Manjushri Institute

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Manjushri Institute was a large Buddhist college situated at Conishead Priory in England from 1976 until its dissolution in 1991. In 1991 its assets, including Conishead Priory, were transferred to a new Centre, Manjushri Mahayana Buddhist Centre which was later re-named Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre.

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[edit] The Founding of Manjushri Institute

In 1976 the students of Lama Thubten Yeshe founded the Manjushri Institute, a registered charitable company[1] with Lama Yeshe as the Spiritual Director and purchased the assets of Conishead Priory, a sadly neglected Victorian mansion in Ulverston (Cumbria), England for the price of £70,000.[2][3] In the same year Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Geshe Kelsang Gyatso in India and invited him to teach at the Manjushri Institute, which was a part of their FPMT network.[3] According to David Kay, they sought the advice of the 14th Dalai Lama when choosing Geshe Kelsang.[3]. At first Geshe Kelsang appears to have been reluctant to accept this invitation, but "Lama Yeshe requested Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche [Geshe Kelsang's Teacher] to ask Geshe Kelsang to become Resident Teacher of Manjushri Institute. Geshe Kelsang later recounted that Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche asked him to go to England, teach Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, Chandrakirti's Guide to the Middle Way and Lamrim, and then check whether there was any meaning in his continuing to stay." [4]

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher, monk and scholar from the Gelug Tradition, is a contemporary of Lama Yeshe's from the time they spent studying at Sera Monastery.[3]

Geshe Kelsang was requested by Lama Yeshe to lead the "General Program" of Buddhist study. In 1979 Lama Yeshe installed another Geshe at Manjushri Institute, Geshe Jampa Tekchok, to teach a parallel twelve-year Geshe Studies Programme, which was recognized and validated by the Dalai Lama and which was modeled on the traditional Geshe degree.[3] From 1982 to 1990 this program was led by Geshe Konchog Tsewang.[5] According to a disciple of Lama Yeshe from this time, Lama Yeshe intended the institute "to become the central monastery of the FPMT... one of the early jewels of the FPMT crown" and "the pioneer among the western centers".[3]

[edit] Separation from the FPMT

In the late 1970s, Geshe Kelsang received a request to give a teaching in York, at which he met Ron Lister. Ron later invited Geshe Kelsang to stay with him in York, since the winters in the drafty Conishead Priory were difficult for Geshe Kelsang's health. While in York, Geshe Kelsang was requested repeatedly to teach. Acting in accordance with his Bodhisattva vow not to withhold teachings from those who request them, he offered a number of teachings there. Eventually this led to a new Buddhist Centre, Madhyamaka Centre, being established in York under Geshe Kelsang's guidance. Kay sees this as the beginning of a conflict between Lama Yeshe and Geshe Kelsang.[6] However, according to Geshe Kelsang, "the opening of the Centre in York caused not one moment of confusion or disharmony".[7] Geshe Kelsang was asked to resign so that another Geshe, described by Kay as "more devoted to FPMT objectives", could take over as a resident teacher of Manjushri Institute.[6] Many students of Geshe Kelsang petitioned him to stay and teach them, and on this basis he decided to remain.[6] In the following years prior to 1990 Geshe Kelsang established 15 centres under his own direction in Great Britain and Spain.[8]

The management committee of Manjushri Institute, also known as "the Priory Group", were deeply appreciative of Geshe Kelsang's teachings and example and were some of his closest students.[6][9] According to Kay, "The Priory Group became dissatisfied with the FPMT's increasingly centralized organisation" and some of the FPMT's policies "were considered to be particularly unreasonable strains which threatened the Institute's existence."[6] Cozort states that different disagreements "led to a rift between Lama Yeshe and his students and Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and his, and eventually the Manjushri Board of directors (composed of Geshe Kelsang's students) severed the connection between the institute and the FPMT."[9] According to Kay, Lama Yeshe tried at different times to reassert his authority over the Institute, but his attempts were unsuccessful.[10] Kay goes on to describe an open conflict of authority which developed between the Priory Group and the FPMT administration in 1983.[6] In February 1984 the conflict was mediated by the Office of the Dalai Lama in London.[6] Kay states that after the death of Lama Yeshe in March 1984, the FPMT lost interest because they saw it as a fruitless case.[10] Since that time, Kay states, the Manjushri Institute has developed mainly under the guidance of Geshe Kelsang without further reference to the FPMT[6], but legally remained part of the FPMT until late 1990.[11]

[edit] The Establishment of the NKT-IKBU

Geshe Kelsang made a 3-year retreat from 1987-1990 in Dumfries, Scotland and asked Geshe Losang Pende from Ganden Shartse monastery to lead the General Program in his absence, whilst Geshe Konchog Tsewang continued to teach the Geshe Studies Programme at Conishead Priory (Manjushri Institute).[12] Different Lamas, including Lama Zopa Rinpoche, were still invited.[12] Especially the visit of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1988 "is significant, indicating the ongoing devotion of the students to this lama and their desire to leave the negativity of the schism with the FPMT in the past."[12] In 1988 and 1990 the uncle of Geshe Kelsang, Ven. Choyang Duldzin Kuten Lama - the oracle of Dorje Shugden - also visited Manjushri Institute.[12] Before that time Song Rinpoche, Geshe Lhundup Sopa, Geshe Rabten, as well as other lamas such as Ajahn Sumedho and Thich Nhat Hanh have taught at Manjushri Institute.[13]

During Geshe Kelsang's period of retreat he wrote five books and established the foundations of the New Kadampa Tradition. Kay states: "The first major development that took place during Geshe Kelsang's retreat was the introduction of the 'Teacher Training Programme' (TTP) at the Manjushri Institute."[14]

In 1990 the Geshe Studies Programme at Manjushri Institute was cancelled, as it had been in most of the other FPMT Centres where it had been established. According to Cozort, "No one, to my knowledge, ever completed the FPMT Geshe Studies Programme. The program never ran its full course in any of the Centres where it was taught." [15]

In 1991, Manjushri Institute was dissolved and its assets turned over to a new corporation, Manjushri Mahayana Buddhist Center, located on the same premises at Conishead Priory. The Centre was later re-named Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Center, which is still active as the "Mother Centre" of the NKT-IKBU.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kay page 56; The Manjushri Institute charity registration number: 271873, Trust Deed, July 1976, 1
  2. ^ Bluck 2006: 129
  3. ^ a b c d e f David N. Kay: Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain: Transplantation, Development and Adaptation, London and New York, pages 55, 56
  4. ^ Modern Day Kadampas - published by the NKT [1]
  5. ^ Kay page 53 and 77
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Kay pages 61,62,63,64
  7. ^ "Eradicating wrong views" a letter, dated October 27, 1983, written as a response to the FPMT report "A report on recent events at Manjushri Institute (dated October 1, 1983)
  8. ^ Daniel Cozort, The Making of Western Lama in "Buddhism in the Modern World", ISBN 0-19-514698-0, page 230
  9. ^ a b Daniel Cozort, The Making of Western Lama in "Buddhism in the Modern World", ISBN 0-19-514698-0, page 226
  10. ^ a b Kay, page 63
  11. ^ Kay page 78
  12. ^ a b c d Kay page 73
  13. ^ Kay page 68
  14. ^ Kay 2004 : 74
  15. ^ Cozort page 232