Three Paths To Enlightenment - Geshe Chongtul Rinpoche

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Three Paths To Enlightenment - Geshe Chongtul Rinpoche

Event Details

Who: Geshe Chongtul Rinpoche, Bon Shen Ling
What: An Evening of Tibetan Bon Teaching
Where: Tibet House US Gallery
When: Saturday, January 07, 2012 At 07:00 PM
How: General:$25/ Tibet House US and Bon Shen Ling Members:$22.50
Details: Saturday, January 7, 2012, 7-8:30pm

About the Event

Three Paths to Enlightenment
An Evening of Tibetan Bon Teaching

Geshe Chongtul Rinpoche, Bon Shen Ling, Tibetan Bon Education Fund

bon

Saturday, January 7; 7–8:30PM

Everyone is searching for truth and happiness. According to old teachings, truth, wisdom, and happiness are the result of compassion, and are called Enlightenment or Buddha. The fundamental practice of compassion consists of three ways or paths to gain happiness through compassion.

The first is the Sutra practice, which is the renunciation path. This is how to deal with your misery mind in daily life in order to reduce suffering and recognize your truth mind based on emptiness. All daily life and the experience of life are based on emptiness, so we must meditate on emptiness wisdom.

The second is Tantric practice, which is the transformation path. This is a way to deal with our mind and our experiences of daily life. All of our suffering in life, our busy, stressful, painful life is the reflection of our mind. As a result, our experience of daily life depends on how we turn our mind. Because all of our experiences are manifestations of our mind, we should learn how to transform our painful mind into a wisdom mind. Our painful mind comes from the truth mind, so it can be transformed back into peaceful and happiness mind.

The third is Dzogchen, which is the path of self liberation. All of pain and stress in daily life are dependent on our mind, so we should just simply try to recognize our pure truth mind itself. Dzogchen is also called the self awareness path. All will dissolve into the truth mind and luminate into light. All phenomena and any struggling in the mind will liberate into a rainbow or light, which are then liberated into truth light, and no pain or suffering of the mind remain because of the power of recognition of the truth mind and self awareness. All are guests of the mind. All of our pain and suffering arise in the mind, stay in the mind, and finally, dissolve into mind.
These three paths to Enlightenment depend on your own experience, and are very excellent foundation teachings for new students, for those who wish to learn how to turn their minds into light through meditation, and for those who want to experience the rainbow body. Only the third path offers us the opportunity to attain Enlightenment in this very life, so that in this single lifetime, we can each become Buddha.

Contact Bon Shen Ling Office:
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646.524.7119

Saturday, January 7; 7–8:30PM
Registration Fee: General: $25/ Tibet House US and Bon Shen Ling Members: $22.50 click here to register

Teacher:

togden rinpoche

Tog Den Won Po Chongtul Rinpoche is the second son of six children, was raised in India by his Tibetan parents, father Amdo Sherpa Lakha Wangchuk and mother Kham Nang Chen. Chongtul was given his childhood name of Namgyal Wangdhu by the Abbot of Yungdrung Ling. At the age of two, the Abbot of Yungdrung Ling explained to the Abbot of Menri Monastery, His Holiness Menri Trizin 33rd, that this boy was a reincarnated lama who was closely associated with both abbots during a previous lifetime, and would be very important in the preservation of Bon transmissions. The Abbot of Yungdrung Ling requested that the Abbot of Menri look after and raise this child. At the age of seven Chongtul was placed in the Monastery under the care of His Holiness,the 33rd Menri Trizin. At Menri, he studied reading and writing, and at the age of ten, he was given the responsibility of Drupkhang am Chod, or Caretaker of the Protectors’ House. For the next two years, he performed the traditional invocations to the Bon Guardians.

ChongTsang Monastery in Tibet, Amdo, Sharkhook

When Chongul was thirteen, His Holiness the Menri Trizin revealed to him that he was the reincarnation of Tog Den Won Po Sherab Tenpai Gyaltsen (photo of his monastery is pictured above). A Ku Tog Den Won Po was one of His Holiness’ teachers from Tibet. In Amdo, A Ku means Great Monk Teacher, Tog Den means Great Dzogchen Tantric practitioner, Won Po means Leader. Tog Dn Won Po was all of these during that lifetime. At fourteen, Chongtul entered the Bon Dialectic School at Menri Monastery. There he studied Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen, poetry, astrology, and astronomy. He also learned basic Tibetan medicine, and methods for constructing mandalas and stupas. When he was fifteen, he was appointed to the high position of Prayer Leader or Tsokchen U zed, a position he served for six years. During his student years at the Bon Dialectic School, Chongtul received all the Bon initiations, transmissions, and teachings from His Holiness Menri Trizin 33rd Lungtok Tenpai Nyima and from Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. When he was twenty three, Chongtul was awarded the Geshe Degree, the highest level in Tibetan education. He served as the Treasurer of Menri Monastery for three years, and then was appointed as a teacher in the Bon Dialectic School where, for eight years, he taught Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen . In 1983, His Holiness appointed him the first President of the Bon Children’s Welfare Trust where forty children were placed in his care. There are now over three hundred children in the Bon Childrens Welfare Center. In 1988, Chongtul was appointed as the first Secretary of the Yungdrung Bon Monastic Center, which is the central administrative office for Bon affairs. He accompanied His Holiness to Tibet where they visited areas that included Kham, Amdo, and Upper Tibet. Among the twenty three monasteries they visited were the original Menri Monastery, Yungdrung Ling Monastery, and Chong Tsang Monastery, Chongtul’s home monastery. Chongtul Rinpoche is the abbot of Chong Tsang Monastery in Amdo Sherpa in Tibet. Since 1997, Chongtul has been accompanying and assisting His Holiness the 33rd Menri Trizin on teaching trips to the United States and other countries. In 2005, he turned over his responsibilities at Menri Monastery to others who were permanently residing there in order to teach in other parts of the world. Since 1998, he has established the following:

•    Sa Trik Er Sang: The Bon Study Center ~ Munich, Germany
•    Sa Trik Er Sang ~ Warsaw, Poland (Visit www.satrikersang.pl)
•    The Bon Culture Center ~ Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
•    Friends of Tibetan Bon ~ Warsaw, Poland
•    Bon Culture Center ~ Delhi, India
•    Bon Shen Ling: Tibetan Bon Education Fund ~ New York, USA

About the Presenter

See above.