Heart Teachings by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche

05/31/2026

Wishing you an auspicious Saga Dawa Düchen — celebrating the birth, enlightenment, and parinirvāṇa of Śākyamuni Buddha.

In October 2002, while receiving treatment at UCSF Medical Center and reflecting on the nature of impermanence and our original enlightened state, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche composed A Drop of Nectar from his hospital bed. He gave teachings on this poem at Orgyen Dorje Den in Alameda, California, in October 2003.

We're pleased to offer this excerpt from that teaching as a gift for this auspicious day — available now as part of our featured YouTube series streaming through June and July.

https://www.youtube.com/

You can download A Drop of Nectar and other writings by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche on our Heart Teachings Resources page:

https://www.heartteachings.com/pages/rinpoches-writings-transcripts

05/26/2026

“To expect to receive siddhis without devotion is like thinking that if we squeeze rocks hard enough, we will get oil. It’s just not possible. We depend upon faith, devotion, and trust to receive the blessings.”

- Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, from Meditation for Liberation teachings, January 2004

Wishing you a Saga Dawa Guru Rinpoche Day full of blessings!

Photo: Rinpoche in Hawaii with plumeria lei (Susie Iverson)

04/26/2026

“‘Whatever arises [from the ground] is dharmakaya’s creative expression…’ As we settle within the appreciation of equal purity of the realms of enlightenment and the realms of samsara, our clinging and judgment relax. As our minds relax and open, we gain release. Getting bound up in all our judgments and choices – this binds our mind. As we give up clinging, whether to our experience as ordinary sentient beings or to our meditative experiences on the spiritual path, we arrive at the result, the three bodies of enlightenment.”

In this clip, Rinpoche deepens the teaching, speaking directly about meditation, explaining how mantra and visualization shift our focus from ordinary phenomena to wisdom — gradually undoing the very habits that build samsara.

- From Teaching 3 of "Calling the Lama from Afar, Nalanda 2010" — a fitting offering on Guru Rinpoche Day. Wishing you a happy one!

You can watch the four-part series, streaming on YouTube through the end of May.

https://www.youtube.com/

04/01/2026

Wishing you an auspicious Full Moon Day! You can stream a recording of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche reciting the Prayer to Swiftly Fulfill All Wishes (Sampa Nyur Drupma) on SoundCloud and YouTube.

https://soundcloud.com/lamatharchinrinpoche/sampa-nyur-drupma-recitation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5o8tQIciYc

Video: Rinpoche reciting the prayer at his home in Aptos, California, June 12, 2008

03/28/2026

Wishing you a happy and auspicious Guru Rinpoche Day! We’d like to share one of the awe-inspiring stories of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche’s unique upbringing in a ngakpa yogi family in Tibet. Rinpoche’s revered father, Lama Chime Dorje, was the ninth family lineage holder and head of the Repkong Ngakmang, the largest monastery of yogis in Tibet, famous and revered for both their not-so-ordinary accomplishments, as well as for their realization of supreme siddhis.

“My father was a famous and renowned lama named Repkong Lama Chime Dorje. He displayed many miraculous activities, performing amazing things stemming from his realization. He could really demonstrate that the elements are not solid and fixed, even though we ordinary beings believe they are. I remember one time when I was about thirteen or fourteen, my father and I traveled to visit Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche at Lama Ling, about a morning’s horse ride from our house. As a prominent lama’s son, I was pretty fancy. I dressed really well and had a very fine horse named Sak-truk. I had an expensive and beautiful saddle, ornamented with silver and gold. I also had a sword that matched the saddle. I loved this sword so much and was very proud of it. Its sheath was silver, adorned with large pieces of turquoise and coral, and decorated with gold. The handle had red silk tassels. We arrived at Lama Ling and tied up our horses outside at a post with grass and water for them to enjoy. Before going up to see Kyabje Rinpoche, we stopped at the guesthouse to be served food and drink. I hung my sword, my prized possession, on a hook on the wall in the room…”

For the complete telling of the incredible short story of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche getting irritated with his father for destroying his prized sword, later realizing the profound spiritual significance of the event, and why the sword ended up hanging on the wall of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche’s dharma protector room, we hope you’ll visit the Heart Teachings blog here:

https://www.heartteachings.com/blogs/blog/a-sword-rolled-like-paper

Photo: Lama Tharchin Rinpoche with takdrol tied in his topknot. Pema Osel Ling.

03/02/2026

Wishing you an auspicious Chotrul Duchen and Total Lunar Eclipse!

The March 3rd convergence of Chotrul Duchen and early morning lunar eclipse is a very powerful time for meditation practice. Lama Tharchin Rinpoche taught that an eclipse represents the outer dissolution of the sun and moon, corresponding to the inner dissolution of our body’s white and red elements into the subtle body’s central channel. Due to the interdependence of the outer universe and our inner body’s elements, our secret minds settle and become less turbulent during eclipses. It is a particularly special time to recite the Kunzang Monlam (Great Perfection Prayer of Kuntuzangpo) by the Terton Rigdzin Godem. While chanting, we can visualize ourselves as Kunzang Yab-Yum and meditate on inseparable awareness-emptiness.

As support for our practice on this special day, you’ll find recordings of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche reciting the Kunzang Monlam, along with links to the text on YouTube, Vimeo, and Soundcloud.
https://soundcloud.com/lamatharchinrinpoche/sets/kunzang-monlam

For great resources about the eclipse and how to view it, visit https://www.space.com/ and https://www.nasa.gov/

Image: NASA website

02/27/2026

Wishing you a happy first Guru Rinpoche Day of the Fire Horse Year!

📸 Lama Tharchin Rinpoche in eastern Bhutan, February 2012

02/18/2026

Losar Tashi Delek Phun Sum Tsok! May the vitality of the Year of the Fire Horse 2026 inspire our fearless commitment to swift accomplishment of the Dharma path. Lama Tharchin Rinpoche adored his horse growing up in Tibet, Sak-truk, who he praised for his loyalty, adventurous nature, and bravery. Rinpoche and Sa Truk were inseparable.

For this year’s Losar offering, I’m excited to share a recording I recently edited of Rinpoche’s special Ri Chö Mountain Retreat introduction given to a small group of Pema Osel Ling staff and residents shortly before he left for a one-year sabbatical in 1998 to fulfill a prophecy that he do a retreat to remove an obstacle to his life.

Composed by Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche at Lama Ling in Kongpo, Tibet, in the 1950s for Lama Tharchin Rinpoche’s own Drubdra (three-year retreat) at Rigdzin Gatsal, Ri Chö meant so much to Rinpoche’s personal practice that he considered it an essential guide to his Dharma path. He taught the text many times, both to long-term retreatants and to guide people's practice in their daily lives, noting that his transmission was a very short, direct, and pure lineage.

“The root of blessings is very strong. Also, because I was in three-year retreat when I received this teaching, I had the opportunity to see firsthand its benefits on my own mind stream… I have firsthand experience of its profound blessings.”

Listen to Rinpoche’s Ri Chö teaching on SoundCloud, where you’ll also find the teaching he gave the following day on Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche’s “Calling the Lama from Afar” as the best method for accomplishing the pith instructions of the Ri Chö teaching.
https://soundcloud.com/lamatharchinrinpoche

May Rinpoche’s guidance provide blessings and inspiration for our practice in the Fire Horse year.

Love,
Pema Dechen (Libby)

Images: Lama Tharchin Rinpoche at meditation cave in India or Nepal, circa early 1980s (photographer unknown); Fire Horse watercolor by Tasha Stewart of Sun Moon Market Designs

02/12/2026

"Our root Lama is the embodiment of the three kayas and the essence of all wisdom beings. They are the emanation of all Buddhas of the past, the representative of all Buddhas of the present, and the source of all Buddhas of the future. When we pray to the lama, on a relative level, we think of them as someone who has entirely uncovered their enlightened nature and ourselves as someone whose enlightened nature has not yet become manifest. Their enlightened nature is identical to our own, but they have made it manifest. It is obvious to them and to us. We supplicate them, saying, 'You who have made manifest your enlightened nature, whatever happens in my life from now on, whether I rise or fall within this life or the next, all of my circumstances—everything is in your hands now!' When we say Lama khyen no, on a relative level, we're saying, 'I've completely given up. Whatever happens, it's all up to you now!'

On a deeper level, what we're saying is that through bringing our faith, devotion, and pure connection to the spiritual path, we're making a connection to the lama. We're praying to the lama. But this is awakening the Vajra of Supreme Exaltation within ourselves. We are discovering the sambhogakaya lama within ourselves. When we say khyen no—be aware of me, know me—we are asking our own enlightened nature to wake up."

- Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, from "Calling the Lama from Afar, The Continuous Nature’s Spontaneous Song, Nalanda West, 2010" (Teaching 2)

Wishing you a happy and auspicious Dakini Day! You can stream Rinpoche's four-part teaching on YouTube through April:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK1fmdeyHawmU1eaBAeWlGRjr9WXnrWiH

Image: Rinpoche at Nalanda West, Seattle, Washington, May 1, 2010

02/11/2026