Sunday

The Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin Library and Archives

The Vajra Regent, Osel Tenzin

By Robert Krupnick

The Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin Library & Archives, under the direction of Lady Lila Rich, the Vajra Regent’s wife, launched a new initiative in December 2008: to preserve and disseminate all aspects of the Vajra Regent’s work with an accelerated schedule over the next few years, beginning with the extensive audio and video collection. Two new websites were created, one for fundraising and communications, and one for access to the teachings of the Vajra Regent.

Dharma students from all over the world have visited the new publications website, www.vrot.org. Judging from their emails and comments, the emerging availability of the Vajra Regent’s work is filling a need, perhaps long-standing for those who knew him. Advantages to bookmarking the site include access to the regularly rotating free streaming audio and video (to sample, click here).

In addition, inexpensive audio downloads are available in MP3 format and can sync to an iPod, iPhone or other MP3 players.

The growing inventory of purchasable items includes reproductions of some of the Vajra Regent’s calligraphies, with more to come in the months ahead. DVD titles include Joining Heaven and Earth (3 talks, 1985) and Direct Path to Enlightenment (a public talk, 1988).

CD titles include Sudden Glimpse: The Appearance of Awakened Mind in Every Day Life (3 talks, 1978) and Lonely Journey: Devotion in the Kagyu Lineage (9 talks, 1977).  Print titles include Like Water Poured Into Water (dohas and poems) and, for sadhakas only, Relaxation: A Vajrayogini Tri (August 1990).

The Vajra Regent

In 1976 Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche chose Osel Tendzin as his Vajra Regent, fully empowering him as a holder of the Kagyu lineage, the first Westerner to be appointed to such a position. The Vajra Regent was a prolific teacher of the dharma for many years. The archive of his work is located in Ojai, California, as part of Satdharma, the organization established by the Vajra Regent to continue the lineage passed to him by the Vidyadhara and now held by the Vajra Regent’s successor, Patrick Sweeney.

Over time the Shambhala Archives in Halifax and the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin Library & Archives in Ojai have continued a working relationship. Ojai has provided equipment used by Halifax in their audio digitization process and manpower for various projects. A formal agreement ensures protection of the Shambhala Archives’ analog collection of the Vajra Regent’s teachings and acquisition of copies of that collection so that they may be digitized for preservation and eventual publication.

The Internet has emerged as a vital source for access to the Dharma from anywhere in the world. You are invited to visit www.vrot.org and to explore the teachings of the Vajra Regent and his particular role in further illuminating Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s teachings for Westerners.

To read more about the publishing plans, see photos of the Vajra Regent, and to read a message from Lady Lila Rich, click About the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin Library & Archives.