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Tibetan Buddhist Monk to Discuss ‘Mindful Approach to Happiness’ at Minoa Free Library June 5
Follow-up lecture will take place at Community Library of DeWitt and Jamesville Aug. 11.
A resident monk at Thekchen Choling Syracuse, a Tibetan Buddhist temple based in Minoa, New York, will give two lectures this summer about mindfulness and happiness.
Geshe Lharampa Thinley Namgyal (aka Geshe-La) will present A Mindful Approach to Happiness at the Minoa Free Library on Thursday, June 5, from 6:30-7:30 p.m. The library is located at 242 North Main St. in Minoa.
He will give a follow-up talk at the Community Library of DeWitt and Jamesville (CLD&J) on Monday, Aug. 11, from 6-7 p.m. CLD&J is located at 5110 Jamesville Rd. in Jamesville, New York.
Both events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Thekchen Choling at tccl.syracuse@gmail.com and 315.408.1088.
“Paying attention to the present moment—without judgement—provides mental, physical and emotional benefits,” says Geshe-La, who teaches, performs healing pujas and provides personal consultations at Thekchen Choling. “Mindfulness increases empathy and compassion, which we need more than ever.”
Geshe-La is a teacher, scholar and practitioner of Vajrayana Buddhism, which maintains that one can reach enlightenment in a single lifetime. He earned a Geshe degree (the equivalent of a Ph.D.) from Sera Jey Monastery in India, focusing on Buddhist history, philosophy and logic.
In 2019, Geshe-La joined Thekchen Choling as its resident Geshe—at first, remotely and then in person. He works closely with another resident monk, Phuntsok Tharlam Tobchula (aka Lama-La), who specializes in Tibetan Buddhist pujas and rituals.
Thekchen Choling Syracuse was founded in 2014 by Singha Namdrol Rinpoche. The venerable lama also is founder of Thekchen Choling Singapore (the main temple) as well as Thekchen Choling Malaka and Thekchen Choling Kottatingi, both in Malaysia. Thekchen Choling Syracuse offers classes, workshops and retreats and houses a collection of rare, ancient Buddhist relics.
Thomas Edwards Leads Thangka Painting Workshop at Thekchen Choling June 27-29
No experience required—registration begins May 30.
Acclaimed Thangka artist Thomas Edwards will lead a weekend painting workshop at Thekchen Choling Syracuse, June 27-29.
Open to adults with little or no artistic experience, the program will explore the history, theory and practice of Thangka art—a type of Buddhist painting that originated in Tibet more than a thousand years ago. Attendees will learn how to draw and paint the face of Tara, the most important female deity in Tibetan Buddhism and the mother of all buddhas past, present and future.
The workshop takes place on Friday, June 27, from 6:30-8:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 28, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (with lunch break); and Sunday, June 29, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Seating is limited.
Tuition is $190 and excludes the cost of select supplies and Saturday’s lunch. Affordable onsite lodging is available to out-of-towners on a first-come, first-served basis.
Registration is required and begins on Friday, May 30. For more information and to register, contact Thekchen Choling at tccl.syracuse@gmail.com or 315.480.1088.
Thekchen Choling Syracuse is located at 109 East Ave. in Minoa, New York, and is part of a global family of Tibetan Buddhist centers.
An Offering to the World
A resident of Cortland, New York, Edwards is a full-time, professional Thangka painter who works on commission. He has created more than a thousand Thangkas in the past 20 years.
“Thangka painting is my offering to the world. It’s my spiritual practice and path for delving into intrinsic Buddha nature,” says Edwards, who recently was commissioned to illustrate a book on the Six Yogas of Naropa—an 11th-century, Indian Buddhist scholar and saint.
Trained in the Menri tradition of Thangka painting, Edwards has become the foremost authority on the Lhasa style. This type of painting, which combines traditional and mystical Thangka elements, flourished in Tibet’s capital from the 1700s-1900s.
Lhasa stye also was popular among Dalai Lamas. In fact, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama carried Lhasa Thangka paintings with him while fleeing Tibet during the 1959 Chinese invasion. Among those in his entourage was Sangye Yeshe, to whom Edwards traces his artistic lineage. In India, Yeshe served as His Holiness’ personal Thangka painter and co-founded the first known Thangka art school before his death in 2009.
Just as Yeshe kept the Menri style alive, Edwards has committed himself to “reviving and reinvigorating” the now-extinct Lhasa tradition. “I’m probably the only Thankga artist who teaches, studies and paints in the Lhasa style. I do it in honor of Old Tibet,” he says.
Magical, Mirror-Like Reflections
Edwards uses a time-honored grid method to make his subjects “precise and well-proportioned. “The grid determines the size and placement of everything,” he says. “Only after the sketch is inked do I begin painting with a fine brush.”
A tool for meditation and devotion, Thangka art usually depicts enlightened beings. For this reason, the paintings use only five colors (white, red, yellow, green and blue), each representing a different aspect of and path to enlightened awareness. “The beings that we depict are illustrative our intrinsic enlightened nature. We strive to embody their qualities,” Edwards says.
Tibetan for “recorded messages,” Thangkas were originally applied to the walls of caves and monasteries. In time, the paintings were created on vertical scrolls of cotton fabric and then stretched canvas.
The increased portability of Thangka art has contributed to its popularity and accessibility. That Thangka artists generally remain anonymous adds an air of mystique to the tradition. “Thangkas are magical, mirror-like reflections of a greater, eternal, transcendent nature of reality,” Edwards observes. “They’re a blessing.”
Thekchen Choling Syracuse was founded in 2014 by Singha Namdrol Rinpoche. The venerable lama also is founder of Thekchen Choling Singapore (the main temple) as well as Thekchen Choling Malaka and Thekchen Choling Kottatingi, both in Malaysia. Thekchen Choling Syracuse offers classes, workshops and retreats and houses a collection of rare, ancient Buddhist relics.
