Teachers at DharmaSun

In 1990, Heidi Köppl left her home in Austria and arrived at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery where she soon became a disciple of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. Eventually, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche offered a small cement house on monastery property to his three students—Heidi, Thomas Doctor, and Tina Lang—to live in while they studied Tibetan language at Tribuvan University. Together, they very diligently pursued their studies of classical Tibetan language based on reading and discussing sadhana practices and complex treatises of Buddhist masters. Tibetan lamas and khenpos often frequented the house to chat or discuss esoteric topics with the Western Buddhists. Consequently, they grew fluent in Tibetan and served as Rinpoche’s main translators. Rinpoche then urged Heidi and Thomas to earn their university MA degrees in Tibetan Studies from the University of Copenhagen. Thereafter, both went on to publish translations of important Buddhist treatises. Heidi translated such academic works as Illuminating the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and Establishing Appearances as Divine. In 1997, both became faculty members at Rangjung Yeshe Institute. In 2011, Heidi became editor-in-chief of ‘Tara’s Triple Excellence’ online meditation program. Since 2022, she has been engaged in 3-year meditative retreat at Gomde Pyrénées, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s retreat center in France.