By Daphne Campo
Background
Tashi Gatsel Ling is a Buddhist temple in Gray, Maine. The purpose of the temple is to establish community engagement with Buddhism through practical applications of Buddhist ideas. Instructors at Tashi Gatsel Ling teach meditation studies, Buddhist Dharma, and engage in retreats with monastic teachers. They work to cultivate a wide sangha consisting of both ordained monastics and lay people.
Larger Engagement
They receive visiting Tibetan Monastics, with their Spiritual Coordinator being a Tibetan nun named Ani la Tenzin Dasel. They work with multiple traditions, offering opportunities for various members of each tradition to visit the temple and participate in the activities available there. Their current Spiritual Director is the original founder, named Khan Rinpoche Lobsang Tsetan, an ordained Gelugpa monk. The temple has a Gelugpa heritage but engages in Non-Sectarian Buddhist traditions in accordance with the XIV Dalai Lama’s teachings.
Tashi Gatsel Ling is very involved in the global Buddhist community. The Spiritual Coordinator teaches Dharma and meditation beyond the border of Maine. In Autumn of 2024, the temple received a large grant to fund their hosting of Tibetan Buddhist scholars and monastics. These visitors will tour Maine, Massachusetts, and Colorado to teach the Dharma.
Tashi Gatsel Ling is engaged in the wider Maine community, supporting Buddhist teachers to travel throughout the state through their funding. The temple provides monastics with the opportunity to visit local high schools and colleges. For instance, Geshe ma Dawa Dolma visited both Yarmouth High School and Bates College to teach in-person classes on Dharma. Moreover, they sponsored a tour of nuns from the Jangchub Choeling Nunnery, located in South India, throughout Maine. They work beyond the state as well, including Boston College in the formerly mentioned tour of nuns.
Principles of the Tashi Gatsel Ling
Members of the temple follow several guiding principles, many of which center around the Five Main Commitments established by the XIV Dalai Lama. It is expected that members uphold the Five Main Commitments of the Dalai Lama including; oneness of humanity, interfaith harmony, environmental stewardship, preservation of philosophical Buddhism based on critical reasoning, and preserving Tibetan Buddhism. They honor the message of Buddhist teachings. They work to create welcoming Dharma activities intended to welcome all those curious of Buddhism. The temple intends to establish environment-friendly housing and hubs for female members of the sangha and lay women. They sponsor female teachers from multiple forms of Buddhism to emphasize the necessity of cross-cultural interactions and support of female Tibetan Buddhist monastics. They work to be transparent with their leadership’s decisions and communications. Overall, they intend to promote the ethics and kindness of the Dharma to spread the wisdom of non-sectarianist Buddhism.
There is a section available on their website condemning violence and mistreatment based on the expectations set by the dharma. They express the desire to maintain peace and safety for practitioners in accordance with Dharma expression. There is also a portion at the end apologizing for potential and past mistreatment and promise to improve practices as the temple is intent on creating safety for all those involved.
The Origin of Tashi Gatsel Ling
The monk, gen la Lobsang Tsetan, visited Freeport, Maine in the mid-1990s in order to improve his English and spread the Dharma. Initially, he would visit twice a year to provide teachings once or twice a week in the Portland Yoga Studio. Those in attendance came out of curiosity, none being a part of the sangha. Eventually, Mainers began joining the sangha. The monk completed his Geshe degree and was then named head abbot of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, thus he was called Khenpo Rinpoche, as the Dalai Lama bestowed him the latter title around this time as well. With this newfound recognition, the audiences attending his teachings grew substantially and Khenpo Rinpoche had to find a larger space in which to present. Thus, in 2009, he moved his location to 429 Elmwood Rd. in Pownal, Maine.
Another move was demanded in 2012 to an accessible location, and the final move occurred in 2014 to their current location in Gray, Maine. They remained open in Gray until 2020, when they were forced to close their physical location because of the pandemic. Thus, presently most meetings occur online in the fall, winter, and spring with a break in teachings from June until September. In these online meetings, the Dharma and meditation activities are taught by the monastic teachers.
Schedule and Events
Mondays:
Evenings, from 7-8 PM EST
The weekly Maine Moment
- An hour-long session with the focus on mindful actions including breath, stillness, hearts, speech, and laughter.
New Teacher:
- In November, Tashi Gatsel Ling introduced Geshe ma Dawa Dolma as a Tibetan nun from Tibet. As one of the first women to do so, she completed a Buddhist Doctorate of Philosophy. She was able to come to Tashi Gatsel Ling through the grant they received, meant to support women in Buddhism. She traveled throughout Maine to the towns of Rockland, Camden, and Yarmouth.
Leadership at Tashi Gatsel Ling
As established in their promises for their practitioners and lay people, the leadership at Tashi Gatsel Ling determined they would maintain transparency. On the official website, there is a blog tab which has been periodically updated throughout the life of the temple. It includes updates on location moves, both before finding a new location requesting help in doing so and clarifying the new temple location. It also includes finalized schedules, dharma teachings, new speakers, and offers by the temple for events like funerals. The blogs date back to September 24th, 2013.
Board of Directors and Teachers
The Board of Directors is in charge of the temple and the positions in it are filled by volunteers. Each of their long-term teachers are ordained monastics in various forms of Buddhism. There are currently three teachers working at Tashi Gatsel Ling and they include the following:
HE Kyabje Khensur Rinpoche Lobzang Tsetan:
Born and raised in Ladakh, India, Rinpoche has been traveling across the States teaching Buddhism for three decades. He began life as a monastic at seven years old and joined a monastery at thirteen to study Buddhist texts. He traveled to Tashi Lhunpo Monastery to receive his novice monk vows. He received a Geshe degree and first arrived in the States to teach at Buddhist learning centers in New Jersey. Eventually, the Dalai Lama requested he be named Abbot of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery and he accepted.
Tsunma Tenzin Dasel
Dasel is the Spiritual Director at Tashi Gatsel Ling and an ordained nun. She graduated from Bates College and promptly earned a Master degree from Bangor Theological Seminary. Rinpoche has been her root lama in the decades following her degree. She now leads workshops and retreats in the United States and internationally.
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Jetsunma is a bhikṣuṇī in the Drukpa Lineage with her roots in the Kagyu school of Buddhism. She founded the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in India. She is a women’s rights activist and one of the first Western women to be ordained as a Tibetan nun.
The rest of the board consists of a President, Treasurer, Marketing and media Relations, Fundraising Specialist, Spiritual Coordinator, Secretary, and three other titled Board Members.
Accessible Materials
On the official website, there are links to Youtube videos of the Dharma teachings given by the teachers, each titled with the topic at hand.
Eco-Dharma Center
A major ambition by the temple is environmentally friendly efforts. This ambition materialized as the construction of 24’ yurt for the Spiritual Coordinator, Venerable Tenzin Dasel, in a spot of land 25 minutes away from Portland, Maine. This space is also intended as the local hub for the temple. It will additionally house three nuns visiting from India.
This project was possible through both grants and donations, specifically donations used for the interior of the yurt. Donors can include an intention they want the visiting nuns to meditate on in order to receive positive intentions for the topic.
Tashi Gatsel Ling intends to use the center for accessible programming based on donations.
Funding
The temple is funded by donations from individuals and organizations. There is a link on the website which provides the option to donate directly to the temple. They rely heavily on the principle of generosity, dana, to maintain a thriving community.
Tashi Gatsel Ling intends to establish an Eco-Dharma Center, receiving 501 (c)(3) status in 2019, determining it a non-profit organization and providing it the opportunity to begin the project in May of 2024.
Sites and Social Media
Tashi Gatsel Ting is on Instagram and Facebook with a combined following of approximately 9,000 people. They post for holidays and upcoming events.
Their social media following indicates a community larger than the truth. In reality, few of the followers engage in their social media posts, however those who do are very passionate, implying a small but mighty community surrounding the temple. By the appearance of photos on these social media pages, there are quite a few people in attendance to in-person events and Tashi Gastel Ling’s commitment to cultivating interest in Buddhism rather than whole-hearted commitment, opens the doors of worship to a wider community looking to engage.