FPMT Australia Ltd

Revered Tibetan meditation master and spiritual practitioner, Choden Rinpoche, will teach at FPMT Centres around Australia in January and early February 2008. This is a rare opportunity to receive teachings and initiations from an eminent lama who is recognised as both a great scholar and a skilful teacher in the Mahayana tradition. 

About Ven Choden Rinpoche

Born in 1933 in eastern Tibet, Choden Rinpoche was recognized at age three as the reincarnation of the previous Rinpoche, who himself had been one of the candidates for the twelfth Dalai Lama. At age six, he first met Pabongka Rinpoche, and took many teachings from him at Rabten Monastery, and he also took novice ordination from him then. At age fifteen, Choden Rinpoche went to Sera Je monastery in Lhasa, where he studied the five main texts.

Although Rinpoche studied through the Lharam class and could have become a geshe, his teacher asked him not to take the exams yet. Choden Rinpoche decided to study the teachings on Vinaya - monastic discipline - and is regarded as one of the foremost experts on the subject. Choden Rinpoche was one of the two Sera Je lamas selected to debate with His Holiness the Dalai Lama during His Holiness's geshe exams.

During the communist Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1959, Choden Rinpoche stayed in Tibet and went into solitary retreat for 19 years. He never left his tiny, dark room in Lhasa from 1965 to 1985, and was virtually unknown in his monastery for this reason. In 1985 he was allowed to leave Tibet for India, and has since taught for many years to thousands of students at Sera Je monastery in South India. At the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Choden Rinpoche has now visited the west several times to give teachings and lead retreats.

'To meditate means to become familiar with your positive thoughts, positive mind.  You try to increase the positive imprints on the mind and reduce the negative imprints on the mind. If you can't do that it's useless to just focus your mind on the breath.  It's meaningless. The main thing is to increase the positive potentials that are in your mindstream. That's called meditation.'                                                                                                                          Choden Rinpoche, 'Meditation: making the mind positive',                                  Mandala Magazine, July/Aug 2000 edn.  

'...you don't need external things to do Dharma practice. It's all in your heart, your mind'.                     

Choden Rinpoche, 'The Life of a Hidden Meditator, Choden Rinpoche',                 Mandala Magazine, July/Aug 2000 edn.  

Australian Tour Schedule (updated 2 January 2008)

Vajrayana Institute - Ashfield, Sydney, NSW 

5 - 6 January 2008: Seven Point Mind Training, by Geshe Chekawa

9 - 10 January 2008: Yamantaka Initiation

12 - 13 January 2008: Six Session Guru Yoga commentary

Chenrezig Institute - Sunshine Coast, QLD

18 - 19 January 2008: 1,000 Arm Chenrezig Initiation

Langri Tangpa Centre - Brisbane, QLD

20 January 2008: Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, by Geshe Langri Tangpa    

21 - 22 January 2008: Medicine Buddha Initiation

Hayagriva Centre - Perth, WA

26 - 28 January 2008:  The Three Principal Aspects of the Path                                  (Text by Lama Tsongkhapa) 

31 January 2008: Public Talk - 'Ways to a Meaningful Life'

1 February 2008: Rinpoche will talk on 'Guru Devotion' followed by Tsog Offering

2 - 3 February 2008: Yamantaka Initiation 

This website will be updated regularly, as more news becomes available.