Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

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august
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Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by august »

I got introduced to Buddhism several decades ago and I never thought seriously about finding a teacher.
Reading dharma books, meditation (lately) and trying to be a sane human being has been it for me.
Now I feel like it's time to get serious and dig deep.

How would you go about finding a good teacher (Nyingma) in Europe?

Only internationally understood language I know is English (reading, writing, speaking).
Someone who speaks good English and has no need for a translator would be awesome.

Your good advice is more than welcome.
Domingo
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by Domingo »

Europe is quite big. If you can narrow down the area a little bit I might be able to help...
གཏད་མེད་བྱུང་རྒྱལ་དུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
འཛིན་མེད་རང་གྲོལ་དུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
གུ་ཡངས་བློ་བདེ་རུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
མ་བཅོས་རང་བབས་སུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
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august
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by august »

Domingo wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 1:00 pm Europe is quite big. If you can narrow down the area a little bit I might be able to help...
We do not have any teachers around here. To meet someone personally, I have to travel no matter where they are in Europe.
This - "Only internationally understood language I know is English..." - probably eliminates most (but not all) of the France, Italy, Spain and Germany.
Domingo
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by Domingo »

august wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 1:43 pm We do not have any teachers around here. To meet someone personally, I have to travel no matter where they are in Europe.
I just wanted to try to help, and I thought it's probably more convenient for you if I give you the names of lamas near you, instead of lamas residing thousands of kilometers away.
august wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 1:43 pm This - "Only internationally understood language I know is English..." - probably eliminates most (but not all) of the France, Italy, Spain and Germany.
1. Every Tibetan lama I know who's residing in Europe speaks English (of course, some better, some worse).

2. I don't understand your argument about excluding countries. Following this argument, you would have to exclude every single European country - except for UK. Or do you think they speak better English in Albania or Romania than in Germany or France?
གཏད་མེད་བྱུང་རྒྱལ་དུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
འཛིན་མེད་རང་གྲོལ་དུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
གུ་ཡངས་བློ་བདེ་རུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
མ་བཅོས་རང་བབས་སུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
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Domingo
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by Domingo »

Anyway, here's a list of some Lamas residing in Europe:

Khenpo Dawa is the resident lama in the german Palyul center:
http://palyul.eu/germany/teachers/khenpo-dawa

Dzogchen Ranyak Patrul Rinpoche lives in Belgium:
https://www.patrulrinpoche.net

Tulku Lodoe Rinpoche also lives in Belgium:
https://meditation-brussels-en.mystrikingly.com

Lama Dawa Norbu is in UK:
http://palyul.eu/uk/teachers/dawa-lama-norbu

Khenpo Karma Wangyel lives in France:
https://www.yeshekhorlo-pemayangdzong.com/en/index.htm

Lama Tenzin Samphel is resident lama in Shedup Kunsang Choling in France:
https://www.shedup-kunsang-choling.com/Le_centre.F.htm

Khen Rinpoche Pema Chophel also used to live in Europe, but I'm not sure if he's still there:
http://palyul.eu/uk/teachers/ven-pema-rinpoche

Lama Tenzin is resident lama in Rangjung Yeshe Gomde in Austria:
https://gomde.eu

I think Ugyen Rinpoche also lives in Europe, but I'm not sure:
https://ngakde.org/en/lama.php

James Low from UK:
https://simplybeing.co.uk/
གཏད་མེད་བྱུང་རྒྱལ་དུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
འཛིན་མེད་རང་གྲོལ་དུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
གུ་ཡངས་བློ་བདེ་རུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
མ་བཅོས་རང་བབས་སུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
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august
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by august »

Domingo wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 4:03 pm Anyway, here's a list of some Lamas residing in Europe:

Khenpo Dawa is the resident lama in the german Palyul center:
http://palyul.eu/germany/teachers/khenpo-dawa

Dzogchen Ranyak Patrul Rinpoche lives in Belgium:
https://www.patrulrinpoche.net

Tulku Lodoe Rinpoche also lives in Belgium:
https://meditation-brussels-en.mystrikingly.com

Lama Dawa Norbu is in UK:
http://palyul.eu/uk/teachers/dawa-lama-norbu

Khenpo Karma Wangyel lives in France:
https://www.yeshekhorlo-pemayangdzong.com/en/index.htm

Lama Tenzin Samphel is resident lama in Shedup Kunsang Choling in France:
https://www.shedup-kunsang-choling.com/Le_centre.F.htm

Khen Rinpoche Pema Chophel also used to live in Europe, but I'm not sure if he's still there:
http://palyul.eu/uk/teachers/ven-pema-rinpoche

Lama Tenzin is resident lama in Rangjung Yeshe Gomde in Austria:
https://gomde.eu

I think Ugyen Rinpoche also lives in Europe, but I'm not sure:
https://ngakde.org/en/lama.php

James Low from UK:
https://simplybeing.co.uk/
This is nice. Thanks.
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heart
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by heart »

august wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 11:09 am I got introduced to Buddhism several decades ago and I never thought seriously about finding a teacher.
Reading dharma books, meditation (lately) and trying to be a sane human being has been it for me.
Now I feel like it's time to get serious and dig deep.

How would you go about finding a good teacher (Nyingma) in Europe?

Only internationally understood language I know is English (reading, writing, speaking).
Someone who speaks good English and has no need for a translator would be awesome.

Your good advice is more than welcome.
Tulku Dakpa is in Finland not far from Helsinki. He speaks English. https://danakosha.org
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
Domingo
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by Domingo »

heart wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 5:03 pm Tulku Dakpa is in Finland not far from Helsinki. He speaks English. https://danakosha.org
Right, completely forgot about him (as he's a little bit far away from Austria, where I live ;-) )
གཏད་མེད་བྱུང་རྒྱལ་དུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
འཛིན་མེད་རང་གྲོལ་དུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
གུ་ཡངས་བློ་བདེ་རུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
མ་བཅོས་རང་བབས་སུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
ཨ་ཨ།
Domingo
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by Domingo »

august wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 4:44 pm This is nice. Thanks.
I'm glad if I can help. BTW, if you're interested in Dzogchen, I really wouldn't limit it to Nyingma lamas, as there are also some great and interesting lamas from Drikung & Bön tradition residing in Europe, like Lama Sangye Mönlam in Austria, Geshe Lhundup, Khenzur Nyima Wangyal Rinpoche or the lamas in Shenten in France.
གཏད་མེད་བྱུང་རྒྱལ་དུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
འཛིན་མེད་རང་གྲོལ་དུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
གུ་ཡངས་བློ་བདེ་རུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
མ་བཅོས་རང་བབས་སུ་ཞོག་ཅིག།
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philji
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by philji »

Erik PemaKunsang.. Denmark
Yangsi Kalu Rinpoche… France..( not Nyingma but a very good communicator).
oldbob
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by oldbob »

:namaste:

If you can get to France - there resides a wish fulfilling gem of Dharma.

https://www.shabkar.org/teachers/tibeta ... angyal.htm


Don't know if he is taking new students but he is very kind and knows English enough.

If you want a traditional Nagyur Nyingma Lama you can't do better than Tulku Pema.

Lama Vajranatha is in Hungary - I think. and is perhaps the most practiced of all of the followers of ChNN, and perhaps the most practiced Westerner of Tibetan Buddhism. He holds several Nyingmapa, Kargu, and Bon hats.

https://vajranatha.com/

also,

https://www.facebook.com/lamavajranatha

For a Westerner teaching Tibetan Buddhism, you can't do better than Lama Vajranatha who teaches in clear and direct native English.

https://vajranatha.com/

Also for Dream Yoga,

https://www.charliemorley.com/about-me


Charlie is a Kargyu by training he teaches Dream yoga in a Kar / Nying fashion and I trust him as a real teacher of Dream Yoga.

For those who have studied Dream Yoga within the Dzogchen Community, Charlie is a breath of fresh air and explains things in new, clear and useful ways.

I have taken two Dream Yoga courses with him and learned many new techniques of Dream Yoga.

:heart:
FieldBob
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by FieldBob »

Bön tradition seem very generous these days in direct introduction teachings, very easily accessible, lots of promotions easy to find, great teachers etc.

A fair question then would be, what is the difference between Bön dzogchen and nyinmga dzogchen if we only consider the Direct introduction part? Is it the same? Should one choose and stick to either one of them or its only a matter of introduction one could in fact mix?
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by treehuggingoctopus »

oldbob wrote: Wed Jan 25, 2023 1:24 amLama Vajranatha is in Hungary - I think. and is perhaps the most practiced of all of the followers of ChNN, and perhaps the most practiced Westerner of Tibetan Buddhism. He holds several Nyingmapa, Kargu, and Bon hats.

https://vajranatha.com/

also,

https://www.facebook.com/lamavajranatha

For a Westerner teaching Tibetan Buddhism, you can't do better than Lama Vajranatha who teaches in clear and direct native English.

https://vajranatha.com/
Vajranatha lives in Poland, not Hungary. He settled down in Szczecin some 10 years ago. He has got a tiny semi-formal centre there, where they do mostly Dudjom Tersar practices, but occasionally go beyond DT to other things Nyingma and, indeed, Bon:

https://www.facebook.com/kuntuzangpo.net
FieldBob wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 1:04 pm Bön tradition seem very generous these days in direct introduction teachings, very easily accessible, lots of promotions easy to find, great teachers etc.

A fair question then would be, what is the difference between Bön dzogchen and nyinmga dzogchen if we only consider the Direct introduction part? Is it the same? Should one choose and stick to either one of them or its only a matter of introduction one could in fact mix?
All my Nyingma and Bon teachers say: No difference whatsoever.

Given the fact that GY in Dzogchen means unifying all one's teachers, once you have received Dzogchen from Bon lamas, you will be including them in the refuge tree. Not sure if it is mixing, but it is not an issue -- not for me, in any case, and not for thousands of us in Central/Eastern Europe (not an issue for my teachers either, of course, since they insist we unify all our teachers). Bon teachers are frequent guests here, their sanghas solid and well-organised, the centres accessible, the events affordable -- it would be unforgivable to miss out on any of it due to sectarian feelings, if you ask me.

A great residing Bon lama is Geshe Nyima Woser aka Choekhortshang Rinpoche (https://boninfo.org/persona/333777). He lives in Prague, speaks Czech fluently (and has sufficient command of English to teach in English, too), and teaches at Charles University, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree. He is mostly Dzogchen-oriented and thoroughly nonsectarian (also: humble, kind, endlessly patient... A lovely fella). And he has sort of gone native in Czechia. One could have really high hopes here.
august wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 11:09 amHow would you go about finding a good teacher (Nyingma) in Europe?

Only internationally understood language I know is English (reading, writing, speaking).
Someone who speaks good English and has no need for a translator would be awesome.

Your good advice is more than welcome.
Not residing, but regular guests in the EU are our three wonderful ngakpa lamas: Loppon Ogyan Tanzin Rinpoche, Norbu Tsering Rinpoche, and, last but by no means least, Karma Lhundup Rinpoche. Should you need more info, just drop me a PM.
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Le critère est l’hospitalité.

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climb-up
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by climb-up »

Dr Nida resides in Rome, speaks perfect english, and travels frequently teaching the Yuthok Nyingthig, Sowa Rigpa, and mantra healing.

https://www.drnida.com/
"Death's second name is 'omnipresent.' On the relative truth it seems we become separate. But on the absolute there is no separation." Lama Dawa
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august
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by august »

Thanks guys. This is a very impressive list.

I found contacts addresses for the most but some are hiding :)
For example, how do you contact Lama Vajranatha. No contact information on web.

I guess it's time to start typing the "Hello, I am... " letter. :smile:
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Re: Any advice on finding a good teacher in Europe?

Post by Konchog Thogme Jampa »

august wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 5:42 pm
For example, how do you contact Lama Vajranatha. No contact information on web.
There's a Facebook page type his name it will come up I know he's giving Dorje Drolo soonish
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