No. 0363 (Minh Hạnh dịch)

Tu Viện Kagyu Samye' Ling

Tu viện Kagyu Samye' Ling là một tu viện của Phật Giáo Tây Tạng thuộc hệ phái Kagyu toạ lạc tại thành phố Eskdalemuir gần Langholm, Scotland.(Scotland là một nước tại phía tây bắc của Âu Châu, chung một biên giới về phía nam với nước Anh).

Vùng đất này nguyên thủy là của nhóm người săn bắn. Sau đó được vị Tu sĩ Anandabdhi phái Theravada phát triển thành một tu viện. Anandabodhi đã tới Cananda và được phong chức trong Phật giáo truyền thống Đại Thừa Tây Tạng, và trở thành vị Namgyal Rinpoche

Chogyam Trungpa.

Chogyam Trungpa là vị thiền sư, là một học giả, giảng sư và nghệ sĩ. Ngài sanh tại Tây Tạng, Ngài là hoá thân thứ 11 của Sư Trưởng Trungpa Tulku , đóng một vai tro` quan trọng trong truyền thống Kagyu của Phật Giáo Tây Tạng. Vào năm 1959, Ngài rời khỏi đất nước Tây Tạng và xuyên qua dãy núi Hy Mã Lạp Sơn bằng đường bộ để vào Ấn Độ. Ngài đặt tên cho tu viện là Samyé Ling. Sau đó Ngài rời trung tâm Samyé Ling qua Hoa Ky` và qua đời năm 1986.

Tu viện sau đó được giao cho Akong Rinpoche và người anh là lama Yeshe Losal. Trung tâm được coi như là ngôi chùa Tây Tạng đầu tiên được xây tại Âu Châu và một ngôi tháp vĩ đại, tại nơi đây giảng dậy giáo ly' của Đức Phật và thiền.

Akong Rinpoche là một vị hóa thân. Ngài sanh năm 1939 tại Tây Tạng. Khi Ngài 4 tuổi đã được đưa tới Dolma Lhakang để tu học về Phật giáo Tây Tạng và truyền thống y khoa của Tây Tạng. Năm 1959 Ngài thoát ra khỏi đất nước Tây Tạng và đến Ấn Độ. Ngài hiện nay là người điều hành tu viện Kagyu Samye Ling.


Kagyu Samyé Ling Monastery

Kagyu Samyé Ling Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist complex associated with the Kagyu school located at Eskdalemuir near Langholm, Scotland.

The site of Samyé Ling was originally a hunting lodge. Johnstone House Contemplative Community was founded there by Theravada monk Anandabodhi. This community declined and Anadabodhi went to Canada he became ordained in the Tibetan Mahayana tradition, and became Namgyal Rinpoche. Chögyam Trungpa and Akong Rinpoche were given the centre by the Theravadins and renamed it Samyé Ling.
Trungpa later left and founded further centres in the United States. The name Samye refers to the first Buddhist monastic university in Tibet, while Ling means a large house with grounds.
The centre flourished and developed under the guidance of Akong Rinpoche and his brother Lama Yeshe Losal, who served as Abbot and Retreat Master, respectively. The centre includes the first Tibetan temple to be constructed in Europe, a large stupa, and accommodation for those taking a range of courses on Buddhism and meditation.
Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam Trungpa (1940 - April 4, 1987) was a Buddhist meditation master, scholar, teacher and artist.
Born in Tibet, Chögyam Trungpa was the eleventh in a line of Trungpa tülkus, important figures in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1959, after having already achieved wide renown for his teachings in his native country, he fled the Chinese invasion and crossed the Himalaya on foot into India.
After familiarizing himself with the English language he studied at Oxford and then came to the United States at the invitation of several students.
In 1974, Trungpa founded the Naropa Institute, which later became Naropa University, in Boulder, Colorado. Naropa was the first accredited Buddhist university in North America. Trungpa also founded more than 100 meditation centers throughout the world.
In 1976, Trungpa began giving teachings, since gathered and presented as Shambhala training, inspired by his vision (see terma) of the legendary Kingdom of Shambhala. Shambhalian practices focus on connecting with one's basic sanity and using that insight as inspiration for one's encounter with the world.
Two of his famous and well known students are Pema Chödrön and Allen Ginsberg. Allen Ginsberg was also Teacher at Naropa University.
In 1986, Trungpa, in failing health, established his headquarters in Nova Scotia, where he shortly thereafter died of a heart attack.
Akong
Akong Rinpoche is a tulku in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism and founder of Samye Ling Monastery.
He was born in 1939, near Riwoche in Kham, Eastern Tibet. At the age of six he was discovered by the search party seeking the reincarnation the previous (1st) Akong, Abbot of Dolma Lhakang monastery in the Chamdo area of Kham. The search party was following instructions given by 16th Karmapa
At four he was taken to Dolma Lhakang to receive an education that included religion and traditional Tibetan medicine. When only a teenager, he travelled performing religious ceremonies and treating the ill. Later he went to the great monastic university of Secchen, where he received transmission of the Kagyu lineage from Secchen Kongtrul Rinpoche. He also received instruction from the 16th Karmapa, who also certified him as a teacher of Tibetan medicine.
In 1959, with the invasion of Tibet by China he fled to India. The journey was difficult and dangerous and of the 300 in his party only 13 arrived safely in India. They were so hungry at one point that they boiled leather shoes and bags to make soup.
After spending time in refugee camps he was asked to teach at a school for young tulkus in Dalhousie, NW India. Then in 1963 a sponsor paid for Akong and Trungpa Tulku to go to Oxford to learn English. As only Trungpa had a bursary Akong Rinpoche worked as a hospital orderly in the Radcliffe Infirmary, supporting himself as well as Trungpa Rinpoche and Tulku Chime who had joined them.
He worked diligently to introduce 'western' people to Tibetan religion and some of its culture, as an effort to counter the destruction in his native Tibet. He founded the Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetian centre in Scotland, and ROKPA, a charity working to alleviate poverty in Tibet, Nepal and South Africa.
In 1994, Akong Rinpoche was one of the main people to discover the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa Urgyen Drodul Trinley Dorje, and took him to two of the regents, Tai Situpa and Goshir Gyatsabpa responsible for locating the reincarnation. A rival candidate for the 17th Karmapa is supported by the Shamarpa, see Karmapa controversy.
Akong Rinpoche's younger brother Lama Yeshe Losal, has now taken over some of his duties as abbot of Samye Ling.