About Awakening Vajra | Awakening Vajra International

Awakening Vajra was a nonprofit organization, founded in 2013 in California by Gyalten Khen Rinpoche (formally Geshe Gyalten) and several dedicated students of H. E. Chöden Rinpoche. Khen Rinpoche is the spiritual heir to Chöden Rinpoche’s lineage and the current Spiritual Director of Awakening Vajra International (named changed in 2019). Khen Rinpoche has been lovingly tasked with adhering to the intent and wishes of H. E. Chöden Rinpoche. The main import of AVI is to preserve the integrity and propagate the Buddhadharma in the Tibetan Gelup tradition. To this end, AVI duties are to emulate, as best as possible, the spiritual integrity of Chöden Rinpoche and his main student, Khen Rinpoche. That is, Chöden Rinpoche’s erudition and simple yet profound yogic lifestyle. To emulate his lifestyle in principle means AVI has undertaken the preservation and dissemination of his teachings and those of Khen Rinpoche, the heir to those teachings. To those who knew Chöden Rinpoche, he was constantly meditating for the welfare of all sentient beings, and his meditation evolved from his deep understanding acquired over a lifetime of immersion into the nature of mind.

In addition, Rinpoche was sincerely concern for his Nepali monks who, for the most part, studied and practiced in isolation. It is because of this he felt a great need for a monastery to be built in Nepal, to house, educate, and to secure their future spiritual prosperity.

From a simple, direct wish to disseminate the Buddhadharma grew a need to develop courses, to secure the well-being of Nepali monks by building a monastery and to make the monastery an epicenter of Buddhists studies, including reinvigorating or reestablishing the Five Branches of Knowledge in the ancient India Nalanda University tradition. As AVI has grown from its initial organizational intent, Khen Rinpoche has taken on a more diverse and demanding set of priorities. AVI continues to evolve and with numerous centers in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Taiwan, India, Nepal and the United States of America we envision a bright future of spreading the Buddhadharma, educating people on how to live fulfilling and meaningful lives, lessening suffering and building beautiful global meditation community.