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Category: Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche

  • Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche

    Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche

    Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche was born in the Dhoshul region of Kham in eastern Tibet on June 10, 1950. On that summer day in the family tent, Rinpoche’s birth caused his mother no pain. The next day, his mother, Pema Lhadze, moved the bed where she had given birth. Beneath it she found growing a beautiful and fragrant flower which she plucked and offered to Chenrezig on the family altar.

    Soon after his birth three head lamas from Jadchag monastery came to his home and recognized him as the reincarnation of Khenpo Sherab Khyentse. Khenpo Sherab Khyentse, who had been the former head abbot lama at Gochen Monastery, was a renowned scholar and practitioner who lived much of his life in retreat.

    Rinpoche’s first Dharma teacher was his father, Lama Chimed Namgyal. Beginning his schooling at the age of five, he entered Gochen Monastery. His studies were interrupted when his family had to escape to India. In India, his father and brother, Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche (1932-2010), continued his education until he entered the Nyingmapa Monastic School of Northern India, where he studied until 1967.

    He then entered the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, which was then a part of Sanskrit University in Varanasi, where he received his B.A. degree in 1975. He also attended Nyingmapa University in West Bengal, where he received another B.A. and an M.A. in 1977. In 1978 Rinpoche was enthroned as the abbot of the Wish-fulfilling

    Nyingmapa Institute in Boudanath, Nepal by H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, and later became the abbot of the Department of Dharma Studies, where he taught poetry, grammar, philosophy, and psychology. In 1981, H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche appointed Rinpoche as the abbot of the Dorje 217Nyingpo Center in Paris, France. In 1982 he was asked to work with H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche at the Yeshe Nyingpo Center in New York. During the 1980s, until H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche’s mahaparinirvana in 1987, Rinpoche continued working closely with him, often traveling as his translator and attendant.

    In 1988, Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche founded the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center (PBC) to preserve the authentic message of Buddha Shakyamuni and Guru Padmasambhava in its entirety, and in particular to teach the traditions of the Nyingma school and Vajrayana Buddhism. PBC includes over 20 centers in the U.S.A., India, Puerto Rico, Latvia, and Russia, as well as monastic institutions in India, the U.S.A., and Russia.

    As a holder of the complete Nyingmapa lineage, Khenpo Tsewang Rinpoche is fully versed in the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana schools, and is a master of Dzogchen. He has co-authored over 35 Dharma books in English with Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, and has personally authored several books, including a biography on His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche named Light of Fearless Indestructible Wisdom, two books of poetry on the life of Guru Rinpoche, including Praise to the Lotus Born: A Verse Garland of Waves of Devotion, and a unique two-volume cultural and religious history of Tibet entitled “Expressing the Six Distinctive Greatnesses of the Ancient School by Recalling the Kind Legacy of the Great Masters, Translators, and Dharma Kings, Known as “Rejoicing Laughter of the Noble Beings,” which details the historical bases of the Dharma in Tibet from the sixth through ninth centuries. At present, this is one of the only books written that conveys the Dharma activities of this historical period in such depth.

    Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Rinpoche actively travels throughout the world giving teachings, empowerments, and personal guidance in fluent English at numerous retreats.

    The main monastery and retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center is Padma Samye Ling Monastery and Retreat Center, located in Delaware County in upstate New York. Located in the western region of the Catskill Mountains, the outstanding facilities are contained within 500 acres of forests, meadows, and natural springs. PSL hosts group and personal retreats throughout the year, as well as an annual philosophical Shedra, weekly Dharma Study, and a long-term residency volunteer program.

    218For more information about Khenpo Tsewang Rinpoche’s activities, the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center, or to schedule coming to PSL for retreat or a visit, please contact:

    Padma Samye Ling

    618 Buddha Highway

    Sidney Center, NY 13839

    (607) 865-8068

  • MADHYAMAKALAMKARAVRITTI: Shantarakshita’s commentary on his Ornament of the Middle Way

    by Abbot Shantarakshita

    “Scripture, without a logic that is based on
    the evidence of things, will not satisfy even
    faithful followers.”
    —Shantarakshita
    Shantarakshita follows in the footsteps of Buddha Shakyamuni who stated that no one should accept his view without testing it as a goldsmith tests gold. In this seminal 8th century text he deconstructs, illucidates and defends Madhayamaka as the essence and central philosophical bases of Mahayana, as elaborated by Nagurjuna—which work preceded the advent of a Buddhist age over much of Asia for a 1000 years. It’s tenets still remains relevant today with discoveries and inventions based on science investigating the ‘nature’ of nature.
    In the Madhyamakalamkaravritti, his commentary on his root text The Adornment of the Middle Way, Shantarakshita aims to completely clarify the position that, while ultimately reality eludes our comprehension, conventional knowledge is useful as a tool for navigating appearances all of which are no more real than the reflection of the moon in water.
    His method of establishing this relies almost exclusively on one tool: To be real an entity must be one or many. If he can show that all the candidates for the real, such as atoms, matter, space, time, God, the soul, subject, object and causal relations fail this test, that if they cannot be said to be one, because the one is not substantial, then it cannot function to produce many.
    Shantarakshita’s motivation for this radical destruction of our basic and cherished beliefs, is to liberate us from anything that can cause us suffering. If we cling to our illusory world, it will fail us, because it is impermanent.
    In sloka 16, Shantarakshita does make one positive assertion about reality, when he asserts self-awareness. But he is careful not to become trapped in the classic Buddhist model of subject, object and activity. Self-awareness, he argues, cannot be understood in this way. Subject and object are not distinct nor identical, not one, not many. Self-awareness has no substantial existence.

    Buy your copy of MADHYAMAKALAMKARAVRITTI on:

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  • Tattvasiddhi and Madhyamakalankara by Shantarakshita with Commentary

    by Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche

    Tattvasiddhi: The Attainment of Suchness and Madhyamakalankara: The Ornament of the Middle Way
     
    Includes English translations of the root text of both works by Shantarakshita, with detailed commentary by the Venerable Khenpo Rinpoches, as well as Tibetan and Sanskrit versions of the root texts.
     
    Edited by Marie-Louise Friquegnon and Arthur Mandelbaum in collaboration with Geshe Lozang Jamspal
     
    “By tasting of the feast of reasoning contained therein, One will become a crown and summit of the many learned ones Who on the path of reasoning for many lives,
    Through many hardships came to mastery in proof and refutation, Uprooting every falsehood.
     
    Even in the noble land this master’s like was rarely found. Ah, such was the great fortune of the people of Tibet He was invited by their king and sovereign! And as I think of it my mind Is helplessly transported with a wondrous joy!”
    -Je Tsongkhapa
     
    “I venerate the great abbot Shantarakshita, whose skill opened the way of using logical reasoning, to explain to his disciples in accordance with their dispositions, the Middle Way path of emptiness, devoid of duality. He spread the conqueror’s teachings in the Land of the Snows.”
    -His Holiness the Dalai Lama
     
    “Glorious Shantarakshita, the sacred holder of the vows, Padmasambhava, the master of both yoga and accomplishment, Losel Wangpo and Kamalasila: these are second Buddhas in this age of decadence.”
    -Sakya Pandita

    Buy your copy of Tattvasiddhi and Madhyamakalankara by Shantarakshita with Commentary on:

    PADMASAMBHAVA BUDDHIST CENTER
    Amazon