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Biography of
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Homage
With even greater kindness than all the
Buddhas
Appearing as the guru for the benefit of all beings
Granting common and uncommon attainments
Homage to the glorious teacher.
In January 1924 a child was born to the Ang Gyä Tsang family while they were visiting Drombu, a town near the Yellow River in the Gapa district of Kham, the Eastern province of Tibet. The child’s mother, Ngawang Lhamo, spoke of auspicious dreams to her husband, Tobgyal, and the birth was very easy, which was considered auspicious. A holy lama, Jampel Drimay, visited shortly after the child was born and gave his blessing by writing Manjushri’s seed syllable DHIH on the child’s tongue with dhiwang, a yellow medicine. He named the infant Lodro Denpa, Unchangeable Wisdom, the Tibetan name for Sthirami, Vasubandhu’s illustrious disciple. Geshe Drimay felt a deep connection existed between the child and that famous Indian philosopher.
Lodro Denpa soon proved a source of wonder, and sometimes frustration,
to his family due to a natural compassion directed particularly toward the
destitute. Suffering and poverty aroused instant generosity in the child.
Wishing to see some local beggars happy, he once gave away all the food in the
house while his parents were out. Another time it was clothes—when he saw some
poorly clad beggar children living near the river he promptly took off all his
clothes and gave them away. His concern for others and his repeated efforts to
make them happy, however, tended to upset his mother. Sometimes she spanked
him for giving away so much and although the family was comparatively well off
she feared there would soon be nothing left if he continued unchecked.
His sympathy for the unfortunate was not confined to humans. The sight
of his playmates tormenting or killing animals and insects commonly reduced him
to tears. When he was nearly seven he encountered the slaughter of animals for
the first time. Passing the local butchery one day it so happened that five
yaks were about to be killed. With growing distress the child watched as four
of the five met their fate. The last yak, by now sensing its impending death,
was crying and shaking with fear. This was too much for Lodro Denpa who clung
to the butcher’s legs in tears pleading for the life of the unfortunate yak.
His begging was so persistent and sincere that the butcher finally changed his
mind. With a sigh he put down the knife and set the animal free. In fact he was
so affected by the incident that he gave up his trade on the spot and never
killed again. He subsequently developed such affection for the boy that
whenever he saw Lodro Denpa in the village he would rush over and hug him
warmly.
As Lodro Denpa grew it became obvious that he was inclined to a
religious life. He would often be found in a cave sitting in the meditation
posture and reciting mantras.
As far as Lodro Denpa was concerned, the question of his future was
settled by the visit of the great lama, Lab Khenchen Rinpoche, Thubten Jamyang
Nyima, known to be a manifestation of Yamantaka. On arrival the holy man gazed
at the six year-old child for some time then placed his hands on the boy’s
head, giving his blessing. Silent for a while, he then predicted that if Lodro
Denpa became a monk he would be of benefit to many beings and would directly
aid the spread of the Buddha’s teachings. He warned that otherwise the boy’s
life would be short. From the moment Lab Khenchen Rinpoche said this, Lodro
Denpa’s mind became fixed on ordination as a monk. Before he left, Lab
Khenchen Rinpoche ordained the boy as an upasaka
(lay devotee) and personally cut his long hair to symbolise the turning towards
religious values.
In spite of these auspicious events, Tobgyal was reluctant to lose his
eldest son to a monastic life and would not consider the matter further. The
child thought of nothing else, of course, and persistently made his intentions
clear. His resolutions had the sympathy of his grandfather, a frequent visitor,
who one day offered to help him run away to the monastery nearby. Together they
set out for Drombu Thubten Dargyäling, the village monastery, where the
grandfather subsequently deposited the happy child and left.
The next day Tobgyal arrived to retrieve his missing son, having
quickly guessed where he had gone. Seeing his father approaching, Lodro Denpa
locked himself in his room and refused to go home to the future his father had
in store. ‘The only thing I want is to be a monk and practise the Dharma’, he
said, adding that until his father consented and left without him he would
remain locked in his room without food or water. Tobgyal now finally saw this
was the only way to make the boy happy so he gave his consent and returned home
alone.
Thus Lodro Denpa began his religious studies with the fulfilment of his
childhood wish. He entered Drombu Thubten Dargyäling in 1931 at the age of
seven and engaged enthusiastically in memorising and practising the important
pujas and sadhanas. He was ordained as a novice monk by Lab Khenchen Rinpoche
and given the ordination name Thubten Loden. During his time at Drombu the
young novice completed a six month fasting retreat of one hundred nyung nyes and also received teachings
from the holy lama Jampel Drimay on the Graded Path to Enlightenment. This kind
lama often spoke of the great monastic universities, Sera, Drepung and Ganden,
and the importance of their intensive Geshe study and debating programmes. This
kindled a desire within the young monk to become a Geshe and led, after seven
years there, to his moving from the local Drombu monastery to the much larger
Sershu monastery, which offered a far more extensive study programme.
At Sershu he studied Logic and the Perfection of Wisdom subjects as
well as the Graded Path to Enlightenment and Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds. Because he had left his family
and local monastery to study at Sershu, the young Thubten Loden felt impelled
to exert his greatest possible effort. He thus resolved not to lie down for as
long as he remained at Sershu and built high brick walls around his meditation
seat so that lying down was impossible. He remained upright with a
self-imposed discipline of studying and meditating day and night. For the
couple of hours’ sleep he required each night, he merely leant back against the
wall behind.
As a young monk he was very happy studying at Sershu,
but a series of events was to change the course of Thubten Loden’s life. One
night while meditating, a bright light, known as a dza, a form of hindrance, came into his room through the window and
over to where he was sitting. Thubten Loden recited the prayer to Mahakala at
which point the dza disappeared. Next
morning though, he became ill with jaundice and Geshe Lethang Tripa Rinpoche,
renowned for his clairvoyance, advised that Achi Dharma Tara, the protecting
deity of that area, wished for the young monk to leave Sershu and go to the
great monastery of Sera in central Tibet. Though reluctant to leave, Thubten
Loden received confirmation of this new direction through his own dreams. In
one dream the protecting deity Achi Chojay Dolma appeared riding a white horse,
carrying a banner and emitting rays of light in all directions. Her smiling
face was very peaceful as she promised to protect him on his long journey to
Sera Monastic University. On waking Thubten Loden decided he would definitely
make the change.
Again, the night before his departure he had a powerful dream. In it a
shining orange sun appeared in the sky showering down brilliant rays of light
and thousands of lotus flowers. As he travelled south (the direction of Lhasa),
beautiful lotuses stretched out to infinity in front of him and as he walked on
the flowers brilliant light exploded above and rained down all around. On the
giant orange sun-disc appeared the terrifying form of Gompo Chagdrug, the
six-armed protecting deity Mahakala, playing his damaru thunderously and
rolling his fierce bloodshot eyes. Intense light radiated from Mahakala's body
and streamed towards Thubten Loden dissolving into his body and il1uminating
the lotuses at his feet. Again and again Mahakala promised loudly to the rhythm
of his dameru that he would help Thubten Loden in his religious practice and
eliminate all his internal and external hindrances. Until he reached the door
of his parents' home Mahakala repeated this continuously, sending streams of
light to him. Just as he entered the door, the deity disappeared.
Thubten Loden awoke with tremendous enthusiasm for the journey to
Central Tibet. He felt a very strong connection with Mahakala and mused that
the deity mist have been his protector many times in previous lives. Previously
to this dream his protecting deity had been Achi Dharmapala but after hearing
of this dream Lakhenchen Rimpochay, visiting the monastery at the time, said
Mahakala would now be his special lifelong protector. He further suggested that
Thubten Loden complete one million recitations of the long prayer of praise to
Mahakala. Thubten Loden fulfil1ed this commitment over the next ten years, a
task which included a retreat lasting a year.
Having decided to leave Sershu, Thubten Loden first went to his
parents’ home and gained their permission to go to Sera Monastery. His illness
quickly receded and soon he embarked on the journey to central Tibet, taking
two months on foot. When he finally arrived at Sera Monastic University in
1941, he was overcome with joy. After all his youthful dreams of studying there
it seemed like a pure land and the fulfilment of all his prayers and
dedications.
Staying with his uncle, Geshe Namlha, the young monk began searching to
find the best possible teacher at Sera. After three months of careful
examination and reflection he decided that the great scholar and master of
debate, Geshe Jhampa Chöphel, most clearly possessed the personal and
intellectual qualities of a perfect mahayana guru. Thubten Loden was so
impressed with Geshe Jhampa Chöphel that he felt that if this lama was not enlightened
then enlightenment would not be possible. At first the great Geshe refused
Thubten Loden’s requests for teachings as a device to check his sincerity.
However the young Thubten Loden requested three times saying that if he was not
accepted he would return the huge distance to eastern Tibet and undertake more
purification practices. His unshakeable determination swayed the great Geshe
and thus it was that in 1941 Thubten Loden began his studies under the guidance
of Geshe Jhampa Chöphel.
For the next three years Thubten Loden studied the Commentary to ‘Compendium of Valid Cognition’ by Dharmakirti,
learning totally the art of logic and debate. Particularly he studied the Clear Explanation of the Path to Liberation
commentary by Gyäl Tsab Je in conjunction with Sera Je Tsün Pa’s commentary. He
also studied under other renowned teachers such as Geshe Thubten Wangyal and
Geshe Kelsang.
From 1944 for seven years he then studied the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-five
Thousand and Eight Thousand Verses. This course also dealt with Maitreya’s Ornament for Clear Realisation and this
was studied with Lama Tsong Khapa’s Golden
Rosary of Good Explanation and Gyäl Tsab Je’s Ornament for the Essence, Explaining the Aspects (of Maitreya’s
Ornament for Clear Realisations). He also made a study at this time of
Asanga’s Bodhisattva’s Grounds. From
Latsün Rinpoche he received teachings on Maitreya’s Ornament for the Mahayana Sutras and Sublime Continuum of the Mahayana. Of the twenty-one Indian
commentaries to the Ornament for Clear
Realisation, a particular study was made of the Clear Meaning and Great commentaries
by Haribhadra.
During the first year the daily schedule was so busy that every second
night the monks had no sleep but stayed up debating and meditating. As a test
of their energy and patience they did this outside in an open courtyard where
it was always cold and sometimes snowed. They were allowed no extra clothes
nor even cushions to sit on.
On completion of his studies of the Perfection of Wisdom literature at
the age of twenty-seven, Thubten Loden was ordained a monk. Along with fifty
other novices and in the presence of ten monks, he received full ordination
from the holy lama Jamgön Rinpoche, who was held to be a manifestation of
Maitreya Buddha.
Continuing his studies and practice, Thubten Loden received many
teachings from His Holiness Trijang Dorje Chang Losang Yeshe, Junior Tutor to
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and the revered ‘father’ and lineage-holder
of the Gelug tradition. Thubten Loden was among the three thousand people who
attended the holy lama’s famous Path to Enlightenment discourses. He also
received the tantric teachings by His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche on the Offering to the Guru using the
accompanying meditative practice of Guhyasamaja tantra. For the five thousand
Geshes, monastic and lay devotees, this course of instruction was an intensive
month of discourses, memorisation, contemplation and discussion promoting complete
integration of the teachings. In addition, Thubten Loden received initiations
from His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche into the meditations of the complete cycle
of Vajrayogini tantra, Heruka tantra, Yamantaka tantra, Sarvavid and
Guhyasamaja tantra, with the accompanying teachings on all these practices.
Later he received the cycle of one hundred collected initiations of the One
Hundred Precious Channels.
Throughout all these studies, Thubten Loden maintained his regular
discipline of daily practice. He never forgot his guru Geshe Jhampa Chöphel’s
advice that the essence of the Buddha’s doctrine is renunciation, bodhichitta
and the wisdom perceiving emptiness. Armed with the techniques to develop these
three essentials, he continued to meditate daily on the Graded Path teachings
and to fulfil all his other meditation commitments.
In 1951 at the age of twenty-seven Thubten Loden began a six-year study
of Middle Way philosophy. The first two years were spent learning and studying Engaging in the Middle Way by
Chandrakirti, using Chandrakirti’s own commentary and that of Lama Tsong Khapa.
During the third and fourth years he concentrated on Nagarjuna’s Fundamental Wisdom and the final two
years were spent in private study and meditation on these two great treatises.
He also studied and received instruction on Nagarjuna’s Six Collections of Reasoning, Aryadeva’s Four Hundred Verses on the Middle Way and Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds by Shantideva.
Throughout the first two years of studying the Middle Way philosophy,
the daily schedule was again such that on alternate nights the students stayed
up debating and meditating in the open courtyard. The monks were expected to
develop patience with this hardship. If one was too sick to walk he would ask
to be carried to the courtyard rather than break the discipline. On every
other night they were allowed four to five hours’ sleep but as this was the
only spare time left, Thubten Loden often stayed up late to review prayers and
texts he had committed to memory. At that time he had memorised eight hundred
double-sided Tibetan pages, and on these nights he used to chant two hundred of
them for revision. This intense study required perseverance and it was commonly
held that lamas who completed this course would certainly enjoy a long life.
After that, Thubten Loden spent six years studying Vinaya, the
teachings on discipline and karma. During the first two years he concentrated
on the Fundamental Vinaya Sutra by
Acharya Gunaprabha in which the two hundred and fifty-three precepts supporting
the monk’s ordination are detailed. Emphasis was placed on memorising the whole
text and on perfect practice of the vows. The third and fourth years were
devoted to the study of four of the Buddha’s Vinaya sutras: the Three Bases of Receiving, Maintaining and
Reviving Ordination, Clarifying
Presentation of the Bhikksu and Bhikksuni Ordinations, Additional Details and Analysis
of the Two Former Texts on Ordinations. He also made a study of the Radiance of the Sun Vinaya commentary
by the all knowing Tsönawa.
Thubten Loden then spent four years studying phenomenology using the Treasury of Knowledge by Vasubandhu, a
systematic investigation of all phenomena and the evolution of the universe,
along with the Clear Ornament
commentary by Chim Jampelyang. In the course of the study he memorised the
source text completely. During this time he received from His Holiness Yongzin
Ling Rinpoche, the Senior Tutor to His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the
teaching compiled by Lama Tsong Khapa on the Guhyasamaja tantra called The Combination of Four Commentaries.
In 1959 the invasion of Tibet by communist Chinese armies shattered the
monastic existence and Thubten Loden decided to escape to India to continue
his practice and studies. It was a gruelling and dangerous journey, walking
through southern Tibet into the eastern part of India, but despite the danger
and the need for haste he refused to compromise his daily practices and
commitments. Throughout the escape he insisted on wearing all his monk’s robes
instead of a disguise. Carrying his special teaching vestment, his Vinaya Sutra and Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way texts, he arrived in India
with eleven of his students after a month travelling on foot.
Although forced to become a refugee and leave behind his family, home,
friends and beloved guru, he was never angry with the Chinese then or later. He
merely reflected that such was the nature of samsara. The Tibetan people’s
unfortunate situation had its main cause in previous unwholesome karma as a
group, not in the Chinese. He believes that when this karma is exhausted,
Tibet will again be a free and independent country. He sees anger with the
Chinese to be senseless and thinks instead of impermanence and karma. Prior to
the invasion he never dreamed of being separated from Sera Monastic University
or indeed that it would cease to be a great centre of Buddhist learning, so
the communist Chinese helped to destroy this illusion of security and
permanence.
Of the one hundred thousand Tibetans who escaped, the Indian and
Nepalese governments kindly accepted ninety thousand. Thubten Loden ended his
journey at Buxa in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas. As the monks
assembled in the refugee camp established for their sake, the abbots tolerated
no lapse in discipline. The day after they arrived, debating classes were
organised and they resumed their studies immediately in makeshift huts. Even
the young children were sent to the local school to learn the Indian language
and customs.
By decree of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the most advanced students
were selected from among the refugees of the major monastic universities—Sera,
Drepung and Ganden—and formed into a special class to study and debate
together. His Holiness wished to show that great Geshes could and would still
be trained for the preservation and spread of the precious Dharma. Thubten
Loden continued his studies as a member of this class for seven years from
1960. While revising all his work in the five branches of philosophy he
concentrated on Discipline and Phenomenology. As in Tibet, he was often asked
to give teachings in all aspects of Buddhist philosophy to students of the
three main lineages of Tibetan Buddhism—the Gelug, Kagyu and Sakya. He was
becoming known and respected as a lama and the demand for his teaching was
increasing.
In 1968 the whole of the special class was instructed by His Holiness
the Dalai Lama to attend the Sanskrit University at Varanasi. His Holiness
said that Tibetan qualifications could begin to be recognised outside Tibet
only when lamas had obtained the respected Indian Acharya degree. At Varanasi,
Thubten Loden continued his studies in the five branches of philosophy for four
hours a day. In addition, he learnt Hindi, Sanskrit and the customs and culture
of India. While there he also had many discussions with Indian teachers about
non-Buddhist philosophies and religions to gain an understanding of their
views. He also made his first contact with Westerners—an American youth visited
him daily for about five months. In 1970 Thubten Loden graduated from the
Sanskrit University and was awarded his Acharya Degree with Honours.
After receiving his degree Thubten Loden heard that he and the other
members of the special class had now been summoned to Dharamsala by His
Holiness the Dalai Lama to be examined for their Geshe degrees. This was to be
the first such examination in exile and His Holiness made it both strict and
comprehensive. He wished to show everyone the high standard reached by the
candidates and reassure his people that the religious and scholastic tradition
had not degenerated since leaving its homeland. To make up a board of
examiners, His Holiness invited fifty very high Geshes and abbots to join him.
Thubten Loden was aware that this event was the culmination of all his
years of effort and prepared himself thoroughly in order to do his best. At the
examination, which lasted eight hours a day for seven days, he was subjected
to close questioning by all the examiners for hours at a time. Then it was his
turn to question the examiners to test further his debating skill and depth of
understanding. His Holiness presided over the sessions impassively checking
every word from his seat above the other examiners. His slightest smile brought
floods of joy to the candidates, while even a suggestion of a frown set them
trembling. At the end of the examinations His Holiness graded the candidates.
The level awarded to the first place getter was reserved for those who had
reached the very highest standard, rarely attained. Thubten Loden was awarded
equal first place.
His Holiness then selected the twenty-six highest graduates and
divided them equally into two groups, ordering each group to attend one of the
two main tantric monasteries of the Gelug lineage—Gyuto Tantric College and
Gyumay Tantric College. He asked them to complete the study and practice of
all the four levels of tantra and to concentrate particularly on the mother
and father Highest Yoga tantras.
In the meantime, the class was subjected to more examinations. His
Holiness ordered the special class to present itself for examination by the
three great monastic universities, Sera, Drepung and Ganden. First they went
to Sera and were subjected to a gruelling two-week examination. Each of the
thirteen classes at Sera examined them for a day on the subject of its
speciality. Any monk could ask any question on any subject. The whole monastery
then assembled to question the candidates non-stop for twenty-four hours. The
candidates were graded first, second, third and so on. Thubten Loden was
awarded equal first place. Drepung and Ganden monastic universities examined the
class in their turn and again Thubten Loden was placed equal first.
Finally, His Holiness the Dalai Lama submitted the class to a one-day
public examination in Dharamsala before himself, His Holiness Ling Rinpoche,
His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche and all the high abbots and Geshes. Almost the
entire population of Dharamsala turned out to witness the performance of the
candidates under public examination. After a long session of close questioning
and debate, His Holiness publicly awarded Thubten Loden equal first place in
the special class and his Geshe Lharampa degree (the foremost among many
classes of Geshe degree). The degree itself was forwarded in 1975.
Thus Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden installed himself in his new home,
Gyumay Tantric College, to continue his study and practice of the four levels
of tantra. At Gyumay the first task was to commit to memory the major textual
and commentarial material used. These consisted of the Fundamental Tantra of Heruka and its Clearly Showing the Hidden Commentary by Lama Tsong Khapa, and the
Guhyasamaja root tantra, the Guhyasamaja
King of Tantras with its generation stage practices called ‘The Forty-nine
Sets of the Generation Stage’. The latter contains forty-nine different
visualisations and covers the five branches of Guhyasamaja tantra, when treated
in conjunction with its commentaries such as the Vajra Rosary commentary by the Buddha. He also studied and
memorised the Fundamental Guhyasamaja
Tantra Commentary written by Jetsun Sherab Senge, the illustrious disciple
of Lama Tsong Khapa who founded Gyumay Tantric College.
Geshe Loden then completed his study of the six branches of Guhyasamaja
tantra generation stage practices. The six branches are:
1 The
Forty-nine Sets of the Generation Stage.
2 Four
Yoga Instructions.
3 Six
Yoga Instructions.
4 Four
Vajra Instructions.
5 Instructions
on the Four Branches of Approximation.
6 Three
Instructions on Meditative Stabilisation.
He also comprehensively studied the Gyumay system of eight groups of completion stage techniques. These are:
1 The
Six Levels of the Completion Stage of Guhyasamaja tantra in the tradition of
Nagarjuna.
2 Four
Drops of the Completion Stage of Guhyasamaja tantra in the tradition of Yeshe
Zhab.
3 Four
Blessings of the Completion Stages of the Great Wheel of Vajrapani tantra.
4 Four
Yogas of the Three: Red, Black and Solitary Yamantaka tantras.
5 The
Great Yoga of Luipa of Heruka tantra.
6 The
Five Stages of Drilbupa of Heruka tantra.
7 The
Six Yogas of Naropa.
8 The
Six Branches of Preparation of the Wheel of Time of Kalachakra tantra.
The teachings on these tantric practices were received from His Holiness Trijang Dorje Chang Losang Yeshe.
During this time he also completed a three month retreat on the Six
Yogas of Naropa.
In 1975 Geshe Loden was examined on his understanding and knowledge of
all four levels of tantra with particular emphasis on the mother tantra of
Heruka and the father tantra of Guhyasamaja. The examination was conducted in
front of the assembled monks and at the end of the two days he was awarded a
degree in tantric studies with honours.
By now Geshe Loden was caring for about one hundred and fifty Tibetan
students from all four orders of Tibetan Buddhism. However, he had always
prayed to develop Lord Buddha’s teachings, particularly in places where they
were not well established. Seeing that there were already many Geshes and lamas
in Tibet and India, he prayed to help develop the Dharma in a country where
there were not so many qualified Dharma teachers.
In 1976 Lama Thubten Yeshe, the spiritual leader of a new Buddhist
meditation centre in Australia, requested Geshe-la to accept a teaching
position there. By careful reflection Geshe Loden determined that this would
be of benefit and sought the advice of his gurus, His Holiness the Dalai Lama
and His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche. His Holiness the Dalai Lama confirmed his
finding, advising him to accept the post, stay in Australia for three years and
then return to his disciples in India. As the interview ended His Holiness
clasped his hand and explained that he would need great perseverance to teach
continuously for three years and great patience to deal with some difficult
students, telling him not to be disheartened, bored or become ill during this
task.
On arrival at the Chenrezig Institute for Wisdom Culture, near Eudlo
in Queensland, Australia, Geshe Loden assumed his position as resident Dharma
teacher and began a three year programme of instruction assisted by Venerable
Zasep Tulku Rinpoche, a young reincarnated lama who had learnt English during
his studies in India and Thailand. The essential purpose of the schedule was to
establish in the students a firm foundation of the three principal paths
(renunciation, bodhichitta and the wisdom cognising emptiness) through the
practice of teachings on the Graded Path to Enlightenment and the Mind Training
techniques. Following the perfect example of his own guru, he explained the
holy texts line by line, illustrating his meanings with clear examples. The Great Exposition on the Graded Path by
Lama Tsong Khapa and the Mind Training in
Eight Verses by Geshe Langri Tangpa were the two texts most frequently
expounded.
He supplemented the essential teachings with a programme of detailed
explanations of the major philosophical texts. Each of these courses generally
was taught over two to three months of intensive full-time study, meditation
practice and discussion. The courses over this three year period were on the
following great treatises:
• Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds by Shantideva
• Treasury of Knowledge by Vasubandhu
• Engaging in the Middle Way by Chandrakirti
• Fundamental Wisdom by Nagarjuna
• Ornament for the Mahayana Sutras by Maitreya
• Understanding the Mind by Phurchog Jhampa Rinpoche
• Sublime Continuum of the Mahayana by Maitreya
• Systems of Tenets by Sera Jetsün Chökyi Gyäl Tsän
He also introduced preliminary teachings on the practice of tantra by explaining the Twenty-One Praises to Tara, using the Explaining the Mind Captivator commentary by the Shakya Bhikksu Dharma Bhata. He also taught the Hundred Deities of the Land of Joy by Lama Tsong Khapa, and the Clarifying the Aspects of the Paths and Grounds of Tantric texts by Gelong Ngawang Pälden. Additionally, Geshe-la gave many empowerments for the practice of Action tantra deities such as Tara, Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara and Medicine Buddha.
In December 1979 Geshe Loden returned to India and resumed his work at
Sera Monastic University and Gyumay Tantric College, to the great joy of his
many disciples. First though, he paid his respects to his gurus in Dharamsala—His
Holiness the Dalai Lama and the two Tutors. At these interviews the possibility
of another visit to Australia was discussed.
The impact of Geshe-la’s Dharma teachings, spiritual advice and
personal example during his initial three year visit to Australia had left
groups of devoted students throughout the country. These followers had begun to
establish new centres of the Dharma and requested that Geshe-la be the
spiritual leader of these centres. They requested him to return to Australia
as soon as possible to teach and guide the growing number of Australian people
developing an interest in the vast and profound teachings of Tibetan Buddhism.
On the advice of his teachers, Geshe-la agreed to return to Australia, making
it his home and dedicating himself to the development of the Dharma in the
West. He named his centres the Tibetan Buddhist Society. By the time he
arrived in Australia for the second time, three Tibetan Buddhist Society
centres had been established, in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, to be followed
a short time later by one in Perth.
Geshe-la began teaching the Dharma again immediately upon his arrival.
Travelling from centre to centre he taught Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland of Advice to a King and on another occasion
Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend. He
told students on many occasions that these texts contained wonderful advice on
how to integrate the practice of Dharma into daily life activities. As well as
these teachings, Geshe-la ensured that all his centres established and
maintained regular Graded Path to Enlightenment teaching programmes as the
backbone of the teaching schedule.
For the first two years Geshe-la taught through a translator, this
time a young Tibetan, Norbu Samphel, with a degree in Buddhist studies from the
Varanasi Sanskrit University in India. However, Geshe-la had long since decided
that he would master the English language so that he could communicate the
Dharma directly to his students. During the early 1980s Geshe-la put a great
deal of effort into English study and, despite his age, learnt quickly so that
by 1983 he was able to begin teaching without the aid of a translator.
During this time Geshe-la worked to establish prayer books and deity
sadhanas, in accordance with Gelug monastic tradition, to be used by Tibetan
Buddhist Society centres and students. He then arranged four large, almost
life-size statues of Lord Buddha to be made in India to become the devotional
object at each of his four centres. The statues were prepared in the
traditional way with gold-painted faces and came with the rolls of mantras and
scriptures to be placed inside the statue along with certain holy relics.
Geshe-la then supervised the preparation of each statue and performed the
consecration ceremony.
To further establish the strong presence of the Tibetan Buddhist Gelug
system within the meditation halls of each centre, Geshe-la commissioned the
painting of traditional thangkas. Over a number of years the chief painter at
Sera Je monastery painted Shakyamuni, Manjushri, Tsong Khapa, Mahakala and
White Tara thangkas to Geshe-la’s specifications for the Melbourne centre. He
painted Shakyamuni and Thirty-five Buddhas thangkas for the Sydney centre and
Shakyamuni and Manjushri thangkas for the Brisbane centre. For the Perth
centre, Shakyamuni, Manjushri, Tsong Khapa and White Tara thangkas were
commissioned.
In 1981 Geshe-la established committees throughout Australia to
organise the first ever visit to this country of His Holiness the Fourteenth
Dalai Lama of Tibet in August 1982. Nearly two years in the organising, the
visit was a great success and saw huge numbers of Australian people in
Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Perth hear the wonderful Dharma
teachings of His Holiness. Geshe-la has also involved the Tibetan Buddhist
Society in assisting with the subsequent visits of His Holiness.
In 1984 Geshe-la felt a very strong urge to visit Tibet. There had
recently been a slight relaxation on visa restrictions and Geshe-la took the
opportunity to visit his mother who was very old. Travelling with his younger
brother, Loden, the journey took him over the border with Nepal and into Lhasa
where for the first time in nearly thirty years he visited the sites of
Drepung, Sera and Ganden. He was very saddened to see the fate that had
befallen those great monastic universities, once the home of 7,700, 5,500 and
3,300 monks respectively. Under the communists the great seats of Dharma
learning had fallen into ruin.
From Lhasa Geshe-la undertook the journey to his home village in
Eastern Tibet—this time by bus and jeep! He was overjoyed to find his mother
still alive and well, and very much in charge of the family home—as her ‘baby’
was soon to discover! Not since encountering the toughest disciplinarians in
the monasteries had he received such forceful instructions on when and how to
eat, what time to turn the lights out for sleep etc, etc.
Geshe-la stayed three months with his mother who was very proud that he
had become a Geshe and was still a monk. Although not previously greatly
inclined toward the Dharma, the combination of her advanced years and special
relationship with her son enabled Geshe-la to instruct his mother in the three
principles of the path and to teach her the consciousness transference
techniques for the time of death. Indeed, before Geshe-la left, his mother
shaved her hair and took refuge and the five upasaka precepts from her son.
While in the area Geshe-la gave a number of Dharma teachings to huge
gatherings of Tibetans, long starved of the presence of high lamas. Geshe-la
was careful not to feed the paranoia of those communist representatives observing
the teachings and on one occasion received a standing ovation from them when he
quoted from Mao’s Red Book to illustrate the mahayana principle of equanimity.
One can imagine their response, then, when Geshe-la took all the offerings made
to him by the devoted and gave them to the village community to improve their
facilities. The leading officials in the area offered Geshe-la the Abbotship of
Tsong Khapa’s Kum Bum monastery if he would stay permanently.
The time came though for Geshe-la to leave Tibet, and it was not long
after returning to Australia that he heard from his sister that his mother had
passed away—still reciting the consciousness transference prayer.
After resuming his teaching programme in Australia, Geshe-la felt that
the time had come to initiate his older students into the profound and secret
practices of Highest Yoga tantra. On 11 January 1986, just outside of Melbourne,
Geshe-la gave the extensive father tantra initiation of Solitary Hero Yamantaka
to a group of close students from around Australia over two days. This was
followed by extensive teachings over a two week retreat on the generation
stage commentary by Tri Gyältsen Senge called The Good Explanation of the Profound Path of the Great Secret and
his Cloud of Offerings to Please
Manjushri commentary on the completion stages. It was the first time in
history that Highest Yoga tantra initiation and teachings had been given on
Australian soil. Geshe-la was determined that students not take these precious
methods of Highest Yoga tantra for granted and instigated a weekly Yamantaka
practice and teaching session which is maintained by the students to this day.
When in residence at the Melbourne centre Geshe-la leads this session himself,
guiding and explaining the generation and completion stage meditations in a
yearly cycle using the above texts.
Some time earlier Geshe-la had decided that the Tibetan Buddhist
Society should invite other experienced Dharma teachers to Australia. By that
time Geshe-la was mostly resident at the main centre in Melbourne and there was
a need to help develop the teaching programmes in the other centres. Already
Geshe-la’s cousin, Gala Tulku Rinpoche, had spent two years as visiting lama
to the Sydney centre until 1982. Also Geshe-la’s student, Lama Lhundrup (now
Geshe Lhundrup), spent two years in residence at the Brisbane centre but had
since returned to India.
In September of 1986 five lamas, Geshe Loga, Geshe Namgyal, Lama
Lhundrup, Geshe Khetchok Rinpoche and Thuksay Tulku Rinpoche arrived to assist
with the Dharma teaching programme throughout Australia. Thus it was possible
for the first time to gather the five monks necessary to give ordination. Monks
from other Dharma centres also attended. On 17 September 1986, Geshe-la
presided as Abbot for the ceremony giving full ordination to Loden Nyingye
(Chris Watkins) and Loden Jhampa (Toby Gillies), the first such ceremony at the
Tibetan Buddhist Society.
In September 1987 Geshe-la conferred the Solitary Hero Yamantaka
initiation in the United States at the Tibetan Buddhist Society centre
established in San Francisco during his first visit in 1983. Later, in
November of that year, Geshe-la gave the Yamantaka initiation again in Melbourne
over two days and this time followed it with the first Vajrayogini and Mahakala
initiations ever given in Australia. Geshe-la also conferred the Medicine
Buddha, Vajrasattva and Lama Tsong Khapa long life empowerments. Subsequently
a Yamantaka retreat and fire puja were held for three weeks during February and
March of 1988. After this Geshe-la initiated a regular weekly session of
practice and teaching of the mother tantra practice of Vajrayogini following
the commentary by Takphu Rinpoche, Losang Tenpai Gyältsen called The Staircase of Lapis Lazuli and the
commentary by Phabongkha Rinpoche called The
Heart Essence of the Three Places of Dakinis. The practice continues to
this day and Geshe-la has instructed that weekly Graded Path, Yamantaka and
Vajrayogini sessions should continue for as long as the Tibetan Buddhist
Society remains in existence.
Later in the same year Geshe-la gave the Highest Yoga tantra
initiations at the Tibetan Buddhist Society in Perth. For the first time in
that city the Yamantaka, Vajrayogini Mahakala, White Tara and Tsong Khapa
empowerments were conferred. A weekly practice and teaching programme was
established there as well, leading to further initiations, including the
Chittamani Tara empowerment in 1991 and 1994.
For a long time Geshe-la had believed that it was important to find
and buy a suitable property for Tibetan Buddhist Society centres and
particularly for the main centre in Melbourne. A five year search culminated in
December 1988 with the purchase of a remarkable property on twenty acres of
land just a half hour drive from the centre of the city. Combining the peaceful
garden setting of a country retreat centre with the convenience of a commuting
suburb, the property was perfect. Geshe-la predicted that the Tibetan Buddhist
Society would last there for many hundreds of years and named the centre the
‘Peaceful Land of Joy’ meditation centre. Subsequent building improvements
began a continuous programme of land and building care which has seen the
garden grow into one of the most beautiful imaginable. Visitors are struck by
the beauty and peaceful atmosphere of the centre. In this environment the
regular teaching programme and retreats could continue and grow.
Just prior to his passing away, His Holiness Trijang Dorje Chang Losang
Yeshe, Geshe-la’s principal guru, accorded the most rare occurrence of
privately and singly conferring the close lineage Chittamani Tara initiation on
Geshe-la. The initiation was given in secret, as public knowledge would have
meant thousands wishing to attend. Geshe-la decided that this lineage should
be passed on to his Western students and thus on the 25th and 26th of August
1989, Geshe-la gave the Chittamani Tara initiation following those of
Yamantaka and Vajrayogini. The initiations were followed by a two week
Vajrayogini retreat, the first at the Peaceful Land of Joy.
The centre presented Geshe-la with the new challenge of establishing a
resident Dharma community with sufficient discipline to retain the essence of
the traditional monastic approach but adjusted to meet the needs of the largely
lay Buddhist community in Australia. He established a basis of centre rules,
cleaning, cooking and gardening rosters and an esprit de corps that has kept a
stable and ever developing resident community functioning happily and
harmoniously to make the Dharma available to an ever wider audience.
Geshe-la has always maintained that the leader should set the example,
and works alongside everyone else in the garden and in centre activities from
the mundane to the complex. He is meticulous in looking after donated money to
ensure that it is used in the proper way and refuses any payment from his
centres. On many occasions he has insisted on returning money to donors, much
against their will, believing that they could not reasonably afford the
donation.
His own lifestyle is comfortably simple. He maintains that his room at
the centre, his food and conditions are quite sufficient and that practising
contentment is the greatest wealth. He thus never seeks entertainment at
restaurants, theatres or in travel and whatever money comes his way through
donations he retains to make offerings to others. Every two or three years
Geshe-la visits Sera Je monastery in India to meet with his students and
friends and especially to make offerings to all the monks at the monastery. He
often speaks with delight about the five occasions on which he has been able to
offer 100 rupees each to over 2,700 monks at Sera Je monastery. After each
visit he returns to a nearly empty personal bank account in Australia and
enjoys reminding students that money is useless at the time of death—far better
to use it for good purposes before that time. Geshe-la has sponsored the marble
floor for the new Sera Je temple, 42 bedrooms in two new buildings for Denma
College as well as the Denma college meditation hall. He has all contributed
IRP 900,000 torward a new meditation hall and 21 Tara statue for Drombu
monastery in Eastern Tibet. (Reports on Geshe-las recent generosity are
attached.)
Again in December 1990 Geshe-la conferred the Yamantaka, Vajrayogini
and Chittamani Tara initiations in Melbourne and they have been held each year
since then. Students newly initiated join the regular weekly sessions on these
tantric practices.
Geshe-la continued to take a great interest in developing the ten
acres of landscaped gardens at the Peaceful Land of Joy and takes great delight
in the ocean of various coloured rose and marigold flowers in the full blush of
a Melbourne spring. In 1991 he was inspired to inaugurate an event called the
Buddhist Spring Festival and Exhibition of Tibet. It was a weekend drawing
together the entire variety of Buddhist traditions in Victoria: Tibetan, Thai,
Sri Lankan, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Burmese and so forth. The head
monks of each of these great traditions joined together at the Peaceful Land of
Joy for a moving ceremony of prayer and meditation directed to the well being
of all and for the attainment of lasting world peace. Then, over the two days,
a range of meditation and philosophical teachings were given. At the same time
a festival atmosphere surrounded a special exhibition of the unique Dharma
culture of ancient Tibet. Thousands of people from all over Victoria attended
and the success caused Geshe-la to establish the Spring Festival as an annual
event as well as the Tibetan New Year Festival that he established in 1988.
At the beginning of 1992 Geshe-la decided that it was time to record
the main teachings that he had given in Australia by publishing books. These
teachings had become the foundation of the teaching programmes throughout the
Tibetan Buddhist Society and, being fundamental to the practice of Tibetan
Buddhism, it was thought they could be of benefit to many people around the
world. To that end he asked his Tibetan student Geshe Thubten Lhundrup and his
Australian student Venerable Toby Gillies to take up full time work with him
producing a book of his collected teachings on the Graded Path to Enlightenment.
It was to be the first publication of the newly formed publishing arm of the
Tibetan Buddhist Society called Tushita Publications. Under Geshe-la’s guidance
the book, a massive volume of over 1100 pages, called Path to Enlightenment in Tibetan Buddhism, was completed in December
1993.
When a copy was presented to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala
early in 1994, His Holiness encouraged Geshe-la to continue his publishing
work with related Graded Path books and books on other subjects. As a result
Geshe-la published Meditations on the
Path to Enlightenment in Tibetan Buddhism in 1996 and this book, The Fundamental Potential for
Enlightenment, also in 1996. In 1997 Geshe-la released the Essence of the Path to Enlightenment and
the Solitary Hero Vajrabhairava commentary Ocean
of Indivisible Method and Wisdom is to be released in 1999. Further books are planned as Geshe-la
maintains an ongoing commitment to presenting the Tibetan Buddhist teachings
to the English speaking world.
While Geshe-la devoted an enormous amount of time and energy over these
years to producing books, he nonetheless maintained the teaching programme and
other activities at the Peaceful Land of Joy. The Tibetan Buddhist Society
continued to grow with a new centre in the Melbourne suburb of Beaumaris
formally opened in 1994 and the Perth centre purchasing a property to expand
their activities in 1995.
Geshe-la is now seventy-two years old but, rather than abating, his
activities seem to expand continually. A complete traditionalist in
maintaining the commitments of his monk’s ordination, he nonetheless likes to
remain well informed of current affairs, both domestic and international, and
keeps his finger on the pulse of the personal and business lives of all his
students, be they near or far. He seems just as comfortable communicating with
the thousands of birds, which flock to the gardens of the Peaceful Land of Joy
each morning for the rice and bread from his hand, as he is conversing with the
leaders of our society. Possessed of a mind that is phenomenally active, while
retaining an underlying fabric of peacefulness and contentment, Geshe-la
retains a tremendous spirit of generosity and good humour, and seems always to
be focussed on the needs of others. Physically strong, his energetic work
schedule puts lie to the process of ageing. We pray that he remains with us for
a long, long time.
This brief biography was written, at the request of students of the Tibetan Buddhist Society, by the Venerable Toby Gillies with the prayer:
Due to this merit, may all come under the care of holy
gurus,
Serving them well with practice, praise and offering,
To bring a festival of enlightenment to those of our world.
May our guiding
light, Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden, live long and
well.