The Most Venerable Tenga Rinpoche has been teaching in the West for almost thirty years. He has some students who have completed the three-year retreat. However, they did it individually, or in drubkhangs run by other lamas. They missed the possibility to practice in a centre for the three-year retreat under the guidance of our Rinpoches. The idea of establishing a drubkhang in the West in the Benchen tradition did not come unexpectedly. In June 2005, during the visit of His Eminence Sangye Nyenpa in Poland, Lama Rinchen presented to the Rinpoche a "long hold in his heart", a proposal to build such a centre in Grabnik.
Although the main European centre of the Benchen tradition is situated in Allmuthen, Belgium, there are benefits in favour of locating the drubkhang in Grabnik:
- we already have grounds, with plans to develop providing the possibility and establish new buildings (refining the plans took us several years)
- the cost of building in Poland is much less than in Belgium or Germany
- the costs of maintenance (food etc.) during the retreat are still much lower than in Western Europe and this situation is not likely to change for many years
- there are no problems with visas for foreign students, since Poland is a member country of the European Union.
Lama Rinchen stressed however that such a big enterprise as building and the maintenance of drubkhang significantly exceeds the financial abilities of the Buddhist society in Poland (while also planning to spend huge amounts of money on a social building and a temple). Thus, the presented proposal makes sense only if it is assumed to be an international project under the auspices of the Rinpoches from the Benchen Monastery.
Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche said that the subject had not been discussed before and thus the final answer had to be preceded by consultations with Tenga Rinpoche. Several weeks later, during the course in Allmuthen, the decision was made.
In August 2005, during the Kalachakra initiation, Venerable Tenga Rinpoche officially announced, that a drubkhang would be established in Grabnik. Rinpoche said that it will be named "Benchen Drubde Ozer Ling", after the retreat centre in Nepal.
Rinpoche said twice that it would not be a place for the Poles only, but for the practitioners from all European countries. He said also that the retreats would be led by Lama Rinchen with a help of Lama Jinten Palzang from Belgium and Lama Jampal from Italy.
As a auspicious sign, Rinpoche purchased and offered sixteen meditation mattresses for practitioners, eight women and eight men in each three-year cycle.
Tenga Rinpoche immediately visited the place where the drubkhang is supposed to be situated, and he blessed it. We could see the power of his blessing almost at once, during the course, since in four days we managed to collect a serious sum of money for launching of the building. It was possible thanks to exceptional generosity of an anonymous donor, who promised to add 5 PLN to each 1 PLN given by others. He kept his promise. Presently we have gained over 100.000 PLN.
It must be stressed that in accordance with the wish of Tenga Rinpoche, building of the drubkhang is totally independent financially from other activities of the Centre in Grabnik. All money offered for building the drubkhang will be used for this project solely and cannot be used for maintenance of the main Centre itself. Thus, the everyday functioning of the Centre as well as establishment of the social building and the temple, are financially independent from building the centre of the three-year retreats.
During the pilgrimage to the Benchen Monastery in Tibet, Lama Rinchen discussed with Tenga Rinpoche in detail what elements should be taken into consideration while preparing the project of the drubkhang. The architectural design is being prepared by Rafal Boruszak. |
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