Dedicated to our Teacher, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche May His Vision Bring Peace and Joy A booklet to celebrate Rangjung Yeshe Gomde Germany-Austria 2004-2014 An expanding circle of practitioners, by Erik Pema Kunsang When Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche chose the name Rangjung Yeshe Gomdé for the newly purchased land of 1,000 fruit trees in Denmark he was invoking a great name with a storied history.. Rangjung Yeshe es Self-Existing Wakefulness — is the essential principle in Buddhism, especially in the ancient Dzogchen tantras, and Gomdé is the land of his forefathers with an unbroken line of spiritual realization that goes back almost a thousand years. You all have heard of Milarepa, Tibet’s great yogi, and his prophetic dream about future lineage-holders and practitioners who would increase with each following generation. You have also heard of Gampopa, his foremost disciple, and you most certainly are familiar with his influential book Jewel Ornament of Liberation. It is through Gampopa’s close disciples and their disciples that a confluence of two rivers of Buddhist practice — the down-to-earth advice on lojongs (mind-trainings), which tame our selfishness and Mahamudra’s profound instructions, which open our minds to uncontrived naturalness — spread so far and so deep that this single stream of practice has penetrated almost every person in the entire land. One of Gampopa’s illustrious students was Barom Dharma Wangchuk. Allow me to use the words of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche: “Barom Dharma Wangchuk established his first seat in Central Tibet, near the sacred mountain Samten Kangsar northeast of Lhasa, where an increasing stream of faithful people with offerings, even all the way from China, began to appear. After an avalanche buried a temple he decided to accept an invitation from the king of Nangchen in East Tibet. There he established his second seat and slowly the kingdom became filled with meditators and yogis of Naropa’s six doctrines, giving the kingdom its name Gomdé, which means land of practitioners. ‘The connotation is closely connected with the profound pointing-out instruction of Mahamudra, the most profound teaching in the Barom lineage, which directly introduces the state of realization. This instruction was received by the majority of people living in the region and they became meditators. All over the mountainside, each family house became a practice center, both men and women. The story goes that even the simple water-bearers at night used the leather straps on their yokes as meditation belts. And the shepherds would use the long rope from their slingshot as meditation belts as well. It is said that almost everyone was a practitioner, so the land got the name Gomdé, the Land of Meditators, a sign that the Buddha’s teachings took firm root.” Looking back at the first decades of our modern day Gomdés, the time seems so short and yet so full of events carrying the great weight of wonderful dramas, precious teachers, profound wisdom, generous benefactors, dedicated friends, with spectacular landscapes and changing seasons as the back-drop. Some of these consequential events have found their way into this publication. Some survive only in our memories. But weaving through them all, I sense a basic thread dyed in the colors of noble intention and free spirit — an expression of the twofold bodhichitta. As someone who has been involved in this meaningful drama for a long while, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who were inspired to participate. It is your dedication, past and future, which nurtures and shapes these fountainheads of benefit and well-being. May Gomdé omboth the centers around the world and the training-ground in our daily lives — continue to be a place that grows the fruits of our lineage masters’ aspirations!
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 18:32:45 +0000
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