Gyatrul Rinpoche

Gyatrul Rinpoche (b. 1925) is a senior lama of the Palyul lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Born in the Gyalrong region of eastern Tibet in 1925, Gyatrul Rinpoche was recognized at a young age by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and Tulku Natsok Rangdrol as the incarnation of Sampa Künkyap, a Payul lineage meditator who spent his life in retreat and who later gave empowerments and transmissions from his retreat cave to multitudes of disciples.

After being brought to Palyul Domang Monastery, home of his previous incarnation, the young Gyatrul was educated by his tutor, Sangye Gon. During his extensive spiritual training, he received personal instruction on many Buddhist treatises by numerous renowned masters of the Nyingma tradition, including Tulku Natsok Rangdrol, Payul Chogtrul Rinpoche, Apkong Khenpo, and His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche. In Tibet he received the oral transmission and instructions on the Shyitro Gongpa Rangdrol from the eminent Lama Norbu Tenzin. After fleeing from Tibet into exile in India in 1959, Gyatrul Rinpoche continued his spiritual training and served the Tibetan community in India in various ways until 1972, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama sent him to Canada to offer spiritual guidance to Tibetans who had settled there.

Since then, he has taught widely throughout North America, establishing numerous Buddhist centers, which include Tashi Choling in Oregon, Orgyen Dorje Den in the San Francisco Bay area, Norbu Ling in Austin, Texas, Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, and a center in Ensenada, Mexico. He presently moves back and forth between his principle center, Tashi Choling, and his home in Half Moon Bay, California.

Publications

• Meditation, Transformation, and Dream Yoga
• Gyatrul Rinpoche, Generating the Deity, translated by Sangye Khandro (Snow Lion, 1996)
• Padmasambhava, Natural Liberation—Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos, commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche, translated by Allan Wallace (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1998, 2008)
• A Spacious Path to Freedom
• Naked Awareness