Traditional Tibetan texts, called pechas, are wrapped in cloth and decorated with multicolored brocade ends. The contents are written on small labels sewn under the brocade flaps.
Vimala (which means “stainless” in Sanskrit) is an organization that currently includes an archive, a publishing house, a printery of traditional Tibetan texts, an online dharma shop, a bookstore at Tashi Chöling, and a translation group—and we will continue to expand our activities in whatever ways are needed to serve our primary purposes: preserving the dharma, encouraging its flourishing, and serving those studying and practicing it by providing materials to support them. We are so privileged to be the keepers of this precious storehouse and to be able to share its treasure with you, particularly in these times when the wisdom of the stainless dharma is so needed!
A statue of our namesake, the great 8th-century master and translator Vimalamitra, at Tashi Chöling Center for Buddhist Studies in Ashland, Oregon, the current home of Vimala, Inc.
“This organization will bring benefit to countless future generations for as long as these Archives are updated and preserved as a vehicle through which the Dharma remains present in our world.”
~ Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, 2004 ~
To read the full text of Rinpoche’s beautiful aspiration for the Archives,
please visit our “Vimala’s Future” page HERE .
Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche
Vimala’s Mission
Founded in 2007 under the auspices of the Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, Vimala is a nonprofit Tibetan Buddhist organization devoted to facilitating spiritual development by supporting the study and practice of dharma (the teachings of the Buddha).
To this end, Vimala’s activities include collecting, archiving, and disseminating dharma teachings and practices, with a particular focus on those associated with the Nyingma lineage of Vajrayana Buddhism.
In addition, Vimala supports the translation of dharma in order to make it available to practitioners worldwide and facilitates the training of future translators and teachers to help ensure that dharma will remain in the world for the benefit of future generations.
More About Gyatrul Rinpoche
Vimala’s Logo: The Begging Bowl
Statue of Buddha Shakyamuni at Orgyen Dorje Den
Vimala’s logo features a begging bowl, which is a symbol of Buddha Shakyamuni, the original teacher and source of dharma in our time. In a well-known practice of supplication to Buddha Shakyamuni, he is visualized in the traditional manner holding a begging bowl in his lap. The bowl is not empty, however, but filled with wisdom nectar. At one point the practitioner visualizes light streaming from every part of the Buddha’s form, including the begging bowl he holds, filling all of space and illuminating all beings with the blessings of wisdom. In this way, the begging bowl is a symbol not of an empty vessel but of the inexhaustible abundance of the dharma—ever-overflowing to bring the radiant nectar of wisdom and understanding to all. Vimala was founded with the aspiration to always be such a source of wisdom and blessings, to fulfill Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche’s auspicious intention that it enhance and deepen the presence of the dharma in our world.