Vajrapani Institute
P.O. Box 2130
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
(831) 338-6654 

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Venerable Tenzin Chogkyi

 

Ven. Tenzin Chogkyi became interested in meditation after reading Be Here Now and Autobiography of a Yogi in the early ’70’s. For the next twenty years, her spiritual path was meandering and haphazard, and included several dead-ends, until she bought a one-way ticket to India in early 1991 with the intention of meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She became a student not only of His Holiness, but also of Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the year she spent studying at Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala and Kopan Monastery.

In late 1991, she was asked by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to come back to the US to become the co-director of Vajrapani Institute in California. In 1995, she began working at FPMT International Office, first as co-director and then later as center services coordinator. In early 2000, she began a long, solitary retreat that lasted six and a half years. Ven. Tenzin Chogkyi decided to become ordained in the third year of her long retreat, and then left retreat for a quick trip to India in 2004 for novice ordination with His Holiness.  

When she emerged from retreat in the summer of 2006, she moved to Land of Medicine Buddha in California, where she taught both there and at the local community center in Santa Cruz, in addition to teaching in prisons, facilitating a support group for women with chronic illness, and providing spiritual support to hospice patients. In the summer of 2008 she embarked on the “homeless life” and has been teaching at various centers worldwide. As of August 2009, in addition to touring, she is also based part-time at Vajrapani Institute in Boulder Creek, California.

To view Ven. Tenzin Chogkyi's full teaching schedule, please vist her blog.