Book Release !! A Profound Mind: Cultivating Wisdom in Everyday Life

AVAILABLE NOW AT BOOKSTORES AND AMAZON.COM 

(click on photo to buy on amazon.com)

Excerpted from A PROFOUND MIND, the new book by  H. H. the Dalai Lama (Author), Nicholas Vreeland (Editor), Richard Gere (Afterword).

BUDDHISTS BELIEVE THAT we are responsible for the quality of our lives, our happiness, and our resources. In order to achieve a meaningful life we must transform our own emotions, as this is the most effective way to bring about future happiness for ourselves and for all others.

No one can force us to transform our minds, not even the Buddha. We must do so voluntarily. Therefore Buddha stated, “You are your own master.”

Our efforts must be realistic. We must establish for ourselves that the methods we are following will bring about our desired results. We can’t merely rely on faith. It is essential that we scrutinize the path we intend to follow to establish clearly what is and what is not effective, so that the methods of our efforts may succeed. This, I believe, is essential if we wish to find any true happiness in life....

Click for more excerpt of A Profound Mind (PDF file)
Available now on amazon.com. Copyright 2011. Reprinted with permission from The Crown Publishing Group

Venerable Dagpo Rinpoche at The Tibet Center

  The Venerable Dagpo Rinpoche discussed Boddhicitta at The Tibet Center. @ University Settlement 273 Bowery (and Houston St)

Watch the lecture here... 

Dagpo Rinpoche was born in 1932 in Tibet and at a very young age was recognized by the thirteenth Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of an important Buddhist teacher.
When he was six years old he entered the Bamchö monastery in the Dagpo region where he learned to read and write and also learned the basic principles of Buddhism.
At thirteen years of age he entered Dagpo Shedrup Ling in order to study Buddhist philosophy. Eleven years later he continued his studies in the large monastic university of Drepung, close to Lhasa. There he was admitted to Gomang Dratsang, one of the four colleges of the university.

Guided by some of the greatest twentieth century Tibetan masters including the mentors of the Dalai Lama, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, the fourteenth Dalai Lama himself  AND the Mongolian master Geshe Ngawang Nyima, Dagpo Rinpoche was educated in the purest and strictest monastic tradition. Under their guidance Rinpoche studied the Five Great Texts, Tantra (Rinpoche received many initiations and performed many retreats) and astrology, grammar, poetry and history.

In 1959 Dagpo Rinpoche fled to India. Less than a year later he was invited to France to assist French tibetologists in their scientific research. From 1961 until his retirement in 1993 Rinpoche taught Tibetan language and civilisation and Buddhism at the School of Oriental Studies, (I.Na.L.C.O.) a part of the Sorbonne. He has co-authored a number of books on Tibet and on Buddhism. Now retired, he continues his personal research, practice and studies.

In 1978 Rinpoche founded a Dharma centre in France, which received Buddhist congregation status from the French state and became Ganden Ling Institute in 1995. In 2005 a new temple was opened in Veneux-les-Sablons, where study weekends and retreats under the guidance of Dagpo Rinpoche are organized regularly.

Since the late seventies Rinpoche has shared his vast knowledge of Buddhism with a wide public. On their request he teaches in various European countries, in Asia and in the United States. He has founded  Dharma centres in France, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Indonesia and India. He travels to India yearly to maintain contact with his teachers and  monasteries.

In 2005 Dagpo Rinpoche completed a long term project, the reconstruction and transfer of the Dagpo Shedrub Ling monastery to the Kullu valley in Northwest India.

The Dagpo Educational Fund @ www.thedagpofund.org

 

 

Oscilloscope Laboratories Release of Compassion in Emptiness (2011)

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.

June Teachings

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.

View photos »

Tuesday June 28th, 2011 7pm ~ Jigme Neal on Tong Len at The Tibet Center ~

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

ARTIST EILEEN SPIKOL’S WORKS ON VIEW Thurs May 19, 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.

 

The Tibet Center's New York City Temple Project

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:

  • A spacious quiet atmosphere conducive to study and reflection
  • An open forum for discussion among all religions
  • A venue for public talks, lectures, and religious ceremonies
  • A library, reading room, and learning center


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.

Make a donation >

Thubten Tsering Lingtsang

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.

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Wasifuddin Dagar Concert for Peace and Harmony to Benefit The Tibet Center

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.

Listen to the interview and Concert