A
brief explanation of the sacred qualities
and activities
that have benefited all beings
in temporary matters and on the ultimate
level
by the inconceivable emanation of Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas,
THE TRALEG KYABGON
RINPOCHES
When Buddha Shakyamuni turned the wheel
of Dharma in Jampudiva world, this being,
known to us as Traleg Rinpoche, was born
as Ananda. Perfecting Buddhahood, he worked
to develop the Buddhadharma.
He next incarnated as Tulku Tsermed Oden,
inseparable with glorious Sangwai Dagpo,
lord of Tantrayana, and taught Tantrayana
in the unsurpassable dakini realm. Having
developed such teachings in all directions
through endless times, his next rebirth
was as the mahayogi Thognied Yontei, skilled
in all miraculous powers. This mahayogi
was the disciple of the yogi Saraha and
Lord Nagarjuna. He benefited beings by developing
Buddhism in general, and the Tantrayana
in particular, in all the ten directions
of the world.
His next rebirth was as mahasiddha Dapa
Sherab, principle disciple of Mahasiddha
Tilopa. Having firmly stabilized the very
transmission and teaching of Mahasiddha
Tilopa, his next rebirth was as Siddha Dogon
Lotsawa, disciple of glorious Naropa. He
translated many unavailable teachings of
the lesser and higher vehicles, particularly
the Vajrayana teachings.
His next incarnation was as a disciple of
Lotsawa Marpa named Ngod Choku Dorje, who
translated tantric teachings from Sanskrit
into the Tibetan language. He was skilled
at both learning and meditation, and carried
out the sedgyerd (learning) transmission.
His next incarnation was as a disciple of
the great yogi Milarepa, named Rechung Dorje
Drakpa. He developed the teachings and became
famous all over Tibet.
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His
next incarnation was as a disciple of Gampopa,
Saltong Shogom, one of the five disciples
closest to Gampopa. He was one of the famous
Three Men of Kham, the other two being Dusum
Khyenpa who became the first Karmapa, and
Je Phagmo Gyare. These three, together with
two other disciples, were the only ones
to receive from Gampopa the complete transmission
of both Vajrayana and Mahamudra. Saltong
Shogam was a great master, who, after Gampopa’s
paranirvana, remained in meditation and
did not take any disciples. |
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His next incarnation, Pandita Wangchuck Dorje,
was famous and skilled in both Sutrayana and
Tantrayana. His next rebirth was during the
time of the third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje,
as Toden Tachug. He developed and taught Kagyu
teachings. Later, for many generations, he
incarnated as a bhiksu (a fully ordained monk)
called Chokyi Wangchuk, who enriched and liberated
limitless living beings.
Then Chokyi Dragpa incarnated in the second
seat of the Kagyu order in Karmai Gon where
he taught and developed Buddhadharma. Then,
in order to develop and carry on the Buddhadharma
he was requested to be the head of the Thrangu
Monastery. His name was Nyima Tashi.
Eight successive incarnations bearing the
name of Traleg, one of the most important
Kagyu tulku lineages in Tibet, benefited beings
and taught in all directions according to
the prophecy of Guru Padmasambhava: “You
will benefit living beings bearing the name
Nyima for eight incarnations as a fully ordained
Bhiksu." The Traleg line has always been
closely associated with the Karmapas, the
Tai Situpa tulkus and, since the nineteenth
century, with the Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoches.
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SITU
CHOKYI NYIMA - THE EIGHTH TRALEG TULKU
- (1901-1953)
(also known as Khenpo Trudyi Nyima and as
Tenpa Rabgay Khanib)
The immediate predecessor to the present
Traleg Tulku (1955- ) is known by older
lamas, who personally knew him, as a gentle
but powerful, charismatic man who was always
willing to help people.
Chokyi Nyima was a huge man, over six feet
tall. His father was a minister at the court
of the king of Derge, a semi autonomous
principality in Kham, eastern Tibet. He
was also closely related to Dingo Khyentse
Rinpoche. Being born to a powerful family,
Chokyi Nyima could have sought power too,
after being recognized as the eighth incarnation
of the Traleg lineage. However, he never
took advantage of his exalted position.
As a child he was never angry and was one
of the most handsome of lamas, his beauty
was extraordinary. When he came of age he
grew a perfect beard. He was described as
very good-natured, loose, relaxed, soft
and gentle, strong, straight, honest and
skilful in his ways. He had no attachment
to material things, using whatever he acquired
for dharma purposes. His teacher was the
second Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, Nyima Osel,
who gave the eighth Traleg initiations and
more teachings than he gave to anyone else.
He stayed a lot in retreat, in a solitary
place near Thrangu monastery.
As an adult he preferred to teach, and to
give initiations. As abbot of Thrangu Gompa,
with over 500 monks, he used the substantial
donations made to the monastery to greatly
extend the monastery so that it became one
of the major monasteries of eastern Tibet.
Whatever he was given went to increase the
dharma. He had thangkas made which depicted
the Kagyu lineage in gold along with many
new statues – perhaps a thousand –
and a huge prayer wheel, which was filled
with three hundred million slips of paper,
each printed with the mantra of Dorje Sempa.
He also erected a big stupa
The great works he undertook progressed
slowly, so slowly that when he suddenly
died at the age of 52 he had not fulfilled
all the work he started. Whatever he did,
he did well, very-carefully. He paid meticulous
attention to detail, to do it with perfection.
Yet he was naturally relaxed in manner,
and always helpful, no matter how people
sought his assistance. He kept his monastic
precepts and disliked showing off, and so
didn’t find it necessary to display
clairvoyance and other extraordinary powers.
He spent a lot of money on having rare texts
copied, hiring skilled wood carvers to make
woodblocks so that texts that had never
been printed could be made available. In
his library he had thousands of volumes
of woodblock prints of texts. He started
a monastic college, and had innumerable
disciples.
At the time of the 1953 Losar (New Year)
ceremonies, he suddenly fell ill, as the
Mahakala practice was being done. He died
quickly. He left a sealed letter, not to
be opened until a year after his death,
which predicted the next incarnation would
be born in a sheep year. His monks made
the two-month journey to Tsurphu to see
the Karmapa, to seek his prediction. He
gave them a letter, not to be opened for
a year. When it was opened it said the next
incarnation had already been born, and it
named the parents and the place.
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THE
NINTH TRALEG TULKU - (1955 - )
The ninth Venerable Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche
is President and Spiritual Director of Kagyu
E-Vam Buddhist Institute in Melbourne and
E-Vam Institute in the Hudson Valley, New
York. He was also the spiritual head of
Kamalashila Institute, one of the main Kagyu
centres in Europe, for five years. Traleg
Rinpoche was recognized as the ninth incarnation
of the Traleg line by His Holiness the Sixteenth
Gyalwa Karmapa, and along with other tulkus
of the Kagyu tradition has the authority
and responsibility to protect and transmit
the Kagyu lineage of teachings. Traleg Rinpoche
was accorded the title Kyabgon, a significant
distinction retained by only a few lineage
holders of the Tibetan tradition.
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Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche was
born on the first day of the auspicious Tibetan
Year of the Wood Sheep (1955) in Nangchen,
Eastern Tibet, in a village about three days
journey by horseback from Thrangu Monastery.
He was enthroned as the Supreme Abbott of
Thrangu Monastery at age two by His Holiness
Gyalwa Karmapa. Thrangu is a large monastery
in Kham, in Eastern Tibet, not far from the
Yangtze River (Tibetan: Drichu). The famous
printing centre of Derge and Surmang, the
seat of the Trungpa tulkus are also in that
area. The surroundings of the monastery are
very beautiful with broad well-watered pastures
in the high valleys, rocks and mountains with
snowy peaks. The monastery and a short biography
of Traleg Rinpoche are described in an official
book released by the Chinese government, The
Tibetan Monasteries of Gansu and Qinghai Provinces
(Gan-Qing Zangchuan fojiao siyuan), Pu Wencheng
(ed.), Qinghai Peoples’ Publishing House,
Xining, 1990, pp. 304-5.
As a result of the difficult political situation
with the Chinese who had already occupied
that part of Tibet for seven years, Rinpoche
had to flee his native land at the age of
four and escaped to northern India like so
many other Tibetan refugees of this time with
about 100 people from his area. According
to those who fled Tibet with Rinpoche, during
the critical moments when people had no idea
where to go, the four-year old Traleg Rinpoche
directed them and eventually they escaped
safely to Tsurphu, the seat of His Holiness
Karmapa, near Lhasa. They were only able to
stay there a short time before having to flee
Tibet to the safety of Bhutan. From there,
Rinpoche was taken to Rumtek, His Holiness’
headquarters in Sikkim.
His Holiness Karmapa gathered all the young
tulkus together at Rumtek where they were
strictly brought up and educated under his
guidance as the holders of the Kagyu tradition.
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| Rinpoche was educated by His
Holiness with the other young tulkus in exile
until he was nine, when he went to a centre
near Darjeeling, where, in spite of being
very young, he began an intensive study of
the philosophical root texts and commentaries
under the guidance of His Eminence Thugsey
Rinpoche and other great scholars such as
Khenpo Noryang and Khenpo Sodar. This Dharma
education continued until he was sixteen when
His Holiness Karmapa sent him to study at
the Sanskrit University of Varanasi. He stayed
there until he was nineteen, when he was put
in charge of the Samdo Phare Monastery (the
Palace of Padmasambhava) in East Bhutan. It
was here that Rinpoche had the opportunity
to begin studying English. |
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In
1977 Rinpoche returned to Rumtek to become
secretary and interpreter for His Holiness,
dealing with many English-speaking Western
visitors. In 1980, he arrived in Australia,
thereafter becoming an Australian citizen.
Rinpoche established Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist
Institute in 1982 in order to make the teachings
and practices of the Kagyu tradition available
in Australia.
Rinpoche has returned to Thrangu Monastery
twice in the past five years, thus re-establishing
his connection with the monastery and its
monks, some of whom are very elderly and
served Rinpoche’s predecessor. He
also travels widely, teaching in the United
States, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and
south-east Asia. He now returns annually
to New York to give public teachings and
continue in the establishment of his retreat
centre in Hudson, in Upstate New York.
Rinpoche regularly gives lectures and seminars
world-wide on Buddhism and related topics,
and has become well-known for his erudition,
fluency in English and background in Western
philosophy, psychology and comparative religion.
He is especially respected for his skill
in working with people of diverse interests,
ages and backgrounds. Rinpoche has both
a strict traditional Buddhist education
and a comprehensive Western education, holding
a degree from La Trobe University and is
currently engaged in academic research for
a Doctoral dissertation.
Rinpoche inaugurated the annual Buddhist
Summer School in 1984 and more recently
the biannual Buddhism and Psychotherapy
Conference. Both of these programs have
developed into major national events and
have hosted many well-known spiritual teachers,
Western psychologists and thinkers. His
first book The Essence of Buddhism
is in its second printing and has been translated
into Portuguese, French and is currently
under translation in Dutch. An up coming
book for Shambhala Publications is an overview
of Buddhist Tantra tentatively entitled
Rays of the Sun and a book on Lojong,
Mind Training entitled The Benevolent
Mind: A Manual in Mind Training for
Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Trust Publications.
Rinpoche also publishes a non-sectarian,
contemporary quarterly magazine Ordinary
Mind: An Australian Buddhist Review, which
is the only Buddhist magazine to be produced
in Australia and is now being distributed
throughout Australia. Ordinary Mind is a
non-sectarian, contemporary Buddhist magazine
which has articles about Buddhist philosophy,
culture, literature as well as travelogues,
reviews, interviews, news, a forum for discussions,
features on other Australian Buddhist centres
and many other things. To find out more
about this innovative magazine, visit the
website on www.ordinarymind.net.au.
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