Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Emptiness Retreat: July 1 to 7, 2013

Save the Date!  We are honored and very pleased to announce that Guhyasamaja Center’s next week-long retreat with Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche will be July 1-7 , 2013 at a retreat center in Maryland.  The topic will be “Realizing Emptiness: Praise to Dependent Origination.” This will be the first time that Rinpoche has given an extensive teaching on emptiness to Western students, and it’s a teaching not to be missed.

Everyone is welcome to attend.

Registration details will follow in a month or two on our website: http://www.guhyasamaja.org.

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2012 Mahamudra Retreat Recordings Available: Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa

Thanks to the hard work of a volunteer at Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa’s center, DNKL, the recordings from his inspiring mahamudra teaching given in August 2012 in NYC are now available online for free.

Please consider making a donation to DNKL as an expression of thanks to Rinpoche for these unique instructions on how to practice mahamudra.

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On Breaking the Bodhisattva Vows

Not only is it difficult to have the opportunity to receive the Bodhisattva vows from a spiritual teacher, it is also difficult to maintain the vows purely. Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa recently conferred the vows to a small group of students at the Mahayana Sutra Tantra Center in Northern Virginia. Rinpoche said when someone asks for your help you need to carefully analyze whether or not it is within your powers to do so. In some cases, you might not be able to due to a lack of means, time, or skill. If you have taken the vows and there’s no reason why you can’t help the person, then you’ll break your Bodhisattva vows. This also applies to you helping your community with social issues such as poverty.

Remember that His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, “Apathy is a form of selfishness”.

Please share your thoughts.

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Gyumed Khensur Losang Jampa Teaching in Northern VA Nov 2 to 4 2012

Our beloved guru Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa (Do Ngak Kunphen Ling Center, Redding, CT) will continue his detailed commentary on the mind training text Wheel of Sharp Weapons. The teaching is sponsored by the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center in Fairfax, VA and will take place from November 2 – 3, 2012.

On Sunday, November 3, Rinpoche will continue his commentary on the Vajrayogini tantra. This teaching is restricted to those who have taken the Vajrayogini initiation.

Rinpoche teaches in Tibetan, Geshe Tashi will serve as his translator.

For registration information, please visit the MSTC website.  The teachings are free (donations accepted) and open to the public. Space is limited.

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: Completion Stage Practices Retreat Nov 5 – 12 2012

This week-long retreat with Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa will focus on the completion stage practices of highest yoga tantra. A particular focus for the retreat this year will be on the subtle energies and channels of the body as described in Buddhist tantra. These teachings will cover the remarkable, skillful methods of the Vajrayana which allow a practitioner to achieve full enlightenment in one brief lifetime! The unique methods and qualities of illusory body and clear light will be discussed, which is an extremely rare opportunity. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has noted that studying the illusory body and clear light as presented in such teachings allows one to much more deeply and clearly understand the nature of enlightenment itself and how it is achieved.

Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche is a former abbot of Gyumed Tantric College and is also a senior teacher from Sera Monastic University. In India he often taught on tantra to other Lamas and Geshes. During this retreat, Rinpoche will give those same teachings to Western students!

During this week-long, residential retreat, Rinpoche will teach on the essential points for practicing the completion stage of Highest Yoga Tantra. His teachings will be based on a text that has been translated into English and will be available to participants entitled The Condensed Meaning of the Path of the Vajrayana. Rinpoche will focus on the sections of the text that address the practices of the completion stage of Highest Yoga Tantra. This text covers the stages and paths of tantric practice and contains the essence of all the teachings in Lama Tsongkhapa’s Great Path of Secret Mantra. The important points of deity yoga and the generation stage sadhanas are covered as are the secret instructions related to the completion stage which allow one to progress in realizing the Illusory Body, Clear Light, and their union. Rinpoche will also cover the topic of the 9 mixings, which is an essential element also taught in the Six Yogas of Naropa.

The retreat will be held November 5 – 12, 2012 at the Am Kolel Sanctuary, Beallsville, MD. The sanctuary is about a 30 – 45 minute drive from Washington, DC.

For more information and to register, please visit the Guhyasamaja Center website. Registration closes on October 15th.

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: Emptiness of the Self

The self exists in dependence on a basis of ascription, but it’s not identical to the basis of ascription. It exists only in a provisional manner. The self does have a conventional nature. It comes into being based on the six elements (earth, water, fire, air, space, etc). On the basis of the six elements, we formulate the idea that a self exists.

Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa
Translator: Art Engle
Mahamudra Commentary Retreat, NYC, August 15, 2012

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: How Does the Self Appear

In order to understand emptiness we need to begin by analyzing how the sense of self appears to us in daily life. Khensur Rinpoche gave a few examples of how we typically describe finding our self:

• as something solid inside of us like a stick
• as something in the core of our being like at the heart
• as the body itself
• as a kind of darkness inside
• as a space-like expanse

The Buddha taught that although the self might appear to exist in these ways, it does not.

Mahamudra Commentary Retreat, NYC, August 14, 2012

Translator: Art Engle

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: Dissolving the Guru at Your Heart

One of the practices common to the sutrayana and tantrayana traditions is visualizing your lama dissolving at your heart. Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa described the feeling:

“When you dissolve the lama at your heart, this experience should be palpable, even overwhelming, like when you suddenly acquire something very valuable. Or, like when a son is re-united with his mother after a very long time.”

Mahamudra Retreat, NYC, August 12, 2012
Translator: Art Engle

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: Meditation on the Breath

During his Mahamudra commentary, Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa explained the 8 point Vairochana posture. The first seven points describe the physical body posture. The 8th point is the meditation on counting the breath. After describing how to do the meditation, he said that we should not underestimate the effectiveness of this practice. Done correctly, it can lead to the generation of calm abiding.

Rinpoche advised us to do the practice in the morning. By counting 1,000 cycles of breath (one cycle being an inhalation and exhalation) for ten days in a row, we will definitely experience a cumulative effect — it will prevent illness, extend our life span and cause joy and a sense of ease.

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa Path to Bliss Recordings Now Available

In February 2012, Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa completed his commentary on “The Path of Well-Being for Those Traveling to Omniscience: Essential Guide to the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment” by the First Panchen Lama. Recordings of the February classes are now available on the Center website along with the earlier classes in the series. This is a beautiful short  text with clear instructions on how to meditate on the subjects that make up the Lam Rim.

Have you used the Path to Bliss in your daily meditations? What lasting impression has this series of teachings had on your practice?

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