Anyen rinpoche biography sample
A rare teacher in this modern age. Anyen Rinpoche was raised by a family of yak herders in the high forested mountains of eastern Tibet, a place with almost no evidence of modern life. As a child, he dreamt of foreign-looking people and technological advances. In one particularly vivid dream, he saw "two skies converging." The dream remained a puzzle until Rinpoche was much older, leaving Southeast Asia for the first time. While on a plane flying over the sea towards South Korea, he saw the ocean and atmosphere melding into one on the horizon: two skies converging. It was then that he realized his life was going to follow an unusual course outside his home country of Tibet.
Anyen Rinpoche was raised and educated in a highly traditional manner. When he was three days old, he was recognized as a tulku by the great Dzogchen yogi Chupur Lama. Since it wasn’t possible for him to live in a monastery as a child, Chupur Lama lived with Anyen Rinpoche's family in the same yak-wool tent, transmitting to him all of his early instruction in the Dharma. Chupur Lama also introduced seven-year-old Anyen Rinpoche to his root lama Khenchen Tsara Dharmakirti Rinpoche, after noticing the young boy's intense and profound devotion upon hearing this great master's name mentioned in ordinary conversation.
Anyen Rinpoche often speaks of the profound blessings showered upon the practitioner who truly serves their lama with devotion. He himself was such a practitioner, serving Khenchen Tsara Dharmakirti day and night for nearly eighteen years, becoming a master of both practice and study. He not only gained recognition as a great scholar (khenpo), but also became a heart son of his root lama. In doing so, he became the fifth in an unbroken lineage of heart sons who received an uncommonly short and unbroken lineage of the Longchen Nyingthig directly from the renowned Dzogchen master Patrul Rinpoche.
Anyen Rinpoche also received the empowerments, transmissions and upadesha instruct By Cody Mekelburg I learned of Anyen Rinpoche in 2012 through some friends while living at (then) Shambhala Mountain Center and read his books The Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichitta, as well as Dying with Confidence. I was immediately attracted to Rinpoche’s style of inspiring me as a reader through fascinating, beautiful stories of previous masters. And how he used those stories to give practical advice to modern-day practitioners. In early summer, I moved from SMC to Denver and began attending Rinpoche’s talks and programs at Orgyen Khamdroling, Rinpoche’s dharma center. Then an old church where renovations to turn it into the beautiful temple it is now, had just begun. However, it wasn’t until two years later that I became serious about my practice and that Rinpoche cautiously accepted me as a student. I would say that Anyen Rinpoche is an un-conventional Lama but is also very traditional. He is deeply committed to teaching authentic dharma as it was introduced to him. Rinpoche’s sense of commitment in this way is solid. Concerning his students, the dharma as a whole, and the Vajrayana in particular, he is uncompromising in his responsibility to present pure teachings. This is evident in how Rinpoche makes himself available to students and how he teaches the dharma. When we were in Nepal as a sangha in 2018, Rinpoche personally saw to arranging many aspects of the teachings and empowerments we received there, as well as led us to many pilgrimage sites and instructed us with the proper prayers and offerings to make in each pilgrimage place. One particular occasion that stands out to me is when we offered Tsok (feast) in Maratika Cave, where Padmasambhava accomplished the immortal life vidyadhara. I’m particularly fond of a memory of a small Nepali boy who seemed to enjoy what we were doing. He played in front of us as we practiced, jumping around and trying to sing along. Rinpoche enjoyed watching him and gave him l Polishing the Jewel We extend a heartfelt thanks to the City of Barnet for constructing a functional bridge for us so quickly! Repercussions from the Flooding This development is, in many ways, a continuation of the saga from the July flooding. That month, Vermont caught the tailend of a hurricane that had started down in the Southeast. In our area we received a deluge of eight inches of rain in three hours. While we dealt with some flooding in our basement, the most significant impact was the erosion of our roads and the banks of the Stevens River, which our bridge spans. After the storm, the State of Vermont and the City of Barnet set about attending to the large number of infrastructure issues that needed inspection and repair. They've worked diligently over the last three months and have now been able to look into the matter of our bridge. The Situation When the State inspected our bridge and its eroded banks they decided it was too unstable for safe passage of vehicles. On October 4th they asked us to stop driving on it. To be able to have access to the broader world outside of Karme Choling, we parked our cars at the park-n-ride, a half mile from the house. All traffic across the bridge came to a halt, including deliveries of food, heating fuel and mail. Anything that arrived at the house either had to be walked across the bridge or transported with the Polaris (our light-weight, off-road vehicle we use to transport people and items up to the retreat cabins) The Plan Needless to say, not having a bridge was a strain on our operations. However, the city assured us that they would have a solution in just a few days, which they did! They decided to construct a temporary bridge over the top of the original bridge, so we could have access to KCL while they make the necessary repairs below. The Bridge Materializes Our temporary bridge arrived in "lego" pieces one week later on Friday, October Tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism This article is about the primordial state and related practices in Tibetan Buddhism and Bön. For the monastery, see Dzogchen Monastery. Dzogchen (Tibetan: རྫོགས་ཆེན་, Wylie: rdzogs chen 'Great Completion' or 'Great Perfection'), also known as atiyoga (utmost yoga), is a tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and Bön aimed at discovering and continuing in the ultimate ground of existence. The goal of Dzogchen is the direct experience of this basis, called rigpa (Sanskrit: vidyā). There are spiritual practices taught in various Dzogchen systems for discovering rigpa. Dzogchen emerged during the first dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet, around the 7th to 9th centuries CE. While it is considered a Tibetan development by some scholars, it draws upon key ideas from Indian sources. The earliest Dzogchen texts appeared in the 9th century, attributed to Indian masters. These texts, known as the Eighteen Great Scriptures, form the "Mind Series" and are attributed to figures like Śrī Siṅgha and Vimalamitra. Early Dzogchen was marked by a departure from normative Vajrayāna practices, focusing instead on simple calming contemplations leading to a direct immersion in awareness. During the Tibetan renaissance era (10th to early 12th century), Dzogchen underwent significant development, incorporating new practices and teachings from India. This period saw the emergence of new Dzogchen traditions like the "Instruction Class series" and the "Seminal Heart" (Tibetan: སྙིང་ཐིག་, Wylie: snying thig). Dzogchen is classified into three series: the Semdé (Mind Series, Tibetan: སེམས་སྡེ་, Wylie: sems sde), Longdé (Space Series, Tibetan: ཀློང་སྡེ་, Wylie: klong sde), and Menngaggidé (Instruction Series, Tibetan: མན་ངག་གི་སྡེ་, Wylie: man ngag gi sde). The Dzogchen path comprises the Base, the Path, and the Fruit. The Base represents the original state of existence, characterized by emptines
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