There’s an unspoken belief in the West that the age of great spiritual masters is long past. Maybe enlightenment was possible in Biblical times or the Talmudic era, or perhaps for 16th-century mystics like St. Teresa of Avila or St. John of the Cross, but it hardly seems like a modern pursuit. In Tibetan Buddhism, however, enlightenment is still a very real goal.
Buddhism spread to Tibet from India around 1000 CE, before the Mughal invasions destroyed Buddhism in India, and the religion thrived for centuries in the safe confines of the Himalayas. Buddhism was once again uprooted in 1959 during the Chinese invasion of Tibet, but a handful of great Lamas escaped to India and brought their ancient wisdom to a new audience.
The result is that we have an unbroken lineage of teachers stretching all the way back to the time of the Buddha, around 2500 BCE. Great Indian practitioners like Arya Nagarjuna (~200 CE), Master Shantideva (~700 CE) and Lord Atisha (982-1054) all wrote classic texts on compassion, ultimate reality, and how to combine them in deep meditation to reach enlightenment. Subsequently in Tibet, luminaries such as Je Tsongkapa (1357-1419), the First Panchen Lama (1570-1662), and Chone Drakpa Shedrup (1675-1748) wrote numerous commentaries that shed light on the ancient and often obscure Indian texts.
Most importantly, in every generation the teachings were passed down from Lama to disciple, and the disciples went into deep retreat to fully realize the teachings in their own hearts and become Lamas themselves.
Many of the three-year retreatants are already teachers with numerous students, and much of their motivation to go into retreat is to be better able to pass down the wisdom they have received.
Our Teachers
It would take too long to list our entire lineage of teachers, but here are some of the most recent:
Pabongka Rinpoche (1878-1941)
Pabongka Rinpoche was one of the great Lamas of the modern era of Tibetan Buddhism. He attained his Geshe degree at Sera Mey Monastery in Lhasa and became a highly influential teacher in Tibet, unusual for teaching a great number of laypeople. He was the root Lama of both Kyabje Ling Rinpoche (1903-1983) and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche (1901-1981), the two tutors of the present Dalai Lama, and the teacher of many of the other Lamas who subsequently brought Buddhism to the West.
His public lectures in Tibet, which gathered an audience of thousands, were transcribed into books which are remarkable for their clarity and accessibility, including The Principal Teachings of Buddhism and Liberation in Our Hands.
Incidentally, the three-year retreatants also studied texts by one of Pabongka Rinpoche’s previous incarnations, Changkya Rolpe Dorje (1717-1786).
Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin (1921-2004)
The three-year retreatants owe everything to Khen Rinpoche, one of the greatest Lamas to bring Tibetan Buddhism to the West.
Born in Lhasa, Tibet in 1921, Khen Rinpoche entered Sera Mey Monastery at an early age and proceeded through the rigorous 25-year program of monastic and philosophical studies. A master logician and debater, Rinpoche passed his examinations in front of Tibet's top scholars and was awarded the highest degree of Hlarampa Geshe with honors.
In 1959, Rinpoche survived the shelling of Sera Monastery and escaped on foot to India, along with the Dalai Lama and tens of thousands of other Tibetan refugees. In India he was appointed by the Dalai Lama to compile textbooks and design a curriculum for Tibetan schools in resettlement camps.
In 1972, Khen Rinpoche was chosen by the Dalai Lama to come to the United States to participate in a project involving the translation of Buddhist scriptures. Upon its completion, he was invited to serve as the abbot of Rashi Gempil Ling Temple in New Jersey, a position that he held for the rest of his life, interrupted only by an appointment to serve as abbot of the re-established Sera Mey Monastery in South India.
Many of the three-year retreatants took classes from Khen Rinpoche in New Jersey, and one of the retreat spiritual directors, Geshe Michael Roach, studied with him and served him directly for more than 30 years.
Khen Rinpoche passed away in 2004, but in June 2010, after a long search directed by the Dalai Lama, his reincarnation was found in a Tibetan resettlement camp in South India.
Geshe Michael Roach (1952- )
Along with his Lama, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, Geshe Michael Roach has been instrumental in bringing Tibetan Buddhism intact to the West. Though born and raised in the United States, Geshe Michael became fluent in Tibetan and studied closely with Khen Rinpoche for many years to learn the details of the Buddhist path.
Geshe Michael is a fully ordained Buddhist monk and the first American to earn the title of Geshe (akin to a doctorate in theology) after more than two decades of study with Khen Rinpoche in New Jersey and also at Sera Mey Monastery in South India.
Born in Los Angeles in 1952 and raised in Phoenix, he was awarded the Presidential Scholars medallion at the White House and graduated with honors from Princeton University. He is a scholar of Sanskrit, Tibetan and Russian and has translated many thousands of pages of Buddhist scripture. His published books include The Garden, The Tibetan Book of Yoga, and The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life. The latter draws upon his many years of corporate life in a Manhattan diamond business where he rose to the position of vice-president.
Geshe Michael has founded many organizations such as the Asian Classics Input Project, the Asian Classics Institute, Diamond Mountain retreat center, the Yoga Studies Institute, Star in the East and the Diamond Cutter Institute. He is a popular teacher worldwide and travels extensively, often to poor countries at his own expense, to teach the Buddhist approach to business or yoga to those who are interested.
He completed his own three-year meditation retreat in 2003 and began teaching a six-year advanced course at Diamond Mountain retreat center the following year, along with Lama Christie McNally. All of the three-year retreatants have completed the six-year course at Diamond Mountain and will use it as the basis for their long retreat.
Lama Christie McNally (1972- )
In spite of her youth, Lama Christie McNally is a remarkable teacher of Buddhist philosophy, meditation and yoga. As a co-founder Diamond Mountain retreat center, she taught advanced courses there from 2004 to 2010. She also co-founded the Yoga Studies Institute and developed nine unique Tibetan Heart Yoga series. She has also toured and taught many thousands of students worldwide.
Her published books include The Tibetan Book of Meditation, Two as One Yoga, and The Essential Yoga Sutra. She is also an accomplished translator of Tibetan and Sanskrit scriptures.
Lama Christie completed a three-year silent meditation retreat in 2003 and will serve the current three-year retreat as spiritual director, meaning she will be a retreatant herself and also offer guidance to the other participants when necessary.