LAMA URGYEN CHÖKI DORJE
Born in Belgium in February 1968, in the Year of the Monkey or Year of Guru Rinpoche, Lama Chödor is the son of one of the first Western Buddhists of the Tibetan School and one of the first Tibetan to French translators. At the age of merely eight years he travelled to India and Nepal, by his own decision, to study the teachings of the Buddha.
In Nepal, he would find one who would become his first Master, Venerable Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, an unparalleled Dzogchen Master, who was also Master of the Sixteenth Karmapa. Lama Chödor also received a unique spiritual relationship between Master and disciple with Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and many others of the latest Tibetan Masters of the twentieth century.
From an early age, Lama Chödor, as he is affectionately called, received from the hands of Masters (or Lamas) their instructions, transmissions, and spiritual empowerments. Among those masters are counted some who have always been considered the spiritual giants of the Tibetan tradition; besides Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and his Venerable wife Khandro Mayumi Rinpoche, we can name Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, the Sixteenth Karmapa Rigpe Dorje, Thrangu Rinpoche, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Chokling Rinpoche, Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche and Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, among many other Rinpoches, Khenpos, and Lamas.
He would become Lama Urgyen Chokyi Dorje, a Kanyinga Spiritual Guide, that is, one following the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
Within the Nyingma School, Lama Chödor has a very close connection with the Lineages of Chokling Tersar, Longchen Nyingthig, and the Mindrolling Tradition. From the Kagyu School, his lineage holds the Karma Kagyu tradition. He has additionally received many other teachings from other Tibetan Lineages.
From Tulku Urgyen, none other than the father of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche and Chokling Rinpoche, the current holders of the Chokling Tersar Lineage, and with whom Lama Urgyen Chödor maintains a close relationship, both through his family as well as spiritual ties, he not only received the instructions of the wonderful Lineage of the Termas of Chogyur Lingpa and of the Kagyu Lineage, among others, but he was also instructed to assume the functions of a Lama.
In this way, Lama Urgyen Chödor has received an unique training, a harmonious blend between the most profound Tibetan Buddhist culture and an European education. This makes him an incomparable Dharma teacher, transmitting the Dharma in an accessible, practical way, free from the cultural trappings that so often hinder a genuine understanding of Buddhist practice.
