Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
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Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, a Dzogchen master who achieved the highest
realization, is deceased. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche was among Tibetan
Buddhism's greatest masters of the 20th century. In 1980, when he
first came to the West, he was among the first Tibetan masters to
teach the most essential instructions of Dzogchen beyond Tibet.
From that time until his death he gave vital oral instructions to
thousands of Buddhist students from the world over. His writings
provide a glimpse into the influences and experiences that shaped
the man whose simplicity and humility attracted an immense
cross-section of humanity.
Repeating the Words of the Buddha is translated, edited and
compiled by Erik Pema Kunsang and Marcia Binder Schmidt.
Erik Hein Schmidt (also known under his pen name Erik Pema Kunsang)
was the main interpreter of Tulku Urgyen for 17 years. With his
wife, Marcia Binder Schmidt, he has lived in Tulku Urgyen's
monasteries-one in Katmandu's "Little Tibet," near the great
Boudhanath Stupa, the other his mountainside hermitage overlooking
the Kathmandu Valley.
Although Danish was his first language, Erik is known as one of the
world's most gifted interpreters of Tibetan into English,.
Traveling to Nepal from his native Denmark at the age of 20, he has
studied with or translated for more than 60 Tibetan masters. He is
the compiler of a voluminous 3,000-page Tibetan dictionary for
spiritual terms (The Rangjung Yeshe Tibetan-English Dictionary of
Buddhist Culture), used by other Tibetan translators as an
authoritative reference and now available online at
www.dharmadictionary.net
He has also translated 46 books, six published with Shambhala
Publications (the latest is A Tibetan Buddhist Companion, 2003);
though the translations largely appeal to those with specialized
interests in Tibetan Buddhism, total sales surpass 200,000 copies.
There is an active international market for these books; subrights
have been sold in the following languages: Czech, Chinese (Taiwan),
Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Nepalese, Polish,
Portuguese, Russian, Slovakian and Spanish.
In 1981 Erik Pema Kunsang and Marcia Binder Schmidt, under the
guidance of Tulku Urgyen and Chkyi Nyima Rinpoches, established
Rangjung Yeshe Institute, which is dedicated to offering
educational and spiritual support for practitioners of Tibetan
Buddhism. Since its inception Rangjung Yeshe Institute has held
seminars and retreats around the world for thousands of students.
In 1986 as an offshoot of this Institute, Erik and Marcia created
Rangjung Yeshe Publications. They have translated and produced over
forty titles, seven of which Shambhala Publications has handled.
(See the attached book list)
Excerpts from and reviews of Rangjung Yeshe books have been
featured in magazines such as Shambhala Sun, Buddha-dharma and
Tricycle.
Other branches of Rangjung Yeshe Institute include twenty-two years
of Saturday talks with Chkyi Nyima Rinpoche at his monastery,
Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling, in Boudhanath. And in 1997, as a way to
expand the scope of Rangjung Yeshe Institute and include a more
scholastic approach, Erik and Marcia helped found an institute of
Buddhist Studies, which offers a B. A. degree in language and
philosophy. They have also helped to develop retreat centers and
study groups all over the world. They are on the Board of the
Chokling Tersar Foundation, Leggett, California, USA, and Erik is
on the Board of Rangjung Yeshe Fonden, DK.
Marcia Binder Schmidt compiled The Dzogchen Primer for Shambhala in
2002, and Dzogchen Essentials in 2004. Her most recent book is
Blazing Splendor
Chkyi Nyima Rinpoche, foreword.
Chkyi Nyima Rinpoche is the oldest son and a spiritual heir of the
widely renowned late Dzogchen master Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. He is
the author of Indisputable Truth, Bardo Guidebook, Present Fresh
Wakefulness and Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, Rangjung Yeshe
Publications. His Holiness the 16th Karmapa recognized Chkyi Nyima
as a reincarnate bodhisattva and advised him to turn his efforts
toward instructing Western practitioners, transmitting Tibetan
Buddhism to the rest of the world. He is the abbot of one of the
largest Buddhist monasteries in Nepal, located at the sacred
Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu. (www.shedrub.org)
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