DPR Teaches at 2007 Nitartha Institute Summer Program
by Walker Blaine

Watch video about Nitartha Institute for
Higher Buddhist Studies shot at the 2007 Summer Program

DPR at 2007 Nitartha Institute Summer Program

For one month this July and August, Nitartha Institute was held at Pacific Lutheran University's green and mostly sunny campus an hour south of Seattle, Washington. As an expression of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche's intentions for transmitting dharma in the West, as a gathering of buddhists wishing to understand the teachings deeply, and as a means of benefiting others both in the West and in the East, Nitartha Institute's steady growth over the last twelve years now displays many blossoms of Rinpoche's intent. Often called a "buddhist intellectual boot camp" by Rinpoche, Nitartha is one of the most rigorous and delightful intensive trainings in the teachings available in the West.

Unlike last summer, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche was able to visit and teach at the Institute this year. Rinpoche came each week, teaching both sutrayana and vajrayana topics in the first three weeks of the course, and presiding over a celebratory banquet at the conclusion. Besides giving personal interviews and eating meals with students, Rinpoche gave several talks on analytical meditation during his visits. These underscored the importance of building a lasting experiential relationship with the presentations of lineage wisdom contained in Nitartha Institute's curriculum.

The talks themselves were stunning in the breadth of sources that Rinpoche combined in order to demonstrate the relationships and transitions between study, contemplative meditation and resting meditation. Showing the connections to the sutra teachings of the Buddha, Rinpoche wove together the instructions on shamatha and vipashyana from great Indian masters Nagarjuna, Asanga, Shantideva and Atisha with the statements from great siddhas like Tilopa. These in turn were bound together through explanations on the instructions of some of the greatest Kagyu and Nyingma masters, both those of the past like Milarepa, Longchenpa, Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye and Ju Mipham, and the present day instructions of Rinpoche's own teacher, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. While in synopsis this sounds overwhelming, the talks were completely inviting and one left each with a sense of knowing more and more while being willing to let go of preconceptions about the dharma.

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche's teaching style at the program was warm, immediate and playfully challenging. Rinpoche has a way of teasing out one's confusion though an immense sense of humor about the contradictions in our unexamined everyday thinking. From there it is easy to start look at the dharma from a fresh and open perspective. This seems to be one of many extraordinary gifts Rinpoche offers the dharma in this age. He has thoroughly immersed himself in the West having first immersed himself entirely in the depth of training of the practice and study traditions of Tibet. The result is that there is an environment of sanity and clarity about modern life and the dharma which is inspiring and immediately applicable.

Whether Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche was on campus or not, the Institute rides the crest of the wave of his intention. During the program the first four of eight presentations about the eight great texts of the Kagyu were given by his senior teachers, notably Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyatsen who presented an overview of the eight texts and spoke engagingly about debate too. These eight texts deal in depth with topics like emptiness, buddha nature, and stages of the path, and so forth. They are the basis for the university at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, India and are being presented in stages at Nitartha Institute. It is Rinpoche's desire that Nitartha Institute grow into a similar program in the Western world, running all year long, one that can foster a genuine, deep connection with the wisdom of the Buddha. It is particularly moving to attend a program such as this, one whose mission so vast and is also so important for the world and all that is in it.

The banquet with the students at the conclusion of the program was lively and bright. Rinpoche gave a great deal of himself that evening, and the students sang many songs within the good cheer of the event. Some Nitartha alumni came down from Seattle for this final gathering, so the room had a strong feeling of family and sangha at the same time. As Rinpoche left the room to return to Seattle and the retreat of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche there was a great sense of appreciation between himself and the students. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche is an incredible example of scholarship, tireless devotion and practice, a teacher who makes it clear the warmth of the lineage can dwell with joy in our hearts and lives. May this, his intention, which is both a light and treasure of knowledge, grow and flourish.

→ Nitartha Institute website

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