A long term student of the Dharma, I met both Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche and Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche in 1976, and have lived in Asia since then, primarily in Kathmandu, Nepal. On the request of Holiness Penor Rinpoche, I collaborated with Khenpo Sonam Tsewang of Namdroling Monastery in Mysore to translate the Liberation Story of Namcho Migyur Dorje, the terton who discovered the treasures that make up the core of the Palyul tradition. This biography is entitled The All-Pervading Melodious Sound of Thunder, and was written by the first Karma Chagme Rinpoche.
Radically Happy alternates between background explanations and instructions for guided meditations that build upon one another, moving from mastering one’s own mind to mastering one’s heart and finally mastering dignity, which is to say, finding radical happiness regardless of one’s circumstances.
“I learned that well-being and happiness are things that have to be obtained from within yourself. No one is going to give them to you. You have to learn to be wherever you are and to appreciate that, to be with it and be happy with it, not to hope for anything else at that particular moment. ” In these words, Lama Tashi summed up the experience of his three and a half years of retreat, traveling through the Himalayas of India and Nepal.
When we reached Kushalnagar at 11 the next morning we found a bustling, heaving Indian cacophony. Looking around after we disembarked and wondering what in the world we should do next, we were startled by a small monk running up and shouting as he pulled my arm, “Come, Rinpoche waiting!”
It was in the early ’90s I first heard of Gedun Chopel. I was immediately fascinated by him and tried to learn all I could about him, especially after I learned that he had spent time in Sri Lanka and actually translated the Dhammapada into Tibetan from Pali, and that his life ended so tragically after the Tibetan government had jailed him.