Advisory Board

Our Advisory Board brings together a group of community members, teachers and others who can provide insight, advice and offer ongoing support to our Board of Directors. 

Ven. Pema Chödrön - Primary Teacher, Mentor, Benefactor

Beloved Buddhist teacher, author, nun and mother, Pema Chödrön has inspired millions of people from around the world who have been touched by her example and message of practicing peace in these turbulent times.

Born in New York City, she encountered Buddhism in her mid-thirties, when she met Lama Chime Rinpoche while traveling in Europe. She received novice ordination from His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa in London in 1974, and full monastic ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong. 

Pema Chödrön's root teacher is Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, with whom she studied from 1974 until his death in 1987. She served as the director of his center Karma Dzong in Boulder, until moving to Nova Scotia in 1984 to be the director of Gampo Abbey, a monastery for western monks and nuns. Since then she has published numerous books and taught throughout North America. 

Currently, Pema spends the majority of her time in solitary retreat in Crestone under the guidance of Venerable Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche. When she is available, Pema generously leads monastic sojong ceremonies at Pema Chöling, which take place twice each lunar month.

Elizabeth Mattis Namgyal - Education Advisor

Elizabeth has studied and practiced the ancient wisdom of Mahayana Buddhism, as well as the Vajrayana tradition of the Longchen Nyingthik, for over 30 years under the guidance of her teacher and husband, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. After meeting Rinpoche in Nepal in 1985 she became his first Western student. She has been intimately involved with Rinpoche’s work in bringing Buddhist wisdom to the West, in particular the development of Mangala Shri Bhuti, an organization dedicated to the study and practice of the Longchen Nyingthik lineage. She is also a founding member and teacher of Wilderness Dharma Movement and on the advisory boards of Prison Mindfulness Network and the Buddhist Arts and Film Festival.

Elizabeth has an academic background in both Anthropology and Buddhist Studies, but her learning is also grounded in practice. After many years of solitary retreat, Rinpoche appointed Elizabeth as Retreat Master at Longchen Jigme Samten Ling, Mangala Shri Bhuti’s retreat center in southern Colorado. Elizabeth is the author of The Power of an Open Question: The Buddha’s Path to Freedom and has written a new book: The Logic of Faith: the Buddhist Path to Finding Certainty Beyond Belief and Doubt, which will be released in February 2018. She has edited Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche’s two books, It’s Up to You and Light Comes Through, and teaches the Buddhadharma throughout the United States and Europe.

When she is not traveling, she enjoys riding her horse through the vast plains of the San Luis Valley in Crestone, CO.