When Lama Gangchen Rinpoche came from Tibet to India, he made a commitment to help others by sharing the Dharma in accordance with his own lineage and tradition. His intention was – and still is – to promote world peace through the development of inner peace.
Throughout the years that followed – particularly in the 70s – he had visions that, in order to share the Dharma, he should settle down in a place surrounded by five mountains in the back and a lake in the front. At that time there was no plan to go to the West so he looked for such place in India and Nepal. At the beginning of the 80s, Rinpoche finally arrived in Europe and started adapting the teachings and the practice to our modern society. His intention was to share with us the tools to heal oneself and others as a path to enlightenment. He found in this modern society a fertile ground for planting and watering the seeds of enlightenment and keeping his own lineage alive for the benefit of all.
And so, since then he has dedicated his life to us. He constantly sought out that place with a lake in the front and mountains behind to establish his activities.
In 1999, after starting to rebuild his monastery in Tibet, in the very same month of January, one of his disciples and friend Patrizia found a place with five mountains and a lake in Italy, near Switzerland – exactly as Rinpoche had requested her. This place was called Albagnano. Patrizia called Rinpoche in Tibet to share the news. The land in Albagnano was seen as a twin of the Gangchen monastery and was therefore called Gangchen Choepel Ling. Once Rinpoche fulfilled his responsibility from his previous life towards his monastery in Tibet by rebuilding it, the doors to accomplish the mission of this life in the modern world opened up.
At the time, with the help of kind friends, he settled in Albagnano, where he has since been living. Here are also located the operational Headquarters of the Lama Gangchen World Peace Foundation, a United Nations-affiliated NGO with ECOSOC consultative status. Rinpoche has been investing his energy to transform this place in nature not only into a pure environment, but also in a holy place for pilgrimage, healing, spiritual practice and study. A center for learning, comprehending and meditating, where the Dharma can be taught, the practice can be done and by that, the lineage kept alive.
A lineage is kept alive when there are people that, by following the teachings through an uninterrupted transmission, put them into practice and gain the realizations. In order for that to happen, we must share the teachings, comprehend them and meditate.
Rinpoche has been giving us the greatest of all gifts: the pathway to liberate ourselves from the sufferings of samsara and to help others by reaching the ultimate state of Buddhahood. In other words, he has taught us that developing inner peace is the only way to reach world peace. As Rinpoche himself says ‘inner peace is the most solid foundation for world peace’.
To achieve this, we need centers for study, comprehension, meditation and healing where we can have all the necessary conditions to cultivate our qualities and reach a deeper state of inner peace. Albagnano Healing Meditation Centre was founded with this intention and a master plan was created for the healing of body and mind in a pure environment.
