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Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC) is a center for Buddhist study and practice in the Nyingma tradition (Palyul lineage) that is located in Poolesville, Maryland. Founded as the Center for Discovery and New Life in 1985, and then given to Penor Rinpoche and renamed by him in 1987, KPC was Penor Rinpoche's first Dharma Center in the US.

Teachers

Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo Rinpoche is the KPC resident Lama and is a 1998 Penor Rinpoche Enthroned Lineage Holder. Her daughter Atria Zeoli follows her path.

Other teachers include Penor Rinpoche; Gyatrul Rinpoche; Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok & Ani Mumtso; Karma Kuchen Rinpoche; Mugsang Tulku; Khentrul Gyangkhang Rinpoche; Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso; Khenchen Pema Sherab; Khenpo Namdrol; Ngawang Tenzin Rinpoche (Bhutan); Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche; Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche; Yangthang Tulku; Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche; Chetsang Rinpoche; Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche; Choji Rinpoche; Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche; Ngagpa Yeshe Dorje; Orgyen Kusum Lingpa; Tulku Rigdzin Pema; Bhaka Tulku; Khenpo Tenzin Norgey; and Lama Kuntuzangpo, Baasan Lama, and Lama Baasansuren (Mongolia).

Expansion

In 1985, the Center for Discovery and New Life formed a corporation and purchased an antebellum style mansion in Poolesville, Maryland where the Kunzang Palyul Choling temple was established. They also purchased numerous large crystals weighing hundreds of pounds and held a three-day retreat to instate the 24-hour prayer vigil at the new location.

Participants have maintained two-hour prayer shifts. The vigil is dedicated to the end of suffering and has remained unbroken, In 1999, Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC) began another 24-hour prayer vigil shortly after Alyce established the Sedona, Arizona location.

The temple has been partially closed to indoor activities since 2013, awaiting necessary renovations to comply with Montgomery County's Building Use and Occupancy Code. The prayer room, which is separate from the main building, remains open and houses all teachings and activities, and the prayer vigil remains undaunted. The organization raised $1 million for the building of the new temple as of February 18, 2019.

The temple built a 36' stupa in 1988 which was consecrated by H.H. Penor Rinpoche during the Rinchen Terzod. A circle of eight small stupas encircling an 18' stupa were built in 1991 and consecrated by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso. H.H. Penor Rinpoche gave Jetsunma a relic from Tulku Migyur Dorje to be housed in the Migyur Dorje Stupa, which was built and consecrated in 1996.

In 1996, in addition to the temple, prayer vigil, teachings and stupas, Jetsunma's vision for Kunzang Palyul Choling included a place for pilgrimage with a hospice, school for children, a monastery and an institute for higher education in the Buddha's teachings. The school, called Pema Choling, ran from 1992 to 1997, and the Migyur Dorje Institute continued from 1996 through 2001.

Prayer vigil

In April 1984, the Center began a 24-hour prayer vigil in the basement of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo's home in Kensington, Maryland, dedicated to the end of suffering. A year later, the Center formed a corporation, purchased an antebellum style mansion in Poolesville, Maryland, purchased numerous large crystals weighing hundreds of pounds and reinstituted the 24-hour prayer vigil at its new location.

Participants maintain two-hour prayer shifts, and as of 2005, the vigil remains largely unbroken. In 1999, Kunzang Palyul Choling began another 24 hour prayer vigil shortly after Jetsunma established another center in Sedona, Arizona.

Peace Park

The Peace park's creativity and imagination starts with entering a natural mandala laid out with red, green, blue, yellow and white gardens. Holy objects are placed in strategic positions, including a silent Buddha, crystals, Tibetan prayer wheels. Visitors can make over 21 stupa circumambulations.

Activities

24-hour prayer vigil

Jetsunma believes strongly in the transformative power of prayer. She initiated a 24-hour Prayer Vigil for World Peace in her Kensington, Maryland shrine room on April 18, 1985. It relocated later that year to the newly purchased World Prayer Center (now Kunzang Palyul Choling). Students engage in traditional Buddhist practices in the Nyingma tradition. In addition for the ongoing prayers for peace, members and individuals not associated with KPC request prayers be dedicated to loved ones, pets, the recently deceased, or those hit by natural disasters. Occasionally Jetsunma asks that the vigil be dedicated to specific situations. For example, the members dedicated eight months of prayer for Asia Claus, a three-year-old daughter of temple members who was suffering from her second bout of cancer. The effort concluded when doctors could find no trace of the cancer, sparking renewed media attention.

The Maryland vigil continues unbroken to the present day. A simultaneous 24-hour Prayer Vigil was conducted by KPC students in Sedona, AZ from October 31, 1999 to August 31, 2008.

Stupa construction

Like many Buddhist Lamas, Jetsunma has long extolled the benefits of building stupas, Buddhist reliquaries said to represent the mind of enlightenment in architectural form. Her students built one of the first large stupas in America, the 36’ Enlightenment Stupa, as an offering to Penor Rinpoche on the occasion of his conferral of the Rinchen Terdzod empowerments in 1988. Other stupas built by Jetsunma's students include:

• The Migyur Dorje Stupa, 38’, in KPC Maryland's Peace Park
• The Amitabha Stupa, 36’, in Sedona, Arizona
• The Long Life Stupa, 18’, in KPC Maryland's Peace Park, surrounded by eight 6’ stupas in a traditional symbolic depiction of the Eight Great Deeds of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Many stupas have been built at Kunzang Palyul Choling's two locations, all containing relics pertinent to the Nyingma lineage. The first stupa, the 36-foot (11 m) enlightenment stupa in Maryland was built and consecrated in 1988.

In 1991, a stupa peace park in Maryland containing all eight types of stupas, representing the eight great deeds of the Buddha, was completed. The central 18-foot (5.5 m) long life stupa in the park is dedicated to the long life of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.

In 1995, Penor Rinpoche gave Jetsunma a relic from Terton Migyur Dorje, which is now housed in the 38-foot (12 m) tall Migyur Dorje Stupa in Maryland. This particular stupa is dedicated to the eradication of diseases for which there is no known cure.

The most recent is the Amitabha Stupa in Sedona, Arizona, completed and consecrated in 2004.

Rinchen Terdzod ceremony

From June to September 1988, Penor Rinpoche was in residence at KPC in Poolesville to transmit all of the teachings contained in the Rinchen Terdzod ("Treasury of Precious Termas"), Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye’s massive 19th-century compilation of all of the extant revelations of Guru Padmasambhava’s teaching cycles known as terma. This was the first time that these teachings had ever been conferred in a Western country., According to Penor Rinpoche’s explanation at the time there is a point toward the end of the Rinchen Terdzod transmissions, during the conferral of the Vajrapani empowerment from Rigdzin Godem’s Jangter ("Northern Treasures") cycle, where it is customary to perform enthronement of tulkus. Thus, on September 24, 1988, Penor Rinpoche conducted this ceremony for Jetsunma as the tulku of Genyenma Ahkon Lhamo. Jetsunma considers Penor Rinpoche to be her root guru, along with Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of Yeshe Nyingpo based in Ashland, Oregon, who is recognized as an incarnation of the first Ahkon Lhamo's brother, Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab.

Community of monks and nuns

In September, 1988, toward the end of Penor Rinpoche’s conferral of the Rinchen Terdzod, 25 of Jetsunma's students underwent the traditional ordination ceremony to become monks and nuns, instantly creating one of the largest communities of ordained Westerners in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition in North America. Though some have since left their ordination or died, others have joined, and by 2008 the number of KPC's ordained had grown to 40.

Mongolian Buddhism Revival Project

Growing out of a friendship with then Mongolian Ambassador Choinkhor and his wife, Jetsunma asked her students in 2004 to create the Mongolian Buddhism Revival Project (MBRP) to help with Mongolia's post-Communist revival of its Buddhist culture, especially the Nyingma lineage. Permanent staff was sent to Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, in early 2005. In June, 2009, at Jetsunma's direction, staff was removed from Mongolia.

Migyur Dorje Institute

From 1996 to 2001, Jetsunma hosted the Migyur Dorje Institute of Higher Buddhist Studies (MDI). Under this program, taught by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso, students received complete commentary teachings on classic Buddhist texts by Shantideva, Chandrakirti, Asanga, Ngari Panchen, and Mipham Rinpoche. This curriculum was supplemented by annual 30-day retreats teaching the traditional Nyingmapa sequence of the inner tantra: Ngondro, Tsa Lung, Trekchod, and Togyal. With Penor Rinpoche’s development of a similar program at the Palyul Retreat Center in McDonough, NY, the MDI program has been discontinued.

Animal Rescue and Shelter

Following Hurricane Katrina, in 2005 Zeoli led a group of students to New Orleans to rescue animals left behind. She founded a No Kill animal shelter, Tara's Babies, in order to continue to rescue animals. The target group was dogs on death row, so Tara's Babies mainly rescued dogs from shelters, specializing in fearful and other dogs other shelters rejected. Initially caring for 130 dogs, the sanctuary was set in 148 acres (60 ha) of former ranch land nestled in the three-million acre (12,000 km) Tonto National Forest near Payson, Arizona. After finding homes for the dogs, closed in 2011 due to volunteer staffing challenges and lack of funding.

Key Practices

Faith, taking Refuge, and arousing Bodhicitta, are the path's foundation to this ancient school's Buddha-nature training.

Nam Cho, is the "sky / space treasure" terma of the Tibetan Buddhist Nyingma Palyul Lineage as revealed by Terton Migyur Dorje.

Known as Sadhana, KPC practices may involve a Wang (empowerment) and spiritual commitments (Samaya).

• Meditation practices

• Padmasambhava Prayer Book to the enlightenment-mind that strives toward awakening, empathy, and compassion for sentient beings benefit, acting as a Bodhisattva.

• Tantras: 21 Taras

• Nam Cho Ngöndro on the Nine_yānas
  • Contemplations that turn the mind to Dharma - Precious Human Rebirth, Karma, Benefits of Virtue, Faults of Non-Virtue, Faults of Cyclic Existence, Ship to Liberation
  • Uncommon Preliminaries
    • Refuge - Tree Visualization and Dissolution
    • Bodhicitta - Visualization, Vow, Verses, Ship to Liberation, Meditation Upon Joy, Four Immeasurables Meditation, Tonglen
    • Mandala Offering - Visualization
    • Long Mandala Offering - Three Kaya, Root Termas:
      • Nirmāṇakāya - Ship to Liberation,
      • Saṃbhogakāya - Ship to Liberation,
      • Dharmakāya - Ship to Liberation;
      • General Short Mandala, Dissolution
    • The Kusali Chod:
      • • Visualization (Vajravārāhī),
        • Vajra Verses,
        • Vajrasattva Visualization,
        • Confession,
        • Peaceful and Wrathful Deities
        • Short Confession, Dissolution, Short Confession, Root Terma - Short Confession - Dedication
    • Guru Yoga - Visualization, Vajra Verses, Ship to Liberation, Nam Cho Lineage Prayer, Terma Lineage Prayer, Blessings, Motherly Sentient Beings Prayer, Six Realms Gurus, Four Empowerment, Root Terma, Ship to Liberation, Prayer to Guru
    • P'howa - Visualization, Three Deities, P'howa Prayer, Visualization (Impure Doors Blocking), Prayer to be Reborn in Dewachen, Nectar Descent, Prayer to Amitayus, Dissolution
    • Chenrezig Generation in the Six Realms
  • Nam Cho Dzogchen - Vajra Verses - The Space Treasures of the Great Perfection

• Jetsunma Faith in Nyingma Buddhist Dharma
• Tsog
• Vajrakilaya
• Vajrasattva
• Jigme Lingpa's Longchen Nyingthig Rigzen Dupia and Great Bliss Queen (Awareness Holder Assemblies)
• Sponsored The Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava
• Five Tathagatas Wisdom Preference
  • Amitabha Padama Celestial - Red Garden
  • Vairocana Śūnyatā Primorial - White Garden

• • Akshobhya Water Medicine - Blue Garden
  • Ratnasambhava Jewel Equinimity - Yellow Garden
  • Amoghasiddhi Karma Accomplishment - Green Garden
• Rinchen Terdzod
• Dzogchen
• Amenities
  • Dakini monastery
  • Crystals
  • Peace park pathway to sacrad land
  • Mani Jewel Gifts
  • Garadua Aviary a rescue and lifelong sanctuary for parrots that have been neglected, abused, and abandoned.
  • Feral cats. Rain gardens waste management. Vietnamese patronage.
  • Lama guest house

Related Buddhist practices:

• Mindfulness
• Satipatthana

Related organizations

Current

• Palyul Productions - records Jetsunma's teachings to preserve and disseminate them.
• Tara's Babies - animal sanctuary founded in 2005 to rescue animals abandoned during the Hurricane Katrina evacuation.
• Garuda Aviary - rescues macaws and many other neglected and abused parrots; based in Poolesville, Maryland
• Blinded By View - originally known as Skydancer, Blinded By View produces Jetsunma's music.
• Prison Program - monks and nuns are trained to visit and teach meditation to those who are incarcerated.

Fundraisers

• The Capital Campaign - Current fundraiser to build new temple.
• Tara Studios - Tara Studios, producing small Buddhist statues, was founded in 1991 with the hopes to financially support KPC's monks and nuns.
• Ladyworks - Jetsunma designed a hair care product line which sold in The Sharper Image. In 1996 Ladyworks created a million-dollar infomercial for the products featuring Jetsunma.
• Chocolate Passion - A dessert company formed in 1992 also in hopes to financially support KPC's monks and nuns.

References

• Iyer, Pico. "The Price of Faith," Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Summer 2000.
• MacKenzie, Vicki. Reborn in the West. HarperCollins, 1997. ISBN 0-7225-3443-4
• Sherrill, Martha. The Buddha From Brooklyn. Random House, 2000. ISBN 0-679-45275-3

Notes

1. Crystals at Jetsunma's center in Maryland
2. Nyingma.com. Kunzang Palyul Chöling, Feb 16, 2007
3. ^ Rasicot, Julie (2005-09-08). "For 20 Years, an Unbroken Chain of Prayer". Washington Post. p. GZ05. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
4. Iyer, pg 84
5. Sherrill, Martha. "Tough Town, Sad Times. So Why Are These People Smiling?" The Washington Post, May 17, 1995
6. "Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Poolesville Closes for Renovations". Patch. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
7. ^ "KPC Capital Campaign". Tara.org. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
8. "Rinchen Terzod Empowerments and More from Penor Rinpoche". Snow Lion. 1988.
9. Mackenzie, pg 87
10. Crystals at Jetsunma's center in Maryland
11. Nyingma.com. Kunzang Palyul Chöling, Feb 16, 2007
12. Iyer, pg 84
13. Sherrill, Martha. "Tough Town, Sad Times. So Why Are These People Smiling?" The Washington Post, May 17, 1995
14. Mackenzie, Vicki. "Reborn in the West: the reincarnate masters" Marlowe & Company, 1996, p.85-86
15. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 363-4
16. Hansen, Nate. "All she wants for Christmas is life" Red Rock News, December 16, 2005
17. ^ Hansen, Nate. "'Pilar' of life, Asia Claus recovers from cancer" Red Rock News, June 2, 2006
18. Hirsch, Arthur. "World unrest fuels Buddhist vigil" Baltimore Sun, June 21, 2004
19. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 11, 31, 66-7
20. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 122-8
21. "KPC Ceremonies To Dedicate Stupa" Red Rock News, July 14, 2004
22. Mackenzie, pg 86
23. Kunzang Palyul Chöling. Stupas of Maryland
24. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 20
25. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 235
26. Montgomery Gazette, August 27, 1997
27. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 114
28. Ganzer, Tony. A piece of "Spiritual Technology", May 24, 2007
29. "Rinchen Terzod Empowerments," Snow Lion Newsletter, Spring 1988
31. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 66, 142-45, 158-66
32. Pico Iyer, "The Price of Faith," Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Summer 2000
33. "edona Buddhists Send Monk to Mongolia". Way Back Machine. Archived from the original on 7 October 2008. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
34. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 336-7
35. Hudson, Alan R., "Rim County Gazette", Sept. 9, 2010
36. BaNana, Lisa. "Tara's Babies Closing". Retrieved February 26, 2019.
37. Das, Surya (1998). Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World. Broadway Books. pp. 145–146. ISBN 0-76790157-6.
38. Chonam, Lama and Khandro, Sangye. "The Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava, The Indian Consort of Padmasambhava" Wisdom Publications 1998, Translator's Preface, pg x
39. Hudson, Alan R. "Sacred path: Buddhist animal sanctuary in Young". Retrieved 1 January 2019.
40. Montgomery Gazette, November 28, 2007
41. Brace, Eric. "Limelight," Washington Post, Feb 23, 1992
42. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 74
43. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 78
44. Blythe, pg 112
45. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 182
46. Sugarman, Carole. "The Chocolate Passion Of Poolesville's Buddhists," Washington Post, Oct 21, 1992

External links

• KPC website

39°04′53″N 77°22′58″W / 39.08135°N 77.38284°W / 39.08135; -77.38284

• Asian-American culture in Maryland
• Buddhism in Maryland
• Buddhist temples in the United States
• Nyingma monasteries and temples
• Religious buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Maryland
• Tibetan Buddhism in the United States