Kyongla Rato Rinpoche

[beggar]

Saw this, which i found pretty interesting.I have heard that Rinpoche is a High Incarnate Lama skilled in the sacred Heruka Tantras but there isn't much information about him out there. Anyone has any more to share?

yours, beggar

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Rato Rinpoche is a reincarnate lama and scholar of the Gelugpa order of Tibetan Buddhism. Rinpoche was born in the Dagyab region of Kham, in southeastern Tibet. In 1928 senior Gelugpa monks divined that a five-year-old boy living in this remote part of Tibet was the reincarnation of the ninth Khyongla. On his sixth birthday monks on horseback took him from his parents home to a monastery some distance away where he was installed as its spiritual head. For over three decades he lived the sober life of a monk, studying at the most famous monasteries in Tibet and earning the Lharampa Geshe degree. In 1959 along with thousands of monks as well as the Dalai Lama, he fled on foot over the Himalayas to safety and to a radically different life in India, Europe and eventually in the United States. In 1975 he founded The Tibet Center, the oldest Tibetan Buddhist Center in New York City, USA.

from FPMT
http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/lineage_lamas/khyongla_rinpoche.php

[DSFriend]

Found this "My Life and Lives"
http://www.bookfinder.com/dir/i/My_Life_and_Lives/0963029304/

Book summary

The autobiography of Khyongla Rato is a moving human interest story set in the last few decades of life in Tibet before Communists seized control of the country in 1959. It is the only record in English of daily life in Tibet's great monastic universities. Readers can experience Tibet's customs and ceremonies, as well as the emotions and intellectual challenges of the rigourous training required to pass exams in Buddhist sutra and tantra studies. Joseph Campbell, one of Khyongla Rato's students, wrote the introduction to the book.

I have not read this book..but would be interested to hear comments if anybody has done so.

[hope rainbow]

Thanks DS, it looks like I found my next read!

[Ensapa]

Here's a slightly more detailed bio of him:

Khyongla Rato
 

Khyongla Rato is a reincarnate lama and scholar of the Gelugpa order of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in southeastern Tibet in the region called Kham. In 1928, senior Gelugpa monks divined that a five-year old boy living in this remote part of Tibet was the reincarnation of the ninth Khyongla of Tibet.

On his sixth birthday, monks on horseback took him from his parents’ home to a monastery some distance away where he was installed as its spiritual head. For over three decades he lived the sober life of a monk, studying at the most famous monasteries in Tibet and earning the Lharampa Geshe degree. In 1959, along with thousands of monks, as well as the Dalai Lama, he fled on foot over the Himalayas to safety and to a radically different life in India, and eventually the United States.

In 1975, he founded The Tibet Center, the oldest Tibetan Buddhist Center in New York City. The Center offers classes in Buddhist practice and theory on a weekly schedule. Ancient Indian and Tibetan texts are taught together with methods for integrating them into daily meditation and practice.

What is more interesting is, he has a western disciple that is a western Geshe as well:

Nicholas Vreeland
 

The Venerable Nicholas Vreeland is the Director of The Tibet Center. He holds a Ser Tri Geshe Degree from Rato Dratsang, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Karnataka, India, where he studied for 15 years. In 1998, he returned to New York City to assume administrative and teaching responsibilities. He is the editor of the books, An Open Heart, a New York Times best seller, and the recently released, A Profound Mind, both authored by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Geshe Vreeland has been a photographer since he was 13 years old, and assisted Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. The recent exhibition of his work, entitled Photos for Rato, toured major cities around the world and raised most of the funds needed for the construction of Rato Monastery’s new campus and temple, which was inaugurated by the Dalai Lama on January 31, 2011.
 

Return to the Roof of the World is Geshe Vreeland's latest photo exhibition.
 

On April 20, 2012 His Holiness the Dalai Lama appointed Geshe Vreeland, as the new Abbot of Rato Monastery. This was an historic moment; the first time that a Westerner had been appointed as abbot of an important Tibetan Buddhist monastery. On making the appointment, The Dalai Lama stated, “Your special duty (is) to bridge Tibetan tradition and Western world.”

[DharmaSpace]

Here are some videos related to Rato Rinpoche.

Buddhism Khyongla Rato Rinpoche 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva Part 1

Khyongla Rato @The Tibet Center on the Virtuous Mind_Pt1

There is quite a lot of teachings by this lama,on an array of dharma topics if you are interested in getting to know about this Rinpoche further.

[Vajraprotector]

I remember a few things about Khyongla Rato Rinpoche.

First of all, Richard Gere and Nicholas Vreeland. Richard Gere is an icon of a Tibetan Buddhism. He discovered Buddhism in his twenties and became close friends with a Buddhist monk Nicholas Vreeland. In 1993, the two went on a trip that profoundly influenced Gere. Gere asked Vreeland and their teacher, Rato Rinpoche to go with him to Tibet. It was the first time Gere had been, and the first time Rato Rinpoche had returned to his monastery since fleeing Tibet. Richard Gere was overwhelmed with the respect/welcome shown for Rato Rinpoche he saw when the townspeople poured out to greet Rato Rinpoche with scarves and lit incense. The whole town was there!
(Read more from: Sew Your Own: Man Finds Happiness and Meaning of Life - Making Clothes, by John-Paul Flintoff)

Also, Nicholas Vreeland is now Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland. He was appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and was enthroned on July 2nd 2012 as the new abbot of Rato Monastery in southern India, one of the most important monasteries in Tibetan Buddhism. He will be the first Westerner to hold such a position. Vreeland was introduced to Rato Rinpoche in 1977.  He went to India to become a monk in 1985 and was awarded a Geshe Degree (Doctorate of Divinity) in 1998.

Next, Chushi Gangdrug. When Trijang Rinpoche did a mo and suggested the Kham-focused named Chushi Gangdrug, Trijang Rinpoche advised them to ask Ling Rinpoche, and Rato Rinpoche for further approval.

The famous Dorje Shugden statue that was dragged into the street by the nunnery in Dharamsala, the statue was consecrated by Trijang Rinpoche, Ling Rinpoche, Zong Rinpoche and Rato Rinpoche.

If you are a big fan of the movies, Rato Rinpoche plays the part of the abbot of the monastery in Bhutan in “Little Buddha” directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

Below is a picture of Rato Rinpoche in Tuscany before heading to Milan where Rinpoche and Nicholas Vreeland attended teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Rato Rinpoche then headed back to America and Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland proceeded to India to assume his new position as Abbott of Rato Monastery.



Khyongla Rato Rinpoche in Tuscany
Photograph (c) Nicholas Vreeland
Photo taken from: http://elizabethavedon.blogspot.com/2012/07/nicholas-vreeland-monks-journal-tuscany.html

[dsiluvu]

Khyongla Rato Rinpoche has a foundation called RATO DRATSANG FOUNDATION
Some updates found on Rato Rinpoche...

Khyongla Rinpoche has begun his teachings at Rato Dratsang. This morning he completed the bestowal of the oral transmission of Tsong Khapa's collected works and began the works of Gyaltsab Je.

Rinpoche being led to the temple by the abbot of Rato Dratsang, followed by Ling Rinpoche who requested these teachings.

The enlightened science of Buddhist Logic, a powerful antidote to the suffering caused by mental confusion, remains virtually unknown to modern "Western" thought. Based upon the authentic teachings of the Buddha by the Indian pandits Dignaga and Dharmakirti, the tradition was nurtured and maintained to the present day in the great monastic colleges of Tibet, particularly Rato Dratsang.

This great center for intellectual development and spiritual practice was located just outside Lhasa, Tibet, from its founding in the fourteenth century by Tak Pa Zang Bo until the destruction of its physical structure in 1959. Rato Dratsang has been reestablished in Mundgod, in the south Indian state of Karnataka, by a group of scholars and monks educated at the original monastery. The Rato Dratsang Foundation was formed to assist in the redevelopment of this great center of learning, to preserve its traditional presentation of logical analysis, and to establish a dialogue with Western centers of learning.

In Tibet, Rato Dratsang was a scholastic monastery of over four hundred residents. While studies in all branches of Buddhism were pursued, leading to the Doctor of Divinity or "Geshe" degree, it was most renowned as a center for the study of logic. Students were expected to become completely familiar with the methods and rules of traditional Buddhist logical analysis. Texts were memorized and meditated on until their meaning was thoroughly absorbed. A student's grasp of the subject was tested and tempered by frequent intense debates held under highly formalized rules.

Rato Dratsang was host to scholars from many other monasteries during a yearly month-long "Jang" session held in the wintertime. Students came from many parts of Tibet and from the other monastic universities around Lhasa to study the original texts and commentaries, attend lectures and take part in enthusiastic dialectical discussions. The teachings were thus transmitted to successive generations as a practical method for mental development.

The reestablished monastery in the south of India currently houses over one hundred monks and the number of monks at Rato Dratsang constantly grows. A small two-story structure was built by the few surviving Rato monks who reestablished their monastery on land supplied by neighboring Tibetan monasteries in exile. A temple is presently under construction, and more monks' rooms are needed. There are insufficient material resources to support the many monks and scholars who wish to study at the monastic college.

The Rato Dratsang Foundation was created by the Reverend Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, a lama and scholar who studied at the original monastery, the Venerable Nicholas Vreeland, an American student of Rinpoche's and an ordained Buddhist monk and member of Rato Dratsang, and their friends and colleagues. The goals of the Rato Dratsang Foundation are to generate financial support for the monastery, establish scholarly affiliations with Western centers of higher education, provide for the translation and publication of important writings currently unavailable to English and Chinese speaking people, and establish a sister monastic college in the west.

The great fifth Dalai Lama (1614-1682) said the following verse in praise of Rato Dratsang, also known as Tiger Nest Monastery:

    In the heart of the dense forest of
    Scriptural knowledge,
    Lies the Tiger Nest sounding
    The roar of the wisdom of logic.
    May the study of logic to clear the minds,
    Forever develop in the boundaries of the upper,
    middle, and lower parts of the land of snow.

Source> http://www.ratodratsangfoundation.org

[dsiluvu]

Found some very nice pictures from "Behind the Scenes with His Holiness the Dalai Lama
during a teaching session at Radio City Music Hall in New York, May 20, 2010"
http://www.thelightingere.com/Behind-the-Scenes.html[w43
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