Eastern US Tour by Buddhist Teacher and Author Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

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Tibetan Buddhist Teacher and Author Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche will give a series of interrelated public teachings in New York, Connecticut, and Philadelphia in May.

New York, USA -- This three-city tour of the Eastern United States is the first tour by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche since the publication of his book, Rebel Buddha: A Guide to a Revolution of Mind (Shambhala), which introduced the Buddhist teachings in the context of an authentic emerging North American Buddhism, free of Asian cultural trappings.

Many know Ponlop Rinpoche for his article on Huffington Post “Is Buddhism a Religion?”which in 2010 sparked a viral response in a matter of hours, inspiring commentary by a broad readership from many traditions.

The tour, sponsored by Nalandabodhi, kicks off on Saturday, May 11 in New York, NY at Tibet House US, founded by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1987 to preserve the culture of Tibet. On May 11-12 Rinpoche will give a series of three talks on “Independence and Interdependence,”and on May 12, “Buddhism as a Science of Mind: A Talk for the Asian Community.”

Rinpoche’s teaching tour continues with a weekend program in Connecticut May 17-19, “The Altruistic Heart: Training in the Four Immeasurables”(St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, CT), and ends in Philadelphia on Saturday, May 25, with a talk on “Emotions as the Path, not the Problem” (Arch Street Friends Meeting House, Philadelphia, PA).

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche is a leading Buddhist teacher in North America and an advocate of American and Western Buddhism. A lover of music, art and urban culture, Rinpoche is a poet, an avid photographer, an accomplished calligrapher and a visual artist, as well as a prolific author. Rinpoche is fluent in English and well versed in Western culture and technology. He is also the founder of Nitartha International, a non-profit educational corporation dedicated to preserving the contemplative literature of East Asia.

Nalandabodhi is an international network of meditation and study centers for students of Buddhism, under the guidance of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.

For more information please contact: Ceci Miller at outreach(at)nalandabodhi(dot)org 206.261.6900 or Diane Gregorio at diane(at)nalandabodhi(dot)org

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Sex abuse allegations surround L.A. Buddhist teacher

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An investigation by an independent council of Buddhist teachers indicates that Joshu Sasaki Roshi, 105, may have abused hundreds of followers. No charges have been filed.

Los Angeles, USA -- At 19, Shari Young was in search of enlightenment. She thought she had found it at the Cimarron Zen Center (now known as Rinzai-ji) in Jefferson Park and in a Buddhist teacher, a man named Joshu Sasaki Roshi.

But she said Roshi, as his followers call him, began using their one-on-one meetings to fondle her breasts and grope her body. She consented in confusion but left after nearly a year.

That was in the early '60s, she said. A recent investigation by an independent council of Buddhist leaders has suggested that Roshi, a leading figure in Zen Buddhism in the United States, may have abused hundreds of others for decades. According to the group's report, that abuse included allegations of molestation and rape, and some of the incidents had been reported to the Rinzai-ji board, which had taken no effective action.

"We see how, knowingly and unknowingly, the community was drawn into an open secret," the council wrote, adding: "We have reports that those who chose to speak out were silenced, exiled, ridiculed or otherwise punished."

Paul Karsten, a spokesman for the center interviewed about the controversy before the council's report was completed, said Roshi was too ill to respond and cautioned that the sexual misconduct allegations had not been verified. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The council of Rinzai-ji oshos — senior Zen teachers ordained under Roshi — however, responded with a public statement: "Our hearts were not firm enough, our minds were not clear enough, and our practices were not strong enough so that we might persist until the problem was resolved. We fully acknowledge now, without any reservation, and with the heaviest of hearts, that because of our failure to address our teacher's sexual misconduct, women and also men have been hurt."

The apology from the oshos is the first of its kind and is seen as vindication by members who said they had suspected such misconduct for years.

The council investigation was spurred by a letter published in November on the website Sweeping Zen by Eshu Martin, who studied under Roshi. Titled "Everybody Knows," it excoriated the community for suppressing reports of sexual misconduct.

"It's been sort of a tribal secret for 50 years, and I just wanted to provide an opportunity for people to start talking about this in an open forum that couldn't be shut up," Martin said about his letter. He also hoped to start a public discussion while Roshi was still living; he is 105 and in poor health.

Roshi arrived in Los Angeles 50 years ago and was among a wave of Japanese teachers to tailor Zen Buddhism to Westerners. He quickly became an exalted figure and opened about 30 centers, including one on Mt. Baldy that is known for its rigorous training regimen. It was commonly thought, Martin and other critics said, that if women left Mt. Baldy it was because they weren't tough enough to handle the demanding conditions.

In 1992, Sandy Stewart, who had spent 25 years studying with Roshi, resigned from the Rinzai-ji board. He cited an "atmosphere of secrecy" regarding his teacher's inappropriate sexual behavior. One of the victims was a woman named Susanna who became Stewart's wife.

After some years passed, Stewart was coaxed back into the Rinzai-ji community and told that all of the abuse had stopped. He said he then discovered that it hadn't and wrote a letter to the board insisting that the issue be confronted. The response was an onslaught of hate mail, he said.

"People … thought I was stupid and crazy," Stewart, 75, said. "They said, 'Have you no respect?' and said I should be lashed and beaten."

Even Susanna Stewart, 71, said that for some time she felt conflicted about the abuse she suffered because she also loved and respected her teacher.

Young, who is now 63, said she would have stayed in the Zen tradition if it weren't for the abuse. Instead, she became an Episcopal priest.

"The impact on me was so tremendous," she said. "It's kind of a relief and confirming to know I wasn't just odd. In the church we have this expression, 'The truth will out.' If you've perpetrated damage upon others, at some point you have to face it."

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Buddhist teacher shares insight on compassion

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Battle Creek, Michigan (USA) -- Sometimes love comes easily, springing from the bonds of family and friendship. Loving kindness toward all sentient beings, however, requires a little more work.

As a Buddhist teacher, Bardor Tulku Rinpoche knows about turning good intentions toward the world at large. He will be in Battle Creek to talk about compassion as the heart of spiritual practice on Sept. 21. The event is free and open to everyone.

Bardor is a “tulku” - a title given to a reincarnated lama - and a “rinpoche,” a title of respect and achievement.

When Bardor Rinpoche was a young boy, his family had to flee occupied Tibet and he was the only one to survive. His trek ended with the 16th Karmapa, who instantly recognized him as the third incarnation of a Tibetan sage.

Rinpoche studied in a monastery in the Indian state of Sikkim. In the 1970s, he was sent to the United States to teach Buddhism, where he established the Kunzang Palchen Ling center in Red Hook, N.Y.

Matt Willis of Battle Creek first crossed paths with Bardor Rinpoche back in 1990. Willis was studying the tenets of Buddhism from books, but he said the lama’s authenticity spoke to him beyond what any text could offer.

“Oh, this is my teacher,” Willis remembered feeling.

Now, Willis is part of the Palchen Study Group, six to 10 people who meet in Battle Creek to study Tibetan Buddhism and meditation. Bardor Rinpoche is their spiritual director, and his visit to Battle Creek is part of a weekend of workshops.

Bardor Rinpoche took time on Thursday to speak to the Enquirer about genuine motivations, spirituality and happiness. He was assisted by a translator, Peter O’Hearn, also known as Lama Yeshe Gyamtso.

Is there an example of a time in your life when you wanted to react negatively, but you were able to be compassionate and found that had the better result?

“Unless you are some kind of buddha, or bodhisattva, you’re not going to be free of anger. But what we can all try to do is not be reactive and not automatically respond with anger to anger, or hatred to hatred, or a verbal abuse to verbal abuse - but to consider the other person’s needs as well as our own, and respond motivated by concern not only for ourselves, but for them. So that we act appropriately, but out of kindness, not out of hatred.”

So, it’s about the action?

“It’s actually equally about the motivation and the action.”

Did religion help Rinpoche get through losing his family, losing his home?

“Dharma — or spirituality, religion — was of great help at that time. It helped me not only face the difficulties that I underwent, but also face them in a healthy and responsible way.”

What do you think “happiness” is?

“From a mundane, worldly point of view, we usually define happiness as things going well. Like, having a long life, free of illness, free of mishap, being sufficiently affluent, having everything we need and getting along with the people around us. And of course, these things are very conducive to happiness. But, from a spiritual point of view, we define happiness as being more concerned with others than we are with ourselves. That the more concerned you are with the well-being of others, somehow, the more happy you will be. And the more you are concerned only with yourself, the more suffering you will have. So, when someone is actively involved in helping others, they’re usually pretty happy.”

How is teaching Buddhism in the West different than it would be if you were still in the East?

“There is a great difference in that people born in those Asian countries which have a long history of Buddhism, are from early life are in a fairly Buddhist environment. So, it’s sort of part of their fundamental upbringing. And often part of their education, all the way through higher education. So therefore, it’s familiar to them, it’s not foreign, and they take to it quite naturally. In this country, people interested in Buddhism are coming from a place where it’s not that well known, it’s not that mainstream. So therefore, they need to step into it very, very gradually. They need to start by learning the most basic things, and then practicing very straightforward, simple form of meditation. And it has to be taken very, very step-by-step.”

What was your training like? Did you find it a struggle at all?

“It certainly required effort. Both the learning of the ritual details and practices, and also the great amount of memorization that is required in the Tibetan religious educational system. That takes work. I mean, you have to put the work in. But, I didn’t find any of it impossible or beyond my reach.”

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Master Jinje, Revered Korean Buddhist Teacher, Travels To U.S. For First Time

NEW YORK -- On the rare occasions that Master Jinje travels outside his monastery in the rural mountains of South Korea, he is greeted by crowds of Koreans who have taken to practicing Ganhwa Seon, the unique form of Zen meditation that he has spent decades imparting on the nation's largely non-monastic, non-Buddhist population.

But when Master Jinje, a high-level monk of Jogye, South Korea's largest Buddhist order, wandered past the hot dog stands and bodegas of New York City's Morningside Heights neighborhood in his grey monastic robes earlier this week, few people turned their heads.

Outside South Korea, where Buddhism has roughly 11 million followers and Master Jinje is revered as one of the nation's pre-eminent meditation teachers, he is little-known by those other than Buddhism scholars and a small number of Korean Buddhist immigrants. In fact, until last week, the 78-year-old had rarely stepped foot outside East Asia and had never come to the United States.

"Just as I imagined, in the land of freedom, the streets are so busy," Master Jinje said this week through a translator while touring New York's Riverside Church, where he will give a free "Dharma talk" Thursday evening. "People in this city are so fortunate. It's so lively, so full of energy. Even here, one can meditate."

The Jogye Order, which runs many of Korea's oldest and most prominent Buddhist temples, including the the Donghwasa Temple where Master Jinje resides on the far outskirts of the southeastern city of Daegu, has recently initiated an effort to spread long-isolated Korean Buddhism outside the region. This month, the first U.S. chapter of the Jogye Order is being established to oversee 30 Korean temples in New York and New Jersey.

The public relations effort by the order also may be tied to troubles Buddhists have experienced in South Korea, where almost half the nation adheres to no religion and 13 million are Protestant or Roman Catholic, making Christianity the most popular religion. In recent years, the Jogye Ordrer has accused the Christian-led government of discriminating against Buddhists, and there have been cases of Christian extremists burning and defacing Buddhist temples.

But Master Jinje, who has had several closed-door meetings with unnamed local and international officials to discuss those religious tensions since landing in the U.S. last Saturday, said his primary purpose is a spiritual one.

"I was told in Korea that nowadays people in America are very interested in meditative practice, but I heard they use different kinds of methods. The method I use is helpful for me and others in Korea, so I hope I can share it," Master Jinje said, referring an an upshot in popularity of Buddhism-related practices in the U.S. in the last decade, from meditation retreats to recreational yoga.

Buddhism has several branches and sub-branches, and has taken varied cultural forms since it originated between the fourth and sixth centuries B.C. in India. Master Jinje practices Ganwa Seon, which is most often likened to Japanese Zen with its focus on meditation -- as opposed to theoretical study -- in order to reach selflessness and enlightenment. Ganhwa Seon developed independently of the Japanese tradition and traces its origins to seventh-century contact with Chinese Buddhists.

When teaching Ganhwa Seon, Master Jinje makes use of "questioning meditation," in which hwadu, or "topics of inquiry," are used in order to raise uijeong, or a "sensation of doubt," in the person meditating.

"If I was to ask you: What was your original face before your parents gave birth to you? If you kept asking yourself and were able to get to the bottom of that question, then doubt will arise and once doubt arises then there comes a time when doubt appears all the time, 24 hours a day in your activities," he said, attempting to define a complex meditation technique that some of his students have studied for decades. "And after a time, you will be able to have a breakthrough. When you have that breakthrough, you will see the basic fundamental of your mind, which is already pure, which is already pristine."

Master Jinje teaches at Haeunjeongsa Temple in Busan City, Korea, pictured above. He also teaches at Donghwasa Temple near Daegu, Korea.

Although Master Jinje typically teaches Buddhist monks, he said his New York visit, including the Riverside Church speech, has caused him to think more about how meditation can be incorporated into the lives of everyday Americans and non-Buddhists.

"That doubt, it exists every day in your daily regular activity. Whether you are washing dishes or taking your kids to school or using the bathroom. It is in front of you all the time," he said, emphasizing his belief that humans should try to maintain an awareness of their actions, however mundane.

"I have a lot of respect for different religious practice," he added. "Regardless of what religion you believe in, you all use your mind. You have mind, I have mind. Everybody has mind. And because everybody has mind, what I am asking you to ask yourself is how that mind first came to exist."

The spiritual leader was not always so philosophical. He lived a largely secular life until he was 19 years old, when he met a Korean Seon master who offered to train him to become a monk. Master Jinje moved to a monastery, where he studied and meditated for 13 years before one of his predecessors, Seon Master Hyanggok, recognized him as the 79th "dharma descendant," or hand-picked spiritual descendant, of Buddha. His name is often paired with this title, although experts say there are dozens of lineages of "dharma descendants" of Buddha and the validity of each is contested.

That said, "he is one of the two most pre-eminent Seon teachers, with the other being in northern South Korea," said Robert Buswell, a Buddhism professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has helped coordinate Master Jinje's visit. "When he gives talks in Korea, thousands of people show up. But he has never taught in the U.S. and he has never written in English. There would never have been a way for any American or student of Buddhism or Zen to have heard of him."

One of the few who has heard of him is Uni Berrie, a 57-year-old New Yorker who met Master Jinje five years ago in South Korea. Born in Soeul to a Catholic family, Berrie said she never practiced a formal religion but always felt a spiritual yearning. After several visits back home to Korea over the years, she met him through a friend and enrolled in one of his teaching courses. Soon, she found herself practicing Ganwa Seon every day.

"I've tried yoga, I've tried Tibetan training, I've tried intensive Buddhism training of all kinds," said Berrie, who does not call herself a Buddhist. "But his teaching is about finding the true self, and you don't have to go to a temple. The more you sit, the more you meditate, the deeper you get into your understanding of yourself. It's hard to put into words."

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Burnaby Buddhists prepare for visit of Tibetan teacher Kalu Rinpoche

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Burnaby, BC (Canada) -- A small Buddhist centre in Burnaby is getting ready for the visit of the man believed to be the reincarnation of the person who established it nearly 40 years ago.

<< Lama Tsultrim is eagerly anticipating a visit next month of Kalu Rinpoche. Tsultrim says the 20 year-old monk is in touch with more modern methods, including maintaining his own Facebook page. MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER

Before the Dalai Lama began bringing Buddhism to the world, the Kalu Rinpoche was assigned the task.

When he arrived in Canada in 1972 he first looked at Toronto but couldn’t find many interested in setting up a centre there.

So he came to the Lower Mainland and formed the Kagyu Kunkyab Chuling, one of the first Tibetan Buddhist Dharma centres in the West, that is based on Sidley Street in South Burnaby. There is also a retreat on Salt Spring Island.

Kalu Rinpoche, who went on to establish more than 100 centres in many corners of the Western world, passed away in 1989, but before he did he asked a lama and his wife to have a child.

He was born on Sept. 17, 1990, and has been recognized as being the reincarnation of the previous Kalu Rinpoche.

Lama Tsultrim has been at the centre for 10 years. He studied under the original Kalu Rinpoche, and also came into contact with the current one.

“Of course,” said Tsultrim, when asked if he believed the 20-year-old who will be visiting the Lower Mainland next month is a reincarnation of the one he grew up with.

“He is the same, pretty much in the way he acts and the way he talks just like the previous one. He cares about people like the previous one. He had a very good relationship with his previous life.”

Tsultrim moved to a monastery when he was seven years old and worked closely with Kalu Rinpoche from 1982 to 1988.

“He was a very, very kind teacher and he really cared about other people. For me, he was like a father,” said Tsultrim.

Patrick Couling, a centre spokesman, said lamas who know both men well all say the two Kalu Rinpoches are one and the same.

However, what is different about them is the young Kalu Rinpoche grew up in the age of the Internet and Facebook, even though he was raised in a monastery 7,000 feet up in the mountains near Darjeeling, India. Part of his mission is trying to integrate modern means to spread Buddhism.

“Spirituality is one thing, but you’ve got to still live in this world,” said Couling.

Kalu Rinpoche will be in British Columbia Sept. 12-25, with the Lower Mainland portion of the visit Sept. 13-17, including his 21st birthday celebration on Sept. 16.

“He’s a man believed to be a direct descendant of people who lived 1,000 to 1,500 years ago, so there’s a tremendous amount of excitement as a result,” said Tsultrim.

For more information on the centre and the events of Kalu Rinpoche’s visit go to kkc-kdol.org.

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