LAMA JINPA

Western Chö Master

Lama Jigmé Jinpa (Dr Asa Hersh) is an ordained Ngakpa (white-robed Tantric Practitioner) of both the Kagyu and Nyingmapa lineages. He first took refuge with His Holiness the 16th Karmapa in 1980. In the same year, he met Kalu Rinpoche while on a pilgrimage to India, which eventually led to his undertaking the traditional lama training the 3-year 3-month meditation retreat from 1986-89. A seasoned Chopa, he has practiced Vajrayana for over 30 years. He combines his dharma background with 33 years as healer, teacher and author to make complex information accessible, dynamic and practical in daily life. Apart from ongoing translations and writings, a current personal project is to complete the practice of Chod in 108 charnel grounds (cemeteries) around the world and documenting his experience for the benefit of others.

STIRRINGS of CHOD

Jinpa had been “bitten by the Cho bug” in 1980, when he heard Lama Namse perform this, while living at his dharma center in Toronto. Chod is a part of the dialy routine of 3-year retreat, and this deepened the connection and love for the practice. After his retreat, however, he avoided any specific dharma groups for over a decade, simply preserving his own inner work. But in 2004 he meet Kunzang Dechen Lingpa, and saving his life from a serious heart condition, began a three-year journey to help set up healing Chod rituals all over the country. Jinpa played “in the band” with the monks and nuns, journeying to Assam and Arunachel Pradesh on two ocassions. Currently he is authoring a number of Chod realted books, including the definitive guide, Chod: Cutting Through to Freedom, for Snow Lion, in order to spreading and preserve these traditions in an accurate and holistic way.

THE HEALER

Already a well-known Naturopath, Homepath and Chiropractor when he left his practice to enter the 3-year retreat, when Asa returned, he had a wealth of material to integrate. For 16 years previously, he had trained with Dr. John LaPlante, one of the most gifted psychic healers of our time. This had allowed Dr. Hersh to develop an extraordinary sensitivity and healing ability. Currently, the focus of his medical work is the application of the principles of the five elements to physical healing and in depth psychological transformation. Eventually the compilations of these traditional 5-element healing methods, gleaning from original Tibetan sources over three decades, will be published as Tibetan Energy Healing, in several volumes.

TEACHING CHO

Over the years Jinpa has journeyed to India and Nepal over thirty times, studying with great masters such as Dilgo Khyentse and Kunzang Dechen Lingpa. His goal as a teacher and writer is to make the precious teachings accessible to Westerners, which led him to found the School of Tibetan Healing Chod in 2006. Ever cautious and traditional, he only felt qualified to teach, some 20 years after his 3-year retreat training. At this time he also developed a curriculum for his current teacher, to provide a Western context for the transmission of the tradition of PeGyal Lingpa. SangNgak ChoKor Ling is thus now the Western seat of Tsewong Sitar Rinpoche’s teachings.

Lama Jinpa is the main teacher for the School, providing a dynamic approach that combines the best of Western teaching methods and audiovisuals with the powerful blessing stream and energy of the authentic Eastern tradition.

WRITING AND TRANSLATIONS

TIBETAN TRANSLATIONS

Jinpa is one of the extremely rare Western translators who combines accuracy with a literary style and poetic vision that reflects both the author and the nature of dharma. Additionally, he has developed the first system of transliteration that actually makes sense for the English reader with no background knowledge of Tibetan. This has made the liturgies and sadhanas of the Chod school and those of PeGyal Lingpa very accessible and easy to both use and understand.

1. Prayer to MaChik (Soldeb)

2. Kusali Tsok of Jigmé Lingpa

3. Laughter of the Dakinis by Jigmé Lingpa

4. Concise Cho of PeGyal Lingpa

5. Realization on One Seat: Dentok Chikma by MaChik Labdron

7. The Nail of the Five Elements (MaChik tradition)

8. The 100 Changbu Offering (MaChik tradition)

9. Concise Changu Offering of PeGyal Lingpa

10. Offering in Six Parts of the MaChik tradition

11. Offering to the Nine Demons

12. A Hundred Vital Essences: Ngondro of PeGyal Lingpa (4 pages)

13. The Swift Path of Tara: PeGyal Lingpa (8 pages)

14. Offering of Samsara & Nirvana: Sang of PeGyal Lingpa (9 pages)

15. Wind Horse Rituals of PeGyal Lingpa (9 pages)

16. Hooking in Prosperity of PeGyal Lingpa; Namse, Tseringma and Concise (9 pages)

17. Short Protector Prayers (Solka) of PeGyal Lingpa

18. Treasury of the Four Activites, Fire Offering (8 pages)

19. The Inner Practice of Red Vajrasattva; PeGyal Lingpa (11 pages)

19. The Dark Red Amulet: Phurba of TsaSum Lingpa (9 pages)

20. Stirring the Lower Realms: Chenrezig of PeGyal Lingpa (6 pages)

21. Burnt Offering of PeGyal Lingpa: Mar Sur (2 pages)

22. Daily Practice and Tsok of Lion Faced Dakini: PeGyal Lingpa (9 pages)

23. Long Life Practice of MaChik:Dharma Shri ()

24. Exhortation of the Eight Charnel Grounds: PeGyal Lingpa ()

WESTERN BOOKS

1. Homeopathy for Musculoskeletal Healing. North Atlantic Books, 1999 (25,000 copies sold).

2. Homeopathic Remedies. Avery Books (Penguin Putnam), 2000 (35,000 copies sold).

3. Tibetan Energy Healing: Volume 1, Self-Healing (to be published in 2013)

3. Herbal Remedies. Avery Books (Penguin Putnam), 2001.

DHARMA BOOKS

1. PeGyal Lingpa: Songs of Realization (scheduled for 2011): Biography, and selected texts, particularly the 35 Aphorisms of PeGyal Lingpa (completion in late 2012)

2. Cho: Cutting Through to Freedom. Snow Lion Publications (to be completed in 2013)

3. MaChik”s Healing Cho: Collected Healing Rituals from the Tradition of MaChik. Cho Publishing, 120 pages (for completion in 2014)

4. The Precious Rosary of Chod Feasts: MaChik’s Tradition of Tibtan Chod, 260 pages (to be completed in 2015).

5. Hundred Thousand Rays of the Sun: Biography of Lama Tsering Wangdu, 2010. (editor and cover design).

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

After a two-year hiatus, a decision based on the visa difficulties of him main Cho teacher, Tsewong Rinpoche, the School is back in full gear in 2011. This spring will see an important 2-day Precious Rosary of Cho in the capital city of Bhutan. After this, a four-city US tour will bring these crucial teachings to a whole new audience. In the fall, the healing rituals of MaChik, never taught before in the West, will be transmitted in an urban reatreat setting in the forests of Los Angeles.Then in 2012, the three principle lamas will travel to Sweden, London and other areas of Europe, before returning to America for Module 2 and 3.