Khensur Geshe Lobsang Tharchin

[DSFriend]

I love reading about the Great Masters. Thought I'd share on the beloved, illustrious master, Khensur Geshe Lobsang Tharchin.

This great master was born in Lhasa, Tibet in 1921. He entered the Mey College of Sera Monastery at an early age and studied under the guidance of the great Pabongka Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche for 25 years!

In 1959, Rinpoche escaped to India along with His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, and tens of thousands of other Tibetans. Actively involved in Tibetan resettlement, he compiled a series of textbooks for a Tibetan curriculum to be used in refugee schools and also taught in Darjeeling, Simla, and Mussoorie.

In 1972, Khen Rinpoche was chosen by H.H. the Dalai Lama to come to the United States to participate in a project involving the translation of Buddhist scriptures. Upon its completion, he was invited to serve as the Abbot of Rashi Gempil Ling Temple in New Jersey, a position that he held until his demise, on December 1, 2004. Rinpoche also founded the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center, with current branches in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Over the years he has offered a vast range of Buddhist teachings.

In 1991, Khen Rinpoche was asked by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to serve as Abbot of Sera Mey monastery in south India. After a brief appointment there, he returned to the United States, where he continued to teach and direct a number of projects dedicated to the restoration of Sera Mey Monastery in India and to the flourishing of the Mahayana Buddhist Dharma in the West, as well as the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Press.

Rinpoche is another great lama who brought the Buddhist teachings to the west. So many have benefited from his leadership as the spiritual director of the Asian Classics Institute! http://www.aci-la.org/mi-foundteachers.html

I have not heard if Rinpoche's incarnation is back yet since he passed into clear light on Dec 1st, 2004. I am indeed looking forward to his new incarnation. May all his students create the right conditions for this glorious incarnation to be back and continue to turn the wheel of Dharma.
Does anyone have any information about his incarnation?



Sources taken from:
http://www.mstp.us/KhenRinpoche.php?page=m2
http://www.aci-la.org/mi-foundteachers.html

[hope rainbow]

Wow, and check out how modern the teachings of lamrim at ACI are, Venerable Marut (one of the teachers there) is actually teaching the lamrim to classes open to practitionners of all religions, he uses the lamrim  to reconnect people with their religious practice, or with buddhisme if they choose so.

He makes the lamrim relevant to even other religions!

Maybe it is not ACI that is modern after all, it is the LAMRIM itself, it is Lama Tsongkhapa's teachings, it is Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings! They are not the kind of speech that gets "out of fashion" or that knows boundaries (such as boudaries between cultures and religions).
How could it anyway? It is enlightened speech!

It will be very interesting to see where Khensur Geshe Lobsang Tharchin chooses to re-incarnate, which country, which circumstances, which environement....

[WisdomBeing]

Sermey Jetsun Khen Rinpoche Losang Tharchin
March 9, 2009 by truthaboutshugden

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin was born in Lhasa, Tibet in 1921 and entered Sera Monastery there at an early age. He proceeded through the rigorous 25 year program of monastic studies under the guidance of Pabongka Rinpoche and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche. Upon successful completion of public examination by the best scholars of the day, Rinpoche was awarded the highest degree of Hlarampa Geshe (Doctor of Theology) with honors, and is one of the last living Hlarampa Geshes educated in Tibet. He proved to be the best debater of his graduation year in all of Tibet, making him the “First among the First.”

Khen Rinpoche then entered Gyu Mey Tantric College, where he completed its course of advanced tantric studies and attained a high-ranking administrative position. In 1959 Rinpoche escaped from Tibet into India along with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He became actively involved in resettlement, and compiled a series of textbooks used in the Tibetan refugee schools.

Khen Rinpoche came to the United States in 1972 and became Abbot of Rashi Gempil Ling Temple in New Jersey. After going to South India in 1991 and serving as Abbot of Sera Mey monastery for some time, he returned to the United States. Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin was a lifetime director and an abbot emeritus of Sera Mey monastery. Khen Rinpoche passed on from this life on Je Tsongkapa Day, Dec. 7, 2004

Like Ribur Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche was an actual disciple of Je Pabongka, so his words are very precious, giving us a direct impression of this extraordinary master….


(From the Forward to The Principal Teachings of Buddhism by Tsongkhapa, with a commentary by Pabongka Rinpoche, translated by Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Press, 1998, all emphasis and formatting mine…)

http://truthaboutshugden.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/sermey-jetsun-khen-rinpoche-losang-tharchin/

You may also like to read Khensur Rinpoche's sharing on his Guru Pabongka Rinpoche:

http://truthaboutshugden.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/%E2%80%9C%E2%80%A6it-was-in-his-private-quarters-at-the-tashi-chuling-hermitage-that-i-first-met-pabongka-rinpoche%E2%80%A6%E2%80%9D/

[beggar]

Ah, always nice to log on and see sharings about the great masters.

It is thanks to GREAT GREAT MASTERS like Kensur Lobsang Tharchin that we now have dharma all over the western world. He was one of the first greats to step foot into America!

Good to note too that he was the author of many classic Dharma texts that are still available everywhere (can check them out on amazon, or on buddhist shelves at all big bookstores), including:

 - Sublime Path to Kechara Paradise: Vajrayogini's Eleven Yogas of Generation Stage Practice As Revealed by Glorious Naropa

- Six-Session Guru Yoga: An Oral Commentary With a Detailed Explanation of the Bodhisattva and Tantric Vows

- The Essence of Mahayana Lojong Practice: An Oral Commentary to Geshe Langri Tangpa's Mind Training in Eight Verses

- Tsongkapa: Preparing for Tantra

I believe many of these books are still being used as central texts in dharma centres everywhere. Imagine the great fortune to have met and studied under this teacher!

yours, beggar

[harrynephew]

Kensur Rinpoche's commentary on the Lamrim text is amazing too. Although not well promoted and widely used, having read the first volume, u can see how Rinpoche brings the age old Buddhist teachings into the then lives of people where he taught in the states.

I feel that all these masters although have passed into clear light are still alive in their students and books. Their teachings and passion of the Dharma permeates through.

May Kensur Rinpoche quickly return soon, riding on his vast vows to come teach us the sacred Dharma

harry

Ah, always nice to log on and see sharings about the great masters.

It is thanks to GREAT GREAT MASTERS like Kensur Lobsang Tharchin that we now have dharma all over the western world. He was one of the first greats to step foot into America!

Good to note too that he was the author of many classic Dharma texts that are still available everywhere (can check them out on amazon, or on buddhist shelves at all big bookstores), including:

 - Sublime Path to Kechara Paradise: Vajrayogini's Eleven Yogas of Generation Stage Practice As Revealed by Glorious Naropa

- Six-Session Guru Yoga: An Oral Commentary With a Detailed Explanation of the Bodhisattva and Tantric Vows

- The Essence of Mahayana Lojong Practice: An Oral Commentary to Geshe Langri Tangpa's Mind Training in Eight Verses

- Tsongkapa: Preparing for Tantra

I believe many of these books are still being used as central texts in dharma centres everywhere. Imagine the great fortune to have met and studied under this teacher!

yours, beggar

[beggar]

Do also take note that by his greatness, Kensur lobsang tharchin Rinpoche was a teacher to many people in the western world and headed dharma centres - some of the first ever in America.(for example, the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra centre in Washington, Rashid Gempil Ling in New Jersey). And under him were many great students in their own right who have gone on to be excellent dharma teachers - Geshe Michael Roach of the Diamond Mountain Centre is just one of the best examples.

see here:
http://diamondmountain.org/roots/
http://www.mstcdharma.org/biography.htm

So this is the power and influence of great, true practitioners - they inspire a whole new generation of teachers that carry on the lineage, even non-tibetans, in different environments and countries. no politics, no rumour-mongering, just practice - these are the grand results!

[LosangKhyentse]

Kensur Lobsang Tharchin's incarnation has been found near Gaden in Mundgod. Mundgod is 12 hours drive from either Bombay or Banglaore.

He has taken rebirth in a Tibetan Family. The Dalai Lama has recognized him officially.

tk

[beggar]

Kensur Lobsang Tharchin's incarnation has been found near Gaden in Mundgod. Mundgod is 12 hours drive from either Bombay or Banglaore.

He has taken rebirth in a Tibetan Family. The Dalai Lama has recognized him officially.

tk

Fantastic news! Thank you TK for bringing our attention to the birth of another great being continuing his work of light in the world.

yours, beggar

[WisdomBeing]

Kensur Lobsang Tharchin's incarnation has been found near Gaden in Mundgod. Mundgod is 12 hours drive from either Bombay or Banglaore.

He has taken rebirth in a Tibetan Family. The Dalai Lama has recognized him officially.

tk

Thank you for the lovely news! There seems to be so much news recently about these great Lamas... it must be a sign.

I find it interesting that the Dalai Lama is recognising new incarnations of DS practitioners in their previous lives. Perhaps it may not be too far fetched that he may recognise Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen's incarnation too. The only constant is impermanence, after all.

[DSFriend]

FANTASTIC news! And here I was just been thinking if he's back! Thank you TK for the news. I've googled but didn't find any further information. Perhaps the time is not ripe yet for the news to go all out...which is understandable. I am very much looking forward to more news in the near future.

[Helena]

It's a cause for much celebration that alll these Shugden Lamas are coming back, and their return seems to be planned very closely within one another, as if they already know what is about to transpire in the near future. For when the time is ripe, these lamas are also at a 'ripe' age - just perfect to propel the Protector even further. They are not too young and not too old.

I love it! Great to know that we are not alone.