Time here in recent months has been marked by two deadlines. The first coincided with Rinpoche’s return from the United States, when we wanted to show that we had made some progress on our main projects, which included the new prayer wheel installation, the Akshobhya statue, and the stupas. The second involved preparations for H.E. Dzongzar Khyentse Rinpoche’s visit at the end of May, at which time we hoped to present a tidy, well-ordered appearance.
These two goals contradicted each other, because Rinpoche’s projects always generate dust and debris. And, true to form, he almost immediately began to send up great mushroom clouds of dust in the snack bar/store area of the lha khang and had the furniture in his living quarters shoved aside to make way for the sculpting of a fifteen-foot-high nimbus for Akshobhya. Later, Khyentse Rinpoche, surveying the large slabs of clay and the disorderly signs of artwork-in-progress outside the door to his room, laughed, saying, “Chagdud Rinpoche always enjoys this kind of thing!”
Khyentse Rinpoche’s teaching of the first three chapters of Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara brought that classic text alive. His offering of the Bodhisattva vows penetrated to the very essence of mind, to absolute bodhichitta. It would seem impossible to regress from the momentum of the enlightened intention instilled in the 360 people present. We are looking forward to having the Chagdud Gonpa lamas here for the ritual training in July and to the honor of their joining us for the Essence of Siddhi drubchen, July 22–30.
-----
Chagdud Rinpoche was at Rigdzin Ling this spring for more than two weeks to lead the Red Vajrasattva drubchen, consecrate the stupas, and teach the Three Words of Garab Dorje. The stupa consecration was a particularly moving experience for the many people who contributed time and resources to this vast, meritous effort, and Rinpoche thanked each of them for their offering.
We were pleased to welcome back former residents Chagdud Khadro, Lama Tsering, and Lama Norbu. Over the years, all three have inspired the sangha with their examples of unwavering support for Rinpoche’s dharma activities. They were integral to the development of this center, and are now helping to establish and hold centers in Brazil.
Two new sangha babies have brightened life here at Rigdzin Ling— Majachenmo Rose Kirsten and Julia Padma Wangmo Kane. Both regularly attend our daily pujas and tsoks. Padma Publishing has been in full gear recently with the production of Longchenpa’s Chöying Dzod, which will be available in mid-July, as well as the revised edition of Gates to Buddhist Practice, which will be available in early August.
Upcoming events include teachings on the extensive Red Tara practice to be given by Lama Tsering, August 3–5.
The Essence of Siddhi drubchen with Tulku Jigme Rinpoche, originally scheduled for July, will take place on October 17–25. The day-long lama dancing will be held on October 25. The Orgyen Dzambhala wealth ceremony will take place on October 26.
Lama Drimed’s ngondro retreat has been rescheduled for December 1–7.
-----
A special celebration, the 21st annual Red Tara puja and tsok, took place during the weekend of April 20. The presence of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Tulku Jigme, and Lama Sonam Tsering,
surrounded by a majority of the lamas of Chagdud Gonpa, was both thrilling and inspiring. Two hundred people attended, including some from as far away as the Yukon. Beginning with the empowerment on Friday morning, three days of sadhana practice were fortified by Rinpoche’s direct instructions for actualizing the dharma in our lives in a profound way.
For several months before the event, sangha members came to Dechhen Ling to help prepare for the event with their tools, funds, talents, and unstinting energy. They worked their way through the gonpa, inside and out, and completed a wonderful renovation. By the time the guests arrived, every room was fresh, functional, and comfortably furnished.
Of the people who make our gonpa an active dharma center, one of the most essential is Dick Wilcox. From major building maintenance to helping to hold the practices, his contributions are vital. We would like to thank Dick and his wife, Amanda, particularly for their generous donation of $10,000 in sponsorship of this year’s Tara tsok. Because of their support, we were able to manifest a celebration truly appropriate to the significance of the occasion.
-----
In the past several months, Tulku Jigme Rinpoche and the Ati Ling sangha have been busy and very blessed. The highlight was the April visit of H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche to our little jewel in the redwoods. Rinpoche gave teachings on the nature of mind in Marin County and, at Ati Ling, offered the Thousand-Armed Chenrezig empowerment and nyungnay teachings. Both events were attended by more than four hundred people. On the final morning of his visit, he gave his heart advice to a full shrine room.
During Rinpoche’s visit, it was apparent to many of us how a realized being can benefit others just by his presence. As soon as he arrived, our minds became peaceful and we noticed a clarity that remained even when we were no longer sitting on our meditation cushions. Jigme Rinpoche cautioned us not to take this as a sign of our own practice but as the direct blessings of a realized master.
As an auspicious sign of these blessings, the night Chagdud Rinpoche arrived, a flock of peacocks that lives two miles down the road was heard calling across the driveway. And the day Rinpoche left, so did the peacocks.
Jigme Rinpoche led a nyungnay retreat on June 2 and 3 at Ati Ling. More than twenty-five people attended this event which took place during Saga Dawa, when the merit of practice is multiplied a hundred thousand times. Rinpoche also led a Medicine Buddha retreat here on July 6. He visited the Chicago, Colorado, and Alaska sanghas during June and July, and in August he plans to travel to Tibet for two months. Our fourth annual Vajrakilaya retreat will be held during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, January 11–14, 2002. For more information, visit our website at www.atiling.org.
-----
In December T’hondup Ling welcomed Ven. Gongjang Rinpoche and Khenpo Chowang Dorje for a series of empowerments and teachings before they returned home to Sikkim. Rinpoche also led our monthly Shi-tro practice and participated in a fish release with Lama Gyatso and the sangha.
Beginning in early February, the Shi-tro mandala was the centerpiece of the exhibition “Constructing the Cosmos,” displayed at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena for three months. Lama Gyatso gave two public talks at the museum. Several mandala- making workshops were also offered to the community as part of the Tools for Peace program created to help spread the benefits of the Shi-tro mandala into the larger community. This summer, Tools for Peace will host a sand mandala project, where monks from His Holiness Trulshik Rinpoche’s monastery will create Shi-tro sand mandalas and lead mandala-making workshops.
H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche arrived like a wish-fulfilling jewel in late March and led a three-day Shi-tro mandala consecration ceremony. Several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, covered the event. We had the great fortune to host Rinpoche for two more days of public teachings and empowerments.
In the past few months, we were also honored by visits from H.H. Kusum Lingpa and Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, both of whom consecrated the mandala. The Shi-tro mandala will be exhibited at the San Diego Museum of Art for three months, starting on August 26. On opening day, Lama Gyatso will offer a blessing, and visiting lamas will begin to create a Shi-tro sand mandala at the museum. They will work on the mandala in public until September 8, when the sand mandala will be scattered. Lama Gyatso will give a lecture at the museum on November 9; the Shi-tro mandala exhibit will close on November 10. A family mandala day, which will include a Tools for Peace mandala workshop will be held on September 2.
During Chagdud Rinpoche’s visit, Lama Gyatso publicly announced his intention to create Zangdok Palri, Guru Rinpoche’s Copper-Colored Mountain mandala. The project would include a multilevel temple with large statues, elaborate artwork, and a separate shrine room; these would be part of a healing and retreat center to be built near Los Angeles. There is such a mandala in Thimpu, Bhutan, which Chagdud Rinpoche visited with some of his students in 1991. Rinpoche has offered to lend his assistance with ceremonies, sculpting, and construction of the celestial mansion.
Lama Gyatso led the annual Orgyen Zambhala retreat over Memorial Day weekend; we are planning the annual T’hröma drubchöd for Thanksgiving weekend. For information about our events and projects, contact T’hondup Ling or visit our website at www.thondupling.org.
-----
We had expected that Chagdud Rinpoche’s visit to Rigdzin Gatsal would be a rest stop on his way to the Tara tsok at Cottage Grove, but after settling in and true to his limitless compassion, Rinpoche announced that he would answer questions from the sangha. With only an hour’s notice, the entire sangha showed up!
It was amazing and inspiring to have Rinpoche back, to be able once again to follow him around the Guru Rinpoche statue. He was enthusiastic about plans to build a roof to protect the statue and gave practical advice on how to go about it. We are grateful to John Young for his repairs to Guru Rinpoche’s face and especially for the creation of the individual figures of Eight Emanations of Padmasambhava that now grace the statue above Guru Rinpoche’s head. The statue repairs were completed last winter when Lama Padma Dorje painted the eyes with the gaze of pure samaya.
On his return from Cottage Grove, Rinpoche stopped at Minjur Ling’s new center at the home of Cece and Fenyx Sloan in Medford. The sangha had prepared the spacious, red-walled shrine room in a resplendent manner: one hundred butter lamps blazed, dedicated to Rinpoche’s long life, and vases filled with pink roses surrounded the four-foot-tall Red Tara statue.
Rinpoche graciously spent several hours with sangha members, answering questions and embracing us all with his compassion. To everyone’s amazement, he asked if the already sizable shrine room could be expanded. We all appreciate and are inspired by the Sloans’ warm-hearted hospitality.
That evening, Rinpoche spoke to a full house at the Unitarian Church in Ashland on healing the emotions. Following the teaching, Rinpoche spent the night at the beautiful home of Scott and Mimi Rogers. The next morning, when Rinpoche’s car pulled away all too soon, we were left with an unforgettable experience, our hearts overflowing with the presence of our precious lama.
This article is lovingly dedicated to the memory of the late Terry Pontaleo and to her family, who are part of the Williams community. Terry heroically dealt with cancer for five years and was able to fulfill her heartfelt aspiration to meet Chagdud Rinpoche before she died.
Time here in recent months has been marked by two deadlines. The first coincided with Rinpoche’s return from the United States, when we wanted to show that we had made some progress on our main projects, which included the new prayer wheel installation, the Akshobhya statue, and the stupas. The second involved preparations for H.E. Dzongzar Khyentse Rinpoche’s visit at the end of May, at which time we hoped to present a tidy, well-ordered appearance.
These two goals contradicted each other, because Rinpoche’s projects always generate dust and debris. And, true to form, he almost immediately began to send up great mushroom clouds of dust in the snack bar/store area of the lha khang and had the furniture in his living quarters shoved aside to make way for the sculpting of a fifteen-foot-high nimbus for Akshobhya. Later, Khyentse Rinpoche, surveying the large slabs of clay and the disorderly signs of artwork-in-progress outside the door to his room, laughed, saying, “Chagdud Rinpoche always enjoys this kind of thing!”
Khyentse Rinpoche’s teaching of the first three chapters of Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara brought that classic text alive. His offering of the Bodhisattva vows penetrated to the very essence of mind, to absolute bodhichitta. It would seem impossible to regress from the momentum of the enlightened intention instilled in the 360 people present. We are looking forward to having the Chagdud Gonpa lamas here for the ritual training in July and to the honor of their joining us for the Essence of Siddhi drubchen, July 22–30.
-----
Chagdud Rinpoche was at Rigdzin Ling this spring for more than two weeks to lead the Red Vajrasattva drubchen, consecrate the stupas, and teach the Three Words of Garab Dorje. The stupa consecration was a particularly moving experience for the many people who contributed time and resources to this vast, meritous effort, and Rinpoche thanked each of them for their offering.
We were pleased to welcome back former residents Chagdud Khadro, Lama Tsering, and Lama Norbu. Over the years, all three have inspired the sangha with their examples of unwavering support for Rinpoche’s dharma activities. They were integral to the development of this center, and are now helping to establish and hold centers in Brazil.
Two new sangha babies have brightened life here at Rigdzin Ling— Majachenmo Rose Kirsten and Julia Padma Wangmo Kane. Both regularly attend our daily pujas and tsoks. Padma Publishing has been in full gear recently with the production of Longchenpa’s Chöying Dzod, which will be available in mid-July, as well as the revised edition of Gates to Buddhist Practice, which will be available in early August.
Upcoming events include teachings on the extensive Red Tara practice to be given by Lama Tsering, August 3–5.
The Essence of Siddhi drubchen with Tulku Jigme Rinpoche, originally scheduled for July, will take place on October 17–25. The day-long lama dancing will be held on October 25. The Orgyen Dzambhala wealth ceremony will take place on October 26.
Lama Drimed’s ngondro retreat has been rescheduled for December 1–7.
-----
A special celebration, the 21st annual Red Tara puja and tsok, took place during the weekend of April 20. The presence of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Tulku Jigme, and Lama Sonam Tsering,
surrounded by a majority of the lamas of Chagdud Gonpa, was both thrilling and inspiring. Two hundred people attended, including some from as far away as the Yukon. Beginning with the empowerment on Friday morning, three days of sadhana practice were fortified by Rinpoche’s direct instructions for actualizing the dharma in our lives in a profound way.
For several months before the event, sangha members came to Dechhen Ling to help prepare for the event with their tools, funds, talents, and unstinting energy. They worked their way through the gonpa, inside and out, and completed a wonderful renovation. By the time the guests arrived, every room was fresh, functional, and comfortably furnished.
Of the people who make our gonpa an active dharma center, one of the most essential is Dick Wilcox. From major building maintenance to helping to hold the practices, his contributions are vital. We would like to thank Dick and his wife, Amanda, particularly for their generous donation of $10,000 in sponsorship of this year’s Tara tsok. Because of their support, we were able to manifest a celebration truly appropriate to the significance of the occasion.
-----
In the past several months, Tulku Jigme Rinpoche and the Ati Ling sangha have been busy and very blessed. The highlight was the April visit of H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche to our little jewel in the redwoods. Rinpoche gave teachings on the nature of mind in Marin County and, at Ati Ling, offered the Thousand-Armed Chenrezig empowerment and nyungnay teachings. Both events were attended by more than four hundred people. On the final morning of his visit, he gave his heart advice to a full shrine room.
During Rinpoche’s visit, it was apparent to many of us how a realized being can benefit others just by his presence. As soon as he arrived, our minds became peaceful and we noticed a clarity that remained even when we were no longer sitting on our meditation cushions. Jigme Rinpoche cautioned us not to take this as a sign of our own practice but as the direct blessings of a realized master.
As an auspicious sign of these blessings, the night Chagdud Rinpoche arrived, a flock of peacocks that lives two miles down the road was heard calling across the driveway. And the day Rinpoche left, so did the peacocks.
Jigme Rinpoche led a nyungnay retreat on June 2 and 3 at Ati Ling. More than twenty-five people attended this event which took place during Saga Dawa, when the merit of practice is multiplied a hundred thousand times. Rinpoche also led a Medicine Buddha retreat here on July 6. He visited the Chicago, Colorado, and Alaska sanghas during June and July, and in August he plans to travel to Tibet for two months. Our fourth annual Vajrakilaya retreat will be held during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, January 11–14, 2002. For more information, visit our website at www.atiling.org.
-----
In December T’hondup Ling welcomed Ven. Gongjang Rinpoche and Khenpo Chowang Dorje for a series of empowerments and teachings before they returned home to Sikkim. Rinpoche also led our monthly Shi-tro practice and participated in a fish release with Lama Gyatso and the sangha.
Beginning in early February, the Shi-tro mandala was the centerpiece of the exhibition “Constructing the Cosmos,” displayed at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena for three months. Lama Gyatso gave two public talks at the museum. Several mandala- making workshops were also offered to the community as part of the Tools for Peace program created to help spread the benefits of the Shi-tro mandala into the larger community. This summer, Tools for Peace will host a sand mandala project, where monks from His Holiness Trulshik Rinpoche’s monastery will create Shi-tro sand mandalas and lead mandala-making workshops.
H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche arrived like a wish-fulfilling jewel in late March and led a three-day Shi-tro mandala consecration ceremony. Several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, covered the event. We had the great fortune to host Rinpoche for two more days of public teachings and empowerments.
In the past few months, we were also honored by visits from H.H. Kusum Lingpa and Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, both of whom consecrated the mandala. The Shi-tro mandala will be exhibited at the San Diego Museum of Art for three months, starting on August 26. On opening day, Lama Gyatso will offer a blessing, and visiting lamas will begin to create a Shi-tro sand mandala at the museum. They will work on the mandala in public until September 8, when the sand mandala will be scattered. Lama Gyatso will give a lecture at the museum on November 9; the Shi-tro mandala exhibit will close on November 10. A family mandala day, which will include a Tools for Peace mandala workshop will be held on September 2.
During Chagdud Rinpoche’s visit, Lama Gyatso publicly announced his intention to create Zangdok Palri, Guru Rinpoche’s Copper-Colored Mountain mandala. The project would include a multilevel temple with large statues, elaborate artwork, and a separate shrine room; these would be part of a healing and retreat center to be built near Los Angeles. There is such a mandala in Thimpu, Bhutan, which Chagdud Rinpoche visited with some of his students in 1991. Rinpoche has offered to lend his assistance with ceremonies, sculpting, and construction of the celestial mansion.
Lama Gyatso led the annual Orgyen Zambhala retreat over Memorial Day weekend; we are planning the annual T’hröma drubchöd for Thanksgiving weekend. For information about our events and projects, contact T’hondup Ling or visit our website at www.thondupling.org.
-----
We had expected that Chagdud Rinpoche’s visit to Rigdzin Gatsal would be a rest stop on his way to the Tara tsok at Cottage Grove, but after settling in and true to his limitless compassion, Rinpoche announced that he would answer questions from the sangha. With only an hour’s notice, the entire sangha showed up!
It was amazing and inspiring to have Rinpoche back, to be able once again to follow him around the Guru Rinpoche statue. He was enthusiastic about plans to build a roof to protect the statue and gave practical advice on how to go about it. We are grateful to John Young for his repairs to Guru Rinpoche’s face and especially for the creation of the individual figures of Eight Emanations of Padmasambhava that now grace the statue above Guru Rinpoche’s head. The statue repairs were completed last winter when Lama Padma Dorje painted the eyes with the gaze of pure samaya.
On his return from Cottage Grove, Rinpoche stopped at Minjur Ling’s new center at the home of Cece and Fenyx Sloan in Medford. The sangha had prepared the spacious, red-walled shrine room in a resplendent manner: one hundred butter lamps blazed, dedicated to Rinpoche’s long life, and vases filled with pink roses surrounded the four-foot-tall Red Tara statue.
Rinpoche graciously spent several hours with sangha members, answering questions and embracing us all with his compassion. To everyone’s amazement, he asked if the already sizable shrine room could be expanded. We all appreciate and are inspired by the Sloans’ warm-hearted hospitality.
That evening, Rinpoche spoke to a full house at the Unitarian Church in Ashland on healing the emotions. Following the teaching, Rinpoche spent the night at the beautiful home of Scott and Mimi Rogers. The next morning, when Rinpoche’s car pulled away all too soon, we were left with an unforgettable experience, our hearts overflowing with the presence of our precious lama.
This article is lovingly dedicated to the memory of the late Terry Pontaleo and to her family, who are part of the Williams community. Terry heroically dealt with cancer for five years and was able to fulfill her heartfelt aspiration to meet Chagdud Rinpoche before she died.
Time here in recent months has been marked by two deadlines. The first coincided with Rinpoche’s return from the United States, when we wanted to show that we had made some progress on our main projects, which included the new prayer wheel installation, the Akshobhya statue, and the stupas. The second involved preparations for H.E. Dzongzar Khyentse Rinpoche’s visit at the end of May, at which time we hoped to present a tidy, well-ordered appearance.
These two goals contradicted each other, because Rinpoche’s projects always generate dust and debris. And, true to form, he almost immediately began to send up great mushroom clouds of dust in the snack bar/store area of the lha khang and had the furniture in his living quarters shoved aside to make way for the sculpting of a fifteen-foot-high nimbus for Akshobhya. Later, Khyentse Rinpoche, surveying the large slabs of clay and the disorderly signs of artwork-in-progress outside the door to his room, laughed, saying, “Chagdud Rinpoche always enjoys this kind of thing!”
Khyentse Rinpoche’s teaching of the first three chapters of Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara brought that classic text alive. His offering of the Bodhisattva vows penetrated to the very essence of mind, to absolute bodhichitta. It would seem impossible to regress from the momentum of the enlightened intention instilled in the 360 people present. We are looking forward to having the Chagdud Gonpa lamas here for the ritual training in July and to the honor of their joining us for the Essence of Siddhi drubchen, July 22–30.
-----
Chagdud Rinpoche was at Rigdzin Ling this spring for more than two weeks to lead the Red Vajrasattva drubchen, consecrate the stupas, and teach the Three Words of Garab Dorje. The stupa consecration was a particularly moving experience for the many people who contributed time and resources to this vast, meritous effort, and Rinpoche thanked each of them for their offering.
We were pleased to welcome back former residents Chagdud Khadro, Lama Tsering, and Lama Norbu. Over the years, all three have inspired the sangha with their examples of unwavering support for Rinpoche’s dharma activities. They were integral to the development of this center, and are now helping to establish and hold centers in Brazil.
Two new sangha babies have brightened life here at Rigdzin Ling— Majachenmo Rose Kirsten and Julia Padma Wangmo Kane. Both regularly attend our daily pujas and tsoks. Padma Publishing has been in full gear recently with the production of Longchenpa’s Chöying Dzod, which will be available in mid-July, as well as the revised edition of Gates to Buddhist Practice, which will be available in early August.
Upcoming events include teachings on the extensive Red Tara practice to be given by Lama Tsering, August 3–5.
The Essence of Siddhi drubchen with Tulku Jigme Rinpoche, originally scheduled for July, will take place on October 17–25. The day-long lama dancing will be held on October 25. The Orgyen Dzambhala wealth ceremony will take place on October 26.
Lama Drimed’s ngondro retreat has been rescheduled for December 1–7.
-----
A special celebration, the 21st annual Red Tara puja and tsok, took place during the weekend of April 20. The presence of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Tulku Jigme, and Lama Sonam Tsering,
surrounded by a majority of the lamas of Chagdud Gonpa, was both thrilling and inspiring. Two hundred people attended, including some from as far away as the Yukon. Beginning with the empowerment on Friday morning, three days of sadhana practice were fortified by Rinpoche’s direct instructions for actualizing the dharma in our lives in a profound way.
For several months before the event, sangha members came to Dechhen Ling to help prepare for the event with their tools, funds, talents, and unstinting energy. They worked their way through the gonpa, inside and out, and completed a wonderful renovation. By the time the guests arrived, every room was fresh, functional, and comfortably furnished.
Of the people who make our gonpa an active dharma center, one of the most essential is Dick Wilcox. From major building maintenance to helping to hold the practices, his contributions are vital. We would like to thank Dick and his wife, Amanda, particularly for their generous donation of $10,000 in sponsorship of this year’s Tara tsok. Because of their support, we were able to manifest a celebration truly appropriate to the significance of the occasion.
-----
In the past several months, Tulku Jigme Rinpoche and the Ati Ling sangha have been busy and very blessed. The highlight was the April visit of H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche to our little jewel in the redwoods. Rinpoche gave teachings on the nature of mind in Marin County and, at Ati Ling, offered the Thousand-Armed Chenrezig empowerment and nyungnay teachings. Both events were attended by more than four hundred people. On the final morning of his visit, he gave his heart advice to a full shrine room.
During Rinpoche’s visit, it was apparent to many of us how a realized being can benefit others just by his presence. As soon as he arrived, our minds became peaceful and we noticed a clarity that remained even when we were no longer sitting on our meditation cushions. Jigme Rinpoche cautioned us not to take this as a sign of our own practice but as the direct blessings of a realized master.
As an auspicious sign of these blessings, the night Chagdud Rinpoche arrived, a flock of peacocks that lives two miles down the road was heard calling across the driveway. And the day Rinpoche left, so did the peacocks.
Jigme Rinpoche led a nyungnay retreat on June 2 and 3 at Ati Ling. More than twenty-five people attended this event which took place during Saga Dawa, when the merit of practice is multiplied a hundred thousand times. Rinpoche also led a Medicine Buddha retreat here on July 6. He visited the Chicago, Colorado, and Alaska sanghas during June and July, and in August he plans to travel to Tibet for two months. Our fourth annual Vajrakilaya retreat will be held during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, January 11–14, 2002. For more information, visit our website at www.atiling.org.
-----
In December T’hondup Ling welcomed Ven. Gongjang Rinpoche and Khenpo Chowang Dorje for a series of empowerments and teachings before they returned home to Sikkim. Rinpoche also led our monthly Shi-tro practice and participated in a fish release with Lama Gyatso and the sangha.
Beginning in early February, the Shi-tro mandala was the centerpiece of the exhibition “Constructing the Cosmos,” displayed at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena for three months. Lama Gyatso gave two public talks at the museum. Several mandala- making workshops were also offered to the community as part of the Tools for Peace program created to help spread the benefits of the Shi-tro mandala into the larger community. This summer, Tools for Peace will host a sand mandala project, where monks from His Holiness Trulshik Rinpoche’s monastery will create Shi-tro sand mandalas and lead mandala-making workshops.
H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche arrived like a wish-fulfilling jewel in late March and led a three-day Shi-tro mandala consecration ceremony. Several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, covered the event. We had the great fortune to host Rinpoche for two more days of public teachings and empowerments.
In the past few months, we were also honored by visits from H.H. Kusum Lingpa and Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, both of whom consecrated the mandala. The Shi-tro mandala will be exhibited at the San Diego Museum of Art for three months, starting on August 26. On opening day, Lama Gyatso will offer a blessing, and visiting lamas will begin to create a Shi-tro sand mandala at the museum. They will work on the mandala in public until September 8, when the sand mandala will be scattered. Lama Gyatso will give a lecture at the museum on November 9; the Shi-tro mandala exhibit will close on November 10. A family mandala day, which will include a Tools for Peace mandala workshop will be held on September 2.
During Chagdud Rinpoche’s visit, Lama Gyatso publicly announced his intention to create Zangdok Palri, Guru Rinpoche’s Copper-Colored Mountain mandala. The project would include a multilevel temple with large statues, elaborate artwork, and a separate shrine room; these would be part of a healing and retreat center to be built near Los Angeles. There is such a mandala in Thimpu, Bhutan, which Chagdud Rinpoche visited with some of his students in 1991. Rinpoche has offered to lend his assistance with ceremonies, sculpting, and construction of the celestial mansion.
Lama Gyatso led the annual Orgyen Zambhala retreat over Memorial Day weekend; we are planning the annual T’hröma drubchöd for Thanksgiving weekend. For information about our events and projects, contact T’hondup Ling or visit our website at www.thondupling.org.
-----
We had expected that Chagdud Rinpoche’s visit to Rigdzin Gatsal would be a rest stop on his way to the Tara tsok at Cottage Grove, but after settling in and true to his limitless compassion, Rinpoche announced that he would answer questions from the sangha. With only an hour’s notice, the entire sangha showed up!
It was amazing and inspiring to have Rinpoche back, to be able once again to follow him around the Guru Rinpoche statue. He was enthusiastic about plans to build a roof to protect the statue and gave practical advice on how to go about it. We are grateful to John Young for his repairs to Guru Rinpoche’s face and especially for the creation of the individual figures of Eight Emanations of Padmasambhava that now grace the statue above Guru Rinpoche’s head. The statue repairs were completed last winter when Lama Padma Dorje painted the eyes with the gaze of pure samaya.
On his return from Cottage Grove, Rinpoche stopped at Minjur Ling’s new center at the home of Cece and Fenyx Sloan in Medford. The sangha had prepared the spacious, red-walled shrine room in a resplendent manner: one hundred butter lamps blazed, dedicated to Rinpoche’s long life, and vases filled with pink roses surrounded the four-foot-tall Red Tara statue.
Rinpoche graciously spent several hours with sangha members, answering questions and embracing us all with his compassion. To everyone’s amazement, he asked if the already sizable shrine room could be expanded. We all appreciate and are inspired by the Sloans’ warm-hearted hospitality.
That evening, Rinpoche spoke to a full house at the Unitarian Church in Ashland on healing the emotions. Following the teaching, Rinpoche spent the night at the beautiful home of Scott and Mimi Rogers. The next morning, when Rinpoche’s car pulled away all too soon, we were left with an unforgettable experience, our hearts overflowing with the presence of our precious lama.
This article is lovingly dedicated to the memory of the late Terry Pontaleo and to her family, who are part of the Williams community. Terry heroically dealt with cancer for five years and was able to fulfill her heartfelt aspiration to meet Chagdud Rinpoche before she died.
Time here in recent months has been marked by two deadlines. The first coincided with Rinpoche’s return from the United States, when we wanted to show that we had made some progress on our main projects, which included the new prayer wheel installation, the Akshobhya statue, and the stupas. The second involved preparations for H.E. Dzongzar Khyentse Rinpoche’s visit at the end of May, at which time we hoped to present a tidy, well-ordered appearance.
These two goals contradicted each other, because Rinpoche’s projects always generate dust and debris. And, true to form, he almost immediately began to send up great mushroom clouds of dust in the snack bar/store area of the lha khang and had the furniture in his living quarters shoved aside to make way for the sculpting of a fifteen-foot-high nimbus for Akshobhya. Later, Khyentse Rinpoche, surveying the large slabs of clay and the disorderly signs of artwork-in-progress outside the door to his room, laughed, saying, “Chagdud Rinpoche always enjoys this kind of thing!”
Khyentse Rinpoche’s teaching of the first three chapters of Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara brought that classic text alive. His offering of the Bodhisattva vows penetrated to the very essence of mind, to absolute bodhichitta. It would seem impossible to regress from the momentum of the enlightened intention instilled in the 360 people present. We are looking forward to having the Chagdud Gonpa lamas here for the ritual training in July and to the honor of their joining us for the Essence of Siddhi drubchen, July 22–30.
-----
Chagdud Rinpoche was at Rigdzin Ling this spring for more than two weeks to lead the Red Vajrasattva drubchen, consecrate the stupas, and teach the Three Words of Garab Dorje. The stupa consecration was a particularly moving experience for the many people who contributed time and resources to this vast, meritous effort, and Rinpoche thanked each of them for their offering.
We were pleased to welcome back former residents Chagdud Khadro, Lama Tsering, and Lama Norbu. Over the years, all three have inspired the sangha with their examples of unwavering support for Rinpoche’s dharma activities. They were integral to the development of this center, and are now helping to establish and hold centers in Brazil.
Two new sangha babies have brightened life here at Rigdzin Ling— Majachenmo Rose Kirsten and Julia Padma Wangmo Kane. Both regularly attend our daily pujas and tsoks. Padma Publishing has been in full gear recently with the production of Longchenpa’s Chöying Dzod, which will be available in mid-July, as well as the revised edition of Gates to Buddhist Practice, which will be available in early August.
Upcoming events include teachings on the extensive Red Tara practice to be given by Lama Tsering, August 3–5.
The Essence of Siddhi drubchen with Tulku Jigme Rinpoche, originally scheduled for July, will take place on October 17–25. The day-long lama dancing will be held on October 25. The Orgyen Dzambhala wealth ceremony will take place on October 26.
Lama Drimed’s ngondro retreat has been rescheduled for December 1–7.
-----
A special celebration, the 21st annual Red Tara puja and tsok, took place during the weekend of April 20. The presence of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Tulku Jigme, and Lama Sonam Tsering,
surrounded by a majority of the lamas of Chagdud Gonpa, was both thrilling and inspiring. Two hundred people attended, including some from as far away as the Yukon. Beginning with the empowerment on Friday morning, three days of sadhana practice were fortified by Rinpoche’s direct instructions for actualizing the dharma in our lives in a profound way.
For several months before the event, sangha members came to Dechhen Ling to help prepare for the event with their tools, funds, talents, and unstinting energy. They worked their way through the gonpa, inside and out, and completed a wonderful renovation. By the time the guests arrived, every room was fresh, functional, and comfortably furnished.
Of the people who make our gonpa an active dharma center, one of the most essential is Dick Wilcox. From major building maintenance to helping to hold the practices, his contributions are vital. We would like to thank Dick and his wife, Amanda, particularly for their generous donation of $10,000 in sponsorship of this year’s Tara tsok. Because of their support, we were able to manifest a celebration truly appropriate to the significance of the occasion.
-----
In the past several months, Tulku Jigme Rinpoche and the Ati Ling sangha have been busy and very blessed. The highlight was the April visit of H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche to our little jewel in the redwoods. Rinpoche gave teachings on the nature of mind in Marin County and, at Ati Ling, offered the Thousand-Armed Chenrezig empowerment and nyungnay teachings. Both events were attended by more than four hundred people. On the final morning of his visit, he gave his heart advice to a full shrine room.
During Rinpoche’s visit, it was apparent to many of us how a realized being can benefit others just by his presence. As soon as he arrived, our minds became peaceful and we noticed a clarity that remained even when we were no longer sitting on our meditation cushions. Jigme Rinpoche cautioned us not to take this as a sign of our own practice but as the direct blessings of a realized master.
As an auspicious sign of these blessings, the night Chagdud Rinpoche arrived, a flock of peacocks that lives two miles down the road was heard calling across the driveway. And the day Rinpoche left, so did the peacocks.
Jigme Rinpoche led a nyungnay retreat on June 2 and 3 at Ati Ling. More than twenty-five people attended this event which took place during Saga Dawa, when the merit of practice is multiplied a hundred thousand times. Rinpoche also led a Medicine Buddha retreat here on July 6. He visited the Chicago, Colorado, and Alaska sanghas during June and July, and in August he plans to travel to Tibet for two months. Our fourth annual Vajrakilaya retreat will be held during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, January 11–14, 2002. For more information, visit our website at www.atiling.org.
-----
In December T’hondup Ling welcomed Ven. Gongjang Rinpoche and Khenpo Chowang Dorje for a series of empowerments and teachings before they returned home to Sikkim. Rinpoche also led our monthly Shi-tro practice and participated in a fish release with Lama Gyatso and the sangha.
Beginning in early February, the Shi-tro mandala was the centerpiece of the exhibition “Constructing the Cosmos,” displayed at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena for three months. Lama Gyatso gave two public talks at the museum. Several mandala- making workshops were also offered to the community as part of the Tools for Peace program created to help spread the benefits of the Shi-tro mandala into the larger community. This summer, Tools for Peace will host a sand mandala project, where monks from His Holiness Trulshik Rinpoche’s monastery will create Shi-tro sand mandalas and lead mandala-making workshops.
H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche arrived like a wish-fulfilling jewel in late March and led a three-day Shi-tro mandala consecration ceremony. Several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, covered the event. We had the great fortune to host Rinpoche for two more days of public teachings and empowerments.
In the past few months, we were also honored by visits from H.H. Kusum Lingpa and Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, both of whom consecrated the mandala. The Shi-tro mandala will be exhibited at the San Diego Museum of Art for three months, starting on August 26. On opening day, Lama Gyatso will offer a blessing, and visiting lamas will begin to create a Shi-tro sand mandala at the museum. They will work on the mandala in public until September 8, when the sand mandala will be scattered. Lama Gyatso will give a lecture at the museum on November 9; the Shi-tro mandala exhibit will close on November 10. A family mandala day, which will include a Tools for Peace mandala workshop will be held on September 2.
During Chagdud Rinpoche’s visit, Lama Gyatso publicly announced his intention to create Zangdok Palri, Guru Rinpoche’s Copper-Colored Mountain mandala. The project would include a multilevel temple with large statues, elaborate artwork, and a separate shrine room; these would be part of a healing and retreat center to be built near Los Angeles. There is such a mandala in Thimpu, Bhutan, which Chagdud Rinpoche visited with some of his students in 1991. Rinpoche has offered to lend his assistance with ceremonies, sculpting, and construction of the celestial mansion.
Lama Gyatso led the annual Orgyen Zambhala retreat over Memorial Day weekend; we are planning the annual T’hröma drubchöd for Thanksgiving weekend. For information about our events and projects, contact T’hondup Ling or visit our website at www.thondupling.org.
-----
We had expected that Chagdud Rinpoche’s visit to Rigdzin Gatsal would be a rest stop on his way to the Tara tsok at Cottage Grove, but after settling in and true to his limitless compassion, Rinpoche announced that he would answer questions from the sangha. With only an hour’s notice, the entire sangha showed up!
It was amazing and inspiring to have Rinpoche back, to be able once again to follow him around the Guru Rinpoche statue. He was enthusiastic about plans to build a roof to protect the statue and gave practical advice on how to go about it. We are grateful to John Young for his repairs to Guru Rinpoche’s face and especially for the creation of the individual figures of Eight Emanations of Padmasambhava that now grace the statue above Guru Rinpoche’s head. The statue repairs were completed last winter when Lama Padma Dorje painted the eyes with the gaze of pure samaya.
On his return from Cottage Grove, Rinpoche stopped at Minjur Ling’s new center at the home of Cece and Fenyx Sloan in Medford. The sangha had prepared the spacious, red-walled shrine room in a resplendent manner: one hundred butter lamps blazed, dedicated to Rinpoche’s long life, and vases filled with pink roses surrounded the four-foot-tall Red Tara statue.
Rinpoche graciously spent several hours with sangha members, answering questions and embracing us all with his compassion. To everyone’s amazement, he asked if the already sizable shrine room could be expanded. We all appreciate and are inspired by the Sloans’ warm-hearted hospitality.
That evening, Rinpoche spoke to a full house at the Unitarian Church in Ashland on healing the emotions. Following the teaching, Rinpoche spent the night at the beautiful home of Scott and Mimi Rogers. The next morning, when Rinpoche’s car pulled away all too soon, we were left with an unforgettable experience, our hearts overflowing with the presence of our precious lama.
This article is lovingly dedicated to the memory of the late Terry Pontaleo and to her family, who are part of the Williams community. Terry heroically dealt with cancer for five years and was able to fulfill her heartfelt aspiration to meet Chagdud Rinpoche before she died.
Time here in recent months has been marked by two deadlines. The first coincided with Rinpoche’s return from the United States, when we wanted to show that we had made some progress on our main projects, which included the new prayer wheel installation, the Akshobhya statue, and the stupas. The second involved preparations for H.E. Dzongzar Khyentse Rinpoche’s visit at the end of May, at which time we hoped to present a tidy, well-ordered appearance.
These two goals contradicted each other, because Rinpoche’s projects always generate dust and debris. And, true to form, he almost immediately began to send up great mushroom clouds of dust in the snack bar/store area of the lha khang and had the furniture in his living quarters shoved aside to make way for the sculpting of a fifteen-foot-high nimbus for Akshobhya. Later, Khyentse Rinpoche, surveying the large slabs of clay and the disorderly signs of artwork-in-progress outside the door to his room, laughed, saying, “Chagdud Rinpoche always enjoys this kind of thing!”
Khyentse Rinpoche’s teaching of the first three chapters of Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara brought that classic text alive. His offering of the Bodhisattva vows penetrated to the very essence of mind, to absolute bodhichitta. It would seem impossible to regress from the momentum of the enlightened intention instilled in the 360 people present. We are looking forward to having the Chagdud Gonpa lamas here for the ritual training in July and to the honor of their joining us for the Essence of Siddhi drubchen, July 22–30.
-----
Chagdud Rinpoche was at Rigdzin Ling this spring for more than two weeks to lead the Red Vajrasattva drubchen, consecrate the stupas, and teach the Three Words of Garab Dorje. The stupa consecration was a particularly moving experience for the many people who contributed time and resources to this vast, meritous effort, and Rinpoche thanked each of them for their offering.
We were pleased to welcome back former residents Chagdud Khadro, Lama Tsering, and Lama Norbu. Over the years, all three have inspired the sangha with their examples of unwavering support for Rinpoche’s dharma activities. They were integral to the development of this center, and are now helping to establish and hold centers in Brazil.
Two new sangha babies have brightened life here at Rigdzin Ling— Majachenmo Rose Kirsten and Julia Padma Wangmo Kane. Both regularly attend our daily pujas and tsoks. Padma Publishing has been in full gear recently with the production of Longchenpa’s Chöying Dzod, which will be available in mid-July, as well as the revised edition of Gates to Buddhist Practice, which will be available in early August.
Upcoming events include teachings on the extensive Red Tara practice to be given by Lama Tsering, August 3–5.
The Essence of Siddhi drubchen with Tulku Jigme Rinpoche, originally scheduled for July, will take place on October 17–25. The day-long lama dancing will be held on October 25. The Orgyen Dzambhala wealth ceremony will take place on October 26.
Lama Drimed’s ngondro retreat has been rescheduled for December 1–7.
-----
A special celebration, the 21st annual Red Tara puja and tsok, took place during the weekend of April 20. The presence of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Tulku Jigme, and Lama Sonam Tsering,
surrounded by a majority of the lamas of Chagdud Gonpa, was both thrilling and inspiring. Two hundred people attended, including some from as far away as the Yukon. Beginning with the empowerment on Friday morning, three days of sadhana practice were fortified by Rinpoche’s direct instructions for actualizing the dharma in our lives in a profound way.
For several months before the event, sangha members came to Dechhen Ling to help prepare for the event with their tools, funds, talents, and unstinting energy. They worked their way through the gonpa, inside and out, and completed a wonderful renovation. By the time the guests arrived, every room was fresh, functional, and comfortably furnished.
Of the people who make our gonpa an active dharma center, one of the most essential is Dick Wilcox. From major building maintenance to helping to hold the practices, his contributions are vital. We would like to thank Dick and his wife, Amanda, particularly for their generous donation of $10,000 in sponsorship of this year’s Tara tsok. Because of their support, we were able to manifest a celebration truly appropriate to the significance of the occasion.
-----
In the past several months, Tulku Jigme Rinpoche and the Ati Ling sangha have been busy and very blessed. The highlight was the April visit of H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche to our little jewel in the redwoods. Rinpoche gave teachings on the nature of mind in Marin County and, at Ati Ling, offered the Thousand-Armed Chenrezig empowerment and nyungnay teachings. Both events were attended by more than four hundred people. On the final morning of his visit, he gave his heart advice to a full shrine room.
During Rinpoche’s visit, it was apparent to many of us how a realized being can benefit others just by his presence. As soon as he arrived, our minds became peaceful and we noticed a clarity that remained even when we were no longer sitting on our meditation cushions. Jigme Rinpoche cautioned us not to take this as a sign of our own practice but as the direct blessings of a realized master.
As an auspicious sign of these blessings, the night Chagdud Rinpoche arrived, a flock of peacocks that lives two miles down the road was heard calling across the driveway. And the day Rinpoche left, so did the peacocks.
Jigme Rinpoche led a nyungnay retreat on June 2 and 3 at Ati Ling. More than twenty-five people attended this event which took place during Saga Dawa, when the merit of practice is multiplied a hundred thousand times. Rinpoche also led a Medicine Buddha retreat here on July 6. He visited the Chicago, Colorado, and Alaska sanghas during June and July, and in August he plans to travel to Tibet for two months. Our fourth annual Vajrakilaya retreat will be held during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, January 11–14, 2002. For more information, visit our website at www.atiling.org.
-----
In December T’hondup Ling welcomed Ven. Gongjang Rinpoche and Khenpo Chowang Dorje for a series of empowerments and teachings before they returned home to Sikkim. Rinpoche also led our monthly Shi-tro practice and participated in a fish release with Lama Gyatso and the sangha.
Beginning in early February, the Shi-tro mandala was the centerpiece of the exhibition “Constructing the Cosmos,” displayed at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena for three months. Lama Gyatso gave two public talks at the museum. Several mandala- making workshops were also offered to the community as part of the Tools for Peace program created to help spread the benefits of the Shi-tro mandala into the larger community. This summer, Tools for Peace will host a sand mandala project, where monks from His Holiness Trulshik Rinpoche’s monastery will create Shi-tro sand mandalas and lead mandala-making workshops.
H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche arrived like a wish-fulfilling jewel in late March and led a three-day Shi-tro mandala consecration ceremony. Several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, covered the event. We had the great fortune to host Rinpoche for two more days of public teachings and empowerments.
In the past few months, we were also honored by visits from H.H. Kusum Lingpa and Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, both of whom consecrated the mandala. The Shi-tro mandala will be exhibited at the San Diego Museum of Art for three months, starting on August 26. On opening day, Lama Gyatso will offer a blessing, and visiting lamas will begin to create a Shi-tro sand mandala at the museum. They will work on the mandala in public until September 8, when the sand mandala will be scattered. Lama Gyatso will give a lecture at the museum on November 9; the Shi-tro mandala exhibit will close on November 10. A family mandala day, which will include a Tools for Peace mandala workshop will be held on September 2.
During Chagdud Rinpoche’s visit, Lama Gyatso publicly announced his intention to create Zangdok Palri, Guru Rinpoche’s Copper-Colored Mountain mandala. The project would include a multilevel temple with large statues, elaborate artwork, and a separate shrine room; these would be part of a healing and retreat center to be built near Los Angeles. There is such a mandala in Thimpu, Bhutan, which Chagdud Rinpoche visited with some of his students in 1991. Rinpoche has offered to lend his assistance with ceremonies, sculpting, and construction of the celestial mansion.
Lama Gyatso led the annual Orgyen Zambhala retreat over Memorial Day weekend; we are planning the annual T’hröma drubchöd for Thanksgiving weekend. For information about our events and projects, contact T’hondup Ling or visit our website at www.thondupling.org.
-----
We had expected that Chagdud Rinpoche’s visit to Rigdzin Gatsal would be a rest stop on his way to the Tara tsok at Cottage Grove, but after settling in and true to his limitless compassion, Rinpoche announced that he would answer questions from the sangha. With only an hour’s notice, the entire sangha showed up!
It was amazing and inspiring to have Rinpoche back, to be able once again to follow him around the Guru Rinpoche statue. He was enthusiastic about plans to build a roof to protect the statue and gave practical advice on how to go about it. We are grateful to John Young for his repairs to Guru Rinpoche’s face and especially for the creation of the individual figures of Eight Emanations of Padmasambhava that now grace the statue above Guru Rinpoche’s head. The statue repairs were completed last winter when Lama Padma Dorje painted the eyes with the gaze of pure samaya.
On his return from Cottage Grove, Rinpoche stopped at Minjur Ling’s new center at the home of Cece and Fenyx Sloan in Medford. The sangha had prepared the spacious, red-walled shrine room in a resplendent manner: one hundred butter lamps blazed, dedicated to Rinpoche’s long life, and vases filled with pink roses surrounded the four-foot-tall Red Tara statue.
Rinpoche graciously spent several hours with sangha members, answering questions and embracing us all with his compassion. To everyone’s amazement, he asked if the already sizable shrine room could be expanded. We all appreciate and are inspired by the Sloans’ warm-hearted hospitality.
That evening, Rinpoche spoke to a full house at the Unitarian Church in Ashland on healing the emotions. Following the teaching, Rinpoche spent the night at the beautiful home of Scott and Mimi Rogers. The next morning, when Rinpoche’s car pulled away all too soon, we were left with an unforgettable experience, our hearts overflowing with the presence of our precious lama.
This article is lovingly dedicated to the memory of the late Terry Pontaleo and to her family, who are part of the Williams community. Terry heroically dealt with cancer for five years and was able to fulfill her heartfelt aspiration to meet Chagdud Rinpoche before she died.
