The Path of Compassion: A Biography of Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche — Afterword

With reverence and joy, I hurriedly completed the first draft of this book. I consulted The Radiance of Nyingma and, being limited in learning and ability, did not dare make arbitrary deletions. There may therefore be repetitions, inconsistencies, and other problems; I ask everyone’s understanding. Because time was short and my knowledge inadequate, I have continually felt that my account of Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche’s qualities reveals only the smallest part of them. Whenever I recall the Khenpo’s qualities, emotion wells up within me, together with an urge to share them with his disciples and with all those fortunate people who have formed a connection with him.

Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche’s gurus, Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche and Qiaq Rinpoche, were great masters of Tibet, like the sun and moon. They aspired to propagate anew the teachings of Śākyamuni through hearing, reflection, and meditation and through the two Dharmas of scripture and realization. The Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Institute founded by Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche is the largest practice center of the Nyingma tradition. In 1980, Qiaq Rinpoche founded the Longduo Definitive Meaning Sūtra and Tantra Buddhist Institute at Hor shul, twenty kilometers from the Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Institute; it became the Nyingma tradition’s second-largest practice center. The third was the Shiqu Arizha Buddhist Institute founded by Khenpo Banzhe. When adverse circumstances arose, the Longduo Definitive Meaning Sūtra and Tantra Buddhist Institute founded by Qiaq Rinpoche was forced to close in 1999. To repay the kindness of his guru and the Three Jewels, Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche vowed to propagate the Buddhadharma. After many hardships, he founded the Hor shul Young Monks Buddhist Institute. The interdependent circumstances created by this institute inspired Tulku Genga, Qiaq Rinpoche’s vajra companion, and the many disciples of Khenpo Qiaq to restore the Hor shul practice center. Tulku Genga served as the principal benefactor and purchased a large number of homes and extensive tracts of land from local residents. In 2010, in accordance with everyone’s hopes, Khenpo Qiaq’s Longduo Definitive Meaning Sūtra and Tantra Buddhist Institute was finally restored; it now has seven to eight hundred monastics. Through these circumstances, Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche also began taking in severely disadvantaged children from across the Tibetan regions. He established a special class for young lamas at Longduo Buddhist Institute and assumed all the expenses himself. Whenever he accepted another child, the Khenpo’s face would light up and he would say happily, “I have received another offering.”

The Khenpo ordinarily bears all the young lamas’ expenses for clothing, food, lodging, and education. In recent years he has also built some monastic quarters and found guardians for the young lamas in nearby townships. Each month the Khenpo pays their living expenses, sees to their daily lives, oversees their studies, and cares for their physical and mental well-being.

For the construction of the Buddhist institute and for the young lamas’ clothing, food, lodging, and studies, Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche has raised funds through many channels and devoted boundless care and exhausting effort.

The Tibetan people possess a long history, complete lineages, and an excellent tradition of Tibetan medicine. This tradition contains a complete sequence of worldly and transcendent practices, including the six pāramitās and myriad deeds, for relieving beings’ physical and mental suffering and supporting their liberation through practice. Owing to upheaval and other disruptions, the lineage of Tibetan medicine has come close to being severed, and very few large Tibetan medical colleges now remain in the Tibetan regions. Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche therefore resolved to carry forward the excellent medical culture of his people and dedicate its great physical and mental benefits to beings. He is currently working with his cousin, Doctor Caibo—Master Mencuo’s younger brother, holder of a distinctive Tibetan medical lineage, heir to the Abang family tradition of Tibetan medicine, and director of Larung Lay Practitioners’ Benefiting Beings Tibetan Hospital—to establish a class on the medical tantras at Hor shul and add the study of medicine, one of the major five fields of knowledge. When circumstances ripen, Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche and Doctor Caibo plan to found a substantial “Abang College of Tibetan Medicine” to train outstanding Tibetan medical practitioners.

Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche’s activities are rising like the midday sun, and his qualities are as vast as space. The Khenpo’s greatest wish is that every being who forms a connection with him may be reborn in Sukhāvatī. May this book enable ever more beings to form a connection with the Khenpo, be freed from suffering, find happiness, and be reborn in Sukhāvatī at the end of their lives.