Hitting streets today is COMPASSION IN EMPTINESS, a four-disc special edition DVD release of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings and public talk at Radio City Music Hall. The Tibet Center thanks our friends at Oscilloscope Labs and Healing the Divide for all their hard work.
If you click on the image to the right to buy the book, The Tibet Center will receive 4% of your purchase from Amazon.
Photo: Jane L. WechslerJune was chock full of teachings at The Tibet Center. The Venerable Khyongla Rato Rinpoche gave three lectures on the Three Principal Aspects of the Path with Ven. Nicholas Vreeland translating, and on June 28 visiting lecturer Jigme Neal taught on Tong Len.
Jigme Neal will teach on Tong Len with a bit of meditation Q&A, in the context of the three principle paths and steps towards developing Bodhicitta as background for Tong len.
James (Jimi, Jigme) Neal was born in Trieste Italy in 1948, and grew up near Seattle, USA. Studied Acting, music and revolution at university until 1971 when he departed to India overland via Europe. On his second journey to India and Nepal in 1974 he first met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 7th Kopan medaocourse in Nepal and has been studying, practicing and teaching Buddhism from then up to the present time.
Jimi was a fully ordained monk from 1980 to 1995. In 1981 he was one of the founding monks at Nalanda Monastery in France at the request of Lama Yeshe.
He has had the good fortune to have taken extensive teachings, initiations and commentaries in Sutra and Tantra from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kyabje Song Rinpoche, Ling and Serkong Rinpoche, Kirti Tsenshap Rinpoche, Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche, as well as his own root Lamas: Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. He has completed retreats on the preliminary practices, Vajrayogini, Heruka, Yamantaka and others over the span of the last thirty years.
He has lead retreats and taught the Dharma at FPMT centers India, Nepal, America, France and Spain as well as teaching throughout Israel.
He has lived in India for most of his adult life and presently resides near Dharamsala with his wife Valerie.
Listen to Jigme Neal lecture
The new book by H. H. the Dalai Lama (Author), Nicholas Vreeland (Editor), Richard Gere (Afterword). Available now on amazon.com for pre-order. To be released September 27, 2011.
Sale of Paintings and Sculptures to benefit The Tibet Center
On February 2nd, 2011 our dear friend, student and member of The Tibet Center Eileen Spikol passed away. Eileen will be greatly, greatly missed by all at TTC.
Eileen’s daughter Hannah has graciously offered to sell some of her mother’s art with partial proceeds benefitting The Tibet Center. Below are details. There will be a showing on Thursday May 19th, 2011. Please call TTC @ 718-222-0007 or Jean Lyman Goetz @ (212) 255-4460 for further details.
TTC
Sale of Paintings and Sculptures will benefit The Tibet Center
On Thursday, May 19th from 3pm to 8pm paintings, sculptures and mixed media pieces by Eileen Spikol will be shown at the late artist’s studio, and will be available for sale. The work shown ranges from mixed media, gouache and watercolor, collage, ocean twigs and skeletons, encaustic, and plaster, on paper, board, and free-standing sculpture. Partial proceeds from the event will benefit The Tibet Center, a 501.C.3 organization. Call Jean Lyman Goetz for more information (212) 255-4460.
Eileen Spikol’s career spanned her work at the Museum of Natural History in New York, where she supervised and prepared anthropological, paleontological and scientific replicas for distribution to museums and universities, to residencies in Haiti and the Fondations Michel Karolyi in Vence, France. Solo shows included the Soho 20 Gallery in New York, Maples Gallery at Fairleigh Dickinson University, the Islip Art Museum and the Bronx Museum of Arts. Her art was shown in group shows around the United States and in Europe.
Ms. Spikol was educated at the Philadelphia Musuem College of Art. She received her BA in Fine Arts from Fordham University and an MFA in Sculpture from City College, New York. She was Adjunct Professor of Fine Arts at St. Johns University, and taught at Goucher College in Maryland and at Brooklyn College, and developed special art workshops for children in many schools in New York and Maryland.
We're so happy to announce that His Holiness The Dalai Lama will inaugurate Rato Monastery on the morning January 31st. Click here for highlights and pictures of the event.
This morning he completed the bestowal of the oral transmission of Tsong Khapa's collected works and began the works of Gyaltsab Je.
As the oldest Tibetan Buddhist center in New York City our vision is to enable the spiritual development of all New Yorkers regardless of religious preference. To complement this mission we have established a building fund and have achieved the first third of our goal. The completed project will include:
Your generous involvement in the project will enormously benefit the entire community.
As we turn to a new year join us in creating this unique ecumenical space. Please consider a tax-deductible donation of any amount toward this worthwhile endeavor.
Guest lecturer Thubten Tsering Lingtsang spoke on "The Life of Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, Senior Tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama."
At the age of 13, Thubten Tsering Lingtsang was appointed by the government of Tibet to the post of attendant to the late Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, a task he performed to the end of Rinpoche’s life. He is currently the administrator of Ling Labrang, the household of the current Ling Rinpoche.
Venerable Nicholas sent us these photographs from New Dehli.
We just received new photos from Nicholas Vreeland showing the current state of Rato Dratsang Monastery.
To learn more, visit Rato Dratsang online.
In partnership for the fifth time, The Tibet Center and Healing the Divide were privileged to host His Holiness the Dalai Lama in New York City in May 2010. This visit took place over four days, from May 20 to 23, 2010.
For more information please visit:
Ven Khyongla Rato Rinpoche / Time.com: Profiles of Four Tibetan Lamas-in-Exile
TODAY Show: Dalai Lama: ‘21st century will be much happier’
NY1: Dalai Lama Visits Radio City Music Hall
The New York Times: Story on Nicholas Vreeland
TTC / Columbia University June 2008: Living Peace Seminar
USTAD F.WASIFUDDIN DAGAR
w/MOHAN SHYAM SHARMA
Pakhawaj
Friday June 13, 2008 7:30pm
Dhrupad is the most ancient form of Indian classical music. It evolved from recitations of the Sam Veda - the Sam gaan - prayer chants that also transmitted the holy text to the next generation. Dhrupad has a well defined structural arrangement. The recitation begins with the alap – a meditative rendering of the melody without accompaniment from a percussion instrument. The alap gives the artist ample opportunity to improvise. Only a tanpura provides support to the dhrupadiya during the alap. It is followed by the dhrupad. The dhrupad is a prayer sung with rhythmic accompaniment from a pakhawaj. The pakhawaj is a two headed drum with a deep mellow sound, more suitable for the meditative nature of the dhrupad than the tabla which accompanies the khayal.
The Dagar family has dedicated themselves to the preservation of the dhrupad form. The dagarvani dhrupad has traditionally been performed as a Jugalbandi (duet). This traditional rendering of dhrupad preserves the emotional appeal while adding the richness of intricate rhythmic patterns and spontaneity. Young vocalist Ustad F. Wasifuddin Dagar continues this 20 generation unbroken tradition of the Dagar family. He is the nephew of Ustad N. Zahiruddin Dagar and son of Ustad N. Faiyazuddin Dagar, the legendary younger “Dagar Brothers”. After continuing the jugalbandi tradition with his uncle till his demise in 1994, Wasif (shorted form of his name) has successfully presented the dynamic of a duet in a solo performance by maintaining the distinct musical approaches and styles of both his father and uncle. His innovative alap notes are spacious and colorful, ranging across the three octaves delineating the personality of the raga in great clarity. Over the years he has developed subtle variations and improvisations by modulation of volume and sound application to present many shades of the same musical phrase. The composite effect of his dhrupad rendition remains traditional, merging techniques and styles of both his teachers. His is very popular with young listeners for his lively lecture demonstrations illustrating old Vedic technicalities through metaphors from daily life. Wasif has a number of recordings on cassettes and CDs including a five CD collection (Jecklin Musichaus).
He is accompanied by Mohan Shyam Sharma, one of the leading pakhawaj masters in India. He has accompanied leading vocal and instrumental masters and appeared in concerts across Europe, and the United States. He has been performing with Wasif for several years.
David Ellenbogen of WKCR 89.9FM interviews Wasif and broadcasted the Concert for Peace and Harmony to benefit The Tibet Center on his 'Raag Aur Tal' show June 29, 2008.
Read the article (PDF file)
This statue of Kalachakra, Wheel of Time, was commissioned by Khyongla Rato Rinpoche with the participation of members and friends of The Tibet Center. It commemorates the bestowal of the Kalachakra initation in New York City in 1991 by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, given at the request of Richard Gere and The Tibet Center. It was sculpted by the master statue maker of the Tibetan Government in Exile, Penpa Dorjee, under the guidnce of His Holiness.
In August of 1999, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was invited by The Tibet Center and The Gere Foundation to give a series of talks in New York City. The talks were to focus on how we can open our hearts and develop true and lasting compassion toward all beings.
The subject of the lectures given at the Beacon Theater centered on the Buddhist methods by which one achieves ultimate enlightenment. He wove together the contents of two texts, the Middle-Length Stages of Meditation by the eight-century Indian master Kamalashila, and the Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas by the fourteenth-century Tibetan practitioner Togmay Sangpo.
Buddhist Tantra is a method by which a practitioner can attain the ultimate state of enlightenment most rapidly. In order to enter the Tantric path we must have a profound desire to help others, extraordinary compassion wishing to remove their suffering, and vast loving kindness wishing to provide them with all they need and wish for. We must also have some realization of the ultimate truth, the emptiness of inherent existence of ourselves and all phenomena.
One year after Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment, he gave his most important teaching on the ultimate truth. He delivered this sermon on Vulture’s Peak, in what is today the state of Bihar, India. The Buddha simultaneously manifested in Amaravathi, in the state of Andra Pradesh, in order to initiate the kind of Shambhala into the Tantric practice of Kalachakra, Wheel of Time. The Kalachakra Tantra subsequently became the state religious practice of Shambhala.
