Peter F. Barth

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Peter F. Barth
Peter Barth (Lama Thapkhay)
Personal
Born	1956
Religion	Tibetan Buddhism
School	Karma Kagyu
Occupation	engineer, physicist, educator and writer
Senior posting
Teacher	Thrangu Rinpoche

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Peter Felix Barth (also known as Lama Thapkhay) (born 1956) is an American neurophysicist, engineer, educator, and author specializing in the “mind teachings” of Tibet. He authored guides to Tibetan Buddhist meditation which were among the first written by a Western dharma teacher based on traditional teachings in the disciplines of mahamudra and dzogchen and endorsed by Tibetan Buddhist “great abbots” (Tibetan: khen chen), notably Thrangu Rinpoche, and Könchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche, foremost teachers of the Karma and Drikung Kagyu lineages, respectively. In neurophysics, in 1981 Barth solved the first theoretical, large-scale model for neural networks based on statistical mechanics and the Ising model. His work provided a new exact analytical solution to statistical mechanics, one which exhibited “a new kind of phase transition” as a result of assuming an idealized topology based on the divergence-convergence organization principle of neural networks, a principle first suggested by Santiago Ramón y Cajal.

In 1993, Barth introduced the “experiential approach“ of the cognitive science of Tibet and presented some of the merits of such an approach over any “analytical approach.” He later provides further elaboration on how an experiential approach may be used in a more systematic, scientific way, in conjunction with reliance upon analytical approaches, along the lines of those adopted by Western science. Epistemologically, Tibetan Buddhism schools of mahamudra and dzogchen have deemed direct, unelaborated experience to be a most reliable means for cultivating knowledge and one which may be used to evaluate analytical theories. Thrangu Rinpoche states that Barth presents the traditional mind teachings in an accessible manner in his first book, Piercing the Autumn Sky: The Natural Freedom of Mind, and that it demonstrates clearly “how one can work with one’s mind to overcome the obstacles of one’s life.” Khönchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche, who also studied under Thuksey Rinpoche, writes that the book’s presentation is based upon Barth’s “own long-term experience with Mahamudra practice.” The simplicity of Barth’s summary of the mind teachings was highly regarded by these Tibetan teachers since it is in line with the wishes of Tibet’s great historical mahamudra yogic-scholar, Dakpo Tashi Namgyal (1512-1587), in that it was done in a manner which is straightforward and “easy to comprehend,” an approach also later strived for by mahamudra translator-scholar Elizabeth Callahan. Another highly-published Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, recommended this text as well in his own book on the mind teachings, Mind at Ease: Self-Liberation through Mahamudra Meditation.

Barth went on to publish two more detailed meditation manuals for students on the pinnacle of practices of both the Kagü and Nyingma traditions. He also edited Mahamudra Teachings by Garchen Rinpoche and transcribed and co-edited several works by Thrangu Rinpoche, including Essentials of Mahamudra: Looking Directly at Mind.

Ising Model Cooperativity in Large Neural Networks

A Closed Cayley Tree with Branching Ratio = 4. (Only sites for generations k, k-1, and k=1(overlapping as one row) are shown for the joined trees)

Between 1979 and 1981, under a graduate fellowship at the University of Vermont, Barth completed a M.S. degree in physics, specializing in theoretical neurophysics, with a thesis on Cayley tree topologies and large neural networks and during which time he derived an exact theoretical solution to the Ising model with implications for neural networks from a neurophysics perspective. The findings of his work, based on classical theoretical approaches, demonstrated that quantum mind models, such as those of Umezawa and others, could be complemented by classical Ising-type statistical phenomena. Furthermore, the classical Ising interactions alone could produce some aspects of the dynamics previously only thought to be successful via statistical quantum mechanical effects.

In 1981, he was elected to be a lifetime Associate Member of Sigma Xi, the national scientific research honor society. Prior to this, he had received a B.S. in physics at the State University College of N.Y. (1976) and a membership to Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society. He also is a graduate of university-accredited computer programming technology and systems analysis programs at Control Data Institut in Frankfurt/Main, West Germany (1972.)

Humanistic-Scientific Approach to Mahāmudrā

Thuksey Rinpoche, Gyalwang Drukpa Rinpoche, two Khenpos and two Sons of Apho Rinpoche

After encountering works on mahamudra as a young man, Barth went to Northern India in 1974 where he was formally introduced to its teachings by lamas of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage, including by Lama Yogi Gegen Khyentse, Togden Chöleg Rinpoche and Thuksey Rinpoche, acting head of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage. In 1977, he began several years of study at the Nyingma Institute, under Tarthang Tulku, in Berkeley, California, and, in the summer of 1980, was invited to be a speaker on “neurophysics in relation to Nyingma meditation” at the California retreat center Odiyan as part of major public dedication ceremony. During his earlier studies, Thuksey Rinpoche had called a certain text “the most important sacred text” so when in 1989 extensive instruction on this text was offered by Thrangu Rinpoche in California, he attended them. Shortly thereafter, he became a lifelong student of Thrangu Rinpoche, who helped him complete his training specifically in mahamudra and launch a meditation group called Mahamudra Meditation Center in Petaluma, California, under his guidance. Barth served as director and resident lama for the center from 1990 to 2015. Since 1990, it has relied upon the teachings of Dakpo Tashi Namgyal and the 9th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje, as the core of an extensive curriculum it provides on the mind teachings of Tibet.

In the center’s individual and group mahamudra programs, Barth employed the humanistic educational approach he was exposed to while at the University of Vermont, with resident and guest lamas serving primarily in the role of facilitators (and regarded to also be fellow students.) The facilitator approach was consistent with the traditional view that a mahamudra teacher should be “a spiritual friend – someone with a little bit of experience (in mahamudra) and a little bit of integrity.” In addition, A Meditation Guide for Mahamudra provided a consistent experimental framework and opportunity for exploration for students and was published along with the advice that:

One accepts self-responsibility for one’s journey on the path, and does not give this up to any “outside stander,” including one’s teacher. Furthermore, that one also questions all material in here “as carefully as buying gold at a bazaar.”

Since 2017, all English language books by Barth have been published as eBooks on Amazon.com. The book The Meditations of Longchen Rabjam also includes several Tibetan language excerpts for Tibetan-speaking students and for scholarly reference.

Career

Between 1972 and 2015 Barth worked in software engineering for financial, geophysical, health information, and educational fields for both large companies such as Deutsche Bank and BP, and startups such as HealthVISION Corp. and Advanced Software Testing, Inc. and LearningKeys.com.

In addition, he was an adjunct professor in Information Systems Management for the University of San Francisco over a period of eleven years.

In 2015 he retired from all professional activities.

Books by Peter F. Barth

• Barth, Peter F.; Rinpoche, Thrangu (First Foreword); Gyaltsen, Könchog (Second Foreword) (1993), Piercing the Autumn Sky: Discovering the Natural Freedom of Mind, Petaluma, CA: Lame Turtle Press, ISBN 0-9635796-3-0
• Barth, Peter F.; Rinpoche, Thrangu (First Foreword); Gyaltsen, Könchog (Second Foreword) (1995), La Naturale Libertà Delle Mente, Roma, Italy: Casa Editrice Astrolabio - Ubaldini Editore, ISBN 88-340-1164-3
• Barth, Peter F.; Rinpoche, Thrangu (Foreword Letter) (1998), A Meditation Guide for Mahamudra, Petaluma, CA: Mahamudra Meditation Center
• Barth, Peter F.; Rinpoche, Thrangu (Foreword) (2013), The Meditations of Longchen Rabjam: A Guide to the Four Chog Zhag and Three Samadhis of the Chöying Dzöd, Petaluma, CA: LearningKeys.com

External links

• Translation of Bokar Rinpoche’s Opening the Door to Certainty by Rigdzin Lhundrup

See also

• Ising model
• Mahamudra
• Neural network
• Neurophysics
• Quantum mind
• Thrangu Rinpoche
• Tibetan Buddhism
• Prudhoe Bay Oil Field

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