Welcome to the Drong Ngur Jangchubling
Winter 2020 Newsletter!
Every three months Drong Ngur Jangchubling will release a newsletter with information about our center, activities, and community members. Additionally, each newsletter will include a teaching by Drupon Thinley Ningpo Rinpoche. Enjoy!
DRONG NGUR JANGCHUBLING SHRINE PROJECT
Drong Ngur's seasonal newsletter will share a story about ongoing renovations, special events, and construction projects completed at our center in Wesley Chapel, Florida. The Winter 2020 edition will share a story about the development of our center from its inception until present day.
The last few years has seen the swift development of Drupon Thinley Ningpo Rinpoche’s vision to create a vibrant Tibetan Buddhist meditation center in central Florida. Since its inception in 2012, Drong Ngur Jangchubling has been a sanctuary of peace and rejuvenation for people from all over the world.
The center is about to begin the essential phase of development on the inner construction of the New Shrine Hall. The following photo essay will take you through the various steps Drong Ngur Jangchubling, Drupon Rinpoche, and the sangha have taken to establish our beloved dharma center.
In 2012, DNJ acquired a 1.8-acre parcel of land in Wesley Chapel, FL with the intention of developing a center for the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism. Since then, the land and existing structures have been transformed through Drupon Rinpoche’s tireless effort and the hard work of committed sangha members.
With consecrations from both His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche and HE Garchen Rinpoche, Drong Ngur has quickly developed into a thriving center that each of us has grown to love and enjoy.
In 2018, Drong Ngur began construction on exterior improvements of the property in preparation for opening the new Shrine Hall.
The project falls under the Pasco County commercial zoning permit process, and we have been required to build in significant infrastructure. These infrastructure improvements have included the following projects that we have completed. A storm drain system was installed to direct water into a new retention pond. Water runoff due to heavy rain during the summer can create problems with localized flooding.
We completed the parking lot with 30 designated parking spaces, asphalted the driveway, dug a new water well, upgraded the septic system, and installed a new pumping system. Additionally, we landscaped the parking area and perimeter of the property, which included planting 14 30-gallon trees, 190 shrubs, and we also laid a significant amount of sod.
Also, an irrigation system was installed to water the landscape and sidewalks were installed for easy access from the parking lot to the temple.
Many hours of hard work have been dedicated to completing these improvements, and no one has worked harder and longer hours than Drupon Rinpoche.
As part of Drupon Rinpoche’s unfolding vision for the future of Drong Ngur, we are now entering the last stage of construction on our center’s expansion and renovation plan, which will include finishing both the exterior and interior of the new Shrine Hall. The interior will include installing a new air conditioning system, space and seating for 90 people, traditional decorations, tray ceiling with a mandala mural, a wood altar, and a state-of-the-art sound system. The interior walls will be sided with beautiful cedar wood.
Drong Ngur extends a debt of gratitude to everyone who has supported the center through volunteering their hard work and financial contributions. You can also financially support Drong Ngur and the Shrine Hall Project at any time with monthly or one-time donations by visiting the donation page of the website.
The benefits of establishing, building, and operating Drong Ngur Jangchubling are immeasurable. Even beyond this lifetime, the vast merit we accumulate through contributing our hard work, financial resources, and skills towards construction and renovation will last as long as our center exists, helping countless beings on their path to enlightenment. Thank you very much!
THE WISDOM CORNER
Being Confident In Your Practice
From Drong Ngur Jangchubling’s 2020 Fall-Winter Teaching Series
with Drupon Thinley Ningpo Rinpoche, translated by Virginia Blum
When practicing the authentic dharma, and engaging in the process of listening, contemplating, and meditating, it is important to understand that all sentient beings wish to have happiness and be free from suffering. All beings are the same in this desire. With this in mind, you should recognize the sameness that we all share. Just as you wish to be happy, likewise all others wish to be happy.
Yet, what is unique about your own situation as a Dharma practitioner is that you have learned how to achieve happiness. You understand the Dharma and know the true causes of happiness. Everything that is needed to achieve that happiness is available to you. As a dharma practitioner, you understand how to avoid the causes of suffering, and have identified the true causes of suffering. You also know how to avoid creating those causes of suffering. Therefore, you can recognize how fortuitous this situation is, and develop a deep sense of appreciation. You can truly rely on yourself with genuine confidence. It is helpful to appreciate your situation in this way.
Dharma practitioners have many methods to diminish the difficulty and suffering in their lives. Sometimes challenging outer circumstances, hardships, or difficulties may arise. There are also the inner afflicted mind states of emotions and concepts. But as a Dharma practitioner, you have the ability to release grasping. Afflictive emotions may arise, yet you can recognize them as insubstantial, like patterns drawn on the surface of water. You can know that just as quickly as a pattern is drawn on the surface of the water, it also dissolves and completely disappears.
In other words, you have the ability to immediately release whatever difficulties and mental states that are causing obstacles in your life. You can also release afflictive emotions in the same way. Even if you are not able to release the afflictive emotions immediately, you have other tools available to you. You have many methods you can use to work with your mind and to work with your afflictive emotions. You may not be able to instantaneously liberate them every time, but you can apply any number of diverse methods to diminish the intensity of the emotion, or at least to avoid falling completely under their power.
These methods are very accessible. They are right here with us all the time. You don’t have to go to some other place. You also don’t need special outer conditions, or to amass great wealth, or buy this or that special thing to achieve it. Nor do you have to look to some far off place. You have the ability in this very moment to apply these extraordinary methods.
In any given moment, an afflicted emotion may take you over. But in that next moment - once you have gained your footing - you can turn your mind to the practice. In that next moment, you can drop into meditative absorption. You may not be able to release the emotion completely, but you can cause its power to diminish. This ability is convenient, and is so precious and profound.
As Dharma practitioners, we have the great fortune to be able to understand the dharma, and to apply ourselves to the practice of the dharma. As you continue on the path, your practice will become the cause for temporary physical and mental well-being and comfort in this life. Yet, over time, your dharma practice will become the cause for unchanging and complete happiness. Ultimately, the fruition of these virtuous causes will ripen into full awakening. It is really important that we appreciate our great fortune as Dharma practitioners and understand how precious and wonderful this opportunity really is.
WHO'S WHO IN DRONG NGUR
Drong Ngur Jangchubling is composed of committed sangha members who help Drupon Rinpoche manifest his vision in creating a thriving Tibetan Buddhist Center in central Florida. The main people at the center are the Board of Directors, who oversee the overall development of the center, and the Officers, who work on the day-to-day functioning of the organization.
Each edition of the newsletter will introduce a member of our community. Today meet Virginia Blum!
Virginia Blum is the resident Translator for Drong Ngur Jangchubling and is fluent in English, Tibetan, and Spanish. She has translated internationally for numerous lamas, including HH Chetsang Rinpoche, HE Garchen Rinpoche, Drupon Rinchen Dorje, and Drupon Thinley Ningpo.
How did you come to the Dharma?
I was a spiritual seeker from a young age and was influenced by my father, who was interested in spirituality. He would read religious and spiritual literature to me when I was very young. Once when he was reading something from the Dhammapada, I remember being struck by it. It was about karma and it made perfect sense. It was the first time I thought to myself, “Oh, maybe I am Buddhist.” I think I was 14 or so then.
I had an interest in Buddhism through my teenage years but did not have an intimate connection with it until college. I first met Garchen Rinpoche in 1998 at a small teaching and remember thinking he seems like such a wonderful being! The content of the teaching was difficult to understand at the time, but I remember my friend had a small prayer wheel and he went up to Rinpoche to have it blessed. I was so moved by the way he approached Rinpoche with such devotion. He went down on one knee and lifted his prayer wheel and I began to cry. I was so moved without realizing what was happening.
Later, my friend and I went to visit his father at the Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center. His parents were students of Trungpa Rinpoche, and at the time the center was holding a Dhatun, which is a month long meditation retreat. We sat in on some of the meditation sessions and I could feel the power of people’s meditation practice. It was clear to me then that this is a viable path that really works. It was from that experience that I gave rise to the inspiration to practice meditation.
Following that experience, I spent a couple of years in Peru. Before my travels, I had attended a weekend teaching in Colorado with Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen who introduced me to the practice of Vajrasattva and the Om Ah Hung recitation. So, during my time in Peru, those became my two practices. There was a period where I was staying in this village that was removed from civilization. It was similar to a retreat cabin. I had been reading about people doing retreat, and I thought, “Oh, I will do retreat!” I soon realized that I did not have enough guidance to know how to practice safely and decided to seek out a teacher. This is what prompted me to return to the US and resulted in a number of pretty extraordinary synchronistic events where I met both His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche and Drupon Rinpoche for the first time. I eventually ended up at the Garchen Buddhist Institute (GBI) during the summer teachings of 2002, where I was completely blown away by Garchen Rinpoche. And that was it. I dove in headfirst.
How did you begin translating?
I began studying Tibetan in college. After returning from Peru I was enrolled at Prescott College and changed my degree to be more self-directed around Buddhist-related content. At the time, my primary motivation for learning Tibetan was to understand the texts I was practicing, but mostly I wanted to communicate directly with my teachers. There was a group of us, and many of them became the first group of western students to do the 3-year retreat at GBI―Yarik (who is also now a translator) and Zhuravka Tonkovyd, Sarah Barrows, Aaron Wickenheiser, and Sarah Plazas (who later also became a translator as well). Gape Lama was our first Tibetan Language teacher. That was the very beginning. The following summer, I signed up for the intensive Tibetan Language program at the University of Virginia at UVA. That provided me with a strong foundation and fulfilled university credits to complete my undergraduate degree. I was able to communicate in a rudimentary way with my teachers after completing that program.
I had a lot of encouragement in the early days of learning Tibetan. Traga Rinpoche, for example, was very encouraging and would work with me on the language and kept pushing me to learn. Soon after, I found myself in situations where there wasn’t an interpreter present and someone needed an interview. I was the only one available at the time, so I had to struggle through it. That phase of learning Tibetan went on for quite a while. I was just thrown into situations and had to interpret although sometimes I did not do a very good job. I learned through trial by fire.
What are some challenges you experienced as a translator?
Early on, it was really painful. I really wanted to do it, but still had so much to learn. I often had a difficult time understanding. I tried my best but was sometimes left feeling like I did not understand. Even now it can be that way but too much less of an extent. There are many dialects in Tibetan. It would often happen that you were familiar with one dialect, but not another. This was especially the case with someone who had recently arrived from Tibet. When I was first training I was translating for Traga Rinpoche. He was notorious for having a dialect that was difficult to translate and understand. I became used to his way of speaking but it was still quite challenging.
What keeps you inspired when things are challenging?
When things are challenging I remember the benefits of practice and I know with confidence that practice is the most beneficial thing I can do for the well-being of my mind and the benefit of people around me. I also remember impermanence. Whatever is particularly challenging in one moment will soon change into a different experience. Not that the same challenges won’t arise repeatedly but moment to moment nothing stays one way for very long. Lately, when I have given rise to afflictions or an unpleasant mind-state, or there is something that has happened that I feel upset about, I have found it comforting to simply remind myself that it will pass. Sometimes there is a little doubt, or I may feel stuck but I know it is true and often it is really amazing how quickly things shift, so I remind myself to take note of that and it becomes easier to remember going forward.
What kind of barriers have you experienced as a woman over the years in Buddhism?
Historically, in Tibetan Buddhism, the overwhelming majority of revered masters are men. For instance, the Drikung Kagyu lineage prayer is a long lineage prayer traditionally recited in the practice of Guru Yoga. The prayer is very special and lists many masters who you supplicate and aspire to become. Yet, there is not a single woman’s name. They are all men. What we are doing on the spiritual path is attempting to emulate the example of these great masters, but it’s difficult when you don’t see someone who represents your gender.
I think this omission has an affect on women practicing on the path. It can act as a subconscious belief like, “Is enlightenment really possible?” Ultimately, Buddhahood has no gender. There is no question about that. But, on a relative level, one has to question why there are so few examples of great female practitioners.
Tell me about the current training you are involved in to become a meditation teacher.
My biggest inspiration for moving into a role of Dharma leadership comes back to wanting to provide a voice for practitioners in the body of a woman. It was rare that I had that on my path. It wasn’t until I practiced with another lineage outside of Tibetan Buddhism that I encountered female role models. To meet teachers who were women, whom I could look up to, and receive advice and dharma teachings from, was a huge shift for me. The sense of support I continue to receive from that has been very helpful to me.
How do you see Buddhism evolving in the West?
It is difficult to know how Buddhism will evolve in the west. My hope is that awakening can really start to happen for people. I also hope that dharma can become accessible for people in a way that’s connected to their direct experience. It’s easy to concretize the Dharma into concepts and because of that there’s a distancing that can happen. To move beyond this obstacle will require more practice opportunities. At Drong Ngur, for example, I envision the center hosting longer and ongoing intensive practice retreats that will supplement our regular teachings and practice. In these retreats, I imagine that our center will have the organizational structure to handle food and amenities, so sangha members can go a lot deeper in their meditation and develop a strong continuity of practice, and to have the support to do so. I firmly believe in the importance of meditative concentration. If you create a container for people to develop genuine Samadhi, and sustained meditative concentration, then the dharma can become real. The path of meditation begins with developing meditative concentration, and to do that will require a certain container to make that happen. My wish is that as a sangha we can create a circumstance for this kind of deep development to happen for people.
Are there any final thoughts that you would like to share?
We are in a very challenging time right now, especially with the circumstances as they are with COVID. The sense of community that we have been maintaining has been amazing. It has been wonderful to have everyone participate in the weekly practices, as well as all the people who are showing up for the teachings. It has been really nice for Drupon and I to be connected with everyone even though we are unable to meet as a group.
UPCOMING EVENTS
2020 Fall-Winter Teaching Series on Togme Zangpo's 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, through December 6th 2020 Sunday's from 11am - 1pm Eastern Standard Time
2020 December Teaching & Practice Series on Calling the Lama from Afar, through December 20th Sunday's from 11am - 1pm Eastern Standard Time
2021 Winter Retreat & Teachings, via Zoom and Live Stream Saturday February 6th & Sunday, February 7th AND Saturday February 13th & Sunday, February 14th
Ongoing Weekly Parnashavari Sadhana Practice, via Zoom and Live StreamTuesday and Thursday from 7pm - 8pm Eastern Standard Time
Please visit our webpage for more information on events and upcoming teachings. https://dnjus.org/virtual-dharma/
SUPPORT DRONG NGUR
Drong Ngur Jangchubling depends entirely on the generosity of friends and students of Drupon Thinley Ningpo Rinpoche. You can financially support the center by visiting the donation page of our website with monthly or one-time donations. You can earmark the donation for day-to-day expenses of running the center or for the New Shrine Hall project.
Thank you very much for sharing in this rare and precious opportunity to study and practice the Buddhadharma. May all beings benefit!
