Venerable Kangyur Khensur Lobsang Thubten Rinpoche

Venerable Kangyurwa Khensur Lobsang Thubten Rinpoche is one of the most respected lamas teaching in the west today and one of the most eminent lamas in the Gelug tradition, of which His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the head.

Khensur Rinpoche was resident teacher at Buddha House from 1988 - 1995 and currently resides in Adelaide. Although officially 'retired' he recently established The Tibetan Buddhist Institute where he still teaches today.

Lharampa geshe, former abbot, and hand-picked by His Holiness to transmit the Tibetan corpus of the Buddha's teachings - Khensur Rinpoche not only has a deep intellectual understanding of the teachings but also has thoroughly integrated them through his practice, making him an authentic living expression of the essence of the buddhadharma.

The first name in his title - Kangyurwa - reflects his selection by the Dalai Lama to give the oral transmission of all 108 volumes of the Kangyur, the teachings of the Buddha translated into Tibetan. The transmission, given to sangha and lay practitioners in Dharamsala, is done once or twice every generation and takes about six months to complete.

Following this transmission, Rinpoche completed a three-year solitary retreat on the meditational deity Vajrayogini. (His Wailing Request composed during that retreat is an inspiration to all who have ever despaired of their ability to practice.)

The 'Rinpoche' in his title comes not from his recognition as a reincarnated lama but from his position as former abbot - although at the age of five in Kham in eastern Tibet he did something that made people think he might well be a reborn high lama.

"There was a custom that if somebody was sick in the house, a fire was lit at the doorway and stones were placed across the door," Rinpoche said in a taped interview. "Once, I urinated on such a fire and put it out. This got the stones all dirty, so I got rid of the stones, too. Very soon after this the person who was sick got well. Everyone said, 'Oh, he must be a great lama!'" The only son of a family in which many children had died, he was bound at the age of three to the monastic life when Lama Kushog Gyaden Rinpoche of nearby Dhargye Gönpa cut his hair and named him Lobsang Thubten. (He remained at home for several more years, though.)

"Among my earliest memories was playing with the tormas, the ritual offering cakes," Rinpoche recalled. "And I liked to go to the pujas and listen to the lamas chanting." Another early memory, also about age three, was the death of his mother from a very painful disease. His father never remarried, so little Lobsang Thubten was raised by his mother's sister (who, like Rinpoche's own sister, was a nun).

Rinpoche was educated in Buddhist philosophy and psychology at Sera Je Monastic University in Lhasa. Forced into exile like so many thousands of monks, he completed his Lharampa geshe degree (the highest attainable) in the refugee camps at Buxa in northern India before moving to Sera, which had been re-established among the bamboo forests on the southern plains west of Mysore. There he came to be regarded as a great learned scholar and a skilful organizer. He was largely responsible for laying the foundations for the establishment of Tehor Khangtsen, by far the largest regional grouping at Sera Je, today comprising about 1,500 of the 2,500 monks at the monastery.

Khensur Rinpoche was one of the first geshes invited by Lama Yeshe, in the early 1980s, to be a resident teacher at a Western centre. "He was actually on his way, and was in New Delhi when he learned that he had been elected abbot of Sera Je," according to Gen. Jampa Gendun, Rinpoche's long-time translator.

The position of abbot of one of the three great Gelug monasteries - Drepung, Ganden and Sera - is a highly honoured and authoritative one. Only the Ganden Throne-holder is higher in the Gelug tradition. The election by senior monks is a bit like the Pope's by the Catholic College of Cardinals, but His Holiness has the final imprimatur. In his case, Lobsang Thubten came second in the election but was chosen by the Dalai Lama. Khensur Rinpoche came to Adelaide in September 1988 at the invitation of FPMT Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche. He came to teach for one year and stayed, at the repeated requests of his students - and despite the pleas of his many students in India to return there - for six extremely fruitful years.

He returned to India for two and a half years, but returned to Australia in 1997 at the request of his many students here. With some breaks for trips back to India, he has remained ever since. During his time at Buddha House, Rinpoche has comprehensively covered the territory, from lam-rim to Buddhist tenets to tantric commentaries, skilfully making the traditional teachings accessible to westerners. Most of these teachings are on audiotape and are available from the Buddha House library.

He presided over a period of growth, consolidation and maturation of Buddha House, which today enjoys greater community harmony and financial stability as the result of his wise guidance, warm humour and loving patience. Rinpoche also established a sponsorship scheme to assist Tibetan refugee monks at Sera Je with basics such as food and medicine. There are now 870 sponsored monks nuns and lay Tibetan children !!! The Buddha House/Khensur Rinpoche Monk Sponsorship Scheme is one of the largest and most successful of its kind in the world.

Highly valued by students is Rinpoche's ability to gently provide spot-on advice for a wide range of difficulties, from relationship problems to career choices. No matter how grave a problem might seem, it is met as by a wise physician: with sympathetic understanding, an incisive prescription that nevertheless leaves room for personal predisposition, and above all the injunction to 'keep a happy mind'. Those who have had the good fortune to learn from this precious, wish-fulfilling jewel are forever grateful.

Also see Khensur Rinpoche's profile at TBI for more information.