Solitary Hero Yamāntaka
Sep - Dec 2023
Full-time commentary & retreat with Geshe Gyaltsen at Nalanda Monastery
Commentary: 11 Sep - 10 Nov 2023
Retreat: 30 Nov - 18 Dec 2023
About the teacher
Geshe Gyaltsen was born in Tibet in 1968, in a village named Dzogang, located in the Tsawa region of the Kham province. At the age of 16 he received rabjung ordination in the local monastery of Sang Ngak Chö Khor Ling. At 19 he travelled to Lhasa and received getsül ordination from the Sera Je Geshe Gyaltsen Shakya. He then returned to Kham, where he began the study of philosophy in the monastery of Chamdo Jampa Ling.
Wishing to further his studies and meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Geshe Gyaltsen escaped from Tibet by walking over the Himalayan mountain range and reached India in 1990, at the age of 22. He then enrolled in Sera Je Monastery and became a member of the Tsawa college.
In 2007, after 17 years of intensive studies, he attained the qualification of Geshe Lharampa, the highest degree in the traditional Tibetan monastic education system. He then specialised in tantra in Gyümed monastery. After serving for two years as philosophy teacher in the Sera Je school, he became the director of Tsawa college for one year.
After some time spent in retreat, Geshe-la was requested by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to become the teacher of the residential Basic Program in Nalanda Monastery where he has taught since 2014.
“With regard to destroying ignorance, Mañjuśrī is supreme in bestowing wisdom. With regard to destroying the lord of death, Vajrabhairava is marvellous. Therefore, having seen that this path that practices the peaceful and wrathful Mañjuśrī is the wonderful entrance for intelligent trainees, I take delight in accomplishing this method.”
Yamāntaka or Vajrabhairava is seen as the wrathful manifestation of Mañjuśrī, the Buddha of wisdom and wasTsongkhapa’s personal deity-practice. Following Intensive practice, Tsongkhapa received direct teachings from Mañjuśrī enablinghim to fully understand the Buddha’s Middle Way philosophy. Tsongkhapa instituted Vajrabhairava as the principal Gelugpa yidam-meditation practice and to this very day it is considered one of the most important yidam practices, both for monastic and lay practitioners alike.
- Commentary: 11 Sep – 10 Nov 2023
- Retreat: 30 Nov – 18 Dec 2023
The practice of Solitary Hero Yamāntakais a particularly powerful method by which negative energy, usually expressed as anger or hatred, is skilfully transformed into the spiritual path as a means of destroying ego-grasping selfishness, ignorance and afflictions that prevent us from developing bodhicitta and attaining enlightenment.
Lharampa Geshe Gyaltsen has kindly agreed to provide an extensive commentary on how topractice the sādhanaof Solitary Hero Yamāntakaand to lead a retreat at the conclusion of his commentary. Geshe Gyaltsen has been teaching atNalanda since 2014 and is widely admired by students for his deep and clear explanations and inspiring demeanor.
To attend the course and retreat it is required to have full initiation into the Highest Yoga Tantra practice of Yamāntaka!
Commentary
11 Sep - 10 Nov 2023
As places are limited, all applications as a RESIDENT for the study program must be received by July, 1st, 2023. Registration is closed.
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