choden rinpoche

Explore the guru yoga practice of Je Tsongkhapa with a legendary meditation master.

The Hundreds of Deities of Tusita is an inspiring and well-loved guru yoga practice that originated from Je Tsongkhapa himself and was disseminated by the First Dalai Lama. In this book, Choden Rinpoche--a celebrated scholar who was chosen as a debate partner for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as well as an accomplished yogi who spent nineteen years in solitary retreat--offers two different commentaries to guide the reader’s understanding.

Rinpoche’s first commentary is based on the tantric oral tradition as presented by the great lama and scholar Pabongkha Dechen Nyingpo in his own inspired commentary on The Hundreds of Deities of Tusita, called A Treasury of Precious Jewels, which is presented here in full. Rinpoche adds clarifying instruction to Pabongkha Rinpoche’s work, bringing out the deeper meaning of the text and revealing how ordinary practitioners may understand and apply the instructions. The second commentary from Rinpoche is a condensed commentary based on the sutra tradition. Thus, the reader is treated to two different perspectives of the guru yoga practice of Je Tsongkhapa.

Previously published as Opening the Door of Blessings, this edition has been revised and updated, and is an essential addition to any practitioner’s library.

His Eminence Choden Rinpoche was born in eastern Tibet in 1930 and was recognized as a young boy as the reincarnation of the previous Choden Rinpoche. When he was fifteen, he enrolled at Sera Je monastic college, where he excelled; he completed all the study necessary for the highest degree of geshe lharampa, was renowned as one of the great Tibetan teacher-yogis of our modern era, and was chosen as a debate partner for the Fourteenth Dalai Lama when His Holiness was taking his geshe exams. After the Chinese takeover of Tibet, Rinpoche entered solitary retreat, in which he stayed for nineteen years. In 1985 the Dalai Lama asked him to leave Tibet to teach in India and Nepal. He taught students in the geshe program at Sera Je for many years, as well as offering teachings all over the world. He passed away in 2015.