Vajra Vidya Library

Vajra Vidya Library

A Brief History of the Vajra Vidya Library

At the sacred site of Forest of the Sages, located in present-day Sarnath near Varanasi, the Buddha in his kindness first bestowed the nectar of the Dharma that calms and refreshes. In the vicinity of this major Buddhist site lies the Library of Vajra Vidya Institute, founded by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche. Through the Thrangu Charitable Trust, he was able to purchase a good piece of land, and the corner stone of the building was laid on December 12, 1993. By the New Year of 1999, the building was completed and then expanded over the years.

So that it would not be a library just in name, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche sought out as many of the texts by the scholars and meditation masters of the Dakpo Kagyu tradition that he could find in Tibet, Nepal, India, Bhutan, and also abroad. In addition, with a great purpose in mind, he began publishing from Vajra Vidya Library. The single gate opening into to the peace that brings benefit and joy to immense numbers of living beings is the Buddha’s teachings, which were given in accord with the disposition, capacity, and interest of disciples, and which are contained in the Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma. This is all included in the Dharma of scripture and realization whose nature is excellent.

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Organization Website

Mettā - The unconditional wish for all sentient beings to experience happiness and the causes of happiness. It is a form of universal, selfless love and is one of the four immeasurables (or sublime abodes). Skt मैत्री  Tib བྱམས་པ་  Ch 慈  

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Kagyu - The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa. Tib བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་  

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Gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt गोत्र  Tib རིགས་  Ch 鍾姓,種性  

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Tridharmacakrapravartana - Three successive stages of the Buddhist teachings. Though they are traditionally attributed to the historical Buddha, modern scholarship tends to view them as developmental stages that occurred over the course of an extended period of time, with interludes of several centuries, in which we see major doctrinal shifts often based on seemingly newly emergent scriptural sources. Skt त्रिधर्मचक्रप्रवर्तन  Tib ཆོས་འཁོར་རིམ་པ་གསུམ་  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Wheel of Dharma'