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Obituaries
Ven. Ann McNeil teaching at Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, 1975. Photo courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
Ven. Ann McNeil, one of Lama Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s most senior Western students, passed away on Sunday, February 22, 2015, in British Columbia, Canada. Known as Anila Ann, she became a student of Lama Yeshe in 1970, when she met him in Kathmandu, Nepal. She ordained the same year, which you can read about in the post “Ann McNeil and Ordination,” on Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s “Big Love” blog.
Anila Ann was the first director of Chenrezig Institute (CI), the first FPMT center, founded in 1974 in Eudlo, Queensland, Australia. Chenrezig Institute shared on their Facebook page that “it is due to [Anila Ann’s] kindness, and the kindness of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, that we are here today. She lay the foundations for the flourishing, colorful Buddhist center that CI is today. We are incredibly grateful for all she did for us and the Dharma.”
Anila Ann McNeil. Photo courtesy of FPMT North America’s Facebook page.
More recently, Anila Ann talked about her work as a Buddhist chaplain with prisoners in a 2011 interview with Mandala. “I loved teaching no matter the classification of the prison,” she said. “As far as teaching goes, it was very unusual to have the same students for less than four or five years. I’ve known most for 10 years and longer.”
“Let your happiness show,” she said in the same interview. “Look people in the eye with a big smile and say ‘Hello, hi, how are you?’ Be ready to assist anybody if they want it.”
Anila Ann was a true FPMT pioneer. (The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive has many photos of Anila Ann from the early days of FPMT.) She touched countless lives over her more than 40 years of serving her gurus, helping to spread the authentic Dharma in the West and leading the way for many students to come. She will be deeply missed.
We will run a full obituary for Anila Ann McNeil in our next print issue.
Mandala brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from nearly 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Khensur Denma Locho Rinpoche courtesy of Drepung Loseling Monastery’s Facebook page
Khensur Denma Locho Rinpoche ceased breathing and entered into clear light meditation on Thursday, October 23, at his home in McLeod Ganj, India, after a brief illness. He was 86 years old.
Denma Locho Rinpoche was a highly respected Tibetan Buddhist master and one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus. Denma Locho Rinpoche was also an incredibly powerful and important teacher to many FPMT students and to many monks and nuns at Kopan Monastery. He taught at several FPMT centers and led the Kopan Monlam for many years. He was regarded as an expert on Manjushri’s fierce form, Yamantaka, and on several other teachings and practices.
Denma Locho Rinpoche was born in Kham in eastern Tibet in 1928 and was recognized at the age of six as the reincarnation of a famous yogi, Choying Gyatso, from the local Selkar monastery. At age eleven, he entered Drepung Loseling Monastic College near Lhasa. He obtained his lharampa geshe degree at age 25 and completed his tantric exams at Gyume Tantric College in 1958. He received many teachings from the late Kyabje Ling Rinpoche (the senior tutor to His Holiness the Dalai Lama) and became the main lineage holder of all his teachings.
Denma Locho Rinpoche fled Tibet in 1959 for India, living in Sarnath for two years and then spending two years on a research fellowship at Calcutta University. He then became the principal of the Buddhist School of Dialectics in Ladakh. In 1967, he become abbot of a small monastery in Manali. He served as abbot of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Namgyal Monastery from 1986 to 1991 in Dharamsala, and visited the United States on several occasions, including one year teaching at the University of Virginia.
After hearing of Denma Locho Rinpoche’s passing on Thursday, Lama Zopa Rinpoche led a six-hour Lama Chopa and tsog, until 2:30 a.m., at Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery in Bendigo, Australia, with Sangha and some lay students. Lama Zopa Rinpoche spoke extensively about Denma Locho Rinpoche’s tremendous kindness.
“Denma Locho Rinpoche was always concerned and cared for FPMT,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said. “He was one of the lamas from Tibet who was extremely learned and famous and good hearted and pure in the vows and this was a big loss for the Gelukpa teachings.”
Denma Locho Rinpoche had great concern for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, FPMT and the Maitreya projects. Many times he was consulted in regards to pujas or practices to overcome obstacles. He also often gave advice on what students could do for Rinpoche’s health and long life. Just before starting the recent month-long retreat in Australia, Ven. Roger Kunsang consulted Denma Locho Rinpoche about pujas that needed to be done to overcome obstacles.
Gelek Rimpoche shared that in early October Denma Locho Rinpoche had “an excellent meeting with His Holiness in Dharamsala. There are pictures showing His Holiness to be extremely happy, touching heads with [Denma] Locho Rinpoche.”
FPMT is deeply saddened by the loss of such a generous and profound teacher as Denma Locho Rinpoche.
Jacques Haesaert. Photo courtesy of Ambroisie Association.
In September 2014 during the CPMT 2014 meeting, managing editor Laura Miller met with student Françoise Majeste who revealed that a close student of Lama Yeshe and a long-time student of Institut Vajra Yogini in France – Jacques Haesaert – had died over five years ago, but had never been honored in Mandala. We’re happy to now share this tribute to Jacques’ life from his friends and students.
Jacques Haesaert, 67, died in Graulhet, France, July 2009, from a stroke
Five years have gone by since our doctor, teacher and friend, Jacques Haesaert, passed on. When he died in July 2009 at the age of 67, we were so unprepared and perturbed that none of his many students in France and Spain thought to send an obituary to Mandala magazine. Jacques was a member of Institut Vajra Yogini in Marzens, France and benefited not only his patients, but also his many students who came to his introductory classes on Tibetan medicine at the institute and his in-depth study programs. Now in remembrance of him, we write this biography as a tribute to him and his work.
Jacques Haesaert was passionate about learning and taught himself to read even before starting school in France. His personal studies of biology, natural medicine, the powers of plants and minerals, archeology, religions, Egyptology, cooking, music, to name a few, surely helped him assimilate Tibetan medicine later on. As well as working in France, Jacques spent many years in Africa and later worked in the Phillipines with local healers.
In 1974, his spiritual search brought him to India where he had his first contact with Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and the medicine practiced in this country. In Nepal he became a disciple of Lama Thubten Yeshe who encouraged him to study Tibetan medicine. Jacques followed Lama’s advice and studied many years in Dharamsala, India with Dr. Ama Lobsang Dolma.
We do not know all the details of his many years of study, treating and accompanying patients in India as a Tibetan doctor, but we do know that he also studied with Dr. Tsering Dinggang and worked for some time with the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa in Calcutta, with the most destitute of people.
In this 1982 forward, Lama Yeshe praises Jacques’ work writing “Jaques [sic] Haesaert has studied with us for several years … He has researched extensively into all aspects of Tibetan medicine, culture, mind psychology and religion. His work is authentic, and his style is good.”
In 1981, Lama Yeshe asked Jacques to share his knowledge with the Western world in a way that was adapted to the special needs of the people living in those places in actual times. After returning to France, Jacques treated patients and taught for the rest of his life.
As well as a practicing Tibetan Buddhist, he was also a Christian and Bible scholar. Jacques often made parallels between passages in the Bible and teachings of Buddha.
Faithful to the ethics of a Tibetan physician, he expected no pay for his consultations, only accepting offerings. In his later years, he made only two appointments a day so he could remain for hours with each patient in order to treat the patient as a whole and help the person to understand the cause of his ailments, and not just treat his symptoms.
Jacques always intended to write a book so many people could benefit from the knowledge and wisdom he accumulated over so many years, applying Tibetan medicine to the West. He wanted to help Westerners discover the extraordinary and practical knowledge offered by this system. For him it was important to show, through Tibetan medicine, how people can become responsible for their mental and physical health, conscious of their potential for happiness, love and wisdom, and of the errors that would lead them to suffering.
Just months before passing on, after years of our begging for them, he gave to us, his students in France and Spain, his nearly finished book that he used for his classes. He compiled it over decades and organized the information into chapters used for his teaching. Jacques explains important teachings from the medical tantras and elaborates on many aspects of what is health and disease, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. Moreover, he explains many aspects of Tibetan medicine from a Western point of view.
We, his students and members of the Ambroisie Association, are in the process of translating it from French to English, Spanish, and German. It was his heart-felt wish to help preserve the extensive knowledge and wisdom that is Tibetan medicine from being lost or diluted.
You can find Jacques’ piece “Nature the Great Healer” in the June 2004 issue of Mandala.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche requests that “students who read Mandala pray that the students whose obituaries they read find a perfect human body, meet a Mahayana guru and become enlightened quickly, or be born in a pure land where the teachings exist and they can become enlightened.” While reading obituaries we can also reflect upon our own death and rebirth, prompting us to live our lives in the most meaningful way.
More advice from Lama Zopa Ripoche on death and dying is available on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice page.
Jim Blumenthal on the Johkang with the Potala in the background, Lhasa, Tibet, 2004.
Mandala is mourning the loss of our dear friend Dr. James Blumenthal, who passed away very early in the morning of October 8, 2014, at age 47, due to complications from cancer. Jim was a regular contributor to Mandala for many years. He was also a talented and generous scholar, teacher and colleague, serving as a professor of Buddhist philosophy and history at Maitripa College as well as at Oregon State University in the United States. He was a student of Geshe Lhundub Sopa Rinpoche at the University of Wisconsin, where he received his PhD.
Jim was quick to say “yes” whenever we asked him for an article for Mandala and his submissions arrived on time and were beautifully written. He had great depth of knowledge and a sharp mind, yet was always humble and gracious. He had the wonderful ability to make the sometimes complicated and difficult-to-understand world of Buddhist philosophy accessible and fascinating to the not-so-academically inclined. His gentle kindness, clear explanations and always interesting stories will be profoundly missed.
Jim’s death is a great loss for Maitripa College, where he taught since its founding. Jim is survived by his seven-year-old son Ben, wife Tiffany, parents Susan and Jack, brother Tom and Ben’s mother Sara, who was the former editor and publisher of Mandala.
As a small remembrance of Jim, we’ve upload several PDFs of his Mandala articles from archive issue, which you can find here.
Maitripa College has created a webpage for Jim with a collection of prayers that may be recited and dedicated for him. Also on the page, you will find Jim’s translation of Shatarakshita’s Ornament of the Middle Way, a link to a memorial page and a touching video remembrance of Jim by Ven. Thubten Chodron.
Oregon State University has published a moving tribute of Jim.
Mandala will run a full obituary in our next issue.
Mandala brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
FPMT News Around the World
Gunjiimaa translating in Mongolia
It is with sadness that we share the news of Gunjiimaa Ganbat passing away. After struggling with a very difficult to treat form of drug-resistant tuberculosis, Gunjiimaa died in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on April 1, 2012. Gunjiimaa made significant contributions to the development of FPMT Mongolia, including serving as an FPMT Mongolia translator, as Ven. Thubten Gyatso’s (Adrian Feldmann) Mongolian translator and as the previous director of the FPMT center in Ulaanbaatar, Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, founded in 2000.
“Gunjii,” as she was fondly known, was also the driving force in connecting MK Sen, current CEO of FPMT Mongolia, with several parties able to offer the help and assistance needed for Rinpoche’s priority projects in Mongolia. Gunjii was part of the special team overseeing these projects. Her immense personal contributions to ensure the success of each project will remain as testimony of her faith and devotion to her guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. As MK puts it, “Gunjii will be irreplaceable and a great loss to FPMT Mongolia. We pray for her blessed rebirth.”
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When reading an obituary or an announcement of death in Mandala, Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises that students make prayers for the recently deceased that they “find a perfect human body, meet a Mahayana guru and become enlightened quickly, or be born in a pure land where the teachings exist and they can become enlightened.”
Advice and practices for sickness and death can be found on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice page and at the Foundation Store.