About
We are all deeply indebted to The Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche for his inspiring generosity in making the teachings of Medicine Buddha available to our world at this time. This teaching and practice can benefit our world in ways we may not even conceive of at this time.
He is the ninth in his lineage of incarnations committed to helping our world. He is one of the foremost teachers in what is called the Kagyu School of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. This line of teachings, as all Buddhist lineages do, traces its origins to Shakyamuni Buddha himself, who not only fully realized his own original, innate wisdom, but also dedicated himself to supporting all others in realizing their own inner wisdom as well. This wisdom not only manifests as an inner peace but also as a commitment to helping others in any way possible. This wisdom was then passed on to the Indian Mahasiddha Tilopa (988-1089) who engendered what was to become the Kagyu tradition. Subsequent teachers were Naropa, and then the Tibetan bloodline with Marpa, Milarepa, Gampopa, and finally the line of Karmapas up to the present seventeenth. The Kagyu lineage is known as the practice lineage because of its commitment to actually doing what we need to do to wake up. The particular practice of this lineage is called Mahamudra, or The Great Seal. As a master of this lineage, you can read about this on in the writings of Thrangu Rinopche.
Thrangu Rinpoche began his journey on the Buddhist path with a program of intense study and practice at 5 years of age. He brought those many years of training to fruition first while still in Tibet, and later, when forced to flee the Cultural Revolution, to the rest of the west and the rest of the world. He has taught other teachers from all the lineages of Tibet, and most recently has been the personal tutor to His Holiness, the Seventeenth Karmapa. His Holiness The Dalai Lama has conferred the degree of Larampa on him, indicating that His Eminence has mastered all four streams of Vajrayana teachings of Tibetan Buddhist Dharma. If you want to learn anything about the essence of this vast storehouse of wisdom, please read any of his books. His website is www.rinpoche.com.
While many great teachers have taught Medicine Buddha in their own tradition, and all traditions can benefit our world, I am so grateful to have studied Menla with this brilliant and compassionate person. In addition, I would like to express my heart gratitude to my first teacher, The Venerable Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He taught me and countless others to sit. Nothing more really need be said, but volumes more are possible. He learned western culture better than most westerners will ever do. He spoke a unified language of wakefulness in our world. He founded Shambhala Training, Naropa University, Maitri Space Awareness, and countless other vehicles for moving our generation along their own path to wakefulness. To learn more of Trungpa Rinpoche’s teachings, please see http://chogyamtrungpa.com/projects/#all/1/list
Here are some links that might be helpful:
To learn more about Thrangu Rinpoche, visit http://thrangumonastery.org/teachers/v-v-thrangu-rinpoche/
To learn more about Thrangu Rinpoche’s monasteries, books and programs, visit http://rinpoche.com
Finally, I would like to invite you to join in with me first in simply appreciating the work of the noble volunteers of Shree Mangal Dvip (SMD) School for displaced Tibetan Children in Nepal. This school is one of the many charitable projects that His Eminence guides and supports. These children and their families have endured terrible conditions in order to escape oppression in their homeland.
All profits from sales of any Medicine Buddha related materials will be donated to Shree Mangal Dvip. With an average elevation of 16,000 feet, life in Tibet must have had its challenges. Yet is also supported this great abundance of wisdom teachers and practices that we are encountering in our world today. Still, the cost of transporting this wisdom gift to us has been staggering. It is estimated that up to 1,000,000 Tibetans may have died in what has been called The Great Leap Forward. Many families are still leaving their homeland in order to find the freedom we often take for granted.
SMD works to care for the most vulnerable members of the displaced Tibetan population, the children who will some day offer their own good heart to the world. SMD is run by selfless volunteers who do everything they can to help these children not only survive but also learn to engage effectively with the bigger, modern world. The boys and girls who attend this school are taught, in English, all the modern, secular subjects that students in the West would be expected to learn. They also learn the basics of meditation. However, the main goal is to help this population rise up from poverty and function better in the modern world. This is a great cause.
If you can, please make a donation to Shree Mangyal Dvip, Thrangu Rinpoche’s school for displaced Tibetan children in Nepal. The need is huge. Please give whatever you can. If possible, you can sponsor a child attending the school, and communicate with that young person from time to time.
It is a true delight to do so.
All profits from sales of Medicine Buddha related materials will be donated to Shree Mangyal Dvip.
You learn more about the school at http://himalayanchildren.org/ and http://www.thranguhk.org/en_project_smd.html
