RICHARD ARTHURE-(Künga Dawa)

Buddhist Retreat Fund

RICHARD ARTHURE...

became a close student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1966 and was given by him the name Kunga Dawa - All-Joyful Moon. He was a co-founder of the Samye-Ling Buddhist Centre in Scotland in 1967 and
was the first Westerner trained by Trungpa Rinpoche as a meditation instructor and authorized by him to teach the Dharma.

Accompanying Trungpa Rinpoche as his private Secretary, Richard traveled to India, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal in 1967-1968 and received many transmissions and empowerments from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (to whom ) Chögyam Trungpa entrusted his own Dzogchen lineage), as well as from H.H. XVIth Karmapa and Trungpa Rinpoche himself. In 1970 Richard came to the U.S. and was one of the founders and trustees of Tail of the Tiger - later re-named Karme-Chöling - in Vermont and helped to establish the New York Dharmadhatu center.

Traveling extensively throughout North America, Richard has taught Buddhist meditation and conducted Dharma seminars at the Center in Vermont and in Boston, New York, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto and Montreal.

After re-locating to Boulder, Colorado, in 1974 to pursue his own Buddhist practice and study, Richard graduated from the Ngeton School of advanced Buddhist studies (under the direction of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche). Richard has also worked as a teacher, a Realtor, a mediator and an NLP practitioner.Following the death of Trungpa Rinpoche, he continued to receive teachings from many Tibetan teachers, most notably the renowned dzogchen masters Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Gangteng Tulku, and has alternated periods of study and work with extended solitary retreats in the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico.

VIDYADHARA CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA RINPOCHE

REQUEST FOR RETREAT SPONSORS 

Photo taken by Richard Arthure in 1968 during retreat at Paro Taksang BHUTAN

Please feel free to view the larger image by clicking on thumbnail

Not intended for commercial use.Richard Arthure 1968 ©

 

It was thirty-two years ago that I first met the Vidyadhara and became his close student and, for a while, his private Secretary. Even in those early years Rinpoche often encouraged me to do retreat practice and he left me in no doubt that the only way to attain realization was to spend long periods of time in solitude. "It is possible for you to attain enlightenment in this lifetime," he once told me.
After the Vidyadhara's death - and on the advice of Dzigar Kongtrul - I was fortunate enough to receive pointing out instructions and teachings on dzogchen from Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, and more recently from Gangteng Tulku. To my surprise, some of these teachings were strikingly similar to oral instructions I had received from Trungpa Rinpoche during the earliest months of our relationship.
Tulku Urgyen emphasized the importance of retreat practice even more strongly. "From now on," he told me, "you should spend as much time as possible in retreat." I promised him that I would do so.
When I add it all up, I have managed to spend twenty-four months in retreat in the last three years and I have learned for myself that it really is the only way to make genuine progress, even though that progress may sometimes seem painfully slow to a practitioner of the "gradual  type," such as myself. I have now made a commitment to undertake a three year retreat and
am ready to begin just as soon as circumstances permit. A suitable retreat location, a small cabin, water, food, a stove, a source of fuel for cooking and keeping warm enough to survive in winter. These are the necessities.
It is said that:

If any of you, reading this letter, have the wish to share in the merit by helping to sponsor my retreat, then please contact me at:

Richard Arthure 

PO Box 1471

Boulder, CO 80306

 

kunga@hotmail.com

  During retreat periods, phone messages can be taken by

Joe Wagner in the US. @ 1-(303) 293-2117

 
Yours in the Dharma,

     Richard Arthure (Kunga Dawa) 3-27-2000