This manifestation of the Buddha has no equal. If you are really determined to tame your mind, he will even give you his heart.”
~ Geshe Rabten about Gyalchen Dorje Shugden

The Venerable Geshe Rabten Rinpoche was one of the most outstanding Tibetan masters of our time, who was both a Pandit (scholar) and a Siddha (realized meditator). He was an embodiment of compassion and wisdom, an unsurpassable refuge and guide of this and future lives for countless students throughout the world.

Geshe Rabten Rinpoche was born in Dargye, eastern Tibet, in 1921. Until the age of 19, he fulfilled his family duties and then, out of his own will, chose the renounced life of a monk.

Geshe Rabten Rinpoche recalled, "From the time I was a small child, I met monks in their maroon robes returning from the great monastic universities near Lhasa. I admired them very much. I also occasionally visited the large monastery in our region; and when I watched the monks debating, I was again filled with admiration.

When I was about 15 years old, I began to notice how simple, pure and efficient their lives were. I also saw how my own home life, in comparison, was so complicated and demanding of tasks that were never finished.

In order to be counted as a qualified monk in the nearby Dhargye Monastery, one had to spend at least three to four years studying and training one's mind in the Buddhadharma in one of the three monastic universities near Lhasa. With the thought of becoming such a monk in Dhargye Monastery, I decided at the age of 17 to go to one of these monastic universities, although at that time I had no desire to become greatly learned in the Dharma".

When he was 18, Geshe Rabten went on a three-month journey from his birthplace in Kham in the Eastern province of Tibet to Lhasa in central Tibet, where he became a monk in the monastic university of Sera Je. Under the guidance of his teachers such as the Venerable Geshe Jampa Khedrup, he mastered through learning, contemplation and meditation the entire teachings of the Dharma of the three vehicles and the four classes of Tantra.

Very soon, teachers and fellow students became aware of his magnificent character traits. While studying and meditating, he went through unbelievable hardship. Hence, teachers and fellow students gave him the name ‘Milarepa’. He was renowned as a zealous student, unchallengeable debater, pious practitioner and unsurpassable teacher in and out of the monastery.

Due to his clear and precise way of logical debate, people compared him to Dharmakirti, the great Buddhist logical thinker. After having studied for about 20 years, he passed the Geshe exam in front of monks from the three great monasteries. He was given the title of the highest rank, ‘Geshe Lharampa’. This is the greatest honor, which is given by the examiners and by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Through integrating all of his intellectual knowledge with the practice of meditation, he attained the deep insight into the nature of the phenomena and the ability to fulfill the purpose of oneself and others. Due to these qualities, countless seekers of Dharma became his disciples in Tibet, in India and later in the West. From among these disciples, outstanding masters with great qualities have emerged. Among those who are known in the west are Gonsar Rinpoche, Khamlung Rinpoche, Sherpa Rinpoche, Lama Thubten Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Thomtok Rinpoche, Geshe Pemba, Geshe Thubten Trinley, Geshe Tenzin Gonpo and Geshe Thubten Ngawang. There are many more in India and Tibet.

His outstanding qualities were recognized and cherished not only by his disciples, but also by the great masters of our time such as H. H. the 14th Dalai Lama and his two eminent tutors. Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang, the junior tutor of the Dalai Lama, in particular, regarded him as one of his closest spiritual sons; Geshe Rinpoche also regarded this particular master as his principal master or spiritual father who represented the embodiment of all Buddhas.

In 1964, H.H. the Dalai Lama selected Geshe Rinpoche and Venerable Lati Rinpoche out of hundreds of Geshes to become his new Tsenshabs, or philosophical assistants. In 1969, in accordance with the Dalai Lama’s wishes, Geshe Rinpoche started to give teachings to the Westerners in Dharamsala. In 1974, at the invitation of Mme Anne Ansermet as well as many other disciples, he traveled to Europe for the first time and gave teachings of the Dharma in many countries, thus opening the great gate of the Dharma in the Western part of the world.

In the following year, he was sent back to Europe by H.H. the Dalai Lama to be the abbot of the Tibetan Monastic Institute in Rikon, Switzerland to fulfill the spiritual needs of westerners and Tibetans living in Europe. At that time, Geshe had many students in the big monastic universities in India and as his master Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was getting old and because Geshe did not profess to have any interest in the comfort and money of the West, he would have preferred to have stayed in India. Only when his master pointed out that his teachings would be a great blessing to the people of the West did Geshe agree to go.

Geshe Rabten was the first Buddhist master to introduce the complete Vinaya-tradition and the original study of Buddhism to the West. Geshe Rabten is regarded as having become the ‘path breaker’ of the complete and complex teachings of Buddhism in the West.

Eventually, due to the growing number of people seriously interested in the thorough study and practice of Buddhism, Geshe Rabten also founded Tharpa Choeling, the Center for Higher Tibetan Studies in Mont-Pèlerin, Switzerland (which was later renamed Rabten Choeling in memory of Geshe Rinpoche); Tashi Rabten in Feldkirch, Austria; the Tibetan Center Jangchub Choeling in Hamburg, Germany; the Phuntsok Rabten Association in Munich, Germany and Ghe Phel Ling in Milan, Italy.

The monasteries and centers founded by Geshe Rabten grew to become great centers of learning for those seeking authentic and serious Dharma studies. This has been the tremendous result of his uninterrupted, tireless turning of the wheel of Dharma up to the end of his life, with the sole intention of serving the teachings of Buddha and sentient beings. Because of these reasons it is certainly appropriate to say that Geshe Rinpoche was one of the chief founders of the pure and complete Buddhadharma in Europe.

Sources: Life of a Tibetan Monk, by Geshe Rabten, Edition Rabten, 2000

Rabten Choeling website: www.rabten.eu/GesheRabten_CHen.htm