VENERABLE KIRTI TSENSHAB RINPOCHE
 One
of the great Tibetan Masters, of who I was fortunate to receive many teachings
is ven. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche.
A short biography:
Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche was born in 1926 in the Amdo region of eastern Tibet.
At the age of 8, he was recognised by the tenth Kirti Rinpoche as the first
reincarnation of Khensur Kramcho Phuntsog, a former abbot of Kirti gompa in
Amdo.
At the age of 9, Rinpoche took ordination as a monk.
In the mid-1950s, he made the arduous journey with Kirti Rinpoche to Lhasa
to continue his studies at Drepung Monastery and avoid the political instability
posed by the Chinese in the Amdo area. During this period, he became tsen-shab
(debate partner) to Kirti Rinpoche, debating with him and reviewing his daily
teachings.
After escaping from Tibet in 1959, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche taught Tibetan orphans
at the Tibetan Children's Village, Dharamsala, India.
 At
the age of 45, he began a fifteen-year meditation retreat in a small stone hermitage
above Dharamsala, big enough for a bed, prostrations, and a stove". Seven years
were spent in meditation on Lam Rim, 3 years on 7 point Thought Transformation,
and some generation and completion stage tantra. Two years were spent only on
generation and completion stages, and in the final 3 years, Rinpoche repeated
all of the above.
Currently, ven. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche is abbot of 'Kirti Monastery' in Dharamsala.
He is a very important lineage holder in the Kalachakra tradition, and as such
even a teacher of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said of Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche:
"(He) is a great Kadampa who shows real Kadampa Tradition...so completely renounced.
There's not one slightest worldly activity, not the slightest eight world dharmas,
no self cherishing thought. Even talking, everything is as much as possible
pleasing to sentient being's minds."
LONG-LIFE PRAYER FOR KIRTI TSENSHAB RINPOCHE
The great treasure which bestows blessings of immortality
O, great seal of the clear light, ultimate reality of all phenomena
You sport the major and minor marks in an illusion-like dance.
O, venerable Lama, may the long-life deities, neutralising the conceptual minds
with non-duality,
Increase your life span by hundreds of aeons.
Like a sun radiating thousands of light rays,
Your noble mind illuminates without fear the sky of the Sage's teachings.
You are a garden of fully-bloomed lotuses laden with the nectar of the holy
Dharma.
O, magnificent, excellent Lama, to you I make this request.
Although your noble mind is a treasury of the Victorious One's
instructions,
You follow secretly and without fear an ascetic way of life,
And practice the holy Dharma like the pure Kadampas of the past.
O, great teacher, may you live long.
Wherever you show the manner of a master,
Acting in accordance with the aspirations and the natures of his disciples,
You also uphold the victory banner of realisations in places far from there.
O, sublime expounder of hundreds of treatises of Sutra and Tantra, may you live
long.
Although the animate and inanimate worlds are unified in their
pure nature,
A playful display of countless deities,
You dwell serene, subdued, restrained and noble amongst the four types of Aryas.
O, great unequalled holder of the Vinaya, may you live long.
In order to awaken the seed of the Supreme Vehicle, with the
precious water of your great compassion,
Your great deeds make grow the sprouts of the aspiring and engaging (bodhicitta)
minds
In the fields of the wild ones who are to be subdued.
O, heroic son of the Victorious Ones, may you live long.
Arisen from the sphere of total peace,
You are an illusory dance free from illusions,
Emanating and absorbing numberless clouds of various magically created residence
and resident mandalas.
O, Lord over all the Glorious Families, may you live long.
By the blessing of the non-deceptive Three Jewels,
By the power of the truths of cause and effect,
Interdependent origination and my pure, special intention,
May this prayer be easily and happily fulfilled.
Last updated:May 29, 2007
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