THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER

Sera Mey Tsawa Khangsten (Photo by Karen Schembs)

Preserving a Sacred Tradition by Marsha Clark One could say the Dharma is everywhere if only we have the eyes to see it and ears to hear it. We may not always remember this as we go about our daily routines. I think one of the most solid, consistent and enduring ways for the Dharma to be practiced is through the dedication, studies and prayers of the monks and nuns in the monasteries and nunneries. This is what my dear friend Karen and I found to be true when we visited Sera Mey Tsawa Khangtsen in December 2004. Chöden Rinpoche, in a 2000 Mandala article, said: "In the monastery, there is never the occasion where you do not hear the sound of Dharma.... Twenty-four hours a day, the sound of Dharma can be heard."

Karen and I are old traveling partners. In 1977 we spent time studying in a Hindu ashram in India. In 2003 we spent a month in Bodhgaya attending the Kalachakra teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama with thousands of people, mostly monks, nuns and Tibetans. During that time, Karen introduced me to a young American monk by the name of Sean Brannan. Sean had spent seven months at Sera Mey Monastery, Tsawa Khangtsen (college), studying and training to become fully ordained. He was returning to the States for a year, following the advice of his teacher and President of Tsawa Khangtsen, Most Worthy Venerable Woser Tulku Rinpoche, who is a recent refugee from Tibet.

I was impressed by Sean's dedication in wanting to preserve the Tibetan culture. He was young-twenty-one years old-an American and was learning to speak Tibetan. He was a hard worker, filled with enthusiasm. In 2003 the Sera Mey Redevelopment Project was established by Sean, its Founder, who also served as its Director until his return to the monastery in 2004. The Project needed a fiscal sponsor. I was a volunteer at the Dalai Lama Foundation in Palo Alto, California and approached the Foundation about sponsoring the Project. They agreed, as long as I would oversee it, which I did in coordination with Sean.

The SMRP was founded to restore and preserve Tibet's culture and spiritual heritage by providing new housing, clothing, food, health care and education for the influx of young monks and Tibetan children fleeing Tibet and arriving at Sera each year. Recently the SMRP has contributed to the construction of two new floors consisting of sixty rooms at Tsawa Khangtsen. Two additional floors are still needed to house the inflow of new monks.

Because of my affiliation with the SMRP, in August 2004 I received an invitation from Most Worthy Woser Rinpoche to come to Sera Mey to attend teachings by His Holiness. My friend Karen was invited as well. We had no idea what to expect. We were grateful to find out that Sean would be returning to Sera Mey at the same time to continue pursuing his training and studies to become fully ordained. He was learning Tibetan at a rapid pace, so we knew we would have an interpreter.

We spent a wonderful week in Bodhgaya and arrived at Bangalore Airport in the early evening via a train ride from Calcutta. We were warmly greeted with katas (long, white offering scarves) by Namgyal and Gen. Namgyal is a lovely Tibetan woman who helps in the office at Tsawa Khangtsen. She speaks several languages, including English. Gen is a monk and a manager at the khangsten. The drive back to the monastery took four and a half hours. About an hour or so before reaching the monastery the terrain began to change. There were more trees and fewer huts and houses. I had a sense of entering a forest or driving down a highway in Oregon. We pulled into the courtyard of the monastery at 10:45 pm. Several monks greeted us with smiling faces. As they whisked us off to Most Worthy Woser Rinpoche's residence, I noticed the outline of the khangtsen's buildings against the dark night sky. It felt familiar. I felt happy.

What a joy it was to finally meet Rinpoche! We had exchanged several emails throughout the year. He told us in English how happy he was that we came. His face was round and filled with loving compassion. When he stood up to take us to the dining room for something to eat, I was astonished to see he was large in stature. His presence was kindly and at the same time strong. He is in his mid-to-late thirties. We ate and talked, with Sean serving as our interpreter, as it was quite late. Rinpoche decided it was best for us to stay in a two-story house built for Kyabje Ribur Rinpoche on the monastery grounds, as we were Westerners and the house had hot water because it was solar-heated. Rinpoche told us that Tibetan monks take cold showers. The teachings were to start the following morning.

Our room was lovely, but there was not much time for sleep that first night. We arose early and did our prayers and practices, hoping to have time for breakfast. It was apparently not early enough. At 7:00 am, a monk knocked at the door, telling us to hurry, that it was time to go to the teachings. Breakfast had to wait. It took us a couple of days to acclimate ourselves to the demands of the environment, as at first it seemed like there was no regular schedule! Eventually we found our way.

The teachings by His Holiness on the Sutra Alamkara and the Bodhisattva Bhumis were inspiring and profound. The geshe's English translation that came across our FM radio was precise and clear.

Each day we had three meals served to us by the monks. About sixteen of us from various countries ate together at the long table at Woser Rinpoche's residence. The dining room windows overlooked the courtyard and in the distance we could see the vast landscape and openness of the area surrounding the monastery. In the evenings, during the teachings, guests came for dinner. There was very little talking on Karen's or my part at meals, only because everyone else spoke another language, such as Tibetan, Chinese or German. We still managed to enjoy the lively conversations, especially because Rinpoche joined us for the meals.

What touched us the most during our stay was the incredible kindness showered on us by the monks. They were always asking us if we needed anything, telling us to just let them know what we wanted. At meals, they constantly filled our water glasses and encouraged us to eat. The array of Tibetan food was welcome-vegetables, rice, fruit, and meats-all delicious! At first, the solicitousness of the monks was overwhelming. We told them that we were accustomed to serving the sangha their meals, not the sangha serving us our meals. They told us, "Here we serve you. Makes us happy." If ever I have seen bodhichitta, altruistic mind, it was here with these monks. What kindness! What giving hearts!

In the chill of the pre-dawn morning and in the evenings we could hear and sometimes see monks individually reciting the sacred texts out loud in their rooms (higher class of training) or in the courtyard or open grounds (younger monks) to be used in class or in debating. It was an ancient and endearing sound.

I researched Sera Mey's history upon my return home. What I found out was most interesting. In the early 15th Century three great monasteries were established in Tibet by Je Tsong Khapa and his disciples-Sera, Drepung and Ganden. Thousands of people came to these monasteries to live, study, pray and meditate.

In 1959 the Communist Chinese conquered Tibet, destroying thousands of monasteries. Since then, with great hardship, perseverance and resilience, Tibetans in exile have reestablished some of the great monasteries in India, including Sera. Monks from Sera in Tibet founded Sera in Bylakuppe, South India, in 1970. Sera is divided into khangtsens, two of which are Sera Mey and Sera Je. Over six thousand monks reside in these two monasteries, studying the Great Texts and major disciplines of Buddhism, including the Perfection of Wisdom, Valid Cognition, Middle Way Philosophy, Buddhist/Monastic Discipline, and Metaphysics, for ten to twenty years.

Within Sera Mey and Sera Je, there are many khangtsens, Tsawa Khangtsen being one of them. It was one of the branches of the Sera Mey Monastery in Tibet. The college consisted of five hundred monks during the period before the Chinese invasion. Today approximately one hundred and twenty monks study at Tsawa Khangtsen, with more coming each year from Tibet. Each khangtsen represents an area of Tibet, or in the case of foreign monks, a country, such as Bhutan and Nepal. Each khangtsen has its own temple, where pujas (prayer, religious rituals) are performed at various times. Older monks care for and mentor younger monks.

In reflecting upon my visit to this great monastery, what occurs to me is that over the centuries Sera Mey and Sera Je have produced many profound scholars and teachers. They are preserving a great living tradition that once flourished in Tibet for the benefit of all sentient beings. A line from the Seven-limb Prayer, a daily Buddhist prayer, comes to mind: "As our guide I request you, O Buddha, to turn the wheel of Dharma until samsara ends."

Marsha Clark is currently Program Coordinator at the Dalai Lama Foundation, www.dalailamafoundation.org. The Sera Mey Redevelopment Project is now a project of The Dalai Lama Foundation. Marsha can be contacted at info@dlfound.org.