Teaching Issue
Volume 16, Number 1 / February 2016
Letter from the Editors
Happy Losar!
Dear Friends,
We wish you all a Happy Losar! Let's celebrate the Tibetan New Year and practice together with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche by tuning into his free, live webcast on February 13, during Losar celebrations! This webcast is the first in a NEW six-part series on Transforming Your World Through Service. The topic to begin the series is "The Value of Enlightened Leadership" and is also the focus for the annual Spring Retreat at Serenity Ridge. Read Rinpoche's letter explaining more about what's ahead for us in 2016 – how we can improve our ability to help others in the most compassionate and wise ways.
We hope you enjoy the teaching excerpt for this issue from Rinpoche's book The True Source of Healing. He encourages us to ask ourselves: "How much is your life guided by light and awareness, and how much is it driven by reactivity and denial? The inner refuge is your unfailing support in any moment. Let it be your best friend."
In last month's webcast on "Soul Retrieval as a Lifetime Practice," Rinpoche reminded us all of the importance of three guiding principles: notot to drain your energy, recharge and connect to yourself, and integrate in everyday life. To learn more about these principles you can view (and review!) last month's January 9 webcast. You can access the archives from the yearlong series here. See, too, the article below detailing the deadline for downloading the support materials for last year's free course on the Ligmincha Learning website.
The new year brings many new and exciting announcements and retreats. Learn about the annual Spring Retreat on Enlightened Leadership at Serenity Ridge April 1–3, and the work retreat scheduled just prior to that. Find out about the ceremonies to be held in India and Nepal in April for His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche and His Eminence Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. Find out details about Lishu Institute's second year program, starting in fall 2016 near Dehradun, India, with a focus on the Ma Gyud. (And be sure to read our April issue, which will contain an in-depth interview with Sangmo Yangri, Ph.D., resident teacher at Lishu and the first Tibetan woman to receive a Ph.D. in Bon philosophy.)
The next four-week online GlideWing workshop on Tibetan Dream Yoga, beginning March 5, offers an opportunity to learn more about dream practice prior to the Summer Retreat. See the article by Alejandro Chaoul-Reich about bringing Tibetan Meditation into hospitals and check out the new Tibetan Wellness retreat, June 3–5 at Serenity Ridge with Alejandro Chaoul-Reich and Rob Patzig. Stay tuned for details to be announced soon about a special weekend retreat, May 21–22, at Serenity Ridge, with Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche, the abbot of Triten Norbutse Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Also of interest: read the excellent Tricycle magazine interview with Anne C. Klein on the transmission of Tibetan Buddhism the the West; and be sure not to miss the latest issue of Ligmincha Europe Magazine for Winter 2015–2016. Finally, you'll find the links for the translations in Spanish and Portuguese of the December issue of the Voice of Clear Light.
Tashi Delek!
Aline and Jeff
One's Best Friend
An Excerpt from The True Source of Healing by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
The ever-present, unbounded sacred space of your nature is beyond distinctions of beauty or ugliness, pain or pleasure. Just as fear can drive you away from connection with your essential nature, beauty, too, can pull you away from it. And just as fear can lead you back to your essential nature, so can beauty. When you see a beautiful flower, you may believe that the beauty lies in the flower and not in you. Regarding the flower as the source of that beauty reinforces your sense of yourself as one who is lacking – in this instance, lacking beauty. But the wisdom eye recognizes that the beauty of the flower is also the beauty of who you are: both arise from the same source, the inner refuge. Everything is of the same nature.
So what happens when we perceive pain with the wisdom eye? Normally when we have pain, we experience that we are the pain: I am hurting. But when you identify with the space, light, and warmth of the inner refuge, then even when blockages and pain are present, you recognize that you are fundamentally pure. In the dzogchen teachings the lotus is used to illustrate our fundamentally pure nature. The lotus grows in water, and although the roots lie in the mud at the bottom of a murky pond, the blossom rests on the water's surface, its petals unblemished and pure. When you are fully present in pain, can you feel your lotus nature?
Pain is appearance. Blockages, numbness and discomfort are appearances. The thoughts and stressful speech you have about your pain are appearances. All the challenging situations you experience are also appearances. No matter what appears in it, unbounded sacred space is unchanging. Can you recognize your unbounded nature? As we've been practicing, stillness of the body, silence of speech, and spaciousness of mind are the three doors that lead to the recognition of our unbounded nature. This recognition cuts the root of suffering. When the root is cut, no appearance can delude or disturb you. By going for inner refuge and becoming familiar with the truth of your unbounded nature, you come to feel strong enough and brave enough to journey to the very heart of appearances, rather than continually running away from them. Discovering the space, light, and warmth in the presence of appearance is healing.
When pain is your challenge, if you can access the inner refuge and rest there, you will gain confidence that you are not your pain. Furthermore, your suffering will transform. Pain will no longer define your whole existence, and positive qualities like love, humor, and joy will become available to you.
In the midst of pain, remember that you always have the choice to connect to stillness, silence, and spaciousness, and rest in the inner refuge. As you rest there, open awareness can clear disturbing thoughts and emotions as well as soothe physical pain. How much is your life guided by light and awareness, and how much is it driven by reactivity and denial? The inner refuge is your unfailing support in any moment. Let it be your best friend.
(Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's book, The True Source of Healing: How the Ancient Tibetan Practice of Soul Retrieval Can Transform and Enrich Your Life, is available from Ligmincha's Tibet Shop.)
Letter from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
New Free Six-Month Internet Course
A message from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche about a new, free six-month Internet course, Transforming Your World Through Service, starting in February.
Dear Sangha and Friends,
A very Happy New Year to you all. May all your negative karma of the old year be purified and released, and may all your best wishes for the New Year come true!
I have been very happy to hear from so many of you about the positive changes in your lives as a result of the soul retrieval practices during the past year. More than 2,550 have registered for the yearlong course, and for each of its webcasts, as many as 1,500 computers or other devices were viewing at any given moment. Because the course has been so well-received, I have decided to continue my 2016 webcast series with another free, six-month Internet course. The course will be on Transforming Your World Through Service, and it will take place from February 13–August 15, 2016. Registration for the course is now open at Ligmincha Learning.
What does it mean to serve others? The wish to be of benefit is a natural manifestation of one’s spiritual growth, and it is essential to one’s spiritual practice. We all want to help care for others, but we tend to go about it in the wrong way. Whether a child is helping his aging parent, a boss is helping her employees, a leader is helping an entire nation, an activist is helping the environment or a sangha member is helping a spiritual community, the main obstacle in our ability to help fully is interference from our own ego. The aim of this six-month course is to guide you in cultivating the wisdom and compassion that one needs to go beyond one's ego and be as effective as possible in serving others. It offers guidance in making decisions from the space of awareness, connecting with a sense of collective purpose and inspiring others to serve.
I particularly see a need for these teachings among my current students worldwide, and encourage every one of you to participate in the course and to engage in dialog about it with others in your local centers or sanghas when possible.
Similar to The True Source of Healing, the new six-month course will include recordings of the webcasts plus ways for the cyber-sangha to connect with and support each other throughout the six months. Volunteer translators will continue to translate the live webcasts in real time into as many as 12 languages. You can learn more about this new course and its full schedule of live webcasts at Ligmincha Learning. See the link below.
I send you all my prayers and blessings for the New Year.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Learn more/register for free six-month course
Free Live Webcast February 13 with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
The Value of Enlightened Leadership
Join us from your computer on Saturday, February 13, 2016, 3–4:30 p.m. Eastern Time U.S. (New York time) for a free webcast on "The Value of Enlightened Leadership" to be given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. The webcast is the first in a new six-part series on "Transforming Your World Through Service."
We all want to help others—whether a father helps his child, a teacher helps her students or an activist strives toward world peace. The two most essential qualities to cultivate in service to others are wisdom and compassion. In this first webcast of a free six-month course, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will guide a meditation practice and explain:
- The true meaning of wisdom and compassion.
- The important connection between self-realization and service.
- How to avoid pitfalls and mistakes when working to benefit others.
Open to all! Real-time translation will be offered in as many as 12 languages.
Register for February 13 webcast
Learn more about the course
Mark your calendar as well for the next webcast on March 12, 2016, 3–4:30 p.m. New York time. "Transforming Your World Through Service, Part 2: Cultivating Wisdom."
Register Now for April 1–3 Spring Retreat at Serenity Ridge
Enlightened Leadership with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Registration is now open for Ligmincha’s annual Spring Retreat at Serenity Ridge. Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will teach on the topic of Enlightened Leadership from April 1–3.
As we awaken to our true nature, each one of us can become an agent of change that benefits ourselves, others, and society. Join Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche as he helps us engage in dzogchen meditation practices that offer direct instruction to access the spaciousness of being. Spaciousness is the means to reduce ego and increase compassion, the necessary components of enlightened leadership.
This retreat is being offered for anyone who wishes to discover and maintain a positive direction in life. It will be helpful for anyone who is drawn to practice meditation in a genuinely heartfelt way, desiring to serve others.
In addition, you can join us at Serenity Ridge on March 29–31 for a special work retreat prior to the annual Spring Retreat. Participants who work a total of 15 hours will receive 50 percent off the cost of registration for the April 1–3 Spring Retreat.
Learn more about the work retreat
April Ceremonies Planned in India and Nepal
To Honor His Holiness and His Eminence
Long Life Mandala Offerings for His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche and His Eminence Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche are planned in India and Nepal during April 2016. Although Ligmincha International will not be coordinating trips to India or Nepal, Ligmincha encourages sangha members to go if they are able. Worldwide followers of Yungdrung Bon are invited to join in this special occasion to express gratitude and devotion to these two precious masters for their inexhaustible kindness and tireless noble activity for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Learn more
Announcing the Program for the Second Year of Lishu Institute
Ma Gyud Will Be Focus of Residential Program in India
Lishu Institute announces its program of study for the second of year of its three-year residential program in Tibetan Bon Buddhism. The second year will focus on the Ma Gyud teachings, one of the major tantric cycles in the Bon tradition.
All are welcome to apply to attend the second year of teachings at Lishu Institute, including those who did not attend the first year. Lishu is located in Kotra Kalyanpur outside of Dehradun, India, in the Northern India state of Uttarakhand. Lishu is the vision of its spiritual director, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, whose heartfelt wish is to preserve the precious spiritual and cultural traditions of Tibet. The first year of teachings, on the topic of the Nine Ways of Bon, began in September 2015.
The Ma Gyud Sangye Gyud Sum, which Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche has taught over the past 20 years, is a teaching said to come directly from Dharmakaya Kuntu Zangpo, the primordial Buddha. Gyal Shen Mi Lu Sam Lek, a king of Zhang Zhung, received this teaching from the great mother Zangza Ringtsun and spread this teaching. The Ma Gyud Sangye Gyud Sum was then passed down in an unbroken lienage till our Master Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche.
The Ma Gyud contains three teachings:
- The base which is the nature of mind.
- The path which consists of practices to recognize the nature of mind.
- The fruit, which is Buddhahood.
The second year program of Lishu will address the six great methods of the Path of the Ma Gyud cycle. The second year begins September 12, 2016, and continues through June 9, 2017.
Schedule:
- 1st trimester: September 12, 2016–November 18, 2016—Tummo and Dream Yoga
- 2nd trimester: January 9, 2017–March 17, 2017—Nyen Sa Lam Khyer (including Chod) and Phen Pa Lam Khyer (including Phowa)
- 3rd trimester: April 3, 2017–June 9, 2017—Sleep Yoga and Bardo Lam Khyer
Lishu Institute’s programs are to facilitate, support and encourage the development of dedicated practitioners in mastery of selected texts and teachings who will further the development and preservation of Bon in their home sangha. All who are interested can apply by July 15 for the second year program.
Read an interview in the April issue of VOCL with Sangmo Yangri, Ph.D., a resident teacher at Lishu and the first Tibetan woman to receive a Ph.D. in Bon philosophy.
Learn more
Second year application form
Next GlideWing Workshop Begins March 5
Tibetan Dream Yoga
In this four-week online workshop, set for March 5–April 3, with personal guidance from Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, we will explore and practice the ancient Bon Buddhist teachings of Tibetan Dream Yoga. This workshop provides detailed instruction for dream yoga, including foundational practices done during the day.
We spend a third of our life sleeping. Every night we participate in profound mysteries, moving from one dimension of experience to another, losing our sense of self and finding it again, and yet we take it all for granted. We wake up in the morning and continue in "real" life, but in a sense we are still asleep and dreaming. The teachings tell us that we can continue in this deluded, dreamy state, day and night, or wake up to the truth.
Other 2016 Glidewing workshops:
- April 30–May 22, 2016: Tibetan Meditation—Achieving Great Bliss Through Pure Awareness
- June 11–July 10, 2016: Healing from the Source—Meditation as Medicine for Body and Mind
- August 6–28, 2016: Awakening the Sacred Arts—Discovering Your Creative Potential
- September 17–October 16, 2016: Tibetan Dream Yoga
- November 12–December 4, 2016: Healing from the Source—Meditation as Medicine for Body and Mind
The online workshops feature guidance and support from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, instructions via Internet-based video, no set class times and access to videos throughout the course. Learn more by clicking on the links above.
New Resident Lama for Ligmincha Texas
Geshe Denma Gyaltsen Arrives in January from Nepal
Meet Ligmincha International’s new resident lama in Texas: Geshe Denma Gyaltsen. This article was written by Barbara Shreffler and Dorothy Matthews of the Ligmincha Texas sangha.
We welcome Geshe Denma Gyaltsen as the new resident lama of Ligmincha Texas. Geshe Denma arrived in Houston on January 3 to serve as Ligmincha Texas’s first resident lama.
Geshe Denma was born in northern Nepal. His father brought him to Menri Monastery, India, regarded as the mother Bon monastery in exile, in 1981 to begin his program of study toward the Geshe degree. He received all the Bon teachings, initiations and transmissions in sutra, tantra and dzogchen from His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche, the 33rd Menri Trizin, and His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche.
When he became a senior student, he was asked to teach philosophy to younger students. He successfully completed this degree program in 1996 and was awarded the Geshe certificate, which is considered equivalent to a Ph.D. in Bön Buddhist philosophy and religion.
Geshe Denma was an accomplished teacher and in 1998 was appointed, with the approval of the Tibetan government in exile, first abbot of Zhu Rishing Yungdrung Kundak-Ling Monastery, a Bon Monastery in Sikkim, India by His Holiness. He served two terms in this capacity until 2003. In addition, from the time he graduated until 2008, Geshe Denma also was active in assisting Geshe Nyima Dakpa with the Bon Children’s Home, which houses many children in Dolanji, India, providing them with food, healthcare and free education. Geshe Denma has traveled many times to the USA, Austria, Poland, Canada, Russia, Belarus, Germany, Switzerland and Holland to teach and to raise the funds for the Bon Children’s Home. In addition, he assisted in the administrative work of the Bon Children’s Home whenever possible.
During this time, Geshe Denma was the treasurer and co-editor of a well-respected publication, Door to Bon, and for three years from 2002–2005 the elected secretary of the Local Tibetan Assembly in Dolanji. Once Geshe Denma attained his geshe degree, he became a senior teacher at the monastery and taught philosophy when he was in residence at Menri.
From 2009 to 2013, Geshe Denma often traveled to the United States to participate in Bon practices and to learn more about the work his fellow geshes were doing to bring this tradition to the Western world. In 2011, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha International, asked Geshe Denma to become the resident lama of Ligmincha Texas. Geshe Denma accepted the challenge and began coming to Houston to get to know the Ligmincha Texas sangha, study English and begin work to acquire his religious visa and ultimately become Ligmincha Texas’s first resident lama.
In 2014 with the help and support from Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and members of Ligmincha Texas, the formal application for the visa was made. In late October 2015, the application was approved and on December 20, 2015, Geshe Denma was awarded his R1 Visa. He arrived in Houston on January 3, 2016, welcomed by his grateful sangha and ready to assume his duties as resident lama for Ligmincha Texas!
Soul Retrieval Course Update
Final Month to Download Free Recordings and Support Materials
As Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche has explained, soul retrieval is more than a one-time event, it's a lifetime practice. Even though the final live webcast in Rinpoche’s yearlong course, The True Source of Healing, took place on January 9, the Ligmincha Learning course itself continues through February 29, with ongoing support from the recorded webcasts and discussion forums. You also can download MP3 audio recordings of Rinpoche’s teachings and other support materials from the course site.
In addition, you can review the recorded webcasts at any time via these playlists:
Part 1: Reconnecting with Your Joyful Essence
Part 2: The Five Natural Elements: Finding a Healthy Balance
Part 3: Discovering the Deepest Needs of Your Soul
Part 4: Communing with Nature to Nourish Your Soul
Part 5: Your Own Inner Refuge
Part 6: Tapping Into Relationships to Nourish Your Soul
Part 7: Overcoming Loneliness: Finding the Friend Within
Part 8: Nourishing Your Inner Being: The Heart of Soul Retrieval
Part 9: Nourishing Your Inner Being: Questions and Answer
Part 10: The Power of Warmth: Physical Healing Through Meditation
Part 11: Healing from the Source: Cutting the Root of Your Pain
Part 12: Soul Retrieval as a Lifetime Practice
Research on Tibetan Yoga for Women with Breast Cancer
Ligmincha Research Director Presents at National Conference
Ligmincha’s Director of Research Alejandro Chaoul-Reich presented results of a study investigating the effects of Tibetan yoga for female breast cancer chemotherapy patients to worldwide researchers at a recent national conference in Boston.
The Society of Integrative Oncology held its 12th annual conference, whose topic was "Integrative Innovation," in Boston, Massachusetts, November 13–16, 2015. The conference brought together researchers from all over the world to present and discuss the latest research in integrative oncology.
Ligmincha International has been partnering with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center since 1999, with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche as the main adviser. Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D., professor and director of Integrative Medicine at MD Anderson, served as the principal investigator of a large study on the effects of a Tibetan yoga practice for women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy, funded by the National Cancer institute, with Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, Ph.D., faculty at MD Anderson and director for research of Ligmincha International, as a co-investigator.
Alejandro presented the results of this study involving almost 300 women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy and randomized into three groups: one practicing Tibetan Yoga (TY), which included the Nine Breathings of Purification and the external Tsa Lung movements from the Bon Mother Tantra; one practicing selected stretching movements (ST) from a breast cancer manual that were similar to Tsa Lung; and a third group which was a waitlist usual care control group (UC), that could receive the Tibetan Yoga practices after the end of the protocol.
Women in the Tibetan Yoga group reported fewer daytime disturbances related to sleep one week after treatment than ST and UC. In particular, those women in the TY program who practiced more than twice a week reported better sleep efficiency and sleep quality up to six months after the intervention was over.
"This may not come as a surprise to practitioners,” Alejandro says, “and it emphasizes the importance of including mind-body practices in our lifestyle.”
In addition, Alejandro led two workshops in collaboration with other institutions (one with Cancer Treatment Centers of America and the other with Columbia Presbyterian Hospital from New York), sharing some of the ways that the Tibetan meditation from our Bon tradition are been shared in a lay way to patients and caregivers at MD Anderson since 1999.
Through these presentations we continue to expand Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche’s vision of bringing Tibetan Bon Buddhist contemplative practices in contemporary lay settings.
Across the Expanse
Anne C. Klein on the Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism
This interview, with Anne C. Klein, on the Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism, was originally published in the July–December issue of Mandala, a magazine run by the nonprofit organization Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, and was republished by Tricycle magazine in July 2015.
Anne C. Klein is professor and former chair of Religious Studies at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She is also a founding director and resident teacher of Dawn Mountain, a center for contemplative study and practice in Houston. Her publications include Path to the Middle (SUNY Press), Unbounded Wholeness, coauthored with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (Oxford University Press), and Knowledge and Liberation (Snow Lion Publications).
Ligmincha Europe Magazine Winter 2015–2016 Issue
Now Available Online
Spanish and Portuguese Translations of VOCL
Link to February Issue Now Available
Link to December Issue Now Available
Upcoming Retreats
Serenity Ridge Retreat Center
The retreats listed below will take place at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Ligmincha International headquarters located in Nelson County, Virginia. To register or for more information, click on the links below, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 434-263-6304.
February 24–28, 2016
Special Zhung Zhung 2 Retreat: The Experiential Transmission of Zhang Zhung, Part 2: Introduction to the Nature of Mind
with Geshe Tenzin Yangton
Learn more/register
March 12–13, 2016
Special Teaching and Ritual: Offering an Ocean of Milk to the Lu
with Geshe Murig Nyima Kunchap
Learn more
March 29–31, 2016
Spring Work Retreat
Learn more
April 1–3, 2016
Spring Retreat: Enlightened Leadership
with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Learn more/register
May 21–22, 2016
Special Weekend Retreat: Topic To Be Announced
with Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche, abbot of Triten Norbutse Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal
Details coming soon!
June 3–5, 2016
Tibetan Wellness Retreat
with Alejandro Chaoul-Riech, Ph.D. and Rob Patzig, President Ligmincha International
Learn more/register
June 19–July 2, 2016
Summer Retreat: Sleep Yoga. Attend one or both weeks.
with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Learn more
To register for any of the above retreats, or for more information about teachings in the Bon Buddhist tradition of Tibet, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 434-434-202-6211; or visit the Serenity Ridge website.
