The third week of the Tricycle BuddhaFest Online Film Festival starts today with For the Benefit of All Beings, a documentary about the life of Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche. Following in the great tradition of Milarepa, Rinpoche endured many hardships before finding a deep inner peace. Garchen Rinpoche was beaten by his father, spent years fighting the Chinese after they invaded Tibet, and was imprisoned for 20 years.

In prison he received valuable teachings in secret, that he used to awaken his heart to boundless love and compassion. He now has students all over the world, including some of us in the Tricycle Community.

Mary McKinnon wrote:

Beautiful. I first saw Garchen Rinpoche in San Francisco, in 1997. It was the first Buddhist teachings I had ever been to. He has been my lama ever since, although now I do not see him every year.

Thank you for making this film available here, so I could see it before it comes out on DVD.

PS My love to all my Dharma brothers and sisters. I do not see you often now, but you are in my heart.

Get a festival pass to watch For the Benefit of All Beings and five other Buddhist films. Support Buddhist filmmakers!