Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche
Kyabje Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche (born October 15, 1982) is considered the current reincarnation of the Trijang Rinpoche, who was the junior tutor and spiritual guide of the 14th Dalai Lama.
Continue the legacy
Trijang Chocktrul spent much of his early life at Rabten Choeling in Switzerland, and has spent most of his adult life in Northfield, Vermont, where he founded the Trijang Buddhist Institute, to promote the spread of Tibetan Buddhism. Kyabje Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche's "foremost desire is to continue the legacy of his revered predecessor, Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang" (Trijang Rinpoche).
Dorje Shugden
When he was a youth, he received death threats from the ‘Secret Society of External and Internal Enemy Eliminators’ for his practice of Dorje Shugden, which forced him to stop his traditional studies in India and go to Western Europe. In their meeting in Graz, Austria, in 2003, the Dalai Lama told him:
- If you give up this deity [[[Dorje Shugden]]], myself and all Tibetan people will appreciate it very much and our protector Nechung will take care of you and make you more successful and famous than ever. If you do not give up this deity, then your monastic career, like receiving the full monk’s ordination and taking Geshe examinations will not be possible. So I leave it to your judgement. "
Lama Zopa of the FPMT has expressed great sadness that the Guru of both the Dalai Lama and Lama Yeshe (the founder of the FPMT) felt it necessary to take this step:
- The incarnation of Kyabje Dorje Chang, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, is His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s guru and the lama of all the Tibetan people, so it’s terrible if he’s hidden away in some corner as if there’s something wrong with him. That’s absolutely shameful. Therefore, the people around him have to think very extensively. In his previous life he performed incredibly holy actions; therefore, his present incarnation has the potential to spread Dharma in both the East and the West like the rising sun spreads light.
Alliance in United States of America
The Dalai Lama and Chocktrul Rinpoche have met at least once since then, in Northampton, Massachusetts in 2007 when they promoted an alliance: H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama granted a permission to H.H. the 18th Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche that he would practice Dorje Shugden, in exchange for the great and loving friendship that always existed between them in previous lives. Chocktrul Rinpoche now concentrates on his own Dharma studies and practices as a private citizen in the USA where he is free to continue his practice of Dorje Shugden as in his previous lives. In his Trijang Buddhist Institute’s web site, Chocktrul lovingly shows a photo of H.H. Dalai Lama with a dedication that reads:
His Holiness Dalai Lama's Dedication
This object of veneration is offered to Trijang Buddhist Institute with the prayer that the Buddha’s teaching flourish, that all sentient beings may obtain the treasure of the Dharma, and that they may live in happiness and virtue.
Signed,
Dalai Lamat Monk - May 9, 2007
Ganden Tripa qualification
In early 2009, the Ganden Tripa, the head of the Gelug tradition, after having meditated and pondered over the position Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche was in, decided to pronounce himself by a Reference Letter recognizing him as – Qualified – and goes further by questioning the Dalai Lamaf Trijang Rinpoche was wrong, wouldn’t be His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrong too?" Then the Ganden Tripa announced in an open letter at the same time that sends to His Holiness Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche his reasons:
His Holiness Ganden Tripa Lungri Namgyel's Dedication
April 23, 2009
I, the undersigned, Lungri Namgyel, the official head of the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism (Ganden Tripa) and successor to the said order’s founder, Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), whose headquarters are Ganden Monastery in Karnataka state, south India, hereby confirm that:
• His Eminence Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche, having been educated in the teachings of the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism, and officially recognized by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama as being the incarnation of the late Trijang Dorje Chang, Tutor to the 14th Dalai Lama and one of the greatest twentieth-century Buddhist masters of this order, is fully qualified to act in the capacity of director of Trijang Buddhist Institute in the state of Vermont, United States of America, where he is currently residing at 210 Morning Star Lane, Northfield, Vermont 05663 USA.
• I confer upon Trijang Buddhist Institute the authority to represent and transmit the teachings of the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism in the United States.
• Thus authorized, Trijang Buddhist Institute is dedicated to preserving, representing, and transmitting the Buddhist teachings of the Gelug tradition.
Signed,
Ganden Tripa Lungri Namgyel
Source
Wikipedia:Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche
