Namgyal Rinpoche

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (August 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Namgyal Rinpoche, Karma Tenzin Dorje (1931-2003), born Leslie George Dawson in Toronto, Canada, was a Tibetan Buddhist lama in the Karma Kagyu tradition.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Namgyal Rinpoche was born in 1931, October 11, and raised in Toronto, Canada by parents of Irish and Scottish descent and attended Jarvis Baptist Seminary, studying to become a Christian minister, before going on to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA, where he studied philosophy and psychology and became active in Socialist politics. After visiting Moscow to address an international youth conference, he became disillusioned with politics, and moved to London, England in 1956.

[edit] Theravada Studies in Asia

While in London he became involved with Theosophy and then with Theravada Buddhism through a chance encounter with Sayadaw U Thila Wunta, a Burmese forest-monk who accepted Dawson as a disciple. In 1958, they traveled together to Bodh Gaya, India, on a pilgrimage, where Dawson became a shramanera (novice monk). Later in the year they went on to Burma, where Dawson was ordained a bhikkhu (fully ordained monk) and given the name "Anandabodhi." At this point he undertook intensive meditation practice, under the guidance of U Thila Wunta and Mahasi Sayadaw, and in Thailand with Chao Khun Phra Rajasiddhimuni. In Sri Lanka he studied the Pali Suttas and the Visuddhimagga, an extensive meditation text. He was given the title Acharya, "teacher of Dhamma."

[edit] Return to the United Kingdom and Canada

In 1961 Anandabodhi returned to England at the invitation of the English Sangha Trust. He was a special guest speaker at the Fifth International Congress of Psychotherapists in London, where he met Julian Huxley, Anna Freud and R.D.Laing, among others. Shortly thereafter he founded the Johnstone House Contemplative Community, a retreat center in Scotland. It was at this time that he first met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama at Oxford sent by His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, along with other rinpoches, to study and live in the West. Anandabodhi provided him with assistance and saw to the transfer of ownership to the Tibetans of Johnstone House, which became Samye Ling, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastic centre in the West.

In 1965 Anandabodhi returned to Canada with two of his senior students, Tony Olbrecht and Barry Goulden, where he established a new community over the five years that followed. He began to stress the study of psychology, western philosophy, exercise, diet, and the appreciation of fine art and music as a supplement to traditional Buddhist training. He began taking students on trips with him on cargo ships to various foreign locales.

[edit] As Namgyal Rinpoche

During a pilgrimage with a dozen students to India and Sikkim in 1968, Anandabodhi was recognized by the 16th Karmapa, the supreme head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism as an accomplished master and "tulku". Three years later, accompanied by 108 students Anandabodhi met in Dharamsala with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with whom he developed a close friendship, and proceeded onward to Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim where he was ordained by the Karmapa in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition. On this occasion he received his name and title, and on his return to Canada was enthroned with due ceremony as "Karma Tenzin Dorje Namgyal Rinpoche" by Karma Thinley Rinpoche, as instructed by His Holiness.

Thereafter, Namgyal Rinpoche also practised and taught in the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, empowered and recognised by many teachers such as His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, then head of the Nyingma school, and His Holiness Sakya Trizen Rinpoche, head of the Sakya school. In subsequent years, Namgyal Rinpoche inspired the establishment of dharma centers around the world.

At times, Rinpoche would revert to his given name, George Dawson, and abolish the exotic trappings and mystique of Tibetan Buddhism, seeing these as distractions to students, and teaching directly from the universalist heart of reality. He would subsequently re-establish the outer form and reveal its deeper meaning. His students report he performed miraculous feats, averting landslides, and healing illnesses. He continued to teach until his death in 2003, having empowered a number of senior students to continue his work.


216.168.109.11 (talk) 09:58, 6 June 2008 (UTC) Edits by Rab Wilkie (Secretary, Dharma Centre of Canada)

[edit] References

  • "Buddhism In Britain", Ian P Oliver, Rider & Co, London, UK, 1979.
  • "A Time To Remember", Lama Sonam Gyatso, biography, 2003.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links