Khenpo Kunga is a Senior Tergar Lama. He became a monk at a young age and began his education at Tergar monastery, where he studied the rituals, prayers, and other traditional practices of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. At fifteen, he entered an extended meditation retreat and spent three years mastering the profound contemplative practices of the Kagyü lineage.

Lama Trinley has been the resident teacher at the Tergar Mingjue Phoenix Center since November, 2007. Lama Trinley began his education at Tergar Monastery, where he studied the rituals, prayers, and other traditional practices of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. He entered the traditional three-year retreat when he was seventeen years old, after which he spent six years training in the monastic college of Tergar Monastery, where he taught for three years as assistant professor. His command of English and his humble and gentle demeanor make him easily accessible to newcomers and experienced meditators alike.

Cortland Dahl is a scientist, translator, author, and meditation teacher with a lifelong interest in meditation and the science of flourishing. His journey began in the early 1990s when he first learned to meditate. His passion led him on a journey around the world, from monasteries in Burma to zendos in Japan, as well as eight years living in Tibetan refugee settlements in Nepal and India.

At a young age, Myoshin decided that school could not teach her what she wanted to know and that life would be her teacher. This led her to a lifelong journey of living in spiritual communities while exploring the inner terrain of being human.

Edwin Kelley first became interested in Buddhism in 1975 when he attended a meditation retreat near Perth, Australia. Then he later pursued a career as a public accountant and in 1992 went to Burma to undertake a six-month period of intensive retreat with the renowned meditation master Chanmyay Sayadaw. While practicing in Burma he ordained temporarily as a Theravada Buddhist monk. Edwin first encountered Vajrayana Buddhism in Dharamsala, India, in 1993 and became a student of Mingyur Rinpoche in 1998.

Antonia Dorthea Sumbundu is an instructor for the Tergar Meditation Community, dharma teacher, clinical psychologist, and mental health specialist. She has been practicing meditation for over 35 years.

Tim Olmsted began his Buddhist studies in 1977 under the late Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Boulder, Colorado. In 1981, Mingyur Rinpoche’s father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, was invited to teach in Boulder. Profoundly moved by him, Tim and his family moved to Kathmandu just a few months later to study with Tulku Urgyen and his sons.

During the twelve years that he lived in Nepal, Tim studied with many of the most renowned teachers living there and worked as a psychotherapist serving the international community. In 2000, Tim moved to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, at the invitation of Pema Chödrön, where he served for three years as the director of Gampo Abbey, the largest residential Buddhist monastery in North America. He is the founder and president of the Pema Chödrön Foundation, which supports monastic training and communities in need around the world.

In 2003, after a visit by Mingyur Rinpoche to Gampo Abbey, Tim started the Yongey Foundation to support and promote Mingyur Rinpoche’s activities in the West. Since its inception, Tim has been one of the five instructors for Mingyur Rinpoche’s worldwide meditation community, Tergar International.

Tim lives with his wife Glenna in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where he leads an active community that follows Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings and those of his family lineage.

Lucas Henriksson has a bachelor’s degree in Buddhist Philosophy and Himalayan Languages from the Rangjung Yeshe Institute at Kathmandu University. He also is a certified Somatic Educator in the tradition of Thomas Hanna.

When Lucas was twenty years old, he traveled to India to explore Buddhism. He met Mingyur Rinpoche in 2008 and spent the next seven years studying and practicing as a Buddhist monk. After his studies, he spent the next few years in and out of retreat.

Currently, Lucas is the curriculum developer for Tergar’s Vajrayana Online and Path of Liberation and a Tergar facilitator supporting European and online retreats.

Lucas lives in the countryside of Sweden with his partner, Sofia, and their son and daughter. When not writing Vajrayana Online courses, he enjoys spending time with his children and ending his days with a good book and a cup of tea.

Kasumi Kato is an experienced educator and meditation practitioner. She holds two master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin, where she taught the Japanese language for nearly two decades.

Kasumi’s interest in meditation began in her childhood in Japan, where she learned to meditate from a young age. In 2011, she encountered Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings and has been practicing under his guidance ever since. She has completed over a year in solitary meditation retreat, in addition to many group retreats in the Tergar community. Kasumi has also studied with some of the most respected teachers in the Tibetan tradition, including Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche, and Thrangu Rinpoche.

Kasumi currently works full-time for Tergar International as a curriculum specialist, developing Tergar meditation and training programs. She also leads Joy of Living workshops and Path of Liberation retreats around the world and oversees the activities of Tergar Japan.

Outside of her professional work, Kasumi lives with her husband Cortland and stepson, CJ, in Madison, Wisconsin. In her free time, Kasumi enjoys personal retreats, traveling, and hiking in nature.

Tsunma Kunsang Palmo, originally from England, traveled and worked around the world as an art teacher in international schools for over a decade. On a trip to Nepal, she encountered Lama Zopa Rinpoche and was so inspired by the teachings that she chose to stay in Asia and live a life immersed in the dharma. Soon after that, she traveled to Himachal Pradesh in north India where she met Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo and was further inspired by her guidance and teachings. She went on to complete a three-year retreat at Sherabling Monastery under the guidance of Mingyur Rinpoche.

Continuing to take teachings from Rinpoche, Kunsang serves as a meditation and dharma teacher for Tergar’s Joy of Living and Vajrayana Online courses, Tergar retreats, and the Tergar Institute in Osel Ling Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal. In 2021, she was invited to teach in Antigua and Trinidad for Bodhicharya, an international organization founded by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche. She now divides her time, sharing what she has learned through her years of study and practice in Kathmandu, India, and the Caribbean.

Anya Adair grew up at the Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre in Scotland, a renowned Tibetan Buddhist monastery founded by Akong Rinpoche in 1967. Immersed in this spiritual environment, she had the privilege of meeting many esteemed meditation masters. She encountered Mingyur Rinpoche during a visit to Palpung Sherab Ling in India in 2000, and she became his student in 2003 when he began teaching Mahamudra in the United Kingdom.

Beginning his journey into meditation and the wisdom traditions as a teenager, George Hughes has been a practitioner and teacher in several traditions. He found his spiritual home with his root teacher, Mingyur Rinpoche, and has dedicated his life to sharing his profound teachings. In particular, George draws inspiration from the joy, levity, and simplicity of Rinpoche’s approach.

Fionnuala Shenpen Daffy has studied and practiced Buddhism since meeting her main teachers Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Mingyur Rinpoche in Kathmandu in 1999. She has received teachings from many other Nyingma and Kagyu masters and completed a traditional four-year retreat under Pema Wangyal Rinpoche in France.

Jess McNally has devoted much of her adult life to practicing and studying Buddhism. After completing both a Bachelor and a Master of Science degree in Earth Systems at Stanford University, she moved to Zen Mountain Monastery, where she trained for over three years. During that time she completed over forty week-long sesshins (silent retreats). She then decided to pursue Tibetan Buddhism and was ordained as a monastic by Thrangu Rinpoche in 2015. She met Mingyur Rinpoche shortly afterward at Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya, India, and knew immediately he was her main teacher. Under Mingyur Rinpoche’s guidance, she completed two months-long solitary retreats in Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo’s cave in the Himalayas. Later she moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to participate in the Tergar community and the Center for Healthy Minds. In 2018, Jess chose to return to lay life and her homeland in Alberta, Canada.