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About Heart Teachings | Lama Tharchin Rinpoche

About Heart Teachings

Responding to the requests of students, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche established Heart Teachings in 2000 (as Friends of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche) and began producing monthly Dharma teaching videos to support the practice of his many heart friends. Rinpoche used this opportunity to offer precise instruction on the view, meditation, action, and result of the Vajrayana path, focusing on presenting detailed guidance for many of the most important practices of our Dudjom Tersar lineage. Rinpoche’s video series provided us, wherever we were, with a way to connect with Rinpoche each month, helped support Rinpoche’s personal retreats, and allowed us to compile a vast library capturing Rinpoche’s unique wisdom heritage. Following Rinpoche’s instructions, after his passing into parinirvana on July 22, 2013, we have continued collecting, cataloging, preserving, and making available Lama Tharchin Rinpoche’s Vajrayana Buddhist legacy of teachings, practice and ritual traditions, writings and art, stemming particularly from the Nyingma and Dudjom Tersar yogi traditions.

Rinpoche’s teachings encompass a wide range of topics from Vajrayana Buddhism, including the foundational preliminary practices, our most common Dudjom Tersar sadhana practices, and Dzogchen. Suitable for beginning to advanced practitioners, Rinpoche's heart advice will illuminate spiritual practice in any tradition.

Since the Heart Teachings’ inception, our monthly subscribers have formed the heart of support and continue to be an essential element of, and inspiration for, our work. Join us as a monthly subscriber.

Heart Teachings is proud to donate Lama Tharchin Rinpoche's monthly series to Vajrayana Foundation, Drub Nyiy Dojo Gatsal Drubdra, Jnanasukha Foundation, and Saraha Buddhist Institute. We also provide Rinpoche's teaching materials to the Dudjom Tersar Ngondro Program.

If you attended Lama Tharchin Rinpoche's annual restricted Trekchod Retreats, you can find those teachings in the Restricted Collection. We will have more in the future.

Contact Us:

Email: info@heartteachings.com
Call: (831) 288-2139
Write: Libby Luning, 1940 Eureka Canyon Road, Corralitos, CA 95076

Support Our Work:

Click to donate via PayPal or visit us on Patreon to make a monthly donation.

Please note that payments to Heart Teachings by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche for audio, video, and other items are not tax-deductible. On the Donate page, you'll see "Chok Jin" aka Heart Teachings by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche. Thank you so much for your support!

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, we encourage you to support the Lama Tharchin Rinpoche Heritage Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps us preserve and make Rinpoche's authentic dharma legacy available. You can donate through PayPal with the following account: Donations@ltrhf.org Email us at info@heartteachings.com if you'd like more information.

About Lama Tharchin Rinpoche

Lama Tharchin Rinpoche was a beloved Dzogchen master of the Dudjom Tersar tradition of the Nyingma school of Vajrayana Buddhism and the tenth family lineage holder of the Repkong Ngakmang in Amdo, the largest community of yogis and lay tantric practitioners in Tibet. The Repkong ngakpas were revered throughout the region for their realization and ability to benefit others through the power of their tantric practice.

Born in the Fire Rat Year, 1936, to highly accomplished and esteemed yogi parents, Rinpoche trained from the age of eight under the close guidance of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche. Beginning around age sixteen, he undertook five years of solitary retreat, followed closely by a traditional three-year retreat completed in his early twenties. In addition to cultivating his own meditative experience and realization through Dharma practice, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche was highly respected for his accomplishments in textual study, ritual, torma making, mandala design, and sacred art, song, and dance.

In 1960, Rinpoche escaped Tibet, undertaking a dangerous six-week journey over the Himalayas on foot, guiding a small group of family and friends into India. He continued to serve Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche across Tibetan refugee camps in Kalimpong and Orissa, and later in Nepal, Taiwan, and the United States, all while deepening his mastery of lineage traditions under his root lamas, foremost among them Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, alongside Chatral Rinpoche, Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, and Lama Sherab Dorje Rinpoche — as well as his other distinguished teachers.

After coming to the United States in 1984, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche was asked by Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche to teach Vajrayana and turn the wheel of Dharma, planting the authentic seeds of Buddha's teachings in the West. To establish a base for preserving and developing the Dudjom Tersar lineage for future generations, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche founded the Vajrayana Foundation in 1987, Pema Ösel Ling retreat center in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains in 1991, and established a traditional three-year retreat in 1992. Rinpoche passed into parinirvana in the Water Snake Year, 2013, leaving the Dharma center under the guidance of Dudjom Sangye Pema Shepa Rinpoche and Lama Sonam Tsering Rinpoche.

His vast legacy of teachings – preserved and made available through the Lama Tharchin Rinpoche Heritage Foundation, Heart Teachings by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, the Vajrayana Foundation, and the Jnanasukha Foundation – continues to guide and inspire practitioners around the world.

OUR HEART TEACHINGS BY LAMA THARCHIN RINPOCHE TEAM:

Libby Luning (Pema Dechen) (President)

Bryan Scheideck (Editing, Archive Program)

With appreciation for help from Anne Laurent, Sandy Pope, and many other sangha members.

Photos: Homepage banners: 1. Nurha de Souza at Pema Osel Ling; 2, 3 & 6: Libby Luning in Bhutan; 4. Regina DeCosse; 5. Unknown at POL stupa; About Page: 1. Dwight Smith at Rinpoche's residence; 2. Myron Bernie at Shingon Temple in Honolulu, Hawaii

Please let us know if we've used your photo on our website - we'd love to credit you.