The following article is from the Spring, 1987 issue of the Snow Lion Newsletter and is for historical reference only. You can see this in context of the original newsletter here.

The Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Centers of New Jersey and Washington D.C. are directed by Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, who completed over 30 years of study at the Sera Mey Monastery and Gyumey Tantric College of Lhasa. Geshe Tharchin is one of only a few lamas in the world who finished this entire training in Tibet. He was recognized as a first-order Hlarampa Geshe, the highest level of a Tibetan Buddhist master. During the 1959 invasion of Tibet he escaped to India, and spent the next 12 year helping to establish the Tibetan educational system there.

Geshe Tharchin came to the U.S. in 1972 on assignment by the Dalai Lama as a visiting scholar. For the past 15 years he has conducted classes, followinga course of study similar to that of traditional Tibetan monasteries. Subject areas include Abhidharma, Madhyamika, Prajna Paramita, Buddhist logic and grammar, Lam Rim, and the Bodhicharya Avatara. Qualified students have been taught both the kyerim and dzokrim levels of tantric studies.

image

Geshe Lobsang Tharchin

All classes are conducted in English by Geshe Tharchin. Also, under his direction, members of MSTC have translated a number of important Buddhist texts and created the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Press to publish and distribut ethem. Members of the group also developed the Tibetan Text Processing System, a computer program capable of printing high-quality Tibetan characters and including many wordprocessing features. The program runs on an IBM PC and was recently used by the Press to reprint a rare Tibetan manuscript for the Library of Congress.

Other activities at MSTC include a special retreat each summer, which in previous years has been devoted to teachings and meditations on the VajrayoginiTantra. A children's group has studied elementary Buddhist logic and debate under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

For more information, call or write to MSTC:

216 A West Second St.

Howell, NJ 07731

(201)364-1824