For myself, I guess my first memory that has some kind of relationship with Rinpoche and my other teachers, is that when I was quite young, around 11 or 12 years old, and I remember looking at the world globe for the first time, and on the globe I noticed a country called Tibet.
I wish I could say that I connected with teaching for that reason though, that I met Rinpoche because I was looking for truth, because I was trying to find myself, because I wanted to be a better person. However, that view, somewhat opportunistic, is only partially true. The real reason why I met Rinpoche is because I wanted to leave suffering behind.
I was born Trapani, Sicily, which for me was not a nice place to stay, but it’s a very nice place to visit.”If we want everything to remain as it is, it will be necessary for everything to change,” said Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. It was not a good place for me. I was 18 years old when my family moved to Florence.
I was born on the fourth day of the sixth month in the Earth Rat year in a place called Chödzong near Rongbuk monastery at the foot of Mt. Everest.
Meeting Rinpoche was the most important event in my life, thanks to him and his teachings I discovered my true nature and the potential that lies within us.
One day in 1980, when I was heartbroken and lonely in Boudhanath near Kathmandu, a Spanish Tibetan nun waved in a friendly way from the stupa.
Some readers might remember me as a monk living in Pomaia from 1998-2014, a time when I regularly attended teachings at Merigar
Our Vajra sister Tamara Khamdamova shares her story of meeting Rinpoche and following his teachings in the ‘How I met’ series.
When for the first time I met my root Master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, I had an experience that I’ll never forget.
“You see Fabio, in life you do not need to renounce something, but should live everything with awareness.” Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
I think my exposure to Buddhism happened when I was about sixteen and still in High School. I had a friend who knew some other people and one of those people happened to be an owner of a bookstore. We were able to go there, and most if his books were on Buddhism.
UK Yantra Yoga instructor John Renshaw talks about the chain of events that brought him to meet Chögyal Namkhai Norbu in the early days of the Community