Teachers at DharmaSun

DharmaSun is delighted to bring together online talks, courses, and live seminars offered by teachers from the Shedrub Mandala, associate professors, and guest teachers, who generously share their wisdom and advice.

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Lineage holders, teachers, and associate professors

Guest Teachers

Teachers quick links

Lineage holders, teachers, and associate professors

Guest Teachers

Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche

Born in 1953, H.E. Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche is the second eldest son of the most renowned dzogchen master of the 20^th century, Kyabjé Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. At the age of seven, Chokling Rinpoche was recognized at Tsurphu by the head of the Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism, His Holiness, the 16^th Gyalwa Karmapa, as the 4^th reincarnation of the extraordinary 19^th-century Nyingma master Terchen Chokgyur Dechen Zhikpo Lingpa [1] of Nangchen, eastern Tibet.

Terchen Chokgyur Lingpa the First was a major terton of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. A terton, or ‘treasure-finder’, is a reincarnation of one of Mahaguru Padmasambhava’s original 25 close disciples. In the 8^th century CE, Padmasambhava, a fully enlightened tantric yogi, brought Buddhism from India and established it firmly in Tibet. During that period, Padmasambhava concealed countless ‘treasures’, or terma, in the form of Buddhist scriptures, tantric sadhana practices, profound teachings, and ritual objects in Tibet and in Nepal. He prophesied the uninterrupted manifestation of 108 major tertons through the centuries who would reveal these terma treasures for the benefit of future generations of Buddhist practitioners. In this way, these precious spiritual treasures have been systematically preserved in the extensive 40-volume cycle known as the Chokling Tersar.

[1] For more information about the life and works of Terchen Chokgyur Lingpa, visit: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Chokgyur-Lingpa/8181

Shortly before the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche and his older brother, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, migrated with their parents to Gangtok, Sikkim. Until the family could get firmly settled in Sikkim, both children studied temporarily at Freda Bedi’s ‘Young Lamas’ School’ in Dalhousie, India. Shortly thereafter, the brothers returned to Gangtok and were enrolled in Rumtek Monastery, the illustrious seat of the 16^th Karmapa in exile. There, they received the essential transmission of the entire Nyingma lineage from Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Kyabjé Dudjom Rinpoche. From their father, Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, the brothers received the unique dzogchen pointing-out instructions, profound guidance on the nature of mind, and the transmission for all the many practices and commentaries included in the Chokling Tersar. The brothers spent the next decade studying arduously under the direct guidance of such eminent Buddhist masters as the 16^th Gyalwa Karmapa, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche, Khamtrül Rinpoche, Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, Tenga Rinpoche, and Kalu Rinpoche.

Having completed their studies, in 1974 Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche and his brother left Rumtek and joined their parents in Boudhanath , Nepal where, at the command of the 16^th Gyalwa Karmapa, the family established Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery just north of the Great ‘Jarung Khashor Stupa’. One of the largest Buddhist monasteries in Nepal, upon its completion in March 1976 it was inaugurated jointly by the 16^th Karmapa and by the king of Nepal, His Majesty Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche was installed as the monastery’s young abbot and Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche as its Vajra Master of Ceremonies.

For more than four decades, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche resided at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling as a distinguished high lama, accomplished meditation master, and lay practitioner with a wife and four children. His oldest son, Kyabgon Phakchok Rinpoche—born in 1981—was recognized by His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama, as an eminent Taklung Kagyu incarnate Lama of the Riwoché Monastery in eastern Tibet. His younger son—born in 1993— was recognized by H.E. Trulshik Rinpoche as the yangsi, or ‘rebirth’ of the foremost Nyingma master, Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and was enthroned at Shechen Monastery in 1997.

In his capacity as Vajra Master in Nepal’s largest monastery, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche presided over all Vajrayana ceremonial rituals for both the living and the dead, bestowed much sought-after initiations, and offered Dharma teachings. Every autumn, he offered empowerments and profound instructions from the Chokling Tersar to hundreds of Western, Asian, and local Buddhist practitioners who participated in Ka-Nying’s annual seminars on Tibetan Buddhism. Moreover, when his busy schedule allowed, Rinpoche traveled the world extensively bringing Dharma teachings and empowerments to his countless devoted students in their respective homelands, particularly in Southeast Asia and Europe.

To firmly establish and perpetuate the practices of the Chokling Tersar in Singapore, Rinpoche founded the now thriving Buddhist center, Rangjung Yeshe Oddiyana. Moreover, to benefit all sentient beings and bring peace, happiness, increasing prosperity, and everlasting blessings to the Nepalese in their homeland, in 2009 Rinpoche initiated the ongoing ‘Glorious Copper-colored Mountain Project’, Zangdok Palri, as an esoteric place for tantric practice located in the Nepali village of Chapagaun.

In 2017, while visiting his center in Singapore, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche suddenly became unwell. Despite receiving excellent care from his family members, his disciples, and the medical professionals in Singapore, on the morning of Friday, 18^th December, 2020, Rinpoche serenely passed into parinirvana. During the following week, he remained in the extraordinary meditative state known, in Tibetan, as tukdam, whereupon his body remained soft, supple, and life-like. A fresh pleasing fragrance naturally filled his room, and during those days rainbows appeared in the blue skies over both Singapore and Nepal. Upon the conclusion of Rinpoche’s tukdam, his blessed kudung, or bodily form, was transported to Ka-Nying where for the benefit of beings it remained enshrined as a relic within an elaborate mandala at the center of the main temple. At the time of cremation 24^th February, 2023, many thousands of devotees from all over the world attended the ceremonies which were presided over by Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche’s three brothers, two sons, and more than 20 renowned high Lamas from all four Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Prayers invoking Rinpoche’s immediate rebirth continue, unceasingly, until he again appears in our world for the benefit of all sentient beings.