Gangshar Wangpo
[[File:Khenpo gangshar2.jpg|thumb|Khenpo Gangshar (left) and Chögyam Trungpa)] Khenpo Gangshar Wangpo (b. 1925-?) was a highly respected lama in Eastern Tibet and one of the primary teachers of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Thrangu Rinpoche. Khenpo Gangshar was trained in Shechen Monastery, a monastic center established in the end of the sixteenth century and part of the Mindröling lineage within the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
Khenpo Gangshar was a primary teacher for Trungpa Rinpoche from the age of 13 until presiding over Trungpa Rinpoche's kyorpön and khenpo degree examinations at the end of 1957. He was also referred to as a "crazy saint". Multiple accounts refer to a serious illness which transformed him from a more quiet monk to an unconventional teacher who renounced his vows, entered into a romantic relationship, and often acted strangely or outrageously. Pema Chödrön credits Khenpo Gangshar with her teachings to "lean into the sharp points" and to "meditate on whatever provokes resentment".
History
According to Chögyam Trungpa, in his account in Born in Tibet, Gangshar was tutored by Jamgon Kongtrul the second of Shechen Monastery. This began when Gangshar's father died and his mother became a nun. Kongtrul then raised him as his spiritual son, and he became one of six senior professors at Shechen Monastery. Trungpa Rinpoche describes first visiting them both when he was 13 years old, when his studies were to begin in Sechen and a six month Rinchen Terzod transmission began. Khenpo Gangshar was assigned as his first tutor there, and after the Rinchen Terzod completed Trungpa Rinpoche joined a seminary program with about 100 other monks that Khenpo Gangshar was leading assisted by five kyorpöns.
When Trungpa had to return to Surmang early to take on responsibilities — because of a death of a senior lama there — he asked if Gangshar could come to Surmang as his tutor and to lead the Surmang seminary program, which he did in late 1956. In the fall of 1957, according to Trungpa and in light of the changing times in Tibet, Khenpo Gangshar instituted radical changes to the seminary. He opened the instruction to any and all laypeople including women and he asked the hermits with life long vows of seclusion to return to the monastery to help teach.
It was said that he died in prison between 1958 and 1961, but it was also reported that he survived 22 years of imprisonment, and died in 1980 or 1981.
Bibliography
- Naturally Liberating Whatever You Meet: Instructions to Guide You on the Profound Path
- Vomiting Gold
- Vivid Awareness: The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar, with commentary by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche. Shambhala Publications, 2011.
