Lama Gheshe Tenzing Tamding lays the foundation for a new Tibetan Buddhist center on the island

In his first conference on the island, he states that "fear is just one of the 84,000 deceptions of the mind"

February 1 2020 (18:39 WET)
Lama Geshe Tenzing Tamding lays the foundation for a new Tibetan Buddhist center on the island
Lama Geshe Tenzing Tamding lays the foundation for a new Tibetan Buddhist center on the island

Venerable Lama Gheshe Tenzing Tamding has given a conference in the assembly hall of the Cabildo, organized by the Ganden Chöeling Cultural Association Lanzarote, the first Tibetan Buddhist center on the island of the Gelugpa tradition, to which the Dalai Lama himself belongs and of whom Tenzing Tamding is precisely a disciple.

"How to overcome fear" and the "Search for real happiness" through Buddhism were some concepts explained this Friday to an audience of more than one hundred people, who at the end of it asked several questions and debated on what was exposed.

After a brief introduction to the origin of Buddhism and the exemplary life of Buddha, Lama Gheshe explained how the origin of our sufferings is not outside of us, but that we are responsible for it. "Let's look inside ourselves and not outside for those responsible for our suffering: they are our deceptions"

Patience in the face of hate attacks, reducing our desires and material attachments, maintaining a pure moral ethic, not clinging to our egos, are examples of how to reduce deceptions and sufferings. For this, meditation is key, but a meditation led by a qualified teacher; otherwise we can deceive ourselves with our supposed advances.

Buddhism maintains a very precise methodology that directs the meditative practice in a methodical way, accompanied by a philosophy that explains and gives solution to the four great sufferings of existence, among which are birth and death.

After giving an intensive course this weekend on this methodology or "Path" at the Ganden Chöeling Lanzarote Center, Lama Gheshe begins his annual international tour next Tuesday, which will take him to different centers throughout Asia and America.

 

Who is Lama Gheshe Tenzing Tamding?


 

Born in Tibet 55 years ago, Tenzing Tamding was born into a wealthy family, his paternal uncle was Kiabye Khensur Tamding Gyatso Rimpoche, introducer of the Buddhist philosophy and religion of the Guelupa school in Spain where he founded several Centers, and whom the Dalai Lama appointed in 2001 Abbot of the Ganden Monastery in India.

The father of Venerable Lama Gheshe Tenzing Tamding, was the doctor and mayor of his city in Tibet; defender and scholar of the Dharma (Buddhist religion) during the Chinese invasion, they were evicted from their home and reduced to living in the stable of what had been their family home. Tenzing Tamding was born there. His father was imprisoned and tortured for his ideas, his legs were broken several times. He was released seven years later completely disabled.

Even so, he maintained his faith in the Dharma and in the stable where they were held and with great danger and clandestinely taught the sacred texts and recitations of Buddha to his children; while his wife had to go out to work in the fields for sustenance.

After the death of his father, his mother also clandestinely took the vows of a Buddhist nun and Tenzing Tamding, with only 11 years old, decided to flee Tibet and reach the refugee camps in northern India.

After a dangerous journey for an 11 year old boy through the Himalayan mountains, for two months and many dangers and avatars he reaches Nepal and then India. Welcomed by his uncle, he is tutored directly by the Dalai Lama who tells him to study at the University of Dharamsala. There, Gheshe who speaks perfectly Mandarin Chinese, as well as English, Spanish and Tibetan used to act as translator of the Dalai Lama.

He completed his Gueshe studies (equivalent to a doctorate) in 1992, and His Holiness in person told him to take the Gueshe Larampa title as soon as possible. Normally, candidates have to wait many years before being able to take the exam for this title, however, Gueshela took it before the scheduled time, passing with top marks and excellence and becoming, therefore, one of the youngest Gueshes Larampas of the Ganden monastery.

Just after his exam, the Dalai Lama entrusted him to continue teaching his disciples from Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and the United States. In Europe he made several tours of several countries and visited his uncle founder of five centers in Spain, who upon his death in 2002 appointed him successor and begged him not to abandon his Spanish disciples.

Gheshela takes over these centers and founds fifteen more, now 16 with the one in Lanzarote. In total 21 centers in Spain

Here and with an important donation from his brothers in the United States and a wealthy disciple from Taiwan, he buys some land in Orense Galicia and builds the current Monastery of Chu Shu Sup Tsang.

Although his main residence is the Ganden Chöeling Center in Menorca and the Chu Sup Tsang Monastery (Ourense), he visits all his centers traveling periodically through Spain, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Bulgaria, South America, Mexico and the USA to impart teachings and be close to his numerous disciples. These increase every day, since his way of transmitting the Dharma is clear and direct, and his teachings can be easily understood and applied in daily life. The Ven. Gueshe Tenzing Tamding wants his disciples to have access to all the teachings of Dharma as they are taught in the main Guelugpa Monasteries of Ganden, Sera or Drepung, that is, the teachings or studies to become Gueshe. Fulfilling this desire, in 2008 Gueshe Tenzing Tamding began in Spain a ten-year course that includes the teachings of sutra and tantra of the Five Great Treatises that are studied in the Ganden Monastery. This course also includes debate, a fundamental method for understanding the Dharma of Buddha and its principles

Complying with the wish of his uncle Khen Rimpoché Tamding Gyatso, whom he considers his root Guru, he has also created the Tibetan Buddhist Federation that brings together the twenty-one Spanish centers founded by him and by Khen Rimpoché. He has also created the Chu Sup Tsang Foundation for the preservation of Tibetan culture and art and the Buddhist religion. The main objective of the foundation is to build the main Guelugpa monastic Universities -Ganden, Sera and Drepung- in Spain, similar to those that existed in Tibet, where monks, nuns and also - for the first time - lay people can study.

 

 

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