User:Lyselauren

I was born in Wellington, New Zealand as the third of four children. We were raised in Nelson, a small town at the top of the South Island. At a very young age two experiences occurred which dramatically propelled my life towards the 'spiritual' and a quest for truth.

The first happened when i was 7 years old and consisted of an inexplicable and sudden awareness of 'Awareness' itself. This led me to question the nature of 'i'.

The second took place about a year later, when i was sucked out to sea by tidal currents and almost drowned.

When i was sixteen, i left home without my family's immediate knowledge, and went to live in Australia. I had felt it was time to explore 'life'. As i was about to board my flight in Christchurch, i received an anguished but profoundly loving telegram from my parents in Nelson. Their shock at my sudden and unannounced departure had been dreadful, but with the help of my wonderful grandparents, they came through the crisis and accepted my early bid for freedom.

I spent the first two years in Australia traveling. This took me overland from Adelaide to Darwin via Perth, and after a long stay in Darwin, again overland to Cairns. It was in Cairns, at the age of 18, that i began my 'quest' in earnest. I moved alone to a patch of tropical forest outside of the small town of Kuranda, and began to study meditation techniques and the Theosophical tomes of Helena Blavatsky and Alice A. Bailey.

After some months i realized that i could not achieve my purpose by sitting alone in the forest, no matter how sincere i might be or how determined. I moved down to Sydney, where i became actively involved with Sydney Goodwill, and also began to train as a classical flautist at the Sydney Conservatorium. During this time i attended classes in speech and drama at a Rudolph Steiner school in Manly. This was also a period when i studied natural medicines and undertook some training with Osteopaths and Acupuncturists.

After several years of intensive studies, i felt i was getting no nearer to my goal, and at the age of 26 i dropped everything, and flew to Lhasa in Tibet.

After traveling overland from Lhasa to Kathmandu in the autumn of 1985, i visited Darjeeling in India, where i met my first teacher, the Buddhist Lama, Kalu Rinpoche. A short time after this, i made a sudden and unplanned visit to Bodh Gaya, where i met my Root Master, H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

From this point on my life underwent a dramatic change, and during the six years that followed, i stayed close to my Master in Nepal, until he left for Bhutan, where he passed away in 1991. After his passing i decided it was time to begin serious sadhana practice in retreat. I went to Parping, a village to the south of the Kathmandu Valley, where i stayed in a small retreat center belonging to the great Dzogchen Master, Tulku Orgyen. It was here that i met Chadral Rinpoche, who has guided my Dharma practice to this day.

From 1991 until 2009 most of my time was spent near Chadral Rinpoche and in various retreat locations in the Himalayan foothills. My primary base being Das Mile Gompa near Darjeeling.

I currently spend some months of the year at my forest home near Darjeeling, and the rest of the time near the sacred hill of Arunachala in the South of India.