Künzang Dorje Rinpoche
Tso Pema (Rewalsar), Himachal Pradesh, India – March 1981
Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche is one of the greatest living masters of rTsa rLung (the Anuyoga practice of spatial nerves, spatial winds, and spatial elemental nuclei). He is also a master of Dzogchen Men-ngag-dé (rDzogs chen man ngag sDe). He is one of Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen’s major inspirations and exemplars. This photograph was taken in Tso Pema during a period in which Ngak’chang Rinpoche lived in close proximity to Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche. During this time they engaged in daily discussions of teaching stories concerning Dza Paltrül Rinpoche, DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje, Drukpa Künlegs, and other great masters. Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche is a consummate raconteur and is a treasury of the most marvellous anecdotes.
Ngak’chang Rinpoche comments:
Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche is my
Tsawa’i Lama and heart master. To spend time in his company of is to hear many incredible
accounts and receive information that lies outside the reach and range of ordinary concept. One
comes to understand that reality can be viewed simultaneously from many contrasting standpoints,
and that to attempt to align them is utterly beyond conventional references. He and Jomo
Sam’phel—his realised consort—have shown Khandro Déchen and I such
kindness and
generosity that we feel sustained and encouraged beyond anything we ever thought possible.
Künzang Dorje Rinpoche in this photograph wears the black chuba of a phurba master and displays the yogic hair style of a karmamudra master.
