Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche

by Danny Fisher

I was in Yellow Springs, OH, this past week assisting with the visit of the Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche to Antioch College and the Yellow Springs Dharma Center. Regular readers of this blog may recall mention of Rinpoche in this post and this post (with picture) from my time in India. As you can imagine, it was wonderful for me to be able to see Rinpoche again, this time in the United States.

Rinpoche, for those of you who don’t know, is quite a remarkable teacher, and he has made numerous noteworthy contributions to the development of Tibetan Buddhism. The flyer for his visit describes him and his work well:

Born in Tibet and educated at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim under the guidance of H.H. Karmapa, he is the holder of Barum Kagyu and Nyingma lineages. Rinpoche is a scholar and master of both Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice. He has taught meditation and philosophy to many Western students, while also supervising a large shedra

or traditional monastic training center in Nepal.

He regularly teaches in Europe and North America where he has meditation centers in Denmark, Germany, and California. Since 1984 Rinpoche has taught meditation to students on the Antioch College Buddhist Studies Program in Bodh Gaya, India.

Rinpoche is the author of several books including The Union of Dzogchen and Mahamudra, Indisputable Truth and Present Fresh Wakefulness.During his visit, Rinpoche taught on the “Four Keys of the Buddha’s Teachings,” or what are also known as the Four Dharma Seals–anitya (impermanence), dukkha (suffering), anātman (the lack of an inherent existence), and nirvāṇa (peace). He also explained meditation from the perspective of each of the three Buddhist vehicles–the Śrāvakayāna (the “Vehicle of the Hearers”), Mahāyāna (the “Great Vehicle”), and Vajrayāna (the “Adamantine Vehicle”).

Rinpoche’s talk was evenly divided between his self-proclaimed “broken English” and Tibetan. Translating Rinpoche’s Tibetan was Erik Pema Kunsang, co-director of Rangjung Yeshe Translations and Publications in Kathmandu. I have seen Erik translate on several occasions (for both Rinpoche and Rinpoche’s brother Drubwang Tsoknyi Rinpoche III), and I’ve always appreciated his calm, clear, and serious approach to translation. He is wonderful at what he does–when he speaks for Rinpoche, it feels as though no single modicum of the teachings has been lost in translation.

Again and again in the teachings, Rinpoche came back to the importance of exchanging selfishness for compassion and lovingkindness. As he spoke, I frequently thought of one of my favorite passages from his Present Fresh Wakefulness:

    In Shantideva’s The Way of the Bodhisattva, there is an instruction: “When you look upon another being, do so gently, with loving eyes and a smiling face.” Appreciate other beings with this attitude: “With the help of these beings, I can develop the precious enlightened attitude, bodhichitta. With the help of these beings, I can progress towards Buddhahood. The fact that it is possible for me to train in the six paramitas, in the four means of magnetizing and so forth, and in the vast activities of a bodhisattva, is only possible because of other beings–so, thank you very much!” The teaching of The Way of the Bodhisattva continues, “Speak gently; speak softly; speak meaningfully. In your heart be free of conceit and hypocrisy, be free of rivalry and aggression. Always keep a sincere and compassionate frame of mind.”

When we study the words of the Buddha and understand their meaning, something should change in us. A person who learns and reflects about Buddhism should simultaneously diminish his or her involvement in selfish emotions. Compassion and understanding should grow further and further. If that is the case, you can say that learning and understanding are progressing correctly. [1]Rinpoche’s teachings really reinvigorated my practice, as did my stay at the Yellow Springs Dharma Center. I had visited the center a few times years back when I was an undergraduate at nearby Denison University, but this was the first time I had spent an extended period of time there. A fair amount had changed since my last visit, but I still found it the vibrant practice center I remembered.

Among the many magnificent American Dharma centers, the Yellow Springs Dharma Center is special in its ecumenicism:

    The Yellow Springs Dharma Center is a place for the practice of meditation and the study of Buddhist principles (dharma) serving various Buddhist traditions. This environment supports the development of compassion, generosity, and clarity in our community. The Center exists to encourage an awareness of our thoughts, words and actions on our world.

After some time away from Bodh Gaya, I especially enjoyed visiting the bodhi tree growing on the grounds of the center. This particular tree was grown with seeds from the tree at the Mahabodhi Mahavihara, which I spent a lot of time around last fall and during my previous stay at Bodh Gaya in 1999. That tree, of course, is the descendent of the bodhi tree the Buddha himself was said to have been sitting beneath when he attained enlightenment.

All things considered, it was a marvelous, inspiring trip. I’m so glad to have gone, and I wish that similar opportunities will come your way. I leave you with a photograph of Rinpoche and I taken by my dear friend Kerry Lucinda Brown.


WORKS CITED:

  1. Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Present Fresh Wakefulness: A Meditation Manual on Nonconceptual Wisdom (Boudhanath, Hong Kong & Esby: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2002), 75.

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