Change in Meeting Time

We have changed our Tuesday evening meeting time from 6:30PM to 7:00PM.

Padmasambhava Buddhist Center YouTube Videos

For those who have not met our precious Khenpo Rinpoches, the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center International now has a YouTube channel. Include are many clips of dharma teachings, Padma Samye Ling and special dharma practices such as Vajrasattva Fire Puja. This is a great way for students of the Khenpo Rinpoches to keep connected with the Khenpo Rinpoches and the precious Nyingma lineage from afar, and is an equally great way for people interested in Pema Tallahassee to get a taste of the Khenpo Rinpoches' blessings and the rich flavor of their teachings.

Lama Rinchen Phuntsok 12-15 December

Lama Rinchen Phuntsok will be teaching from Friday 12 December through Monday 15 December. A brief synopsis:

Friday 12 December. 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM. Teaching on The Mind Ornament of Padma. His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche wrote this profound commentary on the famous prayer of Orgyen Chokgyur Lingpa. This six-line Vajra prayer is the quintessence of all supplications. It provides a concise way of removing all obstacles: outer, inner and secret.

Saturday, December 13th. 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Teaching on The Mirror of Clear Meaning: A Dzogchen Text. This Dzogchen text is a treasure (terma) from the great 19th century yogi, Nuden Dorje Drophan Lingpa, who spent many years of his life in retreat. The text provides a very clear authentic account of the view and essential meditation of Dzogchen. Lama Rinchen will provide a detailed explanation of the root verses of this precious teaching.

Sunday, December 14th. 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Teaching on The Mirror of Clear Meaning: A Dzogchen Text. This Dzogchen text is a treasure (terma) from the great 19th century yogi, Nuden Dorje Drophan Lingpa, who spent many years of his life in retreat. The text provides a very clear authentic account of the view and essential meditation of Dzogchen. Lama Rinchen will provide a detailed explanation of the root verses of this precious teaching.

Sunday, December 14th. 12:00 – 1:30 PM. Shower of Blessings: Guru Rinpoche Tsok. This tsok offering of food is performed for the purpose of taming the mind for cultivating non-attachment. This tsok was composed by the great Vajrayana master Mipham Rinpoche and is based on the Seven Line Prayer of Guru Rinpoche.

Sunday, December 14th. 7:00 PM. Traditional Nepali Dinner with Lama Rinchen Phuntsok at the Annapurna Café. Join Lama Rinchen and others for a special off-menu Nepali feast at the Annapurna Café, 666 West Tennessee St. in Tallahassee. The multi-course meal accommodates vegetarians as well as non-vegetarians. Estimated cost is $20 w/ drinks extra. Please RSVP to Pematalli@gmail.com by Friday December 12th if you are planning on attending.

Monday, December 15th. 7:00 – 9:00PM. Buddhist Advice for Difficult Times: Long Life Practices. A public lecture with opportunities for questions and discussion, Co-sponsored by FSU’s Tallahassee Buddhist Association.

These teachings and lecturers are open to everyone. Suggested donations: Friday teaching $25, Weekend teaching $75/ $40 day, Monday lecture $15. No one will be turned away for financial reasons. All donations go to cover the cost of bringing Lama Rinchen to Tallahassee. For inquiries: please call: 850-893-6778 or email pematalli@gmail.com

The Dark Red Amulet

Several members of the Pema TLH community attended the Khenpo Rinpoches' Vajrakilaya Teachings at the Palm Beach Dharma Center on October 25-26. The teaching was from the terma cycle of Tsasum Lingpa called The Dark Red Amulet, and consisted of the empowerment, transmission and teachings on the short sadhana associated with this practice. The Khenpo Rinpoches shared stories about some of the great Vajrakilaya masters and about terton Tsasum Lingpa and his discovery of this terma. The Khenpo Rinpoches' book on The Dark Red Amulet will be released by Snowlion Publications in November 2008.

rnying ma rgyud 'bum

Lama Urgyen Chhimmed AKA Lama Juergen, who founded Zilnon Urgyen Ling in Havana, Florida back in the 1980's, offered Pema Tallahassee a copy of the rnying ma rgyud 'bum. In his time in Tallahassee, Lama Juergen worked to transmit the teachings of the bgyang gter or Northern Treasure Lineage as taught by Chhimmed Rigdzin Rinpoche. Having departed Tallahassee since 1990, Lama Juergen was so thrilled to hear of the success of the vajrayana in Tallahassee, that he offered this gift.

The rnying ma rgyud 'bum or The Collected Tantras of the Nyingma, is a 36 volume collection of inner tantra teachings, and includes a mixture of kama (transmitted precepts) and terma (treasure teachings) texts. There are 10 volumes on atiyoga, 3 volumes on anuyoga, 6 volumes on the tantra section of mahayoga, 10 volumes on the sadhana section of mahayoga, 1 volume on protector tantras and 3 volumes of histories and catalogs.

Khenpo Rinpoches' Visit January 2006

Picture from the Khenpo Rinpoches' visit to Tallahassee, taken at the Unitarian Church, N. Meridian, Tallahassee.

From the left: Back Row: Ani Lorraine, Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, Khenchen Khenpo Palden Sherab Rinpoche. Front row: Dr. Douglas Duckworth and his wife Jasmine, Laura, King, Craigie, Rachel, Eric and long-time student of the Khenpo Rinpoches' Mimi.

The Khenpo Rinpoches' taught on the three higher trainings-- ethics, concentration and wisdom-- profound and immediately practical, and gave many transmissions for core sangha practices.

Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche

Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche was born in the Dhoshul region of Kham in eastern Tibet on June 10, 1950. On that summer day in the family tent, Rinpoche’s birth caused his mother no pain. The next day, his mother, Pema Lhadze, moved the bed where she had given birth. Beneath it she found growing a beautiful and fragrant flower which she plucked and offered to Chenrezig on the family altar.

Soon after his birth three head lamas from Jadchag monastery came to his home and recognized him as the reincarnation of Khenpo Sherab Khyentse. Khenpo Sherab Khyentse, who had been the former head abbot lama at Gochen Monastery, was a renowned scholar and practitioner who lived much of his life in retreat.

Rinpoche’s first dharma teacher was his father, Lama Chimed Namgyal Rinpoche. Beginning his schooling at the age of five, he entered Gochen Monastery. His studies were interrupted by the Chinese invasion and his family's escape to India. In India his father and brother continued his education until he entered the Nyingmapa Monastic School of Northern India, where he studied until 1967. He then entered the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, which was then a part of Sanskrit University in Varanasi, where he received his B.A. degree in 1975. He also attended Nyingmapa University in West Bengal, where he received another B.A. and an M.A. in 1977.

In 1978 Rinpoche was enthroned as the abbot of the Wish-fulfilling Nyingmapa Institute in Boudanath, Nepal by H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, and later became the abbot of the Department of Dharma Studies, where he taught poetry, grammar, philosophy and psychology. In 1981, H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche appointed Rinpoche as the abbot of the Dorje Nyingpo Center in Paris, France. In 1982 he was asked to work with H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche at the Yeshe Nyingpo Center in New York. During the 1980s, until H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche’s mahaparinirvana in 1987, Rinpoche continued working closely with him, often traveling as his translator and attendant.

In 1988, Rinpoche and his brother founded the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center. Since that time he has served as a spiritual director at the various Padmasambhava centers throughout the world. He maintains an active traveling and teaching schedule with his brother, Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche.

Khenpo Tsewang Rinpoche has authored two books of poetry on the life of Guru Rinpoche, including Praise to the Lotus Born: A Verse Garland of Waves of Devotion, and a unique two-volume cultural and religious history of Tibet entitled The Six Sublime Pillars of the Nyingma School, which details the historical bases of the dharma in Tibet from the sixth through ninth centuries. At present, this is one of the only books written that conveys the dharma activities of this historical period in such depth. Khenpo Rinpoche has also co-authored a number of books in English on dharma subjects with his brother Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, including Ceaseless Echoes of the Great Silence: A Commentary on the Heart Sutra; Prajnaparamita: The Six Perfections; Door to Inconceivable Wisdom and Compassion; Lion’s Gaze: A Commentary on the Tsig Sum Nedek; and Opening Our Primordial Nature, all of which are available online at Chiso.