Kirti tsenshab rinpoche biography of william hill

April 1992

By Doc O’Connor

“When Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche comes outside, he never looks at the people around, he looks in front and goes straight, not like we do … That describes the mind … It’s kind of showing, living in what Lama Tsongkhapa’s prayer says, living in pure morality, having a subdued manner,” says Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche was born to a nomadic family in 1926 in the fertile, green hills of Amdo in Eastern Tibet. At the age of eight Rinpoche was recognized as the first reincarnation of Khensur Kramcho Phuntsog, a former abbot of Kirti Gompa in Taksum Lhamo, Amdo, who was highly realized and had generated the realization of emptiness.

Tsenshab Rinpoche spent 15 years in meditation. He lived most of the year in a stone hermitage about six feet by nine feet, “big enough for a bed, prostrations and a stove.” Seven years were spent meditating on lam-rim, three years on seven-point thought transformation and some generation and completion stage tantra. Two years were spent only on generation and completion stages, and in the final three years, Rinpoche repeated all the above.

In 1986, because of deteriorating health, Rinpoche moved down from the mountains to Dharamsala. On his time in the moun­tains, Rinpoche reflects,”During the moun­tain retreat, I had a very good time. My mind was extremely blissful and happy. Although the outside conditions were very difficult – external conditions were the barest mini­mum – my mind was very happy and I progressed well in my practice. It seems that if you have some difficulty and not much luxury, then the practice develops well; but when the conditions become more affluent and comfortable, the need is much more and the practice goes down and down.”

“Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche is a great Kadampa who shows real Kadampa Traditon …  so completely renounced. There’s not one slightest worldly activity, not the slightest eight worldly dharmas, no self-cherishing thought. Even talking, every­thing is as much as possible pleasing to sentient beings’ minds,” explains Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

At the age of 14 years while in Tibet, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche received a six-week long Kalachakra oral transmission of the con­densed tantra on Stainless Light. Rinpoche once heard His Holiness the Dalai Lama say, at a teaching in Tashikiel Monastery when His Holiness was en route to China, that the Stainless Light teaching was rare and that the lineage did not exist in Central or South­ern Tibet. Thus Tsenshab Rinpoche decided then to make a special effort to learn this teaching well, in the hope of spreading it further in Tibet. Consequently, Rinpoche spent three years in Amdo pursuing general tantric studies with an emphasis on Kalachakra.

It was discovered that in exile he was the sole lineage holder of the Stainless Light teaching. In 1983, because of shyness, Tsenshab Rinpoche passed the lineage on to Serkong Rinpoche, who in turn passed it on to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since only part of the transmission was passed, His Holiness has requested Tsenshab Rinpoche directly for the remainder of the transmis­sion. Much preparation, study and medita­tion is required prior to each transmission. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche has given the oral transmission five times while in exile.

Regarding Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s refer­ence to Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche as an ema­nation of Pema Karpa, the Shambala King, in the lineage lama prayer, Lama Zopa Rinpoche replies, “No reason at all that can’t be imagined; Pema Karpa was a Buddha.”

Kirti Tsenshab was also the sole lineage holder of a collection of 42 initiations called Dorje Tenwa. His Holiness the Dalai Lama requested him to do retreat prior to giving these initiations at Drepung Monastery in South India. This Rinpoche did and trans­mitted the initiations in 1988.

Rinpoche has been a frequent teacher at Tushita Retreat Center in Dharamsala since 1986 and at Root Institute in Bodhgaya. In 1990, he taught the annual Kopan Novem­ber course. As his co-instructor, Chiu-Nan Lai says, “Rinpoche is a hidden treasure that you have to explore; the more you explore the more you find.”

Besides teaching Westerners, Rinpoche teaches Buddhist tenets to the monks at Kirti Gompa in Dharamsala and is currently on his first world tour.