Namgyal Rinpoché

A great teacher and enlightened being; he was born in Toronto, Canada, to parents of Irish-Scottish descent.

After attending a Christian seminary college and participating in politics, he travelled to England, where he pursued his interest in the sciences and arts, especially modern psychology and metaphysics.

In the late 1950s, he travelled to Bodh Gaya and to Burma, where he was ordained and given the name Ananda Bodhi.

After intensive meditation in Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka, he received the title Acariya.

Invited by the English Sangha Trust to teach, he returned to England in 1962 and, while there, founded several retreat centres.

He returned to Canada in 1965 and a year later, with a group of students, established the Dharma Centre of Canada, a study and meditation centre near Kinmount, Ontario.

For the next five years, Rinpoche taught in Canada, mostly in Toronto and at the Dharma Centre. During this period he also travelled abroad, accompanied by many of his students.

During visits to the principal Tibetan monasteries in India and Sikkim, he met H.H. the Dalai Lama and H. H. the XVIth Karmapa, who recognising him as fully enlightened had him enthroned.

Namgyal Rinpoche's dedication to the liberation of all that live, along with his interest in all formations (including this planet and its flora and fauna) was as tireless as it was vast. A master of Mahamudra, he was unique in his ability to encompass and bridge the traditional methods of Buddhism and eastern forms of unfoldment, transmitting the path of awakening in universal terms according to beings interest and proclivities.

Rinpoche traveled throughout the world giving teaching, most frequently at centres established by his students in North and Central America, Great Britain, Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

Rinpoche passed away on October 22nd 2003.