His Holiness the Dalai Lama

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is both the head of state and the spiritual leader of Tibet. He was born on 6 July 1935, to a farming family, in a small hamlet located in Taktser, Amdo, northeastern Tibet. At the age of two the child, who was named Lhamo Dhondup at that time was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who have postponed their own nirvana and chosen to take rebirth in order to serve humanity.

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Lama Thubten Yeshe, Founder, Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition

Lama Thubten Yeshe was born in Tibet in 1935. At the age of six, he entered the great Sera Monastic University, Lhasa, where he studied until 1959, when the Chinese invasion of Tibet forced him into exile in India. Lama Yeshe continued to study and meditate in India until 1967, when, with his chief disciple, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, he went to Nepal. Two years later he established Kopan Monastery, near Kathmandu, in order to teach Buddhism to Westerners. In 1974, the Lamas began making annual teaching tours to the West, and as a result of these travels a worldwide network of Buddhist teaching and meditation centers—the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition—began to develop. In 1984, after an intense decade of imparting a wide variety of incredible teachings and establishing one FPMT activity after another, at the age of forty-nine, Lama Yeshe passed away. He was reborn as Ösel Hita Torres in Spain in 1985, recognized as the incarnation of Lama Yeshe by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1986, and, as the monk Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche, began studying for his geshe degree in 1992 at the reconstituted Sera Monastery in South India. Lama’s remarkable story is told in Vicki Mackenzie’s book, Reincarnation: The Boy Lama (Wisdom Publications, 1996).

Some of Lama Yeshe’s teachings have also been published by Wisdom Publications. Books include Wisdom Energy; Introduction to Tantra; The Tantric Path of Purification; and (recently) The Bliss of Inner Fire. Transcripts in print are Light of Dharma; Life, Death and After Death; and Transference of Consciousness at the Time of Death. Available through FPMT centres,Wisdom Publications and the Foundation Store.

Lama Yeshe on videotape: Introduction to Tantra, The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, and Offering Tsok to Heruka Vajrasattva. Available from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Spiritual Director, Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahyana Tradition

Rinpoche was born in Thami, Nepal, in 1946. At the age of three he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, who had lived nearby at Lawudo, within sight of Rinpoche’s Thami home. Rinpoche’s own description of his early years may be found in his book, The Door to Satisfaction (Wisdom Publications). At the age of ten, Rinpoche went to Tibet and studied and meditated at Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s monastery near Pagri, until the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 forced him to forsake Tibet for the safety of Bhutan. Rinpoche then went to the Tibetan refugee camp at Buxa Duar, West Bengal, India, where he met Lama Yeshe, who became his closest teacher. The Lamas went to Nepal in 1967, and over the next few years built Kopan and Lawudo Monasteries. In 1971 Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the first of his famous annual lam-rim retreat courses, which continue at Kopan to this day. In 1974, with Lama Yeshe, Rinpoche began traveling the world to teach and establish centers of Dharma. When Lama Yeshe passed away in 1984, Rinpoche took over as spiritual head of the FPMT, which has continued to flourish under his peerless leadership.

Rinpoche’s other published teachings include Wisdom Energy (with Lama Yeshe), Transforming Problems, and a number of transcripts and practice booklets available from Wisdom Publications and the Foundation Store.

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Geshe Ngawang Samten

Geshe la was born at Panchamari, MP, India. At the age of nine, he entered the Sera Monastic Institute and took the vows of monk ordination with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 1998 and 1999 he sat for the Geshe Lharampa (Doctorate in Buddhist Philosophy) exam, and in 1998 he was selected as a lecturer in the Gelug tradition at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath.

Renate Ogilvie

Renate Ogilvie is a registered psychotherapist trained in the UK and currently practising in Sydney.

Renate has taught Tibetan Buddhism for over 15 years; she is an inspirational teacher, who uses both western psychological approaches and Tibetan Buddhist traditions to provide a unique synthesis for the modern, enquiring mind. She is one of the principle teachers of our Discovering Buddhism program. Her teachings are clear and insightful (as well as entertaining!), showing how to apply Buddhist practices to ordinary, daily life.

Renate is a senior western teacher at Vajrayana Institute.

Wai Cheong Kok

Wai Cheong has completed the first 7 year FPMT Masters program at Lama Tsong Khapa Institute in Italy followed by a four month retreat in New Zealand and so is fully versed in Buddhist philosophy, both sutra and tantra.

The course included study of the Ornament of Clear Realisations, which is on the stages of the sutra path; Supplement for the Middle Way, which is on emptiness; Treasury of Higher Knowledge, which is on many things including mind and mental factors; Tantric Grounds and Paths, which presents the stages of the tantric path and Guhyasamaja Tantra, which is on the generation and completion stages of Guhyasamaja. In order to provide opportunities for integrating the teachings into one’s practice, the Masters Program included weekly lam-rim meditations and a final retreat.

On joining Vajrayana Institute as a senior resident teacher, Wai Cheong says, “I do hope this opportunity will be of benefit to myself and others from the dharma’s point of view.” We’re sure we will all receive much benefit from Wai Cheong’s teachings.