Repa Tradition
Repa Tradition
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
- Palzang Jangchub
- Posts: 1008
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Re: Repa Tradition
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!
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!
"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme
དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
Re: Repa Tradition
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!
Re: Repa Tradition
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).
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).
Re: Repa Tradition
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).
Thanks much. This is by far the most information I have gotten to date. I have a close friend who is a student of Bardor Rinpoche in Red Hook, so I can ping him for more details related to the Barom Kagyu Repa tradition. You note on Gyalstap Rinpoche and Thrangu Rinpoche are noted as well. I think it would be great if the Kamtsang Kagyu took a concerted effort to revive this tradition. It would provide a great conduit for those who are not in a position to become Monastics to still delve deep into the tradition, much in the same way the Sakyas and Nyigmas has similar paths for lay-people.
Cheers,
Lay Man
- Palzang Jangchub
- Posts: 1008
- Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:19 pm
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Re: Repa Tradition
Repa Dorjé Odzer's latest blog post is about the need for the both the Repa & Gelong traditions:
[...] 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.
"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme
དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
Re: Repa Tradition
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).
/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut
"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
~Kurt Vonnegut
"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
Re: Repa Tradition
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
Any idea if the initiation was from the Demchog Nyengyu?
Thanks
Re: Repa Tradition
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
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut
"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
~Kurt Vonnegut
"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
Re: Repa Tradition
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!
“You don’t know it. You just know about it. That is not the same thing.”
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to me.
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to me.
- ClearblueSky
- Posts: 465
- Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 1:27 am
Re: Repa Tradition
Since we're discussing the living repa traditions, thought I'd throw this link in here!
http://togdens.net/about.html
http://togdens.net/about.html
Re: Repa Tradition
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
Also there is this french Lama Norbu Repa who has quite a big organisation. I think he told me he was ordinated by Jamgon Rinpoche http://www.ncf.net/curriculum.htm
Re: Repa Tradition
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
- conebeckham
- Posts: 5714
- Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 11:49 pm
- Location: Bay Area, CA, USA
Re: Repa Tradition
I have a friend here in the Bay Area, he's a student of Thrangu Rinpoche's, and he "became a repa" several years back...I don't know if there was an empowerment, or some sort of ceremony or ritual involved, or if Rinpoche merely gave him a name and told him to wear the zen. I've not asked.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།
"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།
"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
Re: Repa Tradition
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.
/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut
"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
~Kurt Vonnegut
"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
Re: Repa Tradition
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
“You don’t know it. You just know about it. That is not the same thing.”
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to me.
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to me.
Re: Repa Tradition
This is a great info.
Can anyone talk to what Repa vows entail?
Can anyone talk to what Repa vows entail?
Re: Repa Tradition
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
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut
"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
~Kurt Vonnegut
"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
Re: Repa Tradition
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?
Re: Repa Tradition
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?
/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut
"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
~Kurt Vonnegut
"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)