Yeshe Jinpa
Lama Yeshe Jinpa is an American Lama and contemporary Buddhist teacher who teaches regularly throughout Northern California.
He is often invited to teach throughout the United States and occasionally travels to India.
He co-founded Lion’s Roar Dharma Center in Sacramento, CA, which is an urban meditation center.
Lama Yeshe Jinpa, also known as Stephen Bryant Walker, is also a licensed psychotherapist at Middle Way Health, a complementary health clinic he founded in 2000.
There he facilitates a series of workshops he created called Middle Way Training, based on a book called Something So Obvious that he is co-authoring with Melanie Noel Light.
Background/Dharma History
Born Stephen Bryant Walker in 1953 in Bronxville, New York, - a suburb of New York City just north of the Bronx - Lama Yeshe Jinpa then spent most of his younger years in Scarsdale, New York.
When he was 11 his father committed suicide, sparking an introspection and search for answers.
His grandmother’s library, which consisted of books on Buddhism, provided a starting point for his spiritual quest.
He was also becoming accustomed to Asian cultures since the family was involved in trading with the Far East and oriental objects were commonplace around the house.
A Sacramento Bee article dated May 1, 2007 describing his upbringing, the trauma and subsequent interest in Buddhism sparked a lot of interest from the community regarding what he went through.
When Lama Yeshe Jinpa was 12 his mother re-married and moved the family out to Colorado, which eventually proved influential in his existential and spiritual search.
At age 15, a family vacation to Japan gave him a taste of Buddhist temples and meditation styles, and in high school, he had an influential teacher who assigned Buddhist readings.
During his freshman year (1971) at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Lama Yeshe Jinpa met Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
He then attended Middlebury College in Vermont, where he was influenced by professor and Zen Buddhist Steven Rockefeller. From 1975 to 1980, Lama Yeshe Jinpa joined the Buddhist Studies program at Naropa University in Boulder.
In 1977, as part of his studies at Naropa University, Lama Yeshe Jinpa did Zen training with Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi before helping him establish a Boulder Zen Center in 1978.
While Lama Yeshe Jinpa didn't finish the program, he did become an educated yogi with help from teachers like Reginald Ray, PhD and Judith Simmer-Brown, PhD.
Lama Yeshe Jinpa met and married his first wife in Boulder with whom he had two children.
They moved to Los Angeles, Fresno, and then Nevada City, California, where he met Geshe Losang Gyatso - nicknamed Geshe Yadron - from Sera-je Monastery.
Geshe Losang Gyatso was to become his ‘heart’ or main teacher, and Lama Yeshe Jinpa received Dharma transmission from him in 1995. Together they founded Lion's Roar Dharma Center in Sacramento, California and Lama Yeshe Jinpa studied with him until Geshe Losang Gyatso’s death in 1998 in Carmel, California.
In 1992 Lama Yeshe Jinpa graduated from the Professional School of Psychology in Sacramento.
In 2000 he became a licensed psychotherapist and set up his psychotherapy practice in Sacramento.
In May 2005 he became an ordained Buddhist monk at the Sera-je Monastery in India and was given the name Yeshe (primordial awareness) Jinpa (generosity), before returning to the states to teach Dharma and continue his therapy practice.
MIDDLE WAY HEALTH
In 2000 Lama Yeshe Jinpa founded Middle Way Health in Sacramento, California - which he continues to run today - specializing in Buddhist Psychotherapy.
He blends traditional psychotherapy with alternative meditative traditions such as core mindfulness skills and meditation in daily life to emphasize non-judgmental awareness, energy, and the cultivation of loving kindness.
He has also created a series of training workshops called The Middle Way Training, which are based on his upcoming book Something So Obvious.
Today there are four practitioners working under the umbrella of Middle Way Health.
Lion’s Roar Dharma Center
Lama Yeshe Jinpa is the Spiritual Director and resident teacher of Lion’s Roar Dharma Center of Sacramento, which he co-founded with Geshe Losang Gyatso who died in 1998. Lion’s Roar is a Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist organization and Lama Yeshe Jinpa is one of the few western lamas thus far recognized within the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan or Vajrayana Buddhism. Through Lion’s Roar – and assisted by ordained monks and nuns - Lama Yeshe Jinpa conducts ceremonies, teaches classes, workshops and retreats, and gives personal interviews. Lion’s Roar is involved with youth and volunteer programs, and interfaith and business communities. They also host Mindful Recovery, a Buddhist-inspired approach to 12-step recovery programs. Originally facilitated through Lion’s Roar, Lama Yeshe Jinpa was the Buddhist Chaplain at Old Folsom Prison from 1998 until 2006. The program was later sponsored through the local chapter of The Buddhist Peace Fellowship and remains in effect today.
Buddhist teachings at Lion’s Roar are especially designed for people with daily work, school or family commitments, and people of all levels and all ages. Lion’s Roar’s main goal is promoting and sharing basic human values, which also means working through challenges and relationships openly. They aim to become further involved with the community and to create an open, kind and just society for everyone, not just Buddhists.
In the Dalai Lama’s Tradition
Lion’s Roar is inspired by and follows in the Buddhist tradition and lineage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Following the Dalai Lama’s example they are committed to a traditional Buddhist practice, but are also open to non-sectarian styles of spirituality and compassionate living. Through these efforts and more, Lama Yeshe Jinpa and Lion’s Roar work to establish and maintain ties with other spiritual communities, local universities, business communities and city governments. Lion’s Roar regularly hosts high lamas, monks, nuns, and internationally-known teachers from around the world. It is Lion’s Roar’s hope that His Holiness the Dalai Lama will someday visit and give teachings within the greater Sacramento area.
Lion’s Roar is also committed to doing the specific practice of Kalachakra, which is a Highest Yoga Tantra. Kalachakra contains the Shambala teachings of Enlightened Society, as well as teachings on Yoga, Astrology and Cosmology. In July 2011 Lion’s Roar hosted Khensur Jhado Rinpoche, who led a week-long Kalachakra retreat.
Dharma in Everyday Life
Wear Kindness
One of Lama Yeshe Jinpa’s desires is to bring kindness and beauty together, so he created a website devoted to cruelty-free clothing and reverence to the psychology of shopping. In addition, he and his writing partner Melanie Noel Light are writing a book called Zen & The Art of Shopping,[18] which is a fun, illustrated book about the spiritual stages of shopping. But can Dharma and fashion really go together, people ask? Lama Yeshe Jinpa says they can and do. No matter how trivial some think fashion is, “Appearances do count,” says Lama Yeshe Jinpa. "While Dharma represents good intention and ideals, fashion represents the material/phenomenal world that we experience with our senses. Promoting compassion and right livelihood must extend beyond ideals; we have to walk the talk and physically represent our values. To do this authentically however, can be intimidating, and that’s how we know it matters." (Public Talk, 8/1/2011)
"Fashion, art, music, design, and anything we create or express helps us expose our real selves and live more genuinely. With a strong fashion or creative sense, for instance, an individual is actually “putting it out there for all to see,” and there are lessons in that. When we express ourselves in this way we also have to let it go, even though we don’t know if people will interpret it correctly or accept our efforts. This is just an extension of right living. Through fashion and our outward appearance we can balance the inner/secret world. So choosing our clothing carefully - with both compassion and a sense of self in mind - helps us live a more balanced, whole and beneficial life." (Public Talk, 6/30/11)
Books & Workshops
Zen & the Art of Shopping, currently in the outline stages,[19] is a nonfiction book designed to help bring the spiritual into everyday life, particularly into an area people don’t typically see as spiritual. Something So Obvious is Lama Yeshe Jinpa’s forthcoming first novel. It was inspired by the Dhyani Buddhas, also called Five Buddha Families, and the Hero’s Journey (as inspired by the mythologist Joseph Campbell). Something So Obvious began as a nonfiction workbook for the Middle Way Training Workshops, and morphed into a full-fledged adventure novel with an emphasis on everyday Shambhala.
The Middle Way Training Workshops, which are given in conjunction with the book Something So Obvious, examine how energy manifests itself in our lives and how we can enliven and stabilize those energies. By observing and bringing characters in Something So Obvious to life, workshop participants are also bringing themselves to life by talking things through, sharing deep experiences and emotions, and going through the different levels of self actualization and healing processes. Workshops include periods of discussion, writing, meditation and movement.
Family & Community
Challenges
Lama Yeshe Jinpa returned to householder life in 2007, as there were challenges to being a monk in the west that he hadn’t foreseen. The lack of both monastic peers and a sense of spiritual community caused him to feel isolated. In the larger sense, monastic life wasn’t what Lama Yeshe Jinpa had expected.
He was hoping that his role as a monk would enable him to connect more with people in Dharma - as well as his psychotherapy practice - and to better meet the needs of his students and the community.
Being a monk in the United States, however, actually ended up creating more disconnection than connection.
Lama Yeshe Jinpa felt he could further benefit himself and others if he returned to householder life, seeking to balance all facets of his life, including his family, psychotherapy practice and spirituality.
Balance
Lama Yeshe Jinpa has two grown children, has been divorced, and has remarried. He continues to work actively in both psychotherapy and in Dharma, while still being a father and husband. He is constantly trying to balance the management of a formal practice while still living a normal life, being a lama and psychotherapist at the same time, and getting people to work together while dealing with group dynamics.
Yet Lama Yeshe Jinpa understands the existence of conflict as a normal part of life, along with the constant effort to find balance. He seeks to create a realistic life, “a joyful life with unresolved conflicts.”
He does not want to give up therapy in order to do Dharma, and utilizes a humorous, realistic approach to life.
When meeting him, in fact, some people are surprised at his self-revealing nature and “street”-style approach as therapist and dharma teacher.
Lama Yeshe Jinpa says his background in recovery is what prompted him to “keep it real” and build connections through casual rapport.
As a lama, however, he still deals with some of this uncertainty and disconnection.
People sometimes ask him if he “walks the talk”, and in response he tells them to ask his wife.
“I think a certain level of transparency and reality is important.”
Now several years removed from the challenges of being a monk in the west, Lama Yeshe Jinpa says it is better for him and the Sangha that he has a supportive traditional relationship.
Dharma time can be confusing to people, causing them to think his time is free and making boundaries difficult to forge.
With a more balanced life and having more conventional boundaries in place that allow him rest and renewal, he can better serve his students.
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