Repa Tradition
Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2013 5:33 pm
Is there still a living Repa tradition in the Kamtsang Kagyu lineage?
If anyone knows anything, please share.
Lay man
If anyone knows anything, please share.
Lay man
A Buddhist discussion forum on Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism
https://www.dharmawheel.net:443/
Thanks very much for this. I went and checked the links you recommended. Its interesting, as I ran a google search for “repa” and found this person as well as another who are ordained Repas. They both have Dharma centers, and one even appears to be married with children. I have always assumed the Repa tradition was reserved for hermits. Maybe not.Karma Jinpa wrote:There seems to be, though to what extent I'm not sure. His Eminence Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche ordained at least one of his students, Justin von Bujdoss, as a Repa. He is now alternatively known as Lama Repa Dorjé Ödzer, and runs both the New York Tsurphu Goshir center in Brooklyn and his own blog, centered around Chöd & chaplaincy:
http://www.Goshir.org
http://www.ganachakra.com
One would think that he'd know more about the Repa tradition. He's really down-to-earth, and maintains a Facebook profile which he checks semi-regularly. I'd try contacting him.
Let us know what ya find out!
Dzoki,dzoki wrote:Repa tradition was started by Marpa and Milarepa, they were both laymen, Rechungpa then wrote a repa empowerment adjacent to Chakrasamvara empowerment that is a kind o Kagyu counterpart to ngagpa empowerment of Nyingma. Most of the famous repas were lay people. However nowadays many repas in Tibet are ordained monks who trained in tummo and later after gaining certain degree of proficiency are granted a white robe, though it is not clear to me whether they still continue to be monks, most likely yes. Don´t know whether they also receive that Rechungpa´s empowerment along with that. Originaly repas practiced karmamudra, but I don´t know whether that aspect is a part of repa empowerment.
Of course repas were hermits and spent much of their time in retreat, but that does not preclude having a family down in the valley, though I can imagine it wasn´t easy for the wife of such repa. There was also tradition of remas the female repas, such as Kunden Rema and Machig Onjo, both are from Rechung Kagyu lineage.
Apart from Rechung Kagyu which is now more or less extinct, Barom Kagyu is a lineage that is famous for upholding repa tradition, so try to inquire in that direction and there were some exceptional repas in all Kagyu lineages, but most of them don´t seem to support this tradition anymore, though Kamtsang Kagyu apparently did some effort to revive it recently (via Gyaltsab Rinpoche and Thrangu Rinpoche).
[...] I tend to wonder if we may have made the fundamental error of leaning too much upon the 18th/19th century classicism of monastic Karma Kagyu as a model for the entirety of American Karma Kagyu (the vast majority of whom are lay) in the 21st century. It sounds kind of absurd actually when I see it written out like that, and I don’t think that it is too much of a stretch to suggest that if this is the case, then perhaps we lose some of our credibility and accessibility with those who resonate with the sub-groups that feel at odds with the way the dharma is presented.
When I visit places that resemble these perfect visions of what dharma is supposed to look like visually, I think of Drukpa Kunley, Milarepa, Phadampa Sangye and Shabkar with great tenderness (and humor) and take delight in my meager identity as a so-called Repa. These teachers (myself completely excluded) were vital commentators, alternatives and voices in the wilderness that dharma cannot be owned, trapped in books, and is not only to be delivered through the medium of classicism which often runs the risk of becoming overly dusty and theoretical. There is a lot of wisdom in their path, and many teachings in their relationship with the institutions that presented dharma in a particular kind of way.
The full article can be found here: http://ganachakra.com/2013/10/14/on-voi ... from-here/Just as we need the sun and the moon for there to be balance on Earth, perhaps we need both the paths of Rechungpa and Gampopa as symbols of who we are, who we might wish to become, and from which point we wish to engage the dharma.
To my knowledge Thrangu Rinpoche didn't make an more repa's after the first group in the seventies, or do you know someone else? Most of that group is dead it seems like, just found out that Peanut Butter Harry died a few years ago just as Chris.dzoki wrote: Apart from Rechung Kagyu which is now more or less extinct, Barom Kagyu is a lineage that is famous for upholding repa tradition, so try to inquire in that direction and there were some exceptional repas in all Kagyu lineages, but most of them don´t seem to support this tradition anymore, though Kamtsang Kagyu apparently did some effort to revive it recently (via Gyaltsab Rinpoche and Thrangu Rinpoche).
I got the impression they all did their best, but I am not sure since I only know one of them a little. But he seemed like a serious practitioner to the day he died. It was a part of a empowerment, not sure if it was the Demchog Nyengyu. They were pretty secretive about it.Lay man wrote:So Thrangu Rinpoche intitiatea whole group of westerners in the 70s? Did any of them stick with it?
Any idea if the initiation was from the Demchog Nyengyu?
Thanks
Great links.Karma Jinpa wrote:There seems to be, though to what extent I'm not sure. His Eminence Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche ordained at least one of his students, Justin von Bujdoss, as a Repa. He is now alternatively known as Lama Repa Dorjé Ödzer, and runs both the New York Tsurphu Goshir center in Brooklyn and his own blog, centered around Chöd & chaplaincy:
http://www.Goshir.org
http://www.ganachakra.com
One would think that he'd know more about the Repa tradition. He's really down-to-earth, and maintains a Facebook profile which he checks semi-regularly. I'd try contacting him.
Let us know what ya find out!
I was under the impression that Chris pulled it through until the end. At least he wore a white zen and practiced really a lot.heart wrote:I got the impression they all did their best, but I am not sure since I only know one of them a little. But he seemed like a serious practitioner to the day he died. It was a part of a empowerment, not sure if it was the Demchog Nyengyu. They were pretty secretive about it.Lay man wrote:So Thrangu Rinpoche intitiatea whole group of westerners in the 70s? Did any of them stick with it?
Any idea if the initiation was from the Demchog Nyengyu?
Thanks
There are some pictures here: http://dutchbob.com/cpg132/thumbnails.php?album=19 But you have to register to look at them.
/magnus
Thanks so much for posting the link, Magnus. I only knew many of these guys(Bob, Harry, Charles, Addison etc.) in their later years and it was wonderful to see them as young men.heart wrote:I got the impression they all did their best, but I am not sure since I only know one of them a little. But he seemed like a serious practitioner to the day he died. It was a part of a empowerment, not sure if it was the Demchog Nyengyu. They were pretty secretive about it.Lay man wrote:So Thrangu Rinpoche intitiatea whole group of westerners in the 70s? Did any of them stick with it?
Any idea if the initiation was from the Demchog Nyengyu?
Thanks
There are some pictures here: http://dutchbob.com/cpg132/thumbnails.php?album=19 But you have to register to look at them.
/magnus
Yes, it is quite a trip those photos.yegyal wrote: Thanks so much for posting the link, Magnus. I only knew many of these guys(Bob, Harry, Charles, Addison etc.) in their later years and it was wonderful to see them as young men.
Also fascinating ClearblueSky , thank you.ClearblueSky wrote:Since we're discussing the living repa traditions, thought I'd throw this link in here!
http://togdens.net/about.html
Continuous tummo practice and the various yogas that go with that, if I understood correctly. Repa or Ngakpa just like any yogi, you have to be a very stable practitioner.Lay man wrote:This is a great info.
Can anyone talk to what specific Repa vows entail?
Wow.....if true that does not seem like a commitment to take lightly.heart wrote:Continuous tummo practice and the various yogas that go with that, if I understood correctly. Repa or Ngakpa just like any yogi, you have to be a very stable practitioner.Lay man wrote:This is a great info.
Can anyone talk to what specific Repa vows entail?
/magnus
Yes, the repa tradition is a Vajrayana tradition and it isn't based on vows, it is based on empowerment.Lay man wrote:Wow.....if true that does not seem like a commitment to take lightly.heart wrote:Continuous tummo practice and the various yogas that go with that, if I understood correctly. Repa or Ngakpa just like any yogi, you have to be a very stable practitioner.Lay man wrote:This is a great info.
Can anyone talk to what specific Repa vows entail?
/magnus
So I assumes the commitments associated with the Repa tradition are more closely associated with Vajrayana (tantric) vows as opposed to Mahayana vows?