July 2009
July 31, 2009AUGUST COMMUNIQUE NOW AVAILABLE
Rinpoche's New Podcast: An Infrastructure of People
In his August podcast, Rinpoche explains why Khyentse Foundation invests in people, not in buildings.
In the early days of Khyentse Foundation, as the founders were deciding on a mission, imagining the possibilities, and envisioning the future of Buddhist patronage, one of the first guidelines they agreed on was that grants would be awarded to people and their activities rather than to the construction of buildings and capital improvements. In his new audio address, Rinpoche says that "Khyentse Foundation must aspire to build the infrastructure of human power...to make people, not just buildings, not just symbolic things like statues or stupas, because at the end of the day this kind of infrastructure is the best we can offer."
Two committees, appointed by Rinpoche and the board of directors, review applications for the Foundation. Ngedup Dorje, who sits on the Special Grants Committee, says of his task, "I'm truly heartened to learn of all these wonderful projects that people have undertaken around the world in pursuit of the dharma. It makes the decision quite difficult at times, because there are so many worthy candidates and we have only so much in the coffers." Last year, the two committees together awarded over US$100,000.
Listen To The Podcast
PARTNERING TO PRESERVE A LINEAGE
Supporting the Jonang Foundation
Khyentse Foundation is supporting the Jonang Foundation in collecting and digitizing the writings of the Jonang author Kunga Drolchok (1507-1566), many of whose works have not been previously published. Read more about founder Michael Sheehey and his work.
The Jonang is a unique tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Isolated for centuries in the remote valleys of far eastern Tibet, the Jonangpa are the primary lineage holders of the Kalachakra 6-fold vajrayoga and zhentong meditative view.
The Jonang Foundation was conceived in the summer of 2004 in Golok by Michael and co-founder Cynthia Williams to uphold and promote understanding of the intellectual, creative, and spiritual heritage of the Jonang. Their vision is for greater preservation, education, translation, documentation, and revivification for the Jonangpa, and our work is to provide these services.
Khyentse Foundation is supporting the Jonang Foundation in collecting and digitizing the writings of Jonang author Kung Drolchok (1507-1566, many of whose works have not been previously published. This master is considered to have been and earlier embodiment of Taranatha and of Jamgon Kongtrul, and he was one of the major figures in both the Jonang and Shangpa transmission lineages. His work "The One Hundred and Eight Essential Guidance Instructions" was one of the earliest compilations of the various oral instructions in Tibet, and is said to have been an inspiration to Jamgon Kongtrul in his formulation of rimé eclecticism.
Jonang Foundation Founder Michael Sheehey has a Ph.D. in Tibetan and Buddhist studies from the California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco, and has lived closely with Jonang masters in the Dzamthang, Ngawa, and Golok regions of Amdo since 2004.
UPDATE ON WHAT MAKES YOU NOT A BUDDHIST
Readers Continue to Discover Rinpoche's Words of Wisdom
More Than 150,000 Copies of What Makes You Not a Buddhist Sold Worldwide.
The U.S. edition of What Makes You Not a Buddhist has sold more than 25,000 copies. These numbers do not include international sales figures of the 14 translations. In Taiwan, nearly 19,000 copies were sold and the simplified Chinese edition was reportedly a bestseller in mainland China with more than 112,000 copies sold.
There are more editions on the way. A Greek translation was just completed and a new English edition will be published in India later in 2009.
Our International partners are:
ASA Editores S.A. - Portugal Business Weekly Publications - Taiwan
Editora Pensamento-Cultrix - Brazil Editorial Kairos - Spain Feltrinelli - Italy Irecson - Romania Kok Ten Have - Holland Navigator Culure Co. - Taiwan
NiL EDITIONS - France
Otkrity Mir - Russia
Pages Editors - Spain (Catalan)
Valgus Publishers - Estonia
Windpferd - Germany
Wisdomhouse - Korea
DharmaGaia - Czech Republic
ThaiHabooks Ltd. - Vietnam
Rinpoche has donated all of his profits from this publication to Khyentse Foundation. You can always support the Foundation through our Amazon and iTunes accounts which are linked to the Sharing the Merit page of this site.
MIND BODY AWARENESS PROJECT
Bringing Meditation Instruction Into The Juvenile Justice System
This year, Khyentse Foundation awarded a special grant to the Mind Body Awareness Project (MBA), which provides yoga, meditation, and other awareness-based practice training to incarcerated and at-risk youth. The program, founded in 2000, is based partly on founder Noah Levine's own experience in Santa Cruz Juvenile Hall, and is actively positioned to become a new national model for the rehabilitation of incarcerated youth.
MBA’s unique training program consists of mindfulness meditation and emotional intelligence exercises designed to strengthen minds, relieve toxic stress, and enhance the ability to make better decisions. MBA classes are offered on a voluntary basis. A typical one-hour class includes open discussion, mindfulness meditation instruction, and a form of movement meditation such as hatha yoga or tai chi. Teachers use simple awareness exercises as alternatives to self-destructive patterns of addiction, crime, and violence. These practices can begin to unlock the courage, confidence, and self-discipline needed to make healthier choices. Participants learn how opportunities for real change arise every moment throughout their lives. In an environment of trust and respect, participants are directly empowered to stop and reflect before acting them out.
Even those of us still blessed with our liberty can gain so much by employing MBA techniques—learning to slow down, step out of habitual patterns, and respond to challenges with clarity and focus.
TRANSLATING THREE BIOGRAPHIES OF SAKYA PANDITA
KF Supports an Ambitious Translation Project.
Currently, no book-length treatment of Sakya Pandita’s life is available to English speakers. Khyentse Foundation is supporting Tsechen Kunchab Ling Publications in the translation of three authoritative biographies of Sakya Pandita, which will be combined with reproductions of Tibetan thangkas and contemporary illustrations to produce a book that will introduce Sakya Pandita to the English-speaking world.
The fourth of the five founders of the Sakya Order, Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen Palzangpo (1182-1251), was a prolific writer and a great thinker who was primarily responsible for the transplantation of the ten major and minor sciences from India to Tibet. Toward the end of his life, he was invited to China and became the teacher of the Mongolian Khan, converting the warlike emperor to Buddhism. His influence there planted the seeds that caused Tibetan Buddhism to later flourish in Mongolia. He lived during a fascinating and important period in the development of Buddhism in Tibet and Mongolia.
Currently, no book-length treatment of Sakya Pandita’s life is available to English speakers. Khyentse Foundation is supporting Tsechen Kunchab Ling Publications in the translation of three authoritative biographies of Sakya Pandita, which will be combined with reproductions of Tibetan thangkas and contemporary illustrations to produce a book that will introduce Sakya Pandita to the English-speaking world. The three texts to be translated are:
• The Biography Based on Sakya Pandita’s Own Words, by Chogyal Phagpa
• The biography of Sakya Pandita written by Gorampa Sonam Senggye contained in the beginning of Illumination of the Buddha’s Teaching
• Amazing Treasure: The Holy Family’s Biographies by Ngawang Kunga Sonam
The texts are being translated by Venerable Lama Kalsang Gyaltsen and Reverend Dr. Ani Kunga Chodron, an experienced bilingual translation team, who over the past 15 years have completed many translations of philosophical texts, biographies, and ritual practices for the Sakya Order at the request of His Holiness the Sakya Trizin and other Sakya lineage holders.
CLARIFYING THE CONFUSION
Khyentse Foundation grant recipient Dr. Alexander Berzin is the driving force behind the Berzin Archives. Here is his report.
Khyentse Foundation grant recipient Dr. Alexander Berzin is the driving force behind the Berzin Archives (www.berzinarchives.com). In 2008, nearly half a million people visited the site, accessing more than 1.5 million written and audio items. The website, which is free of charge, is a major multilingual educational tool that presents extensive glossaries of Buddhist terms, as well as information about the four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and much more. In March of 2009, Dr. Berzin attended the Khyentse Foundation Translation Conference, “Translating the Words of the Buddha,” in Bir, India.
From my 28 years of experience of translating for Lamas and teaching Buddhism in more than 300 universities and Buddhist centers in over 70 countries, I have seen that the major source of confusion and misunderstanding about Buddhism has been imprecise and misleading translation terms. The confusion has become compounded when misleading English terms have been translated into other Western and colloquial Asian languages.
Another serious problem is that many translators translate the same Tibetan terms differently. It is virtually impossible to get all translators and teachers to agree on one set of translation terms. It is also an extremely difficult task to compile all the variant translations of each technical term used by all authors in all Western and colloquial Asian languages. The only feasible solution is to provide in translations and books the original Tibetan and, in some cases Sanskrit, for the main technical terms, as I have done on my website.
To meet this need, I have developed a comprehensive system of translation terms that correspond to their Tibetan definitions. The [Khyentse Foundation] grant will help in adding more references. It will also help to finance the writing of computer programs to extend the data management system that generates the website to enable it to handle larger amounts of data for larger glossary files. If enough translators follow this example, students will be able to use the Berzin Archives glossaries as a reference tool for putting together what they have read in various books by various authors and for getting precise definitions of the Tibetan terms. Also, for future translators and academics studying and teaching Tibetan language and Buddhism at universities, using the glossaries may help them to avoid perpetuating the confusion. Moreover, by providing the glossaries free of charge and online, they will reach the largest audience.
This work, focusing on the English section of the website, provides the basis for parallel work to be done on Tibetan-Sanskrit glossaries for the other languages of the website—German, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish, and French and Chinese, which are actively being prepared. This means not only translating and standardizing the technical terms and text titles for these languages, but also translating into these languages the English definitions of all the terms. This is a vast undertaking and especially important in the case of the Russian section, which has the potential to play an important role in the revival of Tibetan Buddhism in the Buryat Mongol, Kalmyk Mongol, and Tuvinian Turkic Republics of Russia.
A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY BROUGHT TO LIGHT
Heidi Nevin received a Khyentse Foundation grant to translate the spiritual autobiography of Kathok Khenpo Ngawang Palzang (Khenpo Ngagchung). Here is her report.
When Kyabje Chatral Rinpoche gave me his blessing to translate his root guru’s autobiography into English, he warned that the text “consists entirely of essential spiritual instructions (gdams ngag) and therefore must be translated without a single error or else everyone's sacred commitments will be impaired.” He also cautioned against mistaking the many personal and place names mentioned throughout this magnificent work. With these grave risks in the forefront of my mind, I am proceeding with utmost care to ensure an accurate, high-quality translation.
The aim of this project is to present to the English-speaking world a translation of the astonishing spiritual autobiography of one of the greatest Nyingma masters in recent history, Kathok Khenpo Ngawang Palzang (1879-1941). Also known as Khenpo Ngagchung, his life story reveals the full glory of the Nyingma school in general and the Longchen Nyingtik tradition in particular. Its translation will represent a significant contribution to the authentic transmission of Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Khenpo Ngagchung’s pithy advice to disciples and his own exemplary life will be a tremendous source of blessing and inspiration for anyone who aspires to follow an authentic teacher and apply him or herself correctly to the path of Dharma practice. Khenpo Ngagchung portrays every facet of a disciple’s experience, from seeking and following a genuine master to the subtle meditation experiences of a highly realized practitioner.
I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Khyentse Foundation for helping to fund this project. This generous support brings me closer to realizing my goal of offering the complete translation to the English-speaking world. I sincerely pray that all who form a connection to this precious text may draw inspiration from the sublime life of Khenpo Ngagchung and follow in his footsteps on the path to perfect enlightenment.
May it be auspicious! Heidi Nevin received a Khyentse Foundation grant to translate the spiritual autobiography of Kathok Khenpo Ngawang Palzang (Khenpo Ngagchung), with the blessings of her lama , Chatral Rinpoche. Heidi studied Tibetan language in Darjeeling, India from 1996-8 and remained in India and Nepal following Chatral Rinpoche until 2003. Later, she taught Tibetan in the San Francisco Bay Area for two years and worked as a translator for the Jnanasukha Foundation. She and her husband Tsultrim and their daughter Clara Choemtso, who is two years old, live in Corvallis, Oregon.
THE MAKING OF A SCHOLAR
Nisheeta Jagtiani received a Khyentse Foundation scholarship in 2008, which was renewed in 2009. Nisheeeta is studying Tibetan language and pursuing Buddhist studies at the College of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarah, Dharamsala. Her goal is to teach Buddhist studies at the university level in India. Here is her report on her progress until December 2008.
Two things inspire me the most; first, being able to understand the Dalai Lama when he teaches in Tibetan. Second, noticing the amount of progress achieved due to working hard.
I feel extremely fortunate to have received this scholarship by Khyentse Foundation in order to study Tibetan language and Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan is very sacred. It was created for the purpose of establishing a complete and thorough system of Buddhist education in Tibet, just as Sanskrit was the language of Dharma in India.
Being an Indian, I feel even more enthusiastic and thrilled to study this language because the Tibetans have been able to preserve a very rich tradition that we Indians have unfortunately lost. I rejoice at the efforts made by the exiled Tibetan community in India. They have worked and continue to work very hard to preserve the Buddha Dharma.
Each semester at Sarah College has been quite significant for me. In 2008, I focused mainly on reading Tibetan. I picked up books by the Dalai Lama, pechas [Tibetan books], and with the help of a dictionary, tried to read them all the time. After five months of working on this, I was able to read Tibetan Buddhist texts quite well. I was fortunate to attend His Holiness's teachings Dharamsala from August to October of 2008 and at Sarnath in January of 2009 where I was able to understand his teachings without a translator for the first time.
I have used the funds allocated to me for my tuition and living expenses at Sarah, library fees, Internet, books, and travel. In one and a half years of being in Dharamsala I have made a good amount of progress in my studies. I have realized that studying the teachings of the Buddha is not like getting a MBA, which can be finished off in two years. It takes one quite a few years to know anything. I will continue to work hard on my studies so that I can share with others this knowledge of the Buddha’s words and hope that they can be benefit from it.
As for my study plans, I am researching for my masters degree which I hope to submit by Nov 2009. This way I can start my PhD by 2010. When I asked Khyentse Rinpoche about staying longer at Sarah, he said that he felt Sarah is good. At Sarah I can continue with my Tibetan language studies, tuition and living expenses are reasonably priced, and most importantly, the atmosphere here is very conducive to study.
Finally, I’d like to express immense gratitude to my Guru Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.
July 22, 2009
ENGLISH TEACHERS NEEDED FOR DZONGSAR SHEDRA IN INDIA
The Dzongsar Shedra is seeking a Principal ESL Teacher and volunteer teachers to teach adult monks at Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö Institute in Chauntra (HP), India. The Principal position commences in late February 2010 for a minimum period of six months and volunteer positions are available immediately. For more information, please visit: http://www.siddharthasintent.org/2009/07/english-teacher-for-dzongsar-s.html
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