HH Pabongkha Rinpoche on Sera Mey's list of eminent scholars

[WisdomBeing]

I was just browsing through Sera Mey Monastery's website and i was surprised to see HH Pabongkha Rinpoche on their gallery of eminent scholars. I thought that Pabongkha Rinpoche was persona non grata because of his being a Dorje Shugden practitioner yet here he is on this list. I am happy to see it but I am surprised. Anyway, i just wanted to share this with everyone. Have a lovely weekend all!

[vajratruth]

This is a good surprise. Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche, along with Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and together with a few high lamas had their names removed from the list if eminent Lamrim scholars and teachers because they were Shugden worshippers. That itself was biting the nose to spite the face - a CTA specialty as it appears, because one of the most effective and widely recognized Lamrim book, Liberation In The Palm Of The Hand was based entirely on Pabongka Rinpoche's teachings and supremely captured and edited by Trijang Rinpoche.

I guess it became awkward for the monasteries to keep explaining the inconsistency of blacklisting the author while at the same time, still studying his works. But then this is not new. Panchen Sonam Drakpa, who was one of Dorje Shugden many illustrious past lives, wrote the very texts that forms the core curriculum of monastic studies at quite few very prestigious Gelugpa Universities such as Loseling and Shartse College at Gaden Monastic University. In fact, those monks who disparage Dorje Shugden and his lineage still rely heavily on the works of Dorje Shugden in his past life as Panchen Sonam Drakpa, to qualify for their geshe degrees. Isn't this an irony of all ironies?

Still, it is wonderful news that the wrong view of Dorje Shugden is being corrected although the Shugden-opposing establishment seem to be taking the long way about it and coyly as well.

[Ensapa]

Other than Pabongkha Rinpoche, I also see the picture of another prominent DS Lama listed in their prominent scholars' list - Kensur Lobsang Tarchin. This is an interesting move by the monastery - are they REALLY running out of non-DS Lamas to have to feature DS Lamas? I also noticed that it was actually listing all the previous abbots - and they did not omit his name  from the list. Does this mean that the ban would be lifted soon and that it is finally relaxing? Because everyone knows that it is unthinkable for any monastery to endorse anyone who is a DS practitioner due to the ban, so I would think that they would not dare to list the pictures of DS masters even if they are the ex-abbot. This is a welcome change indeed.

[lotus1]

Glad to know about Pabongkha Rinpoche and Kensur Lobsang Tarchin are listed as Eminent Scholars on Sera May Monastery website (http://serameymonastery.org/galleryEminentScholars.aspx).

It is definitely a positive move of Sera May Monastery. Most of the texts for monasteries are from Pabongkha Rinpoche or his lineage lams. All the sadhanas of Vajrayogini, Heruka, Yamataka and Guhyasamaja that are taught and practiced  within the Gelug school today are all include Pabongka Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche within the prayers to the lineage lamas. Since these lamas are practicing Dorje Shugden, so, it is just logical that Dorje Shugden is not evil spirits and we can do Dorje Shugden practice too!

[Ensapa]

Glad to know about Pabongkha Rinpoche and Kensur Lobsang Tarchin are listed as Eminent Scholars on Sera May Monastery website (http://serameymonastery.org/galleryEminentScholars.aspx).

It is definitely a positive move of Sera May Monastery. Most of the texts for monasteries are from Pabongkha Rinpoche or his lineage lams. All the sadhanas of Vajrayogini, Heruka, Yamataka and Guhyasamaja that are taught and practiced  within the Gelug school today are all include Pabongka Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche within the prayers to the lineage lamas. Since these lamas are practicing Dorje Shugden, so, it is just logical that Dorje Shugden is not evil spirits and we can do Dorje Shugden practice too!

It also means one of two things: either that Sera Mey is running out of non DS scholars to be listed and they do not have a choice, or that it is a sign that the Dorje Shugden ban is relaxing in Dharamsala because as I have explained, it would be unthinkable to endorse a Dorje Shugden Lama in any way, shape or form, and putting their picture on the website is considered as endorsing them. I do not think that any monastery would want to do that if the ban was at its height, as we have observed that before these, the picture were not there but they appeared only recently. This is in any case, a good sign.

[WisdomBeing]

I don't think that it is possible at all to just list a Lama because they 'ran out' of non-Dorje Shugden lamas. I think that the reason why these eminent lamas are on the list is precisely because of their qualities which are undeniable. if one is a past abbot, one is a past abbot. No amount of scrubbing or rewriting history will change it. Same with the 101st Ganden Trisur who is still on the list of previous Ganden Tris despite the fact that he has 'defected' over to join Shar Ganden monastery and that he is a very open Dorje Shugden practitioner today. As more and more eminent Dorje Shugden lamas are highlighted, it will only serve to show that Dorje Shugden is a Buddha and his practice is positive and powerful.

[Ensapa]

I don't think that it is possible at all to just list a Lama because they 'ran out' of non-Dorje Shugden lamas. I think that the reason why these eminent lamas are on the list is precisely because of their qualities which are undeniable. if one is a past abbot, one is a past abbot. No amount of scrubbing or rewriting history will change it. Same with the 101st Ganden Trisur who is still on the list of previous Ganden Tris despite the fact that he has 'defected' over to join Shar Ganden monastery and that he is a very open Dorje Shugden practitioner today. As more and more eminent Dorje Shugden lamas are highlighted, it will only serve to show that Dorje Shugden is a Buddha and his practice is positive and powerful.

But then again, the CTA did attempt to scrub, and so did some monasteries who went to as far as removing Pabongkha and Trijang Rinpoche from their lineage prayers. What they are doing now is a very welcome  move, by accepting their history and lineage Lamas it will help reinforce the fact that Dorje Shugden isnt that bad at all. If you would like to compare this scenario to what they did in the past such as removing names from lineage prayers and refuge trees, it is an improvement of sorts. I do find it a positive thing, in more ways than one.

[jagger]

Without HH Kyabje Pabongkha Rinpoche, the entire Gelug order would have faced a terrible turmoil and be placed at the edge of being disparaged by many who were not following the Vinaya rules as set down by the Buddha himself.

Regardless of what others may think, Kyabje Pabongkhapa has been the most instrumental figure in the Gelugpa school of Buddhism. So much so that other contemporaries during that time were overshadowed by his spiritual fame. The contradiction is here, people praise Pabongkha Rinpoche for his great works such as the Lamrim commentary Liberation in the Palm of your hands but in turn disparage Him and his spiritual descendants for practicing Dorje Shugden.

The fact that this holy image of Pabongkha Rinpoche in Sera Mey's list of eminent scholars shows us that they are unwavered by the ban. They keep their practices strong though they have to put up a fake facade.

[Ensapa]

Without HH Kyabje Pabongkha Rinpoche, the entire Gelug order would have faced a terrible turmoil and be placed at the edge of being disparaged by many who were not following the Vinaya rules as set down by the Buddha himself.

Regardless of what others may think, Kyabje Pabongkhapa has been the most instrumental figure in the Gelugpa school of Buddhism. So much so that other contemporaries during that time were overshadowed by his spiritual fame. The contradiction is here, people praise Pabongkha Rinpoche for his great works such as the Lamrim commentary Liberation in the Palm of your hands but in turn disparage Him and his spiritual descendants for practicing Dorje Shugden.

The fact that this holy image of Pabongkha Rinpoche in Sera Mey's list of eminent scholars shows us that they are unwavered by the ban. They keep their practices strong though they have to put up a fake facade.

To be exact, it is more of people of other traditions, especially the Kagyus and Nyingmas that are unhappy with his worship of Dorje Shugden and have also flung many nasty accusations against him as well. We get pretty much, funny accounts like these:

With the assistance of a human medium, through whom he still today communicates with his priests, the abbot who had transformed into a protective god organized (from the beyond, so to speak) a oppositional grouping within the Yellow Hat (Gelugpa) order, who wanted (and still want) to enforce the absolute supremacy of their order by magical and practical political means. For example, at the beginning of the 20th century the invocation of Shugden by the powerful Yellow Hat lama, Pabongka Rinpoche, was used to suppress the Nyingmapas and Kagyupas in eastern Tibet. An outright ritual war was fought out: “... whenever this [Shugden] ritual was practiced in the Gelugpa monasteries, the surrounding monasteries of the other schools [performed] certain practices so as to check the negative forces again” (Kagyü Life 21-1996, p. 34).

Which, we know that it is not true, but the Kagyus spread it with glee. Out of pure jealousy and nothing else.

Without Pabongkha Rinpoche, the Gelug system would have been scattered and disorganised and fragmented, and there will be less attained masters in the Gelug system compared to now. And we owe it to Pabongkha Rinpoche and him not transmitting Nyingma practices that he had mastered, but kept a secret so that he does not confuse us.

[fruven]

Indeed it is good news. HH Kyabje Pabongkha Rinpoche was the Lama who has contributed to the spread of Buddha Dharma to all the prominent Lamas and their disciples today. Without him the Dharma teachings wouldn't have spread so far and wide and benefited so many especially the laypeople. Reading his autobiography one can see that he has make many contributions which we cannot deny of. I fully agreed that we cannot scrub away the deeds that were done in the past. If the practice is 'bad' and the practice and prominent people are removed from history, then wouldn't it be the same that can be said for scientific discovery and its founder.

[Ensapa]

Indeed it is good news. HH Kyabje Pabongkha Rinpoche was the Lama who has contributed to the spread of Buddha Dharma to all the prominent Lamas and their disciples today. Without him the Dharma teachings wouldn't have spread so far and wide and benefited so many especially the laypeople. Reading his autobiography one can see that he has make many contributions which we cannot deny of. I fully agreed that we cannot scrub away the deeds that were done in the past. If the practice is 'bad' and the practice and prominent people are removed from history, then wouldn't it be the same that can be said for scientific discovery and its founder.

Here's Rilbur Rinpoche's memoir of Pabongkha Rinpoche

Ribur Rinpoche On Je Pabongka

I have had some success as a scholar, and as a lama I am somebody, but these things are not important. The only thing that matters to me is that I was a disciple of Pabonka Rinpoche. - Ribur Rinpoche

Pabongka Rinpoche: Excerpts from A Memoir by Ribur Rinpoche

“My guru, kind in three ways, who met face-to-face with Heruka, whose name I find difficult to utter, Lord Pabongka Vajradhara Dechen Nyingpo Pal Zangpo, was born north of Lhasa in 1878. His father was a minor official but the family was not wealthy. Although the night was dark, a light shone in the room, and people outside the house had a vision of a protector on the roof.” – from Ribur Rinpoche’s “memoir”

The Venerable Rilbur Rinpoche was born in Eastern Tibet in 1923. At the age of five he was recognised by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama as the sixth incarnation of Sera-mae Rilbur Rinpoche. He entered Sera Monastic University in Lhasa at fourteen and became a Geshe at twenty-four. He meditated and taught Dharma until 1959, after which he suffered under intense Chinese oppression for twenty-one years. Ribur Rinpoche, himself a lifelong practitioner of Dorje Shugden, was held and tortured by the Chinese for two decades. He famously said “If I told you what happened on a regular basis, you would find it hard to believe.”

And yet, by all accounts, he emerged from his trials with a heart full of love and forgiveness. How? Well, according to him, it was due to the blessings and teachings of his root Lama Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche. Below are some excerpts of a memoir of their time together….

Meeting his Root Guru…

His root guru was Dagpo Lama Rinpoche Jampael Lhuendrub Gyatso, from Lhoka. He was

 
Je Pabongka's Root Guru, Dagpo Bamcho
definitely a bodhisattva, and Pabongka Rinpoche was his foremost disciple. He lived in a cave in Pasang and his main practice was bodhichitta; his main deity was Avalokiteshvara and he would recite 50,000 manis [the mantra, om mani padme hum] every night. When Kyabje Pabongka first met Dagpo Rinpoche at a tsog offering ceremony in Lhasa, he cried out of reverence from beginning to end.
On his practical style of study (a recurring theme from Je Pabongka’s life)….

When Pabongka Rinpoche had finished his studies he visited Dagpo Lama Rinpoche in his cave and was sent into a Lam-rim retreat nearby. Dagpo Lama Rinpoche would teach him a Lam-rim topic and then Pabongka Rinpoche would go away and meditate on it. Later he would return to explain what he’d understood: if he had gained some realization, Dagpo Lama Rinpoche would teach him some more and Pabongka Rinpoche would go back and meditate on that. It went on like this for ten years (and if that’s not amazing, what is!).
Faithful minds see the miraculous….

One of (my) teachers had a picture of Pabongka Rinpoche that exuded small drops of nectar from between the eyebrows. I saw this with my own eyes, so you can imagine how much faith I had in Rinpoche when I finally came into his presence.
Ribur Rinpoche meets the great lama….

At the time of my arrival in Lhasa, Pabongka Rinpoche was living at Tashi Choeling, a cave above Sera Monastery. We made an appointment and a few days later my mother, my chang-dzoe (the man in charge of my personal affairs), and I rode up on horseback. Although Rinpoche was expecting us that day, we had not arranged a time- Nevertheless, he had just had his own chang-dzoe prepare tea and sweet rice, which freshly awaited our arrival. This convinced me that Rinpoche was clairvoyant, a manifestation of the all-seeing Vajradhara himself.

After we had eaten it was time to visit Rinpoche. I remember this as if it were today. A narrow staircase led up to Pabongka Rinpoche’s tiny room, where he was sitting on his bed. He looked just like his pictures — short and fat! He said, “I knew you were coming — now we have met,” and stroked the sides of my face. While I was sitting there a new geshe from Sera came in to offer Rinpoche a special tsampa dish that is made only at the time of receiving the geshe degree. Rinpoche remarked how auspicious it was that this new geshe had come while I was there and had him fill my bowl just like his own. You can imagine what that did to my mind!