Our Lineage Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is the head of the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, a spiritual and family lineage that descends through his family, the Mukpo clan. This tradition emphasizes the basic goodness of all beings and teaches the art of courageous warriorship based on wisdom and compassion.
Rinpoche is the son and heir of the Vidyadhara, the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. His background embraces both Eastern and Western cultures. Born in India, he received spiritual training from his father and other distinguished lamas and received further education and training in Europe and North America. He now travels extensively teaching worldwide, and is married to the Sakyong Wangmo, Khandro Tseyang.
"When we talk about enlightened society, we aren't talking about some utopia where everyone's enlightened. We're talking about a culture of human beings who know the awakened nature of basic goodness and invoke its energy in order to courageously extend themselves to others." If you would like to hear a recording of a talk by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, please go here.
Visit mipham.com for more information about Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.
 
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche Sakyong and Sakyong Wangmo at their wedding in Boulder, Colorado
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was one of the most dynamic teachers of Buddhism in the 20th Century. He was a pioneer in bringing the Buddhist teachings of Tibet to the West and is credited with introducing many Buddhist concepts into the English language and psyche in a fresh and new way.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the former supreme abbot of Surmang Monasteries in Tibet, is known as the foremost meditation master and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. In the early 1970s, he founded Naropa University, the first Buddhist-inspired university in North America, along with over 100 meditation centers worldwide and authored two dozen books on meditation, poetry, art and the Shambhala path of warriorship.
"The Buddhist tradition teaches the truth of impermanence, or the transitory nature of things. The past is gone and the future has not yet happened, so we work with what is here -- the present situation. This actually helps us not to categorize or theorize. A fresh, living situation is taking place all the time, on the spot. This noncategorical approach comes from being fully here, rather than trying to reconnect with past events. We don't have to look back to the past in order to see what people are made out of. Human beings speak for themselves, on the spot." Read Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's biography on the Shambhala International website.

Trungpa Rinpoche in Boston At Logan airport
(recognize the chairs?!)
Acharyas (Senior Teachers)
The Acharyas of Shambhala are senior teachers appointed by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. As the Sakyong's representatives, the acharyas, who are empowered to offer refuge and bodhisattva vows, bring the continuity of the lineage into the living teaching environment of local Shambhala centers. Boston has the good fortune to not only host many of the acharyas as visiting teachers, but we are extremely honored to have Acharya Emily Bower and Acharya Adam Lobel live locally.
Acharya Emily Bower

Emily Bower started practicing in the Shambhala community in 1987, the year that Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche passed away. She met Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in 1991, when he came to teach in Berkeley, CA, where she was living at the time. She became his student then and has served as his editor for various projects including his first book, Turning the Mind into an Ally. She has studied kyudo with Kanjuro Shibata Sensei and she is a lifelong member of the Dorje Kasung. In 1991, she joined the staff of Karme Choling, where she lived for three years. She currently lives in Boston, MA, and works as an acquiring book editor for Shambhala Publications. She ha been an acharya since 2004.
Acharya Adam Lobel

Adam Lobel has lived and studied Buddhism in monasteries in Tibet, Nepal and India. A close student of the Sakyong, he traveled with Rinpoche on his 2001 trip to Tibet. Acharya Lobel was one of the co-editors of Turning the Mind into an Ally and has been responsible for creating meditation programs based on this book. Acharya Lobel has completed a Master's in Divinity and is currently pursuing post graduate studies in Buddhism at Harvard. He recently moved to Pittsburgh, PA but visits us regularly to teach programs.
For information on the other Shambhala Acharyas, please click here.
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