PO Box 6483, Ithaca, NY 14851 607-273-8519 WINTER 1996 Newsletter and Catalog Supplement Tibetan Nuns Debate for Dalai Lama NAMGYAL INSTITUTE by Thubten Chodron I began hearing rumors the At 4PM nuns, monks, and Enters New Phase morning of Sunday, October 8th laypeople gathered in the court- that nuns were going to debate in yard. The nuns were already debat- the courtyard in front of the main ing on one side, and their voices of Development temple in Dharamsala and that His and clapping hands, a mark of de- Holiness the Dalai Lama was to be bate as done in Tibetan Buddhism, Spring 1996 will mark the end Lama. The monks have received a • Obtain health insurance for the there to observe. There were many filled the place. Suddenly there was of the fourth full year of operation wide and popular reception Namgyal monks, none of whom nuns in McLeod Gam' at the time; a hush and the nuns who had been and the beginning of a new phase throughout the U.S. and Canada, currently have health insurance. the major nunneries in India and debating went onto the stage in the of development for the Institute of and there is an ever-growing circle • Fund a full-time paid adminis- Nepal were having their first ever "pavilion" where His Holiness' seat Buddhist Studies established by of students at the Institute in trator. Our two administrators inter-nunnery debate. The fact that was. His Holiness soon came out, Namgyal Monastery in North Ithaca, confirming the validity of have each put in forty hours per the best nun debaters had^athered the nuns prostrated and were America. the founders' vision. Indeed, inter- week for the past four years with for the month-long debate session seated. In all the many years I have Namgyal Monastery is the per- est has never been higher among no salary. demonstrated the degree of im- been in Dharamsala, this was the sonal monastery of His Holiness Westerners to learn more about • Pay off the mortgage on the provement in the education of Ti- first time I had seen nuns—and so the Dalai Lama and also the offi- Tibetan Buddhism and how its cen- building that houses the Monastery betan nuns that has occurred in the many of them at that—seated on cial monastery of the Tibetan gov- turies-old wisdom sheds light on and Institute which comes due next last decade. Continued on page 12 ernment-in-exile. The Institute is the challenges of modern Me. year as a balloon payment — co-located with the monastery's Specific goals for Namgyal approx. $100,000. With the mort- North American branch, which Institute's next phase of develop- gage paid off, it will free up funds NEW. was founded at the same time, in a ment, expected to take several for other important needs such as large residence imdowntown years to fulfill, include: health insurance for the monks. Ithaca, New York, not far from the • Expand the innovative program • Fund and develop a resident re- DZOGCHEN: The Self-Perfected State campus of Cornell University. of instruction designed to bridge treat center and guest house near Goals for Namgyal Institute's Tibetan and Western teaching the Monastery/Institute in Ithaca. next phase of development are a methods including the Tibetan Lan- Currently we have nowhere to Chogyal Namkhai Norbu is direct outgrowth of successes guage Institute within Namgyal. house visitors. well-known for his clear explana- achieved since Namgyal Monas- • Fund monk and nun scholar- • Develop new methods of com- DZOGCHEN tions ofDzogchen, and many con- tery founded a branch in North ships to bring additional Tibetan munication and instruction to sider Dzogchen: The Self-Per- America in 1992, under the direc- monks and nuns to North America reach students and others who live fected State to be his best book on tion of His Holiness the Dalai to teach and study. outside Ithaca, such as a more ex- Dzogchen meditation. The follow- • An endowment for the Western tensive summer programs and use of the Internet. ing excerpt is from the Chapter Above photo: The staff and a few of scholars-in-residence, who have entitled "The Individual: Body, the students of Namgyal Institute. The been teaching at Namgyal under These goals are intended as a Voice and Mind". building in the background is great personal financial sacrifice. whole to take the study of Tibetan Namgyal Institute. Continued on page 4 Someone who begins to develop an interest in the teachings can tend to distance themselves from Address Correction Requested the reality of material things, as if Bulk Rate the teachings were something U.S. Postage Paid completely apart from daily life. Ithaca, NY 14851 Often, at the bottom of all this, Permit No. 746 there is an attitude of giving up and running away from one's own prob- lems, with the illusion that one will be able to find something that will by Chogyal Namkliai Norbu miraculously help one to transcend ed. by Adriano Clemente all that. But the teachings are based trans, by John Shane on the principle of our actual hu- man condition. We have a physical 150pp., 5 line drawings body with all its various limits: ISBN 1-55939-057-3 $12.95 each day we have to eat, work, rest, Continued on page 10 The First American Geshe Un November 13,1995, following a week spent in philosophi- at the monasteries and are available to scholars and practitio- cal debate with each class at Sera Mey Monastic University, ners on CD-ROM and via the Internet. Ven. Michael Roach became the first American to complete Geshe Roach has also launched many projects outside of In- the geshe degree, the Tibetan equivalent of a doctorate in Bud- dia designed to help preserve Tibetan Buddhism and to help its dhist philosophy. growth in the West. In 1992, in New York where he works in the The geshe degree is normally awarded by the major Gelukpa diamond industry, he started the Asian Classics Institute to pro- monasteries to a few scholars who have completed approxi- vide the equivalent of a monastic education to Western men mately 20 years of study of topics such as Madhyamika (Middle and women. Courses taught in Tibetan and English tracks, each Way), Abhidharma (Higher Knowledge), Vinaya (Vowed Mo- meeting two evenings a week, will qualify the students as teach- rality), and Pramana (Logic). ers or translators by the end of the five-year program. There Geshe Roach has been studying with Khen Rinpoche Geshe are also introductory classes, as well as correspondence courses Lobsang Tharchin, of Howell, New Jersey, a former abbot of for people who don't live in New York. Roach's knowledgeable Sera Mey, for more than 20 years. He has also studied exten- and enthusiastic teaching style may be responsible for the sively with scholars at Sera Mey, and has worked tirelessly to Institute's rapid growth. Some of the students are starting to support and help rebuild the heart-rendingly impoverished fa- teach already, both at the Institute, and in nearby schools, pris- cilities of the university, which was relocated from Lhasa to a ons, and substance-abuse clinics. jungle in southern India following the communist Chinese oc- Recently the Institute has expanded to include a monastery cupation of Tibet. and nunnery, known collectively as Diamond Abbey. This fills a Geshe Roach, or Lobsang Chunzin as he is known at the long-felt need for a home for American monks and nuns, a place monastery, also heads the Asian Classics Input Project, which where people can follow a life-style emphasizing monastic and includes the Sera Mey Computer Center and other computer bodhisattva vows, as well as study and practice. input centers, mostly located in monasteries in India. Dedi- All services of the Asian Classics Institute are provided free cated to preserving endangered and rare Buddhist literature, of charge. It is located at 321 East Sixth St., New York, N.Y these centers input sutras, commentaries, and monastic text- 10003. People who want information about classes should call Geshe Michael Roach books on computer disks. These books are reprinted for use the Asian Classics Institute at (212) 475-7752. ■ rectly purifies the process of Miraculous rebirth is purified in birth—the baby coming out into the following way: the seat of the the world and starting to cry. deity is the birthplace of the bardo Cjcnei .-.: ueitv The habit of being born into the consciousness. The seed syllable Generating world is purified by this stage of and hand emblem represent the the visualization. consciousness mixed with vital air. Beings are also born from eggs, The light radiating and reabsorb- the through the fusion of heat and ing represents the consciousness' moisture, and by spontaneous, mi- desire to take rebirth. It creates the raculous birth, as when taking re- power which nourishes the karmic Deity birth in the god and hell realms. potency to take rebirth in one in- The visualization of the hand em- stant—the way in which a miracu- blem transforming into the deity lous rebirth occurs. The moment by Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche has the power to purify each type the deity appears is the moment of of birth. miraculous birth. 170 pp., 19 b&w photos Birth through an egg is purified The process of the seed ISBN 1-55939-055-7 $14.95 in the following way: when syllable's descent to the seat of the the seed syllable transforms into deity is called the sadhana of the the hand emblem, the bardo syllables of speech.