The Sakyong, Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche, is one of Tibet's highest and most respected incarnate lamas. The Sakyong—literally, "earth protector"—is king of Shambhala. The first king of Shambhala, Dawa Sangpo, was empowered directly by the Buddha.

The Shambhala tradition emphasizes confidence in the enlightened nature of all beings—windhorse—and teaches courageous rulership based on wisdom and compassion. It holds that these qualities are ultimately more stable than aggression and greed. It shows how to use worldly life as a means to ripen this spiritual potential. It practices turning the mind toward others as a discipline that creates lungta, windhorse, the ability to attain success that occurs from acting virtuously. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche leads a global community of over 150 meditation centers rooted in these principles.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is unique in that he bridges two worlds. The eldest son of the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who was instrumental in bringing Buddhism to the West, he is the incarnation of Mipham the Great, who is revered in Tibet as an emanation of Manjushri, the buddha of wisdom. He descends from the Tibetan warrior-king Gesar of Ling. He also holds the Kagyü and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism.

He is the head of the Shambhala Buddhist lineage and is spiritual director of Shambhala, a borderless kingdom of meditation practitioners committed to realizing enlightenment and social harmony through daily life. He is the lineage holder of Naropa University, which is dedicated to advancing contemplative education.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche was born in 1962 in Bodhagaya, India, to Lady Könchok Palden. He spent his early years receiving a Buddhist education, later joining his father in the West, where he continued his study of Buddhist philosophy and ritual. He has studied with the great masters His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche—teacher of the HH Dalai Lama and the king of Bhutan—and HH Penor Rinpoche. He is married to Princess Tseyang Palmo, daughter of His Eminence Namkha Drimed Rabjam Rinpoche, head of the Ripa lineage.

The Sakyong has written two books, the national bestseller Turning the Mind into An Ally, and the prize-winning Ruling Your World. He is a poet and an artist. He has run marathons to raise money for Tibet through the Konchok Foundation. In September 2006 he offered the first Living Peace Award to HH the Dalai Lama at the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya in Colorado. He travels extensively, teaching throughout the world.

Visit www.mipham.com for more on his biography, teachings and art.

See upcoming programs by the Sakyong.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939-1987), the founder of Shambhala, was the 11th descendent in the line of Trungpa tulkus, important teachers of the Kagyu lineage, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism and renowned for its strong emphasis on meditation practice. In addition to being a key teacher within the Kagyu lineage, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was also trained in the Nyingma tradition, the oldest of the four schools and was an adherent of the rimay or "non-sectarian" movement within Tibetan Buddhism, which aspired to bring together and make available all the valuable teachings of the different schools, free of sectarian rivalry. Throughout his life, he sought to bring the teachings he had received to the largest possible audience.

Already installed as the head of the Surmang monasteries in eastern Tibet; when the Communist party took control in 1959, at the age of 20 Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche escaped his spiritual home. He and a small party of monks made the difficult journey over the Himalayas to India on horseback and on foot.

The ancient teachings and practical instructions that Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche brought with him found an eager audience in the America of the 1970s, a decade during which he traveled nearly constantly throughout North America, published six books, established three meditation centres and a contemplative university (Naropa University). He became renowned for his unique ability to present the essence of the highest Buddhist teachings in a form readily understandable to Western students.

Late in the 1970s, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche expressed his long-held desire to present the path of meditation in secular terms. He developed a program called Shambhala Training, based on the legendary enlightened kingdom of that name. During the 1980s, while continuing teaching tours, Vajradhatu Seminaries, and book publication—and establishing a Buddhist monastery in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada—Trungpa increasingly turned his attention to the propagation of teachings that extended beyond the Buddhist canon. These activities included not only Shambhala Training, which was attracting thousands of students, but also Japanese archery, calligraphy, flower arranging, tea ceremony, health care, dance, theatre, and psychotherapy, among others. In planting the seeds for these many activities, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche sought to bring, in his words, "art to everyday life."

Read more about Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche at shambhala.org.