His Eminence the 7th Kyabje Yongzin Ling Rinpoche was born in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, in 1985. In 1987, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama recognized him as the reincarnation of His Holiness the 6th Kyabje Yongzin Ling Rinpoche (1903 – 1983), who was the principal tutor of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
His Holiness refers to him as “my Root Guru”.

H.E. the 7th Ling Rinpoche has completed all five Geshe Studies subjects (Logic, Perfection of Wisdom, Middle Way, Higher Knowledge, and Monastic Discipline) and was awarded His Geshe Degree from Drepung Loseling Monastic University in South India, in November 2016. H.E. 7th Ling Rinpoche has also recently completed a year of further studies at Gyuto Tantric College in Dharamsala. His Holiness the Dalai Lama continues to closely guide him.

Starting in 2004 he has also participated in the Mind and Life Institute dialogues held in India between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and scientists on a variety of topics, such physics, neuroplasticity and destructive emotions. In March 2017, H.E. Ling Rinpoche joined His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other Buddhist leaders at a three-day International Buddhist Conference on "The Relevance of Buddhism in the 21st Century".

Official website of H.E. the 7th Kyabje Yongzin Ling Rinpoche: lingrinpoche.info

Geshe Ngawang Dakpa serves as resident teacher at Tse Chen Ling Center in San Francisco. He was born in Nangchu, northeast of Lhasa, Tibet. He became a monk at the age of ten. At the monastery he studied both Dharma and secular subjects extensively before entering Sera Je Monastery eleven years later. He fled Tibet in 1959. Upon his arrival in India, Geshe-la not only continued his monastic studies, but also spent three years at the Sanskrit University in Benares, earning an MA with honors. Invited by the Queen of Sikkim, he taught at the University of Sikkim for nearly 20 years before returning to Sera monastery in South India and obtaining his Geshe degree.

Geshe Thubten Sherab was born in Nepal of Tibetan parents, and received his education at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, the spiritual center of the FPMT. He completed his studies at Sera Jey 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 Centers in Taos, New Mexico.

He returned to Nepal after several years in the U.S. to become Headmaster of Kopan Monastery. Geshe-la has retired from the Headmaster role in order to have more time to devote to meditation and to teaching internationally. For the last few years, he has been travelling and teaching at FPMT Centers in USA, Canada, Mexico, Asia and Europe.

Mandala magazine has a story of Geshe Sherab: The Master from the New Generation.

Ordained by the Dalai Lama more than thirty years ago, Swiss monk René Feusi has studied with some of the greatest scholars and inspiring lamas in the Tibetan diaspora. He has also performed numerous extensive retreats, including a two-and-a-half-year seclusion focused on developing mental stability. He has led large Buddhist events in Europe, Asia, and North America, and he has students worldwide. The resident teacher at Vajrapani Institute in the Santa Cruz mountains from 2001 to 2007, he now splits his time equally between teaching and retreat. He lives in Tonasket, WA. He has recently published The Beautiful Way of Life: A Meditation on Shantideva's Bodhisattva Path.

Since ordaining as a nun in 1978 Ven. Robina Courtin has worked full time for Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and their Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition.

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.

In 2001, Courtin created Chasing Buddha Pilgrimage, which lead pilgrimages to Buddhist holy sites in India, Nepal, and Tibet to raise money for the Liberation Prison Project, an association engaged for the Tibetan cause.

Known for her extraordinary energy and fiery compassion, Ven. Robina's life and work have been the subject of documentary films Chasing Buddha and Key to Freedom.

Tenzin Chogkyi (she/her/hers) is a teacher of workshops and programs that bridge the worlds of Buddhist thought, contemplative practice, mental and emotional cultivation, and the latest research in the field of positive psychology. Tenzin first became interested in meditation in the early 1970s and then started practicing Tibetan Buddhism in early 1991 during a year she spent studying in India and Nepal. She completed several long meditation retreats over a six-year period and took monastic ordination with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, practicing as a monastic for nearly 20 years. Since 2006 she has been teaching in Buddhist centers around the world and taught in prisons for 15 years. Currently based on traditional Awaswas Ohlone land, in what is now known as Santa Cruz, CA, she teaches locally at Insight Santa Cruz and the Wisdom Center, is a regular visiting teacher for the San Francisco Dharma Collective, and Lion’s Roar Dharma Center in Sacramento.

She is also a certified teacher of Compassion Cultivation Training and the Cultivating Emotional Balance program. Tenzin is especially interested in bringing the wisdom of Buddhism into modern culture and into alignment with modern cultural values such as racial and gender justice and environmental awareness. She feels strongly that a genuine and meaningful spiritual path includes not only personal transformation, but social and cultural transformation as well.

She loves interfaith collaboration and is a volunteer for the Interfaith Speakers Bureau of the Islamic Networks Group in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and also volunteers for the Conflict Resolution Center of Santa Cruz County. You can find her current teaching schedule as well as an archive of podcasts, audio, and video teachings at unlockingtruehappiness.org.

Amy J. Miller (Ven. Lobsang Chodren) first encountered Tibetan Buddhism in the spring of 1987 during a course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Since then, she has spent a great deal of time engaged in meditation retreats, study, teaching, and Buddhist center management throughout the world. Prior to meeting the Dharma, Amy was a political fundraiser in Washington, DC and also worked for Mother Jones Magazine in San Francisco, California.

From 1992-1995, Amy managed Tse Chen Ling Center in San Francisco, California. She then served as Director of Vajrapani Institute, also in California, from 1995–2004. From 1998–2002, she was also the Manager of the Lawudo Retreat Fund (which supports the center in which the sacred cave of Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche is located) in the Mt. Everest region of Nepal. In 2004, after resigning as Director, Amy completed a seven-month solitary retreat at Vajrapani. For most of 2005 and 2006, she organized international teaching tours for and traveled with the esteemed Tibetan Buddhist master, Ven. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche until Rinpoche’s death in 2006. Amy then became a touring teacher for the FPMT. From 2008–2014, Amy was Director of Milarepa Center in Barnet, Vermont.

Amy was ordained as a Buddhist nun in June 2000 by the great Tibetan master, Ven. Choden Rinpoche, and has been teaching extensively since 1992. Her teaching style emphasizes a practical approach to integrating Buddhist philosophy into everyday life. She is happy to help people connect with meditation and mindfulness in an effort to gain a refreshing perspective on normally stressful living. Amy’s courses and retreats focus on establishing and maintaining a meditation and mindfulness practice, death and dying, overcoming anxiety and depression, battling addiction, dealing with self-esteem issues, and cultivating compassion and loving kindness. She is also often involved in leading a variety of retreats.

Amy is the co-author of Buddhism in a Nutshell and a contributor to Living in the Path, a series of online courses produced by FPMT.

Based in the United States, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Amy teaches and leads retreats and pilgrimages around the world. Her teaching schedule and other information can be found at AmyMiller.com.

Born in Scotland, in 1970, Venerable Angie Muir obtained a Bachelor's Degree in 1992. Feeling disillusioned with her prospective career path and life ahead of her, she left Scotland and combined travelling with work in Asia for 3 years until in 1995 she felt a calling to go to India to explore meditation and find her life path. Within a few months she “had the incredible fortune due to some previous karma” to discover Tibetan Buddhism, and meet her main spiritual teacher Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche (of almost 30 years) and become ordained.

Venerable Angie has been a Buddhist nun for over 25 years. During this time, she served at Lama Zopa Rinpoche's residences in the U.S. for 13 years. In addition to doing various personal retreats, she has offered service, teaching, and leading meditation at other FPMT centers.

Venerable Thubten Chodron is an author, teacher, and the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, the only Tibetan Buddhist training monastery for Western nuns and monks in the US. She graduated from UCLA, and did graduate work in education at USC. Ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun in 1977, she has studied extensively with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsenzhap Serkong Rinpoche, and Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche.

Ven. Chodron teaches worldwide and is known for her practical (and humorous!) explanations of how to apply Buddhist teachings in daily life. She is also involved in prison outreach and interfaith dialogue. She has published many books on Buddhist philosophy and meditation, and is the only nun who has co-authored a book with His Holiness the Dalai Lama—Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions. Her latest book is Good Karma: How to Create the Causes of Happiness and Avoid the Causes of Suffering, and her Buddhism for Beginners and Open Heart, Clear Mind are widely recommended introductory books. Visit thubtenchodron.org for a media library of her teachings, and sravastiabbey.org to learn more about the Abbey.

Tubten Pende is a practicing Buddhist since 1972 when he was introduced to Tibetan Buddhism in India. Pende was included in the first wave of the FPMT’s Western Buddhist teachers. He was the coordinator of the Geshe Studies Program at Manjushri Institute, England; spiritual program coordinator, director, and later resident teacher at Nalanda Monastery, France; and an FPMT International Office Education Services program developer of the Masters Program at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy. He is interested in the effective application of Buddhist theory and practice in the daily life of ordinary people.

Rob Preece has been a practicing Tibetan Buddhist for the past 40 years. He was a founding member of Manjushri Institute in the UK and lived there until 1980 when he went into retreat above Dharamsala on the guidance of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Returning to the west in 1985 he began to train as a Psychotherapist at the Centre for Transpersonal Psychology in London, a Jungian based psychotherapy. Since that time he has had a busy psychotherapy practice and has taught many workshops on comparative Jungian and Buddhist Psychology. More recently his work has shifted from psychotherapy to spiritual mentoring.

Over the past 25 years Rob has also lead many meditation retreats introducing the practices of the Tantric tradition with a wish to honor Lama Yeshe’s profound and creative approach to practice. Rob is an experienced thangka painter and keen gardener and is the father of two boys. He is the author of "The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra", "The Wisdom of Imperfection", "The Courage to Feel", "Preparing for Tantra" and "Feeling Wisdom".

Don Handrick is the resident teacher at Thubten Norbu Ling Buddhist Center in Santa Fe, NM, and he teaches for the FPMT at the Ksitigarbha Tibetan Buddhist Center in Taos, NM. Don also serves as a Buddhist teacher for Liberation Prison Project, which includes teaching Buddhism at a local prison in New Mexico. Don's study and practice of Buddhism began in 1993 when he read The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. Over the next two years he practiced with Rigpa, Sogyal Rinpoche's organization, until he began attending classes with Venerable Robina Courtin at Tse Chen Ling, the FPMT center in San Francisco.

At the beginning of 1998, Don left the Bay Area to attend the FPMT's Masters Program of Buddhist Studies in Sutra and Tantra, a full-time seven-year residential study program in Tuscany, Italy, taught by the incomparable scholar and kind Spiritual Friend, Geshe Jampa Gyatso. By 2004, he successfully completed all five subjects of the program and received an FPMT final certificate with high honors. Soon after, Don moved to Santa Fe and served as the Spiritual Program Coordinator for Thubten Norbu Ling, and in 2006 he was appointed Resident Teacher.

Guy Newland is Professor of Religion of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Central Michigan University, where he has taught since 1988. He holds a Ph.D. in the history of religions from the University of Virginia, where he studied Tibetan Buddhism with Jeffrey Hopkins. Newland has also studied with many Tibetan scholars in the U.S. and India.

He is a translator and co-editor of the three-volume translation The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, and is the author of several books on Tibetan Buddhism, including The Two Truths, Appearance and Reality, and Introduction to Emptiness. More recently he has translated and edited From Here to Enlightenment by the Dalai Lama and founded the Central Michigan Sangha.

Scott Tusa is based in Brooklyn, New York. He leads meditation and Buddhist psychology nationally and supports Tsoknyi Rinpoche's Pundarika Sangha as a practice advisor. He trained in Buddhist philosophy and meditation with some of the greatest living masters since his early twenties, including Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and Tulku Sangag Rinpoche. Ordained by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, he spent nine years as a Buddhist monk, with much of that time engaged in solitary meditation retreat and study in the United States, India, and Nepal.
For more information please visit: https://scotttusa.com