Trijang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso
He spent the next 12 years studying the classical texts for the geshe degree—Pramanavartika, Madhyamaka, Prajnaparamita, Vinaya and Abhidharma-kośa—principally according to the textbooks by Panchen Sonam Dragpa.While the spittle drools from the Death Lord's smile Bleaching your head as white as falling snow Could this tedious life yield aught but chaff?He was admitted to the Upper Tantric College, Gyuto, in 1919, where he studied the Root Tantra of Heruka and its commentary by Je Tsongkhapa, Illuminating all Hidden Meanings (Wylie: sbas don kun sel).From the ages of 20 to 22 Trijang Rinpoche received many teachings and empowerments from his root Guru Pabongkhapa, including the initiation into the sindhura mandala of Vajrayogini according to Naropa, the Heruka body mandala empowerment according to Ghantapa, teachings on Lama Chopa (Offering to the Spiritual Guide), Gelug mahamudra, the Lamrim Chenmo (great stages of the path) by Je Tsongkhapa and Seven Points of Training the Mind by Chekawa Yeshe Dorje.[5] He travelled west and gave Avalokiteshvara empowerment and teachings on Lamrim to about 3,000 monks at Jampa Ling monastery in Litang, as well as most of the local people.When he reached Lhasa he had audiences with the 13th Dalai Lama and Pabongka Rinpoche and made offerings of silver coins, grain and tea to all the monks of Ganden.During the next few years, until 1932, he received teachings from Pabongka Rinpoche, including the oral instructions of many secret Gelugpa lineages, and he also engaged in Tantric retreats.In 1936, aged 35, he granted Heruka empowerment to the monks of Ganden monastery and then made a tour of the southern district of Tibet to make offerings and give teachings.[4] After attending Je Phabongkhapa's teachings on Lamrim Chenmo at Ganden monastery, in 1939 Trijang Rinpoche toured pilgrimage sites in India and Nepal, making extensive offerings at each place.Although respected by lamas in all Tibetan Buddhist schools, and invited by them to give teachings and initiations, Trijang Rinpoche taught primarily from the Gelugpa tradition of Je Tsongkhapa.According to Helmut Gassner, the Dalai Lama's translator for 17 years and one of only two ordained Western Geshes: The great master Pabongka was in the first half of the twentieth century the pivotal or key lineage holder of the Oral Geden Tradition.Many other teachers before him mastered certain aspects of the tradition's teachings, but it was Pabongka Rinpoche's particular merit to locate and find all these partial transmissions, to learn and realize them, and bring them together once again to pass them on through a single person.[7] In 1921, when Trijang Dorjechang was 21, Pabongka Rinpoche was invited to Chuzang Hermitage, near Lhasa, to teach the Lamrim Chenmo, the Great Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, which he did over a twenty-four days period to over 2000 monks and many lay people.In 1950, the Chinese communists entered the Chamdo region by way of Kham and as a result Trijang Rinpoche accompanied the Dalai Lama, in his spiritual and temporal capacities, to Dromo, where he gave more teachings on Lamrim.In 1963, he gave the Dalai Lama the complete oral transmission of the Collected Works of Je Tsongkhapa, plus discourses on the Guru Puja, Gelugpa Mahamudra and Yamantaka Tantra.In Spring of 1970 he taught the Dalai Lama the generation and completion stages of Chittamani Tara and of Vajrayogini according to Naropa, and gave him empowerments into the 16 Droplets of the Kadampas.They were close friends but very different characters.... Trijang Rinpoche was a tall, thin man of great grace and elegance with a rather pointed nose for a Tibetan.He was gentle and had a deep voice, which was particularly melodious when he chanted.... Trijang Rinpoche was one of the greatest poets of his generation, with an eclectic command of art and literature."[17] According to Gonsar Rinpoche, "It was Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang who offered His Holiness the most important transmissions of Dharma such as the Great Lamrim (Tib.He was invited back to Switzerland in 1968 to consecrate a new Tibetan monastery, and travelled there with Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, and this was followed by another Western tour, returning to India in the Spring of 1969."[20] Despite his Tibetan background, Kyabje Trijang Dorjechang believed in Westerners' ability to gain deep experience of Buddha's Sutras and Tantras within their own countries and cultures, and encouraged his close disciples to "give to those who were mature some Tantric teachings and inititations on top of the essential Dharma teachings like Lamrim (the graduated path to enlightenment), Lojong (training of the mind) and great philosophical treatises.According to Trijang Rinpoche's disciples: Not only did he offer to His Holiness studies from the elementary level up to the highest Tantric transmissions, he was also the backbone of the struggle against the Chinese occupation at the most difficult and confused time of Tibetan history.[25] Most reports suggest that after the exodus from Tibet in 1959, the main concern was to acculturate into Indian society and yet maintain core Tibetan values and identity.[26] Trijang Rinpoche viewed Dorje Shugden as an enlightened being, who exhibits a worldly (unenlightened) aspect [27] but is in fact no other than the Buddha Manjushri.[This protector is also particularly significant with respect to the fact that] many from our own side, monks or lay people, high or low, are not content with Dzong-ka-ba's tradition, which is like pure gold, [and] have mixed and corrupted [this tradition with ] the mistaken views and practices from other schools, which are tenet systems that are reputed to be incredibly profound and amazingly fast but are [in reality] mistakes among mistakes, faulty, dangerous and misleading paths.
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