All ‘Shamar Rinpoche’ posts

Can the lotuses in a lake stay ever together?

Monday, July 14th, 2014
Statue of the 6th Shamarpa carved by the 10th Karmapa

Statue of the 6th Shamarpa carved by the 10th Karmapa

Here is an extract from the late 14th Shamarpa’s book “A Golden Swan in Turbulent Waters”, about the life of the 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje. It illustrates their close relationship as student and teacher.

Here, the 10th Karmapa relates a conversation with his root teacher the 6th Shamarpa:

Shamarpa: “Can the lotuses in a lake stay ever together without separating?”

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Messages of condolence on the passing of Shamar Rinpoche

Thursday, June 12th, 2014
14th Shamar Rinpoche, Mipham Chokyi Lodro (1952-2014)

14th Shamar Rinpoche, Mipham Chokyi Lodro (1952-2014)

We are saddened by the profound loss of our beloved teacher Shamar Rinpoche, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly yesterday, only a few short days after visiting us in the UK. Below are some messages of condolence as well as encouragement from many eminent Buddhist masters with whom Rinpoche shared a close bond.

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Shamar Rinpoche visits the London Diamond Way Buddhist Centre

Saturday, June 7th, 2014
Shamar Rinpoche teaching in London

Shamar Rinpoche teaching in London, 3 June 2014

On Tuesday 3 June 2014, the London Diamond Way Buddhist Centre welcomed the 14th Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche. Shamar Rinpoche is second to Gyalwa Karmapa in the spiritual hierarchy of the Karma Kagyu School, and is an emanation of Buddha Amitabha. The Shamarpas are referred to as the “Red Hat Karmapas” since the 4th Karmapa Rolpe Dorje presented a ruby red crown to the second Shamarpa, saying, “You are the one manifestation, while I am the other. Therefore, the responsibility to maintain the continuity of the teachings of the Kagyu lineage rests equally on you as it does on me.” The present Shamar Rinpoche received the complete teachings and transmissions of the Karma Kagyu School from the 16th Karmapa at Rumtek monastery in Sikkim. In 1994 in accordance with Karma Kagyu tradition, he officially recognised and enthroned Trinley Thaye Dorje as the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa.

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Painting of the 10th Shamarpa Mipham Chodrup Gyamtso

Sunday, June 19th, 2011
10th Shamarpa Mipham Chodrup Gyamtso

10th Shamarpa Mipham Chodrup Gyamtso

This beautiful thangka painting of the 10th Shamarpa Mipham Chodrup Gyamtso (1742-1792), in the Karma Gardri style of Eastern Tibet, was painted in the middle of the 18th Century, and is currently on display at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

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Shamar Rinpoche on “advanced practices”

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

Shamar Rinpoche wearing the Red Crown


“Many people turn towards those practices reputed to bring quick results, even immediate enlightenment. Perhaps this is courageousness, perhaps merely pride. Perhaps the assumption is that if they can say they are doing an advanced practice, this makes them an advanced person.”

Shamar Rinpoche
From “A Change of Expression” (Editions Dzambhala, 1991)

Painting of the 6th Shamarpa, Mipam Chokyi Wangchuk

Saturday, February 5th, 2011
6th Shamarpa Mipham Chokyi Wangchuk

6th Shamarpa Mipham Chokyi Wangchuk

The Himalayan Art Resource website recently posted a picture of this marvellous 18th century thangka painting (click to enlarge) of Mipam Chokyi Wangchuk, The 6th Shamarpa (1584-1629). The 6th Shamarpa is an exceptionally important figure in the Karma Kagyu school, holding the lineage between the 9th and 10th Karmapas. His debating skills were so extraordinary that he was known as the “Pandita of the North, the Omniscient Shamarpa in whom Manjushri delights”. Famed for his deep insight, he had memorised fifty volumes of sutras and tantras by the age of seventeen, and was later to write ten texts explaining both the sutra and tantra traditions. He was the teacher of Desi Tsangpa, who ruled central Tibet, and it was while he was travelling in east Tibet – successfully playing the mediator in a regional disturbance – that he recognised and became the teacher of the 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje. Subsequent travels took him to Nepal, where he taught Buddhism in the original Sanskrit to the king, Laxman Naran Singh, and to other devotees, and where he eventually died in the Helambu mountains, near a cave in which Milarepa, Tibet’s great yogi, had once meditated.

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The Karmapa – Shamarpa Lineage

Monday, January 31st, 2011
17th Karmapa and 14th Shamarpa at the Kagyu Monlam in Bodh Gaya 2010

17th Karmapa and 14th Shamarpa at the Kagyu Monlam in Bodh Gaya 2010

The lineage of the Karmapas was prophesied by Shakyamuni Buddha who said that approximately 1600 years after his death an emanation of Avalokiteshvara (aka Chenrezig) the Bodhisattva of Compassion would be born. Karmapa literally means ‘one who manifests buddha activity’ and his activity is to preserve and spread the essence of the teachings of all the Buddhas. The Buddha predicted the Karmapa would propagate the teachings during the course of many successive incarnations. As well, the Buddha predicted, “In the future, a great bodhisattva with a ruby red crown will come to the suffering of the multitude, leading them out of their cyclic bewilderment and misery.” In the Karmapas and the Shamarpas, the Buddha’s predictions were fulfilled.

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Shamar Rinpoche – “Dharma is the best”

Friday, March 26th, 2010

This is an excerpt from a teaching by Shamar Rinpoche entitled “Enlightenment is Within You”, originally printed in a 1995 edition of Kagyu Life International.

Shamar Rinpoche

The common problem is that people think, “I must achieve the results quickly, I cannot wait more than 5 or 6 years. Otherwise, I don’t like it.” But otherwise, after 6 years what do you have in life? You have nothing else. You cannot achieve the results of the Dharma practice within 6 years. You simply cannot. But still you are doing something meaningful. After 6 years, if you have another goal which you could achieve, then forget the Dharma and chose the other one. But the sentient beings’ life has no other goal besides enlightenment. I am not trying to discourage you from being human, but there is no other thing to do in life. You can try to get rich, but then what? Suppose you can be a successful politician, become a president or something like that, but then what? The problem is (more…)