Geshe Langri Tangpa

Geshe Langri Tangpa (dge bshes glang ri thang pa) (1054-1123 ) - aka. Dorje Senge, a famous Kadampa master, who is best known for composing the Eight Verses of Training the Mind.

Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche says:

Among the Kadampa masters, there was one called Geshe Langri Thangpa, who was an incredible teacher and a really great master. He is said to have set the standard for meditation on the defects of samsara. In fact, he was even known as ‘Langthangpa Gloomy Face,’ because he never ever smiled. Except, that is, on one occasion when a mouse tried to move a piece of turquoise on his mandala plate. The mouse was trying desperately to push the turquoise but could not manage, so he called over another mouse to come and help him and together they tried to move it. That made Langri Thangpa smile, it is said, but apart from that, he had a permanently gloomy expression, and so people used to call him “gloomy face.” Once, it is said, his attendant told him how people were calling him “gloomy face” because he never smiled, and he replied, “When I think about all the endless suffering in the different realms of samsara, how could I ever possibly smile?”