Daily living in Zimbabwe—one of the 20 poorest countries in the world, with an especially high rate of food inflation—can be enough of a struggle. For those who are disabled, caregivers of people with disabilities, or living with HIV, just surviving day to day can be overwhelming. The Tara Rokpa Therapy (TRT) project was launched some 40 years ago by the Tibetan lama Dr. Akong Tulku Rinpoche (1939–2013), cofounder of Samye Ling dharma center in Scotland,[1] and introduced in Zimbabwe in the early 1990s. The idea to use the TRT process there to empower vulnerable people and those living with HIV took root in 2006, with the intention to help them to not just survive, but to recognize their stress, take hold of their lives, and create real, positive change.
“Each person intrinsically holds the keys to their pathway to health.”
The Zimbabwe program is partly funded by a Khyentse Foundation Trisong grant, aimed at promoting mental health and well-being. Rather than offering food or material aid, the TRT project teaches participants methods to create space in their lives and to develop the internal resources to improve difficult situations. As a result, they find ways to lift themselves up and find solutions to the seemingly intractable problems that blight their lives.
“Giving yourself time to rest is one thing I have learned to be very beneficial in life,” said Zimbabwe TRT participant Angela, a widow sharing a home with her son, who has cerebral palsy, and her mentally ill sister. “Sometimes we spend so much time focusing on things we cannot change, which is hectic. … Life is simple when you take things simple and when you focus on the positive things.”
The project, which in Zimbabwe is now run by the ROKPA Support Network (RSN), a branch of the Buddhist-inspired charity ROKPA INTERNATIONAL, is a self-help therapy process based on Buddhist philosophy and Western psychological and therapeutic approaches to healing, self-empowerment, and compassionate action. It is a multi-year program that is practiced throughout the world and has been accredited by the national psychotherapeutic councils in Ireland and the UK. Experiential rather than theoretical, it is based on the idea that, as it describes itself, “Each person intrinsically holds the keys to their pathway to health.”
The progam consists of self-empowering therapeutic techniques that Dr. Akong Tulku Rinpoche developed in the mid-1980s for his Western students. It is founded on the principle of nurturing compassion for oneself and for others through understanding, and on the belief that, in the Buddhist view, we all possess fundamental goodness. The idea is that whatever their struggles, these methods and group support can aid people to find the internal resources to improve their own lives and the lives of those around them. Although the program is based primarily on Buddhist principles, for the Christian Zimbabwe participants, neutral or Christian terms are adopted in the workshops and each session begins and ends with a prayer.
What happens during the workshops?
The first module, “Healthy Living,” is exclusive to Zimbabwe and covers practical issues such as nutrition, exercise, and growing vegetables in a small space. Thereafter, all the workshops begin with a relaxation. These relaxations, provided by Dr. Akong Tulku Rinpoche, help participants open to themselves in a compassionate way and slowly recognize their own and others’ Buddha Nature. Relaxation is aided by working with art materials and performing simple massage. The whole TRT process involves self-reflection and maturing the mind. Although this is not a therapy that emphasizes open sharing with the group, in Zimbabwe participants do share their life experiences, perhaps because of the lack of other support systems. Over the years, the seven modules cover transforming the afflictive emotions, contemplation of the Six Realms, taking on the suffering of others, and trainings in compassion, and give people the confidence and space to see difficulties and clashes with others in more open ways.
Angela, for instance, who supports her family by selling secondhand clothes and floor polish, had been having a doubly difficult time: she couldn’t leave her wheelchair-bound son with her sister because they were quarreling, but taking him with her compromised her ability to work. In the TRT workshops she learned relaxing visualizations, simple massage, art, and Buddhist compassion meditations, in particular tonglen, the practice of acknowledging and taking on the suffering of others and mentally offering one’s health and well-being. Practicing tonglen, along with the support of the therapist and others in her group, helped her to think more clearly and make better decisions. “It helped me to pull myself together and iron out challenges I was having with my sister,” she said. “Now we are the best of friends and she helps look after my son so I can concentrate on my business to earn us a living. I have learned to forgive, to love, and be compassionate to others and myself.” (See featured image above.)
Angela is one of 210 participants in the ongoing TRT programs in the urban and peri-urban areas of Harare and Chitungwiza. The program takes time to complete—especially true in Zimbabwe, where the challenges of daily life and childcare can interfere with regular attendance and there are language barriers and a shortage of therapists and trained helpers. The oldest TRT group has now been running for 18 years and will complete the program this November; another 11 groups, all at different levels, are in process. There is a long waiting list, but right now there are only two local therapists, limiting expansion.
Nancy, 51, the mother of two grown sons, had to retire from teaching because of a stroke and was struggling to walk. Introduced to TRT, she learned about nutritional meals and how to grow vegetables. “Through doing gardening, healing relaxation, and massage I can now do some of my work independently and I am back in the classroom, teaching at a local college,” she said.
Mataka, the mother of three boys, who was abandoned by her husband and earns money selling the vegetables she and her sons grow, shared that the TRT workshops have helped her change both her mind and her attitude. “I can now notice where I am doing wrong things, being proud or ungenerous, as well as when I am projecting onto others,” she said.
And Patience, also the mother of three, sharply turned her life around soon after engaging with the Rokpa program. Pregnant at 16, she divorced her abusive husband but had to turn to sex work to make a living. She beat her children out of frustration and drank regularly to endure her life. After completing the first TRT module “Back to Beginnings,” in which participants are encouraged and supported to complete a thorough review of their lives, she grew determined to dramatically change her situation. She quit sex work and is now running a market stall to earn money.
The hope and plan is to expand the Tara Rokpa Therapy program to accommodate many more by training the most experienced and talented local participants to run the workshops. Still, the process takes many years, as trainees need to complete the first three TRT modules themselves before they can begin. Two longstanding TRT participants are currently in training as assistant therapists, while three others are being trained as helpers. There has been a high rate of attrition in the attempt to train helpers, who are limited to those with relatively good English; some have either died or dropped out. In addition, since the Trisong grant covers only a portion of the expenses for a limited number of years, there is a need to find ongoing sources of funding.
But the virtues of the TRT process are well worth it, says RSN Officer George Ganha, especially as life in Zimbabwe continues to get tougher. The methods and the group support have bolstered the lives of the participants, their families, and their coworkers. “Personal development and mind training are assets that cannot be taken away and have a multiplier effect with many benefits, mentally, emotionally, and socially, as well as spiritually,” he says. “It is our fervent hope that we can continue to attract support for this very valuable program.”
Featured image above: Tonglen, the practice of acknowledging and taking on the suffering of others and mentally offering one’s health and well-being, helped Angela to think more clearly and make better decisions.
All photos courtesy the ROKPA Support Network.