Author Archives: KPLBlog

As you know, what we now call Tibetan Buddhism, was initiated in the 8th century by the Abbot Shantarakshita; the Master Guru Rinpoche (or Padmashambava); and the dharma King Trisong Detsen. Guru Rinpoche empowered twenty-five people who constituted the first gathering or first assembly of his disciples. Among those twenty-five disciples was my predecessor Nupchen Sangye Yeshe later reborn as the dharma lord Sonam Zangpo, who was in turn reborn in the 19th century as Terchen Barway Dorje.

I have allowed a little bit of printed information about Terchen Barway Dorje to be circulated, but I have never spoken one word about my predecessor in a public setting. It is not because I am ignorant of Terchen Barway Dorje’s life or of his teachings, or that I have failed to understand their true meaning or the nature of things. It is out of respect and devotion for my root guru, the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, that I have sought in all of my teaching and traveling only to serve his activity and his teachings. I have, therefore, been extremely careful to abstain from anything that could by any stretch of the imagination be conceived as self-aggrandizement or self-promotion.