I am blessed to have two wonderful collaborators with whom I teach and lead retreats. I share below brief introductions to each so that you may appreciate their beautiful qualities.
Geshe Sonam Gurung was born in the province of Mustang in northwest Nepal. Mustang was a separate kingdom which became part of Nepal when the Gorkas consolidated many small kingdoms into the current state of Nepal in the late 1700s. The region has always been a trade route between Tibet, Nepal and India and has had a strongly Tibetan culture, as well as a long history of great yogis and saints living in the caves and monasteries of the high Himalayas in the region. Geshe Sonam grew up in a small village and was drawn to the spiritual life at an early age, and went on to become a monk and study at Menri Monastery in northern India as a boy, a story which has been told in the documentary film, From Mustang to Menri. He studied at Menri monastery many years and was awarded the Geshe degree, many times compared to a PhD in Buddhist philosophy. His root teacher was His Holiness Lungtog Tenpai Nyima, the abbott of Menri, the 33rd Menri Trizen, the head of the entire Bön religion across Tibet, Nepal and India. At the monastery he served in many roles, including treasurer and guest master, which drew him into contact with many visitors from the West, which honed his language skills. Geshe-la is fluent in Tibetan, Nepali, Hindi, and English.
Though he enjoyed his service at Menri monastery, he felt drawn to return to his homeland in Mustang and serve the people there, and was encouraged by his teacher to found a new monastery there to train future generations of monks. After over 12 years of hard work and fundraising, the first phase of Shenten Thagye Ling Monastery was consecrated in 2024. With the completion of phases 2 and 3, the monastery will also include a public medical clinic, space for community events, guest rooms, and housing and classrooms for 100 monks. Geshe-la also coordinates a Children’s Cultural and Educational Program that provides housing, food and education for over 60 Bonpo children from throughout Mustang.
Geshe Sonam teaches throughout the US, Australia, Europe and Thailand. He collaborated with Dan Brown of Harvard University to translate and publish many important spiritual texts of Bön including: Pith Instructions for A-Tri Dzogchen, The Six Lamps, Self-Arising Three-fold Embodiment of Enlightenment of Bon Dzogchen Meditation, Enlightened Intention, The Good Spiritual Life, and Dying into Rainbow Body, The Precious Treasury of the Expanse and Awakened Awareness, The Twenty-One Nails, and Heart Drops of Kuntuzangpo.
Geshe-la teaches with passion, directness, wisdom and compassion. It is a beautiful privilege to share the teachings with him.
Amchi Khedup Loden Gurung is a highly educated physician of the Tibetan medical tradition. He trained in both the Bon spiritual traditions and Tibetan medicine at Menri Monastery in northern India, and then returned to Mustang to be the director of Chebu Medical Clinic. He sees on average 300 patients per month, many of whom travel from remote villages to seek his care. At times he also travels to outlying villages in the Himalayas and offers remote clinics. He offers all his services in the clinic on a donation basis, with many patients only paying from the medicines he supplies. As a physician, his main spiritual practice is the meditation of the Medicine Buddha. Amchi-la has a heart filled with compassion and wisdom and it is my great pleasure to support him in his teachings in the West.