DHARMA AND THE MODERN WORLD
July-September 2012
From October 2006 through December 2007, Khensur Jampa Tegchok Rinpoche gave teachings at Land of Medicine Buddha in California, USA, on an expansive collection of important points elucidating emptiness, drawing from many sources in the Gelug tradition.
“When I heard of [this], I instantly volunteered to edit the teachings into a book,” Ven. Thubten Chodron writes in the introduction to Insight into Emptiness, the forthcoming book from Wisdom Publications based on Khensur Rinpoche’s emptiness teachings, which were translated by Ven. Steve Carlier. “This was not entirely altruistic on my part, for having edited Khensur Rinpoche’s book Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage, I knew how much I would learn by doing this work. In addition, there is a certain joy that arises in the heart from offering service to our teacher when we know that teacher’s motivation is to benefit all sentient beings. So editing a book is an offering to my teacher and to sentient beings at the same time.”
Mandala managing editor Laura Miller spoke with Ven. Chodron in April 2012 in Portland, Oregon, USA. In their free-ranging conversation, Ven. Chodron discusses her teacher Khensur Jampa Tegchok Rinpoche, the importance of studying emptiness and the process of editing a book among other things.
(Audio interview available for download as MP3.)Ven. Thubten Chodron became a Buddhist in 1975 after attending the Lake Arrowhead teachings in California given by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. She became a nun in 1977 and received full ordination as a bhiksuni in 1986. She became a student of Khensur Jampa Tegchok Rinpoche in 1982 and has studied under his guidance since then. Ven. Chodron has served as resident teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore and at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle. She is founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, a Buddhist monastery in eastern Washington State, USA. She is the author of Buddhism for Beginners and other Dharma books.
Khensur Jampa Tegchok Rinpoche studied at Sera Je Monastery in Tibet for 14 years before fleeing his homeland in 1959. He has taught extensively at Nalanda Monastery in France, Land of Medicine Buddha in California, USA, and in the Masters Program at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy.
Also online, read an excerpt from Insight into Emptiness on the Diamond Cutter Sutra’s simile of the cloud and an archive interview with Khensur Rinpoche from Mandala July-September 2010.
Tags: audio, emptiness, interview, khensur jampa tegchok, ven. thubten chodron