The three vehicles in Buddhism with venerable Gonsar Rinpoche
During the weekend 20-22nd of February, our friends from Seeds for Happiness Center will host the venerable master Gonsar Rinpoche who is the leader of The Rabten Choeling Center for Higher Tibetan Studies in Switzerland. He is known as one of the contemporary Tibetan masters who is able to convey with clarity and easiness every aspect of Buddha’s teac…
Dear friends, we found out about a special event which deserves our attention and one we would like to attend. You can read more about it bellow.
Gonsar Rinpoche was born in 1949 in Shigatse, Tibet. At the age of six he begins his traditional education at Sera monastery. After the Chinese invasion, he leaves Tibet and together with his master Gueshe Rabten he establishes in India where he continues his studies. In 1974, he accompanies his Master to Switzerland. After the death of Geshe Rabten, he takes on the responsibility of leading the Rabten Choeling Monastic University as well as the affiliated centers in Germany and Austria.
During his visit, he will be accompanied by other master monks. One of them is the venerable Gonsar Rinpoche who also visited the center in September 2010 (see the photo on the left). They come back for a new lecture which continues a program dedicated to the presentation of Tibetan Buddhism teachings, program initiated in 2010.
The main topic of this study module is “The three vehicles in Buddhism” namely the Shravaka vehicle, the Bodhisattva vehicle and the Vajra vehicle.
" When you talk to a Tibetan Buddhist Master, you somehow feel that you have in front of you a mind you can neither understand, nor grasp or infer with your mind. So, the only solution to have a good dialogue like this is to keep an open mind, be honest, respectful but very analytical. As to the rest, everything is developing from the perspective of an impeccable logic, a flawless argumentation, rigorously complying with the truth confirmed by personal experience.", writes a friend who visited the center in Switzerland in 2010 and interviewed master Gonsar. To get a bit familiar with master Gonsar, we recommend you to read this interview published in National Journall here .
"When we approach the study of Buddhism, of Dharma, it is important to have a correct motivation and to tend towards the right objective. In this sense, the study of Dharma differs from that of other domains as it presupposes that we have a correct purpose and an honest motivation.
In regard to what we study, if it is Dharma, the motivation which incites us must correspond to it. We don’t study Dharma just to enlarge our knowledge. We study Dharma to get a very practical benefit, not just any benefit. Thanks to this study, we target a long term winning from which we can benefit a long time, realizing what are the true roots of happiness and of suffering and exerting an influence on them. If we don’t understand the true causes of happiness and of suffering or if we don't directly apply for ourselves the knowledge we gained, that is impossible, irrespective of what other means we use to obtain a lasting and big result" Gonsar Rinpoche