Camera Staff Writer
As a young girl born to a Tibetan Buddhist who ran a monastery, Khandro Rinpoche felt a bit outnumbered.
“My sister and myself were the only women there, besides my mother,” she says. “We were surrounded by monks who were men, teachers who were men, everywhere were men.”
It would be naive to think that there were no male students who shunned the idea of studying beside girls, but it was never truly uncomfortable, Rinpoche says. After all, her father — meditation master Mindrolling Trichen — who she refers to as “His Holiness,” — commanded the utmost respect.
Today Rinpoche, 35, has earned her own place as spiritual leader and teacher of Tibetan Buddhists throughout the East and West, both male and female. This month, she is in Boulder and the Denver metro area, offering teachings from her new book, “This Precise Life: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on the Path to Enlightenment” (Shambhala Publications Inc., $21.95).
The young woman with soft brown eyes, who enjoys a deep belly laugh when the mood strikes — and it strikes often — is popular in America because her English is impeccable and because her translations of Buddhist teachings are clear and precise, as well as insightful and relevant to modern times, her students say.
Cynthia Kneen first met Khandro Rinpoche in 1994 at Berkeley.
“My partner and soul mate was dying, he was in a coma, I had so much grief,” Kneen says. A girlfriend called and suggested she attend Khandro Rinpoche’s talk.
Kneen got some one-on-one time with the Buddhist teacher, and together they explored the answer to the question of “What do you do when someone you love is dying?”
“She was very kind to me, I still remember,” says Kneen, who practices Buddhism in Boulder. “She extended her friendship.”
The fact that her revered teacher is a woman is no small matter, Kneen says.
“I was very, very responsive to a young woman who is able to have confidence and pride, and present her teachings with such integrity,” Kneen says. “I thought, ‘Yes! You go, sister.'”
Khandro Rinpoche prefers not to focus too much on gender as a spiritual guide, but if it helps her students, she is happy to make the connection.
“If it does matter, I do emphasize women’s role in Dharma,” she says. (Dharma means the teachings of Buddha.)
But mostly she is keen on passing along wisdom she has acquired from masters of what are called the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions — two pools of vast knowledge and practices, which transcend gender, she says.
Beyond borders
Sitting in a house in north Boulder, Khandro Rinpoche exchanges Tibetan words with her traveling partners — her sister, Jetsun Dechen Paldron, and three nuns from Khandro Rinpoche’s Samten Tse Retreat Center for Nuns in the hills about Dehra Dun, India.
Sweet, pungent incense fills the room. Khandro Rinpoche takes a seat on the couch next to a Buddha statue in the window. Her floor-length, burgundy skirt folds neatly below her orange blouse — these are traditional colors of the monastic order, she says.
Her head is shaved as a statement of renunciation. She smiles. “It also saves a lot on shampoo.”
This year is her fifth trip to bring her Buddhist teachings to Colorado. When she’s not teaching at her father’s Mindrolling Monastery in India or at her retreat center, Khandro Rinpoche spends much of her time in Europe and Asia.
Years ago, Khandro Rinpoche’s teachers suggested it would be good for a younger generation of female masters, who were dwindling in numbers, to travel.
She was well-prepared, having learned English in a Catholic school. “Being surrounded by nuns in a co-ed school was a good balance,” she says of the gender gap.
“(Buddhist) teachers suggested that I go to the West to represent women’s perspective,” she says. “The question of women’s status in Dharma became important.”
It’s actually not that unusual for a master teacher to be female in the Buddhist tradition, Khandro Rinpoche says. She was born into a lineage of teachers, both male and female.
However, she is the highest ranking female teacher in the Mindrolling lineage, says Jim Jobson, who coordinates her travels in the Western United States.
“She is the highest ranking female lama (guru) I am aware of who travels to the United States,” Jobson says.
The path
On this year’s tour in Boulder, Khandro Rinpoche will talk about her new book, which is a on “preliminary to advanced studies of Dharma,” she says.
But it should appeal to beginners, she says, as well as non-Buddhists and anyone who wishes to improve their lives and benefit others.
The text asks readers to think about four topics called Four Thoughts that Transform the Mind, which are the preciousness of human birth, the truth of impermanence, the reality of suffering and the inescapability of karma.
If you are aware of the preciousness of human existence, for instance, “you have the courage and confidence of knowing the potential in you, and can benefit the self and others,” Khandro Rinpoche says. “What a jewel you have, your qualities are inherent.”
Her speaking events won’t be limited to the book, however.
“I will try to cover topics that people suggest and request,” she says. This year she senses from talks and travels that many people are interested in developing confidence in fulfilling their own potential, she says.
“People tend to get caught up in their own ideas or just basic thoughts that weaken their ability to imagine going beyond the limits they set for themselves,” she says. “Not much transformation or good can come of that.”
Awareness, wisdom and compassion are keys to unearthing potential, she says.
Colin Mosher has been hard at work on the path of self-improvement since he met Khandro Rinpoche five years ago.
“She continuously says things that strike me, make me think and constantly want to improve my self on several levels,” he says. The 21-year-old meditates as much as possible and studies Dharma.
He encourages other students to come hear Khandro Rinpoche’s talks.
“Certainly there have been teachers before who have come to the West, but she is one of the foremost who understands the American psyche.”
Contact Julie Marshall at (303) 473-1305 or e-mail marshallj@cailycamera.com.
