A Brief History of Kunzang Palyul Choling
Sunday, December 26th, 2010For those readers who might be curious about just exactly what Kunzang Palyul Chöling, or KPC, is and why we think it is important to care about, we have assembled a brief history of the temple. This must also be the story of its Spiritual Director, Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo, without whom there would be no story to tell.
Jetsunma was not born a Buddhist. Actually she was born to Italian-Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York, and her early spiritual education came courtesy of the Roman Catholic Church, the Dutch Calvinist church, and a sort of lox-and-bagels Judaism (as she describes it), depending on which parent was winning on that particular day. Life at home was often a living hell with both parents taking out their frustrations on their children with severe beatings and other abuse usually fueled by alcohol. But even though not born a Buddhist, Alyce was born a bodhisattva, and she used the suffering she experienced as a child as motivation to end the suffering of others.
Later, she left her family for life on a North Carolina farm. There she began to experience dreams and visions that indicated various practices she should undertake, such as meditation and what she later learned was a form of chöd – dedicating one’s very body to the liberation of sentient beings. She left the farm while very pregnant with her second son and went to Black Rock, North Carolina, where she gave psychic teachings and readings. By age 30 she experienced a spiritual breakthrough, and this eventually led her to Kensington, Maryland, where she and her husband founded the Center for Discovery and New Life. There she began to attract a large following of students. She taught a sort of Christ-centered spirituality and channeled various teachers. In April, 1985, at her urging, her students began a 24 hour prayer vigil for peace in the basement of her small home in Kensington, Maryland, that continues unbroken today.
At about the same time a Tibetan man showed up selling rugs to support a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in India. She and her students ended up supporting seventy monks at the monastery. It turned out that this man was the business manager for His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, the Supreme Head of the Palyul lineage of Nyingma. When he heard about this American woman and her students, he decided to pay them a visit – his first to the United States. After dining on hot dogs with Catherine (as she was then known) and her students, he proceeded to interview the students to see what she was teaching them. Finally he called her in and told her that whatever she called what she was teaching, what she was actually teaching was Mahayana Buddhism. He said that her ability to do this with no formal training in Buddhism reflected a very high level of accomplishment in previous lifetimes. These words were echoed in 1986 when Catherine traveled to Oregon to meet the Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche, who had been recognized as the reincarnation of Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab, the first Palyul throneholder. He encouraged her to visit Penor Rinpoche in India. Catherine took both of these lamas as her root teachers.
Meanwhile the Center for Discover and New Life had purchased a new home, a large house with pillars just as described by Penor Rinpoche when he suggested they find a larger space. It was located in Poolesville, Maryland, a rural area along the Potomac River northwest of the District of Columbia. The 24 hour prayer vigil was moved to the new center, and a large number of crystals were installed.
In 1987 Catherine followed the advice of Gyaltrul Rinpoche and traveled to India to visit His Holiness Penor Rinpoche at his monastery in exile, Namdroling, located near Bylakuppe, Karanataka State. After carefully examining her, he, along with His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, then the Supreme Head of the Nyingma (who was visiting the monastery at the time), and the senior Palyul tulku, the Second Dzongnang Jampal Lodro Rinpoche, formally recognized her as the reincarnation of Genyenma Ahkön Lhamo, the sister of the first throneholder of Palyul, Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab, who in this life, as we said, is known as Gyaltrul Rinpoche.
Genyenma Ahkön Lhamo spent much of her life meditating in a cave above Palyul Monastery in Tibet. They called the valley in which the cave was located Red Valley because of all the Buddhist nuns she attracted with her teachings and blessings. She was renowned as a wisdom dakini and was one of the main disciples of Tertön Migyur Dorje, whose terma revelations formed the basis of the Palyul lineage. Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab was the Dharma heir of Migyur Dorje.
The following year, 1988, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche traveled to Maryland once again to bestow a major empowerment cycle and to enthrone Catherine as a tulku, or reincarnate lama. This was an extraordinary and unprecedented gesture for him to make, considering that Catherine was both a Western woman and someone with no formal training in Buddhism in this life. Tulkus are also traditionally recognized when very young, and Catherine was in her 30’s. However, His Holiness made it clear that this meant nothing to him. As a young tulku himself at Palyul, he had seen the precious skull relic or kapala left by the first Ahkön Lhamo, and he had made a vow to find her reincarnation if she existed in the world. As an indication of his faith in her, he brought the single surviving fragment of the kapala (the rest had been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution) to present to her at her enthronement ceremony. This sacred relic, bearing a Tibetan letter “AH” formed by the sutures of the skull bone, remains enshrined in the main prayer room at KPC today.
The enthronement ceremony caught the attention of the world’s press and other Western Buddhists. Just prior to the ceremony itself a group of twenty-five of Catherine’s students received ordination as novice Buddhist monks and nuns from His Holiness, a group now numbering around 40 individuals, making it one of the largest Buddhist ordained sanghas in the West. During the empowerment Catherine received the name Ahkön Norbu Lhamo from His Holiness. The title of Jetsunma, a rarely conferred title reserved for the most revered Tibetan Buddhist women teachers, was chose for her by her students.
The enthronement ceremony took place at the end of a four month marathon empowerment by His Holiness called the Rinchen Terdzod, a collection of all known terma revelations of Guru Rinpoche that was compiled by the Jamgon Kongtrul the Great in the 19th Century. This was the first time this empowerment was given in the West by anyone. His Holiness also renamed the center Kunzang Odsal Palyul Changchub Chöling – Fully Awakened Dharma Continent of Excellent Clear Light – and designated it as his seat in the West.
In the ensuing years Jetsunma invited many Palyul and Nyingma teachers to KPC. The first to come was Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche who professed a strong connection with Jetsunma. He was followed by the Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche on numerous occasions, His Holiness Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok on his only trip to the West, His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, the present head of Palyul, the Khenpo brothers, Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, Ven. Yangthang Tulku, Mugsang Tulku, Khentrul Gyangkhang Rinpoche, Ven. Ngagpa Yeshe Dorje, the Palyul Khenpos, Khenchens Tsewang Gyatso, Namdrol, Pema Sherab and Tenzin Norgay, the stupa builders, Tulku Sang Ngak Rinpoche and Tulku Rigdzin Pema, and many other well-known and highly revered teachers. These visits provided a solid foundation of empowerments and traditional teachings for the students who formed the growing sangha of KPC.
Jetsunma continued to teach, shifting into a more Buddhist mode as her students matured into practitioners. She taught regularly to both the children and the adults of the sangha, teachings which were preserved on video and are still readily available to any who seek them out. She also gave her students ample opportunity to gain merit.
One of her main activities has been the building of numerous stupas, over 40 at last count, both at KPC in Maryland – where the remarkable Migyur Dorje Stupa is – as well as the beautiful Amitabha Stupa in Arizona. It is said that even thinking of a stupa is the cause of tremendous merit, so having the opportunity of actually building so many stupas is remarkable.
Another way Jetsunma teaches compassion in action to her students is through the Garuda Aviary and Tara’s Babies animal rescue organizations. The aviary rescues large exotic birds like macaws, parrots and cockatoos which have been abused or abandoned. It is located on the KPC grounds in Maryland. Tara’s Babies rescues dogs from natural disasters (like Hurricane Katrina) or dog pounds where they faced imminent euthanasia. It is housed in a former ranch in a remote area of Arizona. Other activities have included helping Mongolian Buddhists reestablish Buddhism in their former Communist state after 65 years of brutal suppression and a prison program offering Dharma teachings to inmates in Maryland correctional institutions.
Jetsunma has also actively explored alternative methods to expose as many people as possible to the Dharma, including setting Dharma prayers and mantras to modern music and giving regular “tweechings” on Twitter.
Today, after over 20 years since its founding, KPC continues to grow and explore new ways to bring Jetsunma’s compassionate vision into the world, which so desperately needs all the compassion it can get. We can only echo His Holiness Karma Kuchen’s prayer that Jetsunma stay in the world until the very stars fall from the sky!
Recently, following Ani Kunzang’s visit to Australia, Lungtog, Kunzang and Wangmo took the opportunity to circumnambulate a 13 foot (4 metre) high consecrated statue of Guru Rinpoche blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The statue is the first statue to be be built as part of the first stage of The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion being built in Bendigo, Victoria under the direction of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The statue of Guru Rinpoche, resplendantly covered in gold leaf, will no doubt remove obstacles of all kinds including obstacles to the completion of the Stupa. During our visit we prayed for the long life and good health of our kind root teacher and all sentient beings. As well as circumnambulating Guru Rinpoche we also practised Guru Yoga together at the base of Guru Rinpoche and during that time, for a moment, the rain and wind ceased. Here is a picture of Ani Kunzang gazing up at the statue of Guru Rinpoche. the statue is housed in temporary accommodation while the rest of the Stupa is being built.
Christopher is anticipating a tidal wave coming in the next 10 or 15 years. It is thought that many baby boomers, a huge demographic, will feel that they are incapable of taking care of their parrots. So perhaps thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of parrots will need new homes. Those in the parrot rescue world are not looking forward to this, but they do want to be ready for it.
“Because we don’t have much funding and a limit on space right now, we can only take in the worst of the worst cases.” It is his hope that in the future, the aviary will have a bigger facility and more funding and be able to take in even the birds that just cause their owners “inconvenience.” He said the aviary gets a couple of calls a week saying that it is difficult for the owner to take care of their bird, they work a lot, whatever. It seems bad, but it is still a convenience problem. “We currently just take in birds that are in an emergency situation.”
Christopher does not want his flock to stress out about, “Being a prey animal in a small cage, unable to fight or to flee, and having unfamiliar people walking around your cage staring at you.” He prefers not to have too many folks visit the inside of the aviary; the birds would feel trapped.
However, he welcomes visits to the outside flight cage. The flight cage is big enough so that the birds could move to the other side if they felt nervous. On most nice weather days, with the temperature above 60 degrees, Christopher brings the parrots out around noon and takes them in around 4 pm. The birds are very social when they are comfortable. Please come and say hello. Some of the birds, and perhaps even Christopher, will answer you!
Christopher says, “Many people haven’t done research before they bought their parrot. They find themselves at the end of their rope with an animal they can barely take care of. In that case, I try to give advice that might make that situation easier. But my preference would be to talk with them before they bought a parrot, and hopefully dissuade them from doing so.”
Even hand-hatched parrots have the instincts of a wild animal. What is Christopher’s advice for someone who wants a parrot? “Look for another animal. Probably 90% of people who get a parrot will want to get rid of it within three years. That is why parrots get juggled around from house to house so much. And every time that happens, it takes a huge emotional toll on the bird. What you end up with are birds that are considered unhandleable. That is where this aviary finds its niche; birds that cannot be handled by anybody else find a home here.”
Christopher also used to touch people for a living, not parrots. “I was licensed as a massage therapist, and that entails a lot of knowledge about the bodies’ biomechanics and biochemistry. If a person works hard they produce a lot of toxins, and if you just go home at night, you’re going to keep them. People wonder why when they go to bed and wake up the next morning and don’t really feel relaxed. So you need to use your body in order to help your body. Cycling is one way that I use to get rid of the stress of this job.”
Christopher uses a misting system to give the flock a much-loved “bath.” This is a great tool to shower the flock with. Christopher says the rainforest parrots, the colorful birds, especially require showers. The Cockatoos, from the Australian continent, a dryer place, are usually not quite as exuberant during showers, but they still enjoy it.
“I wear ear plugs when I am inside doing this job, and I will listen to music,” says Christopher. He also will sometimes play classical music for the parrots. Christopher finds the music of Ludwig Van Beethoven a bit “bombastic.” He thinks the birds prefer Mozart and Handel, and maybe Vivaldi. Somewhat more soothing and calming music. Christopher says Beethoven’s music sometimes will get real quiet and kind of lull you, and then, BAM, he hits you. That’s when the birds start calling out. Christopher wants something more on an even keel.
Another item that the parrots love is hot peppers; the hotter the better! The capsicum oil that makes hot peppers hot, does not bother the birds’ dry mouth in the least. They eat them up like they were strawberries. Cantaloupe is another big favorite. A common theme is seeds. Parrots in the wild are drawn to fruit for the seeds. Seeds are a cache of nutrition for them.