Dharma Friendship Foundation sponsors guest teachers to teach Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and meditation. Our guest teachers and spiritual advisors have included the following:
OUR SUPREME INSPIRATION
His Holiness the Dalai Lama – Although His Holiness has never taught directly at our Center, DFF members have attended his teachings worldwide, and as the teacher of our teachers, his presence is felt at DFF on a daily basis. His Holiness was born in 1935 in Amdo, Tibet, and recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet in 1937. He was awarded the degree of Geshe Lharampa, shortly before fleeing to India during the Chinese military takeover of Tibet in 1959. Over the course of the past five decades, His Holiness has received over 84 awards, honorary doctorates, prizes, etc., (including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989) in recognition of his message of peace, non-violence, inter-religious understanding, universal responsibility and compassion. His Holiness has also authored more than 72 books. For more information including a schedule of current teachings worldwide, please visit His Website.
In the Snowy Mountain Paradise
You’re the Source of Good and Happiness
Powerful Tenzin Gyatso Chenresig
May you stay until samsara ends.
DFF'S SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS
Gen Lamrimpa was born in Tibet in 1936, became a refugee in India after the 1959 uprising against Communist Chinese rule. In 1985, he was invited by Alan Wallace to teach calm abiding meditation in Seattle , and the Dharma Friendship Foundation was founded to support his teachings. An accomplished meditator and a true yogi, he was always humble and unostentatious, having meditated in a stone and mud hut in the mountains above Dharamsala, India, for many years before coming to the Northwest. He led a one-year samatha retreat at Cloud Mountain Retreat Center, providing earnest Western practitioners the possibility to practice under his guidance. His book Calming the Mind (Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca New York), first published as Samatha Meditation, is the record of some of the teachings he gave during this time. Realizing Emptiness (Snow Lion) , edited transcripts of further teachings were published in 1999, and Transcending Time, The Kalacakra Six-Session Guru Yoga (Wisdom Publications, Boston , MA ). After teaching in the USA for several years, Gen Lamrimpa returned to India to continue his practice of solitary meditation in Sikkim , India . “Gen la” passed away in meditation in 2004. A remarkable account of his passing can be found here.
Venerable Thubten Chodron was born in 1950 and grew up near Los Angeles . She graduated with a BA in History from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1971. After traveling through Europe, North Africa and Asia for one-and-one-half years, she received a teaching credential and went to the University of Southern California to do postgraduate work in Education while working as a teacher in the Los Angeles City School System. In 1975, she attended a meditation course given by Venerable Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and subsequently went to their monastery in Nepal to continue to study and practice Buddha's teachings. In 1977, she received the sramanerika (novice) ordination, and in 1986, went to Taiwan to take the bhikshuni (full) ordination. She studied and practiced Buddhism of the Tibetan tradition for many years in India and Nepal , and directed the spiritual program at Lama Tsong Khapa Institute in Italy for nearly two years. She studied three years at Dorje Pamo Monastery in France and was resident teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore. Venerable Chodron teaches worldwide and is the author of several books, including Open Heart, Clear Mind; Buddhism for Beginners; Taming the Mind; Working with Anger; and How To Free Your Mind: Tara The Liberator. She also recorded a series entitled Guided Meditations on the Lamrim. Ven. Chodron was Spiritual Director of DFF from 1992-2002, and Spiritual Advisor for 3 years following that. Ven. Chodron is founder of Sravasti Abbey, a monastery located in Newport , Washington . She emphasizes the practical application of Buddha's teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. Venerable’s Home Page, is at ThubtenChodron.org, and contains an extensive Audio Library.
Yangsi Rinpoche. At the age of six, Yangsi Rinpoche was recognized as the reincarnation of Geshe Ngawang Gendun, a renowned scholar and practitioner from Western Tibet. Rinpoche trained in the traditional monastic system for over twenty-five years. In 1995 he graduated with the highest degree of Geshe Lharampa from Sera Je Monastery in South India. In 1998, having the particular wish to benefit Western students of the Buddhadharma, Rinpoche came to the West to teach and has traveled extensively throughout America and Europe. Formerly a resident teacher at Deer Park Buddhist Center in Madison, Wisconsin for five years and the author of Practicing the Path: a Commentary on the Lamrim Chenmo (Wisdom Publications). Rinpoche teaches in English, and is admired wherever he travels for his unique presentation of the Dharma, his interest and enthusiasm for Western culture, and his evident embodiment of the wisdom and compassion of the Buddhist path. Rinpoche has been the Spiritual Director of DFF from 2005 until the present and is President and Principal teacher of Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon, as well as the Spiritual Director of Ganden Shedrup Ling in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Yangsi Rinpoche's long life prayers.
VISITING TEACHERS AND LECTURERS
(Monks and nuns listed by year of ordination)
Venerable Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen was born in 1923 in the eastern Tibet province of Kham, and ordained as a Buddhist monk at age 7. When he was 16, he undertook a 33-day journey across 25 mountain passes to reach the Ganden Monastery near Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. He studied there for the next two decades. In 1975 he moved to the United States and taught Tibetan language, meditation and religious studies at UC Santa Barbara and UCLA. At the urging of his students, he formed Thubten Dhargye Ling Buddhist Center in Los Angeles. He passed away in February, 2009.
Venerable Havanpola Ratanasara was born in 1920 in Havanpola, Sri Lanka. A monk since age 11, he earned a BA in Pali and in Philosophy at the University of Ceylon, an MA in education from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of London. He served as an executive of numerous Buddhist organizations in Sri Lanka and in California. He died on May 26, 2000 in Los Angeles.
Geshe Lhundrup Sopa Geshe Sopa was born in 1923, in Tsang, Tibet, and was ordained as a novice monk at the age of 9. He is one of the last surviving Tibetan teachers originally educated in Tibet prior to 1959. He trained and taught at some of the most renowned monasteries in Tibet and in 1959 was chosen to be one of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s debate examiners. He is the founder and resident teacher of Deer Park Buddhist Center and Evam Monastery in Madison, Wisconsin. He has also been a professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin for approximately 30 years, and is the teacher of the first generation of some of the foremost American scholars of Tibetan Buddhism, including Jeffrey Hopkins, Jose Cabezon, and John Makransky. He has taught several times at DFF and is a brilliant scholar and a well-loved teacher. He is the author of many books, including Cutting Through Appearances: Practice and Theory of Tibetan Buddhism; Peacock in the Poison Grove: Introduction to Mental Training Practice and Steps on the Path to Enlightenment: A Commentary on the Lam Rim Chenmo, Vol. I-V.
Geshe Yeshe Tobden was born in 1926 near Lhasa, Tibet, and became a monk at age twelve. After the Chinese invasion of his homeland in 1959, he was arrested, but escaped, and spent two years crossing the Tibetan Plateau on foot until reaching the border with India. He completed his geshe studies in India, and spent several years teaching at the university in Varanasi. In 1970, he entered solitary retreat in a small hut on the mountain above McLeod Ganj, where he spent most of the remainder of his life, except for a few trips to the west at the request of His Holiness. He became resident teacher at Istituto Lama Tsong Khapa in Italy. Geshe-la passed away in 1999. He is the author of The Way of Awakening, A Commentary on Shantideva's Bodhicharyavatara (Wisdom).
Ganden Jangste Choje Rinpoche (formerly Khensur Lobsang Tenzin Rinpoche) Born in Tibet in 1934, Rinpoche was ordained as a monk at the age of seven. He entered Sera Je monastery at seventeen and obtained his Geshe Lharampa degree in 1979. Following this, he entered Gyume Tantric University and two years later became master of discipline. In 1985 His Holiness the Dalai Lama appointed him abbot of Gyume, a position he held for 6 years. Since then he has taught extensively in India and the West. Link to audio teachings at Talking Buddhism. Ganden Jangste Choje is the root guru of Yangsi Rinpoche.
Khensur Rinpoche, Geshe Wangdak was born in 1934 in Eastern Tibet, Khensur Rinpoche entered Ba Zingon Monastery at age 10 and Drepung Monastic University at age 18. He received teachings in all four Tibetan traditions. After 25 years of study, he earned the highest honors degree of Geshe Lharampa in 1959. Rinpoche then taught Tantra and Sutra at Namgyal Monastery for 14 years. In 1991, H.H. the Dalai Lama appointed Rinpoche as Abbot of Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, New York. He now teaches at Chenresig Buddhist Center in Connecticut and is a frequent and beloved visitor to DFF. Khensur Rinpoche's long life prayer.
Venerable Panchen Otrul Rinpoche was born into a nomadic family in Kham, Tibet, around the year 1939 . In 1951, he was taken to Lhasa as a possible re-incarnation of the Panchen Lama who had died in 1937. In 1959, when the Chinese Communists took control of Tibet, Panchen Otrul Rinpoche was put in a concentration camp. In 1960, he escaped to India. There he completed his formal studies, studying Sanskrit as well, at Varanasi University. In 1995, Panchen Otrul Rinpoche traveled to Mongolia with His Holiness the Dalai Lama who asked him to stay and teach dharma to the Mongolian people. Since 1995, he has travelled there each year for two months in order to help with the re-establishment of Buddhism in Mongolia. In 2001, he established the Maitreya Charity to support his extensive altruistic projects in India and Mongolia.
Achok Rinpoche - Achok Rinpoche was born in 1944 in the Amdo province of Tibet & was identified at the age of two by the Panchen Lama as the fourth incarnation of Achok Geshe Sonam Chopel, a highly revered lama of 15th century Tibet. After studying in Amchok Tsanney Gompa and Gaden Monasteries, he and his teacher escaped to India in 1959 after the invasion of Lhasa. Rinpoche continued his Buddhist philosophical studies in the BuzaDuar Transit camp for exiled Tibetan monks and lamas in the Indian state of West Bengal. Rinpoche was the Abbot of re-established Tashi Kyil Monastery. He then worked for the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives for 14 years and received his Geshe Lharmapa's degree. Rinpoche taught Tibetan Language and Philosophies in Austria for two years, and then was the Abbot of Gaden Shartse Monastery for a time.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche was born in Thami, Nepal, in 1946. At the age of three he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama. From 1956 to 1959 Zopa Rinpoche studied at Domo Monastery in Tibet. Zopa Rinpoche then fled Chinese oppression in Tibet and continued his study and practice in Tibetan refugee camps in India, where he met Lama Yeshe, who became his principal teacher. In 1969 the Lamas began teaching Buddhism to Westerners at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, and in 1974 began travelling the world to spread the Dharma. Lama Zopa Rinpoche is currently the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), providing leadership for 155 centers in 34 countries worldwide (2009). Rinpoche is co-founder of the Maitreya Project and the inspiration behind the world wide Relics Tour. Lama Zopa is the author of numerous books published by Wisdom Publications, including The Door to Satisfaction, Heart Advice of a Tibetan Buddhist Master, and How to be Happy.
Venerable Palden Gyatso was born in 1933 and raised in a small Tibetan village. In 1951, he was ordained as a monk at Drepung Monastery, on the outskirts of Lhasa. In 1959, Palden was jailed along with thousands of other monks. For the next 33 years, Ven. Gyatso endured physical torture, forced labor and Communist. Throughout his imprisonment, Palden resisted the Chinese repression and served as an inspiration to his fellow inmates. Released on August 25, 1992, from Drapchi prison in Lhasa, Ven. Gyatso has since devoted his entire life to the cause of human rights. In 1997 Ven. Gyatso's story, The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk (Grove Press) was published.
Jhado Rinpoche (Tenzin Jungne) was born in 1954 to a nomadic family living in the area of Namtso Lake, north of Lhasa, Tibet. At the age of three he was recognized and enthroned as the 6th incarnation of the abbot of Jhado Monastery. After fleeing Tibet in 1959, Rinpoche took his vows as a novice monk from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1964 and his full ordination vows from the late Ling Rinpoche in 1973. From 1972 until 1990, Rinpoche studied at Sera Je Monastery in South India. In 1991, he attained the degree of Geshe Lha Rampa, the highest level of education in the Geluk tradition. He then went on to continue his studies at Gyuto Tantric College in lower Dharamsala. From 1992 until 1996, Rinpoche served as a teacher at Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, the personal monastery of H.H. the Dalai Lama. In 1997, Rinpoche was appointed to the post of Abbot of Namgyal Monastery, and served the institution in that capacity until 2004. He currently teaches Buddhism worldwide and is the Spiritual Guide to Fundacion Tashi Delek in Spain.
Venerable Tenzin Palmo was born in the London in June 1943. She moved to India at 20, where she taught English at a school for young tulku lamas for a few months before meeting her lama, the 8th Khamtrul Rinpoche. In 1964 she became only the second Western woman to be ordained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, receiving the name Drubgyu Tenzin Palmo, or 'Glorious Lady who Upholds the Doctrine of the Practice Succession'. In 1973 Tenzin Palmo received the full bhikshuni ordination in Hong Kong, one of the first Western women to do so. Venerable Tenzin Palmo is the founder and director of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in India. She is famous for her twelve-year retreat in a cave in the mountains of Lahaul, India chronicled in the book Cave in the Snow by Vickie MacKenzie. Venerable Palmo is the author of Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism (Snow Lion).enerable Tenzin Palmo is the founder and director of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in India. Born in England, she traveled to India in 1964 where she studied with His Eminence the eighth Khamtrul Rinpoche and became one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. She is famous for her twelve-year retreat in a cave in the mountains of Lahaul, India chronicled in the book Cave in the Snow by Vickie MacKenzie. Venerable Palmo is the author of Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism (Snow Lion).
Geshe Kelsang Damdul. After his escape from Tibet, Ven. Geshe Kalsang Damdul studied at the Central School for Tibetans in Mussoorie, India. In 1973 he continued his education at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala where he studied all the major Buddhist texts. He received his Master of Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom Sutra) degree and was also awarded the Master of Mahyamika degree. Since 1987, Geshe-la has served as Assistant Director for the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics under the direct administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 1995, he received his geshe degree from Drepung Loseling Monastery in South India. Spiritual advisor of the Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association and founder and resident teacher at the Shakyamuni Buddhist Center in Portland OR, he has also taught at Portland State University as a visiting Tibetan scholar.
Geshe Thupten Phelgye was Born in 1956 and became a monk at Seraje Monastic University in 1973. He received the novice ordination from the senior tutor to H.H. the Dalai lama ( Late Kyabje Ling Rinpoche) in 1974. He received the Bichu ordination from H.H. the Dalai Lama in 1977.
In 1979 he was appointed as The head teacher at the monastic school. He also studied medicine in 1981 and became the chief health worker at the monastic health center saving hundreds of lives from Tuberculosis. He has been campaigning for vegetarianism since 1984, when he saw the cruelty of a slaughter-house. In 1993 H.H. The Dalai Lama inspired him to teach Dharma in the west however he wanted to do an extensive retreat before he taught others. Therefore with blessings and guidance from H.H. the Dalai lama, he went to the hermitage retreat on the mountains of Dharamsala till December 1997. In 1998 with blessing at a private audience with the Dalai lama, He found the Universal Compassion Movement and openly campaigned for vegetarianism around the world. To read Geshe la's complete biography, please click here.
Geshe Damdul Namgyal was born in 1959 in a refugee camp in India, shortly after his parents followed the Dalai Lama into exile after the Chinese communist invasion of Tibet. He is a fully ordained monk who completed all the traditional studies and obtained the degree of Geshe Lharampa (Doctor of Philosophy, with honors) in 1992. He also holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature, and has pursued higher studies in Western philosophy and psychology. Geshe-la is currently the principal of the monastery school at Drepung Loseling Monastery in Mungod, India.
Venerable Sangye Khadro.
A Buddhist nun since 1974, Ven. Sangye Khadro (Kathleen MacDonald) trained in Nepal and India for many years. She was resident teacher at Buddha House in Australia and has been the resident teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore for over ten years. Her books include How to Meditate (Wisdom).
Venerable Robina Courtin was born in 1944 and ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 at Kopan Monastery. Ven. Robina is director of the Liberation Prison Project and teaches at Buddhist centers around the world. Until recently, she was the editor of Mandala magazine. Ven. Robina’s work is the subject of two documentary films – On the Road Home (1998) Chasing Buddha (2000).
Ajahn Amaro was born in Kent, England in 1956, obtaining a BSc in Psychology and Physiology at the University of London. In 1978, he travelled to Thailand and visited Wat Pah Nanachat where he met the great Thai master Ajahn Chah who ordained him as a Bhikku the following year (1979). He returned to England and joined Ajahn Sumedho at the newly established Chithurst Monastery. He resided for many years at the Amaravati Buddhist Centre north of London, making trips to California every year during the 1990s. Since June of 1996 he has lived at Abhayagiri Monastery. He has written an account of his 830-mile trek from Chithurst to Harnham Vihara called Tudong - the Long Road North, republished in the expanded book Silent Rain, now available for free distribution and he published another book, Small Boat, Great Mountain, in 2003 that is also available for free distribution.
Venerable Tsen-la was born in Lhasa, Tibet. In 1965, like many other Tibetans, she had to move to Kathmandu, Nepal due to the Chinese invasion of Tibet. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1979 by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu. Ven. Tsenla has taught Buddhist meditation courses there and around the world, as well as acting as translator for many Tibetan Buddhist teachers. She also established the Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Venerable Tsultrim Palmo was born in Poland, received a degree in psychology, and raised two children before receiving the sramanerika vows in 1982 and the bhikshuni vows in 1984. She is based at Gampo Abbey in Canada, where she served as Director.
Venerable Tenzin Kacho was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1985 and worked for many years at Thubten Dhargye Ling Buddhist Center in Los Angeles. She is currently the resident teacher at Thubten Shedrup Ling Buddhist Center in Colorado Springs. Tenzin-la completed her MA in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan language in December 2004 from Naropa University. She has been the Buddhist Chaplain at the US Air Force Academy since Fall 1999. Interestingly, she is considered a layperson there, because she is not in the military.
Ajahn Santikaro. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Ven. Santikaro served in the Peace Corps in Thailand for over four years. A bhikkhu since 1985, he trained at Suan Mokkh, the monastery founded by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, a leading Thai teacher, scholar, and reformer. He became Ajahn Buddhadasa’s primary English translator and was abbot of Suan Atammayatarama, a training center for foreign monks in Thailand. Ven. Santikaro translated and edited Mindfulness with Breathing and Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree. Active in inter-religious dialogue and socially-engaged Buddhism, he gives lucid Dharma talks and guides students around the world in meditation practice.
Mitra Bishop-sensei is a Dharma heir of Ven. Philip Kapleau-roshi, author of The Three Pillars of Zen, and with whom she trained since 1976. Ordained as a Zen priest in 1986, she completed her formal training at the Rochester Zen Center in 1992 under Kapleau-roshi's successor, Ven. Bodhin Kjolhede-sensei, then went to Okayama, Japan, where she continued to practice under the guidance of the Ven. Harada Shodo-roshi, Abbot of Sogen-ji, a Rinzai Zen temple. When Mitra-sensei returned to the United States in 1996, she was formally sanctioned to teach by Kapleau-roshi, and in that same year was asked to come to Hidden Valley Zen Center to teach. Concurrently, she established Mountain Gate, a monastic training center in the mountains of northern New Mexico.
Ajahn Jitindriya was born in Sydney, Australia in 1963. She studied Visual Arts in college and later travelled through Southeast Asia, India & Europe. Whilst living in England in 1987, she became seriously interested in meditation & the teachings of the Buddha. She joined the Amaravati Community, taking novice ordination in 1988 and higher ordination in 1990. Since then, she has lived & practiced in various communities of this order- spending time in England, Australia & the USA.
Venerable Yarphel discovered the dharma in 1973 and met his first teacher, Ven. Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen in December of 1976. A few months later, he met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and helped build the first retreat center buildings at Vajrapani where he was director for 4.5 years, and later at Land of Calm Abiding. In 2001, he received his ordination vows from Choden Rinpoche. In 2003, he moved to Lama Zopa Rinpoche's land (Amitabha Pure Land) in Washington state, first to help with construction, and later, with Rinpoche's blessing to enter into solitary retreat. Ven. Yarphel has had over 40 teachers in the last 32 years from all four of the Tibetan traditions. All of his main teachers are in the Geluk tradition and are closely connected to his root gurus, Geshe Gyeltsen, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
The Tibetan Nuns of Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery. The nuns of Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery (KGN) visited DFF as part of their North American tour. This tour marked the first time a troupe of nuns has traveled to the West introducing audiences to the central role of women in the spiritual life of Tibet . KGN is a part of a new generation of nunneries established in exile. It was founded in 1986 in Kathmandu under the direction of Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. Historically, Tibetan nuns have been denied access to scholastic training. That has changed with the establishment of the KGN nunnery. The nuns of the KGN have had the doors of the classical Buddhist education opened to them. They are provided with highly trained scholars as their teachers and they memorize texts, study, and debate in the grand tradition of Tibetan monastic culture.
Venerable Gyalten Mindrol
Gyalten Mindrol met the Dharma through her father when she was ten years old and came to Tibetan Buddhism at the age of seventeen. She joined the FPMT family in her mid-twenties, first attending Basic Program courses with Geshe Tsulga at Kurukulla
Ven. Thubten Chonyi is among the first to ordain and train with Ven. Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron at the American monastery she founded in 2003, Sravasti Abbey. Ven. Chonyi has been Venerable Chodron’s student for over 13 years, beginning at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle and continuing at Sravasti Abbey. In the course of her training, she has attended numerous retreats and teachings, facilitated study groups, and was a founder and facilitator of Coeur d’Alene (Idaho) Dharma Friends. She was also a founding member of Friends of Sravasti Abbey, the support organization begun to help establish the monastery. Recognizing the precious opportunity to train and live as a monastic at Sravasti Abbey, she ordained with Ven. Chodron as her preceptor in 2008.
Rinchen Khandro Choegyal The sister-in-law of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Rinchen Khandro Choegyal was the president of the Tibetan Women's Association for many years, and is currently the Minister of Health and Education in the Tibetan government-in-exile. See "My True Religion Is Kindness", a 1992 interview with Rinchen Khandro Chogyel by Venerable Thubten Chodron.
Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D., served for a decade as the interpreter for the Dalai Lama. A Buddhist scholar and the author of more than thirty-five books and translations, he is emeritus professor of Tibetan and Buddhist studies at the University of Virginia, where he founded the largest academic program of Tibetan Buddhist studies in the West.
Alexander Berzin, Ph.D.Having received his PhD from Harvard University , Dr. Berzin has translated and written many books on Buddhism, as well as translated oral teachings for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Serkong Rinpoche. He travels worldwide, often to third-world countries, to teach the Dharma and currently lives in Berlin. A vast compendium of his translated works can be found on the internet at The Berzin Archives.
Geshe Jamyang Tsultrim holds the Geshe degree in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and a masters degree in Western psychology. He served an appointment as resident teacher at the Sakya Institute in India for several years. A former Buddhist monk, he is now a practicing psychotherapist. He also directs the Lojong Center in Olympia, Washington, where he gives regular teachings on Buddhist meditation.
Elizabeth Nappe , Ph.D. studied at the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center , received her Ph.D. at the University of Virginia , and spent two years in India as a Fulbright scholar. She has taught at the University of Virginia and has translated and edited many Dharma books, including Dependent Arising and Emptiness (Wisdom) . She is currently co-director of the Tibetan Nuns Project and has been instrumental in the establishment of Dolma Ling Nunnery in India .
Anne Klein , Ph.D. holds a Doctorate in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia , where she specialized in Tibetan Buddhism. As a Fulbright scholar, she studied Buddhist epistemology and soteriology with leading Gelu and Nyingma scholars in India and Nepal . Her books include Meeting the Great Bliss Queen (Wisdom). She was a lecturer at Stanford University and now is a professor at Rice University in Houston.
Tenzin Dechen Rochard Tenzin Dechen Rochard is a practising Buddhist since 1984 and is a disciple of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She was ordained as a nun by him in 1986 and remained within the monastic order for twelve years. She completed several three-month solitary retreats whilst in England during 1987-8. Then she went to India where she completed a traditional 10-year study programme in Buddhist philosophy at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Dharamsala. Since her return to England as a lay-woman she has translated and edited the Insight volume of Geshe Sopa’s oral commentary on Tsongkhapa's Steps on the Path to Enlightenment (Vol. 5, forthcoming, Wisdom Publications). She is now doing a PhD in Buddhist philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Dechen also teaches meditation, Buddhism, and Tibetan language, in the UK and abroad.
Jhampa Shaneman. A disciple of Ling Rinpoche, Jhampa studied and did retreat in Dharamsala , India , for many years before returning to Canada where he founded and is resident teacher at Thubten Choling Buddhist Center in Duncan , British Columbia .
Soo Hwa Yeo. From Singapore , Soo Hwa studied at Amitabha Buddhist Centre and later in Dharamsala. She was director of Land of Medicine Buddha in California.
Lorraine Lester. Originally from Seattle, Lorraine has lived, studied, and practiced in India for many years. She was one of the retreatants at Gen Lamrimpa's calm abiding retreat at Cloud Mountain and has continued that meditation in retreats in India.
Vicki Mackenzie. A Dharma practitioner and author, Vicki's books include Reincarnation: The Boy Lama and Reborn in the West.
Dr. William Wilmot. A member of Osel Shen Phen Ling Buddhist Center in Missoula, Montana, Dr. Wilmot is a professor of communication at the University of Montana. He has led communication and conflict workshops nationally and at DFF.