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Our Lineage The Shambhala Meditation Center of White River is part of an international community of 165 meditation centers founded by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and led by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. The Shambhala Buddhist path, unique in the world of Western Buddhism, combines the teachings of the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism with the Shambhala view of living an uplifted life, fully engaged with the world.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
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. "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." Visit mipham.com for more information about Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
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 Read Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's biography on the Shambhala International website. 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. The Shambhala Meditation Center of White River has had the good fortune to host many of the acharyas as visiting teachers, and we are extremely honored to have established relationships with the following Acharyas. More information on Shambhala Acharyas
Adam Lobel
Michael Greenleaf
Acharya Greenleaf began his dharma practice as a teenager after meeting a senior student from Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche’s Sangha in 1974. He attended the 1978 Shambhala Vajrayana seminary with Trungpa, Rinpoche and has twice served as residential staff at Karmê Chöling Shambhala Retreat Center in Barnet, Vermont. For the past several years, he has studied and taught at the Vajrayana Seminaries led by Trungpa Rinpoche’s dharma heir, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. He is member of the core faculty charged with establishing a cycle of teaching at Karmê Chöling under the name the Mukpo Institute. Acharya Greenleaf is a CPA and holds a MBA from New York University. He credits his dharma practice with helping him see the dream-like nature of financial information. He has served on the Boards of Shambhala, as well as Karmê Chöling, and currently serves on the Boards of the Atlantic Foundation in Hamilton, New Jersey and the Pacific Foundation in New York City. He also works as a volunteer in the development of marketing and web strategies for the nonprofit Samadhi Cushions, based in Barnet. In 2005, Sakyong Mipham appointed Michael as an Acharya or Senior Teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, giving him the name Activity Lion. Acharya Greenleaf lives with his wife, Jeanine Greenleaf, in West Barnet, Vermont.
Gaylon Ferguson Gaylon Ferguson grew up on a farm in strictly segregated East Texas. After moving east to graduate from the Phillips Exeter Academy, he studied philosophy and psychology at Yale University. There, Gaylon encountered D.T. Suzuki who confirmed "that it's not possible to learn Buddhist meditation entirely from a book." He dropped his studies and took up work on a radical Catholic fruit farm near Kalamazoo, Michigan. Soon after reading Meditation in Action, Gaylon heard the Vidyadhara teach several summer seminars in Vermont. In 1973, after giving a "particularly panic-stricken and disorganized " open house talk, Gaylon joined Tail of the Tiger Buddhist Community (now Karme Choling) where he worked in the garden, set the tractor on fire, and took people into retreat. After attending the 1975 Vajradhatu Seminary, Gaylon taught briefly at The Naropa Institute, led a dathun at the now deceased Padma Jong, and finally returned to Karme Choling, first as a staff member in the practice and study department, and then as Executive Co-director. In 1979, Gaylon journeyed west again to serve as teacher-in-residence for the Berkeley Dharmadhatu and in 1983, he joined the Office of Three Yana Studies in Boulder. Last summer, he taught View and Practice of the Buddhadharma at the 1999 Vajradhatu Seminary. Gaylon returned to Yale in 1987 to finish his undergraduate degree, this time in African Studies. In 1994, he was a Fulbright Fellow to Nigeria and completed a doctoral degree in cultural anthropology at Stanford University two years later. After several years teaching cultural anthropology at the University of Washington, Gaylon moved to Karme Choling as teacher in residence through 2005. For the Spring Semester of 2006, Acharya Ferguson was Visiting Professor in Religious Studies at Naropa University. His article, "Making Friends with Ourselves" (from the collection Dharma, Color, and Culture) was selected for inclusion in The Best Buddhist writing: 2005. Beginning in the fall of 2006, Gaylon will join the core faculty in Interdisciplinary Studies at Naropa.
Mitchell M. Levy, M.D.
Dr. Mitchell Levy has been a student of the Vidyadhara, the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche since 1971 and is a student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. In 1978 he was appointed personal physician, Lamen, to Trungpa Rinpoche and served in that capacity until the Vidyadara’s death in 1987. Dr. Levy received Vajrayogini abhisheka in 1979 and Chakramsavara abhisheka in 1985. Dr. Levy was for ten years the Executive Director of Amara Association of Health Care Professionals, in Boulder Colorado. He was integral to the development of the Dorje Kasung: holding the rank of Lamen Kyi-Khypap, being a member of the first Council of the Makkyi Rabjam, and personally serving the Vidyadhara on the road for fifteen years. For many years Dr. Levy has taught at Seminaries and has worked extensively with young people. He was instrumental in establishing Sun Camps and responsible for creating both the Rites of Passage for eight-year-olds and the Rites of Warriorship for sixteen-year-olds. Dr Levy is married to Lady Diana Mukpo and resides in Providence Rhode Island where he is a specialist in Intensive Care Medicine and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University School of Medicine. His areas of interest and research include end-of-life care, combining professional and spiritual practice, and the central role of form, tradition and devotion. He has traveled widely throughout the world, including Tibet, and was instrumental in establishing the Konchok Foundation. Eric Spiegel
Eric Spiegel was given a copy of Meditation in Action in 1971, just after his 19th birthday, by a student who would later become Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin. “It was the first time I realized that someone else knew who I was and how I saw the world,” he says. Moving to Boulder to join the growing community of students who were gathering around the Vidyadhara, he began working at Naropa Institute when it was founded in 1973 and attended Seminary in 1974. On the Vajra Regent's instructions, he moved to Karmê Chöling in 1978 and made a genuine connection with practice and teaching. Eric gave the first-ever talk on the Shambhala teachings at Karmê Chöling in February 1979 and also established a deep relationship with Vajrayana practice during his time there. Returning to his home town of New York City in 1980, Eric "stumbled" into a 22-year career on Wall Street, becoming treasurer of a private investment firm. When the firm was acquired in 2000, Eric took advantage of his freedom and fortune to explore new opportunities for practice and teaching. This journey has taken him to Shambhala Centers across the Northeast as well as to Sutrayana Seminaries at SMC and KCL, and Vajrayana Seminary at DCL. In 1991 the Sakyong appointed Eric Warrior of the Lodge for New York (he is a founding member of the International Council of Warriors) Having known and worked with the Sakyong since the mid-70s, it was at Vajrayana Seminary in the Summer of 2003 that Eric made a heart connection with the Sakyong as a teacher. He has also been inspired by Acharyas Judith Simmer Brown, Judy Lief and Robert Puts, who he says helped him find his seat as a teacher Eric has been involved in an ongoing contemplation of death and dying as part of his life and practice. He has worked extensively with people with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses, helping them explore the nature of mind as their physical conditions evolve. This has often resulted in pastoral work helping family and friends of those who have died to connect with the tenderness of grief and the "letting go" of impermanence. Eric spent several years as treasurer of the Stonewall Community Foundation and has recently taken a more active role teaching dharma in the gay community. His background on Wall Street has inspired him to explore the Buddhist teachings on wealth. As a certified yoga teacher he is experimenting with programs that combine meditation and yoga. He has long been comfortable in the teachings of both the Shambhala and Buddhist traditions. Eric has been active in the growth and development of the Center in New York for more than 20 years, and is a member of the Board of Directors. As a senior teacher there, he finds that his background and experience help him present the teachings of both the Vidyadhara and the Sakyong.
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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.
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.
Acharya 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. He is a recent father and lives with his family in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Acharya Lobel is currently pursuing graduate studies in Buddhism at the Harvard Divinity School
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