Our Teachers
Venerable Lama Lobsang Tendar
Spiritual Director
Lama Tendar established the Medicine Buddha Tantrayana Meditation Center in Frankston South in 2011. He also travels across Australia teaching Dharma, sacred arts, chanting, and performing sacred rituals, blessings and empowerments. Lama Tendar is well known for his big smile, sense of humour, immeasurable kindness and generosity. He invites and welcomes everyone to visit the centre in person or online.
Tsadong Rinpoche Ngawang Tenzin
Senior Guest Teacher
Rinpoche was born in Kham in eastern Tibet near Tsadong Monastery. He was formally recognised as Tsadong Rinpoche in 1982 and officially authenticated and ordained by His Holiness Dalai Lama in 1992. As one of the outstanding students of Gelug monasteries, Rinpoche took the Lharampa exam in 1999 and finished in second place. After many years teaching in Taiwan and neighboring regions Rinpoche relocated to Australia in 2015. We are very honoured to be able to offer and receive teachings from Rinpoche at the Medicine Buddha Centre.
Ani Sonam
Resident Spiritual Teacher
Ani Sonam is a Danish Australian Buddhist Nun. She has been a practicing Buddhist since 2000 and received ordination in 2011 from Samdhong Rinpoche and Lama Tendar, and again in 2017 from His Holiness Dalai Lama. In addition she has been a student of Tsadong Rinpoche since 2015 and has been blessed to have received extensive teachings from all of these precious teachers.
Ani Dechen
Spiritual Teacher
Ani Dechen Is a Buddhist Nun at the Medicine Buddha Tantrayana Meditation Centre.
She has been a student of Lama Tendar since 2007 and also a student of Rinpoche since 2015.
She is grateful to the teachings and trainings she has received from all her teachers and endeavours to practice Dharma diligently in the right manner so as to be able to help all sentient beings attain full enlightenment.
“An ode to Lama Tendar, our dear beloved Teacher”
From the snow land of Tibet, you arrived on our shores with nothing but your monk robes and a suitcase containing Dharma books and ritual objects.
Your compassion reached our shores and is spoken of up and down the Central Coast of Australia.
Your wisdom shines brightly when we are in your presence.
Wherever you go, you spread joy and happiness.
You are Avalokiteshvara. Beings, who are helpless, have no one to turn to other than you.
Homage to you, you tame those difficult to tame.
Homage to you, through skillful means, you teach Dharma through which ever means is suitable to that person’s mental disposition in the same way that a doctor skillfully dispenses which ever medicine is suitable for that patient’s illness.
Homage to you, through years of training you have abandoned the three mental poisons and are now free of the mental afflictions and defilements. - Renunciation.
Homage to you, by destroying the self-grasping mind and the ego, you train in - Bodhicitta.
Homage to you, you take Nagarjuna’s teachings to heart:
”Where emptiness is suitable, everything is suitable.
Where emptiness is not suitable, nothing is suitable.”
Thus, by understanding the correct view of emptiness,
you can reach out to countless sentient beings
and be so connected to people and animals.
– Correct View of Emptiness
Homage to you, you are the upholder of the Sutra.
Homage to you, you are the upholder of the Vinaya.
Homage to you, you are the upholder of the Abidharma.
Homage to you, you are the upholder of the Tantra.
You dedicate your whole life to living beings due to your genuine love of living beings
and you find joy in everything you do.
I pay my homage to this wonderful Lama!
May you continue to guide beings, who can be compared to a blind turtle
swimming in the deep ocean, who only reaches the surface every 100 years
hoping to find himself in the middle of a golden yoke.
May Samantabandra’s blessings pour onto you like a white waterfall.
May all your wishes and aspirations be swiftly realised in this very life.
Long life to you Gen Tendar la!
Composed by Le Mai Nguyen on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of Lama Tendar in Australia, 4 th March 2023
Homage to my Guru,
To my dear kind Root Teacher whose name
I dare not utter.
It is inappropriate for me to write about you as I am not qualified.
But for the sake of those less fortunate ones who may not be as acquainted with you, I feel compelled to do so, for it might give them a slight insight into your life and the person you are.
Born into a nomadic family in Kham, Eastern Tibet, with its rugged landscape and environment, you are the youngest of five children and yet, you ended up with the most arduous path of all.
You once said that if two paths were presented to you: an easy path and a more difficult one; that you would take the more difficult of the two (if it would benefit sentient beings.)
You were born to work hard, to study and lead the way for others,
and that you did and continue to do, in order to benefit others.
Some people were born with everything presented to them.
You, on the other hand, had to work tirelessly to purify yourself and accumulate merit, and then teach others to do likewise.
A born teacher,
you first taught students at your monastery, Gyuto,
then, you continued to do the same for your students
in the West, out of love and compassion.
A natural healer,
you know which medicine to dispense according to the different mental dispositions of each, in order to cure beings’ myriad of
illnesses and ailments.
You show beings the way out of suffering – homage to you!
You show beings the way to peace and happiness through your
own example – homage to you!
You are the embodiment of love, compassion and bodhicitta –
homage to you!
May we always be guided by your wisdom and compassion
dear Gen la!
གངས་ཅན་ལྗོངས་ནས་ཕྱག་དཔེ་ན་བཟང་དང་། །ཆོས་མཚན་མ་གཏོགས་གཞན་གང་མེད་པ་ཡི། །
སྒམ་ཞིག་བསྣམས་ཏེ་རང་རེའི་མཚོ་ཁར་ཕེབས། །ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སྙིང་རྗེ་འདི་དང་ཨོ་གླིང་གི །
མཚོ་ཁ་སྟེང་འོག་ཀུན་ལ་ལེགས་པར་ཁྱབ། །
ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་མདུན་སར་རང་རེ་གནས་སྐབས་སུ། །ཤེས་རབ་སྣང་བ་ལྷ་མེར་འབར་བ་ཚོར། །
གང་དུ་ཕེབས་ཀྱང་གཞན་ཕན་བདེ་སྐྱིད་སྦྱིན། །ཁྱེད་ཉིད་སྙིང་རྗེའི་རང་གཟུགས་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས།
ཉམ་ཐག་མགོན་མེད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མགོན་ཉིད་ཁྱེད། །འདུལ་དཀའ་འདུལ་མཛད་ཁྱེད་ལ་གུས་ཕྱག་འཚལ། །
སྨན་པ་མཁས་པས་ནད་པའི་ནད་གསོ་ལྟར། ། གདུལ་བྱའི་བསམ་ངོ་དང་བསྟུན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཚུལ། །
ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་ཐབས་མཁས་སྣ་ཚོགས་སྒོ་ནས་སྟོན། །ལོ་མང་སྦྱངས་པས་དུག་གསུམ་བསལ་མཛད་པའི། །
ཉོན་མོངས་སྐྱོན་གྱིས་མ་གོས་ཁྱེད་ལ་འདུད། །
བྱང་སེམས་སྦྱངས་པས་བདག་འཛིན་བདག་གཅེས་འཛིན། །ལེགས་པར་བྱང་ཤིང་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་དགོངས་དོན་ཆུད། །སྟོང་ལ་རུང་ཞིང་མི་སྟོང་མི་རུང་བའི། །འཁོར་འདས་དངོས་པོ་ཀུན་གྱི་རང་བཞིན་དེ། །
ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་ལེགས་པར་ཁོང་དུ་ཆུད་པར་མཛད། །གྲངས་མེད་འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་མཛད་ཁྱེད་ལ་འདུད། །
མདོ་སྡེ་འཛིན་པའི་བསྟན་འཛིན་ཁྱེད་ལ་འདུད། །འདུལ་བ་འཛིན་པའི་བསྟན་འཛིན་ཁྱེད་ལ་འདུད། །
མངོན་པ་འཛིན་པའི་བསྟན་འཛིན་ཁྱེད་ལ་འདུད། །གསང་སྔགས་འཛིན་པའི་བསྟན་འཛིན་ཁྱེད་ལ་འདུད། །
སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་ལ་སྙིང་ནས་བརྩེ་བ་ཡིས། །ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་སྐུ་ཚེ་སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་ལ་བསྔོས། །
གང་བྱེད་བདེ་བའི་རྣམ་རོལ་ཤར་བ་ཁྱེད། །ངོ་མཚར་ཅན་གྱི་བླ་མ་ཁྱེད་ལ་འདུད།
ལོ་བརྒྱའི་ནང་ན་རྒྱ་མཚོར་ཆེར་གཡེངས་བའི། །རུས་སྦལ་མགྲིན་པར་གསེར་གྱི་གཉའ་ཤིང་ལྟར། །
དམ་ཆོས་མཇལ་དཀའི་སེམས་ཅན་དེ་འདྲ་ཡི། །གཏན་གྱི་དོན་ཆེན་ངེས་པར་མཛད་དུ་གསོལ། །
བབ་ཆུ་བཞིན་དུ་ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ཡི།། བྱིན་རླབས་ཁྱེད་ལ་ཆད་མེད་འཇུག་པར་ཤོག
ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་སྙིང་ལ་བཅངས་པའི་རེ་འདུན་ཀུན། །འབད་པ་མེད་པར་ལྷུན་གྱིས་འགྲུབ་གྱུར་ཅིག
ཨོ་གླིང་དུ་ལོ་ངོ་ ༢༠ འཁོར་བའི་དུས་དྲན་སྐབས་གུས་སློབ་ལས་མཱི་ངུ་ཡན་ནས་ཕུལ། །
དགེ་བཤེས་ངག་དབང་བསོད་ནམས་ནས་བོད་སྐད་དུ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་དེ་བསྒྱུར།།