Last February, during the Vajrakilaya drubchen at Khadro Ling, Brazil, Chagdud Rinpoche bestowed the title of lama on three of his senior students. Andrea Lima received the name Lama Sherab Drolma; Sonia Guilherme Taylor, Lama Yeshe Drolma; and Chris Taylor, Lama Rigdzin Dorje.
For many years these three have listened to the teachings, practiced diligently, and gained the confidence of Rinpoche, who has mentioned on various occasions their ability to serve and benefit beings. They have always sought ways to support Rinpoche’s vast field of activity through their service.
After Rinpoche ordained the new lamas, sangha members offered them kataks. This special moment reminded us all of the transformation that is possible through the practice of guru yoga.
-----
We were standing in the tsok kitchen behind the doors to the inner temple. As we peeked out at the dancers portraying the Eight Emanations of Guru Rinpoche, who were seated in front of the drubchen mandala, Lama Sherab burst out, “Just look at what Rinpoche has done! It is so amazing to think that seven years ago none of this was even here.”
Every time I return there I have a similar response to the way things are accomplished so swiftly at Khadro Ling. I think back on a photo taken the first time my family and I visited Khadro Ling, in 1997. It shows sangha children Diogo and Sam playing on a small sand pile in a cow pasture. Now that pasture lies beneath the temple complex that includes a large, ornately decorated shrine room on the main floor, Rinpoche’s quarters and retreat rooms upstairs, and administrative offices and a dharma store on the lower level.
In the space of just one year, Khadro Ling has undergone a number of significant changes. The stupas are almost finished being painted, and an Akshobhya statue is nearing completion. A new prayer wheel house has been built, and a new butter lamp house is under construction. The old barn, home to the many Khadro Ling fauna whose lives have been ransomed over the years, has been torn down, and a new barn is being built. Amitabha House, the hospice complex that was just plans on paper a year ago, has nearly been completed and includes two semi private residences alongside a large conference room that has several guest rooms upstairs.
One of the most noteworthy changes has been the purchase of a neighbor’s land adjacent to the dormitory and kitchen area. Current plans for the property include the creation of a replica of Zangdog Palri (Copper-colored mountain), the palace of Guru Rinpoche that will fulfill one of Chagdud Rinpoche’s lifelong aspirations. One such replica exists in Tibet at Katok Monastery, the mother monastery of Chagdud Gonpa. These monumental, four-story shrines house extensive artwork, including hundreds of statues. This project will take years to complete and will require extensive consecration ceremonies.
The large murals that visiting artist Palden has painted across the walls of the temple are nearly complete, with only the gold detail remaining to be done. Exqui- sitely carved ornate wooden frames made by visiting artisans have been placed around the large Tara and Shakyamuni Buddha statues in the main shrine.
Another master artisan, Lama Chimed from Katok monastery in Tibet, has been working on the Akshobhya statue and the stupas. He will soon begin overseeing work on a sixty-foot high stupa to be built according to the instructions of Dudjom Lingpa, who prophesied that its creation would amass the positive energy necessary to help avert catastrophic wars. The elaborate stupa will be filled with thousands of deity statues and tsa- tsas, and is expected to take many years to complete.
This year’s Essence of Siddhi drubchen incorporated more dancing than the last. Several more masks were completed, thanks to the diligent efforts of the gon- pa’s mask makers, Biggie and Alan. Tulku Apé, who visited Khadro Ling from California, danced a fearsome Dorje Drollod. On the final eve of the drubchen in July, people bundled up outside the temple with tubs of popcorn to join Rinpoche in viewing the screening of a documentary on drubchen as seen through the eyes of the sangha children, produced by Flavia Moraes. It was filmed during last year’s Essence of Siddhi drubchen and includes Chagdud Rinpoche speaking about children in the dharma. Film clips of the drubchen are interspersed with the children’s explanations of what they thought it all meant.
Longtime residents Lama Rigdzin Dorje (Chris Taylor) and Lama Yeshe Drolma (Sonia Guilherme Taylor) who have been integral to developing Khadro Ling have moved to Curitiba, in southern Brazil, to run the Chagdud Gonpa center there.
On an inward level, people’s practice ripens within this pure display of Rinpoche’s vision. In the space of a year, more ngondros have been completed, more obstacles have been overcome, and merit continues to accumulate, both for those in strict retreat and those who uphold Rinpoche’s activity through their daily tasks at the gonpa.
In spite of all this activity, some things have not changed. With each visit we make, the cows still graze beside the temple, the workers still play soccer every Friday afternoon, and the storms and sun- sets of southern Brazil continue to awe us with their splendor.
—Lama Trinley
-----
If you have not yet given your email address to the office at Rigdzin Ling for the Chagdud Gonpa email list, or have not notified us of an address change, please do so. We rely on this list to contact sangha members about schedule updates and other announcements between our semi-annual schedule and Wind Horse mailings. Send your address to Inger at Chagdud@snowcrest.net or call (530) 623-2714.
Padma Publishing needs a laptop computer (PC or Mac); please contact Gina Phelan for information and specifications (gina@tibetantreasures.com).
The upcoming Vajrakilaya drubchen at Rigdzin Ling was not listed in the fall schedule because Losar (the Tibetan new year) is not until March 3, 2003. Please note that the dates for the drubchen are February 22–March 3, 2003.
We extend our thanks to all of you who contributed prayers and monetary offerings to the one million Taksham Yeshe Tsogyal tsok offerings that were dedicated to H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche’s long life in early August. Several thousand dollars were raised and distributed to pujas held at T’hondup Ling, Dechhen Ling, Rigdzin Gatsal, Iron Knot Ranch, Padma Ling, Amrita, Rigdzin Ling, and Orgyen Ling. By August 12, Rinpoche’s birthday, 700,000 tsok offering verses had been accumulated in North America. Khadro Ling in Brazil accumulated more than 400,000 in the following days to complete the commitment of one million. Several hundred butter lamps were also offered during these pujas. We dedicate our heartfelt prayers to the fulfillment of Rinpoche’s enlightened activity for the benefit of beings in this and all future lives.
-----
Last November we held our first annual Chokgyur Lingpa Kurukulle retreat and, in mid-January, the fourth annual Vajrakilaya retreat at Anderson Hall, a rustic camping lodge in the town of Camp Meeker, about ten minutes from Ati Ling. Jigme Tromge Rinpoche presided as Vajra Master for both events. This Vajrakilaya retreat far surpassed other such events because it involved an elaborate statue consecration ceremony.
For a week before the retreat, the Ati Ling shrine room was transformed into a statue consecration workshop. Long tables were set up, and the cutting, rolling, pasting, painting, collecting, and stuffing began. The core crew worked almost around the clock for a week, with sangha members dropping in at all hours. The statues were stuffed with precious and semiprecious stones, mantras, images, and sacred objects. Jigme Rinpoche offered medicine pills composed of more than 6,000 substances from great saints dating back to the fourth Buddha.
Approximately eighty-five statues were filled, including the three large statues of Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, and Guru Rinpoche from Ati Ling’s shrine room, as well as many personal statues ranging in size from four inches to four feet.
In April, Jigme Rinpoche conducted Ati Ling’s first Black T’hröma retreat, also at Anderson Hall. And the last weekend in June, Rinpoche gave the empower- ments for the Chagdud Gonpa daily practices at Ati Ling. The shrine room was packed for the entire twelve hours of transmissions. It was fantastic!
-----
Dechhen Ling
In July we were delighted and surprised by an auspicious visit from Dzogchen Khenpo Chöga. He gave an evening teaching on ngondro, followed by a question-and-answer session, then returned for additional teachings on September 8.
On the evening of August 11, Lama Tsering gave a public talk entitled “Relationships and the Spiritual Path” at the University of Oregon Library in Eugene. Her special presence and refreshing blend of insight and humor captivated the audience, while the teachings enabled us to deepen our own stores of wisdom and skillful means. Thank you, Lama Tsering; we look forward to hosting you on your next trip to the United States.
The electrical rewiring of River House is nearly complete. All the circuits have been replaced and brought up to code, save one small circuit in the kitchen. Once the work is finished, we can get the wiring inspected and approved. We extend much gratitude to Dick Wilcox, Connie Carrel, Linda Jefferson, Chandra LaHusen, and others who made this possible.
-----
In July, on the full moon of Saga Dawa, we released several tanks of bait fish into the ocean at Marina del Rey. We purchased all of the available fish so that the bait dock had none to offer the fishermen! During the release, Lama Gyatso performed a ceremony and led the sangha in other practices. The following week, on Guru Rinpoche’s birthday, we returned to the marina to free several thousand more fish.
This September, T’hondup Ling said goodbye to Lama Thomge and Lama Thrinley, who had been invited by Lama Gyatso to build sand mandalas in Los Angeles. We are fortunate that Lama Rabjoer will remain in residence here; he exudes warmth, simplicity, and generosity of spirit.
H.E. Namkha Drimed Rinpoche re- turned to T’hondup Ling as Vajra Master at the annual T’hröma Drubchod, which was held September 13–21. His Eminence also bestowed a Medicine Buddha empowerment, conducted a public healing ceremony, and presided at several other public events.
The Shi-tro Mandala for Universal Peace is now installed at a private location near T’hondup Ling. Generous offerings of water, flowers, and butterlamps complement the pristine quality of the mandala. Once a month Lama Gyatso leads the sangha in a day-long Shi-tro practice and tsok at the mandala site. The blessings of practicing in the presence of the mandala are palpable and profound.
On September 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C., we conducted a special Shi- tro practice to benefit all those affected by the tragedy.
The Shi-tro Mandala Project has shifted into its second phase, one aspect of which is preparing the mandala for traveling exhibition. This will entail cast- ing the fragile clay deity statues in metal and creating special traveling cases for the mandala’s other parts. We are currently exploring funding for casting the deities.
Tools for Peace, the portion of the project dedicated to arts and peace education, is continuing to develop the Personal Mandala Guidebook. We will train thirty teachers in the Personal Mandala Workshop this November at the Pacific Asia Museum. For information on Tools for Peace and the Shi-tro Mandala, con- tact Shan Watters at (818) 905-7379.
-----
For much of this year Lama Padma maintained an energetic teaching schedule. He traveled to Orcas Island and Winthrop in Washington, and to Vajra North in the Yukon. He also gave regular teachings and conducted retreats in Seattle. He continues to bring the dharma to sangha inmates at the Monroe State Reformatory. Inspired by his efforts, ten Amrita sangha members have signed up to participate in the prisoners’ Buddhafest, the annual Buddhist open house at the prison. A number of prisoners are enthusiastic about Lama Padma’s teachings and are encouraged by the support they get from visiting sangha members.
Amrita recently built an auxiliary butter lamp shed. On Saga Dawa, the anniversary of the Buddha’s enlightenment and parinirvana, the sangha gathered together to offer tsok and 2,400 lamps.
On the evening of June 7, Amrita was honored by a visit from H.E. Khenpo Chöga. More than twenty students listened to his teachings with great enthusiasm, and we look forward to more extensive teachings when he returns.
Brian Hansell, Kimberly Lacy, and their children accompanied Lama Padma and Susan to Chokdrup Ling, their retreat land in Colorado. They all worked hard to build a new retreat house and add finishing touches to the existing house and kitchen. In mid-July, Ann Crain and her husband, Bud, traveled to the land to install solar panels, so now Chokdrup Ling has electricity.
-----
The Odsal Ling Country Center (affectionately referred to as Refugio) is fulfilling its purpose as a tranquil and delightful retreat sanctuary for the São Paulo sangha. The old colonial-style house has been completely renovated, the shrine room capacity well tested, and the space blessed by the consecration and empowerments conducted by H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. We have set aside the first weekend of every month for ngondro retreats. Other intensive weekend events led by Lama Tsering have been well attended. Our first fundraising party, which took place on the day of Brazil’s fifth World Cup victory, was a joyous affair and gave a big boost to the temple construction fund.
When Rinpoche came to Refugio in March, he invited all of the children in the sangha to a special teaching. The children were very receptive, and after the teaching, Rinpoche announced that Lama Norbu would continue these sessions. The children shown in this photo—Gabriel, Bruno, Lissa, and Thais— are regular attendants. Lama Norbu also holds a monthly storytelling session in Lambari that is attended by a group of eight disadvantaged children.
The guest and staff facility, under construction since the beginning of this year, is now almost complete. The style of the building is based on the temple at Khadro Ling, but the color is a unique Lama Tsering favorite—a bright Manjushri orange. The three-meter-high bunk beds will allow enough space for their occupants to sit comfortably upright while doing practice. The building can accommodate twenty staff members and guests, with a large section of the first floor being set up for the tsa-tsa fundraising project. Our perfect contractors, Lazinho and Sons, have just begun building an addition to the main house that will provide space for the dining room, as well as a small office in back. We are a little sad that their work at the center is almost complete, because they have been such a delight to work with. We hope that the purchase of the land next door and the construction of future residences there will provide enough projects to keep them busy until we are ready to start building the temple.
-----
After six months without rain, monsoon commences just as we begin to raise the roof over our new shrine room. The roof, enormous and elegantly designed and engineered by Jeff Morris, David Mar, and Richard Hartwell, is the most complex construction we’ve undertaken at the ranch.
How to raise more than 60,000 pounds of structural steel 20 feet into the air and weld it into place between thunderstorms? Our thanks to all of you who offer much-needed assistance— through prayers, effort, and financing— to this adventure in off-road, off-the-grid, and nearly off-the-map shrine-room raising.
Also in the works: Lama Shenpen continues to offer Bodhisattva Peace Training intensives at the ranch and in Minnesota. Her house is nearing completion, thanks to Tony Styskal and a dedicated Iron Knot staff. A solar and wind power station (dubbed Minnesota Power and Light by our Minnesotan volunteers) is almost operative. We are planning housing for staff and visitors. And at long last, our butter lamp shrine is complete as of Chogyur Duchen, the full moon in Saga Dawa, when all 1,080 butter lamps were offered for the first time. Slowly, slowly, a dharma center emerges— 45 minutes from the middle of nowhere.
Last February, during the Vajrakilaya drubchen at Khadro Ling, Brazil, Chagdud Rinpoche bestowed the title of lama on three of his senior students. Andrea Lima received the name Lama Sherab Drolma; Sonia Guilherme Taylor, Lama Yeshe Drolma; and Chris Taylor, Lama Rigdzin Dorje.
For many years these three have listened to the teachings, practiced diligently, and gained the confidence of Rinpoche, who has mentioned on various occasions their ability to serve and benefit beings. They have always sought ways to support Rinpoche’s vast field of activity through their service.
After Rinpoche ordained the new lamas, sangha members offered them kataks. This special moment reminded us all of the transformation that is possible through the practice of guru yoga.
-----
We were standing in the tsok kitchen behind the doors to the inner temple. As we peeked out at the dancers portraying the Eight Emanations of Guru Rinpoche, who were seated in front of the drubchen mandala, Lama Sherab burst out, “Just look at what Rinpoche has done! It is so amazing to think that seven years ago none of this was even here.”
Every time I return there I have a similar response to the way things are accomplished so swiftly at Khadro Ling. I think back on a photo taken the first time my family and I visited Khadro Ling, in 1997. It shows sangha children Diogo and Sam playing on a small sand pile in a cow pasture. Now that pasture lies beneath the temple complex that includes a large, ornately decorated shrine room on the main floor, Rinpoche’s quarters and retreat rooms upstairs, and administrative offices and a dharma store on the lower level.
In the space of just one year, Khadro Ling has undergone a number of significant changes. The stupas are almost finished being painted, and an Akshobhya statue is nearing completion. A new prayer wheel house has been built, and a new butter lamp house is under construction. The old barn, home to the many Khadro Ling fauna whose lives have been ransomed over the years, has been torn down, and a new barn is being built. Amitabha House, the hospice complex that was just plans on paper a year ago, has nearly been completed and includes two semi private residences alongside a large conference room that has several guest rooms upstairs.
One of the most noteworthy changes has been the purchase of a neighbor’s land adjacent to the dormitory and kitchen area. Current plans for the property include the creation of a replica of Zangdog Palri (Copper-colored mountain), the palace of Guru Rinpoche that will fulfill one of Chagdud Rinpoche’s lifelong aspirations. One such replica exists in Tibet at Katok Monastery, the mother monastery of Chagdud Gonpa. These monumental, four-story shrines house extensive artwork, including hundreds of statues. This project will take years to complete and will require extensive consecration ceremonies.
The large murals that visiting artist Palden has painted across the walls of the temple are nearly complete, with only the gold detail remaining to be done. Exqui- sitely carved ornate wooden frames made by visiting artisans have been placed around the large Tara and Shakyamuni Buddha statues in the main shrine.
Another master artisan, Lama Chimed from Katok monastery in Tibet, has been working on the Akshobhya statue and the stupas. He will soon begin overseeing work on a sixty-foot high stupa to be built according to the instructions of Dudjom Lingpa, who prophesied that its creation would amass the positive energy necessary to help avert catastrophic wars. The elaborate stupa will be filled with thousands of deity statues and tsa- tsas, and is expected to take many years to complete.
This year’s Essence of Siddhi drubchen incorporated more dancing than the last. Several more masks were completed, thanks to the diligent efforts of the gon- pa’s mask makers, Biggie and Alan. Tulku Apé, who visited Khadro Ling from California, danced a fearsome Dorje Drollod. On the final eve of the drubchen in July, people bundled up outside the temple with tubs of popcorn to join Rinpoche in viewing the screening of a documentary on drubchen as seen through the eyes of the sangha children, produced by Flavia Moraes. It was filmed during last year’s Essence of Siddhi drubchen and includes Chagdud Rinpoche speaking about children in the dharma. Film clips of the drubchen are interspersed with the children’s explanations of what they thought it all meant.
Longtime residents Lama Rigdzin Dorje (Chris Taylor) and Lama Yeshe Drolma (Sonia Guilherme Taylor) who have been integral to developing Khadro Ling have moved to Curitiba, in southern Brazil, to run the Chagdud Gonpa center there.
On an inward level, people’s practice ripens within this pure display of Rinpoche’s vision. In the space of a year, more ngondros have been completed, more obstacles have been overcome, and merit continues to accumulate, both for those in strict retreat and those who uphold Rinpoche’s activity through their daily tasks at the gonpa.
In spite of all this activity, some things have not changed. With each visit we make, the cows still graze beside the temple, the workers still play soccer every Friday afternoon, and the storms and sun- sets of southern Brazil continue to awe us with their splendor.
—Lama Trinley
-----
If you have not yet given your email address to the office at Rigdzin Ling for the Chagdud Gonpa email list, or have not notified us of an address change, please do so. We rely on this list to contact sangha members about schedule updates and other announcements between our semi-annual schedule and Wind Horse mailings. Send your address to Inger at Chagdud@snowcrest.net or call (530) 623-2714.
Padma Publishing needs a laptop computer (PC or Mac); please contact Gina Phelan for information and specifications (gina@tibetantreasures.com).
The upcoming Vajrakilaya drubchen at Rigdzin Ling was not listed in the fall schedule because Losar (the Tibetan new year) is not until March 3, 2003. Please note that the dates for the drubchen are February 22–March 3, 2003.
We extend our thanks to all of you who contributed prayers and monetary offerings to the one million Taksham Yeshe Tsogyal tsok offerings that were dedicated to H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche’s long life in early August. Several thousand dollars were raised and distributed to pujas held at T’hondup Ling, Dechhen Ling, Rigdzin Gatsal, Iron Knot Ranch, Padma Ling, Amrita, Rigdzin Ling, and Orgyen Ling. By August 12, Rinpoche’s birthday, 700,000 tsok offering verses had been accumulated in North America. Khadro Ling in Brazil accumulated more than 400,000 in the following days to complete the commitment of one million. Several hundred butter lamps were also offered during these pujas. We dedicate our heartfelt prayers to the fulfillment of Rinpoche’s enlightened activity for the benefit of beings in this and all future lives.
-----
Last November we held our first annual Chokgyur Lingpa Kurukulle retreat and, in mid-January, the fourth annual Vajrakilaya retreat at Anderson Hall, a rustic camping lodge in the town of Camp Meeker, about ten minutes from Ati Ling. Jigme Tromge Rinpoche presided as Vajra Master for both events. This Vajrakilaya retreat far surpassed other such events because it involved an elaborate statue consecration ceremony.
For a week before the retreat, the Ati Ling shrine room was transformed into a statue consecration workshop. Long tables were set up, and the cutting, rolling, pasting, painting, collecting, and stuffing began. The core crew worked almost around the clock for a week, with sangha members dropping in at all hours. The statues were stuffed with precious and semiprecious stones, mantras, images, and sacred objects. Jigme Rinpoche offered medicine pills composed of more than 6,000 substances from great saints dating back to the fourth Buddha.
Approximately eighty-five statues were filled, including the three large statues of Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, and Guru Rinpoche from Ati Ling’s shrine room, as well as many personal statues ranging in size from four inches to four feet.
In April, Jigme Rinpoche conducted Ati Ling’s first Black T’hröma retreat, also at Anderson Hall. And the last weekend in June, Rinpoche gave the empower- ments for the Chagdud Gonpa daily practices at Ati Ling. The shrine room was packed for the entire twelve hours of transmissions. It was fantastic!
-----
Dechhen Ling
In July we were delighted and surprised by an auspicious visit from Dzogchen Khenpo Chöga. He gave an evening teaching on ngondro, followed by a question-and-answer session, then returned for additional teachings on September 8.
On the evening of August 11, Lama Tsering gave a public talk entitled “Relationships and the Spiritual Path” at the University of Oregon Library in Eugene. Her special presence and refreshing blend of insight and humor captivated the audience, while the teachings enabled us to deepen our own stores of wisdom and skillful means. Thank you, Lama Tsering; we look forward to hosting you on your next trip to the United States.
The electrical rewiring of River House is nearly complete. All the circuits have been replaced and brought up to code, save one small circuit in the kitchen. Once the work is finished, we can get the wiring inspected and approved. We extend much gratitude to Dick Wilcox, Connie Carrel, Linda Jefferson, Chandra LaHusen, and others who made this possible.
-----
In July, on the full moon of Saga Dawa, we released several tanks of bait fish into the ocean at Marina del Rey. We purchased all of the available fish so that the bait dock had none to offer the fishermen! During the release, Lama Gyatso performed a ceremony and led the sangha in other practices. The following week, on Guru Rinpoche’s birthday, we returned to the marina to free several thousand more fish.
This September, T’hondup Ling said goodbye to Lama Thomge and Lama Thrinley, who had been invited by Lama Gyatso to build sand mandalas in Los Angeles. We are fortunate that Lama Rabjoer will remain in residence here; he exudes warmth, simplicity, and generosity of spirit.
H.E. Namkha Drimed Rinpoche re- turned to T’hondup Ling as Vajra Master at the annual T’hröma Drubchod, which was held September 13–21. His Eminence also bestowed a Medicine Buddha empowerment, conducted a public healing ceremony, and presided at several other public events.
The Shi-tro Mandala for Universal Peace is now installed at a private location near T’hondup Ling. Generous offerings of water, flowers, and butterlamps complement the pristine quality of the mandala. Once a month Lama Gyatso leads the sangha in a day-long Shi-tro practice and tsok at the mandala site. The blessings of practicing in the presence of the mandala are palpable and profound.
On September 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C., we conducted a special Shi- tro practice to benefit all those affected by the tragedy.
The Shi-tro Mandala Project has shifted into its second phase, one aspect of which is preparing the mandala for traveling exhibition. This will entail cast- ing the fragile clay deity statues in metal and creating special traveling cases for the mandala’s other parts. We are currently exploring funding for casting the deities.
Tools for Peace, the portion of the project dedicated to arts and peace education, is continuing to develop the Personal Mandala Guidebook. We will train thirty teachers in the Personal Mandala Workshop this November at the Pacific Asia Museum. For information on Tools for Peace and the Shi-tro Mandala, con- tact Shan Watters at (818) 905-7379.
-----
For much of this year Lama Padma maintained an energetic teaching schedule. He traveled to Orcas Island and Winthrop in Washington, and to Vajra North in the Yukon. He also gave regular teachings and conducted retreats in Seattle. He continues to bring the dharma to sangha inmates at the Monroe State Reformatory. Inspired by his efforts, ten Amrita sangha members have signed up to participate in the prisoners’ Buddhafest, the annual Buddhist open house at the prison. A number of prisoners are enthusiastic about Lama Padma’s teachings and are encouraged by the support they get from visiting sangha members.
Amrita recently built an auxiliary butter lamp shed. On Saga Dawa, the anniversary of the Buddha’s enlightenment and parinirvana, the sangha gathered together to offer tsok and 2,400 lamps.
On the evening of June 7, Amrita was honored by a visit from H.E. Khenpo Chöga. More than twenty students listened to his teachings with great enthusiasm, and we look forward to more extensive teachings when he returns.
Brian Hansell, Kimberly Lacy, and their children accompanied Lama Padma and Susan to Chokdrup Ling, their retreat land in Colorado. They all worked hard to build a new retreat house and add finishing touches to the existing house and kitchen. In mid-July, Ann Crain and her husband, Bud, traveled to the land to install solar panels, so now Chokdrup Ling has electricity.
-----
The Odsal Ling Country Center (affectionately referred to as Refugio) is fulfilling its purpose as a tranquil and delightful retreat sanctuary for the São Paulo sangha. The old colonial-style house has been completely renovated, the shrine room capacity well tested, and the space blessed by the consecration and empowerments conducted by H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. We have set aside the first weekend of every month for ngondro retreats. Other intensive weekend events led by Lama Tsering have been well attended. Our first fundraising party, which took place on the day of Brazil’s fifth World Cup victory, was a joyous affair and gave a big boost to the temple construction fund.
When Rinpoche came to Refugio in March, he invited all of the children in the sangha to a special teaching. The children were very receptive, and after the teaching, Rinpoche announced that Lama Norbu would continue these sessions. The children shown in this photo—Gabriel, Bruno, Lissa, and Thais— are regular attendants. Lama Norbu also holds a monthly storytelling session in Lambari that is attended by a group of eight disadvantaged children.
The guest and staff facility, under construction since the beginning of this year, is now almost complete. The style of the building is based on the temple at Khadro Ling, but the color is a unique Lama Tsering favorite—a bright Manjushri orange. The three-meter-high bunk beds will allow enough space for their occupants to sit comfortably upright while doing practice. The building can accommodate twenty staff members and guests, with a large section of the first floor being set up for the tsa-tsa fundraising project. Our perfect contractors, Lazinho and Sons, have just begun building an addition to the main house that will provide space for the dining room, as well as a small office in back. We are a little sad that their work at the center is almost complete, because they have been such a delight to work with. We hope that the purchase of the land next door and the construction of future residences there will provide enough projects to keep them busy until we are ready to start building the temple.
-----
After six months without rain, monsoon commences just as we begin to raise the roof over our new shrine room. The roof, enormous and elegantly designed and engineered by Jeff Morris, David Mar, and Richard Hartwell, is the most complex construction we’ve undertaken at the ranch.
How to raise more than 60,000 pounds of structural steel 20 feet into the air and weld it into place between thunderstorms? Our thanks to all of you who offer much-needed assistance— through prayers, effort, and financing— to this adventure in off-road, off-the-grid, and nearly off-the-map shrine-room raising.
Also in the works: Lama Shenpen continues to offer Bodhisattva Peace Training intensives at the ranch and in Minnesota. Her house is nearing completion, thanks to Tony Styskal and a dedicated Iron Knot staff. A solar and wind power station (dubbed Minnesota Power and Light by our Minnesotan volunteers) is almost operative. We are planning housing for staff and visitors. And at long last, our butter lamp shrine is complete as of Chogyur Duchen, the full moon in Saga Dawa, when all 1,080 butter lamps were offered for the first time. Slowly, slowly, a dharma center emerges— 45 minutes from the middle of nowhere.
Last February, during the Vajrakilaya drubchen at Khadro Ling, Brazil, Chagdud Rinpoche bestowed the title of lama on three of his senior students. Andrea Lima received the name Lama Sherab Drolma; Sonia Guilherme Taylor, Lama Yeshe Drolma; and Chris Taylor, Lama Rigdzin Dorje.
For many years these three have listened to the teachings, practiced diligently, and gained the confidence of Rinpoche, who has mentioned on various occasions their ability to serve and benefit beings. They have always sought ways to support Rinpoche’s vast field of activity through their service.
After Rinpoche ordained the new lamas, sangha members offered them kataks. This special moment reminded us all of the transformation that is possible through the practice of guru yoga.
-----
We were standing in the tsok kitchen behind the doors to the inner temple. As we peeked out at the dancers portraying the Eight Emanations of Guru Rinpoche, who were seated in front of the drubchen mandala, Lama Sherab burst out, “Just look at what Rinpoche has done! It is so amazing to think that seven years ago none of this was even here.”
Every time I return there I have a similar response to the way things are accomplished so swiftly at Khadro Ling. I think back on a photo taken the first time my family and I visited Khadro Ling, in 1997. It shows sangha children Diogo and Sam playing on a small sand pile in a cow pasture. Now that pasture lies beneath the temple complex that includes a large, ornately decorated shrine room on the main floor, Rinpoche’s quarters and retreat rooms upstairs, and administrative offices and a dharma store on the lower level.
In the space of just one year, Khadro Ling has undergone a number of significant changes. The stupas are almost finished being painted, and an Akshobhya statue is nearing completion. A new prayer wheel house has been built, and a new butter lamp house is under construction. The old barn, home to the many Khadro Ling fauna whose lives have been ransomed over the years, has been torn down, and a new barn is being built. Amitabha House, the hospice complex that was just plans on paper a year ago, has nearly been completed and includes two semi private residences alongside a large conference room that has several guest rooms upstairs.
One of the most noteworthy changes has been the purchase of a neighbor’s land adjacent to the dormitory and kitchen area. Current plans for the property include the creation of a replica of Zangdog Palri (Copper-colored mountain), the palace of Guru Rinpoche that will fulfill one of Chagdud Rinpoche’s lifelong aspirations. One such replica exists in Tibet at Katok Monastery, the mother monastery of Chagdud Gonpa. These monumental, four-story shrines house extensive artwork, including hundreds of statues. This project will take years to complete and will require extensive consecration ceremonies.
The large murals that visiting artist Palden has painted across the walls of the temple are nearly complete, with only the gold detail remaining to be done. Exqui- sitely carved ornate wooden frames made by visiting artisans have been placed around the large Tara and Shakyamuni Buddha statues in the main shrine.
Another master artisan, Lama Chimed from Katok monastery in Tibet, has been working on the Akshobhya statue and the stupas. He will soon begin overseeing work on a sixty-foot high stupa to be built according to the instructions of Dudjom Lingpa, who prophesied that its creation would amass the positive energy necessary to help avert catastrophic wars. The elaborate stupa will be filled with thousands of deity statues and tsa- tsas, and is expected to take many years to complete.
This year’s Essence of Siddhi drubchen incorporated more dancing than the last. Several more masks were completed, thanks to the diligent efforts of the gon- pa’s mask makers, Biggie and Alan. Tulku Apé, who visited Khadro Ling from California, danced a fearsome Dorje Drollod. On the final eve of the drubchen in July, people bundled up outside the temple with tubs of popcorn to join Rinpoche in viewing the screening of a documentary on drubchen as seen through the eyes of the sangha children, produced by Flavia Moraes. It was filmed during last year’s Essence of Siddhi drubchen and includes Chagdud Rinpoche speaking about children in the dharma. Film clips of the drubchen are interspersed with the children’s explanations of what they thought it all meant.
Longtime residents Lama Rigdzin Dorje (Chris Taylor) and Lama Yeshe Drolma (Sonia Guilherme Taylor) who have been integral to developing Khadro Ling have moved to Curitiba, in southern Brazil, to run the Chagdud Gonpa center there.
On an inward level, people’s practice ripens within this pure display of Rinpoche’s vision. In the space of a year, more ngondros have been completed, more obstacles have been overcome, and merit continues to accumulate, both for those in strict retreat and those who uphold Rinpoche’s activity through their daily tasks at the gonpa.
In spite of all this activity, some things have not changed. With each visit we make, the cows still graze beside the temple, the workers still play soccer every Friday afternoon, and the storms and sun- sets of southern Brazil continue to awe us with their splendor.
—Lama Trinley
-----
If you have not yet given your email address to the office at Rigdzin Ling for the Chagdud Gonpa email list, or have not notified us of an address change, please do so. We rely on this list to contact sangha members about schedule updates and other announcements between our semi-annual schedule and Wind Horse mailings. Send your address to Inger at Chagdud@snowcrest.net or call (530) 623-2714.
Padma Publishing needs a laptop computer (PC or Mac); please contact Gina Phelan for information and specifications (gina@tibetantreasures.com).
The upcoming Vajrakilaya drubchen at Rigdzin Ling was not listed in the fall schedule because Losar (the Tibetan new year) is not until March 3, 2003. Please note that the dates for the drubchen are February 22–March 3, 2003.
We extend our thanks to all of you who contributed prayers and monetary offerings to the one million Taksham Yeshe Tsogyal tsok offerings that were dedicated to H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche’s long life in early August. Several thousand dollars were raised and distributed to pujas held at T’hondup Ling, Dechhen Ling, Rigdzin Gatsal, Iron Knot Ranch, Padma Ling, Amrita, Rigdzin Ling, and Orgyen Ling. By August 12, Rinpoche’s birthday, 700,000 tsok offering verses had been accumulated in North America. Khadro Ling in Brazil accumulated more than 400,000 in the following days to complete the commitment of one million. Several hundred butter lamps were also offered during these pujas. We dedicate our heartfelt prayers to the fulfillment of Rinpoche’s enlightened activity for the benefit of beings in this and all future lives.
-----
Last November we held our first annual Chokgyur Lingpa Kurukulle retreat and, in mid-January, the fourth annual Vajrakilaya retreat at Anderson Hall, a rustic camping lodge in the town of Camp Meeker, about ten minutes from Ati Ling. Jigme Tromge Rinpoche presided as Vajra Master for both events. This Vajrakilaya retreat far surpassed other such events because it involved an elaborate statue consecration ceremony.
For a week before the retreat, the Ati Ling shrine room was transformed into a statue consecration workshop. Long tables were set up, and the cutting, rolling, pasting, painting, collecting, and stuffing began. The core crew worked almost around the clock for a week, with sangha members dropping in at all hours. The statues were stuffed with precious and semiprecious stones, mantras, images, and sacred objects. Jigme Rinpoche offered medicine pills composed of more than 6,000 substances from great saints dating back to the fourth Buddha.
Approximately eighty-five statues were filled, including the three large statues of Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, and Guru Rinpoche from Ati Ling’s shrine room, as well as many personal statues ranging in size from four inches to four feet.
In April, Jigme Rinpoche conducted Ati Ling’s first Black T’hröma retreat, also at Anderson Hall. And the last weekend in June, Rinpoche gave the empower- ments for the Chagdud Gonpa daily practices at Ati Ling. The shrine room was packed for the entire twelve hours of transmissions. It was fantastic!
-----
Dechhen Ling
In July we were delighted and surprised by an auspicious visit from Dzogchen Khenpo Chöga. He gave an evening teaching on ngondro, followed by a question-and-answer session, then returned for additional teachings on September 8.
On the evening of August 11, Lama Tsering gave a public talk entitled “Relationships and the Spiritual Path” at the University of Oregon Library in Eugene. Her special presence and refreshing blend of insight and humor captivated the audience, while the teachings enabled us to deepen our own stores of wisdom and skillful means. Thank you, Lama Tsering; we look forward to hosting you on your next trip to the United States.
The electrical rewiring of River House is nearly complete. All the circuits have been replaced and brought up to code, save one small circuit in the kitchen. Once the work is finished, we can get the wiring inspected and approved. We extend much gratitude to Dick Wilcox, Connie Carrel, Linda Jefferson, Chandra LaHusen, and others who made this possible.
-----
In July, on the full moon of Saga Dawa, we released several tanks of bait fish into the ocean at Marina del Rey. We purchased all of the available fish so that the bait dock had none to offer the fishermen! During the release, Lama Gyatso performed a ceremony and led the sangha in other practices. The following week, on Guru Rinpoche’s birthday, we returned to the marina to free several thousand more fish.
This September, T’hondup Ling said goodbye to Lama Thomge and Lama Thrinley, who had been invited by Lama Gyatso to build sand mandalas in Los Angeles. We are fortunate that Lama Rabjoer will remain in residence here; he exudes warmth, simplicity, and generosity of spirit.
H.E. Namkha Drimed Rinpoche re- turned to T’hondup Ling as Vajra Master at the annual T’hröma Drubchod, which was held September 13–21. His Eminence also bestowed a Medicine Buddha empowerment, conducted a public healing ceremony, and presided at several other public events.
The Shi-tro Mandala for Universal Peace is now installed at a private location near T’hondup Ling. Generous offerings of water, flowers, and butterlamps complement the pristine quality of the mandala. Once a month Lama Gyatso leads the sangha in a day-long Shi-tro practice and tsok at the mandala site. The blessings of practicing in the presence of the mandala are palpable and profound.
On September 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C., we conducted a special Shi- tro practice to benefit all those affected by the tragedy.
The Shi-tro Mandala Project has shifted into its second phase, one aspect of which is preparing the mandala for traveling exhibition. This will entail cast- ing the fragile clay deity statues in metal and creating special traveling cases for the mandala’s other parts. We are currently exploring funding for casting the deities.
Tools for Peace, the portion of the project dedicated to arts and peace education, is continuing to develop the Personal Mandala Guidebook. We will train thirty teachers in the Personal Mandala Workshop this November at the Pacific Asia Museum. For information on Tools for Peace and the Shi-tro Mandala, con- tact Shan Watters at (818) 905-7379.
-----
For much of this year Lama Padma maintained an energetic teaching schedule. He traveled to Orcas Island and Winthrop in Washington, and to Vajra North in the Yukon. He also gave regular teachings and conducted retreats in Seattle. He continues to bring the dharma to sangha inmates at the Monroe State Reformatory. Inspired by his efforts, ten Amrita sangha members have signed up to participate in the prisoners’ Buddhafest, the annual Buddhist open house at the prison. A number of prisoners are enthusiastic about Lama Padma’s teachings and are encouraged by the support they get from visiting sangha members.
Amrita recently built an auxiliary butter lamp shed. On Saga Dawa, the anniversary of the Buddha’s enlightenment and parinirvana, the sangha gathered together to offer tsok and 2,400 lamps.
On the evening of June 7, Amrita was honored by a visit from H.E. Khenpo Chöga. More than twenty students listened to his teachings with great enthusiasm, and we look forward to more extensive teachings when he returns.
Brian Hansell, Kimberly Lacy, and their children accompanied Lama Padma and Susan to Chokdrup Ling, their retreat land in Colorado. They all worked hard to build a new retreat house and add finishing touches to the existing house and kitchen. In mid-July, Ann Crain and her husband, Bud, traveled to the land to install solar panels, so now Chokdrup Ling has electricity.
-----
The Odsal Ling Country Center (affectionately referred to as Refugio) is fulfilling its purpose as a tranquil and delightful retreat sanctuary for the São Paulo sangha. The old colonial-style house has been completely renovated, the shrine room capacity well tested, and the space blessed by the consecration and empowerments conducted by H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. We have set aside the first weekend of every month for ngondro retreats. Other intensive weekend events led by Lama Tsering have been well attended. Our first fundraising party, which took place on the day of Brazil’s fifth World Cup victory, was a joyous affair and gave a big boost to the temple construction fund.
When Rinpoche came to Refugio in March, he invited all of the children in the sangha to a special teaching. The children were very receptive, and after the teaching, Rinpoche announced that Lama Norbu would continue these sessions. The children shown in this photo—Gabriel, Bruno, Lissa, and Thais— are regular attendants. Lama Norbu also holds a monthly storytelling session in Lambari that is attended by a group of eight disadvantaged children.
The guest and staff facility, under construction since the beginning of this year, is now almost complete. The style of the building is based on the temple at Khadro Ling, but the color is a unique Lama Tsering favorite—a bright Manjushri orange. The three-meter-high bunk beds will allow enough space for their occupants to sit comfortably upright while doing practice. The building can accommodate twenty staff members and guests, with a large section of the first floor being set up for the tsa-tsa fundraising project. Our perfect contractors, Lazinho and Sons, have just begun building an addition to the main house that will provide space for the dining room, as well as a small office in back. We are a little sad that their work at the center is almost complete, because they have been such a delight to work with. We hope that the purchase of the land next door and the construction of future residences there will provide enough projects to keep them busy until we are ready to start building the temple.
-----
After six months without rain, monsoon commences just as we begin to raise the roof over our new shrine room. The roof, enormous and elegantly designed and engineered by Jeff Morris, David Mar, and Richard Hartwell, is the most complex construction we’ve undertaken at the ranch.
How to raise more than 60,000 pounds of structural steel 20 feet into the air and weld it into place between thunderstorms? Our thanks to all of you who offer much-needed assistance— through prayers, effort, and financing— to this adventure in off-road, off-the-grid, and nearly off-the-map shrine-room raising.
Also in the works: Lama Shenpen continues to offer Bodhisattva Peace Training intensives at the ranch and in Minnesota. Her house is nearing completion, thanks to Tony Styskal and a dedicated Iron Knot staff. A solar and wind power station (dubbed Minnesota Power and Light by our Minnesotan volunteers) is almost operative. We are planning housing for staff and visitors. And at long last, our butter lamp shrine is complete as of Chogyur Duchen, the full moon in Saga Dawa, when all 1,080 butter lamps were offered for the first time. Slowly, slowly, a dharma center emerges— 45 minutes from the middle of nowhere.
Last February, during the Vajrakilaya drubchen at Khadro Ling, Brazil, Chagdud Rinpoche bestowed the title of lama on three of his senior students. Andrea Lima received the name Lama Sherab Drolma; Sonia Guilherme Taylor, Lama Yeshe Drolma; and Chris Taylor, Lama Rigdzin Dorje.
For many years these three have listened to the teachings, practiced diligently, and gained the confidence of Rinpoche, who has mentioned on various occasions their ability to serve and benefit beings. They have always sought ways to support Rinpoche’s vast field of activity through their service.
After Rinpoche ordained the new lamas, sangha members offered them kataks. This special moment reminded us all of the transformation that is possible through the practice of guru yoga.
-----
We were standing in the tsok kitchen behind the doors to the inner temple. As we peeked out at the dancers portraying the Eight Emanations of Guru Rinpoche, who were seated in front of the drubchen mandala, Lama Sherab burst out, “Just look at what Rinpoche has done! It is so amazing to think that seven years ago none of this was even here.”
Every time I return there I have a similar response to the way things are accomplished so swiftly at Khadro Ling. I think back on a photo taken the first time my family and I visited Khadro Ling, in 1997. It shows sangha children Diogo and Sam playing on a small sand pile in a cow pasture. Now that pasture lies beneath the temple complex that includes a large, ornately decorated shrine room on the main floor, Rinpoche’s quarters and retreat rooms upstairs, and administrative offices and a dharma store on the lower level.
In the space of just one year, Khadro Ling has undergone a number of significant changes. The stupas are almost finished being painted, and an Akshobhya statue is nearing completion. A new prayer wheel house has been built, and a new butter lamp house is under construction. The old barn, home to the many Khadro Ling fauna whose lives have been ransomed over the years, has been torn down, and a new barn is being built. Amitabha House, the hospice complex that was just plans on paper a year ago, has nearly been completed and includes two semi private residences alongside a large conference room that has several guest rooms upstairs.
One of the most noteworthy changes has been the purchase of a neighbor’s land adjacent to the dormitory and kitchen area. Current plans for the property include the creation of a replica of Zangdog Palri (Copper-colored mountain), the palace of Guru Rinpoche that will fulfill one of Chagdud Rinpoche’s lifelong aspirations. One such replica exists in Tibet at Katok Monastery, the mother monastery of Chagdud Gonpa. These monumental, four-story shrines house extensive artwork, including hundreds of statues. This project will take years to complete and will require extensive consecration ceremonies.
The large murals that visiting artist Palden has painted across the walls of the temple are nearly complete, with only the gold detail remaining to be done. Exqui- sitely carved ornate wooden frames made by visiting artisans have been placed around the large Tara and Shakyamuni Buddha statues in the main shrine.
Another master artisan, Lama Chimed from Katok monastery in Tibet, has been working on the Akshobhya statue and the stupas. He will soon begin overseeing work on a sixty-foot high stupa to be built according to the instructions of Dudjom Lingpa, who prophesied that its creation would amass the positive energy necessary to help avert catastrophic wars. The elaborate stupa will be filled with thousands of deity statues and tsa- tsas, and is expected to take many years to complete.
This year’s Essence of Siddhi drubchen incorporated more dancing than the last. Several more masks were completed, thanks to the diligent efforts of the gon- pa’s mask makers, Biggie and Alan. Tulku Apé, who visited Khadro Ling from California, danced a fearsome Dorje Drollod. On the final eve of the drubchen in July, people bundled up outside the temple with tubs of popcorn to join Rinpoche in viewing the screening of a documentary on drubchen as seen through the eyes of the sangha children, produced by Flavia Moraes. It was filmed during last year’s Essence of Siddhi drubchen and includes Chagdud Rinpoche speaking about children in the dharma. Film clips of the drubchen are interspersed with the children’s explanations of what they thought it all meant.
Longtime residents Lama Rigdzin Dorje (Chris Taylor) and Lama Yeshe Drolma (Sonia Guilherme Taylor) who have been integral to developing Khadro Ling have moved to Curitiba, in southern Brazil, to run the Chagdud Gonpa center there.
On an inward level, people’s practice ripens within this pure display of Rinpoche’s vision. In the space of a year, more ngondros have been completed, more obstacles have been overcome, and merit continues to accumulate, both for those in strict retreat and those who uphold Rinpoche’s activity through their daily tasks at the gonpa.
In spite of all this activity, some things have not changed. With each visit we make, the cows still graze beside the temple, the workers still play soccer every Friday afternoon, and the storms and sun- sets of southern Brazil continue to awe us with their splendor.
—Lama Trinley
-----
If you have not yet given your email address to the office at Rigdzin Ling for the Chagdud Gonpa email list, or have not notified us of an address change, please do so. We rely on this list to contact sangha members about schedule updates and other announcements between our semi-annual schedule and Wind Horse mailings. Send your address to Inger at Chagdud@snowcrest.net or call (530) 623-2714.
Padma Publishing needs a laptop computer (PC or Mac); please contact Gina Phelan for information and specifications (gina@tibetantreasures.com).
The upcoming Vajrakilaya drubchen at Rigdzin Ling was not listed in the fall schedule because Losar (the Tibetan new year) is not until March 3, 2003. Please note that the dates for the drubchen are February 22–March 3, 2003.
We extend our thanks to all of you who contributed prayers and monetary offerings to the one million Taksham Yeshe Tsogyal tsok offerings that were dedicated to H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche’s long life in early August. Several thousand dollars were raised and distributed to pujas held at T’hondup Ling, Dechhen Ling, Rigdzin Gatsal, Iron Knot Ranch, Padma Ling, Amrita, Rigdzin Ling, and Orgyen Ling. By August 12, Rinpoche’s birthday, 700,000 tsok offering verses had been accumulated in North America. Khadro Ling in Brazil accumulated more than 400,000 in the following days to complete the commitment of one million. Several hundred butter lamps were also offered during these pujas. We dedicate our heartfelt prayers to the fulfillment of Rinpoche’s enlightened activity for the benefit of beings in this and all future lives.
-----
Last November we held our first annual Chokgyur Lingpa Kurukulle retreat and, in mid-January, the fourth annual Vajrakilaya retreat at Anderson Hall, a rustic camping lodge in the town of Camp Meeker, about ten minutes from Ati Ling. Jigme Tromge Rinpoche presided as Vajra Master for both events. This Vajrakilaya retreat far surpassed other such events because it involved an elaborate statue consecration ceremony.
For a week before the retreat, the Ati Ling shrine room was transformed into a statue consecration workshop. Long tables were set up, and the cutting, rolling, pasting, painting, collecting, and stuffing began. The core crew worked almost around the clock for a week, with sangha members dropping in at all hours. The statues were stuffed with precious and semiprecious stones, mantras, images, and sacred objects. Jigme Rinpoche offered medicine pills composed of more than 6,000 substances from great saints dating back to the fourth Buddha.
Approximately eighty-five statues were filled, including the three large statues of Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, and Guru Rinpoche from Ati Ling’s shrine room, as well as many personal statues ranging in size from four inches to four feet.
In April, Jigme Rinpoche conducted Ati Ling’s first Black T’hröma retreat, also at Anderson Hall. And the last weekend in June, Rinpoche gave the empower- ments for the Chagdud Gonpa daily practices at Ati Ling. The shrine room was packed for the entire twelve hours of transmissions. It was fantastic!
-----
Dechhen Ling
In July we were delighted and surprised by an auspicious visit from Dzogchen Khenpo Chöga. He gave an evening teaching on ngondro, followed by a question-and-answer session, then returned for additional teachings on September 8.
On the evening of August 11, Lama Tsering gave a public talk entitled “Relationships and the Spiritual Path” at the University of Oregon Library in Eugene. Her special presence and refreshing blend of insight and humor captivated the audience, while the teachings enabled us to deepen our own stores of wisdom and skillful means. Thank you, Lama Tsering; we look forward to hosting you on your next trip to the United States.
The electrical rewiring of River House is nearly complete. All the circuits have been replaced and brought up to code, save one small circuit in the kitchen. Once the work is finished, we can get the wiring inspected and approved. We extend much gratitude to Dick Wilcox, Connie Carrel, Linda Jefferson, Chandra LaHusen, and others who made this possible.
-----
In July, on the full moon of Saga Dawa, we released several tanks of bait fish into the ocean at Marina del Rey. We purchased all of the available fish so that the bait dock had none to offer the fishermen! During the release, Lama Gyatso performed a ceremony and led the sangha in other practices. The following week, on Guru Rinpoche’s birthday, we returned to the marina to free several thousand more fish.
This September, T’hondup Ling said goodbye to Lama Thomge and Lama Thrinley, who had been invited by Lama Gyatso to build sand mandalas in Los Angeles. We are fortunate that Lama Rabjoer will remain in residence here; he exudes warmth, simplicity, and generosity of spirit.
H.E. Namkha Drimed Rinpoche re- turned to T’hondup Ling as Vajra Master at the annual T’hröma Drubchod, which was held September 13–21. His Eminence also bestowed a Medicine Buddha empowerment, conducted a public healing ceremony, and presided at several other public events.
The Shi-tro Mandala for Universal Peace is now installed at a private location near T’hondup Ling. Generous offerings of water, flowers, and butterlamps complement the pristine quality of the mandala. Once a month Lama Gyatso leads the sangha in a day-long Shi-tro practice and tsok at the mandala site. The blessings of practicing in the presence of the mandala are palpable and profound.
On September 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C., we conducted a special Shi- tro practice to benefit all those affected by the tragedy.
The Shi-tro Mandala Project has shifted into its second phase, one aspect of which is preparing the mandala for traveling exhibition. This will entail cast- ing the fragile clay deity statues in metal and creating special traveling cases for the mandala’s other parts. We are currently exploring funding for casting the deities.
Tools for Peace, the portion of the project dedicated to arts and peace education, is continuing to develop the Personal Mandala Guidebook. We will train thirty teachers in the Personal Mandala Workshop this November at the Pacific Asia Museum. For information on Tools for Peace and the Shi-tro Mandala, con- tact Shan Watters at (818) 905-7379.
-----
For much of this year Lama Padma maintained an energetic teaching schedule. He traveled to Orcas Island and Winthrop in Washington, and to Vajra North in the Yukon. He also gave regular teachings and conducted retreats in Seattle. He continues to bring the dharma to sangha inmates at the Monroe State Reformatory. Inspired by his efforts, ten Amrita sangha members have signed up to participate in the prisoners’ Buddhafest, the annual Buddhist open house at the prison. A number of prisoners are enthusiastic about Lama Padma’s teachings and are encouraged by the support they get from visiting sangha members.
Amrita recently built an auxiliary butter lamp shed. On Saga Dawa, the anniversary of the Buddha’s enlightenment and parinirvana, the sangha gathered together to offer tsok and 2,400 lamps.
On the evening of June 7, Amrita was honored by a visit from H.E. Khenpo Chöga. More than twenty students listened to his teachings with great enthusiasm, and we look forward to more extensive teachings when he returns.
Brian Hansell, Kimberly Lacy, and their children accompanied Lama Padma and Susan to Chokdrup Ling, their retreat land in Colorado. They all worked hard to build a new retreat house and add finishing touches to the existing house and kitchen. In mid-July, Ann Crain and her husband, Bud, traveled to the land to install solar panels, so now Chokdrup Ling has electricity.
-----
The Odsal Ling Country Center (affectionately referred to as Refugio) is fulfilling its purpose as a tranquil and delightful retreat sanctuary for the São Paulo sangha. The old colonial-style house has been completely renovated, the shrine room capacity well tested, and the space blessed by the consecration and empowerments conducted by H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. We have set aside the first weekend of every month for ngondro retreats. Other intensive weekend events led by Lama Tsering have been well attended. Our first fundraising party, which took place on the day of Brazil’s fifth World Cup victory, was a joyous affair and gave a big boost to the temple construction fund.
When Rinpoche came to Refugio in March, he invited all of the children in the sangha to a special teaching. The children were very receptive, and after the teaching, Rinpoche announced that Lama Norbu would continue these sessions. The children shown in this photo—Gabriel, Bruno, Lissa, and Thais— are regular attendants. Lama Norbu also holds a monthly storytelling session in Lambari that is attended by a group of eight disadvantaged children.
The guest and staff facility, under construction since the beginning of this year, is now almost complete. The style of the building is based on the temple at Khadro Ling, but the color is a unique Lama Tsering favorite—a bright Manjushri orange. The three-meter-high bunk beds will allow enough space for their occupants to sit comfortably upright while doing practice. The building can accommodate twenty staff members and guests, with a large section of the first floor being set up for the tsa-tsa fundraising project. Our perfect contractors, Lazinho and Sons, have just begun building an addition to the main house that will provide space for the dining room, as well as a small office in back. We are a little sad that their work at the center is almost complete, because they have been such a delight to work with. We hope that the purchase of the land next door and the construction of future residences there will provide enough projects to keep them busy until we are ready to start building the temple.
-----
After six months without rain, monsoon commences just as we begin to raise the roof over our new shrine room. The roof, enormous and elegantly designed and engineered by Jeff Morris, David Mar, and Richard Hartwell, is the most complex construction we’ve undertaken at the ranch.
How to raise more than 60,000 pounds of structural steel 20 feet into the air and weld it into place between thunderstorms? Our thanks to all of you who offer much-needed assistance— through prayers, effort, and financing— to this adventure in off-road, off-the-grid, and nearly off-the-map shrine-room raising.
Also in the works: Lama Shenpen continues to offer Bodhisattva Peace Training intensives at the ranch and in Minnesota. Her house is nearing completion, thanks to Tony Styskal and a dedicated Iron Knot staff. A solar and wind power station (dubbed Minnesota Power and Light by our Minnesotan volunteers) is almost operative. We are planning housing for staff and visitors. And at long last, our butter lamp shrine is complete as of Chogyur Duchen, the full moon in Saga Dawa, when all 1,080 butter lamps were offered for the first time. Slowly, slowly, a dharma center emerges— 45 minutes from the middle of nowhere.
Last February, during the Vajrakilaya drubchen at Khadro Ling, Brazil, Chagdud Rinpoche bestowed the title of lama on three of his senior students. Andrea Lima received the name Lama Sherab Drolma; Sonia Guilherme Taylor, Lama Yeshe Drolma; and Chris Taylor, Lama Rigdzin Dorje.
For many years these three have listened to the teachings, practiced diligently, and gained the confidence of Rinpoche, who has mentioned on various occasions their ability to serve and benefit beings. They have always sought ways to support Rinpoche’s vast field of activity through their service.
After Rinpoche ordained the new lamas, sangha members offered them kataks. This special moment reminded us all of the transformation that is possible through the practice of guru yoga.
-----
We were standing in the tsok kitchen behind the doors to the inner temple. As we peeked out at the dancers portraying the Eight Emanations of Guru Rinpoche, who were seated in front of the drubchen mandala, Lama Sherab burst out, “Just look at what Rinpoche has done! It is so amazing to think that seven years ago none of this was even here.”
Every time I return there I have a similar response to the way things are accomplished so swiftly at Khadro Ling. I think back on a photo taken the first time my family and I visited Khadro Ling, in 1997. It shows sangha children Diogo and Sam playing on a small sand pile in a cow pasture. Now that pasture lies beneath the temple complex that includes a large, ornately decorated shrine room on the main floor, Rinpoche’s quarters and retreat rooms upstairs, and administrative offices and a dharma store on the lower level.
In the space of just one year, Khadro Ling has undergone a number of significant changes. The stupas are almost finished being painted, and an Akshobhya statue is nearing completion. A new prayer wheel house has been built, and a new butter lamp house is under construction. The old barn, home to the many Khadro Ling fauna whose lives have been ransomed over the years, has been torn down, and a new barn is being built. Amitabha House, the hospice complex that was just plans on paper a year ago, has nearly been completed and includes two semi private residences alongside a large conference room that has several guest rooms upstairs.
One of the most noteworthy changes has been the purchase of a neighbor’s land adjacent to the dormitory and kitchen area. Current plans for the property include the creation of a replica of Zangdog Palri (Copper-colored mountain), the palace of Guru Rinpoche that will fulfill one of Chagdud Rinpoche’s lifelong aspirations. One such replica exists in Tibet at Katok Monastery, the mother monastery of Chagdud Gonpa. These monumental, four-story shrines house extensive artwork, including hundreds of statues. This project will take years to complete and will require extensive consecration ceremonies.
The large murals that visiting artist Palden has painted across the walls of the temple are nearly complete, with only the gold detail remaining to be done. Exqui- sitely carved ornate wooden frames made by visiting artisans have been placed around the large Tara and Shakyamuni Buddha statues in the main shrine.
Another master artisan, Lama Chimed from Katok monastery in Tibet, has been working on the Akshobhya statue and the stupas. He will soon begin overseeing work on a sixty-foot high stupa to be built according to the instructions of Dudjom Lingpa, who prophesied that its creation would amass the positive energy necessary to help avert catastrophic wars. The elaborate stupa will be filled with thousands of deity statues and tsa- tsas, and is expected to take many years to complete.
This year’s Essence of Siddhi drubchen incorporated more dancing than the last. Several more masks were completed, thanks to the diligent efforts of the gon- pa’s mask makers, Biggie and Alan. Tulku Apé, who visited Khadro Ling from California, danced a fearsome Dorje Drollod. On the final eve of the drubchen in July, people bundled up outside the temple with tubs of popcorn to join Rinpoche in viewing the screening of a documentary on drubchen as seen through the eyes of the sangha children, produced by Flavia Moraes. It was filmed during last year’s Essence of Siddhi drubchen and includes Chagdud Rinpoche speaking about children in the dharma. Film clips of the drubchen are interspersed with the children’s explanations of what they thought it all meant.
Longtime residents Lama Rigdzin Dorje (Chris Taylor) and Lama Yeshe Drolma (Sonia Guilherme Taylor) who have been integral to developing Khadro Ling have moved to Curitiba, in southern Brazil, to run the Chagdud Gonpa center there.
On an inward level, people’s practice ripens within this pure display of Rinpoche’s vision. In the space of a year, more ngondros have been completed, more obstacles have been overcome, and merit continues to accumulate, both for those in strict retreat and those who uphold Rinpoche’s activity through their daily tasks at the gonpa.
In spite of all this activity, some things have not changed. With each visit we make, the cows still graze beside the temple, the workers still play soccer every Friday afternoon, and the storms and sun- sets of southern Brazil continue to awe us with their splendor.
—Lama Trinley
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If you have not yet given your email address to the office at Rigdzin Ling for the Chagdud Gonpa email list, or have not notified us of an address change, please do so. We rely on this list to contact sangha members about schedule updates and other announcements between our semi-annual schedule and Wind Horse mailings. Send your address to Inger at Chagdud@snowcrest.net or call (530) 623-2714.
Padma Publishing needs a laptop computer (PC or Mac); please contact Gina Phelan for information and specifications (gina@tibetantreasures.com).
The upcoming Vajrakilaya drubchen at Rigdzin Ling was not listed in the fall schedule because Losar (the Tibetan new year) is not until March 3, 2003. Please note that the dates for the drubchen are February 22–March 3, 2003.
We extend our thanks to all of you who contributed prayers and monetary offerings to the one million Taksham Yeshe Tsogyal tsok offerings that were dedicated to H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche’s long life in early August. Several thousand dollars were raised and distributed to pujas held at T’hondup Ling, Dechhen Ling, Rigdzin Gatsal, Iron Knot Ranch, Padma Ling, Amrita, Rigdzin Ling, and Orgyen Ling. By August 12, Rinpoche’s birthday, 700,000 tsok offering verses had been accumulated in North America. Khadro Ling in Brazil accumulated more than 400,000 in the following days to complete the commitment of one million. Several hundred butter lamps were also offered during these pujas. We dedicate our heartfelt prayers to the fulfillment of Rinpoche’s enlightened activity for the benefit of beings in this and all future lives.
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Last November we held our first annual Chokgyur Lingpa Kurukulle retreat and, in mid-January, the fourth annual Vajrakilaya retreat at Anderson Hall, a rustic camping lodge in the town of Camp Meeker, about ten minutes from Ati Ling. Jigme Tromge Rinpoche presided as Vajra Master for both events. This Vajrakilaya retreat far surpassed other such events because it involved an elaborate statue consecration ceremony.
For a week before the retreat, the Ati Ling shrine room was transformed into a statue consecration workshop. Long tables were set up, and the cutting, rolling, pasting, painting, collecting, and stuffing began. The core crew worked almost around the clock for a week, with sangha members dropping in at all hours. The statues were stuffed with precious and semiprecious stones, mantras, images, and sacred objects. Jigme Rinpoche offered medicine pills composed of more than 6,000 substances from great saints dating back to the fourth Buddha.
Approximately eighty-five statues were filled, including the three large statues of Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, and Guru Rinpoche from Ati Ling’s shrine room, as well as many personal statues ranging in size from four inches to four feet.
In April, Jigme Rinpoche conducted Ati Ling’s first Black T’hröma retreat, also at Anderson Hall. And the last weekend in June, Rinpoche gave the empower- ments for the Chagdud Gonpa daily practices at Ati Ling. The shrine room was packed for the entire twelve hours of transmissions. It was fantastic!
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Dechhen Ling
In July we were delighted and surprised by an auspicious visit from Dzogchen Khenpo Chöga. He gave an evening teaching on ngondro, followed by a question-and-answer session, then returned for additional teachings on September 8.
On the evening of August 11, Lama Tsering gave a public talk entitled “Relationships and the Spiritual Path” at the University of Oregon Library in Eugene. Her special presence and refreshing blend of insight and humor captivated the audience, while the teachings enabled us to deepen our own stores of wisdom and skillful means. Thank you, Lama Tsering; we look forward to hosting you on your next trip to the United States.
The electrical rewiring of River House is nearly complete. All the circuits have been replaced and brought up to code, save one small circuit in the kitchen. Once the work is finished, we can get the wiring inspected and approved. We extend much gratitude to Dick Wilcox, Connie Carrel, Linda Jefferson, Chandra LaHusen, and others who made this possible.
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In July, on the full moon of Saga Dawa, we released several tanks of bait fish into the ocean at Marina del Rey. We purchased all of the available fish so that the bait dock had none to offer the fishermen! During the release, Lama Gyatso performed a ceremony and led the sangha in other practices. The following week, on Guru Rinpoche’s birthday, we returned to the marina to free several thousand more fish.
This September, T’hondup Ling said goodbye to Lama Thomge and Lama Thrinley, who had been invited by Lama Gyatso to build sand mandalas in Los Angeles. We are fortunate that Lama Rabjoer will remain in residence here; he exudes warmth, simplicity, and generosity of spirit.
H.E. Namkha Drimed Rinpoche re- turned to T’hondup Ling as Vajra Master at the annual T’hröma Drubchod, which was held September 13–21. His Eminence also bestowed a Medicine Buddha empowerment, conducted a public healing ceremony, and presided at several other public events.
The Shi-tro Mandala for Universal Peace is now installed at a private location near T’hondup Ling. Generous offerings of water, flowers, and butterlamps complement the pristine quality of the mandala. Once a month Lama Gyatso leads the sangha in a day-long Shi-tro practice and tsok at the mandala site. The blessings of practicing in the presence of the mandala are palpable and profound.
On September 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C., we conducted a special Shi- tro practice to benefit all those affected by the tragedy.
The Shi-tro Mandala Project has shifted into its second phase, one aspect of which is preparing the mandala for traveling exhibition. This will entail cast- ing the fragile clay deity statues in metal and creating special traveling cases for the mandala’s other parts. We are currently exploring funding for casting the deities.
Tools for Peace, the portion of the project dedicated to arts and peace education, is continuing to develop the Personal Mandala Guidebook. We will train thirty teachers in the Personal Mandala Workshop this November at the Pacific Asia Museum. For information on Tools for Peace and the Shi-tro Mandala, con- tact Shan Watters at (818) 905-7379.
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For much of this year Lama Padma maintained an energetic teaching schedule. He traveled to Orcas Island and Winthrop in Washington, and to Vajra North in the Yukon. He also gave regular teachings and conducted retreats in Seattle. He continues to bring the dharma to sangha inmates at the Monroe State Reformatory. Inspired by his efforts, ten Amrita sangha members have signed up to participate in the prisoners’ Buddhafest, the annual Buddhist open house at the prison. A number of prisoners are enthusiastic about Lama Padma’s teachings and are encouraged by the support they get from visiting sangha members.
Amrita recently built an auxiliary butter lamp shed. On Saga Dawa, the anniversary of the Buddha’s enlightenment and parinirvana, the sangha gathered together to offer tsok and 2,400 lamps.
On the evening of June 7, Amrita was honored by a visit from H.E. Khenpo Chöga. More than twenty students listened to his teachings with great enthusiasm, and we look forward to more extensive teachings when he returns.
Brian Hansell, Kimberly Lacy, and their children accompanied Lama Padma and Susan to Chokdrup Ling, their retreat land in Colorado. They all worked hard to build a new retreat house and add finishing touches to the existing house and kitchen. In mid-July, Ann Crain and her husband, Bud, traveled to the land to install solar panels, so now Chokdrup Ling has electricity.
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The Odsal Ling Country Center (affectionately referred to as Refugio) is fulfilling its purpose as a tranquil and delightful retreat sanctuary for the São Paulo sangha. The old colonial-style house has been completely renovated, the shrine room capacity well tested, and the space blessed by the consecration and empowerments conducted by H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. We have set aside the first weekend of every month for ngondro retreats. Other intensive weekend events led by Lama Tsering have been well attended. Our first fundraising party, which took place on the day of Brazil’s fifth World Cup victory, was a joyous affair and gave a big boost to the temple construction fund.
When Rinpoche came to Refugio in March, he invited all of the children in the sangha to a special teaching. The children were very receptive, and after the teaching, Rinpoche announced that Lama Norbu would continue these sessions. The children shown in this photo—Gabriel, Bruno, Lissa, and Thais— are regular attendants. Lama Norbu also holds a monthly storytelling session in Lambari that is attended by a group of eight disadvantaged children.
The guest and staff facility, under construction since the beginning of this year, is now almost complete. The style of the building is based on the temple at Khadro Ling, but the color is a unique Lama Tsering favorite—a bright Manjushri orange. The three-meter-high bunk beds will allow enough space for their occupants to sit comfortably upright while doing practice. The building can accommodate twenty staff members and guests, with a large section of the first floor being set up for the tsa-tsa fundraising project. Our perfect contractors, Lazinho and Sons, have just begun building an addition to the main house that will provide space for the dining room, as well as a small office in back. We are a little sad that their work at the center is almost complete, because they have been such a delight to work with. We hope that the purchase of the land next door and the construction of future residences there will provide enough projects to keep them busy until we are ready to start building the temple.
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After six months without rain, monsoon commences just as we begin to raise the roof over our new shrine room. The roof, enormous and elegantly designed and engineered by Jeff Morris, David Mar, and Richard Hartwell, is the most complex construction we’ve undertaken at the ranch.
How to raise more than 60,000 pounds of structural steel 20 feet into the air and weld it into place between thunderstorms? Our thanks to all of you who offer much-needed assistance— through prayers, effort, and financing— to this adventure in off-road, off-the-grid, and nearly off-the-map shrine-room raising.
Also in the works: Lama Shenpen continues to offer Bodhisattva Peace Training intensives at the ranch and in Minnesota. Her house is nearing completion, thanks to Tony Styskal and a dedicated Iron Knot staff. A solar and wind power station (dubbed Minnesota Power and Light by our Minnesotan volunteers) is almost operative. We are planning housing for staff and visitors. And at long last, our butter lamp shrine is complete as of Chogyur Duchen, the full moon in Saga Dawa, when all 1,080 butter lamps were offered for the first time. Slowly, slowly, a dharma center emerges— 45 minutes from the middle of nowhere.
