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he Life Torch Bodhi Temple is served by two resident Dharma Teachers, as well as by visiting teachers of complementary disciplines. Sharing the great spiritual wealth of the Buddhist Dharma is a vow they have taken for your benefit and for the benefit of all sentient beings. Below is a description of the main teachers in the lineage, and teachers at the Temple.
Machig Labdrön was perhaps one of the greatest yoginis in the history of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. She lived from1055 to 1153, during the second transmission of Buddhism from India to Tibet. She received three main lineages of Dharma teachings , two from the sky realm lineage from the Dharmakaya forms of (1) Yum Chenmo and (2) Arya Tara. She also received the human lineage teachings of Dampa Sangye, through (3) Sonam Lama. Machig Labdrön combined these three Dharma streams into a single, profound tradition known as the Chöd of Mahamudra. The Chöd lineage is not a separate school of Tibetan Buddhism. Chöd has been transmitted and is practiced in the Nyingma, Kagyud and Gelug schools to this day. It is the only Buddhist tradition that was transmitted from Tibet back to India. As a great female practitioner, householder, and mother of three greatly realized Buddhist teachers, she is extremely unusual in Tibetan Buddhism. Machig Labdrön is also renowned for her extremely high level of cultivation and realization, and her great abilities as a profound Dharma Master. (More information about Machig Labdrön can be found in Jerome Edou’s MACHIG LABDRÖN AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHÖD, 1996, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, NY.)
Senton Dorje: In China and Tibet, Senton Dorje was a very well known Han (Chinese) Vajra Master. At 17 years of age, she took Buddhist nun’s vows. For 18 years she traveled in Tibet, received Vajrayana teachings from many Masters including transmission of the complete Nyingma lineage. In the caves near Kumbun Monastery (Taersi) in Qinghai Province near Xining, Senton Dorje undertook a strict, thirteen year, solitary retreat. These same caves were the site of a solitary retreat by Je Tsongkhapa’s guru, Choje Dondrup Rinchen. During the past 300 years, there have been but few eminent female Masters of the Nyingma lineage of the Vajrayana such as Senton Dorje. Her Dharma understanding and accomplishments were outstanding, even among great Vajrayana Masters. For example, she had attained and demonstrated the fifth siddhi, or yogic skill, of translocation in a single moment over a 1000 mile distance.
When Senton Dorje began teaching publicly, she had many hundreds of students who were drawn to her by previous karma connection in the study of the Dharma. Despite this large following, she had only seven students who received the Buddha’s Light empowerment from her in order to become her disciples. Of these seven disciples, she only taught three of them the higher level Dharma practices. Of her three disciples, she only taught one the greatest Dharma through her Dharmakaya form. The one disciple is Boma Meitza Tulku, Master Quan.
In China, Master Quan worked as an Engineer in a Scientific Research Institute while pursuing his Dharma practice. He has performed a large number of experiments where Buddhism and science intersect, especially in the fields of healing and tachyon physics. He established the Life Torch Foundation to conduct these kinds of research projects. Applying his great spiritual cultivation, Master Quan is making scientific breakthroughs to create knowledge, products and technologies that promote health and integration of body, mind and spirit. Visit the BioNatural Labs website at www.naturalpromise.com to explore herbal health formulas created by Master Quan.
Lama Johndennis Namkha Govert is a Dharma Teacher and manages the Life Torch Bodhi Temple. He was a founder and first president of the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Seattle. He is the author of FENG SHUI: ART & HARMONY OF PLACE, and has an MBA in strategic planning from Northwestern University. Lama Namkha first received training and ordination in Zen Buddhism and later received inka shomei in June, 1986 from Matsuoka Zengaku Roshi, holder of both the Rinzai and Soto Zen lineages. Lama Namkha became a disciple of Master Quan for two main reasons: The first is that there is a very close Dharma heart connection. The second is that Lama Namkha recognized Master Quan as one of the greatest living Bodhisattvas of this time who will not only teach the very highest levels of enlightened realization, but who will also refocus and revivify Buddhist teachings for the next age.
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