itself. So
when you are hosting you have some access to
that boundless space, infinite awareness, genuine
warmth, and you are having a moment of freedom from that pain, a moment of break from that
pain. Second, when you have that space and
awareness you are able to experience that pain in
that unbounded space, the space which cannot be
affected or obscured by that pain. So our awareness of that space is so big that it is able to process the pain easily. That is the magic!
SVI: Can we say that hosting is reconnecting to
your suffering but from a different space within
that allows for the liberation of that suffering?
TWR: So another way of looking at hosting is that
if we take pain as an object, the subject the one
who is ordinarily attached to the pain is worse
than the pain itself. That is what we don't realize.
If you take a break from the ego, pain is not as bad
as it looks. The worst pain is the one created by
the mind by holding onto that relationship. For
example, when you have a painful relationship, it
is you who is producing the pain. But you think it
is the person you are having a relationship with
who is producing the pain. Actually, the other person is causing something that helps you manifest
hidden pains and blockages that you have in you
and in your life. So it is helpful if you are able to
host somebody when you are in a relationship in

the same way you host your pain and have a good
relationship with it. It's not about getting rid of
pain.
SVI: Rinpoche, when we talk about hosting, we
talk mostly about negative emotions. It seems to
me that when you have an incredible good and
joyful feeling you can also lose yourself there.
TWR: Yes, absolutely. We talk about pain more
because pain bothers us more than pleasurable
experiences. We can live with joyful experiences,
but painful ones exert an extraordinary power
over our lives, so we emphasize hosting pain more
than we do pleasure. People who can hold beautiful experiences for a long time or for the rest of
their life are those who can host them well. People who do not have lasting relationships, lasting
joy, or lasting wisdom do not because they do not
host them well. When pleasure arises they might
have a moment of joy and connection, but at that
very moment, instead of hosting, they grasp. You
host in the space. The grasping mind cannot host
because it loses the space.
SVI: So essentially, the completeness of one's own
journey or path is to live connected to the refuge
while at the same time hosting everything in one's
life.
TWR: Yes, absolutely. But probably first one
should host negative emotions, then neutral ones,
and then positive ones.
SVI: Once you realize the power of the refuge by
hosting your own negative emotions, your own
shadow, and seeing in your life the amazing transformations that can manifest from that space,
then you can have more confidence to be able to
host neutral and positive emotions and experi-

In the spotlight

page
14

ences.
TWR: Then also you realize that when you are
experiencing something beautiful, grasping is not
the solution but the problem. A beautiful experience is deeper and richer when there is no grasping. Many times what happens in our life is that
we grasp in order to have, but by grasping we lose
the very experience we want to have.
SVI: Once you start grasping you're out of the refuge. You're gone again.
TWR: Yes.
SVI: Thank you Rinpoche! I think this interview
summarizes in a very nice manner your thinking
and your heart advice to all of us.

Notes
(1) Sangha is the community of practitioners.
(2) Dharma refers to the collection of all the
teachings within a Buddhist tradition.

(3) The 3 Doors Academy requires participants to

commitment in the completion of sixty-three
transformations over a period of two-and-half
years in three areas of their life: relationship to
one's self, relationships with others, and professional life and/or participation in society as paths
to work through personal obstacles and afflictions. For more information visit:
www.the3doors.org.
(4) Lishu Institute was founded by Tenzin Wangyal
Rinpoche in Dehra Dun, North India, as a place
that offers access to Western practitioners to a
structured, long-term study of the Bon tradition in
a non-monastic setting. For more information
visit: www.lishu.org.
(5) Geshe is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree
conferred to monks and nuns who have successfully completed a rigorous training in philosophy
and dialectics based on the major texts of the
canon.

Interview by Santiago Villaveces Izquierdo

Edited by Marcy Vaughn

In the spotlight

page
15

CONNECTING TO YOUR INNER SOURCE OF CREATIVITY

An Invitation from The 3 Doors
June 6-12, 2016, near Florence, Italy
All are welcome to Connecting to Your Inner
Source of Creativity, a residential retreat taught
by Senior Teachers Raven Lee and John Jackson
from The 3 Doors and held at La Chiara di
Prumiano, a lovely 17th century villa in the hills of
Tuscany, Italy. Our time will be spent in a carefully
planned mix of teaching and guided meditation
with periods of silence, small group work, writing
and other creative exercises.

Within each of us is an infinite source of creativity

that allows our work and service, relationships
with others, and personal confidence to flourish.
In this retreat we will uncover the blocks and
obstacles in our way and tap into the wellspring of
creative expression within. As a result, we may
manifest and enjoy a fuller, richer life and benefit
others.
Read more and register >

La Chiara di Prumiano.

Going beyond

page
16

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THE 3 DOORS ACADEMY

Programs Begin in the United States and Europe in Fall 2016

For me The 3 Doors Academy is very important
because it is a means to include people who otherwise would not have access to the teachings simply because Buddhism or Yungdrung Bon are of no
appeal to them. And I wanted to offer this opportunity within a strong system of support and commitment . . . I am encouraging all my students to
follow the approaches of both Ligmincha and The
3 Doors.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
The 3 Doors has good news to share: applications
are being accepted for two new academies to
begin in United States and Europe this year.
You may apply to the US Academy, taught by
Marcy Vaughn and Gabriel Rocco, which begins on
September 21, 2016 at Serenity Ridge Retreat
Center in Shipman, Virginia or to the European
Academy, taught by John Jackson and Raven Lee
which begins November 6, 2016 near Dusseldorf,
Germany.
The 3 Doors is a contemplative secular organization formed in 2011 by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche,
founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha International. The meditation practices are simple,
accessible, and powerful.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.

In the words of Academy graduate Renee Daily,

Gathering with others who are similarly committed to self-reflection and personal transformation,
and witnessing and sharing the journey together,
is a unique and remarkably rich experience. As a
graduate of the first US Academy, my participation
was life-changing. My own growth and the deepening of my personal practice were so supported
by the experience that I am currently attending
the 3rd US Academy to continue this beautiful
process of personal transformation. The commitment required in the program is challenging, yet
the rewards are beyond measure.

The 3 Doors Academy Director of Operations and the Senior Teachers.

Going beyond

page
17

Going beyond

page
18

Going beyond

page
19

APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED FOR SECOND YEAR PROGRAM

AT LISHU INSTITUTE
Lishu Institute near Dehradun, India, will
begin the second year of its three-year
residential program in Tibetan Bon Buddhism on September 12, 2016. The year
will focus on the Ma Gyud teachings, one
of the major tantric cycles in the Bon tradition. All are welcome to apply for the
second year of teachings. Vickie Walter
interviewed Sangmo Yangri, Lishu teacher
and administrator, for an update about
this year's program and plans for the second year.
Sangmo, can you tell us briefly about your
connection to Bon and to Tenzin Wangyal
Rinpoche?
I grew up near the Menri monastery in Dolanji,
India, and my father was a close friend of His
Eminence Yongdzin Rinpoche, so since early
childhood I have been immersed in the Bon
tradition and culture. The same way, I have known
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche since childhood. Later I
studied and got my Ph.D. at the University of
Varanasi in Bon and Buddhist Philosophy. [She is
the first Tibetan woman to receive this Ph.D.]

Tenzin Rinpoche connected me to Lishu the first

time in 2008, and in 2011, during the second
gathering at Lishu, he introduced me to the
participants (about one hundred people) as a
future teacher at Lishu. Then he asked to join
Lishu after the completion of my Ph.D. in 2013.
What have you been doing since you arrived at
Lishu?
I have been teaching at Lishu since spring 2015,
where I taught a six-week intensive Tibetan
language course. When the three-year program
started in September, I was in charge of all the
teachings during the first trimester; namely the
first and second sutric vehicles of the Nine Ways
of Bon, the first three chapters of the Hagiography
of Buddha Tonpa Shenrab, Tibetan language and
Bon prayers. During this second trimester, in
addition to the lectures (hagiography, Tibetan
language), I translate the teachings of Geshe
Sherab Lodoe, who joined us from Menri
Monastery to teach the third and fourth sutric
vehicles. I also am a liaison with Menri and nearby
monasteries and a member of the Lishu
management, which includes participating in the
examination and selection of applicants.

Sangmo Yangri teaches a class of Lishu students.

Going beyond

page
20

Students with Geshe Sherab Lodoe and Sangmo Yangri in the meditation hall at Lishu Institute.

Can you please introduce us to the plan for the

second year of the program?
Ma Gyud Sangye Gyud Sum is a teaching coming
directly from Dharmakaya Kuntu Zangpo, the
primordial Buddha. The second year, which starts
September 12, addresses the six great methods of
the Path of the Ma Gyud cycle:
First trimester (September 12 November 18,
2016): Tummo and Dream Yoga.
Second trimester (January 9 March 17, 2017):
Nyen Sa Lam Khyer (related to Chod practice) and
Phen Pa Lam Khyer (related to Phowa practice).
Third trimester (April 3 June 9, 2017): Sleep
Yoga and Bardo Lam Khyer.
In addition, we will continue the hagiography of
Buddha Tonpa Sherab and the Tibetan language.
The year will have a strong emphasize on practice.
Geshe Sherab Lodoe will teach the Ma Gyud. I will
teach Hagiography and Tibetan Language, and will
translate Geshe-la's teachings.
What other staff are there at Lishu?
Geshe Thupten Negi is the president of Lishu and
takes care of the general administration. We also
have a cook and someone to clean the common
areas. His Eminence Ponlop Trinley Nyima Rinpoche came during the first trimester to give a

teaching on Sherap Chamma and will come again,

probably this fall, to give the empowerment. We
will invite teachers from Menri Monastery to
come to Lishu and teach on specific topics, as
needed.
What does a typical day at Lishu look like?
During the second trimester this year, the day
begins at 7 a.m. with tsa lung (Tibetan yoga) and
meditation practice, followed by Sherap Chamma
and Yeshe Walmo prayers. We have breakfast at 8
a.m. Classes are held from 9 a.m. to noon, with
teachings on the greater vehicles of the Nine
Ways and the hagiography of Tonpa Shenrab. Following lunch and a short break, Tibetan language
classes are held in the afternoons grammar and
reading on Monday and Tuesday, Bon prayers on
Wednesday and Thursday, and Tibetan speaking
class on Friday. Mealtimes and tea breaks are
opportunities to share and discuss. The students
have free time on weekends and can use this time
to relax and/or to study and practice. Lishu is
located in a quiet area in the countryside, with a
small village within walking distance, but it is possible to go the Dehradun or other nearby cities
like Rishikesh.
Are there visitors to Lishu, and do students visit
other places?

Going beyond

page
21

We have regular visits of monks from Menri and

Za Mongyal Monasteries. We've had other visitors
for short periods, including two journalists from a
Buddhist magazine from Delhi. We had the great
fortune to host Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche last
September. Then the Lishu sangha went with
Rinpoche to Menri Monastery. The young Tulku
Pondse Jigme Tenzin (Jorge Rene Valles Sandoval)
was among the students. When we were at Menri,
one 87-year-old man, who was the disciple of his
previous incarnation (the great Bon master Lopon
Sangye Tenzin), was very eager to meet the young
Tulku and pay respect to him by offering the
traditional khata. It was very moving for all the
students to see the devotion radiating from this
man.

apply for the second year. Although there will be a

strong emphasis on the practice from the second
year onward, Tibetan language will continue to be
part of the program. The students who have been
attending the teachings in Lishu so far have very
different backgrounds. Some have followed Bon
and/or teachings for decades, some are pretty
new. So we have already had to adapt to different
levels. The Ma Gyud cycle in the second year and
the Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyud in the third year are
pretty independent.
What type of applicants are you looking for?
We are looking for motivated and determined
people to study and practice. New students
should have the will to adapt to a new environment. One important requirement is to speak English fluently. Other than that, the admission committee will address each application individually.
We invite people who would like to apply to contact us and ask any question they might have.
How do you see the Lishu environment as being
beneficial for learning and practice?
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's vision for Lishu was a
place where Westerners could dedicate themselves to long-term study. It's now embodied, and
it is really meant to foster in-depth study and
practice. Lishu is located in a quiet area, so the
facilities enable the students to concentrate on
their study and practice. Furthermore, they have
closer connection to the Bon tradition by interacting with Bon monasteries.

Tulku Pondse Jigme Tenzin with a disciple.

The students have visited Menri Monastery and Za

Mongyal Monasteries (both Bon) and also other
monasteries such as Mindrolling (a Nyingma monastery nearby Dehradun) and the Sakya monastery.
Can anyone apply for the second year of study,
whether or not they attended any of the first
year program?
The whole three-year program is designed in a
modular and flexible way. Therefore, it is not
mandatory to attend the first year to be able to

This is still the first year for the program at Lishu,

so many things still need to be built up. For example, we have a project to establish a library, and to
improve and develop the gompa. In addition, we
need some basic materials such as a printer/copy
machine, generator . . . so any support is most
welcome! Donations can be made to Lishu
through the Ligmincha International donations
page serenityridge.ligmincha.org/donations;
please specify donation for Lishu. To donate
equipment please email [email protected].
Learn more about the second year program of
Lishu www.lishu.org.
Apply for the second year program www.lishu.org.

Interview by Vickie Walter

Going beyond

page
22

I DON'T NEED TO HAVE AN IDENTITY

To introduce Ligmincha Northwest, Ton
Bisscheroux talked with Carel Camerer.
Another surprising and interesting story
from a sangha, in the United States of
America.
When did you meet Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
the first time?
I met Rinpoche about fourteen years ago. It
seemed like a big coincidence as several things
came together, when my wife Lynn and I decided
to go to Serenity Ridge in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A retreat with a Buddhist teacher we had planned
to attend was cancelled because he was ill. Then
we decided to go on a retreat with a Buddhist
nun. But when we talked with our friends who
organized it, they said, We are sorry, you did not
sign up, and we are full. Because we wanted to
go to a retreat we looked in a magazine called
Sangha News. It turned out that all these teachings were offered by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
and we later learned the magazine was written by
a student of Rinpoche. We had been reading his
book Healing with Form, Energy and Light, which
we got from the Buddhist teacher who was sick.
It was also an opportunity to visit Charlottesville.
My wife Lynn had a vision years before about a
community, called Synchronicity Foundation. It
was in Charlottesville and was being centered
around deprivation zones and A-frames that were
being built on five hundred acres of land. She had
also read about this project in Discovery
Magazine, so we decided to go and check both
places.
We went to Rinpoche's teaching at Serenity Ridge
and the amazing thing was that the place that
Lynn had the vision about was across on the
opposite side of the highway from Serenity Ridge.
During the retreat we went to visit Synchronicity
Foundation. It was so entirely different from what
we just had done, it felt completely ungrounded.
They were playing music in the woods with
speakers attached to the trees. In the buildings
they had big speakers for music and colored lights
that they meditated with.
When we went back to Rinpoche's teachings, he
was talking about sounds, lights, and rays, from

Carel Camerer and Lynn Damiano at Serenity Ridge.

the inside, not from the outside. That was so

funny. It was quite an experience to have this first
teaching with him. And I felt I was truly home.
Before meeting Rinpoche I had studied with a
Gelugpa teacher the Medicine Buddha practice.
We had a Medicine Buddha Healing Group which
offered a monthly healing in the community. The
Gelugpa teachings were very academic, which
made it harder to feel the warmth and connection
to the heart. Lynn was more an intellect than myself, so I was straining my brains for years trying to
keep up. I am sure it was good for me; it gave me
a really strong foundation in Buddhism. I am
grateful for all of it, and I am so happy that I met
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, because I don't know
how my life would be otherwise. I have made
huge changes.
Can you tell about some of these changes in your
life?
One of the biggest changes is having integrated
practice into life, and having a view that includes
everything, like more flexibility and more space.
Recognizing how much that space supports everything and offers so much stability as well as flexibility in my life. It's like the ego gets to take a
vacation from running my life. There is more
spontaneity.
Did it affect your work, your relationship with
your wife?
What I see now is that it affected my ability to create more, from a more spontaneous enlightened
place. Everything feels more integrated in my life.

The sangha

page
23

In the past I have been a creative person, however

often it seemed more that the creativity was just
happening and not blossoming fully. Now it feels
there is more ability for it to rise on a greater
level, and flows out without a needing to plan for
it to happen. I am using some of it with my work
as a psychotherapist with clients. And as a result, I
find the client population I am working with
consists of more artists, writers and musicians.
That's being a lot of fun!
Another example is when Lynn was sick she had
cancer the caring for her when she was on
hospice became my life. There was no hesitation,
instead there was a sense of confidence. There
was a kind of ease going into that. Although I am
not a nurse, I was doing the things that nurses do,
and was open for everything that was there. Lynn
and I have both been psychotherapists and
Buddhist and Bon practitioners for many years.
We were together for twenty-three years.
Since when has Rinpoche been coming to the
Washington?
He has been coming to Olympia about once a
year. This past January was his seventh visit.
Why do you call your sangha Ligmincha Northwest?
Because people who have been involved in our
sangha have moved out in different directions
from Olympia, to Portland, Montana, Idaho. A

number of long-time students of Rinpoche's also

live north of Seattle, some in Canada or south of
Portland. These places are all considered the
Northwest. They are all part of our sangha and we
are all connected. So it felt best to call sangha
Ligmincha Northwest instead than Ligmincha
Olympia or Ligmincha Washington. Portland is
about two hours south of Olympia, and Seattle is
about one hour north.
How far is it from Olympia to Washington?
We live in the state of Washington, and
Washington DC is on the East coast; that is a six
hour flight from here. Washington DC is closer to
Virginia, and Serenity Ridge is only a few hours
from Washington DC. And since Rinpoche lives
now in California, he is much closer to this Washington. I am more aware of his presence here; I
feel more connection and in tune with the teachings he is doing. Since Lynn has passed, every time
it felt like when he presents something it is like
the perfect thing that I need. I know everybody
thinks that, but now I am saying it. The first time I
went to a seminar in France, I had the feeling Rinpoche was talking to me personally. With the free
live webcasts of the Soul Retrieval I thought, this
is exactly what I need. How could this be any
better?
Can you tell about collaboration with other
sanghas?
In some ways there is a little bit of collaboration

Washington DC

The sangha

page
24

with the California sangha, in terms of passing on

information about teachings that are going to be
happening in either place. And also on special
days, like Losar or internet teachings we all do
something similar.

to teach in Oregon, and it was an interesting

challenge for me to coordinate things from here
with people over there. It is always a possibility to
learn something new, how dharma translates into
interacting in the world.

Can you tell about the sangha?

It is interesting to live at the base of the Puget
Sound [an inlet of the Pacific Ocean], it is very
watery here, there is not a lot of solidity. This
influences everything and results in a lot of movement, and change. Now we have a core group of
five or six members in the sangha. Sometimes
there are ten people. It seems to vary a lot. Olympia is not a large city and there are so many different events happening here. Many people are
searching; they still need to find out who their
teacher is, or develop the trust they need to have
to be able to have a regular practice, and we give
them a chance. Sometimes it is hard that we don't
have a teacher here. Every month a sangha newsletter is emailed to the Northwest sangha, I host
the webcast, and on Monday evenings we have a
meeting for practice.

Did you participate in The 3 Doors Academy?

I was in the first US Academy that began in 2011.
Lynn and I were in The 3 Doors Academy together
when she got sick and died. It was amazing; the
level of support of that was offered by this small
community of people who were all doing their
deepest transformational work we could be doing.
And that was the deepest transformation that
could be happening in our lives. I was glad to be in
The 3 Doors. I was not ready to let Lynn go, she
was not ready to go, but it was time. And the level
of support was tremendous, also from Rinpoche.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche called every week from
wherever he was, to do practices with Lynn.

When Lynn passed, a lot changed here, because

she was the umdze and I supported her. It was
great to have a team of the two of us. Lynn had
such humor, and a very magnetic personality, and
I am lower key, more grounded. We have a very
informal structure. I am the main organizer and
coordinator, and people from the sangha help
with all kinds of things. This year Rinpoche came

Do you want to tell more about the dying

process of Lynn?
Chaphur Rinpoche from Gyalshen Institute came
for five days and did the Phowa with Lynn and
helped her to transfer her consciousness. YongDong Rinpoche, who lives on Vancouver Island,
came here and did a ceremony after she had
passed, blessed her body before she was cremated. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche invited me as his
guest to a teaching in France. Lynn's cousin also
lives in Paris, so I stayed there three weeks and
went to the teaching. It was a huge process.

Teachings in 2016 with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in Olympia, WA.

The sangha

page
25

class. It is liberating to lose your ego identity,

because there is no restriction. That speaks to the
death process too: there is a liberation happening,
letting go of the physical form and the attachments related to it. Lynn showed us how to do it,
very gracefully, very beautifully, and that was liberating.

Most of the women on this photo were in sangha

during Lynn's final journey. We had such tremendous support from our sangha and the larger
Olympia community. We were so blessed and felt
so grateful to have so much love from so many
people in our lives. Everyone helped on every
level possible.
Do you experience a difference in The 3 Doors
teachings and the Bon teachings?
I think in terms of how the 3 Doors and the
original Bon teachings integrate is that, in The 3
Doors a lot of Dzogchen is involved in it. And the
way Rinpoche is teaching now is a continuation,
deepening and enriching the practices and the
processes I was going through that I was doing in
The 3 Doors Academy. Either he has simplified it
even more in a way that it allows things to dissolve more quickly or my practice is deepening . . .
maybe some of each.
Do you want to tell more about your experiences
in The 3 Doors Academy?
The 3 Doors program resolving anything that had
roots from long ago, those things have shifted in a
way where nothing seems to take root that much.
In a way that I don't have the same identity
anymore. Those identities don't exist anymore on
the level they once did, so there is less interest in
having any identity really. I am amazed that those
words came out of my mouth, and I think it is so
true. It is like, What is that about? and I realize,
there is no need for that. And it is so beautiful to
recognize that and to know that, on so many
levels not from the ego level but from the heart.
When we were going to the first 3 Doors teaching
Lynn lost her identity, she lost her driver's license
at the airport. [laughter] So then, she was many
steps ahead of me. She graduated ahead of the

Did the 3 Doors also affect the way you work as

a psychotherapist with your clients?
Yes, definitely! I use much more meditation in my
practice with clients. It is helping them to go
deeper in their own work, being able to provide
that space, and rest in that space, and offering
that space to them, and the discovery of that for
them has helped a lot of people in my practice.
More people than ever meditate now, and it is not
about having them be involved in the sangha, it is
more about having them be involved in their own
life rather than in reaction to life. It is all about
that ability to go in and find the refuge within.
When I worked as psychotherapist, clients came
with questions, and they wanted from me the
answer. But most of the times, I did not give a
solution or answer. I see that also in Bon tradition, we get help from the teachers in a different
way than we expect it.
Yes and usually it works better than what we think
we need. [Laughter]

Interview by Ton Bisscheroux

Photos: courtesy of Carel Camerer

The sangha

page
26

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING IN EUROPE

Here is our report from what's been
happening in the European sangha.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche gave internet
teachings, Geshes and senior teachers
were invited by sanghas, and Losar was
celebrated in Germany and in Poland.

March 11 16:
The retreat The Healing Practice of Sherap Chamma
with Marcy Vaughn in Pauenhof, Germany was
wonderful.
Next year Marcy will be there form April 21 26.
Everybody is invited to join us to practice the The
Healing Practices of the Peaceful and Wrathful Mothers, Sherap Chamma and Sidpe Gyalmo.

The sangha

page
27

February 12 14:
Geshe Choekhortshang Rinpoche together with his
brother Geshe Gyatso performed the Losar ceremonies at Chamma Ling Poland in Wilga.

The sangha

page
28

February 12 14:
Geshe Khorden Lhundup
Gyaltsen performed the
Losar ceremonies in Buchenau, Germany during
the 10th European Practice Weekend.

The sangha

page
29

January 15 17:
Geshe Choekhortshang Rinpoche
taught bardo with in Budapest,
Hungary. More than one-hundred
fifty people attended. You can
watch a video with the Bardo
Prayer.

February 6 7:
Geshe Choekhortshang
Rinpoche taught Dream
Yoga in Wroclaw, Poland.

The sangha

page
30

February 6 7 and March 19 20:

Geshe Khorden Lhundup Gyaltsen continued with his cycle of teachings on Atri in the Netherlands in two places. On
Saturday in Zwolle and on Sunday in
Eindhoven.

March 16 23:
Geshe Chaphur Rinpoche
taught and gave public talks
in several cities in Poland.

You can watch the recordings here:

Guided Meditation for the New Year. Broadcast live from the Winter Retreat at Ligmincha International at Serenity Ridge. Introductory video (2:40) / Guided meditation & teaching (40:44)

The sangha

page
31

You can watch the recordings here:

The True Source of Healing, Part 12: Soul Retrieval as a Lifetime Practice. Introductory Video
(3:18) / Full Playlist / Closing Video (2:43)

You can watch the recordings here:

Transforming Your World Through Service, Part 1: The Value of Enlightened Leadership. Introductory video (5:25) / Full Playlist

You can watch the recordings here:

Transforming Your World Through Service, Part 2: Cultivating Wisdom. Introductory video
(2:24) / Full Playlist / Closing Video (9:51)

The sangha

page
32

The sangha

page
33

THE SACRED ELEMENTS

Art in the sangha

page
34

Art in the sangha

page
35

THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD

Many people in the West have read the
Tibetan Book of the Dead, compiled and
edited by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz. Although
this book has impressed many people, there
is also criticism from buddhist scholars. There
is now a new and complete translation. Frits
de Vries has collected some comments on
this matter.
The Bardo Thodol Liberation Through Hearing
During the Intermediate State, is a text from a
larger corpus of teachings, the Profound Dharma
of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the
Peaceful and Wrathful Ones, revealed by Karma
Lingpa (13261386). It is the best-known work of
Nyingma literature, known in the West as the
Tibetan Book of the Dead.
The Tibetan text describes, and is intended to
guide one through, the experiences that the
consciousness has after death, in the bardo, the
interval between death and the next rebirth. The
text also includes chapters on the signs of death
and rituals to undertake when death is closing in
or has taken place. (1)

This is the first complete translation of the original

twelve chapters of a Tibetan text on which earlier
partial translations were based, compiled and
edited by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz. Chapter 11 was
published in 1927 under the title: The Tibetan
Book of the Dead, and included Aspirational
Prayers in Chapter 12. Chapter 4 was released in
1954 as a small part (Book II) of The Tibetan Book
of the Great Liberation, subtitled: Or the method
of realizing nirvna through knowing the mind.
In the Editor's Introduction to the new English
edition the importance of The Tibetan Book of the
Dead is emphasized and it is noted that the book
compiled and edited by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz
was incomplete:

Manuscript of the Bardo Thodol

Tibetan: , Wylie: bar do thos grol

First complete translation

After seventy-eight years a complete new English
version of The Tibetan Book of the Dead appeared
in 2005 edited by Graham Coleman and Thupten
Jinpa (2).

The Tibetan Book of the Dead includes one of the

most detailed and compelling descriptions of the
after-death state in world literature. It is not surprising therefore that when Chapter 11 of our text,
The Great Liberation by Hearing, first appeared in
English, in 1927, it caused a considerable stir and

Preparing to Die

page
36

has remained one of the most well-known of

Tibet's literary works ever since. In our work, for
the first time, we are presenting a complete translation of all twelve chapters of the compilation of
texts known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead,
which includes nine chapters not translated in W.
Y. Evans-Wentz's original publication. (p. XXIX Editor's Introduction)
To this new edition is added A Brief Literary History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The history
starts with the 1927 release of a Tibetan book
compiled and edited by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz.
The disputable title he then chose for his first
book still stands for this new edition, but with the
following explanation:
It is on account of this widespread popular recognition however that the title coined by the editor
of the first translation, Evans-Wentz, has been
retained in all subsequent translations and related
studies. Following in this tradition, we too have
retained the title the Tibetan Book of the Dead to
refer to the first complete English translation of
The Great Liberation by Hearing in the lntermediate States, which includes translations of all
twelve chapters of the original compilation. (p.
XXXVIII - Brief Literary History)

added in the third edition in 1955:

For years, ever since it was first published, the
Bardo Thdol has been my constant companion,
and to it I owe not only many stimulating ideas
and discoveries, but also many fundamental
insights. Unlike The Egyptian Book of the Dead,
which always prompts one to say too much or too
little, the Bardo Thdol offers one an intelligible
philosophy addressed to human beings rather
than to gods or primitive savages. Its philosophy
contains the quintessence of Buddhist psychological criticism; and as such, one can truly say that it
is of an unexampled superiority. (3, p. xxxvi)
Jung hoped that his commentary was going to
make the magnificent world of ideas and the problems contained in this treatise a bit more intelligible to the Western mind. (3, p. xxxvi)

As justification for this new edition it seems not

only the completeness is stressed, but also the
accuracy of the basic text for the new translation.
This relates back to the long-running discussion on
the precision of the published Tibetan works of
Evans-Wentz:
As stated above, this is the first complete English
translation of The Great Liberation by Hearing in
the Intermediate States, otherwise known to the
outside world as the Tibetan Book of the Dead,
and it is based on a version of the original text
which has proven to be far more accurate than
those used in previous translations. All the chapters of the anthology standardised by Nyima
Drakpa and later published in woodblock form at
Dzogchen Monastery are contained in this
book. (p. XLVIII - Brief Literary History)
Psychological Commentaries by Carl Gustaf Jung
Carl Gustaf Jung played an important role in the
acceptance of the Tibetan Book of the Dead in the
Western world. His famous commentary was

In 1954 the fourth and last text publication edited

and compiled by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz was published entitled: The Tibetan Book of Great Liberation. Also in this publication appeared an extensive 34-page Psychological Commentary by C.G.
Jung. This publication received far less attention
than his first one, but Jung's commentary was
noticed. In this publication, as we have seen
above, a small portion was dedicated to a translation of what in the new Tibetan Book of the Dead
edition is numbered Chapter 4. This Chapter in the
new edition is titled: The Introduction to Awareness: Natural Liberation through Naked Perception. In the Context you can read:

Preparing to Die

page
37

This chapter is the essence of the esoteric instruction by which the student is introduced to the ultimate nature of mind. Prior to entering into this
practice, which focuses directly on the nature of
mind itself, this introduction should be received
from an accomplished lineage holder. Then, whilst
in solitary retreat, it is recommended that this text
be read repeatedly as a guide between meditation
sessions. (p. 37 - Context Ch. 4)
The second Psychological Commentary that Jung
wrote caused considerable stir: John Reynolds
expressed his dissatisfaction and that of others by
publishing a dedicated critique book in 2000,
called: Self-Liberation, Through Seeing with Naked Awareness.

and stimulating in themselves, have nothing to do

with Dzogchen. More than half of Jung's commentary is devoted to his own psychological theories,
and throughout the commentary he footnotes his
insights to his own writings. (4, p. 107)
All of this leads him to assert erroneously that the
essential teaching of Dzogchen is the existence of
a metaphysical entity which he calls the One
Mind. (4, p. 79 )
All of these neo-theosophical speculations concerning life-fluxes, globes, rounds, root races,
subraces, etc., everything occurring in groups of
seven, have nothing to do with genuine Tibetan
teachings. (4, p. 95)
Evans-Wentz was not only criticized because of his
weak translations, but also his lack of knowledge
of Tibetan Buddhism and his deviant views,
incompatible with the meaning of the Tibetan
text. Summarized in Wikipedia:
According to John Myrdhin Reynolds, EvansWentz's edition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead
introduced a number of misunderstandings about
Dzogchen. Evans-Wentz was well acquainted with
Theosophy, and used this framework to interpret
the translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead,
which was largely provided by two Tibetan lamas
who spoke English, Lama Sumdhon Paul and Lama
Lobzang Mingnur Dorje. Evans-Wentz was not
familiar with Tibetan Buddhism, and his view of
Tibetan Buddhism was fundamentally neither
Tibetan nor Buddhist, but Theosophical and
Vedantist. He introduced a terminology into the
translation which was largely derived from Hinduism, as well as from his Theosophical beliefs. Also
Jung's introduction betrays a misunderstanding of
Tibetan Buddhism, using the text to discuss his
own theory of the unconsciousness. (1)

Reynolds did two things. First, he produced a complete new translation of the contested chapter
(now Chapter 4) from the 1954 publication of
Evans-Wentz. Secondly, he proved Jung was misled by using the wrong translations from the text
of Evans-Wentz and therefore his commentary
was based on false assumptions. Jung did not
understand what the essence of Dzogchen is.
However, Dr. Jung's views, although provocative

Knowing all this, it is not a surprise we cannot find

a trace of the commentaries of Jung in the new
complete edition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
In fact Jung commented both Chapter 4 and Chapter 11, a total of more than fifty pages. This most
eminent Western psychologist commenting on a
most respected Tibetan book disappeared and left
only one trace in the Editor's Introduction:
Carl Jung in his commentary to Evans-Wentz's
1927 edition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead

Preparing to Die

page
38

spoke about how compelling he found it to look at

The Great Liberation by Hearing backwards. From
a psychoanalytical point of view this is indeed
interesting, as our text can then be seen as
providing a guide for tracing our confused and
deluded states, back through our conditioned
attraction and aversion to selected aspects of our
experience, back through the weave of our
habitual tendencies and mental constructs and a
relentless series of voluntary or involuntary mental
choices, back through the illusory comfort
generated by our sense of ego, right back to a
pure original cognitive event. (p. XXXII Editor's
Introduction)
Actually, an English translation of the Tibetan
Book of the Dead needs an introduction from a
respected Tibetan Buddhist, not a Western psychologist.

continuity of consciousness after death has been

an important aspect of philosophical reflection
and debate from ancient Indian times to the
present. (p. XIII - HHDL)
Following is an extensive answer on fourteen
pages to this question based on an explanation of
the central concepts of Buddhism, the Highest
Yoga Tantra and Dzogchen. While Jung tried to
build a bridge, as we have seen, this commentary
requires Buddhist study for the layman reader and
Dzogchen practitioner alike. Do not expect to get
a direct and simple answer to the central question
humanity is puzzling about for so long. Elsewhere
the writer of the present text, Padmasambhava,
gives a straight answer:
So-called death is your own thinking. Though you
part with the body of flesh and blood, your mind is
not something from which you can ever part.
Remind yourself of the meaning of your former
view and meditation training. (5)
The following short characterization of the main
parts of the present text reveals the kind of view
and meditation training he is talking about:

His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama.

Introductory Commentary by His Holiness the

XIVth Dalai Lama
This new edition has a complete new construction. Preceeding the English translation of the
original twelve chapters of Tibetan script are: an
Editor's Introduction, a Brief Literary History and
an Introductory Commentary. Attached to the
translations are two Appendices Peaceful and
Wrathful Deities, extensive Notes on every chapter plus an excellent Glossary of Key Terms.
Directly following some short Acknowledgements
we find the Introductory Commentary by His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama. Without detour he
starts in the opening sentence with the crucial
question:
The question of whether or not there exists a

Though generally and rightly classified as a

Mahayoga text, the Guhyagarbha Tantra has also
been obliquely interpreted from the perspective of
Dzogchen, most famously by Longchen Rabjampa
(1308-63). The meditative techniques of both
Mahayoga and Dzogchen are clearly expressed
among the chapters of our present work: the
generation stage of meditation is emphasized in
Chapters 5-7, and the Great Perfection in Chapters
4 and 11, these latter two chapters being based on
the teachings of the two key aspects of the Great
Perfection, namely Cutting through Resistance
(khregs-chod) and All-surpassing Realisation (thod
-rgal) respectively. Thus from the point of view of
its theoretical foundation and practice, as well as
in its iconography and symbolism, the Tibetan
Book of the Dead echoes its roots in the
Guhyagarbha Tantra but, in addition, vividly
incorporates the classical teachings of
Dzogchen. (p. XXXVIII A Brief Literary History)
As Gyurme Dorje describes in A Brief Literary
History, this cycle of teachings is based on the
Guhyagarbha Tantra. We concentrate here on the
important role Dzogchen plays, the highest of the
nine vehicles according to the Nyingma school.

Preparing to Die

page
39

Cutting through Resistance and the direct introduction to awareness are the subject matter of
Chapter 4 of the present work. The introduction to
the intermediate state of reality, in Chapter 11 of
our text, is illustrative of the esoteric instructions
on All-surpassing Realisation, which is the pinnacle of meditative practice according to the
Nyingma school. (p.XXIII - HHDL)
In the preceding paragraph we saw Jung's two
commentaries were on chapters 4 and 11 just
mentioned. So, of all chapters on which he commented precisely on the key parts of Dzogchen
although, according to John Reynolds, he really
did not understand this. What's more, Dzogchen
practitioners who have made some progress do
not have to read the text at all:

Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche).

Dzogchen knows no generation and perfection

stages as in the Mahyoga tantra:
Great Perfection is a synonym for Atiyoga, the
highest of the nine vehicles according to the
Nyingma tradition. Atiyoga is known as the Great
Perfection because both the generation and perfection stages of meditation are effortlessly present. 'Perfection' (rdzogs) implies that the enlightened attributes of the Three Buddha-bodies are
effortlessly perfected in the stabilisation of the
meditator's intrinsic awareness (rang-rig). (p. 473
Glossary)
After the preliminary practices a direct introduction to intrinsic awareness from a Vajra-master is
required. From the Introduction of His Holiness
the Dalai Lama:
Following the practices of the Dzogchen teachings of the Nyingma school the student is directly
introduced by an authentic spiritual teacher to the
very nature of his or her mind as pure awareness.
This is the focus of the Cutting through Resistance (khregs-chod) aspect of the Dzogchen path
and this is complemented by the All-surpassing
Realisation (thod-rgal) practices which focus on
eliciting and recognising the radiances of pristine
cognition.

Those serious meditators who have meditated on

[the practices of] the Great Perfection and the
Great Seal will recognise the inner radiance that
dawns during the intermediate state of the time of
death and will attain the Buddha-body of Reality.
For these meditators there is absolutely no need to
read this Liberation by Hearing. (Ch. 11, Part II, p.
257-258)
What makes the Great Perfection path so special?
The keyword is inner radiance and recognition of
it. This keyword is singled out here from the excellent definitions in the Glossary because it plays a
central role in the introduction of the Dalai Lama,
where he mentioned it fifteen times:
Inner Radiance 'od-gsal
Sometimes also translated as clear light, the
Tibetan term 'od-gsal, which has been rendered
here as inner radiance, refers in the context of
the perfection stage of meditation to the subtlest
level of mind, i.e. the fundamental, essential
nature of all our cognitive events. Though ever
present within all sentient beings, this inner radiance becomes manifest only when the gross mind
has ceased to function. Such a dissolution is
experienced by ordinary beings, naturally, at the
time of death, but it can also be experientially cultivated through the practices of Unsurpassed
Yogatantra. (p. 478, part 1, Glossary)
The shortest path to liberation is offered by the
Highest Yoga Tantra (or Unsurpassed Yogatantra,
or Great Perfection or Dzogchen) you can then
be liberated from the cycle of reincarnation in a

Preparing to Die

page
40

single lifetime:
Generally speaking, the practices of Highest Yoga
Tantra present a spiritual path which enables the
individual to attain complete buddhahood within a
single lifetime, prior to the moment of death. Yet,
for those who are unable to achieve this, it
becomes crucial to use the transformative opportunities offered by the naturally occurring processes of death, the intermediate state and
rebirth. (p. XVIII, HHDL)
The basic buddhist ambition of serious Dzogchen
practitioners is to reach liberation before death
with the help of the Highest Yoga Tantra. If that
fails we can utilize the processes of death, the
intermediate state and rebirth which are specifically taught as the basis for achieving liberation
from cyclic existence. Along the way three opportunities A, B and C, arise to recognize the inner
radiance.

This achievement of perfect buddhahood entails

the actualisation of the three dimensions or bodies
of a buddha (trikaya). These fruitional bodies are
related both to our ultimate natural state and to
the emanational qualities of full enlightenment. (XIX, HHDL)
Perhaps needless to say, even a cowherd can attain buddhahood and liberation. You can find
confirmation of this in the Dzogchen text Cutting
through Resistance (khregs-chod) in Chapter 4:
Similarly, even though all beings actually possess
the seed of buddhahood, sentient beings will not
attain buddhahood without experiential cultivation. Nonetheless, even a cowherd will attain liberation if he or she engages in experiential cultivation. For, even though one may not know how to
elucidate [this state] intellectually, One will
[through experiential cultivation] become manifestly established in it. (p.56, Ch. 4).

inner radiance recognition

bardo state

primary - ground - mother

Time of Death (chi-khai)

attainment of buddha
body
Reality (dharma-kaya)

secundary - path - child

Time of Death (chi-khai)

Reality (dharma-kaya)

tertiary

also

recognition

Reality (chos-nyid)
(intermediate state)
Rebirth (srid-pa'i)

Perfect Resource
(sambhoga-kaya)
Emanation
(nirmana-kaya)
reborn in higher existences

heard the teachings but

no recognition

Rebirth (srid-pa'i)

Table constructed with information from: Summary Introduction Part II (p. 258) and Glossary on Inner Radiance (p.
478).

We find here in the table the concept of inner

radiance connected to central concepts of three
buddha bodies, three bardo states and recognition moments. In the process of time these are
precisely connected.
Depending on our spiritual ambition and the effort we are preparing to put in we can distinguish
in the process of life, death, intermediate state
and rebirth three opportunities for the recognition of inner radiance: A, B and C. Also there is an
opportunity to reach liberation before death, prior
to the moment of death, with the help of the
Highest Yoga Tantra. Attainment of buddhahood
means realization of three buddha bodies:

If recognition A fails plan B is to reach liberation in

the three death processes with the methods of
Highest Yoga Tantra, because:
It is exclusively in tantra, however, and particularly in Highest Yoga Tantra, that the methods for
utilising the processes of death, the intermediate
state and rebirth are specifically taught as the
basis for achieving liberation from cyclic existence.
These methods involve the development of a skilful relationship with certain experiential stages
that an individual actually induces with the intention of enhancing spiritual realisation and the fruition of their capacities as a human being. (p.
XVIII, HHDL)

Preparing to Die

page
41

With these methods the inner radiance of the

child can be experientially cultivated as reflected
in the second part of the description of inner
radiance in the Glossary. Part 2 of the description
in the Glossary of inner radiance furthermore
points to the attainment of buddhahood as a conjunction of mother and child radiance.
Students of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche know these
terms, because he uses these metaphoric images
a lot in his teachings:
A fundamental distinction is made between the
inner radiance of the ground (gzhi'i 'od-gsal) and
the inner radiance of the path (lam-gyi 'od-gsal).
The former, which is also known as the mother
inner radiance ('od-gsal ma), occurs naturally at
the time of death, when it indicates the presence
of the Buddha-body of Reality (dharmakaya), but
which may not be accompanied by an awareness
of its nature. The latter, which is also known as
the child inner radiance ('od-gsal bu) is an awareness of the ultimate nature of mind cultivated by
the meditator in life, i.e. the realisation of the
nature of the mother inner radiance as it is developed in meditation. Buddhahood is achieved when
the mother inner radiance and child inner radiance conjoin. (p.478, part 2, Glossary)

can find an authentic spiritual teacher and step

seriously on the Dzogchen path:
However, in the Dzogchen view, all states of
awareness or consciousness are thought to be pervaded by inner radiance, just as a sesame seed is
permeated by oil. Therefore, in Dzogchen, there
exist refined instructions which allow the recognition of inner radiance even while all the gross levels of sensory activity are still active. This is where
we come to the important distinction made in the
Dzogchen teachings between the Tibetan terms
sems and rig-pa. (XXIII, HHDL)

As a third opportunity we have the possibility of

recognition during the Intermediate state of Reality. We find the sequence of opportunities in the
last part of the inner radiance definition:
Chapter 11, in particular, differentiates three successive phases of inner radiance which are experienced at the time of death and immediately thereafter:
the primary inner radiance (bar-do dang-po
chos-nyid 'od-gsal), which is identified with the
inner radiance of the ground,
the secondary inner radiance (bar-do 'od-gsal
gnyis-pa), which is identified with the inner
radiance of the path, and
the tertiary inner radiance (bar-do 'od-gsal d
gsum-pa), which is identified with the subsequent arising of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities during the intermediate state of reality
(chos-nyid bar-do). (Glossary, p.478, part 3)
Although realization of the mother radiance (dharma-kaya) seems far away, realization
of the child radiance may not be impossible if we

According to Tsoknyi Rinpoche (6) experiencing

rigpa is not unusual when practicing the Ngondro
preliminary exercises:
.. doing ngndro gives us little opportunities to
let be in the state of rigpa, over and over again. In
addition, the ngndro training creates tremendous
merit, which makes recognizing rigpa almost
unavoidable. That is what merit does. You have
almost no other choice than to recognize rigpa,
because you repeatedly provide the circumstances
for that. (p. 141)

Preparing to Die

page
42

The prospect of experiencing moments of rigpa

can be a great motivation for starting the Ngondro training and can be a great help in recognition
of inner radiance in the bardo states. If the question of continuity of consciousness is not
answered prior to death, we still have recognition
opportunities during the processes of death, the
intermediate state and rebirth. Finally:
Alternatively, at the very least, [individuals who
have heard this teaching] will be born into the
higher existences, where, based on the residual
potency of their past actions, they will again meet
with, and be able to practise, this [sacred] teaching in the next life. Since [this sacred teaching is
based on recognition in the intermediate states]
this Great Liberation by Hearing is the teaching
whereby buddhahood can be attained without
meditation. (p. 258 Part II, Introduction )
Preparing to die
In the end of his introduction His Holiness the
Dalai Lama writes that he is not afraid of the dying
process. As a daily practitioner of the Highest
Yoga Tantra, even he is not sure about what happens when the actual moment of his dying arrives,
so how can we as modest practitioners, hope to
be sure about our moment of death, about actualizing some of the inner radiance?

(2) Coleman, Graham, with Thupten Jinpa (eds.),

The Tibetan Book of the Dead [English title]; The
Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate
States [Tibetan title]; composed by Padma Sambhava: revealed by Karma Lingpa; translated by
Gyurme Dorje, 2005, London, Penguin Books.
(3) The Tibetan Book of the Dead, 3rd edition compiled and edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, Oxford
University Press, 2000, p. xxxvi.
(4) John M. Reynolds, Self-Liberation, Through
Seeing with Naked Awareness, Snow Lion Publications, 2000.
(5) Padmasambhava, Treasures from Juniper
Ridge, Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2008, p. 153.
(6) Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Fearless Simplicity, The
Dzogchen Way of Living Freely in a Complex
World, Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2003, p. 141.
Text by Frits de Vries

Normally in our lives, if we know that we are

going to be confronted by a difficult or unfamiliar
situation, we prepare and train ourselves for such
a circumstance in advance, so that when this
event actually happens we are fully prepared. As I
have outlined, the rehearsal of the processes of
death, and those of the intermediate state, and
the emergence into a future existence, lies at the
very heart of the path in Highest Yoga Tantra.
These practices are part of my daily practice also
and because of this I somehow feel a sense of
excitement when I think about the experience of
death. At the same time, though, sometimes I do
wonder whether or not I will really be able to fully
utilise my own preparatory practices when the
actual moment of death comes! (p. XXVI, HHDL)

Notes
(1) Wikipedia: Bardo Thodol

Preparing to Die

page
43

FROM BUDDHA KUNTU ZANGPO TO CHAMMA LING POLAND

Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso is the resident
lama of Ligmincha Poland. He lives at the
Chamma Ling Poland center in Wilga, near
Warsaw. Both during and after his studies
at Triten Norbutse Monastery, Geshe
Gyatso travelled and taught throughout
Europe. In 2014, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche asked Geshe Gyatso if he would
like to stay in Poland and teach in the
Polish and other European Sanghas.
Geshe Gyatso officially became resident
lama of Chamma Ling Poland in March
2015. In this interview he also talks about
the Bon Refuge Tree.
Geshe-la, where were you born?
I was born in Tra village of Bijer area in Dolpo,
Nepal. My village is located next to the famous
Samling Monastery, and the Tashi Namgyal Monastery is located in the village itself. Both monasteries are connected with my family lineage.
The Samling Monastery is one of the oldest Bon
monasteries in Dolpo. It was founded by the great
Yangton lineage master Yangton Gyaltsen Rinchen. The Tashi Namgyal Monastery was founded
by Yangton Lama Yungdrung Dradul, my paternal
grandmother's father.
Yangton Gyaltsen Rinchen is an important lineage
master in Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyud. The Samling
Monastery played an important role in keeping
the Bon tradition alive after the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Many Bonpo lamas fled from Tibet
and visited the Samling Monastery as pilgrims and
to study old, traditional texts. They borrowed
many ancient manuscripts in order to publish and
distribute to preserve the Bon tradition.
My father was a Nagpa of Samling Monastery, a
Bonpo lay yogi, and he was a doctor of Tibetan
medicine. My mother is a Nyingma school practitioner. I heard my mother praying all through my
childhood and I learned to chant many Nyingmapa prayers. I lived in my village till I was nine
years old. From the age of five to nine I spent
summers mostly taking care of sheep and yaks,
because my homeland is half nomad and half
farmer. During wintertime I was with my father in

H.E. Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche with Geshe

Gyatso.

Samling Monastery for a kind of retreat for two or

three months. There I learned Tibetan reading
and writing, reciting mantras, and I helped my
father with the preparation of retreats and rituals.
When did you go to a monastery to study for
Geshe?
When I was nine years old, my oldest brother
Geshe Choekhortshang Rinpoche was studying at
Menri Monastery in India, and he recommended
our parents to send me to study in Triten Norbutse Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal. My father
wanted to send me, but my mother objected,
because she wanted me to live with our family.
So, one day in the end of 1989, people from my
village started to travel to Kathmandu, as they do
every winter. My father took me, and he told my
mother that we would go to a nearby village for a
few weeks, not to Kathmandu.
At the farewell my father asked my mother to give
me a khata, a traditional scarf which is offered for
travelers. That confused my mother and she
didn't give me one, and ordered my father to
bring me back. After a difficult journey of four
weeks we arrived in Kathmandu, where we spent
one and half months close to the Boudhanath
Stupa. There my father expressed his wish that I
should become a monk. He left this decision to
me, and also which monastery to choose Bon,
Nyingma, or another tradition. I chose Bon, and in
1990 I was one of the first monks who started to
study at Triten Norbutse Monastery. My father
promised me that he would come back next winter to visit me.

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
44

Samling Monastery in Dolpo.

Tashi Namgyal Gompa and Tra village.

My father right after retreat with Yongton Lama

Namgyal Wangdu.

Yangton Lama Sherab Tenzin and Nyelton Lama

Yungdrung Dargye from Samling Monastery.

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
45

me and my brothers good educations. It was very

important for my father to keep the tradition in
our family and I know that my father loved me.
On his way home from Kathmandu my father died
in an avalanche at an altitude of 5.350 meters, so
he never met my mother again. I heard about this
sad news a few months later, but I didn't believe
it until the following winter when village people
came to Kathmandu and confirmed it. My family
sacrificed a lot for my wellbeing.
What was the reason that you chose to study in a
Bon monastery?
It was because I spent a long time in Samling
Monastery where I got my first experience in the
Bon tradition and I spent time with great lamas
like Yangton Lama Namgyal Wangdu, Nyelton
Lama Tsewang Lhakyeb, Nyelton Yungdrung
Dargye, my father Tsewang Tashi Choekhortshang
and others. There were also Tantric Yogis and
Yoginis, and through all of them I connected
deeply to the Bon tradition.

Swayambunath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal.

During that time in our monastery H.E. Yongdzin

Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche gave teachings in the
morning, and in the afternoon we did reading and
writing. We did not have a dialectic school, or philosophy school, or meditation group, but we practiced as much as we could and we had meditation
twice a day. In 1994 a new big temple was finished, and His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche was invited for the consecration. After that,
dialectic school and meditation groups started,
and I joined the dialectic school. At that time
there were about sixty monks in the Triten Norbutse Monastery. At this point more than one
hundred monks have finished their education in
the dialectic and other schools, and about two
hundred are still studying at Triten Norbutse Monastery.
You were a small boy when you went to the
monastery. Is that still a tradition in Tibet and
the Himalaya region?
For many centuries families sent small children to
monasteries because monastery education is precious, and it was the best possibility for a child's
education. My family made a great effort to give

What did you do in the Triten Norbutse Monastery?

I started my education in dialectic school in 1994
and finished in 2009, when I received the Geshe
title. In dialectic school I learned Sutra, Tantra,
Dzogchen and all the Tibetan sciences, like grammar, history of Tibet, Zhang Zhung and Himalaya,
also astrology, poetry, astronomy, drawings,
painting, calligraphy, ritual chanting, etc. I am very

Nyelton Lama Tsewang Lhakyb, a great

yogi of Samling Monastery in the 20th
century.

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
46

degree, I was invited to visit several countries in

Europe, like France, Germany, Czech Republic,
Austria, Slovakia and Poland, where I gave public
talks and some teachings. During my fourth visit
to Europe in 2013 I spent one month in Vienna,
Austria. I was travelling through Europe and
started to teach at several places. In December
2014 I came to Chamma Ling Poland, and since
then we have organized several retreats in Wilga,
and teachings and practices in different cities in
Poland. I do rituals on request. Every day in
Chamma Ling we have practices in the morning
and evening, and it is open for everyone.
Triten Norbutse Monastery.

thankful to H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche for all his loving kindness in teaching me all of these subjects
during these years, and to my other teachers as
well. H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche cared for me and
raised me like a parent.
During my study I also performed different roles,
like being president of the dialectic school, and for
three years I was guest manager of Triten Norbutse Monastery. One year I worked as managing
director of the Bumshi Medical School and also as
a teacher of tradition and religious science. I also
was a secretary of the Bonpo Foundation and
Triten Norbutse Monastery. I participated in several conferences and seminars devoted to Bon
tradition, Tibetan and Himalayan culture, environment and managing a monastery.
Since getting my Geshe degree I have been teaching younger monks and lay people different subjects connected with Bon tradition.
I have been responsible for Dreypoi Beltam, a
magazine of Triten Norbutse Monastery, for the
last 10 years, and have been chief editor since
2010.
Have you done a long retreat?
Yes, after the Geshe degree I did a hundred day
retreat doing Tsa Lung, Thrul khor and Tumo practices.
Why did you choose to come to the West?
During my studies at Triten Norbutse Monastery I
had two chances to visit Europe, connected with a
Cham dance group visiting France, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium. That got me excited about visiting European countries. And after I got my Geshe

When did you meet Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche?

We have known each other very long time, since I
studied at Triten Norbutse Monastery. In 2014
Rinpoche asked me to come to Chamma Ling
Poland as a resident lama, to teach in the Polish
sangha and other European sanghas. At that time
I was the Secretary of the Triten Norbutse Monastery so after approval by H. E. Yongdzin Rinpoche
and Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche I came to
Poland.
Do you have plans to go back to Dolpo?
I don't know. That is difficult, because I have
decided to stay in Chamma Ling Poland, but I
want to visit Dolpo. The last time I saw my mother
was in 2011. It is difficult to have contact with my
family in Dolpo, because there they don't have
internet; phone calls are very expensive and the
connection is not very good. Sometimes I talk to
my brother and sister who live in Kathmandu, and
I hear the family news through them.
I would like to ask you some questions about the
Bon teachings. Can you explain why the lineage
plays an important role?
It is very important to preserve the teaching lineages in the Bon tradition. The unbroken lineage is
a reliable, pure and authentic source of all the
teachings in the Bon tradition. It is also full of
blessings beginning with Kuntu Zangpo, the primordial Buddha, and accumulating through the
present time. It is like an authorized succession
from teacher to student and so on. So, lineage
means connection with the original teachings and
with the full blessings. The blessings that have
continued unbroken from Kuntu Zangpo himself,
and are passed through by our root master to us.
We can say that when the lineage is broken, it is

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
47

-two masters, the lineage abbots of the Menri

Monastery. All the three lineages (outer Sutra
lineage; inner Tantra lineage; secret Dzogchen
lineage, mind transmission) are assembled before
the Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen. The great master
Nyammed is depicted in monk's form (Tibetan:
vinaya), like the other masters described above.

The primordial Buddha Kuntu Zangpo.

like a broken mala all the beads are disconnected; you cannot use a broken mala. When you
take refuge, vows, transmissions or teachings
from someone who is not from the lineage, it will
not be so fruitful since it is not fully blessed,
because there is lack of connection with Bon.
We have a Refuge Tree which depicts the ancient
lineages of Bon all the way back to the primordial Buddha. I have seen explanations on the
internet, but I still do not understand it. Can you
give an explanation?
This form of the Refuge Tree (Tibetan: Tsogshing)
is from the Menri tradition and it is well known
amongst Bonpo practitioners. This structure of
the thangka was instructed by H.E. Yongdzin
Rinpoche according to explanations based on
texts. When you look at the refuge tree, it's not
necessary to look from above to bottom. One can
start from the main figure, which personifies your
root master (see photo on page 50).
The main deity (Buddha, the biggest figure in this
picture) sitting on the throne of snow lions, is our
root lama in the form of Shenlha Odkar. We
believe that our root lama is the embodiment of
the Buddha of the Three Times (past, present and
future), and all the yidams and dakinis. The Buddha, seated and well dressed with precious ornaments, is called Sambhogakaya (Tibetan: Dzogku).
Above Shenlha Odkar, in the middle of this picture, there is a group of masters of the lineage
connected to the root master of the Menri Monastery, Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen, who is the
second greatest master in this picture. He is the
founder and first abbot of Menri monastery.
Below Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen, there are thirty

To the upper side of Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen

are the five main lines of three lineages. The centre one starts from the Buddha Kuntu Zangpo. The
three lineages are the lineages from Zhang Zhung
Nyen Gyud. To the right side of the Nyammed
Sherab Gyaltsen is a line with the lineage masters
of the Dzogchen Drakpa Korsum. To the left side
of the Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen is the master
lineage line of the Dzogchen A-tri. The twentyfour masters and Tapihritsa are in the Zhang
Zhung Nyen Gyud lineage. The line to the right
side of Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen are lineage
masters of Sutra, which consists of two lines. The
line at the left are lineage masters of Tantra which
also consists of two lines. Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen is the main master from which all these three
lineages are assembled.
To the right side of Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen, in
the upper corner of this picture, is Tonpa Shenrab
Miwo in monk's form with his four main disciples,
surrounded by groups of buddhas the other
eight buddhas, the buddhas of three times
(Tibetan: yugas), the buddhas of the ten directions, and so on.
To the left side of Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen, at
the upper corner of this picture, is Dungtsob
Mucho Demdrug and below him there are four
lines of boddhisatvas (Tibetan: Yungdrung Sempa).
To the right side of the Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen
are yidams of four tantric levels. Below the
yidams are male protectors. On the left side of the
Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen is the main Dakini
Khandro Kalpa Sangmo accompanied by three different kinds of dakinis (dakinis of wisdom, action
and karma). Below the dakinis are female protectors.
Can you elaborate a bit more about the three
lineages?
The Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyud lineage starts from
the Buddha Kuntu Zangpo (including Buddha

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
48

Shenla Odkar.

Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen.

Kuntu Zangpo with eight Buddhas) and through

twenty-four masters in unbroken lineage to His
Holiness the Menri Trizin Rinpoche and the His
Eminence the Yongzin Rinpoche. This is the most
important Dzogchen lineage because it has never
been kept hidden, like the treasures (Tibetan:
terma). During all historical disturbances and
deterioration, to keep Bon tradition alive, the
Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyud lineage was taught and
practiced through oral teaching from master to
student as an unbroken lineage.
In this Refuge Tree, the Dzogchen Drakpa Korsum
lineage starts from Buddha Shenlha Odkar to
Nyammed Sherab Gyaltsen and this teaching was
kept in a hidden place as a treasure. It was rediscovered by Shoton Ngodrub Drakpa around the
11th century.
The A-tri lineage started from the Gongzoe Ritroe
Chenpo and A-tri text was also kept in a hidden
place, and was rediscovered by Master Shenchen
Lugha.
The Sutra lineage starts from the Buddha Tonpa
Shenrab, which is depicted in the monk's form as
Tonpa Tritsuk Gyalwa. This lineage was brought
unbroken to the present from Tonpa Tritsuk
Gyalwa.

Tonpa Shenrab Miwo.

Bon traditions?
The Yungdrung Bon tradition comes from Tonpa
Shenrab. Before the Yungdrung Bon, there was
Bon but without any founder. The followers of
this ancient tradition worshiped elements, mountains, rivers and so on, because they believed that
some invisible (spirit) beings live there. At present, we can still find these kinds of Bonpos in
Nepal, India, Bhutan and Mongolia.
The Yungdrung Bon means to analyze and gain
experience, and through this one tries to solve or
remove the suffering and misery of sentient
beings. It is a method to help other beings and to
do great actions or demonstrate great virtues.
Yungdrung Bon consists of two different pathways: the first is connected with a subject and the
second is connected with an object. Subject
means everything connected with words (for
example books or teachings) and object means
liberation, compassion, the natural state.
Thank you for your explanation. To conclude this
interview, is there something you want to say?
I wish all the students of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and all the other Bonpo sanghas to develop
and continue their own practice. So it will be helpful for their own lives, and to reach enlightenment, and that the practice will benefit other
beings.

The Tantra lineage began with Trulshen Nangdhen, Zangza Ringtsun and Chimed Tsugphud.
Interview by Ton Bisscheroux
Can you tell about the Yungdrung Bon and other

Photos: courtesy of Geshe Gyatso.

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
49

The Bon Refuge Tree.

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
50

BODHICITTA AND GREAT COMPASSION

This is an edited excerpt from oral teachings given by Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung
Rinpoche, the Abbot of Triten Norbutse
Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, during
a Ngondro Retreat at Serenity Ridge, November, 2003. Also some related excerpts on compassion and bodhicitta.
Reprint from The Voice of Clear Light,
January 2004.
To practice bodhicitta is to generate and to
develop enlightened mind on the basis of great
compassion. That is, to develop buddha mind or
enlightened mind for the benefit of all sentient
beings. We are practicing not only for our own
benefit, not only for our own peace, but in fact,
we have to think that our practice is for the purpose of helping all other beings, not only a few
beings, all sentient beings in all universes, not just
this universe. We believe that there are thousands, billions of universes. So we have to think of

helping all sentient beings in all those billions of

universes. So it is a very big mind, very huge! It
seems to be impossible. On the basis of great
compassion we develop this mind. If you don't
have great compassion, this kind of mind, this
intention, can not come. So, first we have to
develop great compassion within ourselves.
Great compassion is very, very important. It is one
of the two main pillars of the path of liberation.
These two pillars are known as method and wisdom. Similarly, there are two kinds of bodhicitta,
relative and absolute. Absolute bodhicitta manifests with one's development of wisdom, the
meditation on and knowledge of the absolute
truth. Relative bodhicitta, this great intention to
help all sentient beings, is what we refer to mainly
as method. Without this great compassion, we
can not get fully enlightened. In order to get fully
enlightened we have to be liberated from two
extremes the extreme of samsara and the
extreme of nirvana. You see, sometimes, we are

Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche.

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
51

too peaceful. This can be dangerous as it can lead

us toward falling into the extreme of nirvana, or
thinking only of our own benefit. Upon experiencing some level of realization, we may then fall into
a level of meditation like a cessation type of contemplation in which we are very peaceful and
seem to have completely purified our negative
emotions. We may easily remain in this situation
for eons and eons. It is said that one sentient
being from hell will attain enlightenment much
faster than one who has fallen into this type of
meditation.
This extreme is a kind of nirvana, but it is not the
final result, not full enlightenment. We call it causality nirvana, relative nirvana. There are still
many things we have to purify, very subtle defilements. But in this state, because it almost looks
like we don't have any defilements, if we don't
also have this practice of method, of great compassion, we're in trouble. Great compassion is
something that reminds us not to simply look out
for our own wellbeing or to only look for our own
peace. It actually brings about our getting reborn
back into samsara in order to help all other
beings, and this leads more swiftly to our own
enlightenment. Therefore, great compassion is a
kind of antidote, a practice which can protect us
from falling into the extreme of nirvana. We are
protected from falling into the extreme of samsara mainly by the antidote of wisdom, the knowledge of the absolute truth. The real root of samsara can only be cut by this wisdom, and not by
any other practices. Other practices help to purify
many negative emotions, which then help bring us
into knowledge of the absolute truth, but these
practices themselves can not cut the root of samsara. The root of samsara can only be cut by
knowledge of the absolute truth, also known as

the view. Therefore, view is most important on

the path, and this view or wisdom must always be
combined with method, or great compassion and
bodhicitta. Always!
Therefore, we call the path of liberation a unification of method and wisdom.

**************************
RELATED EXCERPTS ON COMPASSION AND
BODHICITTA
From Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the
Tibetan Book of the Dead by Francesca Fremantle:
Emptiness and compassion are completely intertwined. The relationship between them has been
compared to that of a flame and its light or a tree
and its leaves. Activity in the world is not truly
enlightened unless it springs from the awareness
that, in the absolute sense, nothing is being done
or needs to be done. Yet at the same time, the
awakened heart feels as its own the suffering of
all who are not yet awakened. The bodhisattvas
embody this activity for the welfare of all beings.
Through wisdom the bodhisattva knows that samsara is illusion, and through compassion helps
those who are under its spell. Both aspects go
together all the way along the path. We cannot
wait until we attain wisdom to manifest compassion.
Simply being as compassionate and skillful as we
can at every stage is what deepens our realization
of emptiness. They grow together, they mutually
inspire each other, they are the two indispensable
elements of the awakened state.
*****
From Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen
Batchelor:
Insight into emptiness and compassion for the
world are two sides of the same coin. To experience ourselves and the world as interactive processes rather than aggregates of discrete things
undermines both habitual ways of perceiving the
world as well as habitual feelings about it. Meditative discipline is vital to dharma practice precisely
because it leads us beyond the realm of ideas to

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
52

that of felt-experience. Understanding the philosophy of emptiness is not enough. The ideas
need to be translated through meditation into the
wordless language of feeling in order to loosen
those emotional knots that keep us locked in a
spasm of self-preoccupation.

to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all, a

compassionate energy is released and the artistry
for living transforms immediate relationships from
struggle into living play. As our empathy and love
flow out to embrace all living beings on earth, the
galaxies, and beyond, we come up against not
only black holes of despair but also vast suns of
confidence and determination. By becoming a being of radiant blissfulness, a bodhisattva is a living
instrument that can effectively bring about the
aim of all true lives the happiness of infinite
beloved others. This goodwill moves to tame the
whole society, the whole world, even the universe
so that it becomes a place in which the maximum
number of people can attain the highest level of
happiness. Since the universe is infinite, containing infinite beings in infinite universes within it,
that will becomes a kind of messianic madness
that explodes in the form of a vow to create a universe that itself works to liberate souls a
buddhaland or buddhaverse.

As we are released into the opening left by the

absence of self-centered craving, we experience
the vulnerability of exposure to the anguish and
suffering of the world. The track on which we find
ourselves in moments of centered experience
includes both clarity of mind and warmth of heart.
Just as a lamp simultaneously generates light and
heat, so the central path is illuminated by wisdom
and nurtured by compassion.
The selfless vulnerability of compassion requires
the vigilant protection of mindful awareness. It is
not enough to want to feel this way toward
others. We need to be alert at all times to the
invasion of thoughts and emotions that threaten
to break in and steal this open and caring resolve.
A compassionate heart still feels anger, greed,
jealousy, and other such emotions. But it accepts
them for what they are with equanimity, and cultivates the strength of mind to let them arise and
pass without identifying and without acting upon
them.
*****
From Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Real Happiness by Robert Thurman:
We already feel our own pain and are powerless
to do much about it. How much worse it is to feel
the pains of others and be helpless to do anything
for them. But when one makes the commitment

*****
From Cultivating Compassion by Jeffrey Hopkins:
Compassion is called the seed because it is the
beginning of the path for bodhisattvas - those
dedicated to becoming fully enlightened to be of
benefit to other beings. Bodhisattvas are distinguished from other Buddhist practitioners in that
they have great compassion, in that they themselves will free all sentient beings from suffering
and the causes of suffering. They also have great
love, in that they themselves will join all sentient
beings with happiness and the causes of happiness.
The seed is what begins the harvest. Without the

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
53

the suffering they endure within cyclic existence,

the vicious circle of birth, death, and rebirth we
are all prisoners of. Our suffering is not limited to
our present situation. According to the Buddhist
view, our present situation as humans is relatively
comfortable.

seed, one cannot have the fruit. The source of

Buddhahood is compassion. Though wisdom is
required for the attainment of Buddhahood,
unshakable compassion is the differentiating factor. Other types of practitioners must also understand the final nature of reality in order to attain
their respective, but lower, types of enlightenment. Thus, compassion alone is the seed of
Buddhahood.

However, we stand to experience much difficulty

in the future if we misuse this present opportunity. Compassion enables us to refrain from thinking in a self-centered way. We experience great
joy and never fall to the extreme of simply seeking
our own personal happiness and salvation. We
continually strive to develop and perfect our virtue and wisdom. With such compassion, we shall
eventually possess all the necessary conditions for
attaining enlightenment. We must therefore cultivate compassion from the very start of our spiritual practice.

Compassion is also like the water that rains down

and grows the potential harvest, once the seed
has been planted. Compassion moistens the mental continuum; through the continued practice of
compassion, the bodhisattva's progress advances.
In the state of Buddhahood, it has ripened; it is
like a matured fruit for enjoyment by others in
that only a fully mature compassion causes
enlightened beings to appear to others to help
them in whatever form is suitable to their needs.
*****
*****
From An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion In
Everyday Life by The Dalai Lama:
True compassion has the intensity and spontaneity of a loving mother caring for her suffering
baby. Throughout the day, such a mother's concern for her child affects all her thoughts and
actions. This is the attitude we are working to cultivate toward each and every being. When we
experience this, we have generated great compassion.
Once one has become profoundly moved by great
compassion and lovingkindness, and had one's
heart stirred by altruistic thoughts, one must
pledge to devote oneself to freeing all beings from

Bibliography:
Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism Without Beliefs,
New York: Riverhead Books, 1997.
Francesca Fremantle, Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Boston:
Shambhala Publications Inc., 2001.
H.H. the Dalai Lama, An Open Heart: Practicing
Compassion in Everyday Life. Edited by Nicholas
Vreeland, Boston: Little, Brown and Company,
2001.
Jeffrey Hopkins, Cultivating Compassion, New
York: Broadway Books, 2001.
Robert Thurman, Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty,
and The Pursuit of Real Happiness, New York:
Riverhead Books, 1998.
Text selected by Jantien Spindler

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
54

TENZIN WANGYAL RINPOCHE'S 2016 ON-LINE TEACHINGS

When

Where

What

More information

April 16
21.00 22.30 h (C.E.T.)

Your computer

Free live webcast:

Transforming Your World
Through Service, Part 3:
Generating Compassion

www.ligmincha.org

April 16 May 1

Your computer

Free interactive online course:

Meditation for Beginners
Focusing and Calming Your
Mind

www.glidewing.com

April 30 May 22

Your computer

www.glidewing.com

May 14
21.00 22.30 h (C.E.T.)

Your computer

Interactive online course:

Tibetan Meditation
Achieving Great Bliss Through
Pure Awareness
Free live webcast:
Transforming Your World
Through Service, Part 4:
Service and Spirituality

June 11
21.00 22.30 h (C.E.T.)

Your computer

Free live webcast:

Transforming Your World
Through Service, Part 5:
Inspiring Others to Serve

www.ligmincha.org

June 11 July 3

Your computer

Interactive online course:

Tibetan Sound Healing

www.glidewing.com

June 25
18.00 19.15 h (C.E.T.)

Your computer

Free live webcast:

Sleep Yoga

www.ligmincha.org

July 9
21.00 22.30 h (C.E.T.)

Your computer

www.ligmincha.org

July 9 31

Your computer

Free live webcast:

Transforming Your World
Through Service, Part 6:
Questions and Answers
Interactive online course:
To be announced

August 6
September 4

Your computer

Interactive online course:

Awakening the Sacred Arts
Discovering Your Creative
Potential

www.glidewing.com

September 17
October 16

Your computer

Interactive online course:

Tibetan Dream Yoga

www.glidewing.com

November 12
December 4

Your computer

Interactive online course:

Healing from the Source
Meditation as Medicine for
Body and Mind

www.glidewing.com

The Teacher and the Dharma

www.ligmincha.org

www.glidewing.com

page
55

TENZIN WANGYAL RINPOCHE'S 2016 EUROPEAN SEMINARS

When

Where

What

More information

April 22 24

Paris, France

Weekend seminar:
Living with Joy, Dying with
Peace

www.ligmincha.fr

April 28

Bratislava, Slovakia

Public talk:
Dream Yoga

Facebook Page:
Ligmincha Slovenska
republika

April 29 May 1

Vienna, Austria

Weekend seminar:
Outer, Inner and secret Tsa
Lung

www.ligmincha.at

May 6 8

Berlin, Germany

Weekend seminar:
From Inspiration to Manifestation: Unblocking Your Creative
Potential

www.ligmincha.de

May 14 16

Bulle, Switzerland

Weekend seminar:
Bardo and Dream

www.ligmincha.fr

May 20 22

Amsterdam,
The Netherlands

Weekend seminar:
A-tri, Part 4

www.ligmincha.nl

May 27 29

Helsinki, Finland

Weekend seminar:
Awakening the Sacred Body

www.ligmincha.fi

August 16 21

Wilga, Poland

Retreat:
Topic to be announced

www.ligmincha.org

August 23 28

Buchenau, Germany

European Summer Retreat:

The Twenty-One Nails,
Part 2

www.ligmincha.de

September 3 4

Budapest, Hungary

Weekend seminar:
Sleep Yoga

www.ligmincha.hu

September 9 11

Moscow, Russia

Weekend seminar:
Six Lamps, Part 2

www.garuda-bon.ru

YOU CAN FIND TENZIN WANGYAL RINPOCHE'S 2016 ON-LINE

TEACHINGS ON PAGE 55

The Teacher and the Dharma

page
56