Poet, scholar philosopher, author and Tibetan Buddhist master, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche led a profound life dedicated to spiritual enlightenment and teaching. To followers of Tibetan Buddhism he is regarded as having been a great teacher of teachers, a realized being who was also remarked upon as being a genuinely good human being. His entire life was devoted to the preservation and dissemination of the Buddha Dharma and he is still regarded with awe and amazement throughout the Tibetan community as well in western centers of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a most imposing figure — a mountain of a man with inexhaustible energy whose only motivation was to benefit others.
In Nepal he built Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling, a magnificent monastery housing a large community of monks who are continuing the tradition as it had been practiced in Tibet. He was a master of every aspect of monastic life, including the many ceremonies and ritual dances, and supervised the education and spiritual training of the monks. He was a married lama who raised a family and counseled an extended lay community on all matters, spiritual and mundane. He was the teacher of many important lamas, including His Holiness XIV Dalai Lama. He traveled extensively, working tirelessly to preserve and transmit the Buddha’s teachings.
Khyentse Rinpoche was a national treasure, the embodiment of the highest qualities and ideals of the Tibetan culture. To be around him was to be in the heart of Tibet, at the center of a sacred realm where philosophy, art and ritual, as well as the most ordinary activities of daily life, are the expression of primordial awareness pointing to its own intrinsic purity — the enlightened mind of all the Buddhas. Referred to as “my guru” by the Dalai Lama, who described him as a man of “inconceivable knowledge, wisdom and accomplishment”, Khyentse Rinpoche remains loved and revered by thousands of people in India, the Himalayas, Tibet and the West. And while gone, he remains through his life and teachings a most valuable and beneficial teacher of wisdom and compassion.(Portions of above text from Dharmaware.com)
Quotes
“A crystal takes on the color of the cloth upon which it is placed, whether white, yellow, red or black. Likwise, the people with whom you spend your time whether their influence is good or bad, will make a huge difference to the direction your life and practice take.”
“Spending your time with true spiritual friends will fill you with love for all beings and help you to see how negative attachment and hatred are. Being with such friends, and following their example, will naturally imbue you with their good qualities, just as all the birds flying around a golden mountain are bathed in its golden radiance.”
“Never forget how swiftly this life will be over, like a flash of summer lightning or the wave of a hand. Now that you have the opportunity to practice dharma, do not waste a single moment on anything else.”
“It is our mind, and that alone, that chains us or sets us free.”
“A rainbow sparkles in the sky, but it is nothing other than the sky itself. You could call it a manifestation of the sky. Likewise, the experiences that arise during meditation have no substance. Good experiences make us suppose that we have attained lofty realization; bad ones discourage us. It is truly said: ‘Children are lured by a rainbow, meditators by their experiences.’ If we attach no importance to them they cannot dupe us.”
Links
From the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilgo_Khyentse_Rinpoche.
“Spirit of Tibet” documentary featuring Khyentse Rinpoche (recommended): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujg57prCNvA.