Thousand Armed Chenrezig Nyungne

Wangchen Rinpoche, nephew of the late Kalu Rinpoche, and a Shangpa Kagyu lineage holder, has developed a special interest in the Thousand-Armed Chenrezig Nyungne, and has now written a comprehensive guidebook. You can purchase this book by clicking here.

Practices of this nature are extensively discussed in the Mani Kabum, and I personally believe them to be of special benefit to practitioners in the West, where extensive retreats can be difficult to manage (well, they are difficult if you allow them to be). Nyungne is like a "mini-retreat," if I may be forgiven the term, and frequent, brief retreats like this are something that most householders can easily manage.

If you can, you want to try to accumulate at least 108 nyungne in this lifetime. That is really only 216 days out of your life, if you want to look at it that way, and the chances are good you have already wasted double that number just waiting in line at DMV.

I really want to encourage you to buy this book. Kalu Rinpoche had great trust and confidence in Wangchen Rinpoche. I know this because he told me so directly, as he told many others. Along with being his nephew, Wangchen Rinpoche was also one of his close students. Like most of Kalu Rinpoche's close students, he rapidly developed a blossoming connection with Chenrezig, because of Kalu Rinpoche's particular nature.

Unfortunately, I only met Wangchen Rinpoche once, many years ago, when he was living on Edith Street, over in Alhambra, California, in very modest circumstances. I can say that I was impressed with him. It is my understanding that he has now taken to staying in the mountains six days a week, and only comes down on Sundays to teach his students. I hope he wasn't displaced by the recent disasters in the Angeles National Forest.