Things are changing for the better at Nalanda, the FPMT monastery in Lavaur, France. “After three years without a resident teacher, we are now blessed with the presence of Mogchok Rinpoche, who arrived in November,” said Ven. Henri Charpentier, director of Nalanda. “The monks are already very impressed by him, especially with his natural humility and the glow of loving kindness in his eyes.” Ven. Henri and Ven. Viggo Johansen spoke to Rinpoche about his years in Tibet and the lineage of Mogchok Rinpoche.

Could Rinpoche please tell us a little about his life?

I was born in Lhasa in 1954. When I was four years old, I was recognized as a reincarnation of Mogchok Rinpoche by the tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche. Also His Holiness checked with a mo [a form of divination].

When I was in my mother’s womb, there were several signs [of who I was]. Once, when my mother was on the balcony on top of the house, from the sky a crow threw a brooch in front of her. In Tibet they carry the babies on their backs and they use brooches like this to tie a safety knot, so maybe it was an indication to take good care of the child. Also, in Tibet crows are often recognized as a manifestation of Mahakala, and in my monastery, the main protector is Six-armed Mahakala.

Then at the time of my birth, my mother had a vision of a red face coming through the window. It was at night and the face was saying: “this baby does not belong to you, he belongs to us!” In fact, the family, there were quite a lot of signs, quite many things happening. My parents were a bit scared; they didn’t feel comfortable, so they went to see Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Ling Rinpoche. They said not to worry and to take good care of the child.

In the meantime the monks from my monastery were looking for the reincarnation of Mogchok Rinpoche, and finally, although they checked many children, they ended up with a group of three, including me, and I was chosen. At this point, I was four years old. Then the managers of the monastery came to talk to my father, saying that they wanted to take me to the monastery for enthronement and so on. My father didn’t like to hear this; he was a bit scared. In Tibet, if there is only one son in the family, he is considered very important because later on he would be responsible for taking care of the others and to keep the family line going.

But Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche advised my father to let me go; if he kept me, he said, there might be problems in the future, for both the family and me. Then my father agreed. So when I was four, I went to the Mogchok Monastery.

Did Rinpoche have any memories when he was young about being a high lama or anything like that, proving that he was the right reincarnation?

The previous Mogchok Rinpoche did a lot of torma offerings; he liked this practice very much. He always had the substances for torma offerings around. So when the monks wanted to test whether I was the right incarnation or not, they brought some of these substances, and even before they asked, I recognized it and said, ‘This is my material.’ And before this incident I had asked many times for this kind of substance in order to make torma offerings. There were a few instances like this, but I was very young, and now I can’t remember anymore.

Was Rinpoche happy to go to the monastery, or was it difficult to leave the family at such a young age?

I enjoyed very much being at the monastery. Mogchok Monastery was very isolated, so it was almost like being in retreat. For two years I studied, memorized, learned how to read and write, prayed and so on. Since I was from Drepung Monastery in Lhasa, they picked up a geshe from there to tutor me. First there were 16 geshes, like candidates, and from these one was picked. My father was a general in the Tibetan army and quite an important person, so this reason, too, they chose a very good geshe to take care of my education.

When I was six years old, the whole of Tibet was occupied by China; that was in 1959. I was taken away from the monastery by the Chinese army. Many young lamas were sent away to do labor at different places. I asked to go to Lhasa to be with my mother, but they didn’t allow me. Instead I was sent to a nearby village, together with my assistants, to look after the sheep of the Chinese army.

When I was eight years old, I went to many places to work; working on the road, building, sometimes farming.

How did you feel about being taken away like that, losing all security, at only six years of age?

I didn’t really suffer a lot, everything was okay, although there were a lot of changes around. I think maybe that was my karma due to past life training, so compared with other people I didn’t suffer much.

Was Rinpoche ever imprisoned?

Yes, for two, three months during the Cultural Revolution. Sometimes the Chinese came to the village, checking if people were hiding things. They looked everywhere, and sometimes they found things that they didn’t like, such as statues of deities and protectors. They found one in the place I was living, so for this reason I had to go to prison. But it wasn’t really a strict prison, not like the ones in Lhasa.

So Rinpoche was never beaten or tortured?

Oh yes, they beat me a lot; beating and asking, ‘Why did you have this statue?’ They beat out all my teeth. The teeth I have now are all new.

Rinpoche was never sent to school?

I was never sent to school. The Chinese were very angry. My father was a Tibetan army leader. He escaped with His Holiness in 1959. He had many fights with the Chinese, so they very angry with us. And I was a lama, which also made them angry. So I couldn’t go to school; I had to work. But sometimes I studied with the old Tibetans. In the beginning I thought the Chinese would kill me, but they didn’t. Only work.

As the time went by, the conditions got better and better. Many people were allowed to do business and some people were allowed to go to India to see relatives. In 1979, at the time that His Holiness the Dalai Lama sent his first delegation to Tibet, my father wrote me a letter. He was in India, still alive. He asked me to come to India. So I went to the Chinese police and asked permission to go to see my father, but they didn’t give me a passport. They always said, “Next time”; or they sent me to a different office and when I got there they told me to go to another place, and so on. For one year they didn’t give me passport.

Then I tried a new plan: I asked permission to go to the Nepalese border for business. This time they gave me permission, and I escaped with some friends, in 1980.

I met my father and had an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His Holiness advised me to study Buddhist philosophy. First I went to south India to study at Drepung, but the weather was not suitable for me, oh, too hot! It always made me sick. I went back to Dharamsala and His Holiness told me it would be good for me to enter the Buddhist School of Dialectics there. So I studied Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan culture for 12 years.

And before that, no studies at all?

No study. When I was small, most of the time was spent in labor. If we didn’t go to work, we didn’t get food or clothing. Even when we worked hard, still we didn’t get enough food or clothes. That time in Tibet, the food rations were very difficult for all the Tibetan people. The Chinese killed many lamas and many famous geshes, or put them in prison.

Could you tell us about your name, Mogchok Rinpoche, what it means and where is comes from.

Mogchok Rinpoche – this is very difficult to say in English. “Mog” refers to the cap of the Tibetan army. The mountain where my monastery is has the shape of one of those caps. “Chok” means that it is established there. Therefore it is called Mogchok. There is not so much meaning to “Mogchok”!

The first lineage of Mogchok Rinpoche was Kagyupa, Shangpa Kagyu. In my past life, Mogchok Rinpoche was a student of Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche; it was then that he changed to the Gelug tradition. He received many initiations and teachings from Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche.

Do you know why he chose to change tradition?

I think he found that the Gelugpa tradition contained a lot of wisdom. But the previous Mogchok Rinpoche didn’t abandon Shangpa Kagyu completely, he practiced according to that tradition as well

Was this common in Tibet, to change lineage like that?

Yes, this was common. Many lamas changed. Some Kagyupas changed to Nyingma, some Nyingmapas changed to Kagyupa, and so on.

Could you tell us something about your past incarnations?

The first in the Mogchok lineage was called Mogchok Rinchen Tsöndu. The second in the lineage was called Chatang Kunga Yeshe. Then, the next two in the lineage are not clear; there are no texts. My past lineage was called Mogchok Jampa Tsöndu, and so I am called Mogchok Tenzin Tekchok. So there are six lineages.

Were the previous Mogchok Rinpoches famous for being yogins or scholars?

The previous Mogchok Rinpoches were mostly yogins; they always spent time meditation in the mountain behind the monastery, in a big cave. Then my past incarnation, Mogchok Jampa Tsöndu, went to Drepung to study Buddhist philosophy.

Could you explain to us how it happened that you came to Nalanda?

A few years ago Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche gave the Sukha Gyatsa initiations in Bodhgaya. At that time Lama Zopa Rinpoche came to receive the initiations, and I attended also, so it was then that I met Lama Zopa Rinpoche. After that, I spent some time in Taiwan. When I came back to India, a friend wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche that Mogchok Rinpoche was back from Taiwan and is staying in Dharamsala. Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to me and asked if I could go to one of his centers. I wrote back and said, ‘Thank you, I will come.”

Now that you are here, what are your expectations?

I think that doesn’t matter. Sometimes I will teach in the modern way, sometimes the traditional way. I think only to teach according to Tibetan tradition is not good for Western people. There are many ways to explain Dharma. When I was in Dharamsala, sometimes I gave teachings to foreign people. If I used the modern way, they were very interested, very happy. Sometimes when I taught according to the tradition of Tibetan monasteries, they would be bored.

Do you think it will be possible to transfer the Buddhadharma to the West, to make it strong?

I hope so.

Lastly, there is a gap of six years between the passing away of the previous Mogchok Rinpoche and your birth; to you have any idea where you were in the meantime?

Oh, maybe Ganden [lots of laughter].

Suddenly it’s all over. As always in the presence of a high being, our minds go totally blank, and slightly spaced out we leave his room. Within the next ten minutes, we are presented with some written material concerning the previous Mogchok Rinpoche. Among other things it is stated that he was very, very humble, and after staying sometime with him you feel like never going away again.

Nalanda’s New Face

By Ven. Henri Charpentier

When meeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Paris last October, apart from receiving illuminating teachings, the Nalanda monks also got advice for a totally new structure for the monastery. Since that time we have tried to work out how to adapt these new guidelines, and now things are finally getting clear.

A normal day will start with two hours of group practice before breakfast, including three rounds of prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas, Lama Chöpa, meditation on the lam-rim and Six-session Guru Yoga. After breakfast we’ll have a one-hour-and-forty-five-minute teaching from Mogchok Rinpoche.

Before lunch we’ll recite The King of Prayers and The Heart Sutra, and the meal will be finished by offerings to the pretas and dedications to our sponsors. In the evening there will be forty-five minutes of discussion, when we go through the teaching of the day, followed by another two hours of group practice, including prostrations to Vajrasattva, Mahakala puja, Kalarupa puja and again Six-session Guru Yoga.

This year, Mogchok Rinpoche will teach Lo-rig (Mind and Awareness), Vinaya (monastic discipline), Drub-ta (Buddhist Tenets) and Aryadeva’s Four Hundred Verses. On the basis of this we hope during the next five to seven years to cover the main topics of the Geshe Studies Program. This will be organized according to the guidelines of the IMI (the International Mahayana Institute, the FPMT Sangha community), which were outlined at the education meeting in London late last year (see Jan-Feb 1997 Mandala).

The curriculum will cover eight areas of study, of which the first six are mandatory for all Sangha, though not all subjects within each of these six need be studied. The last two areas would be optional.

1) Dharma etiquette; 2) Vinaya and associated discipline; 3) How to meditate and retreat; 4) Prayers, pujas and rituals; 5) Basic Dharma knowledge; 6) Leading/facilitating Dharma events; 7) Advanced and teacher education; and 8) Other skills.

Furthermore, Rinpoche has explained his wishes for the Sangha communities more or less like this:

“The goal of the Sangha Education Project is to develop a curriculum of studies designed to enable each member of the Sangha to experience (as much as possible) the meaning of their ordination and fulfill the purpose of the Sangha both for themselves and others.

“The curriculum of studies will aim to provide the various levels of knowledge and/or experience that act as a basis to enable any Sangha member to develop a genuinely renounced mind by living as purely and happily as possible in the vinaya, without harm to others, and to establish a lifestyle most conducive to leading to enlightenment while benefiting others by developing the abilities to open the minds of others and show them the path by personal example and skillful teaching.”

Mogchok Rinpoche has agreed to stay for one year and is open to staying longer, but will leave for India to finish his geshe degree around November. It is not clear who will stay with us in the future, but Lama Zopa Rinpoche has made it clear that we don’t have to worry about this: Nalanda won’t be without a resident teacher.

We are 17 monks now living at Nalanda, but Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given us the advice to build a new gompa and some new rooms so that in the future Nalanda can accommodate 35 or 40 monks. This job has already started with the demolishing of the old pigsty in order to create space for a new building.

Ven. Jean-François, who has studied architecture, has taken on the task of creating the gompa on paper. He has already come up with a plan that, among other things, includes a stupa in the middle of a pond surrounded by circumambulating goldfish at the ground level, two rooms specially designed for sick or dying monks and a big shrine room on the top floor. Rinpoche has already revealed some of his wishes for the shrine, one of which is the making of 1000 statues of Buddha Shakyamuni, to be created by the monks themselves.

Needless to say, this is the biggest project in the history of Nalanda and, obviously, we are not capable of doing this without support, both economically and in terms of service. So we will see in the future how quickly we can begin this noble project.

But we are optimistic and believe that the time is ripe, and that people see the need for established monasteries in the West.