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KYABJE DRIKUNG KYABGÖN CHETSANG RINPOCHE
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Teaching
by Rinpoche > |
Personal Background:
Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang Rinpoche was born in 1946 into the Tsarong
aristocratic family, in Lhasa. At his birth there were many wonderful signs,
and his birth fell on the anniversary of the Buddha’s first turning of the
Wheel of Dharma.When he was one and a half years old, the Regent
Taktra Rinpoche, who was in charge during the time of the Dalai Lama’s
minority, recognized him as the seventh senior Drikung Kyabgön.
The formal enthronement as the Drikung Chetsang took place at the
monastery in Drikungthil, about 150 km from Lhasa. At that time Rinpoche
was only four and a half years old. Not long after that, in 1950, the first
Chinese invasion of Tibet took place, and his family took Rinpoche on a
pilgrimage to India. They settled in Darjeeling so that his brothers and
sisters could attend the modern schools there.
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After five months, people from Rinpoche’s
monastery in Tibet came and asked him to come back. He
returned to Drikungthil and began his monastic studies of reading,
memorizing, astrology, grammar; he
received most of the important Kagyu teachings, initiations and
transmissions. Although five years
younger, he studied with the Drikung Chungsang, the other Drikung
lineage holder.
In 1959, when many other people were escaping, they wanted to escape
too, but were held back by the
monastery’s manager. Rinpoche’s religious studies came to
a halt, and he had to join a school set up
by the Chinese. There he studied Chinese, science, history, biology.
Then he entered a higher level of
studies, where he learnt Chinese very well.
When the Cultural Revolution started, these studies also were interrupted,
and he had to go and work on
a farm. For the next five years he worked very hard, but since there
was nothing else to do, he decided
to escape. He prepared his escape for a long time, applied for a vacation
at the farm, and fled. This is
why his escape was not noticed for some time.
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He had heard that his family was in Nepal and India, but upon arrival,
in 1975, he found out that this was
outdated information: most of the family members had left for the
USA. Only one elder brother was
working at the Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute in Dharamsala,
India.
When in Dharamsala, many followers of the Drikungpas urged him to
stay in India, but his parents
wanted him to come to the USA. He decided to reunite with his family,
and spent some years in the US.
In the mornings, he learned English and studied at libraries; in the
afternoons he would work at
McDonald’s and became a real expert in flipping burgers.
When they moved to New Jersey, he received a text on the history of
the Drikung Kagyu which had been
found in Nepal. As a consequence of this he began writing a new history
of the Drikung Kagyu, including
material that he found in libraries in New York City.
While in the USA he received letters from followers in Ladakh and
other parts of India asking him to
come back. In 1978 he returned to India, went to Ladakh, and spent
several years in full retreat under
a very strict teacher.
Rinpoche studied with many great lamas and received teachings and
transmissions of both Kagyu and
Nyingma. Among his main lamas he considers Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
to have been specially kind to
him. In 1985 he received full monk ordination from His Holiness the
Dalai Lama during the Kalachakra
initiation in Bodhgaya.
Rinpoche began teaching in 1987. Because he considers education to
be very important, he began to
set up a school and started an institute, which in 1992 was inaugurated
by the Dalai Lama as Jangchub
Ling Institute in Dehra Dun. Education and discipline, a particular
feature of Drikung Kagyu training, are
very high in the institute, monastery and in the meditation center.
Close to his main monastery in
India, Rinpoche also has set up a library for international studies
on Buddhism, called Songtsen Library.
Kyabje Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang Rinpoche will teach on the Tantras,
Mahamudra, and give a general
outline of the Kagyu tradition of practice.
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