Pathgate News

Pathgate Summer School 2010

Out of Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje’s compassion to accommodate all levels of students, the Pathgate Institute Summer School this year offered three different retreats to cater for the needs of different students in accordance to their experiences. The first two retreats were held in Athens and the third one was conducted in the UK. All three retreats attracted participants from far and wide, such as Australia, Singapore, and the USA. Presence of other nationalities included those of China, Hong Kong, Japan, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Slovenia, Poland, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus and the UK.

The first part of the Pathgate Summer School was a six-day Dharma Foundation Study Level One Retreat, which took place in the first week of August, at the Pathgate Dharma Centre in Athens. This retreat was designed primarily for complete novices and for those with limited understanding of Buddhism. Students were introduced to the basic principles of Buddhist practice and to a range of skillful means on how to generate a state of harmony in one’s daily life through the correct understanding and implementation of Buddhadharma. Instruction on the basic preliminary practice of Classical Qigong and Meditation was also given to help the students reduce the build-up of stagnated energy and afflictive emotion in the body.

The retreat began each day with early morning prayer practice to generate the correct motivation for the day and Samadhi Walking Meditation to quieten the mind, followed by Tara Puja in the morning and Mahakala Puja in the afternoon, to facilitate the removal of any obscurations and obstacles that one may encounter in Dharma practice. Three teaching sessions spaced over morning, afternoon and evening were given daily by Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje with the last practice concluded each day before 10.00 pm.

On the first morning of the six-day retreat, Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje gave a brief commentary on a prayer from the Palyul Tradition: ‘Waking Up from the Deep Slumber of Ignorance’. This prayer points out the importance to wake up from the illusion we find ourselves in, where we grasp onto things as if they are permanent and as a result generate an untold amount of suffering for ourselves and others. It encourages us to devote ourselves to the practice of Dharma, which sees reality as it is, and to bring this understanding of the truth into our daily activities, reminding ourselves not to become lazy, as life is fragile and can end at any moment. By applying this understanding of the truth and seeing how valid it is, it gives us a fearless confidence in dealing with all the karmic obstacles we have generated for ourselves over countless lifetimes. Ven. Dondrup Dorje went on to explain that chanting prayers alone without connecting to the meaning is of no benefit unless we aspire to apply ourselves in the same manner that corresponds to the words of the prayer.

The second part of the Pathgate Summer School, the Palyul Namcho Dzogchen Ngondro Level One Retreat took place in the second and third weeks of August, again at the Pathgate Dharma Centre in Athens. This retreat was open to students of Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje who had already taken refuge with him and who were deemed as eligible to receive this specific teaching. The Namcho, or Space Treasure is one of the terma (hidden teachings) concealed in the element of space by Guru Rinpoche during his stay in Tibet and was destined to be revealed to the great Terton Migyur Dorje in the 17th Century. Known by the title: ‘Buddhahood in the Palm of Your Hand’, this terma belongs to the Inner Tantra of Ati Yoga - the Ninth Yana of the Nyingmapa tradition which is the pinnacle of all Buddhist teachings. When practised in accordance to the instruction of a qualified lama, this is the most expedient way to purifying one’s mind and attaining the realisation of one’s true nature in one lifetime.

In line with the annual retreat as practised at the Namdroling Monastery in India, an extensive range of prayers, including the Seven Chapters of Supplication Prayer to Guru Padmasambhava were recited at several prayer sessions each day. The purpose for which is to create the right conditions that are conducive to the transmission and the actual practice of the teaching. Several ordained members who had attended the Ngondro retreats in Namdroling Monastery were astonished by the in-depth commentary of Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje at the retreat. On what they had received in a one-hour transmission of Ngondro teaching at the Namdroling Monastery, nearly twenty hours of detailed explanation and commentary were given by Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje, that simply left no stone unturned, no question unanswered.

Over the course of the retreat, Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje gave transmission on the Common Preliminary Practice of the Four Foundations and the Inner Uncommon Preliminarily Practice of Taking Refuge and Arousing Bodhicitta. Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje repeatedly stressed to students throughout the retreats the importance of actually putting the teaching into practice and avoiding the pitfall of intellectualising what cannot be conceptualised. So, in keeping with the tradition of the Nyingma Palyul lineage, the next level of the Ngondro teaching will only be given to the students after they have shown some sign of realisation of the Four Common Preliminary Practices in addition to having completed their accumulations of 100,000 prostrations.

The third part of the Pathgate Summer School, the Classical Internal Arts Foundation Study Level One Retreat, took place in the fourth week of August, at the Pathgate Dharma Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The retreat was once again well attended, and included one UK student who had both his legs amputated and became a wheelchair user after a train accident when he was 19 years old.

Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje has always maintained that the Classical Internal Arts as taught by him are an extension of Dharma practice and cannot be separated from the implementation of the Buddhadharma. Over the course of the six-day retreat, students were given many opportunities to experience for themselves the true manifestation of qi energy in such a range of diversity that several of the students, who are themselves teachers of taijiquan, qigong, wushu and other therapies, came to the decision to stop their own teaching and previous practice to become formal students of Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje. Many of the first-time students also developed a strong interest to know more about the benefit of Buddhadharma and subsequently made request to take refuge before the end of the retreat.

Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje’s schedule for September will take him to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK. For the month of October, he will be in Portugal, Italy, Greece and the UK. For details, please click Teaching Schedule.

Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche Entered Parinirvana

One of Nyingma's most respected masters, Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, passed into Parinirvana at 8:07 PM on June 19, 2010, the auspicious day of Medicine Buddha, at his home, Arya Palo Ling in NY, USA, in the presence of his beloved brother, Venerable Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche.

Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche was one of the most senior and most learned scholars among the Nyingma Masters. In 1967, His Holiness Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche appointed Khen Rinpoche to head the department of Nyingma Studies at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Varanasi, India. Khen Rinpoche was the first so honoured to hold this position. Khen Rinpoche taught and served at the Institute for more than 18 years with great sincerity, success, and dedication. He later went to the USA and with his brother, Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, established the retreat centre Padma Samye Ling at Upstate New York.

Khen Rinpoche's great knowledge of Buddhadharma, and specifically with regard to the Ngagyur Nyingma tradition was greatly appreciated by everyone within the Buddhist community. Khen Rinpoche was not only a great scholar but also a profoundly accomplished Dzogchen meditation master. In his life, he benefited numerous beings throughout the world, as evidenced by the many dharma centres he established and the following of many devoted disciples worldwide. In his memory and for the tireless compassion with which he taught and benefited us all, Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje has instructed Pathgate students to perform the Vajrasattva practice as a way to express our appreciation and gratitude to the compassionate activities of Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche.

Dharma Foundation Study in Singapore and Australia

During the month of June and July, Ven. Lama Dondrup gave a series of open teaching based around the syllabus of the Dharma Foundation Study in Singapore and Australia. All the sessions were well attended by many long-time students and new participants.

The main theme of the teaching centred upon the right kind of conduct in daily activities that does not compromise our own welfare and that of the multitude. Daily activities, far from being mundane and stressful, can serve as great opportunities to develop the right kind of mindfulness in Dharma practice, that gives rise to the karmic condition of harmony. Many examples reflecting the current condition of the world were given by Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje to illustrate the practicality of applying Dharma teaching in daily life that can generate win-win conditions for all concerned.

Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje explained to the students that the karmic fruition we are presently experiencing is the result of the ripening of karmic conditions we have generated in the past and have nothing to do with any accidental circumstances caused by other sources. We should therefore value each moment in our lives with the perspective that our response to what we are experiencing will determine what kind of karmic condition is awaiting us at a later time. Otherwise, even if we chance upon a shower of great fortune, those who remain continuously self-absorbed with wrong view will not benefit from the blessing of this karmic connection.

Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje will conduct more teaching on Dharma Foundation Study in Singapore around September and in Australia during November. For details, please click Teaching Schedule.

Free Offer of HH Penor Rinpoche Thangka Posters

Working under the compassionate guidance of Venerable Lama Dondrup Dorje, students of the Pathgate Institute of Buddhist Studies had produced a thangka of the late Holiness Penor Rinpoche in the summer of 2007. Upon completion, the thangka was shown to HH Penor Rinpoche, who was very pleased with the result. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only thangka of the late Holiness Penor Rinpoche that had been seen and approved by His Holiness personally before he passed away last year.

At the forty-nine days Parinirvana Grand Ceremony of HH Penor Rinpoche at the Namdroling Monastery in 2009, several thousand of these thangka posters of HH Penor Rinpoche were distributed to the ordained sangha there during one of the weekly Mandala Offerings made by Venerable Lama Dondrup Dorje to the Kudung (holy body) of his Root Guru.

Due to numerous requests from around the world, this thangka poster, which is of A3 size, is now being made available post-free to the devotees of HH Penor Rinpoche worldwide. To receive your copy of the thangka poster, please contact the Pathgate Office by sending an email with your postal address to: contact@pathgate.org. This thangka poster is distributed post-free without any charges, but if you wish to make an offering to support this and other Pathgate projects for the welfare of the greater many, please click Make a Donation.

Pathgate Help Saved KPC Temple

Kunzang Odsal Palyul Changchub Choling (KPC) is a Vajrayana Buddhist organization founded by Jetsunma Akhon Norbu Lhamo to uphold the Palyul Lineage of the Nyingma tradition in the west. The KPC Temple at Poolesville, Maryland, USA, is located in the rural Montgomery County, a pleasant half-hour drive from Washington, D.C. It has a Prayer Room which houses the main Altar, a Dharma Room which serves as the Teaching Hall, and a Crystal Gallery with an extensive collection of crystals. Located in the temple grounds and in the 65-acre Peace Park opposite the temple, are thirty magnificent Stupas which have been blessed by the late Holiness Penor Rinpoche.

Having been established for over twenty-five years, the mortgage on the temple property had already been paid off, but the Peace Park across the road from the KPC Temple continued to carry a mortgage that was financed by a mortgage-backed line of credit, with the temple property used as collateral. Due to the current economic down turn, KPC have been falling quite a bit behind in payments to the bank. Unexpectedly, the credit note was called in by the bank on the 24th April and KPC was given just 5 days to raise the $250,000 US dollars needed to prevent its property and assets being seized by the bank. On the 27th April, Ani Tenzin Wangmo, a KPC nun in Australia emailed Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje and requested his help in this matter. Meanwhile, a fund-raising telethon was organised by the KPC on the same evening and the pledges of donation they received that night reached $108,000 US dollars, but it was still quite far from the target they were aiming for. If the full amount of $250,000 US dollars could not be raised and presented to the bank by the morning of the 30th April, the KPC Temple would be lost and therefore the compassionate activity of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in helping Jetsuma establishing the KPC Temple would also be lost.

Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje, who has been entrusted by his Root Guru the late Holiness Penor Rinpoche with the responsibility of taking charge of the largest Palyul Ordained Sangha in Europe, has always maintained his only mission in life is to promote and preserve the Dharma activities of his Root Guru Penor Rinpoche. On hearing the plight of the KPC and recognising the imminent threat that the KPC Temple, which had been blessed by numerous visits of the late Holiness Penor Rinpoche, was on the verge of being lost to the bank, Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje immediately took steps to offer financial help to the KPC by diverting money to the KPC from the Pathgate Centre Fund, which was due to be used in paying off the mortgage for the main Pathgate Dharma Centre, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Wishing to encourage the many supporters of KPC around the world to play a bigger part in the fund raising effort, Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje offered to match the amount pledged by donors during the final night of fund-raising telethon on the 28th April. Being aware that this effort may still not be sufficient, Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje also offered to top up the difference in the short fall of donation that was needed to reach the total amount of $250,000 US dollars, to ensure the future of the KPC Temple is secured.

The following day, in response to the request made by the directors of KPC to have $250,000 US dollars in cash ready for the bank on the morning of 30th April, the amount of $117,000 US dollars was diverted by express transfer from the Pathgate bank account in the UK to the KPC bank account in the USA on the afternoon of the 29th April.

When asked why he has no hesitation in diverting the money meant for the mortgage repayment of his own Dharma Centre to support KPC at such short notice, Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje replied simply that he is only carrying out his duty to preserve the Dharma Activities of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche for he regarded the establishing of KPC as the extension of his Root Guru Penor Rinpoche’s Enlightened Activities and as such, it deserves the right to be preserved for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Yu Shu Earthquake

On April 14th at 7:49am, an earthquake measuring 7.1 struck the Yushu Tibet Autonomous Prefecture located in Qinghai, the traditional Tibetan province of Kham; the birth place of the late Holiness Penor Rinpoche. The population of the area is 98% Tibetan. Official figures report 2,220 dead and over 12,000 injured with many people still missing.

Worst hit was the city of Kye Ku Do (Jiegu) where many buildings were heavily damaged. To the north and west of the city, 90% of the poorly built mud homes lived in by most Tibetans were destroyed. Makeshift camps were set up in open clearings, where many people escaped to with only the clothes on their backs, many in night wear and without shoes. Residents were unable to re-enter their homes more than a week later due to the fear of safety. The weather has added to the difficulties of the homeless survivors with strong winds, snow fall and overnight temperatures dropping well below zero.

Thousands of monks from both local monasteries and monasteries at neighbouring provinces arrived in their masses to assist in the relief effort of recovering survivors and the dead from the wreckage. Due to the large number of casualties and the unsanitary conditions, it was decided that traditional burial practices would not be possible and a mass cremation according to Buddhist custom was held instead.

One week after the earthquake, China held a day of national mourning for victims of the disaster. Newspapers were printed only in black and white, websites drained their pages of colour, Chinese flags flew at half mast and three minutes of silence was held across the nation.

The Palyul mother monastery in Tibet was close to the epicentre and though the earthquake was felt there, there was no damage to the buildings and no casualties. Everyone at Pathgate Institute offers our heart-felt prayers to those caught up in this tragedy.

1st Anniversary of HH Penor Rinpoche’s Parinirvana

To commemorate the First Anniversary of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche’s Parinirvana, a Grand Ceremony comprising five days of puja was held at the Namdroling Monastery in India from 14th to 18th March 2010 (29th day of the 1st Tibetan Lunar Month to the 3rd day of the 2nd Tibetan Lunar Month, of the Year of the Iron Tiger 2137). Many Palyul students from around the world made the journey to India to join the ordained sangha at Namdroling Monastery during the five-day Grand Puja.

Elsewhere around the world, every Palyul Centre was hosting special practices to cater for the need of the local sangha wishing to participate during this special occasion. Likewise the Palyul Centres and Study Groups under the care of Venerable Lama Dondrup Dorje in Europe and Australia were all involved in full-day practices during the five days period of the Grand Puja. At the main seat of Palyul Nyingma Buddhist Association (UK) based at Pathgate Dharma Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the first practice of each day commenced at 6.00 am followed by Dorje Sempa (Vajrasattva purification) in the mid-morning, Shitro (100 Peaceful and Wrathful Deities) in the afternoon and Lama Choepa Puja in the evening. All the Centres reported good turn out of local sangha participating in this special anniversary.

To see how the Grand Puja for the First Anniversary of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche’s Parinirvana was commemorated in Namdroling Monastery, please visit the Pathgate Gallery.

First Colour Photograph of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche In India

To commemorate the First Anniversary of the Parinirvana of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, the Pathgate Gallery has been expanded with a number of photographs featuring HH Penor Rinpoche, including many rare early prints such as the very first colour photograph of HH Penor Rinpoche taken at Namdroling Monastery in India.

To view the photos, please visit Pathgate Galleries - His Holiness Penor Rinpoche.

A New Film on HH Penor Rinpoche's Parinirvana Puja Ceremonies

New to the Dharma Theatre is a 39-minute film, Tsa Wai Lama Chen, which covered the events during the Mahaparinirvana Puja Ceremonies for H.H. Penor Rinpoche at Namdroling Monastery last year. Produced by Lopon Rapjee Wangchuk, a personal attendant of the late Holiness Penor Rinpoche, it featured footage filmed inside the house of His Holiness and the proceeding of the 49-day puja. It also documented the unusual occurrence of many extraordinary phenomena during the 49-day period such as the sudden change in the facial features of the Guru Rinpoche statue in the Zangdok Palri Temple from that which was wrathful to that of deep sorrow two days after His Holiness released his body from the meditative state of Thugdam; numerous appearances of rainbows around the monastery at various times and many other astonishing sights.

To view this film, please click Dharma Theatre.

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