Yangsi Rinpoche was recognized as the reincarnation of Geshe Ngawang Gendun, a renowned scholar and practitioner from Western Tibet, at the age of six. Rinpoche trained in the traditional monastic system for over twenty-five years, and in 1995 graduated with the highest degree of Geshe Lharampa from Sera Je Monastery in South India. He then completed his studies at Gyume Tantric College, and in 1998, having the particular wish to benefit Western students of the Buddhadharma, Rinpoche came to the West to teach and travel extensively throughout America and Europe. Rinpoche is currently President of Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon, and the Spiritual Director of Ganden Shedrup Ling Buddhist Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle, Washington and Tara Buddhist Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Rinpoche teaches in English and is admired wherever he travels for his unique presentation of the Dharma, his interest in and enthusiasm for Western culture, and his evident embodiment of the wisdom and compassion of the Buddhist path.

The recognized incarnation of FPMT's founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe, was in his early life known as Lama Osel. Today he prefers to be simply called Osel. Tenzin Osel Hita is a 21st century radical freethinker, humanitarian, documentary filmmaker, musician, father, friend, life-long student and former Buddhist monk. In 1986, when Osel was just over one year old, His Holiness the Dalai Lama confirmed Lama Zopa Rinpoche's observations that Osel was the unmistaken reincarnation of FPMT's founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe. Osel was enthroned in March 1987 at Tushita Retreat Center in Dharamsala, India. In 1991 at the age of seven, Osel began his monastic education at Sera Je Monastery in Southern India. He continued his studies there until 2003, when he relocated to Victoria, British Columbia to engage in a traditional Western education. Since 2010, he has been offering talks at various FPMT centers around the world, and in May 2020, he was appointed Director of Tushita Retreat Center in Spain.

Geshe Sherab was born in Nepal in 1967, entered Kopan monastery at the age of 9 and was ordained by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche. After 10 years of study in Kopan, he went to Sera Je Monastery for further studies in 1987, and graduated as Geshe at the end of 1999. After that he joined Gyume Tantric College for a year. Then he taught young monks at Kopan for a year. In 2001 he was sent by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to New Mexico to serve at the International Office of FPMT as well as teach at Thubten Norbu Ling in Santa Fe and Ksiti Garba Center in Taos as resident teacher. He also served as Board member of FPMT for 2 years during that period. He is currently resident teacher at TNL in Sante Fe.

Ordained since the late 1970s, Venerable Robina has worked full time since then for Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche's FPMT. Over the years she has served as editorial director of Wisdom Publications, editor of Mandala Magazine, executive director of Liberation Prison Project, and as a touring teacher of Buddhism. Her life and work with prisoners has been featured in the documentary films Chasing Buddha and Key to Freedom.

Venerable Amy was ordained as a Buddhist nun in June 2000 by the great Tibetan master, Venerable Choden Rinpoche, and has been teaching extensively since 1992. Her teaching style emphasizes a practical approach to integrating Buddhist philosophy into everyday life. She is happy to help people connect with meditation and mindfulness in an effort to gain a refreshing perspective on normally stressful living.

At the beginning of 1998, Don left the Bay Area to attend the FPMT’s Masters Program of Buddhist Studies. in Sutra and Tantra, a full-time seven-year residential study program in Tuscany, Italy, taught by the incomparable scholar and kind Spiritual Friend, Geshe Jampa Gyatso. By 2004, he successfully completed all five subjects of the program and received an FPMT final certificate with high honors. Soon after, Don moved to Santa Fe and served as the Spiritual Program Coordinator for TNL, and in 2006 he was appointed Resident Teacher.

Venerable Sangye Khadro (Kathleen McDonald) was born in California, and began studying Buddhism in Dharamsala, India in 1973. She became a Buddhist nun in Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 1974, and took bhikshuni ordination in 1988. Over the years, she has studied with various teachers including Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lama Thubten Yeshe, and the Dalai Lama. At the request of her teachers, Ven. Sangye Khadro began teaching in 1979, and since then has taught in many countries around the world. She is the author of How to Meditate and Awakening the Kind Heart (Wisdom Publications). She completed the Masters Program in Istituto Lama Tsong Khapa, Italy, in 2013, and is currently residing in Sravasti Abbey and teaching online.  

Venerable Lobsang Détchèn was born in the suburbs of Paris in 1980 and ordained in 2006, Ven. Détchèn met the Dharma in Nepal in 2002 and has participated in numerous retreats guided by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. She is a graduate of the Basic Program and a registered FPMT teacher since 2010. She is currently studying at Nalanda Monastery and offering service as Director and translator of Éditions Mahayana, a French publishing house.

Venerable Thubten Kalden (Marcos Troia) is a 33 year old Brazilian monk currently studying at Nalanda Monastery in France. He also holds the position of the Monastery’s Assistant Director. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and raised in a small town in the mountains outside of Rio, Venerable Kalden left Brazil and the corporate world of investment banking when he was 25 years old to travel. He landed in Nepal and India where he began to study the Dharma and the Tibetan language at both Sera Je Monastery in South India and in Dharamsala.  Before going to France, Venerable Kalden was the interim director at the Tushita Retreat Center in Catalunya, Spain worked alongside Lama Tenzin Ösel Hita. He studied and served at Jamyang Buddhist Center in London and Oseling Retreat Center in Spain. He has completed many retreats and attended numerous teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ling Rinpoche and Khadro-la as well as other teachers from different lineages and schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Venerable Kalden took ordination with Lama Zopa Rinpoche in January 2020. He is following Rinpoche’s advice to help FPMT in whatever way possible. He continues to dedicate his life and unify his Dharma studies and skills with the wish to help coordinate different FPMT projects all over the world and to help people find the precious Dharma and apply it to their minds so they can achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Venerable Kalden is a certified lawyer and accountant and holds an MBA in corporate finance.

Geshe Konchog Kyab was born in 1961 in Sikkim in the Himalayan region of East India, where his parents had sought asylum after fleeing Tibet to escape the Chinese occupation in 1959. When he was 12 years old, Geshe Konchog joined the Sera-Je Monastery located in the Karnataka State of South India. The original Sera was one of the three Great Monasteries in Tibet. A few years after entering Sera-Je, Geshe Konchog became a Novice monk. He followed his teachings carefully by memorizing, studying and debating the five major texts of Tibetan Buddhism. When he was 22 years old, he took full ordination. In 1993, Geshe Konchog passed his Geshe Examination from Sera-Je Monastery University. The degree of Geshe is the highest monastery degree, equivalent to a Doctorate in Philosophy from Western Universities. After that, Geshe la went to Gyumed Tantric College studying the precepts of Tantra. In 1994, Geshe Konchog returned to Sera-Je Monastery where he taught his disciples. In 1996, he was elected as Discipline Master of Tehore Khamtsen House of Sera-Je, which has 1300 monks. In 1998, Geshe la left his Monastery and traveled to Switzerland, Germany and Austria for one year. Geshe La was invited to Tubten Kunga Center by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 2000. He served as our resident teacher from 2000-2016.

Hans Burghardt holds a BA and a MA in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a PhD from the University of Barcelona, where he spent seven years doing research. Since 2002, he meditates and is a student of great Buddhist masters including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, Lama Jampa Monlam, Khensur Jampa Tegchok amongst others. He has completed the Masters Program of Advanced Buddhist Studies of Sutra and Tantra at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (Italy) and has completed a one-year individual meditation retreat. He currently teaches meditation and Buddhism at Tushita Meditation Center Spain and other FPMT centers, and is co-founder and coordinator of the Initiative for an Emotional, Ethical, and Social Education, that promotes the establishment of Emory University's SEE Learning in Spain.

Marina Brucet Vinyals holds a BA and a MA in Biochemistry and a PhD in Molecular Biology in Immunology from the University of Barcelona, where she also performed postdoctoral studies. After this, she decided to change research in the laboratory for research of the mind and its possibilities. To this aim, she completed a six-year full-time study program Masters Program of Advanced Buddhist Studies of Sutra and Tantra at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy. She studied with great Tibetan lamas such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lama Jampa Monlam and Khensur Jampa Tegchok, amongst others, and has completed a one-year individual meditation retreat, among others. Presently, she combines continual development and meditation retreats with teaching meditation and Buddhist philosophy, at both general and specialized levels, with an approach that always takes into account the context and circumstances of Western life. She mainly teaches at Tushita Meditation Center Spain and other FPMT centers, and collaborates with SEE Learning (Emory University) in Spain.

Dr. Nicholas Ribush, MB, BS, is a graduate of Melbourne University Medical School (1964) who first encountered Buddhism at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 1972. Since then he has been a student of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and a full time worker for their international organization, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). Nick established FPMT archiving and publishing activities at Kopan in 1973 and with Lama Yeshe founded Wisdom Publications in 1975. He was a monk from 1974 to 1986. Between 1981 and 1996 he served variously as Wisdom’s director, editorial director and director of development. In 1996 he founded the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, which has preserved and organized thousands of hours of teachings and tens of thousands of pages of transcripts, established an image archive of some of the earliest photos of the lamas, and published more than 1,000,000 books for free distribution. Over the years Nick has edited and published many teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and many other teachers and established and/or directed several other FPMT activities, including the International Mahayana Institute, Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre, the Enlightened Experience Celebration, Mahayana Publications, Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies and the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. He was a member of the FPMT board of directors from its inception in 1983 until 2002.

As an adolescent in Berkeley in the 1960’s, Paula began her search for a means to shift the dominant paradigm of our perceptions of reality in order to survive the coming environmental chaos and resulting social unrest. A decade later she met Lama Thubten Yeshe and told Lama that she wanted to become a mahasiddha. Following the advice of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Paula embarked on a 40-year journey of study and retreats, including two long retreats of 3 and 4 years. In the last 13 years, Paula has traveled in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa giving talks, leading meditations and meeting wonderful heart friends. She is happy to share her insights that make meditation full of joy, love, clarity and authenticity.

Scott Tusa is a Buddhist meditation teacher and practitioner who has spent the last two decades exploring how to embody and live meaningfully through the Buddhist path. At age sixteen his mothers death sparked a deep longing for healing and spiritual wisdom that eventually led him to Tibetan Buddhism. He spent his early twenties seeking out and learning from a variety of Tibetan Buddhist masters, and was ordained by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama as a Buddhist monk at age twenty-eight. Scott spent the next nine years as a monk, deepening his understanding of the Dharma, engaging in solitary meditation retreats, and continuing his studies with teachers in India, Nepal, and the United States, including his main teachers Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Since 2008, he has been teaching Buddhist meditation in group and one-to-one settings in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and online, bringing Buddhist wisdom to modern meditators, helping them develop more confidence, inner wisdom, and joy in their practice.

Justin grew up in Virginia and has been studying and practicing Buddhism since 2001. He has a B.A. in Religious Studies from Naropa University and an M.A. in Buddhist Studies from Maitripa College, two of the three Buddhist colleges in the United States. He has worked for FPMT International Office as their Donor Services Coordinator since 2013, and is the former Spiritual Program Coordinator of Lama Yeshe House in Denver, Colorado.  Justin is an FPMT-registered teacher and an instructor with the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (FDCW), an organization devoted to Lama Yeshe's vision of Universal Education. He currently lives in San Diego.