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The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:16 pm
by jigmeeaton
The Longchen Rabjam Shedra is a unique program with a traditional eight year curriculum in Buddhist Philosophy, according to the Pema Lingpa lineage of the Nyingma school of Buddhism. Its intention is vast: To provide a means for international students all over the world to study this curriculum through the internet.

Longchen Rabjam and Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche

Longchen Rabjam (Longchen Rabjampa Drime Özer 1308-1364) was a brilliant master and teacher of the Nyingma school. His extensive works are an essential component of the curriculum.

Gangteng Rinpoche
Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche is the visionary behind the project. He is the ninth body incarnation of the Pema Lingpa lineage and he in charge of many projects in his home land of Bhutan including over 40 monasteries and hermitages, and shedras for men and for women. In addition, he has a rigorous travel and teaching schedule for his international students in Europe, Asia, and North America. His international sangha is called Yeshe Khorlo (Wisdom Wheel). The website for Yeshe Khorlo USA has further information about Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche, the Pema Lingpa lineage, as well as links to the other International Yeshe Khorlo organizations.

How It Works

Teachings are given in Tibetan at Gangtey Gonpa, the seat of the lineage in Bhutan. They are translated onsite into English. Videos and transcripts are uploaded onto a secure password protected website. A network of volunteer Regional Coordinators facilitate teachings in various languages. Highly trained Khenpos, who have studied and trained for many years, are the instructors.

Your Committment

This Shedra is designed for committed students who have a connection with the Pema Lingpa lineage of the Nyingma tradition. The course material is extensive and empowerments are mandatory. This may involve traveling for specific rituals and/or teachings.

Applications are available from [email protected] or from the Coordinator in your region. Each student must also sign a Commitment Statement, agreeing to keep all course materials strictly confidential. This protects the students and the teachers. The agreement is kept on file with a lawyer in the United States.

http://www.longchenrabjam.org/

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 4:06 am
by Alfredo
I am fascinated by these programs. A few questions, if I may:

1. What specific topics will the course cover? Has a curriculum or reading list been announced? (I am aware of the general curriculum of Nyingma shedras elsewhere.)

2. Where, when, and how often will the necessary empowerments be held?

3. What sort of time commitment is expected? For example, how many hours per day?

4. Can you say more about the medium of instruction? I realize that the teachers will be lecturing online, or posting videos of lectures, but will there be homework exercises and/or exams? Or is this intended as a more experiential / meditational "retreat"?

5. Will the course have a definite starting and ending date (perhaps repeated every 8 years), or can new students begin the sequence at any time?

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 2:09 pm
by kirtu
Alfredo wrote:I am fascinated by these programs. A few questions, if I may:

1. What specific topics will the course cover? Has a curriculum or reading list been announced? (I am aware of the general curriculum of Nyingma shedras elsewhere.)
Hello Alfredo -

Most of your questions can be answered by drilling down the links on the link. The curriculum is here for example.

There does also appear to be a definite start and end date.

Kirt

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 6:25 pm
by Grigoris
I cannot find the information which states when the course starts.

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 4:54 am
by Alfredo
Thank you, and I apologize for overlooking that. I also found a reference to exams.

It may be that rather than have all participants meet every year for empowerments, it will be up to each student to arrange to receive them from whatever lama they can.

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 10:17 am
by kirtu
Start dates: it's true that I can't find a start date. This is at least the second time that they have advertised their shedra. In past messages there have been start dates.

Empowerments: In past postings they elaborated on this too. On needed to go to Bhutan to get the empowerments or to catch Gangteng Tulku on one of his US visits. The shedra is primarily for his students but I don't think is exclusively for his students.

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:09 pm
by Dharmaswede
It is still open for enrollment, but it won't stay that way forever. So if you're interested - enroll now.

The study material is fairly dense. It is hard to say how much time you need to devote, it depends on ambition, talent for studying, previous knowledge etc. I would guess at least a solid hour per day. Being a shedra, studying is a central feature of the program.

As far as I know, not all arrangements are set for empowerments so there is no exhaustive answer to your questions regarding that.

Best Regards,

Jens

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 9:32 pm
by christine.arpita
Hello all

I am the adminstrator for this online Shedra and I would like to offer some clarification. Thanks to all who have posted so far!

Yes, enrollment is continuous for the time being.

At the moment the program is largely self-study, although study groups are being set up using Skype. The material is dense so one needs to feel a real sense of commitment to the process.

In regard to empowerments, most of them are specific for the Pema Lingpa lineage. Empowerments occur through Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche's international sanghas - Yeshe Khorlo See http://www.yeshekhorlo.org
Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche travels to the USA, Europe and Asia and will be coming to the USA later this spring. His North American schedule is not yet finalized, but will be posted on the Yeshe Khorlo USA website as soon as possible. Some of the European schedule is posted in German at http://yeshekhorlo.de/programm/ . I can post a link to an over-all international schedule when one is available.

For those who really wish to study in this shedra, it may be possible to receive permission to study certain texts by receiving a lung or transmission over Skype. This has been agreed in principle, although the details are not yet worked out. Regardless, it is assumed that each student will make his/her best effort to receive empowerments as they are available in their region.

Empowerments are not required for the first year material, which gives new students some time to contact their coordinators or local Yeshe Khorlo organization to see what empowerments will become available and where.

In regard to the exams and credential given, I can tell you that the exam process is under development, but it has been agreed that exams will be optional - although highly recommended. Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche hopes that there will be graduates from this program who will eventually be able to teach others in their own languages.

Let me know if you have further questions
Christine

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 10:28 pm
by Grigoris
Thank you for the clarification christine!

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 7:52 pm
by Sherlock
Has anyone here registered and participated in this? How is it like? How is the pace of study, video quality, depth of material covered, and the translation?

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 12:02 pm
by Alfredo
I too would be interested to know this.

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2017 7:43 pm
by HandsomeMonkeyking
Maybe now?

Re: The Shedra of Longchen Rabjam

Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 8:27 am
by Dharmaswede
Compared to most other online Dharma study programs, this Shedra is definitely more in-depth. For instance, Year 1 contains two main courses. One of which is this:

Rdzogs pa chen po sems nyid ngal gso las rgyu mtshan nyid theg pa'i skor
Kun mkhyen Klong chen rab 'byams
de'i 'grel pa Shing rta rnam dag
The great perfection, finding ease in the nature of mind - the section on the causal vehicle of characteristics.
The Omniscient Longchen Rabjam
Along with the autocommentary, "The Completely Pure Chariot"
"Finding Ease in the Nature of Mind" (sems nyid ngal gso) is the first volume of "The Trilogy of Finding Ease" (ngal gso skor gsum).

The teachings on this particular course consists of about 40+ hours of video. A couple of hours of study per week is probably minimum. Teachings are presented in a rather traditional form, so it is less Westernised than other programs. In that sense, it is more demanding than usual. Video quality varies a bit, but is consistently good or very good. I don't have the competence to assess the quality of the translations, but they seem great.