Lama Lhundrup Rigsel

Lama Lhundrup Rigsel (1941 - ) |

Geshe Lhundrup Rigsel was born in Tibet in 1941, to a poor peasant family. He joined Sera Monastery while still a boy, and in 1959 fled from the Chinese invasion to India. In Buxa, the refugee camp in Northern India he met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa, who later would become well-known in both East and West. In the late sixties Geshe Lhundrup was sent by the Abbot of the exiled Sera Monastery to South India to start clearing land for a new monastery. In 1972 he was called to the Tibtean Buddhist Gelugpa Monastery, Kopan, in Kathmandu, Nepal, by the late Lama Yeshe, to teach philosophy to the Kopan monks for three months. Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup has been abbot of Kopan since then, taking care of the ever growing group of monks and nuns and bringing alive Lama Zopa Rinpoche's and Lama Yeshe's vision of Kopan. Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup still teaches classes every day. He recently sent a letter to all the students of H.H. Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche regarding avoiding eating meat, at least for a certain time, and avoiding killing in general.*

Dear Students of H.H. the Dalai Lama and of Lama Zopa Rinpoche,

I have been asked about continuing with the pledges to Avoid Killing (last offered in 2004), and I think that this is good to do again now. This is an easy way to do something for the long life of our Holy Gurus; it is also very beneficial for prolonging our own lives, by not contributing to killing.

An additional incentive is that the Tibetan Government in Exile's Department of Religion has issued a request to all Tibetans not to engage in any building activities during this coming Tibetan year [starting Feb. 18, 2007]. This is to prevent the killing of many animals during building activity, as this coming year is a special obstacle year for His Holiness, and not building is a way of saving millions and millions of lives.

So please consider avoiding eating meat for a certain period of time, and dedicating the merit of this for the long life of our gurus. We all need our gurus, and without gurus there is nothing. So we have to pray very hard for the long life of our gurus and please them as much as possible. I would like to suggest that people who would like to avoid killing choose from the following pledges:

I take the vows of not eating meat:
1. for this whole life
2. for one year
3. for the month of Saka Dawa
4. on all the special Buddha days and precept days (for one year, or for life)
5. I am already vegetarian, so I pledge to save lives whenever possible

The new FPMT study group Liberation for our Brother and Sister Animals, which is focused on helping animals, has kindly agreed to keep track of pledges made so that the total can be offered to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. You can make your pledge from the choices above and email that information to vegpledge#gmail.com. We can each do what we can, and combined together it makes a big and wonderful commitment and offering to our gurus.

Please send your pledge as soon as possible to vegpledge#gmail.com so they can prepare the report for His Holiness and Lama Zopa Rinpoche very soon.

I rejoice in your great virtuous activities.

With prayers,

Lama Lhundrup

• Source letter: Lobsa
• Source biography: Kopan
• See also the Sanghata Sutra. It is be request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, mentioned above, that the Education Department of his organisation FPMT has taken up the task of getting the Sanghata Sutra translated into as many languages as possible.

*It's unknown to Shabkar,Org to what extend Lama Lundrup refrains from eating meat, fish and eggs himself.