Secular Activity

Ka Nying Shedrub Ling: Secular Activity

Keeping perfect pace with the bustling of monastic activity, secular functions have also thrived under the roof of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery. In 1980, Tulku Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche accompanied his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, on a round-the-world tour throughout Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia. Lecturing at a number of well-known Dharma Centers, both Lamas offered profound Dzogchen and Mahamudra teachings to numerous people and attracted an ample following of devoted practitioners.

Returning to Nepal from their world travels in December 1981, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Tulku Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche opened wide the main temple doors of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling, jointly hosting the first formal seminar on Buddhist study and practice designed especially for a Western audience. Encouraged by an enthusiastic public response, father and son, together with their Western translator, Erik Pema Kunsang, informally founded Swayam-jnana Institute ó an early prototype of present-day Rangjung Yeshe Institute ó thus establishing a program of yearly autumn seminars which have continued to the present day.

Unfortunately, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche is no longer physically present in this world, having passed away in 1996. Yet, for almost twenty years, with few exceptions, Tulku Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche ("Sun of the Dharma") has made himself easily accessible to the public. In fact, he has come to regard 10:00am until 12:00 noon his daily "office hours" dedicated to greeting new and old visitors in his personal shrine-room. For this reason, Rinpoche has become a dependable focal-point for the local Tibetan community as well as for the growing community of Westerners resident in Kathmandu Valley.

Year after year, a steady stream of both locals and travelers find their way to Tulku Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche's third-floor reception room. Many travelers have come from distant corners of the world specifically to meet the high Lamas of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling, while others have simply decided to make a visit with a high Lama part of their travel adventures in Asia. In recent years, a number of popular travel guidebooks, such as the Rough Guide to Nepal and the Lonely Planet Guide to Nepal, have chosen to include a map of the monastery's actual location, as well as a short description of its daily activities.

Tulku Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche's style is very warm and personal, and always unpredictable, humorous and entertaining. In addition to Tibetan, Nepali and Hindi, he is conversant in the English language. Some mornings, as many as 20 visitors from faraway countries can be found gathered around him while he perches on his shrine-room couch exchanging philosophical views, offering an impromptu Dharma 'chat' or discussing the latest news from CNN. Meanwhile, he continues to juggle such diverse daily functions as greeting Tibetan refugees on pilgrimage, ordaining a new monk, counseling and blessing visitors from the local community, debating with a young Khenpo, conferring with an electrician or plumber about renovations, and receiving long-distance phone calls on his 'ever-at-hand' mobile phone.

To accommodate the growing community of Western Buddhist practitioners staying in Nepal and to introduce the basics of Buddhism to interested travelers, Rinpoche freely offers Saturday Morning Teachings each weekend year-round. Audiences seldom number less than 100, and may even include inquisitive dignitaries from the Nepalese community and the foreign embassies. Moreover, a number of travel agents from Europe, America and Southeast Asia now include "a tour of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery and an introduction to Tibetan Buddhism given by an incarnate high Lama" as part of their packaged tours to Nepal and Tibet. Thus, several times a month, Rinpoche is scheduled to meet with tour groups of up to fifty or more people of various ages, nationalities and backgrounds.

Twice daily, special pujas (religious services) are performed by a host of monks in the main temple at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling. Depending upon variations in their class schedule, the puja's assembly may number anywhere from 15 to 50 monks. Pujas are normally an hour in length, and visitors are always welcome.

Local tour guides frequently usher their tour groups into the lively afternoon Protector Pujas so the visitors can experience the rich ethnic ambience of rapid liturgical chanting accompanied by traditional musical instruments ó painted drums, ornate 2-meter long brass horns, conch-shells, cymbals and ritual hand-bells. Afternoon pujas invoking the Dharma Protectors, such as Mahakala, begin sharply at 4:00pm daily. The morning Tara puja begins at 5:00am.

Lastly, for the benefit of residents as well as travelers, Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling has made available an extensive library of more than 2,000 books in a dozen different languages, including the latest Dharma books in English currently on the international market. Available for loan are books on all schools of Buddhist philosophy, Buddhist art, tanka painting, iconography, Asian history and culture, health, yoga and Tibetan medicine, language study materials and travel. Moreover, under the guidance of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Tulku Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, numerous books and practice manuals have been translated and published by Rangjung Yeshe Publications. These are available for purchase from the library, and also are widely distributed in the West.

For more information about Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling's annual seminars for Westerners interested in Buddhism, visit our website link at: www.shedra.com.

Read more about the schedule of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling in the calendars section

Read about the History of the Monastery..