His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Inspiration and Guide of the FPMT

His Holiness is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He frequently states that his life is guided by three major commitments: the promotion of basic human values or secular ethics in the interest of human happiness, the fostering of inter-religious harmony and the welfare of the Tibetan people, focusing on the survival of their identity, culture and religion.
You can read more about His Holiness the Dalai Lama here.

Venerable Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935-1984)

Founder

Lama Thubten Yeshe was born in Tibet in 1935. At the age of six, he entered Sera Monastic University in Tibet where he studied until 1959, when as Lama Yeshe himself has said, “In that year the Chinese kindly told us that it was time to leave Tibet and meet the outside world.” Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, together as teacher and disciple since their exile in India, met their first Western students in 1965. By 1971 they settled at Kopan, a small hamlet near Kathmandu in Nepal. In 1974, the Lamas began touring and teaching in the West, which would eventually result in The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. Lama Yeshe passed away in March 1984 and Tenzin Osel Rinpoche (born 1985 in Spain) was recognised as his incarnation by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. You can read more about Lama Yeshe here.

Venerable Lama Kyabje Thubten Zopa Rinpoche

Spiritual Director

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was born in 1946 in Thami, in the Mount Everest region of Nepal, not far from the Lawudo cave where his predecessor had meditated for the last 20 years of his life. Lama Zopa Rinpoche is now the Spiritual Director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition and oversees all of its activities. You can read more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche here.

Stephan Pende Wormland

Primary Teacher, since 2008

Stephan Wormland, born 1965 in Germany, has studied and practiced meditation in multiple traditions for over 25 years. He has a master’s degree in clinical psychology, trained in Gestalt therapy and worked in a psychiatric hospital. He lived as an ordained monk in the Tibetan tradition for 11 years and, during that time, served as the director of Nalanda Monastery in the south of France and spent a total of 4 years in group and solitary retreats. Currently he is the main teacher of the Center for Visdom og Medfølelse in Copenhagen and teaches meditation in Buddhist Centers around Europe. Since 2009 he has been studying Radiant Mind with Peter Fenner and completed the Nondual Teacher Training. In addition to teaching at CVM, he and his partner Jetthe Fabioola offer courses in Natural Mindfulness & Mindful Dreaming and he is a senior trainer and program advisor of the Potential Project.

and more…

Besides our precious resident teacher Stephan Pende Wormland, the center has the opportunity and joy to be able to invite qualified guest teachers from the FPMT. For more information, see Visiting Teachers under Calendar. Following is a list of some of our past and upcoming visiting teachers:

Geshe Sherab

Geshe Sherab is the young, fluent in English, former Headmaster of Kopan Monastery, Nepal, the spiritual centre of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT).  He has lived for several years in the U.S. also, so he is familiar with North American culture, and knows how to relate to the western mind when teaching the Dharma.

Born in Nepal of Tibetan parents, Geshe Sherab received his education at Kopan Monastery from the time he was a boy, and completed his studies at Sera Je Monastic University and at Gyume Tantric College in India. He has lived in the USA working at the FPMT Central office and several nearby Dharma Centres in New Mexico. He returned to Nepal after several years in the U.S.A. to become Headmaster of Kopan Monastery.  Geshe-la has just retired from the Headmaster role in order to have more time to devote to meditation and to teaching internationally.

Manadala magazine has a story of Geshe Sherab here.

You can download and listen to several recordings of Geshe Sherab teaching here.

Geshe Sonam Ngodrup

10-11 november 2012

Geshe Sonam Ngodrup was born in Kardze, Kham in 1968 and left Tibet when he was 13 years old. After his studies at Sera Je monastery in the South of India, he took part in the Geshe exams and passed as one of the best three geshes from Sera, Drepung and Ganden monastery combined. Following this, he studied tantric philosophy and ritual in Gyume Tantric College. He became one of the most popular young teachers in Sera, and was this also at Nalanda monastery in France, where he taught for a year.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested Geshe Sonam Ngodup to become a teacher at Maitreya Instituut, assisted by his translator Ven. Khedrup, and they will be visiting us from there.

Venerable Paula Chichester

(Lhundrup Nyingje)

Since 1980, Nying-je has devoted her life to attaining the realizations of the path to Enlightenment by following the advice of her teachers, mainly Lama Thubten Yeshe and Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche. She spent 25 years completing two great mantra retreats in Lama Tsong Khapa’s Ear Whispered Lineage. She is also a scientist, healer, dancer, and musician. Some of her songs can be heard dowloaded from: Joy Riders. She She lives at Land of Calm Abiding in California, USA.

Two of my favorites are here:

TrueBlue

Calling Heruka

Venerable Rita Riniker

(Lobsang Palmo)

12-18 june 2012

Born in 1950, Venerable Rita grew up in Switzerland. She ran her own restaurant business for many years, then traveled to Nepal where she met Buddhism at Kopan Monastery in 1990.

Ven Rita has been ordained for over 12 years – she took ordination in 1991 with her main teacher, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. Since then she has been based primarily in India at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, initially studying at the Tibetan Library of Works and Archives for 6 years and more recently offering service as one of the centre’s primary teachers of Tushita’s famous “Introduction to Buddhism” courses.

Ven Rita has led and guided many retreats including five 3-month Vajrasattva retreats, Green Tara retreats and a 2-month Lam Rim Chen Mo retreat with teachings by Yangsi Rinpoche in 2000. Ven Rita is especially well known for leading Nyung Naes, having completed more than 80 consecutive Nyung Naes over a period of 6 months in 1998.

Rita has also been teaching in Europe for many years and has made several teaching tours to Israel and more recently the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Listen to some of her teachings here.

Venerable Robina Courtin

30 july – 9 august 2012

Ordained since the late 1970s, Robina Courtin has worked full time since then for Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s FPMT. Over the years she has served as editorial director of Wisdom Publications, editor of Mandala magazine, executive director of Liberation Prison Project, and as a touring teacher of Buddhism. Her life and work with prisoners have been featured in the documentary films Chasing Buddha and Key to Freedom.

Venerable Robina’s teachings are unrelentingly challenging, hard-hitting, serious, funny, visceral, inspiring and empowering. She specialises in applying the wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism to contemporary city life, using examples from TV, magazines and film. She has taught meditation to prisoners all over the world, developing a particularly close connection with people with life sentences in the USA. She is the founder of the Liberation Prison Project, and the subject of an award-winning Australian documentary called Chasing the Buddha.

You can read more about Venerable Robina here and hear some of her teachings here

Venerable Jampa Ludrup

16. september – 6. oktober 2013

Jampa Ludrup comes from Australia. He spent 18 years in the computer industry before becoming a Buddhist monk in the Tibetan tradition more than 15 years ago. When he was travelling with Lama Zopa Rinpoche he became interested in the Chinese art of Feng Shui through Rinpoche’s inspiration and has been giving courses and consultations for more than 10 years. He has published a book on Feng Shui called ‘Seeing is Believing’, which is in its second edition in France and will soon be published in English. Jampa was also the English language studies tutor of Lama Osel Rinpoche for five years.

He currently resides at Sera Je Monastery in South India but makes extensive tours giving consultations all around the world each year.

Read more about Ven. Jampa here

Ven. Lobsang Namgyel

9th April 2013: Mindfulness, meditation and healing

11th April 2013: 

12th-14th April 2013: Course: Healing Disturbing Emotions

Venerable Lobsang Namgyel, has been based in India and Nepal, studying and teaching Buddhism there for more than 25 years, with such Masters as H.H. the Dalai Lama, Denma Locho Rinpoche, Choden Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Choeding Rinpoche, Gen Lamrimpa and Geshe Sonam Rinchen. He has completed four years of Lam Rim retreats, as well as tantric retreats. During his time in Buddhism, Venerable has taught in various FPMT Centres in India, Nepal, Mexico, Australasia, Russia, Finland, Europe and the USA and had the honour of being tutor to Lama Osel Rinpoche.

More information and teachings:

Video teachings:  www.BodhiTV.com

Audio teachings:  http://Venerable-Namgyel.podOmatic.com

Blog: http://VenerableNamgyel.blogspot.com

Dr. Alan Wallace

27 june -1 july 2012

Dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar, and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D., continually seeks innovative ways to integrate Buddhist contemplative practices with Western science to advance the study of the mind.

Dr. Wallace, a scholar and practitioner of Buddhism since 1970, has taught Buddhist theory and meditation worldwide since 1976. Having devoted fourteen years to training as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by H. H. the Dalai Lama, he went on to earn an undergraduate degree in physics and the philosophy of science at Amherst College and a doctorate in religious studies at Stanford.

With his unique background, Alan brings deep experience and applied skills to the challenge of integrating traditional Indo-Tibetan Buddhism with the modern world.

Read more about Alan here and about his work with the Santa Barbara Institute for Conciousness Studies here.

Rob Preece

8 – 10 February 2013

Rob Preece is a practicing Tibetan Buddhist and trained psychotherapist in Transpersonal Psychology who has done groundbreaking work bringing together the two worlds of Buddhist and Western psychology and developing a teaching and therapeutic style that is a synthesis of Buddhist and Jungian understanding.

Since 1985 he has been leading meditation retreats following the instruction and guidance of his teachers. Lama Yeshe was particularly influential is this, supporting his integration of a more Western approach. This has meant gradually guiding people through a kind of apprenticeship in the practice of Tantra. Increasingly Rob has become involved in what he now calls spiritual mentoring bringing together his experience of both Eastern and Western approaches. This has also led to writing The psychology of Buddhist Tantra; The Wisdom of Imperfection; The courage to Feel and Preparing for Tantra. Read more about Rob here.

and some advanced students that lead and guide at CVM…

Some advanced students volunteer to lead FPMT courses and some practices as well as guiding some meditation sessions.

Rasmus Hougaard

Meditation guide at the Center since 2004

Rasmus is a long term Buddhist practitioner and has been teaching in Buddhist centers all over Europe, especially at FPMT Centers in France, UK, Italy, Scotland, and the Netherlands. He is the director of our Center, the Center for Wisdom and Compassion (FPMT Denmark). He speaks regularly at conferences on mind training in Denmark and Europe and is the Managing Director and a Senior Trainer of The Potential Project, that provides corporate based mindfulness training to business leaders and companies all over the world. Here is a short video of Rasmus introducing a Potential Project conference.

Anne Burchardi

Visiting Lecturer at CVM

Anne Burchardi is Tibetologist and lecturer at Institute of Cross Cultural and Regional Studies at University of Copenhagen, where she has been teaching Tibetan language and culture for the past 15 years. She has been curator of the Tibetan Collection at The Royal Library of Denmark for 10 years. She has been studying Buddhism since 1976 and she has acted as interpreter and translator for Tibetan Lamas in Asia, Europe and USA for 30 years.

Karl Antz

Meditation guide at the Center since 2010

Karl, born 1947 in Germany, has been attending courses at Vækstcenteret since 1982, as a resident from 1987-1992. Karl’s main teacher, Jes Bertelsen, is a student of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, one of the major teachers of Dzogchen (a radical approach to attaining full awareness) in the 20th century. Through his studies with Jes Bertelsen, Karl has worked intensively on cultivating the preliminary stages of open awareness, in the course of 30 years of regular meditation practice. He has translated into German Jes Bertelsen’s books on consciousness, meditation, and Dzogchen, as well as Tulku Thondup’s anthology of writings by Longchen Rabjam, The Practice of Dzogchen. He collaborated closely with both Jes and Tulku Thondup throughout the translation work.