DISCOVERING THE HEART OF BUDDHISM

Shenpen and her Teachers

Shenpen Hookham is the Principal Teacher of Discovering the Heart of Buddhism.

In the 1970s she went to India on the advice of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, where she lived among the Tibetans as a nun for six years. There she studied and meditated in retreat under the guidance of Tibetan teachers such as Karma Thinley Rinpoche, Bokar Rinpoche and Kalu Rinpoche. In 1978 HH the Karmapa, head of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, instructed her to return to the West to teach.

There she met Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, who became her main teacher. She also met her husband, Rigdzin Shikpo, whom she taught alongside for twenty years and who has been a great source of inspiration and guidance for her. In all she has spent nine years in retreat, and Khenpo Rinpoche is so well satisfied with her understanding and meditation experience that he has encouraged her, as lama, to teach and transmit Mahamudra, the innermost teachings of the Kagyu tradition.

Shenpen is fluent in Tibetan and has translated a number of Tibetan texts into English for her students. On Khenpo Rinpoche's instructions she produced a seminal study of the profound Buddha Nature doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism, published as The Buddha Within, and gained a doctorate in this from Oxford University.

Since then, Khenpo Rinpoche and Rigdzin Shikpo have encouraged Shenpen to develop her teaching activity further. Thus she created Discovering the Heart of Buddhism over a period of more than seven years. Students inspired by her teaching formed the Awakened Heart Sangha, a spiritual community under her direction.

Shenpen now spends most of her time in semi-retreat at the Hermitage of the Awakened Heart, in Wales, UK. From there she comes out regularly to teach, as well as giving interviews and advice to students in person and over the phone, by letter and by email.

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche is one of the foremost living teachers of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, a great scholar and master of meditation who travels the world teaching in Buddhism centres everywhere.

In his late teens and early twenties he trained as a yogin in Tibet with a local yogin known as Zopa Tharchin, who was later killed by the Chinese. He spent his early youth in retreat in the mountains until his teacher told him to study for the benefit of others. A renowned scholar, he excels in philosophical debate and always aims to turn the minds of his opponents and students towards their own inner experience rather than getting lost in intellectual fabrications.

After the Chinese invasion of Tibet Khenpo Rinpoche fled to India in 1960. He spent many years in Bhutan as a wandering yogin, meditating in caves and hermitages. In 1975 he was asked by the head of the Kagyu tradition to come and be Abbot of the main Kagyu centre in the West, in France. However he asked instead to be allowed to travel and help people everywhere.

He has done that ever since, leading a truly simple, homeless life; he is a master of non-attachment. He has many times refused to accept property to build Buddhist centres and he regularly gives away all of his money. Khenpo Rinpoche demonstrates the carefree life of a yogin, singing spontaneous songs of realisation wherever he goes, devoted only to the welfare of others.

Rigdzin Shikpo sometimes teaches on Discovering the Heart of Buddhism. He met his main teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1965, who gave him extensive instruction in both the preliminary and main practices of Dzogchen, the innermost teachings of the Nyingma tradition. Rigdzin Shikpo practised these teachings for the next 35 years in the midst of an ordinary life as a mathematician and physicist.

On Trungpa Rinpoche's instructions Rigdzin Shikpo also began to teach, which he has now been doing for thirty-five years, making him one of the most experienced Western teachers of Buddhism. Trungpa Rinpoche also encouraged Rigdzin Shikpo to receive teachings from other Tibetan teachers, and as a result he developed deep connections with H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, Ngagkpa Yeshe Dorje and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche.

Since Trungpa Rinpoche's death in 1987, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche has been Rigdzin Shikpo's main source of advice and inspiration. Khenpo Rinpoche is so well satisfied with his understanding and meditation experience that he has encouraged him, as lama, to teach and transmit Dzogchen. In 1993 he completed a 3 year retreat, and at that time Khenpo Rinpoche gave him the name Rigdzin Shikpo in recognition of his realisations.

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