With the help of a Khyentse Foundation grant, Mani Foundation, a nonprofit dharma organization in Poznan, Poland with the blessing of H.E. Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche, has completed the translation (from English to Polish) of two essential Buddhist texts:

1)    Mipham’s Beacon of Certainty by John Petit

2)    Luminous Essence: A Guide to the Guhyagarbha Tantra by Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche

These books are required reading for students in the eight-year shedra program led by Rinpoche. Many of the students don’t speak English or Tibetan, so these translations give them their first opportunity for text-based study of the dharma in their own language.

With the completion and publication of these translations, students in Poland will be able to deepen their own practice; and with continued study and guidance, some of them may eventually become dharma teachers themselves. In the spirit of KF’s Rimé tradition, we are delighted to support this important work as Mani Foundation makes available dharma teachings to Polish-speaking students.

Venerable Kanzen Oshō, a Sōtō Zen priest and Buddhist teacher, translated the Mipham’s Beacon of Certainty. He has been practicing Buddhism since 1984 and was ordained in 1989 at Saijōji monastery in eastern Japan. Currently he is the incumbent at Sanbōin temple in Szczecin, Poland and is a member of the Yeshe Khorlo shedra.

About receiving the KF grant, Ven. Kanzen said, “It is very difficult to express all gratitude we feel due to your priceless support. … Mipham Rinpoche’s works are most astonishing, so it was a great pleasure and also some sort of success to put it into modern understandable Polish. Our target as translators is the Polish part of the international shedra under the benevolent guidance of Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche with tutorial help of khenpos from Gangteng Gompa. So the first readers will be Polish students of the shedra, the first official shedra on Polish ground, and we have at the moment 33 students.

”As shedra coordinator for the Polish group I have some insight into the problems people face while studying at the traditional shedra. Therefore translations sponsored by Khyentse Foundation are connected to the bigger spectrum of supporting students of the shedra, not just to any commercial book market. They are real and very valuable manuals, and they support study combined with long and meticulous explanations and commentaries by khenpos.”

Ven. Kanzen organizes regular meditation retreats and Buddhist lectures for the Buddhist Mission, the organization he founded in 1992. The organization belongs to the European Buddhist Union and aims to spread the teachings of the Buddha in Poland. This mission encompasses providing educational and practice facilities for all who are interested. Ven. Kanzen speaks Japanese and understands classical Chinese as well as the basics of Tibetan and often translates fundamental texts from their original languages into Polish.

Another translator participating in this project is Hōjun, a Sōtō Zen monk. An English teacher and Dharma translator, Hōjun oversees the Sōtō Zen group practicing in the Buddhist Mission Centre in Poznan. He also belongs to Samten Tse.

“First and foremost, as a translator as well as a Buddhist practitioner, I would like to express my gratitude to Khyentse Foundation for supporting the Mani Foundation Translation Project financially,” said Hōjun. “I sincerely believe that the Polish translation of Luminous Essence: A Guide to the Guhyagarbha Tantra, written by the great Buddhist master Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche, will be of great help not only for the Buddhist practitioners connected with shedra studies to whom the translation was originally directed, but for all the Buddhists and people interested in Buddhism in Poland as well.”

Hōjun’s previous translations include The Joy of Living by Mingyur Rinpoche; the biography of Dipa Ma (a Theravadin teacher); Gampopa’s The Jewel Ornament of Liberation;, and numerous articles from different traditions. He has also translated for Buddhist teachers who visit Poland, including H.E. Khandro Rinpoche, H.E. Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche, Lama Dorje, and Patrul Ranyak Rinpoche.