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Latest Event at Gyuto Vajrayana Center - Updated 25 December 2005GYUTO VAJRAYANA CENTERVen. Dhakpa Rinpoche and all the Venerable Monks at the Gyuto Center wish everyone a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year, 2006 Looking Back on 2005 2005 has been an extraordinary year for the Gyuto Vajrayana Center. His Holiness the Dalai Lama accepted our request to teach in San Jose –hopefully in 2007. We have had a rich and varied teaching program and series of initiations from one of the greatest living Tibetan Buddhist Lamas, Ven. Dhakpa Rinpoche. The Second Annual Lama Dinner was a great success. Our membership has grown significantly and the support we are receiving at the Center to put on our programs has increased; the more support we receive, the more we can do. Gyuto Monastery, India Over the past few years Gyuto has been moving its monastery from a remote area of northeastern India to Sidhbari near His Holiness’ residence in Dharamsala. This massive undertaking of construction and relocation was accomplished through the tireless efforts of the monks and generous international donations. Gyuto has been privileged to have His Holiness the Karmapa in residence at the Gyuto Ramoche Temple since 2000 as our honored guest. The new monastery was inaugurated in March 2005 by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in a spectacular event attended by thousands of officials and students of Buddhism and friends and supporters of Gyuto. His Holiness expressed his great pleasure with the new monastery and how well the inauguration had been planned. Taking advantage of this auspicious moment we invited His Holiness to give teachings in San Jose hosted by the Gyuto Vajrayana Center. To our surprise and delight, His Holiness graciously accepted. Before I continue with this part of our 2005 story I would like to offer a special thank you to our friends John and Helen Meyer of Meyer Sound. John and Helen have been supporters of Gyuto for many, many years and they donated and installed a complete state of the art sound system brought from the United States to the new Gyuto Monastery in India. I cannot tell you how much we appreciate this. His Holiness the Dalai Lama We are overwhelmed with His Holiness’ acceptance of our request for a four-day teaching schedule in San Jose in 2007! A committee for His Holiness's visit has been formed. A meeting was held with our long-term advisors from inside and outside the Center to discuss a draft planning document. As a result, the document was expanded into a proposal that details our high-level plan. This proposal is comprised of a financial outline, possible venues, costs, potential dates, suggested teaching topics and plans for a public talk. Advisors for event planning, the ticketing process, sound engineering, and many other elements were also included in the proposal. Recently, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was invited to Stanford University for a series of events. In preparation for this visit we completed our proposal hoping we would have the opportunity to give it to His Holiness’ officials for their review. I presented the proposal and was able to discuss it with them the next day. During the meeting the officials offered very useful advice on His Holiness’ San Jose visit. However, due to His Holiness’ tight schedule, we still do not have information about the dates for his visit to San Jose. His Holiness's representative in New York told us that they will give us the dates as soon as possible. We will make an official announcement as soon as we receive the dates from His Holiness’ private office. Meanwhile, if you are interested in helping us with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visit to the Bay Area, please fill out the volunteer application on our website: www.gyutocenter.org Ven. Dhakpa Rinpoche Dhakpa Rinpoche has spent several precious months with us this year. This is his third visit to the Gyuto Vajrayana Center and his teachings and initiations are always the highlight of the Center’s scheduled events. This year in particular has been a very busy year for Rinpoche and he has offered a long list of powerful teachings and initiations. His regular teachings have been commentaries on the Lam Rim and the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by Shantideva. Rinpoche has also given profound and remarkable teaching on the Six Yogas of Naropa and Phowa, the means of transference of consciousness. Initiations he has bestowed include Vajrapani, Vajrasattva and Cittamani Tara. Most of Rinpoche’s teachings have been at the Gyuto Vajrayana Center. However we have held some of the events at DharmaGates which has a larger facility and a much bigger parking lot! DharmaGates has a beautiful Center and library and we appreciate their generosity in hosting us. At many of those events there has been no spare seating available – such is the demand to hear Rinpoche teach the dharma. Perhaps the most remarkable event in Rinpoche’s calendar was the oral transmission of the Bari Gyatsa. This teaching was personally requested by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Thomtok Rinpoche, who came from his Center in Italy, to attend. The Bari Gyatsa is a very rare event and enables the attendees to have the transmission of the deity practices from a uniquely qualified master. Rinpoche will be leaving in late December, 2005 and we do not expect to see him for quite a while. For several years he has been giving teachings to the monks and tulkus of Sera Mey at the special request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Rinpoche will now be returning to complete those teachings so that the unbroken tradition of these unique teachings will be passed to future generations. If you have met Rinpoche you have met Ven. Losang, Rinpoche’s attendant for the last 15 years. I want to say a special thank you to Losang for his dedicated care of Rinpoche; he is the perfect example of guru devotion. We Will Miss Ven. Jampa Thaye Ven. Jampa’s warm, smiling presence will be truly missed at the Center. Ven. Jampa has spent a full two years at the Center and during this time he has made many friends and can always be counted on to make everyone feel welcome. He has provided a strong role-model for practicing the dharma. Ven. Jampa has offered many pujas and prayers for our members and friends as Dhakpa Rinpoche has advised. Ven. Jampa Thaye has also been giving Tibetan lessons since his arrival here. He has worked very hard at the Center and we thank him for helping both the students and with the running of the Center. We Welcome Ven. Lobsang Dorjee As Ven. Jampa leaves, his old friend and fellow monk, Ven. Lobsang comes to take his place. Born in Eastern Tibet in 1933, Ven. Lobsang Dorjee became a monk when he was 6 years old. He then joined Gyuto monastery in 1953 and left Tibet in 1959 along with hundreds of thousands of other Tibetans into exile. Ven. Lobsang Dorjee is one of the most senior Gyuto monks and he has a very friendly and welcoming character. He has been a manager of the Gyuto Monastery and recently was requested to go to Taiwan to set up a new Gyuto Center in Taipei. Happily, Ven. Lobsang Dorjee has agreed to stay with us for one year. We hope that he'll enjoy meeting our members and the beautiful environment of San Jose, California. Lama Appreciation Dinner, 2005 Our First Lama Appreciation Dinner in 2004 was such a success we decided to do it again and make it an annual event. This year we had Dhakpa Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lama Lodoe Rinpoche and Geshe Ngawang Dakpa in attendance as well as many members of their sangha and students. The Dalai Lama Foundation and the DharmaGates Center also supported the event. I particularly want to thank Chaksampa, the Berkeley-based Tibetan music group, for providing us with traditional Tibetan music again this year. Lama Zopa Rinpoche could be seen to be really enjoying their performance. This year we had 350 attendees, a full house. People who waited until the last minute unfortunately could not get tickets. We were deeply blessed to be in the presence of our precious teachers and be able to show them our sincere appreciation. If you would like to see photographs of the dinner please go to http://poeticdream.com/gallery.php?gid=338 Our thanks to David Huang for capturing the spirit of the event. I hope to hold the Third Annual Lama Appreciation Dinner 2006 at a larger location and I hope I will see you all there as well as the many more people who will be able to attend. We intend inviting lamas from all the Tibetan Buddhist traditions again as we did this year. Other Activities The venerable Gyuto monks performed in a cultural program at Stanford University that continues our ongoing relationship with Stanford’s Asian Studies program. They also chanted the food offering at His Holiness’ luncheon at Stanford. Gyuto is also very pleased that it has been able to help support the local Tibetan community more and more. Our recent work with the Tibetan Association of Northern California (TANC) to help sell tickets for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s talk in San Francisco was another way that we have been able to work together. Additionally, regular prayer is led by the Gyuto monks for the Tibetan Community in Berkeley. We hope we can do more to help the Tibetan Community in the coming year. Students from Santa Clara University This year we had many students visit the Gyuto Center. Prof. David Gray of Santa Clara University referred all of his students who are taking Buddhist Studies to our Center for research. The students enjoyed being with the monks and asked many questions about Tibetan Buddhism. Last October the Gyuto monks participated in a community event at Los Gatos High School. There were many different organizations involved; however the Gyuto monks’ booth was the most crowded because the monks showed the children how to draw sand paintings and how to use some of the ritual instruments. The children seemed to really enjoy spending time with the monks! 2002 to 2005 Whenever I look back on the year I always think of how far we have come since we started. From a small house to large Dharma Center, from a small group of students to a large flourishing community; we have grown from 80 people on our email and newsletter list to over 800. Why has this happened? First, we have been blessed by profound teachings from extraordinary lamas. Many people have come to the Center to hear the teachings and be in the presence of these great lamas. Secondly, we have found more and more dedicated and devoted students who want to the help the Center grow and succeed. When you visit our Center, look around, everything you see has been donated by a supporter. The Center is cleaned, painted and landscaped by volunteers. For special events all the flowers, offerings and meals are provided by students. We invite everyone to visit us, bring your families your friends, your colleagues, your school class; we look forward to seeing you! But, what underlies all of this? It is the Buddha Dharma. The Center teaches the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism, a branch on a tree that goes back 2,500 years ago to the teachings of the Buddha. The truth of these teachings and the unbroken transmission of these teachings from qualified masters down to our present time is the foundation of the Center. Buddha’s teachings have come down to us through the ages, the commentaries of the living masters are the doorways to those teachings and the Center is a gathering place for the students to meet with those masters. Fundraising One of the Center’s major on-going concerns is its financial stability. Ironically, the more successful the Center gets, with more students, more newsletters and more programs, the harder it is for the Center to make ends meet. The Gyuto Center is, in essence, a small monastery, a residence for Buddhist monks and lamas in the South Bay. The costs of the Center, such as the mortgage, utilities, food, transportation and healthcare for the lamas, especially for our older resident lamas, are high and increasing all the time. Against this we have a very unpredictable income that is mostly derived from donations and requested ritual services. The Gyuto Center never charges for teachings or empowerments. This is a key element of Gyuto’s philosophy of making the Dharma freely available to everyone. To continue our programs and to continue to grow Gyuto needs stronger financial security. Please consider joining the Center as a member and being an active part of the Gyuto Community. We want to request that all of our members and friends continue to support the Center so that we can continue to provide teachings to the community. A Special Event We are very pleased to announce that Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen of Thubten Dhargye Ling in Southern California has agreed to come to the Gyuto Center and give teachings on the Eight Verses of Mind Training. Geshe-la has had a long connection with the Center and has been on our Board of Directors since the Center started. He has also successfully hosted His Holiness five times in Los Angeles for major teaching events and has offered to advise us on our plans for His Holiness’ visit to San Jose. Geshe-la is hosting His Holiness again next year in September 2006. For more information about His Holiness' visit in Long Beach please visit: www.tdling.com Ven. Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen was born in 1924 in the Kham province of eastern Tibet. When he was sixteen Geshe Gyeltsen left for Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, to study for his Geshe degree at Sera Monastery. He joined the Gaden Shartse Monastery and was taught by the late Kyabje Zong Rinpoche. In 1959 Geshe Gyeltsen went into exile and resettled at Dalhousie in northern India where he studied before taking his final examinations. He passed these with honors and was awarded the highest degree of Lharampa Geshe. In 1978, Geshe-la founded the Dharma center, Thubten Dhargye Ling, now in Long Beach. Geshe-la is the author of “The Keys to Great Enlightenment”, commentaries on the Eight Verses of Mind Training and the Thirty-seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and “The Mirror of Wisdom”. For more information about Geshe-la, please visit: www.tdling.com New Resident Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche Ngawang Jorden Khensur Rinpoche Nagwang Jorden was the abbot of Gyuto Monastery from 2002-2005. Khensur Rinpoche has agreed to be our new resident teacher for the next two years. Rinpoche has the distinction of being the youngest abbot of Gyuto Monastery ever appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Rinpoche is currently attending the Kalachakra teaching in South India and he is expected to arrive in San Jose in February 2006. Khensur Rinpoche will continue what is remaining of Dhakpa Rinpoche's teaching on the Path to Bliss (Lamrim) and The Bodhisattva's Way of Life upon his arrival. Please log on our website time to time for latest news and teaching schedules: www.gyutocenter.org Thank you! I want to thank you all for supporting the Gyuto Vajrayana Center. So many people support the Center in so many ways it would be impossible for me to thank them all individually. Our volunteers are involved in all of the key areas of running the Center: the office, Dharma programs, newsletters, the library, the website, technical support, fundraising, flowers for the altar, decorations for the Gompa, housekeeping and maintenance, bookkeeping, landscaping, printing, photography, transportation, lama care and many others. On a special note, I want to thank our translator, Lobsang Gyaltsen, who is a great practitioner of the Dharma. Lobsang has offered his time to translate the Dharma for us free of charge for the last two years. I also want to thank Yeshe Gyatso, Joyce, Rosa and Marie for translating into Chinese and Vietnamese. A special thanks to DharmaGates. DharmaGates was founded by a long-term friend and supporter of Gyuto, Tam To. Tam has graciously allowed us to use his Center free of charge when we have needed it and has been very supportive of all our Dharma activities. We need help with the following areas: Web Master or Website designer Part-time office assistance Newsletter Graphic designer Bulk mail Calendar for January - February 2006 JANUARY Tara Puja for Long Life Saturday Jan. 7 7 pm - 8 pm Guru Puja (Tsog Offering) Monday Jan. 9 7 pm - 8 pm Nyung-Ne Retreat Instruction Friday Jan. 13 7 pm - 8 pm Nyung-Ne Fasting Retreat Saturday Jan. 14 5.30 am - 6 pm Nyung-Ne Fasting Retreat Sunday Jan. 15 5.30 am - 6 pm Nyung-Ne Fasting Retreat Monday Jan. 16 8 am -10 am Six-Armed Mahakala Puja Wednesday 18 9 am - 12 pm Guru Puja Ritual Practice Saturday Jan. 21 7 pm - 8 pm Guru Puja (Tsog Offering) Tuesday Jan. 24 7 pm - 8 pm Medicine Buddha Puja for Healing Friday Jan. 27 7 pm - 8 pm 35 Buddha's Confession Practice Saturday Jan. 28 7 pm 8 pm FEBRUARY Medicine Buddha Puja for Healing Saturday Feb. 4 10 am - 11 am Guru Puja (Tsog Offering) Tuesday Feb. 7 7 pm - 8 pm Tara Puja for Long life Monday Feb. 17 7 pm - 8 pm Eight Verses of Thought Training Ven. Geshe Gyeltsen Saturday Feb. 11 10 am - 5 pm Eight Verses of Thought Training Ven. Geshe Gyeltsen Sunday Feb. 12 10 am - 5 pm Six-Armed Mahakala Puja Friday Feb. 17 9 am - 12 pm Tara Puja for Long Life Saturday Feb. 18 7 pm - 8 pm Guru Puja (Tsog Offering) Thursday Feb. 23 7 pm - 8 pm Tibetan New Years Eve. (Gu-Thuk) Sunday Feb. 26 7 pm - 9 pm Tibetan New Year Fire Dog 2133 (Losar) Tuesday Feb. 28th No event at the Gyuto Center Gu-Thuk This spiritual cleansing ritual is done on the 29th day of the last Tibetan month of the year. All the monasteries and nunneries perform a cleansing ritual to remove obstacles, followed by Gu-thuk, a special dumpling soup with hidden ingredients to tell your fortune for the year ahead. Everyone is welcome to join the monks and enjoy Gu-thuk together. Eight Verses of Thought Training Composed by Kadam Geshe Langri Tangpa over 800 years ago this is a Lojong, that is, a Mind Training. It succinctly outlines the essential aspects of training one’s mind in the conduct of a bodhisattva. It explains the skillful ways in which one can transcend adverse circumstances and transform them into conditions which will enhance spiritual progress. This commentary will be based on Geshe-la’s book,” The Keys to Great Enlightenment”. Ven. Donyo, Director ********************************************************* May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and its causes. May all sentient beings never be separated from sorrowless bliss. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity free of bias, attachment and anger. Gyuto Vajrayana Center 1439 Old Piedmont Rd. San Jose, CA 95132 Tel: (408) 926 9430 Fax: (408) 272 1275 Email: gyutovc@aol.com Website: http://www.gyutocenter.org For all past events, please Click Here to read them. ********************************************************* Note: All the above events are published are for information basis. It is not in any way related or affiliated with our website. If you are interested in attending or finding out more, please contact the above website or email to the above email address. |
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