Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche

Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche

Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, Gyurme Chökyi Senge, was born in 1967, as the grandson of Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. A dream that Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche had one night while staying near the Bodhnath stupa indicated that his grandson was be the combined emanation of the three main lamas from Shechen Monastery who had all perished in Chinese prisons in the early sixties—the previous Shechen Rabjam, Shechen Kongtrul and Shechen Gyaltsap, Gyurme Pema Dorje. This was later confirmed by the Sixteenth Karmapa.

Shechen Rabjam began receiving teachings from his grandfather, who raised him, at the age of three. During twenty-five years, he received teachings and empowerments and attended drupchen with Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He first went to the West with him in 1976.

In 1980, when Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche built Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Baudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal, Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche became its abbot. Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche is the seventh in the line of the Rabjam succession. After Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche passed away in 1991, Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche endeavoured to secure the transmission of his teachings and his vision of Tibetan Buddhist culture. Over the last ten years, Shechen Monastery has been enriched with a shedra, a school for sacred dancing, rituals and chants, a thangka painting school and a medical clinic.

In April 2019, at Shechen Monastery, Nepal, Kyabje Rabjam Rinpoche gave empowerments and oral reading transmissions of Jigme Lingpa’s collected works (sung bum) and the complete oral transmission of the collected writings of Patrul Rinpoche, Orgyen Jigme Chokyi Wangpo.

Publications

• Shechen Rabjam, The Great Medicine That Conquers Clinging to the Notion of Reality—Steps in Meditation on the Enlightened Mind (Shambhala Publications, 2007)

Teachings & Transmissions Given to the Rigpa Sangha

• La Castillanderie, France, August 1984: first teaching to the Rigpa Sangha
• Australia, Awakening the Heart of Compassion, a series of talks on awakening compassion based on the Seven Points of Mind Training and the Thirty-Seven Practices of the Bodhisattvas:
  • Canberra, 30 April 1996
  • Melbourne, 1 & 2 May 1996
  • Sydney, 3-5 May 1996
• Amsterdam, 22 September 1996: Public Talk on Renunciation, Compassion and Pure Vision
• Lerab Ling, 22 August 2008
• Lerab Ling, 18 July 2010: the life of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
• Shechen Monastery, Boudhanath, Nepal, 24 March 2012: Rigdzin Düpa empowerment
• Lerab Ling, 16-19 August 2019:
  • teaching on the Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones (verses 1-54 using Khenpo Shenga's commentary)
  • empowerments of: Dukngal Rangdrol, Tendrel Nyesel, White Manjushri & Yang Nying Pudri
  • oral transmissions related to the empowerments
• Lerab Ling, 29 April-3 May 2023:
  • 29 April: Lama Yangtik empowerment
  • 30 April: Khandro Yangtik empowerment
  • 1-3 May: teaching on the Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones (complete text using Khenpo Shenga's commentary)
  • 1 May: oral transmission of Khenpo Shenga's commentary on the Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones
  • 1 May: Rigdzin Düpa empowerment and associated lungs
  • 2 May: Zabtik Drolchok empowerment and associated lungs
  • 2 May: Yumka Dechen Gyalmo empowerment and associated lungs
  • 3 May: Chime Phakme Nyingtik empowerment and associated lungs
• Rigpa London, UK, 11 May 2023: Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's 'Heart Advice in Four Lines'
• Lerab Ling, 6-10 November 2024:
  • 6 November:
    • Teaching on shamatha based on Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's text, The Sage Who Dispels Mind’s Anguish, including its reading transmission
    • Reading transmission: Reading transmission: The Treasury of Blessings—A Practice of Buddha Shakyamuni by Mipham Rinpoche
    • Empowerment of Medium-length & Brief Blessing of Tendrel Nyesel

Further Reading

• Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Brilliant Moon, Shambhala, 2008, Chapter 11. My Grandfather, My Guru by Shechen Rabjam.

Internal Links

• Prayer for the Long Life of Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche
• Shechen Monastery
• Shechen Rabjam Incarnation Line

External Links

• Shechen Monastery website