Namgyal Rinpoche

Namgyal Rinpoche, Karma Tenzin Dorje (1931-2003), born Leslie George Dawson in Toronto, Canada, was a Tibetan Buddhist lama in the Karma Kagyu tradition.

Early life

Namgyal Rinpoche was born in 1931, October 11, and raised in Toronto, Canada by parents of Irish and Scottish descent and attended Jarvis Baptist Seminary, studying to become a Christian minister, before going on to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA, where he studied philosophy and psychology and became active in Socialist politics. After visiting Moscow to address an international youth conference, he became disillusioned with politics, and moved to London in 1954.^[1]

Theravada Studies in Asia

While in London he studied Buddhism and met the Sayadaw U Thila Wunta, a Burmese forest-monk who accepted Leslie Dawson as a student. In 1956, he traveled to Bodh Gaya, India to rejoin the Sayadaw and received ordination as a samanera (novice monk). After two years of training in Bihar he continued on to Burma where he received higher ordination as Anandabodhi bhikkhu at the Shwedagon temple, Rangoon. He then began more intensive training and meditation practice under the guidance of U Thila Wunta and Mahasi Sayadaw, and in Thailand with Chao Khun Phra Rajasiddhimuni. In Sri Lanka he studied the Pali Suttas, the Visuddhimagga, and other classical texts before receiving the title Acharya (teacher of Dhamma).

Return to the United Kingdom and Canada

In 1962 Anandabodhi returned to England at the invitation of the English Sangha Trust. He was a special guest speaker at the Fifth International Congress of Psychotherapists in London where he met Julian Huxley, Anna Freud and R.D. Laing, among others. In 1965 he founded the Johnstone House Contemplative Community, a retreat center in Scotland. A year earlier he had met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Akong Tulku, Tibetan lamas at Oxford sent by His Holiness the 16th Karmapa to study and live in the West. Anandabodhi provided the lamas with assistance and saw to the transfer of ownership of Johnstone House to the Tibetan Karma Kargyu Order which transformed the old hunting lodge into Samye Ling, the first Tibetan Buddhist centre in the West, outside Russia.

In 1965 Anandabodhi returned to Canada with two of his senior students, Tony Olbrecht and Barry Goulden, where he established a new community, The Dharma Centre of Canada (1966, incorporated as a charity 1973), and founded the Centennial Lodge of the Theosophical Society (1967). Over the years that followed, he began to stress the study of Western psychology and philosophy, exercise, diet, and the appreciation of fine art and music as a supplement to traditional Buddhist training, and began taking students with him on voyages to various countries around the world, often on cargo ships.

As Namgyal Rinpoche

During a pilgrimage with students to India and Sikkim in 1968, Anandabodhi was recognized by the 16th Karmapa, the supreme head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, as an accomplished master and received Vajrayana robes.^{[citation needed]} Three years later, accompanied by many students, Anandabodhi met with His Holiness Sakya Trizin of the Sakya Order in Dehra Dun, and with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala before proceeding to Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim where he received from the Karmapa his Tibetan name. On his return to Canada he was enthroned (October 1971) with due ceremony as Karma Tenzin Dorje Namgyal Rinpoche at Green River, Ontario, by Karma Thinley Rinpoche, as instructed by His Holiness the Karmapa.

Thereafter, Namgyal Rinpoche practised and taught in the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism as well as Theravadin and Mahayana schools. He was empowered and recognised by many teachers such as His Holiness Sakya Trizin and His Eminence Chogye Rinpoche of the Sakyas, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche of the Nyingma sect, as well various Kagyu lamas, such as Kalu Rinpoche, one of the Karmapa's main teachers. And in subsequent years he inspired the establishment of dharma centers around the world.

At times, Rinpoche would revert to his given name, George Dawson, and abolish the exotic trappings and mystique of Tibetan Buddhism, seeing these as distractions to students, and teaching directly from the heart of reality, then re-establish the outer form and reveal its deeper meaning. He continued to teach until his death in Switzerland on October 22, 2003, having empowered a number of senior students to continue his work.

See also

• Samye Ling
• Sangharakshita

References

1. ^ Bodhi, Ananda (21/9/1968). "Toronto's growing followers of Buddhism". Globe & Mail. 

• "Buddhism In Britain", Ian P Oliver, Rider & Co, London, UK, 1979.
• "A Time To Remember", Lama Sonam Gyatso, unpublished biography, 2003.
• http://namgyal.ca/briefbio.html

External links

• Biography
• Namgyal Rinpoche in New Zealand A short history of the contributions of Namgyal Rinpoche and his students to bringing the Buddha Dharma to New Zealand, by Tarchin Hearn.