Press Release: Venerable Nicholas Vreeland appointed Abbot of Rato Dratsang

Press Release –

The Tibet Center is proud to announce that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has appointed its Director, The Venerable Nicholas Vreeland, as the new Abbot of Rato Monastery, which is based in India.  This is a historic moment; this is the first time that a Westerner has been appointed as abbot of an important Tibetan Buddhist monastery.  On making the appointment, in Long Beach California on April 20, 2012, The Dalai Lama stated, “Your special duty (is) to bridge Tibetan tradition and Western world.” 

Vreeland will split his time between The Tibet Center in New York and the monastery in India. The original Rato Monastery, located on the outskirts of Lhasa, Tibet, was established in the 14^th Century to preserve the teachings on Buddhist logic. By 1959, Rato had grown to 500 monks, with scholars from all the great monastic universities of Tibet converging there every year for a month of intense philosophical and logical study and debate.  In 1983, the monastery was reestablished in a Tibetan refugee settlement in the south Indian state of Karnataka, where two years later Vreeland became a monk and began his monastic studies.  He sat for his Geshe degree (Doctorate of Philosophy) in 1998, after which he returned to New York to assume duties as the Director of The Tibet Center —Kunkhyab Thardo Ling — where he had first begun his studies of Buddhism with the Center’s founder, the Reverend Khyongla Rato Rinpoche in 1977. 

The Tibet Center has been a co-host, with the Gere Foundation, of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visits to New York a number of times, including two public talks in Central Park and teachings at Radio City Music Hall.  Vreeland has edited the New York Times bestseller, An Open Heart, and the recently released, A Profound Mind, both authored by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. 

Though there are over 1,000 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, Rato Monastery is one of only a dozen important Tibetan Government monasteries under the Dalai Lama’s patronage.  Today there are approximately 100 monks at Rato ranging from the age of 6 to 90. 

Vreeland has been a photographer since he was 13 years old, and assisted Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. A recent exhibition of his work, entitled Photos for Rato, toured major cities around the world and raised most of the funds needed for the construction of Rato Monastery’s new campus and temple, which was inaugurated by the Dalai Lama on January 31, 2011.

TTC remembers Adam Yauch

 The Tibet Center and all its students are deeply saddened and mourn the loss of our brother and fellow student Adam Yauch. A true music pioneer, he influenced a generation. His many charitable works have been of enormous benefit to the cause of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan people. We will miss his warmth and friendship. The Tibet Center sends prayers to his family. May he be born in a completely pure realm.

Photo: Vensa Manua Lazar

Venerable Khyongla Rato Rinpoche on The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva Pt 1

Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva Part 2

Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva Part 3 Conclusion

Venerable Khyongla Rato Rinpoche on The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva composed by Gyalse Ngulchu Thogme recorded October 18, 2011 at The Tibet Center

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