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Tsem Rinpoche speaks about his relationship with Venerable Geshe Namgyal Wangchen la

1,137 views · Published 29 June 2017 · 51:50 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: Tsem Rinpoche · 2017 · Nonprofits & Activism

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[[[EXCERPT OF THE TRANSCRIPT]]]

So, at times, I would go to Drepung and stay with those monks there who were from Tsem Monastery and kind of be with them. And on one of these visits to Drepung with the monks from our monastery in Tibet, they told me about a teacher, and his name is Geshe Namgyal Wangchen. And they told me that he had lived in England for over a decade, and that his English is pretty good, and that he has some books out, and he was a teacher there, and he had gotten very sick and had returned back to Drepung. And he is living here. And I was like, “Wow! I really want to go meet him.” And so after a few days, some of the monks went to see Geshe Namgyal Wangchen-la to say that I request an audience to go see him. And I was very fortunate, I had offerings, I had my khata and I went to go see Geshe Namgyal Wangchen. And true to what everyone said, he spoke English. It wasn’t very fast, but it was very good. It wasn’t totally fluent but very good. And I was very surprised; a geshe of his calibre, very learned, extremely scholarly, and the teacher of hundreds of monks in the monastery, and of the older generation some more, and he spoke English. I was just in awe. And on top of that, Geshe Namgyal Wangchen was a master of Panchen Sonam Drakpa’s writings. And that is the same writings we study in Gaden Shartse.

You see, in Gaden Shartse and Drepung Loseling, you would study Panchen Sonam Drakpa’s writings to help you gain your geshe degree. So the textbooks used for the curriculum of study in Drepung Loseling and Gaden Shartse are exactly the same. So whatever he was a scholar of, would be the same thing you would get from Gaden. And I was just amazed, and he was just so friendly, he was so jovial, he was always laughing, he was extremely gentle, and at the same time he was very sharp. He was very quick, he was extremely alert, as any meditation master would be. And he had a beautiful, square-ish, round, big face that had big eyes, and his mouth would always be laughing, and he had big ears. And he kind of looked like the Chinese Maitreya Buddha. And he had a shorter neck, and he had smaller shoulders, and a heavyset body. His body was quite, you know, heavyset. And very grand, elegant and at the same time extremely approachable. And he had a wonderful penetrating voice that tinkled. And he had this wonderful laugh. When he laughed, and laughed, and laughed, you had to laugh with him, because it was very contagious, and extremely patient.

So, after my first meeting with him, I was so impressed and taken aback. I said to him, “I have many teachers already, 15 in fact, and I am not ready to take on another teacher, and I don’t mean any disrespect, but can I please come to teachings with [you] and receive teachings from [you] in a lab-lab situation?” And that would mean that you would receive classes from a person without taking them as your teacher but as your senior. So you don’t treat them as your guru but treat them respectfully as your senior. And he was more than qualified as a guru, but I just didn’t want to establish that at the time. Nothing from his side, it was more about me and maintaining samaya with people. And he graciously accepted the lab-lab situation.

So, I started going to class with him. And I would go three to four times a week, and I stayed with the Tsem Monastery monks in Drepung Loseling. He stayed three, four, five minutes’ walk away. And I would just grab my texts and I would go to his house. He had an assistant there name Lobsang Tashi. Lobsang Tashi was a very gentle, nice, sincere, kind monk. And always very warm and very friendly. It was always a pleasure to see Venerable Lobsang Tashi, and he would greet you like you were a long-lost relative. He was just that warm. And every time I would go to Geshe-la’s house, I would meet Lobsang Tashi first, and then Lobsang Tashi would go in and announce to Geshe-la that I am here. And then Geshe-la would allow me into his room, and I would go into his room. And you know what was incredible? Every time I walked into Geshe-la’s room, Geshe-la being the senior monk – 20 years my senior – would get up and stand as I walked in. And that was so unnecessary. And he did this every time. Every time I went to go and get teachings from him, he would stand up, and wait until I sat down, or we would sit together or whatever. And there would be a little bit of a friendly argument ensuing, who would sit first because the person who sat first would be the senior. So I would be like, “Geshe-la, please sit down.” And Geshe-la would be, “No, no. Rinpoche, you sit down.” And I would be like, “No Geshe-la, you sit down please.” Again he would say, “Rinpoche, you sit down.” And I said, “Geshe-la, if you don’t sit down we are not going to ever sit down.” He goes, “Ok, ok. I’ll sit down first.”

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