Akong Rinpoche
Chöje Akong Tulku Rinpoche (T. ཆོས་རྗེ་ཨ་དཀོན་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ) (1939 – 2013) was a teacher in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism and co-founder of Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland, Tara Rokpa Therapy, and the charity ROKPA International.
He was born and received his education as a Buddhist meditation master and doctor of Traditional Tibetan medicine in Eastern Tibet. By the age of 20 he had taken full charge of the spiritual, medical and practical needs of the monks, nuns and laypeople at Dolma Lhang Monastery and the surrounding villages, all of which came under his care. Before leaving Tibet he was very involved with caring for the sick and dying both as a physician and spiritual guide. When the Chinese took over this area in 1959, he sought refuge initially in India and settled in Britain in the mid 1960s. He co-founded the Samye Ling Tibetan Centre with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Scotland in 1967.[1]
In 1980, Akong Rinpoche co-founded ROKPA International, an international humanitarian organisation which operates principally in Nepal, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Akong Rinpoche also developed Tara Rokpa Therapy, a psycho-therapeutic method drawn largely from the principles of Traditional Tibetan medicine and Mahayana Buddhism.[1] The first Tara Rokpa Therapy groups using Rinpoche’s methods were started in 1984-5. In the year 2000 the Tara Rokpa Therapy training was recognised by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) as a UKCP accredited training method for psychotherapists.
Further reading
Akong Rinpoche, Wikipedia- Akong Rinpoche, Tara Rokpa Therapy
- Akong Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Akong Rinpoche, Tara Rokpa Therapy