Wangchen Rinpoche

Kalu Rinpoche publicly introduced Wangchen Rinpoche as Kalu the Younger, his meditation companion in Tibet, to an audience in Los Angeles in 1988. Kalu Rinpoche said he had auspicious dreams even before Wangchen Rinpoche was born. He also spoke about the keen intelligence and deep compassion for other beings that Rinpoche demonstrated as a child.
At the age of seven, Wangchen Rinpoche entered Sonada Monastery. He studied, lived, and traveled with Kalu Rinpoche from that time until entering the traditional three year retreat at the very young age of sixteen. Wangchen Rinpoche has been teaching since coming out of retreat, and he has devoted students in Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Europe as well the United States.
Wangchen Rinpoche's spiritual integrity, moral and ethical principles, is impeccable. His activities, which are none other than true Bodhisattva activities that he carries out to fulfill the wishes of his guru, have included sponsoring a major ceremonial event, the Monlam in Bodhgaya, India, for three consecutive years. He has taken full responsibility for rebuilding Shangpa Monastery in Tibet, and his own and Kalu Rinpoche's monasteries and nunneries in Kham, the eastern region of Tibet. The grand opening of Began Monastery and its school for higher Buddhist studies was celebrated in the summer of 2004. The official opening of Gesar Monastery was celebrated In 2005.
Wangchen Rinpoche has already built several three year retreat centers in Kham, Tibet. He plans to build a retreat center facility outside Los Angeles, California.
Rinpoche's vision and spiritual work include the intention to build 108 three-year retreat centers, "because retreat centers are the heart of Buddha Dharma. Through practicing the precious Dharma teachings, sentient beings really can attain enlightenment and achieve the greater benefit for all beings."
It is also Wangchen Rinpoche's intention to build 108 stupas. When asked why build stupas, he responded that according to his enlightened guru this is one of the most beneficial spiritual activities one can engage in and he put a great deal of importance on it. Rinpoche has been deeply inspired by his guru and wishes to contribute something according to this profound benefit.
In addition to being the current lineage holder of the Shangpa Kagyu tradition at the young age of 44, Rinpoche is one of the few living masters of the Nyungne practice. He now spends six days a week in silent retreat in the mountains above Los Angeles, coming out only on Sundays to see students and teach. He has also inspired his students in the practice, most of whom have completed 108 Nyungnes, and several have completed two or three hundred. All of Rinpoche's monasteries and centers in Tibet, Taiwan, and America, engage in the eight-Nyungne practice twice a year. He is the author of the recently published Buddhist Fasting Practice: The Nyungne Method of Thousand-Armed Chenrezig.
Bibliography
*Buddhist Fasting Practice: The Nyungne Method of Thousand-Armed Chenrezig, Snow Lion Publications, 2009, ISBN:9781559393171

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