Palden Sherab
Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche (Tibetan: དཔལ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་, Wylie: dpal ldan shes rab) (May 10, 1938 - June 19, 2010) was a scholar and lama in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.
Life
Palden Sherab was born in the village of Joephu (Tibetan: རྒྱུས་ཕུ་, Wylie: rgyus phu), in the Dhoshul (Tibetan: རྡོ་ཤུལ་, Wylie: rdo shul) region of Kham, Tibet, near the sacred mountain of Jowo Zegyal (Tibetan: ཇོ་བོ་གཟེ་རྒྱལ་, Wylie: jo bo gze rgyal).
Just prior to China's invasion, he completed his shedra (monastic university) education at the Taklung Kagyu monastery of Riwoche (Tibetan: རི་བོ་ཆེ་, Wylie: ri bo che), in the Riwoche region of Kham, where he was groomed to take over as the abbot of Gochen Monastery (Tibetan: སྒོ་ཆེན་སྒོམ་, Wylie: sgo chen sgom).
Following China's annexation of eastern Tibet, he fled with his family to India in 1960. He lost his mother and sisters in the journey, although his father—]]Lama Chimed Namgyal Rinpoche]]—and his brother—Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche—survived.
Once in exile, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche requested that Palden Sherab join the committee of the four main Tibetan schools dedicated to recovering sacred texts missing or destroyed in the struggle with China.
He salvaged thousands of texts and commentaries.
Palden Sherab traveled to the United States in 1980 with his brother.
Together they founded Dharma Samudra, a non-profit publishing organization, in 1985. Afterward, they published numerous texts on Tibetan language, poetry, grammar, Buddhist philosophy, practice, logic, and tantra, as well as Tibetan histories.
In 1989 they also founded Padmasambhava Buddhist Center International, which includes centers and monastic institutions in the United States, Puerto Rico, Russia, and India.
Their headquarters is at Palden Pema Samye Ling (Tibetan: དཔལ་ལྡན་པདྨ་བསམ་ཡས་གླིང་, Wylie: dpal ldan pad+ma bsam yas gling) retreat center and monastery in Sidney Center, Delaware County, New York.
Palden Sherab died on Saturday, June 19, 2010 at Palden Pema Samye Ling. His body (Tibetan: སྐུ་གདུང་, Wylie: sku gdung) remained there in post-death meditation (Tibetan: ཐུགས་དམ་, Wylie: thugs dam) until Wednesday, June 23, 2010. He was cremated on Thursday, June 24, 2010.
Palden Sherab was knowledgeable in all aspects of Buddhism, but he was particularly well known for his texts and teachings on Dzogchen (Tibetan: རྫོགས་ཆེན་, Wylie: rdzogs chen).
Publications
English
- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. Ceaseless Echoes of Great Silence. Sky Dancer Press, 1999
- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. Door to Inconceivable Wisdom and Compassion. Sky Dancer, 1996.
- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. Illuminating the Path: Ngondro Instructions According to the Nyingma School of Vajrayana Buddhism. Padmasambhava Buddhist Center, 2008.
- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. Lion's Gaze: A Commentary on Tsig Sum Nedek. Sky Dancer Press, 1998
- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. Opening the Clear Vision of the Vaibhashika and Sautrantika Schools. Dharma Samudra, 2007.
- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. Opening the Clear Vision of the Mind Only School. Dharma Samudra, 2007.
- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. Opening the Wisdom Door of the Madhyamaka School. Dharma Samudra, 2007.
- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. Opening the Wisdom Door of the Rangtong and Shentong Views: A Brief Explanation of the One Taste of the Second and Third Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma. Dharma Samudra, 2007.
- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. Opening To Our Primordial Nature. Snow Lion Publications, 2006
- Khenchen Palden Sherab. Prajnaparamita: The Six Perfections. Sky Dancer Press, 1990
- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. Tara's Enlightened Activity: An Oral Commentary on The Twenty-one Praises to Tara. Snow Lion Publications, 2007
- Khenchen Palden Sherab. The Commentary on Mipham's Sherab Raltri Entitled: The Blazing Lights of the Sun and Moon. Dharma Samudra, 1997.
- Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. The Dark Red Amulet: Oral Instructions of the Practice of Vajrakilaya. Snow Lion Publications, 2008. * Khenchen Palden Sherab. The Smile of Sun and Moon: A Commentary on the Praise to the Twenty-One Taras. Sky Dancer Press, 2004
Tibetan
- The Blazing Lights of the Sun and Moon
- Pleasure Lake of Nagarjuna's Intention
- Supreme Clear Mirror
- The Ornament of Stars at Dawn
- The Mirror of Mindfulness
- Naturally Blazing Great Bliss
- Clouds of Blessings
- White Lotus
- The Essence of Diamond Clear Light
- Taking Kindness as Path
- Opening the Eyes of Wisdom a commentary on the Samten Migdron
- Blazing Clouds of Wisdom and Compassion
- Advice from Kamalashila
- The Diamond Sutra, with an outline based on the above commentary
- Advice from the Ancestral Vidyadhara
- Smiling Red Lotus
- Lotus Necklace of Devotion
- Waves of the Ocean of Devotion
- Vajra Rosary
- Opening the Door of Blessings
- Cycle of Poems
- Cycle of Prayers
- Verses of Auspiciousness
- Cycle of Sadhanas
Works by others about Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche
- Three Praises To Khenchen Palden Sherab Entitled Melodious Sound of the Ocean of Devotion by Khenpo Pema Gyaltsen
