A new dawn of Tulkus

[harrynephew]

Gomo Tulku is a very big name within the Gelugpa school of Buddhism and all his predecessors were very great and elite Lamas who made the teachings of Je Tsongkhapa shine far and wide. It is an interesting read to know how this current incarnation takes a different approach to benefit.

I thought I shared with everyone here

http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201208/leaving-om-new-buddhist-lifestyle

Leaving Om: Buddhism's Lost Lamas
Before they could even read, they were hailed as reincarnations of Tibetan Buddhist legends in the vein of the Dalai Lama. Now young adults, these reluctant would-be spiritual leaders are stepping out of their monk's robes, becoming rappers and moviemakers, and blowing the whistle on sexual abuse at Buddhist monasteries.

Read More http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201208/leaving-om-new-buddhist-lifestyle#ixzz223MXRANB


During a break in a mixing session at a recording studio in Milan, Gomo Tulku, a Tibetan-American hip-hop artist, plays the sample he's inserting into the intro of his debut EP—a group of vocalists singing what sounds eerily like a Tibetan Buddhist chant. One of his Italian producers had it programmed into his keyboard, and when Gomo first heard it, he recalls, he said, "That's dope, I want that. Yo, that's my culture!"

Swiveling in his Aeron chair behind the multitrack console, conferring with the engineers on the mix ("Si, perfecto, bello"), Gomo Tulku looks every bit the part of an aspiring rapper: jeans, black down vest, gray porkpie hat, oversize black-and-gold Super glasses (a Milan brand favored by Jay-Z and Rihanna). But the 23-year-old is not quite the playa he portrays in the video for his first single, "Photograph," in which he drinks in a club and rides in a stretch limo while a host of leggy Italian beauties grind on him. Known as the Rapping Lama, Gomo spent his childhood being groomed to be a high-ranking lama, and the video caused a minor uproar in the online Buddhist community. But Gomo is nearly a teetotaler and insists "Photograph" is a wholesome breakup song about the one romance he's had since leaving the monastery. "Listen to the lyrics!" he says. The hip-hop eye candy was his Italian director's idea.

The tulku in Gomo's name refers to his status—according to Tibetan tradition, a tulku is the reincarnation of a recently deceased high lama, "recognized" as a young boy through a mystical process of omens and visions. Gomo was anointed by the Dalai Lama himself, whose own recognition story is so well known in the West—a peasant boy from the sticks is magically able to identify his predecessor's favorite possessions—it became the basis for a 2002 M&M's commercial.

Gomo has titled his EP Take One because "this is like my first take, my first actual experience in life as a layperson in this materialistic world," he says. Gomo, an ethnic Tibetan born in Quebec and raised in Canada, Utah, and India, is savvy enough to appreciate that his years as a shaved-headed monk make for an irresistible backstory for an MC. His digital loop—hypnotic, rumbling oms that sound like a cross between a bullfrog and a low-pitched Jew's harp—conjures up a world of burgundy-and-saffron-robed monks wielding bone horns. But it also begs the question: When the Dalai Lama, who's 77, leaves the stage, will that world—1,500 years of religious traditions and spiritual explorations—be reduced to an ersatz sample in a hip-hop song?

To an extraordinary degree, America has been colonized by Tibetan Buddhism. At the core of the community are maybe 100,000 die-hard practitioners around the country. Beyond that is a larger circle of several million spiritual travelers who may pick up the Dalai Lama's best sellers or attend his talks. (He's achieved rock-star status, having drawn a crowd of 65,000 to New York's Central Park just to hear him speak.) Helping fuel the phenomenon is the soft (but real) power that makes it a cause célèbre and a second religion to the self-help set: the Hollywood stars like Richard Gere in the Dalai Lama's American entourage, the late Beastie Boy (and practicing Tibetan Buddhist) Adam Yauch's star-studded concerts for Tibet, not to mention the Buddha statuettes, thangka paintings, and prayer flags that adorn corner yoga studios and health clubs across the country.

For the hundreds of Tibetan tulkus who came of age after the Chinese takeover of their homeland in 1959, India may be where they serve in the monastery, but the West is where the students, the press, and the money are. Yet it's unclear whether the tulku system—which, since its origins in medieval times, has been more about the transfer of monastic power than the recognition of spiritual genius—can continue to advance the Dalai Lama's engagement with the West. The young Karmapa, the heir apparent to the Dalai Lama's mantle as the global face of Tibetan Buddhism, languishes in northern India because of political tensions involving China. In his absence, the young, Westernized tulkus may be the key to turning a new generation of Americans on to Tibetan Buddhism. The problem is, these cosmopolitan tulkus, skeptical of the notion that they're deceased lamas, aren't sure they want the job.

• • •

GOMO TULKU: A RAPPER'S SUTRA
Gomo's fate was seemingly sealed at the age of 3, when the Dalai Lama divined that he was the reincarnation of the boy's grandfather, a prominent Tibetan lama. When the official letter of recognition arrived from the office of His Holiness, Gomo's religious mother was "kind of sad, kind of happy," he says. She was losing her son to the monastery but, according to Tibetan Buddhist lore, also being reunited with her father's spirit. Gomo's early life was peripatetic: Born and raised in French-speaking Montreal, at age 5 he moved with his mother (his parents had divorced) to Bountiful, Utah, a mostly Mormon suburb of Salt Lake City. When he was 6, mother and (only) child traveled to the tiny Tuscan village of Pomaia. The next year, the Dalai Lama cut Gomo's hair, the first stage of his initiation into monkhood. "I remember I was nervous," Gomo says. "His presence was really strong." At his "enthronement," Gomo sat on a high, brocaded throne as hundreds of monks and Western students crowded in for a closer look at the new boy lama. "I was like, 'Wow, this is pretty amazing,'" he recalls. "There were photographers from dozens of newspapers and news agencies around the world." He drifts into hip-hop lingo. "The cops, the 5-0, were there, pushing them back."

After a full day in the studio, Gomo and I make the four-hour drive south to Pomaia, arriving at midnight. There, housed in a 19th-century stone villa, is the Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa. "The Little Tibet of Tuscany" (as a tourism website describes it) is a regular stopover for eminences like Richard Gere and the Dalai Lama. Stereotypical Bella Toscana imagery—skinny, conical cypress trees, herb-scented scrubby-pretty landscape—blends well with more recent additions like prayer flags and a giant copper prayer wheel. In the morning, amid the meditation hall's golden statues of the Buddha, ornate silk tapestries, and portraits of the Dalai Lama, Gomo brings a hushed purposefulness to his prayers.

"This takes me back in time to the monastery," he says after finishing his prostrations. "We used to always pray. As soon as I get into one of these places, I try to always have the right thoughts, right intentions, try to remind myself of the purposes that I should be going after." Gomo spent only a year in Pomaia before he was sent to the Sere Je monastery in Mysore, India, to which he would give, all told, 12 years of his young life. His days as a monk went like this: up at 6 a.m., prayers, chanting, memorizing page after page of scripture, and practicing Buddhist logical debate until around midnight each night. "I had a hard time," he says, "not from what I was given, but more from what was taken from me." It doesn't take a Dylanologist to decipher the lyrics to his song "Lost and Found": "All is gone, all is gone, I miss my mama's kiss/ Tryna make a child grown/ By leaving him all alone/ Destined to be on a throne/…Why didn't you, why didn't you stay?"

Gomo remained a good monastic soldier until he was 15, when he seized on a bold idea: to reunite with his mother for a year of American high school. In Bountiful, he was the weird Asian kid who spoke patchwork English and "probably looked like a dumbass." He was still keeping his monk's vows—no sex, no alcohol—a fact he hid from his classmates, except for his best friend. "I wanted to be able to experience that actual kid life," he says. "If they'd known I was a lama, it would've been a disaster." But compared with his previous existence, this sojourn was sheer liberation. His under-the-Bodhi-tree moment of enlightenment took place when he walked into a new Apple store in Salt Lake City and saw the T.I. video "Bring Em Out" playing on a just-released 60-gig iPod. That in-your-face slice of gangster rap "overwhelmed" him, he says. "The energy it had, it kinda brought me out."

Read More http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201208/leaving-om-new-buddhist-lifestyle#ixzz223LIsbZV

[Positive Change]

It is most interesting how these "different" tulkus I feel are using skillful methods to bring Dharma to people who would otherwise be oblivious to it. Perhaps my hypothesis may be met with criticism but if one were to truly look at how he "operates" Domo Tulku Rinpoche, one will see the true motivation.

Here is a look at some of these "interesting personalities":

This is a guest post by Elizabeth Dias, a TIME contributor based in Washington.

When the Dalai Lama came to Washington same time last year, he wasn’t alone. Accompanying the spiritual leader of Tibetans-in-exile were a group of other leading rinpoches, or reincarnate lamas and teachers. These Tibetan clerics, or “precious jewels” as the term rinpoche means, often keep their national and international influences low profile. Kate Saunders, director of communications for the International Campaign for Tibet, says this in part because the “one thing virtually all Tibetans share is loyalty to the Dalai Lama.” Yet as His Holiness nears the twilight of his life, attention has already shifted to those who are shouldering the mantle of his spiritual leadership overseas — the Dalai Lama already ceded his political powers earlier this year. TIME caught up with four of these leaders to hear their own stories of Tibetan leadership.


Gomo Tulku Rinpoche (Photo: Courtesy Gomo Tulku Rinpoche)

Gomo Tulku Rinpoche, 22

A “Recording-Artist Rinpoche” may seem unlikely, but then you have Gomo Tulku Rinpoche. He hails from the same Gelugpa lineage as the Dalai Lama, who recognized Gomo Tulku’s reincarnation at age three.

While his previous incarnation reportedly enjoyed ritual dance and music, Gomo Tulku takes this passion to an entirely new level. Three years ago he quit the Sera Je Monastery in south India to pursue a music career in Italy. That was not an easy decision. Since age 7 he’d been trained to become a teaching monk. Without telling anyone, “I booked the tickets myself and I left,” he recalls. “Being a lama, if that is my role, as a teacher, then at least I need to know what life is.”

Today he has created his own sound, one that trades traditional chant for a fusion of contemporary hip-hop and R&B with some slash and pop, and on July 28, he is set to release his first single, “Photograph.” Gomo Tulku works with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition and its 160 centers worldwide even as he is busy “spitting lines.” Here’s the line he spit for TIME: “I’m constantly dazed and confused, I never cease to be amazed by the views.” It’s an impromptu composition, but nevertheless it reveals his honest approach of self-discovery. As he describes it, he is trying “to find myself in a different way and experience life and share it with my people” and to “have that direct interaction instead of being on the throne. I want to come down with you guys, just chill with you guys and talk.”


Reincarnate lama Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, listens to the Dalai Lama's teaching at Radio City Music Hall. Tibetan Buddhist leader in exile, the Dalai Lama, visited New York from May 19- 23. Hosted by Richard Gereâ??s Foundation, Healing the Divide, and the Tibet Center, the Dalai Lamaâ??s activities included a public talk and three days of Buddhist teachings on the way to develop compassion at Radio City Music hall. Founded by Richard Gere in 2001, Healing the Divide seeks collaborative solutions to humanitarian crises that threaten the development and welfare of marginalized communities throughout the world. The Tibet Center was founded in 1975 by reincarnate lama Khyongla Rato Rinpoche and currently directed by Nicholas Vreeland, an American Buddhist Monk. The Tibet Center leads and teaches Buddhist Meditation. Photograph and copyright- David Turnley

Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, 89

Few people have known the Dalai Lama longer than Khyongla Rinpoche. He was there the first day His Holiness arrived in Lhasa as a toddler and was seated on his throne in a peacock-adorned tent. They shared tutors and eventually fled Tibet only days apart in 1959. Today their relationship remains close—the Dalai Lama sometimes greets him with a tap on the head and his attendant with a pinch to the nose.

This esteemed lama founded New York City’s oldest Tibetan Buddhist organization, The Tibet Center, in 1975. At age 6, he became the head of a Gelugpa monastery in Tibet. Now 89, Khyongla Rinpoche plays the self-deprecating monk. “I’m not important at all, among the many thousands to Tibetan incarnate lamas, Rinpoche is only one,” said Khyongla Rato Rinpoche. “You’re interviewing the wrong person.”

Unlike most elderly lamas, Khyongla Rinpoche has branched out to embrace new means of communication.  He has starred in the 1993 film Little Buddha at the Dalai Lama’s request, and today uses his favorite film March of the Penguins to teach his students the hardships love requires. “If I’m [reborn] a penguin, I’ll have to do like this,” he jokes as he waves his arms.



Arjia Rinpoche, Director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, February 24, 2010. (Photo: Robert Scheer / The Indianapolis Star / AP)

Arjia Rinpoche, 60

A former abbot of Kumbum monastery, one of the largest and oldest on the Tibetan plateau, Arjia Rinpoche ruffled quite a few feathers in Beijing when he fled Tibet in 1998. Before the Karmapa Lama fled in 2000, Arjia Rinpoche was considered the most senior lama to flee Tibet after the Dalai Lama.

Recognized at age two to be the re-incarnation of Lama Tsong-khapa, a 13th century Buddhist reformer, Arjia Rinpoche knows firsthand the challenges Tibetan Buddhism faces. Chinese authorities forced him out of his teenage monk robes and into the work force for 16 years, during which he saw family members disappear or be imprisoned. His own monastery changed drastically under Chinese watch. “The people say, ‘It’s more like Buddhist Disneyland,’” he notes. Eventually China tapped him to lead the Chinese National Buddhist Association, but when the Chinese government prepared to force him to become their Panchen Lama’s tutor in 1998, he realized he could no longer let China’s political agenda against Tibet dictate his spiritual life. “More and more political things had interrupted my practice. That’s why I escaped,” he says. He fled to Guatemala before receiving asylum in the United States.

Today Arjia Rinpoche insists there may be a hopeful future ahead with China. “I can see lots of difficult things in China—the control of media, human rights,” he says. “But at the same time I can see lots of positive things there too. China might have a big change. In my lifetime, I saw lots of big changes in China.”

Currently he runs the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington, IL, but his reputation extends far and wide: even while he’s tucked away in the corner of a Thai restaurant in a Washington, a Western devotee found her way to his feet to seek his blessing. He is not too worried about the selection of the next Dalai Lama. Instead he shares the Dalai Lama’s openness to His Holiness’s next incarnation. “Maybe next life a westerner, maybe as a woman. That’s really a possibility.”




Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, 42

Women are traditionally rare birds among Buddhist lamas. But that shows signs of change. A nun who grew up the only woman among 500 monks in India, Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche represents the Mindrolling lineage, one of Buddhism’s few with a history of female masters. She leads the Lotus Garden Retreat Center in Stanley, VA, where one of her primary projects is directing nuns in a range of social service projects, from actively educating Tibetan women toward financial independence to creating independent living opportunities for senior citizens in Tibetan refugee camps.

Khandro Rinpoche’s hair has often sparked controversy and confusion. Bucking a tradition of nuns keeping their hair long, Khandro Rinpoche keeps hers neatly shaved. But what many people believe was a profound spiritual decision actually was initially a slip of the scissors. At age 19, after much debate between her elders about whether or not she should shave her head in typical Tibetan-monk fashion, a barber accidently chopped off a chunk of her locks. To the chagrin of the emotional mothers in the room, Khandro Rinpoche replied, “Just cut the whole thing off.” She has gone shaved ever since.

In Washington with iPhone in hand, Khandro Rinpoche is a savvy communicator and ready to face the critical challenges ahead. “I think the next five decades are going to be hard work,” she reflects. “Now I think is the time where Western Buddhists have to exert more effort. It is about saying this is not an Eastern philosophy that we are blindly following but it is something that we have to let grow in our own selves and adapt to our way of living life.”

[dsiluvu]

Today he has created his own sound, one that trades traditional chant for a fusion of contemporary hip-hop and R&B with some slash and pop, and on July 28, he is set to release his first single, “Photograph.” Gomo Tulku works with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition and its 160 centers worldwide even as he is busy “spitting lines.” Here’s the line he spit for TIME: “I’m constantly dazed and confused, I never cease to be amazed by the views.” It’s an impromptu composition, but nevertheless it reveals his honest approach of self-discovery. As he describes it, he is trying “to find myself in a different way and experience life and share it with my people” and to “have that direct interaction instead of being on the throne. I want to come down with you guys, just chill with you guys and talk.”

Well this paragraph sorta sums up his motivation doesn't it? We can't ignore the fact that the world is spinning a different tune now and perhaps these high Lamas/Tulkus have decided to take on a different approach, maybe an even grosser one to connect with people. And if you read carefully in the end the motivation is still to benefit others. So what if he decides to be a wrapper and spit out rap music... this is probably his skillful method to bring spirituality and Dharma to those who would probably never go near Dharma. Does that mean they don't deserve Dharma? They probably need it the most. These days to reach out to society, sometimes you need to blend in and be part of it. There's too many distractions these days, you got to find ways to stand out from the chaos of samsara in order to help someone.

It is like Vajrayogini's practice, the more and more degenerate the world becomes, the more and more powerful and efficacious her practice becomes. These days you see Lama's even in monks robe like Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and the likes finding new alternative ways and approach to bring the Dharma home. Their way of reaching out to others may be different and certainly unconventional, but the essence of the Buddha Dharma remains the same. These Lamas/Tulku are skillful Bodhisattvas and Mahasiddhas of our 21st century if you ask me. Below is a clip of Words of my Perfect Teacher... it is a great movie about unconventional methods a teacher uses to teach and how they break our concept of how a teacher should be...

Words of My Perfect Teacher	Small | Large

[Barzin]

Yes, when I came across this article i was blown away with the content.  Some stories on Kalu Rinpoche are also quite disturbing at first.  But later I realize in the Western world, this is exactly what they like to see and hear.  The new generation of Tulkus obviously has taken the method of benefiting others in a modern, down to earth way.  So that the younger generation can connect.  The "cool" factor.  I personally think that this approach will attract lots more younger generation to connect to dharma.  Interesting, I really have high hopes on this new generation and tulkus and hope that their dharma career flourish and benefit many of today's degenerated world.

[Ensapa]

I do find the sexual abuse of Kalu Rinpoche quite shocking, but at this day and age, sexual abuse is something rampant and perhaps, he allowed it to happen to himself so that it would make him easier to relate to for people in general as many people these days happen to be able to relate to and sympathize with sexual abuse better. However, I am not sure how rampant it is in the monasteries but if it is, it does represent an interesting perspective of things, something that has not been talked about or addressed by anyone, ever. Perhaps something needs to be done? Perhaps, this is an issue that is more important than banning Dorje Shugden and putting in all efforts into it, and the Dalai Lama should really talk about this as this is within his domain as the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism.

For those who know only the gauzy Hollywood imagery of Little Buddha and Kundun and the beatific smile of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, it's almost incomprehensible that Tibetan Buddhism would have its own Catholic Church–style problem. But Kalu says that when he was in his early teens, he was sexually abused by a gang of older monks who would visit his room each week. When I bring up the concept of "inappropriate touching," he laughs edgily. This was hard-core sex, he says, including penetration. "Most of the time, they just came alone," he says. "They just banged the door harder, and I had to open. I knew what was going to happen, and after that you become more used to it." It wasn't until Kalu returned to the monastery after his three-year retreat that he realized how wrong this practice was. By then the cycle had begun again on a younger generation of victims, he says. Kalu's claims of sexual abuse mirror those of Lodoe Senge, an ex-monk and 23-year-old tulku who now lives in Queens, New York. "When I saw the video," Senge says of Kalu's confessions, "I thought, 'Shit, this guy has the balls to talk about it when I didn't even have the courage to tell my girlfriend.'" Senge was abused, he says, as a 5-year-old by his own tutor, a man in his late twenties, at a monastery in India.

And

Kalu's revelations have quietly rocked the Tibetan Buddhist establishment, and even some of its most distinguished figures have been taken aback. Robert Thurman, the Columbia University professor and the Dalai Lama's American confidant (and yes, Uma's father), says of Kalu's video, "I thought it was one of the most real things I've seen." About the knife-wielding incident, which some might find hard to credit, Thurman wrote in a subsequent e-mail, "Sadly, it all does seem credible to me. . . . The whole thing just reeks to high heaven." Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, the lama who directed The Cup, the one relatively unsentimental feature film about Tibetan children raised as monks, is concerned about sexual abuse at monasteries. "I think this is something we should look at," he says. "It's very important that people don't forget: Buddhism and Buddhist are two different entities. Buddhism is perfect." Buddhists, he suggests, are not.

But whats interesting to see and know is that while most sexual abuse victims tend to spend their lives trying to rebuild an identity that they "lost", Kalu Rinpoche actually sparked something, for the other Nyingma monasteries to check. Kalu Rinpoche's resolve is to actually clean up his monastery of politics and the center he founded of politics, and that is an interesting resolve by a tulku like him. Would it not be interesting if Osel did that instead? just thinking out loud.

[Positive Change]

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER: Ashoka Mukpo (right) was born to an American Jewish father and an aristocratic British mother but was raised as the son of Chogyam Trungpa, the legendary Tibetan lama who preached enlightenment and practiced free love and alcoholic excess. Left: Trungpa with Ashoka's half-brother, Gesar, in the 1970s.

Ashoka Mukpo, 31: Buddhism's White Shadow

When your father is a New York Jew, your mother is an English aristocrat, and your name is Ashoka Mukpo, you spend a lot of time answering questions about your identity. "It's like within 20 seconds of meeting somebody, I've gotta put my whole life on the table," Ashoka, 31, says. "I usually just say, 'Oh, my parents were hippies.' If it's a more formal situation, I'll say, 'Oh, my stepfather was Tibetan.'" And if he's talking to someone who knows something about the story of Tibetan Buddhism coming to the West, he'll share the truth. "Then I say, 'My dad is Chögyam Trungpa,' and God only knows what kind of absurd conversation is going to follow."

Ashoka's mother, Diana, married Trungpa at 16, taking his Tibetan family name, Mukpo. She stood by him throughout the seventies as he built a hippied-out empire centered in Boulder, Colorado, and achieved wider cultural renown as a guru to Allen Ginsberg and Joni Mitchell. Unlike the Dalai Lama, who sticks to the Buddhist basics—minimizing suffering in life—Trungpa initiated his students into the Tantric side of the tradition: the effort to liberate the energies of everyday life to speed up the path to enlightenment. His community, eventually called Shambhala, was notorious for its booze-and-sex-fueled blowouts that were rationalized as Tantric exercises—transmuting the poison of alcohol or liberating oneself from the attachment of conventional romantic love. "I don't know, man," Ashoka says. "I think if it were this day and age and I rolled up and saw a bunch of white people and all the crazy shit that was going on, I might head for the hills."

By 1980 Trungpa had grown increasingly erratic, and Diana, while remaining devoted, took a lover, Mitchell Levy, Trungpa's personal physician. Trungpa's own sexual infidelity was never at issue—he had been shamelessly promiscuous since puberty. When Ashoka was born in 1981, all eyes in the delivery room were trained on his lily-white skin. Trungpa, true to his credo of "crazy wisdom," was unperturbed. "I was his son," Ashoka says. "It didn't matter that I wasn't his seed—I was his son."

Ashoka was recognized as a tulku at 8 months old. The previous Karmapa called Trungpa to announce he'd had a dream that Ashoka was the ninth reincarnation of Khamnyon Rinpoche. "They called him 'the Mad Yogi of Kham,'" Ashoka says of his spiritual forebear. "He had a bit of a reputation as a wild man, which I don't think I'm living up to."

Ashoka, who lives in London with his girlfriend, is in New York City for a United Nations conference. Wearing a gray pinstripe suit instead of his usual jeans and T-shirt, he bears a passing resemblance to a young Jeremy Piven. He's smart and tightly wound, guided by a righteous idealism that led him to work for the nonprofit Human Rights Watch for three years after college and most recently to the London School of Economics, where he earned his master's in international development. In the fall he's off to join a nonprofit working on land rights in Liberia. "It's actually mellower than people think," he says.

After Trungpa's death in 1987 at the age of 48, from the alcoholism that accompanied his relentlessly swinging lifestyle, Levy and Diana married and moved Ashoka to Providence, where family life settled into a closer approximation of the American norm. But Ashoka always knew he'd been marked for a special destiny as a spiritual leader, which was exciting, like having a secret superpower, but which also made him feel like a freak. He recalls the time his parents suggested he take two Tibetan monks who were visiting from a monastery in India to basketball practice. "I told them, 'You guys don't get how incompatible this is with my self-conception right now,'" Ashoka says. "When you're 15, you can't say, 'Dude, I'm a reincarnated spiritual master from the hills of Tibet, and my father was this womanizing, drinking, Tibetan-crazy-wisdom genius' without people thinking you're weird as fuck. Now it's just a pain in the ass."

Ashoka's identity confusion took on a poignant edge during a family trip to Tibet when he was 22. "My title and role is really meaningful to people," he says. "I had old ladies and kids coming up to me and crying. Peasants with nothing offering their life savings. For God's sake, someone put a sick baby in front of my face and asked me to blow on it. I did. I'm not going to be the guy who says, 'This whole thing doesn't make sense for me, sorry!' Sometimes I do feel like it wasn't my decision to take this title on, but now I feel like someone put me in the position of abandoning it."

Ashoka is on his way to a celebration commemorating the 25th anniversary of Trungpa's death at the Shambhala Meditation Center in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood—one of some 165 centers that, along with dozens of still briskly selling books, maintain Trungpa's legacy. We arrive late to the burgundy-and-saffron-draped hall crowded with New Yorkers in their twenties and thirties. After an hour or so of sitting on the floor cushions, meditating and chanting, volunteers pass around plates of potluck dinner and cups of sake, Trungpa's favored drink.

Ashoka does his part, eating and drinking merrily. But venturing beyond these rituals to live and teach as a tulku lama won't happen in this lifetime. "For me, going too far down the rabbit hole of Tibetan culture doesn't make any sense," he says. Not that he's discerned any pressure from the Tibetan Buddhist establishment. "It's easy for them to write me off. I'm the white guy."

[Ensapa]

Here's a nice update on Osel and also how did he form his bond with Gomo Tulku. Apparently, they used to be alma mater in Sera Je! It is interesting tho, on the reason why Osel said he did not want to go the path of a Lama, that he did not want to live in the face of what people project him as. Hmm...maybe the FPMT people are putting too much pressure on him? or maybe they are going against one of the main practices he did in his previous life?

GOMO AND OSEL: OM BOYS REUNITED
Under the afternoon Tuscan sun in Pomaia, Gomo is sitting by the Istituto's giant brass prayer wheel with Osel Hita. Best friends from their years at the Sere Je monastery, the two are catching up on old times. Osel, a 27-year-old Spaniard, was a child lama prodigy and the subject of a biography by the time he was 3. He created a scandal a decade ago when he disappeared from the monastery without warning and made his way back to Europe to find himself. "I didn't feel I deserved so much respect, so many projections," he says. A scruffy freelance philosopher and secular seeker who has attended Burning Man, Osel lives with his girlfriend on the hard-partying Spanish island of Ibiza, where he is an aspiring filmmaker. Free of his monastic vows, he's since reconciled with the Buddhist tradition and now involves himself in the affairs of the Istituto's international parent organization.

Both he and Gomo are tulkus who had to leave the Tibetan Buddhist system to make their peace with it. The same could almost be said of Kalu, who has taken on the unhappy job of bringing Tibetan monasteries out of the Middle Ages. Listening to Gomo and Osel talk, one could easily think of the two lapsed lamas as apostates. But they could be seen as harbingers of a new, accessible, youth-friendly brand of Buddhism that owes as much to Western social mores as to traditional Tibetan forms.

As the conversation turns to Gomo's burgeoning hip-hop career, I mention that one of the tracks on his EP, "Don't You Know," sends a pretty clear Buddhist message: "I let life play its course now/ I'm just the caddy." Sounding very much like the Buddhist teacher he swears he'll never become—at least not formally—Gomo replies, "That's the thing. I am dharma. Don't know if you're aware of it, but you can be too. It's about the quality of who you are: being logical, compassionate, cool, chill. Anyone can do it—not just Buddhists."

[Positive Change]

Khyentse Yeshe (Yeshi Silvano Namkhai)
Khyentse Yeshe, son of the great Dzogchen master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, was born in Rome in 1970, recieved a Western and Buddhist education, studied philosophy and engineering, worked in the area of modern technologies.

H.H. Sakya Trizin has recognized Khyentse Yeshe as the reincarnation of maternal uncle of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu (Khyentse Rinpoche Chökyi Wangchug) and gave him name Jamyang Chökyi Nyima. In 2007 Yeshi visited Central Tibet and made a commitment to support the monastery there.

Recently he is dedicating more and more time for the future of the Dzogchen Community founded by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, following his Teacher and fullfiling the wishes of his students.

Khyentse Yeshe's style is simple and open, he is arising a lively and natural interest, speaking directly, helping to enter the essence of the buddhist teachings and discover the true nature of everyone.

During the last three years, Khyentse Yeshe gave more than 40 lectures and teachings in Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, Mexico, USA, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Australia. Yeshi Silvano Namkhai actively collaborates with many universities, museums and institutes involved in tibetan culture and buddhist knowledge.

Information on education and professional experience you can get from his CV. To learn more about his activities related to the Teaching please visit Archive and Video Library.

A life beyond oneself
For twenty years, filmmaker Jennifer Fox has been following the high Tibetan master, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and his Italian born son, Yeshi, with her camera. The result is the astounding feature length documentary, MY REINCARNATION, which tells the rare inside story of one of the last reincarnate teachers to be trained in Tibet and his son's stubborn reluctance to follow in his father's footsteps.

Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche escaped Tibet in 1959 and settled in Italy, where he married and had two children, of which Yeshi was the first. As a boy, Yeshi was recognized as the reincarnation of a famous spiritual master, who died after the Chinese invaded Tibet. But Yeshi grew up in Italy and never wanted to have anything to do with this legacy

http://youtu.be/9VOW_b0sCKk
	Small | Large

Biography on Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche: http://tsegyalgar.org/Data/theteachers/namkhainorbu/biography/religions-03-00163.pdf

[Ensapa]

Here's a nice bio of Lama Osel, for those of us who would like to know more.

Tenzin Osel Rinpoche
From The Dhamma Encyclopedia

Tenzin Ösel Rinpoche (Tibetan: ; Wylie: bstan 'dzin 'od gsal) was born in 1985 in Bubion, Granada, to Spanish parents who had been students of Lama Thubten Yeshe. Fourteen months later the Dalai Lama concurred with suggestions to the effect that he was the tulku (i.e. Tibetan Buddhist reincarnation) of Lama Yeshe.
Birth

Tenzin Osel was born without causing any pain to his mother; a birth event considered significant in Buddhism. The Buddha was born in such a way and often Tibetan lamas look for people born in such a way, determining them to be tulkus, or rebirths of famous teachers and gurus from the past.
This birth event also occurred with Dr. David N. Snyder (who has made no claims to being any famous guru, reborn).
Born Osel Hita Torres, "Lama Ösel" is the son of Maria Torres and Francisco Hita; and the fifth of six siblings: Yeshe, Harmonia, Lobstang, and Dolma (all older); and (younger brother) KunKyen. As a teenager Lama Ösel studied both Western and traditional Tibetan subjects at Sera Monastery in South India. However, in order to attain a western education, he studied at St. Michaels University School, a private high school in Victoria, British Columbia to complete a grade-12 education. It was reported he has taken monastic vows.
Vicki Mackenzie wrote a book about Lama Yeshe and Lama Osel entitled Reincarnation: The Boy Lama. Additional information about Lama Osel and other western tulkus can be found in her Reborn in the West.
Controversy

Although once chosen by the Dalai Lama himself, Osel Torres has now left the Order and is pursuing a film education back in Spain. On May 31, 2009 some magazines came out with reports that Osel no longer wished to be ordained: see the Guardian article link for the full report.
In June 2009 FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) came out with a response, see the 'gobeyondwords' link below stating that the lama still respects the Buddhist traditions and especially the Dalai Lama. The response from the FPMT claims that the other reports were sensationalized in a tabloid manner and distorted the facts.
After attaining his majority, Hita seemed increasingly to avoid FPMT circles, though formulaic greetings regularly appeared in FPMT publications. In May of 2009, Hita gave an interview for Babylon Magazine, a bilingual (Spanish/English) Madrid periodical. In it he expressed belief in reincarnation, and admiration for Zopa and the Dalai Lama, while complaining of his own discomfort with his exile Tibetan environs:
"I returned to Spain because I had arrived at a point where I no longer fitted within that life. I couldn't find myself, because for me it was a lie being there living something that was imposed from outside."
Having left the monastery at eighteen, without having earned a geshe degree, he felt unqualified to teach, as the FPMT expected of him: "The literal translation of lama is teacher, and I'm no teacher."[1]
Similar, but more pointed, remarks soon appeared in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo:
"Con 14 meses ya me habían reconocido y llevado a la India. Me vistieron con un gorro amarillo, me sentaron en un trono, la gente me veneraba... Me sacaron de mi familia y me metieron en una situación medieval en la que he sufrido muchísimo. Era como vivir en una mentira." [2]
"At 14 months I was recognized and taken to India. I dressed in a yellow hat, I sat on a throne, people worshipped me ... I was taken away from my family and put in a medieval situation in which I suffered a lot. It was like living a lie."
Extracts appeared the following day in the The Guardian (UK). At this time, references to "Lama Osel" suddenly disappeared from the FPMT's website, but reappeared the following day. [3] [4] Wisdom Publications (the FPMT publisher) then reported on the controversy on its blog under the title "Tempest in a Teapot." [5], claiming that Hita's original comments had been misrepresented and taken out of context. According to Wisdom, the article from El Mundo had been based on the one for Babylon Magazine.
On June 3, a message from Hita appeared on the FPMT website expressing support for that organization and Lama Zopa. In it, he said he was "privileged" to have received an education rooted in both Eastern and Western cultures.
"That experience was really good and I so appreciate it.
"However, certain media find ways to sensationalize and exaggerate an unusual story. So I hope that what appears in news print is not read and taken too literally. Don't believe everything that is written!
"Experience shows that however hard one tries in interviews to sincerely and honestly convey key information, the printed result can tend towards sensationalism to get the most attention.
"FPMT is doing a great job and Lama Zopa is an immensely special person - very inspiring and a great yogi. ... There is no separation between myself and FPMT..." [6]

[DharmaSpace]

Yes Buddhism like other faiths have to evolve to reach out to people, that is the compassion of the lamas and gurus to adapt to a fast changing environment like nowadays. If methods do not change how will the many beings get the dharma and be benefited? Certain methods that worked 2600 years ago will most likely not work now. May these young tulkus have the courage to help and save many sentient beings!   

[sonamdhargey]

Thank you harrynephew for the interesting post. Yes nowadays we hear and see Tulkus doing things that is totally out of their way and may seem unbecoming and awkward. These beings used modern methods in this modern world to spread the Dharma. Very interesting indeed.

Please enjoy this music video  of Gomo Tulku:

http://www.youtube.com/user/gomotulkumusic?feature=results_main

[thor]

Before Gomo Tulku, there was Singa Rinpoche, who is probably the first Rinpoche to embrace a singing career as a method to turn the wheel of dharma in recent times. Here's some information about the first rapping Rinpoche and here is some of his work (

Singa ??- Reincarnation ?? (Vajrasattva Mantra)	Small | Large

)

[bControversial lama is keepin' it surreal][/b]

He is barred from Taiwan for acting like a movie star, but that hasn't stopped interest raging over his new hip-hop album

Some monks have their cake and eat it.

A handsome but controversial young Tibetan lama has emerged on the local music scene by releasing his first CD — a collection of rap and hip-hop songs that he claims can help promote Buddhism.

Singa Rinpoche (??), 30, who is barred from entering Taiwan due to his flamboyant behavior on a visit to the island last year, released the CD — Wish You Well (??) — on Saturday through Taiwanese Forward Music company.

Since then, several TV channels have been airing the MTV spots promoting Singa's album — showing Singa recording songs in the studio, running in a forest and releasing a bird into freedom.

Wearing his trademark white shirt and blue pants, Singa, 179cm tall and weighing 63kg, shows a natural talent for performing by flashing smiles and making poses, showing off his youth and confidence.

Singa signed a contract with Forward Music last April and began recording at a Beijing studio in July.

"We were surprised by the public response to this CD. It is selling extremely well. We have opened a blog for Singa Rinpoche and within a week, 100,000 people have browsed it," a Forward Music (?) press officer said.
Most of the 12 songs on the CD were written and composed by a Taiwan musician and two were written and composed by Singa.

They are: Reincarnation, Wish You Well, Let Me Take Care of You, Fashion, It's the Light, Girl Quji Zhuoma, Starting to Realize, Leave Love to You, Today, Lama Chino.

In the songs, Singa mixes rap and hip-hop with chants of Buddhist sutras, and switches from Chinese to Tibetan and English.

The songs deal mostly with love, but he also preaches his philosophy. The song Leave Love to You has this rap line: All the pain in this world is caused by seeking happiness for himself/All the joy in this world is caused by seeking happiness for others.

Born in Qinghai Province, China, in 1970, Singa claims a rainbow appeared in the sky when he was born. At 16, a Tibetan monastery confirmed he was the reincarnation of a high lama.

Singa claimed he spent three years studying Buddhism in Nepal, Tibet and Thailand, before traveling around the world to spread Buddhism.

But when he visited Taiwan from February to April last year to promote his book, This Is Me, a living Buddha, he caused controversy because he acted more like a film star than a monk. He wore trendy clothes and received his disciples wearing a shirt and jeans, not the red cloak worn by Tibetan lamas.

Some Taiwan disciples alledged Singa had not finished Buddhist studies in India and had not been ordained, prompting the Interior Ministry to bar him from entering the country for one year.

Cheng Chen-huang (), a internationally recognized Buddhist scholar, believes Singa Rinpoche has violated Buddhist precepts, or moral codes.

"There are 250 precepts for a Chinese Buddhist and 253 precepts for a Tibetan Buddhist. For a Buddhist, these codes are very important and must be observed," Cheng said.

Agga Wandha, a 59-year-old Burmese monk in Taipei, agreed.

"The essence of Buddhism is to quench desires in order to achieve inner peace. Singa Rinpoche's wearing fashionable clothes and driving fancy cars shows he is feeding these desires," he said.

But Singa Rinpoche's behavior is nothing new to Tibetan Buddhism. Three hundred years ago, the sixth Dalai Lama raised eyebrows because he frequented Lhasa's red light district at night and wrote love poems.

A more recent example is Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche from the Himalayan Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, who directed two films — The Cup in 1999 and Travellers and Magicians in 2005.

Dzongsar Khyentse received world acclaim for his films and continues to travel around the world to preach Buddhism.

[brian]

New dawn Tulkus indeed they are! I have slight doubt about their actions and behaviours at times during the my early days into Buddhism. As i found out later on and i have gained some knowledge and understand on why there are some who are indulging in intoxications and/or singing. All these looks mundane to me and it seems to me that these Tulkus are similar to runaways. I later found out that there is a major motivation behind all these and became impressed instead of feeling disgusted with them. Their uncalled for actions made big headways to the public and many were become aware of Tibetan Buddhism (!) This is what we call skillful means eh..?

[Vajraprotector]

Amazing that new generation of Tulkus like Gomo Tulku, Lama Osel and Kalu Rinpoche are manifesting behaviours resembling the youngster of today. Perhaps that's what will appeal to the young.

However, a pioneer of the past, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, his current reincarnation seemed to be a bit "old school" compared to the Tulkus of the new, although the current Trungpa Rinpoche is a year older than Gomo Tulku.

Choseng Trungpa Rinpoche

The 12th Trungpa Rinpoche
Courtesy of Heleen de Graaf www.tibetreis.com

Choseng Trungpa Rinpoche is the 12th and current Trungpa tülku. He was born on February 6, 1989 in Pawo village, in Derge, eastern Tibet, and recognized by Tai Situ Rinpoche in 1991. He was enthroned a year later at Surmang Monastery at a ceremony presided over by Domkhar Rinpoche, a high Kagyu lama and Choseng's uncle. The monastery's late abbot (and Choseng Trungpa's predecessor), was Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

He has studied the traditions of Surmang under the tutelage of the late Lama Kenla, (1932–2003), and received his early monastic education at the shedra at Palpung Monastery. He studied at Surmang Namgyal-tse until 2008, and currently studies at Serthar Institute.

The name Choseng is a contraction of Chokyi Sengay, which means "Lion of Dharma."


More about the 12th Trungpa Rinpoche
Trungpa XII Rinpoche, is presently continuing his studies at Serta monastery in Golok, periodically visiting Surmang Dutsi Til.  He lives in a small house at Serta with two of his brothers and two attendant monks.  He will take his seat as abbot of Dutsi Til once the new shedra there is fully in operation. 

In September 2010, Trungpa XII Rinpoche recorded a statement in which he thanked those who have supported the rebuilding of the Surmang shedra.  He also called for continued study of the teachings of his predecessor, Chogyam Trungpa XI Rinpoche , and requested that the works in English of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche be translated into Tibetan.

In the wake of the tragic earthquake in Jyekundo (Yushu) in April 2010, Trungpa XII Rinpoche spent many days there along with the other leadership of Surmang Dutsi Til.  They initially helped search for survivors and subsequently met with and provided financial and food aid to families there.  They also performed a number of pujas for the deceased.


12th Trungpa Rinpoche, Aten Rinpoche and monks performing prayers for thet people who died in the Jyekundo earthquake. 
Photo by Surmang Khenpo

“I wish our shedra was open right now!”
              --Trungpa XII Rinpoche (in a recent comment to the Surmang Khenpo)

Trungpa Rinpoche has spent most of his time recently at Serta Institute in eastern Tibet. Serta is a great institute of dharmic learning established by His Holiness Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok.  It is a university for all schools of Buddhist thought in Tibet, with more than 15,000 students.  Serta has 40-50 khenpos, including the highly noted Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro and Tulku Tenzin Gyamtso.


The 12th Trungpa Rinpoche, taken at Serta in September, 2010
By Jon Ransohoff.

Along with studying and receiving transmissions at Serta, Trungpa Rinpoche also spends time at Surmang.  He continues to learn the dharma traditions particular to Surmang.  In September/October of 2009, he studied the Chakrasamvara dance, and will be participating in the annual Chakrasamvara Dance on the 13th, 14th, and 15th days after Losar (Tibetan New Year).  Traditionally, the Chakrasamvara Dance at Surmang is led by the current Trungpa Rinpoche, once he has mastered the intricate steps.  In addition to performing practices and spending time with the Surmang monks, Trungpa Rinpoche accompanies the monks on visits to local villagers, doing prayers for those who are sick or dying.   

Trungpa Rinpoche also spends some time each year with his family in Derge.  Sadly, his mother passed away in 2006.   


Trungpa XII Rinpoche at the dance leader's place of the annual Chakrasamvara dance at Surmang Dutsi Til,
Photo by Surmang Khenpo, March 2007

Trungpa XII Rinpoche continues to learn the dharma traditions particular to Surmang.  Traditionally, the meditational Chakrasamvara Dance at Surmang is led by the current Trungpa Rinpoche, once he has mastered the intricate steps.  Trungpa XII Rinpoche has now fulfills this role.   This dance ordinarily takes place annually on the 13th, 14th, and 15th days after Losar (Tibetan New Year).

While at Surmang, in addition to performing practices and spending time with the monks, Trungpa Rinpoche accompanies the monks on visits to local villagers, doing prayers for those who are sick or dying.

For more info and biography of the 12th Trungpa Rinpoche, read here: http://www.konchok.org/trungpa.html


Below is a video of the 12th Trungpa Rinpoche:

12th Trungpa Rinpoche (The video's owner prevents external embedding)

[Ensapa]

Amazing that new generation of Tulkus like Gomo Tulku, Lama Osel and Kalu Rinpoche are manifesting behaviours resembling the youngster of today. Perhaps that's what will appeal to the young.

I am not sure about Gomo Tulku's case, but in the case of both Lama Osel and Kalu Rinpoche, their appearance is caused by broken samaya. In the case of Lama Osel, his students worldwide went against his core practice of Dorje Shugden and from there it is very obvious that the result of that action was that Lama Osel does not want to teach them anymore in any way, shape or form, thus he manifested as a film student instead, teaching a completely group of students, completely separate from and inaccessible to FPMT members. In the case of Kalu Rinpoche, he has said in great disappointment on what happened to the monastery in france that his predecessor has built and why did they allow politics to ruin it, and why are there no Dharma masters emerging from it, and that he did not build up his center/monastery for this to happen but to benefit others. This was when he was 18 and still taking the form of a monk and nobody did anything about his declaration after that. From here, it is very obvious that broken samaya can result to the teacher manifesting in a way where he can no longer reach out to his former students.

In Chongyam Trungpa's case, it seems that he prefers to take care of his tibetan students as opposed to taking care of Shambala. This is interesting because in his past incarnation he was more focused to his western students. Perhaps, he feels closer to his Tibetan ones for now as opposed to his western ones. I wonder how Shambala is going to react to this and how are they going to handle this situation as Chongyam Trungpa is still quite close to them (meaning, the samaya is clean) and perhaps, the Tibetans need help to develop their community while Shambala is already very well established, which is why Chongyam Trungpa would like aid to the Tibetan one.