This is a brief summary of Rinpoche’s first visit to Russia in July of this year. According to Rinpoche, this historic trip has been 20 years in the making, starting with the first invitation by Victor, a legendary Russian chö practitioner who lived in Nepal.

During his time in Russia, Rinpoche visited and gave teachings in Moscow, Kunphenling retreat center near Moscow, and St.Petersburg.

Visit Highlights

Rinpoche in Red Square Photo by Arne Schelling

Rinpoche visited Red Square including Lenin Mausoleum as well as Kremlin Cathedrals–resting places of many Russian tsars, including Ivan the Terrible.

Rinpoche visited Leo Tolstoy museum, which featured Leo Tolstoy’s correspondence with Mahatma Gandhi on the topic of spreading the view of practical compassion in the world.

Rinpoche visited a first Moscow Stupa of Enlightenment (the only stupa in Moscow) built on the ground of Roerich Museum.

Rinpoche held a luncheon with Moscow-area volunteers who helped with the visit.

Rinpoche met with several dharma patrons and discussed their various projects in Russia, such as:

• Translation of the Dudjom Tersar sadhanas into Russian
• Collaboration across Russian, Buryat and Kalmyk Buddhist sanghas to build first Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Moscow
• Project to bring several Buddhist relics from Sri Lanka and Burma to Russia

Teachings

In both Moscow and St. Petersburg, Rinpoche gave evening talks (open and free to the public) on “Fundamental View of Buddhism”. In each case, the talk was attended by over a hundred people.

Listening to Rinpoche In Russia Photo by Arne Schelling

In St.Petersburg Rinpoche gave a weekend teaching on Madhyamakāvatara. (First six chapters of Russian translation of Rinpoche’s commentary on Madhyamaka are available on Russian website, khyentse.ru). The weekend teaching was warmly received and attended by over 100 people.

In Kunphenling (a retreat center near Moscow), Rinpoche gave a three day retreat on Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo’s short Ngondro from the Longchen Nyingtik, which was attended by to close to 200 people, hailing from all over Russia. (A particularly moving story included Rinpoche’s meeting with a teenage boy from a small town in rural Russia, who was absolutely new to Buddhism, and upon learning of Rinpoche over the internet, saved his earnings for 8 months to be able to travel to Rinpoche’s retreat.) Teachings from the retreat were broadcast to both Dharma Gars under the direction of Rinpoche (European Gar and North American Gar).

Also in Kunphenling, Rinpoche conducted a Gesar Sang during which a Peace Vase was buried on the grounds of the retreat center. Rinpoche’s moving teaching about Peace Vase project generated tremendous enthusiasm in the project among Russian sangha. Several sanghas are in contact with us regarding possible placement of the vases in Russia (Samara and Siberia near Lake Baikal), Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and others.

Also

Due to generous support and sponsorship of this visit by Khyentse Foundation and Siddhartha’s Intent many students who would not otherwise be able to hear Rinpoche’s teachings, were able to participate. Both public talks were free, and there was only a nominal charge for the weekend retreats in both cities.

Rinpoche in Russia Photo by Arne Schelling

Concurrent with the visit, a second printing of the Russian translation of “What Makes you Not a Buddhist?” was released in paperback.

A Russian audio book of “What Makes you Not a Buddhist?” in Russian is now also available, read by a famous theater actor and movie director Ivan Vyrypaev.

Teachings were recorded on video and audio by Arne Schelling and Alexandra Ermoshina and will be available for KF/SI archive.

Photo documentation of the trip was conducted by Arne Schelling, David Zwieback and several teaching participants

To date, the Russian website for this trip (khyentse.ru) received 1,946 unique visits, mostly from Russia and the Ukraine.

Recording of the Russia teachings (with translation) will be available free of charge on the khyentse.ru website for 15 days following posting.

Incognito Photo by Arne Schelling