Dalai Lama - The Life of My Teacher: A Biography of Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché

About the Author

TENZIN GYATSO, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He frequently describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. Born in northeastern Tibet in 1935, he was as a toddler recognized as the incarnation of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and brought to Tibets capital, Lhasa. In 1950, Mao Zedongs Communist forces made their first incursions into eastern Tibet, shortly after which the young Dalai Lama assumed the political leadership of his country. He passed his scholastic examinations with honors at the Great Prayer Festival in Lhasa in 1959, the same year Chinese forces occupied the city, forcing His Holiness to escape to India. There he set up the Tibetan exile administration in Dharamsala, working to secure the welfare of the more than a hundred thousand Tibetan exiles and prevent the destruction of Tibetan culture. In his capacity as a spiritual and political leader, he has traveled to more than sixty-two countries on six continents and met with presidents, popes, and leading scientists to foster dialogue and create a better world. In recognition of his tireless work for the nonviolent liberation of Tibet, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. In 2012, he relinquished political authority in his exile administration and turned it over to democratically elected representatives.

His Holiness frequently states that his life is guided by three major commitments: the promotion of basic human values or secular ethics in the interest of human happiness, the fostering of interreligious harmony, and securing the welfare of the Tibetan people, focusing on the survival of their identity, culture, and religion. As a superior scholar trained in the classical texts of the Nalanda tradition of Indian Buddhism, he is able to distill the central tenets of Buddhist philosophy in clear and inspiring language, his gift for pedagogy imbued with his infectious joy. Connecting scientists with Buddhist scholars, he helps unite contemplative and modern modes of investigation, bringing ancient tools and insights to bear on the acute problems facing the contemporary world. His efforts to foster dialogue among leaders of the worlds faiths envision a future where people of different beliefs can share the planet in harmony.

GAVIN KILTY has been a full-time translator for the Institute of Tibetan Classics since 2001. Before that he lived in Dharamsala, India, for fourteen years, where he spent eight years training in the traditional Geluk monastic curriculum through the medium of class and debate at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. He also teaches Tibetan language courses in India, Nepal, and elsewhere, and is a translation reviewer for the organization 84000, Translating the Words of the Buddha.

THUPTEN JINPA LANGRI was educated in the classical Tibetan monastic academia and received the highest academic degree of gesh lharam (equivalent to a doctorate in divinity). Jinpa also holds a BA in philosophy and a PhD in religious studies, both from the University of Cambridge, England. Since 1985, he has been the principal English translator for the Dalai Lama, accompanying him to the United States, Canada, and Europe. He has translated and edited many books by the Dalai Lama, including The World of Tibetan Buddhism, Essence of the Heart Sutra, and the New York Times bestseller Ethics for the New Millennium.

Jinpa has published scholarly articles on various aspects of Tibetan culture, Buddhism, and philosophy, and books such as Songs of Spiritual Experience: Tibetan Poems of Awakeningand Insight (co-authored) and Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Thought. He serves on the advisory board of numerous educational and cultural organizations in North America, Europe, and India. He is currently the president and the editor-in-chief of the Institute of Tibetan Classics, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to translating key Tibetan classics into contemporary languages. And he also currently chairs the Mind and Life Institute.

Publishers Acknowledgment

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous help of the Hershey Family Foundation in sponsoring the production of this book.

Afterword

H IS EMINENCE THE Seventh Ling Rinpoch, Tenzin Lungtog Trinley Choephag, was born November 18, 1985, and two years later His Holiness the Dalai Lama recognized Rinpoch as the reincarnation of his senior tutor, the Sixth Kyabj Ling Rinpoch. Rinpoch joined Drepung Monastic University in South India as a pre-novice in 1990, and his enrollment was celebrated with large and elaborate religious ceremonies. Rinpoch received his novice monks vow from His Holiness at Drepung in 1993, and at age ten he began his studies at Drepung and has been engaged in rigorous spiritual training under the special care and guidance of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama ever since. On March 3, 2004, on the fiftieth anniversary of His Holinesss own monastic ordination, which he received from the Sixth Ling Rinpoch, His Holiness conferred full-ordination bhiku vows upon the Seventh Ling Rinpoch at His Holinesss residence in Dharamsala, India.

Rinpoch has traveled extensively both in India and around the world. Rinpoch receives frequent invitations to teach overseas and is always warmly received by Tibetan communities and international students. In 2015, His Eminence commenced a series of international teaching tours, with visits to Singapore, Australia, and North America. Rinpoch plans to visit Israel and the United States in 2017 and Europe in 2018. Rinpoch attended the World Peace Puja in Bodhgaya in January 2005; the International Conference on Vinaya in Sarnath, India, in January 2011; the Global Buddhist Congregation in New Delhi in November 2011; and the First Founding Members Conclave of the International Buddhist Confederation in New Delhi in September 2013. He is a regular attendee of the Mind and Life conferences in India.

He also organized and hosted His Holiness the Dalai Lamas historic Jangchup Lamrim Teachings at the great seats of learning in South IndiaSera, Drepung, Ganden, and Tashi Lhunpo monasteriesfrom 2012 to 2015. In these teachings, His Holiness gave commentaries on eighteen classic treatises on the stages of the path to enlightenment. More than 35,000 people attended each year, including as many as 4,000 foreign attendees from seventy countries, while hundreds of thousands watched worldwide via live webcast. More information about these events is online at jangchuplamrim.org.

In November 2012, while driving to Goa Airport to greet His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the Jangchup Lamrim Teachings, the Seventh Ling Rinpoch was in a catastrophic car accident. The driver of the vehicle was killed, and other passengers sustained serious injuries. Rinpoch himself required lengthy surgeries and was unable to walk for several months. His complete rehabilitation and recovery took several years.

The Seventh Ling Rinpoch has now completed all five subjects in the monastic curriculum (Logic and Epistemology, Perfection of Wisdom, Madhyamaka Philosophy, Abhidharma, and Vinaya) and has been awarded his gesh degree from Drepung Loseling Monastic University. The auspicious occasion of Rinpochs gesh ceremony was celebrated in November 2016 at Drepung (see plate 46), following which Rinpoch commenced the traditional one year of studies at the tantric college of Gyt in Dharamsala.