The Tibet Center

The Tibet Center, also known as Kunkhyab Thardo Ling, in New York City, is a center for the study of Tibetan Buddhism, a dharma center. The Tibet Center was founded by Venerable Khyongla Rato Rinpoche in 1975,[1] and is currently directed by Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland, who is also the abbot of Rato Dratsang. The primary teachers at The Tibet Center are Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, and Anthony Spina.

Khyongla Rato Rinpoche teaching at The Tibet Center in September 2014 (with his translator, Tenzin Gelek, on the right)

A view of a Tibet Center meeting with Khyongla Rato Rinpoche teaching

The Tibet Center, in partnership with the Gere Foundation, has invited and hosted the 14th Dalai Lama for six teaching events in NYC since 1991. Numerous other religious teachers, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, have taught at The Tibet Center.

As well as meeting in downtown Manhattan on a weekly basis, The Tibet Center has a retreat home in New Jersey.

Name

The dharma name of the center is Kunkhyab Thardo Ling (translation: Land Pervaded with Seekers of Liberation), a name given to the center by the 6th Ling Rinpoche, who was the 97th Gaden Tripa, and like many of the previous Ling Rinpoches, was the senior tutor of the Dalai Lama.

Tibet Center teachers

The Tibet Center has three main teachers: the founder Venerable Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, a Tibetan incarnate lama, Venerable Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, and Anthony Spina, another long time student of Khyongla Rinpoche.

Many other Tibetan Buddhist teachers have taught at The Tibet Center, including "Venerable Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, the Senior Tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Venerable Tsenshab Serkong Rinpoche, who served as the official debating partner of H. H. the Dalai Lama, Sakya Trizin Rinpoche, the hereditary head of the Sakya order of Tibetan Buddhism, Venerable Trulshik Rinpoche of the Nyingma tradition, and Venerable Tenga Rinpoche of the Kagyu tradition."[2]

Buddhist teachers from the Chan, Theravadan and Zen traditions have also taught at The Tibet Center. In addition, teachers from the Jain, Hindu and Christian religions, as well as scientists and philosophers, have taught there.[3]

Khyongla Rato

Khyongla Rinpoche is a Tibetan incarnate lama who was born in Tibet in 1923. He left Tibet in 1959 and has lived in New York, and subsequently in New Jersey, since 1968. Khyongla Rato has taught at the Tibet Center for over 40 years.[4] He took a role in the film Little Buddha at the Dalai Lama's request.[5]

Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, Khen Rinpoche

Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland in front of the temple at Rato Dratsang, January 2015

Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, Khen Rinpoche, the current director of The Tibet Center, is the first westerner to be made abbot of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, Rato Dratsang, which was re-established in Karnataka, India. Khen Rinpoche holds a Ser Tri Geshe Degree from Rato Monastery. He is a fully ordained monk and a photographer. He is the grandson of Diana Vreeland, and is the subject of the biographical documentary film, Monk with a Camera.[6][7]

Dalai Lama events

Since 1979, the Tibet Center, primarily in partnership with the Gere Foundation, has been instrumental in inviting and hosting the 14th Dalai Lama for seven teaching events in New York City:[3]

• 1979 - One day teaching at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine
• 1991 - The Kalachakra Initiation at the Paramount Theatre at Madison Square Garden, 2 weeks in total
• 1999 - Teaching on Kamalashila's Middle Length Stages of Meditation, and Togmay Sangpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas at the Beacon Theatre, also a public talk to 200,000 people in Central Park. The talks were later published as Open Heart: Practising Compassion in Everyday Life (2002).[8][9][10]
• 2003 - Four-day teaching of Root Verses on Indian Philosophies by the 17th-century Tibetan scholar Jamyang Shepa, and The Seven-Point Mind Training by the 12th-century Geshe Chekawa at the Beacon Theatre, as well as a public talk in Central Park on The Bodhisattva's Jewel Garland by Atisha
• 2007 - Teachings on the Diamond Cutter Sutra, by Shakyamuni Buddha, and Seventy Verses on Emptiness, by Nagarjuna, as well as a public talk on "Peace and Prosperity", at Radio City Music Hall
• 2010 - Four-day teaching on Commentary on Bodhicitta by Nagarjuna, and A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, by Shantideva, followed by a public talk entitled "Awakening the Heart of Selflessness", at Radio City Music Hall
• 2013 - Teachings on the Heart Sutra, The Sutra of the Recollection of the Three Jewels, and the ninth chapter of The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, by Shantideva. Also an initiation into "The Buddha Establishing the Three Pledges", and a public talk on "The Virtue of Nonviolence", at the Beacon Theatre[11]

Location

Since 2014 The Tibet Center meets Monday at 7 pm at the University Settlement @ Houston Street Center, on the Bowery in Manhattan, just south of Houston Street. The Tibet Center also offers a White Tara session and other teaching events, at the Kunkhyab Thardo Ling Retreat Home, in South Orange, New Jersey on Saturdays.

See also

• My Life and Lives, the autobiography of Khyongla Rato Rinpoche.

External links

• Official The Tibet Center site
• The Tibet Center Prayer book
• Video of some of The Tibet Center lectures: three by Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, one by Ven. Dagpo Rinpoche, one by Jigme Neal, and one by Thubten Tsering Lingsang

References

1. Jamyang Centre website "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-06-06. Retrieved 2014-06-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) accessed 2014-6-1
2. The Tibet Center website, History & Mission, accessed 2014-6-1
3. The Tibet Center website, History & Mission, accessed 2014-5-31
4. Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Teachings website, Teachers, Lineage Lamas, Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Teachers, Khyongla Rato Rinpoche Accessed 2014-5-31
5. "Beyond the Dalai Lama: Profiles of Four Tibetan Lamas-in-Exile". Time. July 28, 2011. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
6. King, Susan (December 12, 2014). "'Monk With a Camera' filmmakers found Nicholas Vreeland 'fascinating'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
7. Elder, Sean (November 25, 2014). "Newsweek Magazine Nicky Vreeland: The Playboy and the Prayer Wheel". Newsweek. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
8. Lama, HH Dalai (5 September 2002). Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life. Hodder & Stoughton. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-84894-053-6.
9. Niebuhr, Gustav (August 14, 1999). "For the Discontented, A Message of Hope; Appeal of Buddhism Grows in U.S., Where Dalai Lama Attracts Crowds". New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
10. Kennedy, Randy (August 17, 1999). "PUBLIC LIVES; Testing That Buddhist Serenity in New York". New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
11. Kuruvilla, Carol (October 19, 2013). "Hello Dalai! New Yorkers welcome Dalai Lama at Beacon Theater". New York Daily News. Retrieved 9 December 2020.