The Tibet Center

Updated on Dec 02, 2023

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The Tibet Center, also known as Kunkhyab Thardo Ling, in New York City, is a center for the study of Tibetan Buddhism, a dharma center. The Tibet Center was founded by Venerable Khyongla Rato Rinpoche in 1975, and is currently directed by Khen Rinpoche, Nicholas Vreeland, who is the abbot of Rato Dratsang. The primary teachers at The Tibet Center are Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, and Anthony Spina.

The Tibet Center, in partnership with the Gere Foundation, has invited and hosted the 14th Dalai Lama for six teaching events in NYC since 1991. Numerous other religious teachers, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, have taught at The Tibet Center.

As well as meeting in downtown Manhattan on a weekly basis, The Tibet Center has a retreat home in New Jersey.

Name

The dharma name of the center is Kunkhyab Thardo Ling (translation: Land Pervaded with Seekers of Liberation), a name given to the center by the 6th Ling Rinpoche, who was the 97th Gaden Tripa, and like many of the previous Ling Rinpoches, was the senior tutor of the Dalai Lama.

Tibet Center teachers

The Tibet Center has three main teachers: the founder Venerable Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, who is a Tibetan incarnate lama, Venerable Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, and Anthony Spina, another one of Khyongla Rinpoche's long-time students.

Over the years many other Tibetan Buddhist teachers have taught at The Tibet Center. As The Tibet Center website explains, these have included, "Venerable Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, the Senior Tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Venerable Tsenshab Serkong Rinpoche, who served as the official debating partner of H. H. the Dalai Lama, Sakya Trizin Rinpoche, the hereditary head of the Sakya order of Tibetan Buddhism, Venerable Trulshik Rinpoche of the Nyingma tradition, and Venerable Tenga Rinpoche of the Kagyu tradition."

Buddhist teachers from the Chan, Theravadan and Zen traditions have also taught at The Tibet Center. In addition, teachers from the Jain, Hindu and Christian religions, as well as scientists and philosophers, have taught there.

Khyongla Rato

Khyongla Rinpoche is a Tibetan incarnate lama who was born in Tibet in 1923. He left Tibet in 1959 and has lived in New York (and subsequently in New Jersey) since 1968. Khyongla Rato has taught at the Tibet Center for almost 40 years.

Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, Khen Rinpoche

Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, Khen Rinpoche, the current director of The Tibet Center, is the first westerner to be made abbot of a major Tibetan Buddhist monastery, Rato Dratsang, which was re-established in Karnataka, India. Khen Rinpoche holds a Ser Tri Geshe Degree from Rato. As well as being a fully ordained monk, he is also a photographer. He is the grandson of Diana Vreeland, and is the subject of the biographical documentary film, Monk with a Camera.

Dalai Lama events

Since 1979, the Tibet Center, primarily in partnership with the Gere Foundation, has been instrumental in inviting and hosting the 14th Dalai Lama for seven teaching events in NYC:

1979 - One day teaching at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine

1991 - The Kalachakra Initiation at the Paramount Theatre at Madison Square Garden, 2 weeks in total

1999 - Teaching on Kamalashila's Middle Length Stages of Meditation, and Togmay Sangpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas at the Beacon Theatre, also a public talk to 200,000 people in Central Park. The talks were later published as Open Heart: Practising Compassion in Everyday Life (2002).

2003 - Four-day teaching of Root Verses on Indian Philosophies by the 17th-century Tibetan scholar Jamyang Shepa, and The Seven-Point Mind Training by the 12th-century Geshe Chekawa at the Beacon Theatre, as well as a public talk in Central Park on The Bodhisattva's Jewel Garland by Atisha

2007 - Teachings on the Diamond Cutter Sutra, by Shakyamuni Buddha, and Seventy Verses on Emptiness, by Nagarjuna, as well as a public talk on "Peace and Prosperity", at Radio City Music Hall

2010 - Four-day teaching on Commentary on Bodhicitta by Nagarjuna, and A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, by Shantideva, followed by a public talk entitled "Awakening the Heart of Selflessness", at Radio City Music Hall

2013 - Teachings on the Heart Sutra, The Sutra of the Recollection of the Three Jewels, and the ninth chapter of The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, by Shantideva. Also an initiation into "The Buddha Establishing the Three Pledges", and a public talk on "The Virtue of Nonviolence", at the Beacon Theatre

Location

As of 2014 to 2016, The Tibet Center was meeting each Monday at 7 pm at the University Settlement Society of New York Houston Street Center, which is located on the Bowery, in Manhattan, just south of Houston Street. The Tibet Center also currently offers, on many Saturday afternoons, White Tara retreats at the Kunkhyab Thardo Ling Retreat Home, in South Orange, New Jersey.

References

The Tibet Center Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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