Lama Gonpo Tseten

Gonpo Tseten Rinpoche, (1906–1991), Dzogchen master, author, painter, sculptor, and teacher of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Gönpo Tseten was born in 1906 in Amdo, the eastern province of Tibet, into a family heritage of ngakpas. At the age of seven he was sent to Sangchen Mingye Ling, a Nyingmapa monastery. At the age of 15, having shown great promise as a future teacher, he studied with Kargi Tertön and accomplished the preliminary practices of Tibetan Buddhism.

At Sangchen Mingye Ling, Gönpo Tseten continued his Dharma studies and the traditional Tibetan arts and sciences. It was at this time that he began to display great skill in drawing, painting, and sculpture. In 1925, at the age of 18, he completed two images of Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara, each standing over six feet high.

About the age of twenty he married and had a son, Pema Rigdzin. [However, after two years he and his wife separated. He later married again, this time to Drolma Chi with whom he happily spent the remainder of his time in Tibet before 1959. Three years before the Chinese army arrived, he moved to Lhasa with his wife and son. Unfortunately, in the terrible conditions during the Chinese invasion of Tibet, Gönpo Tseten became separated from his wife and son, who did not escape.]

He then undertook a journey of twenty days in order to study for a year with the Tertön Choling Tuching Dorje, a disciple of Dodrupchen Rinpoche. After this for four months he received the transmission and empowerments of the Rinchen Terdzod from the great Dzogchen master Bathur Khenpo Thubten Chöphel, who was also a guru of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and the 6th Dzogchen Rinpoche. Later, the ngakpa Gönpo Tsering taught him Tu, the art of overcoming enemies. This was essential since his gompa in Amdo needed protection from surrounding afflictions, including ruthless bandits and wild animals. After this, he studied sutra and tantra, including the Yönten Dzö, at Sukchen Tago Gompa in Golok, which was established by the First Dodrupchen Rinpoche in 1799.

His student Ngawang Khedup, who studied with Lama Gönpo in Clement Town, Dhera Dun, India, and accompanied him when he came to America, reported that among the other places Gönpo Tseten studied in his youth was one of the most famous of Tibet’s tantric colleges (Rabgon Ngakmang – "the place of many Tantrikas"), where the most secret yogic practices were taught in depth and practiced to completion. At the end of the tummo course, as a test of their accomplishment, the students went to the deep holes dug in the ground behind the buildings on a cold winter's night. The student would then go down to the bottom of a hole and see how many wet blankets could be dried out in a single night by inner heat. The exuberant students would also see how far that they could ascend into the air above the hole, to discover which among them could rise up the highest. "I was told," Ngawang wrote, "that people standing at a distance away could see Lama Gönpo rising above, not just the other yogis, but also the row of buildings that were in front!" Having himself brought tantric siddhis to fruition, Lama Gönpo understood and strongly emphasized to his students that such outward signs must be the fruit of inner realization rather than goals in themselves.

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