A SHEDRUB MANDALA ACTIVITY
Teachers at DharmaSun
Online talks, courses, and live seminars are offered by teachers from the Shedrub Mandala and guest teachers
Lineage holders, teachers, and guest teachers
Teachers
Guest Teachers
Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
A Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche was born in 1951 as the eldest son of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. He has served as the abbot of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery since its inauguration in 1976. Overseeing both the monastery and its affiliate institutions, Rinpoche is responsible for the personal welfare and spiritual education of more than 500 monks and nuns. Rinpoche is a renowned meditation master and teacher. For over 35 years he has taught audiences in Nepal and around the world. He is the founder and head of a global network of Buddhist centers dedicated to study, practice, and social work. Rinpoche’s vision and mission is to contribute to a world in which the Buddha’s teachings and meditations are available to everyone. Rinpoche’s vision and mission is to contribute to a world in which the Buddha’s teachings and meditations are available to everyone.
Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche
Born in 1953, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche is the 4th reincarnation of the renowned 19th-century Nyingma master, Terchen Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa. For the past 40 years, Rinpoche has resided at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery, where he served as the Vajra Master. He is a terton, or revealer of Padmasambhava’s hidden treasures, as well as a lay practitioner with a wife and four children. His elder son, Phakchok Rinpoche, is an incarnate high Lama, who directs monasteries and Dharma centers of his own both globally and in Nepal. Chokling Rinpoche’s younger son, Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche, is the reincarnation of Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
Phakchok Rinpoche
Born in 1981, Phakchok Rinpoche is the first-born grandson of Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920-1996) and the eldest son of Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche (1953-2020). As a child, he was recognized and enthroned as a main lineage-holder of the Riwoché Taklung Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. In 2004, Phakchok Rinpoche completed many years of advanced Buddhist studies and received his khenpo degree from the Dzongsar Institute of Advanced Buddhist Studies in Bir, India. Thereafter, whenever his busy schedule allowed, Phakchok Rinpoche was an esteemed guest teacher at Rangjung Yeshe Institute. In addition to serving as Vajra Master of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery, Rinpoche oversees monasteries and Dharma centres both in Nepal and globally. Rinpoche also serves as Director of the Chokgyur Lingpa Foundation, a nonprofit organization engaged in a wide range of humanitarian projects along with an international network of Buddhist meditation centers. Throughout the year, Rinpoche travels the world to give Buddhist teachings, grant initiations, and supervise his Dharma-related projects.
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche is a world renowned Buddhist teacher. He has been good friends with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche since his childhood and invited Rinpoche to help with translations for the 84000 project. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche gave a talk at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery in 2013.
Khenpo Karma Gyurmey
In 1987, 9-year-old Karma Gyurmè, also known as Tokpa Tulku, was ordained at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery where he successfully completed his monastic training, learning all aspects of the elaborate Buddhist ritual arts. In 1998, Karma Gyurmè enrolled in the nine-year advanced Buddhist studies course in Ka-Nying’s own Sangye Yeshe Shedra where he eventually earned his khenpo degree. In addition to thereafter teaching his fellow monks in monastic shedra classes, based on Khenpo Karma Gyurmè’s excellent command of the English language and his engaging teaching style Rangjung Yeshe Institute encouraged him to join their teaching faculty and guide their students.
Drubpon Lama Tenzin Sangpo
Born in Tingri, Tibet in 1967, Drubpon Lama Tenzin Sangpo received ordination and a traditional monastic education at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery at an early age. He successfully completed a traditional three-year meditative retreat at the Asura Cave Retreat Centre, and served for many years as the monastery’s main umdze, or recitation master, leading elaborate Buddhist rituals. For 16 years, he served as Resident Lama at Rangjung Yeshe Gomde Germany Austria before being assigned by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche to settle at Rangjung Yeshe Gomde Pyrenees in France in order to guide extensive retreats for Westerners in that secluded mountainous setting.
Lama Tsultrim Sangpo
Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling’s senior chant master, Lama Tsultrim Sangpo, is also a familiar and popular figure at Rangjung Yeshe Gomde California where he serves as the Resident Lama guiding students and visitors in the ritual practices performed during the center’s summer courses. Born in remote mountainous Nubri, the northernmost region of Nepal bordering Tibet, Lama Tsultrim took ordination at the age of 12. Having completed his monastic training and scholarly studies, he was trained as an (Tib.) umdze or chant master and, apart from undertaking a 3-year meditative retreat in isolation, has held that position for more than 30 years.
Khenpo Pema Namgyal
Khenpo Pema Namgyal, originally from Mugum, is a senior scholar-monk from Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling in Nepal. He served as a personal tutor to Tulku Urgyen Yangsi Rinpoche and is currently, among other responsibilities serving as a personal assistant to Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. He is highly learned and well-versed in Buddhist philosophy and know as a teacher who is not afraid of delving into the profundities of the given text.
Khenpo Urgyen Tenphel
Born in Mugum in northwestern Nepal in 1982, Urgyen Tenphel was ordained by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche in 1995 and commenced his monastic basic training. In 1998, he enrolled in Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling’s monastic college, Sangye Yeshe Shedra, where he studied for 10 years to earn his khenpo degree. Subsequently, he taught shedra classes several times daily and occasionally taught academic course at Rangjung Yeshe Institute. Later, he taught Buddhist courses at Rinpoche’s centers in Southeast Asia, Europe, and America. Afterward, he became the first Khenpo to formally teach academic classes, including debate, in the newly-established nuns’ shedra at Nagi Gompa. Currently, Khenpo Urgyen Tenphel is Vice Principal of Sangye Yeshe Monastic Shedra.
Khenpo Tsondru Sangpo
Born in Mugum in northwestern Nepal in 1985, Tsondru Sangpo entered Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery in 1994 and commenced his monastic basic training. Excelling in his academic studies, he eventually qualified to enroll in Sangye Yeshe Shedra, or monastic college, where he studied for a decade to earn his khenpo degree. Khenpo Tsondru Sangpo then began teaching in the monks’ shedra. Noticing his astute, skillful manner of guiding students through even the most difficult treatises, Rangjung Yeshe Institute engaged Khenpo to teach both in the classroom and online. He is now their foremost monastic professor, and is also Principal of Sangye Yeshe Monastic Shedra.
Khenpo Jampa Donden
Born in Lhoka, Central Tibet in 1972, Khenpo Jampa Donden took ordaination at the Sakya Monastery, Gongar Chöde, in 1986. Four years later, he left Tibet and pursued more advanced Buddhist studies in India. He studied for a decade at Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s shedra in Bir where he eventually earned his khenpo degree and was known for his kindheartedness and sharp intellect. Later on, Khenpo Jampa Donden served as an instructor at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling’s Sangye Yeshe Shedra training monks how to enhance their debating skills. He also taught classes at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute before finally settling in the United States.
Tara’s Triple Excellence Team
Tara’s Triple Excellence is a treasure text, or terma, that comes to us from the great Tibetan master Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa (1829-1870), who had received it directly from Arya Tara. Through a direct lineage of realized masters, this terma was transmitted to Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. Now, Rinpoche and The Tara’s Triple Excellence Team have leveraged today’s communication technology to transmit these teachings to dedicated practitioners around the world in an accessible, contemporary format.
Erik Pema Kunsang
Erik Pema Kunsang is born in Denmark and has since 1972 studied and practiced the Buddha, especially the teachings of Padmasambhava. He is a Dharma teacher and translator who has attended Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and his sons for more than 40 years. In 2010 Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche told Erik to pass on the dharma as a teacher. Erik guides through simple methods that allow natural love and insight.
John D. Dunne
Dr. John D. Dunne (PhD 1999, Harvard University) holds the Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Humanities, an endowed position created through the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a distinguished professor in the Department of Asian Languages & Cultures, where he serves as department Chair. Dr. Dunne is author and editor of numerous academic books and essays on Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practice. In addition to serving as an esteemed academic adviser at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Dr. Dunne teaches a course based on Buddhist mindfulness in relation to cognitive science and psychology during Rangjung Yeshe Gomde Germany-Austria’s annual academic summer course.
Heidi Koppl
In 1990, Mag. Heidi Köppl left Austria at a young age and arrived at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery where she soon became a disciple of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche and his late father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. Remaining in Nepal for almost 25 years, she studied under the guidance of both Rinpoches and served as Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s translator. After earning her degree in Tibetology from the University of Copenhagen, she translated such academic works as Illuminating the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and Establishing Appearances as Divine. Heidi was a faculty member at Rangjung Yeshe Institute and created the ‘Tara’s Triple Excellence’ online meditation program.
Thomas Doctor
Dr. Thomas Doctor is an Associate Professor at Kathmandu University, Centre for Buddhist Studies and currently serves as the Principal of Rangjung Yeshe Institute. A close disciple of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche since their initial meeting in 1989, through the decades Thomas had the good fortune to study with well-respected khenpos and other authentic scholar-practitioners in the Tibetan academic tradition at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery. Consequently, Dr. Thomas Doctor is now considered an expert in Buddhist philosophical traditions, and a genuine scholar-practitioner. In particular, he serves as a senior translator for Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche and for Ka-Nying’s other incarnate Lamas and scholars.
Andreas Doctor
Dr. Andreas Doctor lives in Denmark and is currently serving as editorial co-director at 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Previously, Andreas lived in Nepal where he studied under the guidance of the monks and lamas at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery. He received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Calgary in 2004.
