DPR Gives Teachings on
Compositions by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche:
"Fifty Verses on Dependent Arising" and "The Sadhana of Mahamudra"
By M.A. Medaglia, New York

	DPR begins a teaching session

Students of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche and of the Dzochen Ponlop Rinpoche gathered in Seattle weeks before the turn of a new year to listen to the teachings on dependent arising and on the profound path of bliss-emptiness Mahamudra, as taught by Khenpo Rinpoche to Ponlop Rinpoche.

Early December days were rosy with light Seattle mist and sunshine. Ponlop Rinpoche drew dozens of students from Canada, Europe as well as US cities and suburbs to Nalanda West, as he introduced Khenpo Rinpoche's "Fifty Verses on Dependent Arising," an extemporaneous explanation of Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka teachings. Khenpo Rinpoche dictated this composition to Ponlop Rinpoche, when he was a young monk studying in Rumtek, in a series of early morning dictations that Ponlop Rinpoche wrote down.

DPR teaches on The Sadhana of Mahamudra

Like the verses themselves, Ponlop Rinpoche pointed to phenomena's interdependent nature. Even when it seems contrary or different, in the ultimate analysis their nature is equality. With light-heartedness and examples from everyday life, Rinpoche's explanations took us to "Graceland" and pointed to the "King" of reasonings: the reasoning of dependent arising at the heart of Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way - the treatise that dismantles clinging to the four modes of existence, to extremes and to a center.

Left without walls and no center, we sung Khenpo Rinpoche's verses in melody and heartedly followed Tyler Dewar, Dzochen Rinpoche Tibetan-language translator, and his guitar in other songs of Khenpo Rinpoche.

	KTGR and DPR at Lake Louise, BC, at the time the sadhana was composed, August 1998

In between sessions, senior students led discussions, meditation and lujong practices.

The two-day course laid the ground for the restricted teachings on "The Sadhana of Mahamudra," composed by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, at the request of the Dzochen Ponlop Rinpoche and Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen.

Over five days of teachings, Ponlop Rinpoche and the sangha recited Khenpo Rinpoche's composition and sang songs that accompanied it. Ponlop Rinpoche spoke on the meaning of the composition

DPR distributes pictures of Khenpo Rinpoche at the conclusion of the program

and retold the story of how Khenpo Rinpoche began spontaneously reciting the sadhana while visiting the Canadian Rockies and its lakes, and spoke the final verses in Vancouver, BC. Following Khenpo Rinpoche's exemple of over 30 years of teaching throughout the West, and in the spirit of naturalness and spaciousness, Ponlop Rinpoche frequently instructed us to sing and dance. Midway through the program, the sangha held a banquet in honor of the composer of these wonderful teachings that liberate practitioners from fixation. Ari Goldfield, Khenpo Rinpoche's Tibetan-language translator joined the banquet, among many other students.

Senior students also enriched the retreat by offering valuable teachings on Mahamudra meditation and discussions of class teachings and evening lujong practice. It was a retreat that brought the meaning of teacher and student -- Khenpo Rinpoche and Ponlop Rinpoche -- closer to our hearts.

DPR photos by Rysiek Frackiewicz.

← Previous Page   ↑ Back to Top