The Bodhisattva Institute
A Tibetan Meditation Center
of the Dagshang Kagyu Tradition
Founded by H.E. Kalu Rinpoche
A Tibetan Meditation Center
of the Dagshang Kagyu Tradition
Founded by H.E. Kalu Rinpoche
Teachers
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Lama
Choying’s Biography
Lama
Choying took refuge and started practicing in 1991. In 1998, he moved
into KDK
in San Francisco and enrolled in a Five Year Program, a curriculum of practice
and instruction given by the Venerable Lama Lodu Rinpoche.
When
Rinpoche announced he would be teaching a new traditional Three Year Retreat
at the KDK Retreat Land in 2006, Lama Choying recognized the precious opportunity
to receive the Shangpa Kagyu teachings directly from a highly realized
master.
Lama
Choying took novice monk vows in November 2005 as part of the retreat discipline
for the next three years and four months.
In April of 2009, he concluded
the rigorous Three Year Retreat. Many
practitioners and Western and Eastern
Lamas converged on the Retreat Land for a Mahakala Drub.Chen, an eight day
ritual, to celebrate this wonderful occasion.
Lama
Choying holds deep respect for the
lineage,the kindness and skillful means
of his kind root guru, and strives to benefit all sentient beings.
Lama Jinpa Tharchin Through the enduring aspiration of many serious Dharma Students, I have
been requested to take on the responsibilities of teacher at the
Bodhisattva Institute. While I feel less than qualified for such a task, I have
willingly accepted this appointment and will do my best to provide the
teachings and example that will benefit the students here and all sentient
beings.
My background is much like any of yours; I grew up in the mid-west, and attended the University of Michigan where I graduated in 1970, having lived through some of the most tumultuous times on that activist campus. Shortly after my graduation, I began to meditate, teaching myself to sit zazen style and reciting a daily refuge prayer that I found in a book. I continued this practice with a fair amount of diligence for six years. In 1977 I attended the Jack Kerouac School at Naropa Institute in Boulder, where I was encouraged to participate in the group meditations at the Dharmadhatu center, guided in those days by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. I found this to be thoroughly inspiring. While following a course of writing classes, I concurrently studied with Maizumi Roshi of the L.A. Zen Center, who was in residence in Boulder at the time. My practice took on a greater depth an my interest in the formal study of Buddhism increased. In 1979 I had the great good fortune to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Berkeley, California, and received a profound blessing from him. This inspired me to begin a search for a personal teacher.
After a year living in France and attending school there, I returned to the states in the summer of 1980, and by chance happened upon the KDK center in San Francisco which was located near where I was living. I met Lama Lodru Rinpoche and immediately took formal refuge with him and began to practice under his direct guidance. Within a year I was fortunate enough to meet Trungpa Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and best of all, His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa. This was, needless to say, a most profound and life-changing experience. I feel truly grateful to Lama Lodru Rinpoche for guiding me to these auspicious connections.
Three-Year Retreat
One year after, again through the great blessing of Lama Lodru Rinpoche, I met my root lama, His Eminence Kalu Rinpoche. I attended the Kalachakra empowerment and teaching that Kalu Rinpoche bestowed on that visit, and also attended a 16-day retreat in Oregon, where Kalu Rinpoche bestowed many teachings of the Dagpo and Shangpa Kagyu lineages. It was at this time that Rinpoche suggested to a small number of his students that we prepare for the traditional Three-Year Retreat.
Rinpoche promised he would return as soon as we were ready and bestow the necessary empowerments, instructions, and reading transmissions for the retreat. During the next four years I practiced and prepared, and through the great blessings of my Dharma teachers and friends, I was able to complete my ngondro practice, learn a modicum of Tibetan, and develop the renunciation and devotion to enable me to undertake the Three-Year Retreat.
In 1986, Kalu Rinpoche returned to the US and gave Mahamudra teachings in San Francisco. After that we traveled north to Oregon for what would be the most profound two weeks of my life. During that period of time, in spite of his advanced years, Rinpoche tirelessly bestowed the extensive cycle of Shangpa Kagyu empowerments and several empowerments from the Karma Kagyu that would be necessary for our retreat. This was totally inspiring, magical at times, and close to overwhelming. I cannot fully describe what really happened during those two weeks; I can only hope that by my actions and practice others may come to experience something of the all-pervading wisdom, power, and compassion that swept us away at that time.
At the conclusion of the empowerments, Rinpoche formally placed us in retreat at the KDK retreat land (then near Marcola, Oregon), giving us vows and encouraging us to attain full enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. The following three years and three months were marked by great effort, discipline, and intensive meditation practice. I won't say that is was always easy, but at times I had the impression I was abiding in the pure realms, all conditions conducive to liberation. Both Lama Lodru and Lama Tsang-Tsing, our retreat master, were extremely kind and helpful throughout the retreat, providing us with everything we needed to accomplish our purpose. His Eminence Kalu Rinpoche passed beyond this realm during our retreat, but continues even now to provide me with my inspiration to follow the path to its natural destination. Through the blessing of Lama Lodru Rinpoche, were visited and received teachings from Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. At the conclusion of the retreat., the Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche kindly opened the gates for us and gave us our instructions on how to return to the world.
Into Samsara and Beyond
I must say, re-entering the samsaric world of busy-ness, frustration, and sorrow was more difficult than leaving it and entering retreat. Due to the fundamental ignorance and karmic obscurations, we are all caught in this prison of worldly concerns; they surround us, trap us, they lock us down. What appears to free us from our sorrow, pain, and frustration is in every case an illusion, only going to further tightening the knots of samsara around our hearts. Each of us and all motherly sentient beings are confined in this way. Only an understanding and practice of the true Buddhadharma can free us.
In the future, I will outline my hopes and aspirations for the Bodhisattva Institute, based on Kalu Rinpoche's own instructions to his Lamas in the West. Fundamentally we are here to establish the authentic Dharma in this country and to ensure its stability in the future. While having deep respect for all positive spiritual traditions, we will study and practice in particular the precious Kagyu teachings, with the sincere aspiration and purpose to benefit all beings through developing an altruistic attitude of compassion and loving kindness and the pure, nonconceptual Wisdom Mind of all the Buddhas.
Though I have neither erudition nor meditative realization, I am here through the blessings of my own Lamas and the lineage to which I am devoted. My hope is always to keep my mind and personality at one with the Dharma, to uphold the teachings of my lineage, and to fulfill the wishes of my kind root Lamas. With great humility I invite you all to join me in this profound endeavor. May all our aspirations come to fruition and may all beings benefit.
Sarva Mangalam!
Lama Jinpa Tharchin
My background is much like any of yours; I grew up in the mid-west, and attended the University of Michigan where I graduated in 1970, having lived through some of the most tumultuous times on that activist campus. Shortly after my graduation, I began to meditate, teaching myself to sit zazen style and reciting a daily refuge prayer that I found in a book. I continued this practice with a fair amount of diligence for six years. In 1977 I attended the Jack Kerouac School at Naropa Institute in Boulder, where I was encouraged to participate in the group meditations at the Dharmadhatu center, guided in those days by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. I found this to be thoroughly inspiring. While following a course of writing classes, I concurrently studied with Maizumi Roshi of the L.A. Zen Center, who was in residence in Boulder at the time. My practice took on a greater depth an my interest in the formal study of Buddhism increased. In 1979 I had the great good fortune to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Berkeley, California, and received a profound blessing from him. This inspired me to begin a search for a personal teacher.
After a year living in France and attending school there, I returned to the states in the summer of 1980, and by chance happened upon the KDK center in San Francisco which was located near where I was living. I met Lama Lodru Rinpoche and immediately took formal refuge with him and began to practice under his direct guidance. Within a year I was fortunate enough to meet Trungpa Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and best of all, His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa. This was, needless to say, a most profound and life-changing experience. I feel truly grateful to Lama Lodru Rinpoche for guiding me to these auspicious connections.
Three-Year Retreat
One year after, again through the great blessing of Lama Lodru Rinpoche, I met my root lama, His Eminence Kalu Rinpoche. I attended the Kalachakra empowerment and teaching that Kalu Rinpoche bestowed on that visit, and also attended a 16-day retreat in Oregon, where Kalu Rinpoche bestowed many teachings of the Dagpo and Shangpa Kagyu lineages. It was at this time that Rinpoche suggested to a small number of his students that we prepare for the traditional Three-Year Retreat.
Rinpoche promised he would return as soon as we were ready and bestow the necessary empowerments, instructions, and reading transmissions for the retreat. During the next four years I practiced and prepared, and through the great blessings of my Dharma teachers and friends, I was able to complete my ngondro practice, learn a modicum of Tibetan, and develop the renunciation and devotion to enable me to undertake the Three-Year Retreat.
In 1986, Kalu Rinpoche returned to the US and gave Mahamudra teachings in San Francisco. After that we traveled north to Oregon for what would be the most profound two weeks of my life. During that period of time, in spite of his advanced years, Rinpoche tirelessly bestowed the extensive cycle of Shangpa Kagyu empowerments and several empowerments from the Karma Kagyu that would be necessary for our retreat. This was totally inspiring, magical at times, and close to overwhelming. I cannot fully describe what really happened during those two weeks; I can only hope that by my actions and practice others may come to experience something of the all-pervading wisdom, power, and compassion that swept us away at that time.
At the conclusion of the empowerments, Rinpoche formally placed us in retreat at the KDK retreat land (then near Marcola, Oregon), giving us vows and encouraging us to attain full enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. The following three years and three months were marked by great effort, discipline, and intensive meditation practice. I won't say that is was always easy, but at times I had the impression I was abiding in the pure realms, all conditions conducive to liberation. Both Lama Lodru and Lama Tsang-Tsing, our retreat master, were extremely kind and helpful throughout the retreat, providing us with everything we needed to accomplish our purpose. His Eminence Kalu Rinpoche passed beyond this realm during our retreat, but continues even now to provide me with my inspiration to follow the path to its natural destination. Through the blessing of Lama Lodru Rinpoche, were visited and received teachings from Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. At the conclusion of the retreat., the Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche kindly opened the gates for us and gave us our instructions on how to return to the world.
Into Samsara and Beyond
I must say, re-entering the samsaric world of busy-ness, frustration, and sorrow was more difficult than leaving it and entering retreat. Due to the fundamental ignorance and karmic obscurations, we are all caught in this prison of worldly concerns; they surround us, trap us, they lock us down. What appears to free us from our sorrow, pain, and frustration is in every case an illusion, only going to further tightening the knots of samsara around our hearts. Each of us and all motherly sentient beings are confined in this way. Only an understanding and practice of the true Buddhadharma can free us.
In the future, I will outline my hopes and aspirations for the Bodhisattva Institute, based on Kalu Rinpoche's own instructions to his Lamas in the West. Fundamentally we are here to establish the authentic Dharma in this country and to ensure its stability in the future. While having deep respect for all positive spiritual traditions, we will study and practice in particular the precious Kagyu teachings, with the sincere aspiration and purpose to benefit all beings through developing an altruistic attitude of compassion and loving kindness and the pure, nonconceptual Wisdom Mind of all the Buddhas.
Though I have neither erudition nor meditative realization, I am here through the blessings of my own Lamas and the lineage to which I am devoted. My hope is always to keep my mind and personality at one with the Dharma, to uphold the teachings of my lineage, and to fulfill the wishes of my kind root Lamas. With great humility I invite you all to join me in this profound endeavor. May all our aspirations come to fruition and may all beings benefit.
Sarva Mangalam!
Lama Jinpa Tharchin
