Magelang – Lama Gangchen Rinpoche was born in Tibet in 1941 and comes from the Gelugpa lineage. He is the Chairman of The Lama Gangchen World Peace Foundation (LGWPF) – a UN-Affiliated NGO, International Friendship for the Support of Himalayan Medicine, Vajrayana Buddhist Philosphy, Inner Peace Education, Non-Formal Education, Environmental Care and Self-Healing for World Peace. He also wrote tens of books which have been translated into many languages. He also wrote the book “Borobudur: The World Peace Mandala”.
Since 1991, Lama Gangchen met about 200 people from the whole world; some of them assume him as their Guru. These disciples took part in an event organized by Lama Gangchen Rinpoche at Hotel Manohara which lasted for 3 weeks. As somebody who has reached the mature age of 71 years old, the Lama looks fit. When he had a meeting with “Guruji” for almost 3 hours he showed no sign of tiredness. He and the participants of the meeting always called Mr. Anand Krishna as Guruji Anand Krishna.
Lama Gangchen Rinpoche invited the participants who were still lingering in the lobby to join the program with Guruji Anand Krishna. The Senior Rinpoche looked very ingenuous in his deeds. We and the disciples of Lama Gangchen Rinpoche followed him, who was walking hand in hand with Guruji Anand Krishna, along the long and winding passageway which connects the buildings. We saw they looked like brothers who had not seen each other for a long time, and one brother was holding the hand of the other brother, and it seemed he would never want to let go.
Everybody walked fast and the photographers, including the photographer of Anand Ashram ran rapidly before them to take the right shooting position. Finally Lama Gangchen took us to the middle of the garden and asked us to line up. Wow! It seems like Lama Gangchen Rinpoche invited all of us to pose together for a picture taken with the Borobudur Temple as the background….And then, still holding the hand of Guruji Anand Krishna, Lama Gangchen Rinpoche walked towards the meeting hall which had been decorated to resemble a monastery in Tibet.
Lama Gangchen Rinpoche was born in western Tibet in 1941. When he reached the age of twelve he received the “Kachen” degree which is usually conferred after twenty years of study. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, he studied medicine, astrology, meditation and philosophy in two of the major monastic universities of Tibet: Sera and Tashi Lhumpo.
He also studied in Gangchen Gompa, Tropu Gompa and Neytsong Monastery (those who joined the trip to Kashmir, should remember the Gompa Monastery). He was disciple of some of the most important Gelugpa Lamas like H.H. Trjichang Rinpoche. In 1963, he continued his studies for the next seven years at the Varanasi Sanskrit University in Benares. In 1970, he received the Geshe Rigram degree (similar to a Ph. D.) from Sera Monastic University situated in South India.
After his graduation, he worked as a Lama healer among the Tibetan communities in Nepal, India and Sikkim, during which time he saved the lives of many people and was named private physician to the Royal Family. In 1981, Lama Gangchen visited Europe for the first time and has since become a resident and Italian citizen.
Since 1982, he has traveled extensively, both for healing and teaching worldwide. He also performed many pilgrimages to some of the most important holy places of different religious and spiritual denominations. Since many years Lama Gangchen promotes a very important project: the integration between Tibetan Medicine with allopathic medicine. Today he has more than 100 Inner Peace Education centers or Self-Healing Study Groups worldwide…..
During the gathering with Guruji, Lama Gangchen introduced Guruji as his friend who last year also attended a similar event at Borobudur, where Guruji had been together with another friend of him, Bhikkhu Sanghasena. He also spoke about the struggle of Guruji against the injustice afflicted to him in carrying out his dharma in Indonesia.
Guruji thanked the Lama and he also said that during his hunger strike for 49 days his sole companion was a mala/rosary given by Lama Gangchen Rinpoche. This was welcomed with a loud applause from the participants.
Then all the participants were requested to introduce themselves and share their thoughts, the group of Guruji began the sharing. Mr. Triwidodo was first; he said he was a Moslem who was aware that he lived on One Earth, under One Sky and amongst One Humankind. It was then Ma Upasana’s turn who said that she was a Buddhist from Sumatra. Lama Gangchen Rinpoche spoke about His Holiness Atisha who studied with Guru Dharmakirti from Sumatra. Guruji Anand Krishna popularized His Holiness Dharmakirti that the name is very well known in Indonesia.
Ms. Wayan Suriastini also said that she was Hindu, came from Bali and now lived in Yogyakarta. Lama Gangchen Rinpoche again spoke about the beauty of Bali Island with its still maintained traditional environment. Mr. Ganjar’s turn arrived. He said that he was Christian and he came from Magelang the area of Borobudur, his parents were of different religious beliefs. By following Mr. Anand Krishna he was not confused anymore and respected his parents ‘beliefs. Last but not least from the group of Guruji was Ms. Nelly Mintarso. She said she was Muslim but her parents have a different belief from her. Thanks to following Guruji everything went together harmoniously.
Afterwards there was a sharing of thoughts from the disciples of Lama Gangchen Rinpoche. Everybody was surprised because Guruji Anand Krishna is really a religious pluralist; even the members of his group are from different religious beliefs. And this is the seed of peace that is sprouting from Indonesia. The participants, those who call themselves his disciple and those who came to the event themselves showed a deep respect to Lama Gangchen Rinpoche. Before they sat down, they bowed down three times to the Lama Rinpoche. Even those who arrived too late also bowed down three times in public to Lama Gangchen Rinpoche.
We need to learn from them. They don’t worship a Guru but they know that without the Guru they don’t understand what Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are. Without Guru they will be submerged in ignorance. They will run after the world which can never satisfy them. In the olden days in Java people called their parents or Guru with an appellation Romo, which derived from Rama. To call Ram means to respect He who is everywhere. In Malaya they say Duli Paduka, duli means dust and paduka means foot’s sole.
The people of the olden days understood that without those they respected they would remain in ignorance, stupidity. Many of Rinpoche’s disciples are accountants and doctors also professionals in a variety of expertise with high salary. They choose to let go of worldly comfort for the sake of following the Lama. They collected their salaries just to be together with Rinpoche for 3 weeks at Borobudur. They don’t complain about the cost. Even this year they collected some fund jointly so that 20 monks from India could also participate in this event at Borobudur.
Hopefully this can become our food for thought, following the example of those who do not have to consider much to bow down. And now it’s time we call our own Guru Guruji…..
One of e-learning programs of One Earth College (http://www.oneearthcollege.com/) is Neo Interfaith Studies (http://interfaith.oneearthcollege.com/) whose objective was to make the program’s participants able to appreciate different religious beliefs and spiritual denominations. And there is Ancient Indonesian History and Culture (http://history.oneearthcollege.com/), which provides the program’s participant the knowledge about the early history of the Indonesian Archipelago. Also there is Neo Transpersonal Psychology (http://stponline.oneearthcollege.com/) which discusses the increasing awareness from personal ego-based state, to transpersonal intelligence-based so that we can work selflessly. All materials are prepared by Mr. Anand Krishna.
Websites of related articles:
http://www.oneearthmedia.net/ind/
http://triwidodo.wordpress.com
http://id-id.facebook.com/triwidodo.djokorahardjo
http://www.kompasiana.com/triwidodo
http://blog.oneearthcollege.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/triwidodo3
Reporter: Tri Widodo, Photographer: Tunggul Setiawan, Translator: Sylvia Antaresa
