“Buddhism attends the primary causes of pain instead of putting a false shit to find immediate relief”

At a time where the transience and instant stimuli are the order of the day, finding strategies that make us stay on the ground and connected is more essential than ever. Meditation, reflection and consciousness are three pillars that can help us achieve it. Three fundamentals that Buddhism shares and that has extended throughout its history and, of course, today.

Lama Khenpo Rinchen Gyaltsen is a Tibetan Buddhist monk born in Montevideo. He emigrated with his family to New Jersey, where he graduated in art and psychology at the University of Routhes. At 18 he discovered Buddhism through meditation and retreats. After years of learning in Nepal, India and Tibet, he has been appointed tantric teacher. It is Lama (teacher) resident in the Buddhist Sakya de Pedreguer in order to transmit the teachings of the Buddha in Hispanic language. A mission that also performs through paramite, an online platform that offers the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism of the Sakya tradition, in addition to its own Instagram (981 thousand followers). Today, we talk to him to discover what his personal process was and what teachings can Buddhism offer us in our lives.

Lama Rinchen’s footsteps

Spirituality and evolution

How was the process of meeting Buddhism?

It was a very graudal process. I started when I was 12, 13 when I started in the library to investigate death and karma. I did not start meditating until he was 18 when I was already in the United States. There I entered two meditation groups, one American and the other Latin American of different origins. After being there for a while, an integral couple of the Latin American group, theosophos of a lifetime, invited me to a retreat center. I attended several times and noticed the catalog of programming, where I saw that there was a Tibetan lama that was going to give a weekend workshop.

These two groups had made a lot of emphasis on Tibetan Buddhism to feel it as a very genuine source of spirituality with many contemplative resources. All this impacted me in a good way, I saw that it was consistent and that I had a lot of internal coherence and depth.

From there, I began to go to the Buddhist center of this teacher in Manhattan. For a couple of years, I was participating in three groups of secular meditation and regularly attended all the teachings and practices of the Buddhist center.

How did you become a monk?

For me, Buddhism, and particularly Tibetan, is one of the most beneficial religions. And it can be anyone. Many of my teachers are laity, married, with children. Then there is another option, to do it as a monastic or as a monk, something that, at first, was very rare for me. After talking with several monks, I concluded that it was the most advantageous path. If I managed to accommodate, I knew that I was going to protect me in the long run. Therefore, I pursued monastic life. As the years go by, I’m getting safer, happier. And now, without looking for it, I have the role of guiding others.

Recover the consciousness of ‘being’

The teachings of Buddhism

What are the pillars of Buddhism?

Well, if we had to summarize the presentation of the Buddha, all yogas and everything that is philosophy and spirituality, we can define three superior disciplines. One is behavior, another is meditation and third wisdom. With behavior we mean, in a very wide way, take control of who we are and our physical and verbal behavior so that it is in harmony. If we manage to overcome bad habits we will have access to the mind.

With meditation, we mean ‘being able to control the mind’. Control does not mean control that suffocates, but free ourselves from a wild mind and bad emotional and mental habits, so that we can use it as we want.

From there we go to the third phase, which is wisdom. This refers to investigating the personal, subjective reality, in the nature of being, that of the mind and in that of phenomena.

We will not be satisfied if we are not in harmony with reality

From the Buddhist perspective, we will not be fully satisfied if we are not in harmony with reality. It seems a constructive process, where we are improving with ethics, meditation, or mental training, but really, the initial presentation of the Buddha was a deconstructive process. In this we are dismantling everything that is artifice, freeing ourselves from behavioral patterns, negative emotions or personal dogmas to recover the natural state of the mind. It’s like saying goodbye to all that is blocking the true nature of being. And that is what achieves genuine well -being, pure satisfaction.

The stimulation peaks are confused as happiness, but they are simply peaks of hedonistic pleasure that rise and fall and do not satisfy.

You talk about Tibetan Buddhism What is the difference with general Buddhism?

All different Buddhist traditions represent Buddha’s words well. Unlike other religions, Buddhism is the most adaptable to culture because it has no social anchors. There are no rituals to baptize, for puberty and there is not a marriage ceremony either. What you do with your social life is yours. That makes it purely a spiritual, philosophical practice. And that lends itself to adapt. In Japan he took this form of Zen, a little more austere, and in other regions he did it differently.

The interesting thing about Tibetan Buddhism is that it incorporates different teaching cycles of the Buddha. That is, it includes the first cycle, where 18 classic schools emerged. Today we have one that is Theravada, which still remains in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma. Then, there is also the second great cycle, which we call Mahayana, which includes Bodhichita, the purpose of achieving lighting to benefit all beings. And he also talks about the esoteric side of the mantras. Tibetan Buddhism has more content and completely covers Tibetan traditions.

Buddhism is adaptable to culture because it has no social anchors

Are there hierarchies within Buddhism?

There have been different religious movements in Tibet. The process of introducing Buddhism took centuries and was largely sponsored by certain kings. Almost the whole country was overturned to introduce it. Depending on where the teachings are received, more particular practices are created that over time are defined as a school and as an order.

You have commented on different lineages, how is the Sakya lineage different from others?

I mainly consider myself a Buddhist monk and belong to the Sakya tradition. I think that within the four traditions there are great scholars. That is, they specialize in the transmission of the Scriptures and also great yoyos, which focus on the oral transmission of meditative teachings. When traditions are grouped, each one has its inclination. The Sakya try to have the same balance between theory and practice, and study and meditation.

The goal

A vital mission

How did you find your vital mission? Was it given by a teacher?

I do my best to live in a genuine way the teachings. When we adopt this universal responsibility to serve all beings, which is Bodichita, the illuminated mind, one is given to the divine will. With this I mean that I can be in a useful place to benefit others.

At a practical level, within tradition, I feel very protected by my teachers. My main teacher, whom we call root, is Gongma Trichen Rinpoché, the most respected of tradition. Interestingly, teachers, in general, never say what you should do. One arrives with options, and you can ask for suggestions or even divinations to see which one is most likely to success. It is very rare that they once tell you “yes, you must do this.”

In Spain, a Spanish language figure was needed to make a bridge with teachers

With Gongma Trichen Rinpoché I got to establish a relationship of a lot of confidence. Seeing that I already had maturity, he told me that he should go to Spain because there was a lot of need to move Buddhism here. I did not have it planned, but he told me “you must release your initial plan because Spain needs you now and you are prepared.” With this, he referred to a person of Hispanic language who made a bridge with the Asian teachers, after observing a awareness of consciousness by society.

How does Buddhism help our lives?

All problems that manifest at the social, interpersonal, work or psychological level come from imbalances at the behavioral, emotional, attention and cognitive level. Buddha’s teachings, what we call Dharma, focus on attending to these primary causes of our evil.

I believe that most of us constantly seek a whip, an immediate relief for a symptom of evil. Buddhism is very valuable if we want to deepen and address the causes and roots of problems in our lives. It requires time and investment to see results, but it is most effective. What we need is to take over our mind, have a little more control, be more generous, more patients. With this, there is already a great impact on our life.