Lama Tsering Wangdu Rinpoche is a lineage holder of the Longchen Nyingthig, Shije, and Chöd traditions. Born in 1935 in Tingri Langkor, Tibet, he received transmission and training from his root Lama, Naptra Rinpoche, and completed the traditional 108 charnel ground Chöd pilgrimage before he was twenty. Naptra Rinpoche sent Lama Wangdu to Nepal on pilgrimage shortly before the Chinese closed the border in 1959. A well-trained and experienced yogi, he has lived in Nepal ever since, spending much of his life in retreat and serving the Tibetan refugee community.

In Nepal, Tibet, and China, Rinpoche is well known as an accomplished Chöd practitioner and healer. Until 2018, he was the Abbot of Pal Gyi Langkor Jangsem Kunga Ling Monastery in Boudha, Nepal, which he founded in 2000. Today he is mostly in retreat or teaching and leading practice communities in the United States.

Rinpoche’s style is, in the yogic tradition, simple and direct. Though he often teaches by telling stories of yogis and yoginis, he encourages people to focus on practice rather than discussion and his retreats reflect his confidence in experiential realization.

Chöd is Rinpoche’s heart practice. He received the empowerment to practice Chöd soon after meeting Naptra Rinpoche and spent many years practicing in retreat in Nepal and Tibet. Machik Labdron and Padampa Sangye, the founders of this tradition, lived and practiced in the same valleys and mountains and left behind a rich tradition that he now holds.

Rinpoche telling a story about Padampa Sangye

Chöd is a practice of cutting through ego-clinging through offering what we value most, our own body, to whoever and whatever wishes to have it. Chöd involves all of the senses, as one practices it by visualizing the offering while singing, dancing and playing ritual instruments. Practitioners who accomplish the practice find themselves free of the hope and fear that prevents one from truly helping others in every situation.