Lama Shenpen Hookham, Awakened Heart Sangha

Lama Shenpen Hookham is the Founding Lama and principal teacher of the Awakened Heart Sangha.

In the 1970s, on the advice of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, she went to India where she lived among the Tibetans as a nun for six years. There she studied and meditated in retreat under the guidance of Tibetan teachers such as Karma Thinley Rinpoche, Bokar Rinpoche and Kalu Rinpoche. In 1978 His Holiness, the 16th Karmapa, head of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, instructed her to return to the West to teach Mahamudra.

There she met Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, who became her main teacher. She also met her late husband, Lama Rigdzin Shikpo, whom she taught alongside for twenty years and remains a great source of inspiration and guidance for her. In all she has spent nine years in retreat, and Khenpo Rinpoche was sufficiently satisfied with her understanding and meditation experience that he encouraged her, as lama, to teach and transmit Mahamudra, the innermost teachings of the Kagyu tradition.

Lama Shenpen is fluent in Tibetan and has translated a number of Tibetan texts into English for her students. On Khenpo Rinpoche's instructions she produced a seminal study of the profound Buddha Nature doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism, published as The Buddha Within, and gained a doctorate in this from Oxford University. She is the author of There’s More to Dying than Death, The Guru Principle and Keeping the Dalai Lama Waiting.

Lama Shenpen also translated and arranged Khenpo Rinpoche’s teachings on ‘Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness.’ 

Teaching Activity

Lama Shenpen and Lama Rigdzin Shikpo created a structured training - Living the Awakened Heart - a lifetime of practice in Buddha Dharma and meditation that gives practitioners the opportunity to:

• Engage in a comprehensive & structured training in Buddhist study, contemplation and meditation.
• Discover and Trust the truth of The Awakened Heart through your own experience. 
• Connect to the heart of Buddhist teachings without the confusion often caused by Eastern cultural trappings and technical language.
• Explore some of the most profound Buddhist teachings, which are essential for everyone whether new or very experienced.
• Make contact with and receive guidance from experienced lamas, teachers and senior students.
• Share the fruits of years of study in the Mahamudra & Dzogchen traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.

For more information visit ahs.org.uk/training.

Awakened Heart Sangha

The Awakened Heart Sangha (AHS) is a mandala of students, teachers and supporters continually evolving around the core principle of Openness Clarity and Sensitivity and the path of Awakening for all beings.

Most of the students become members of the Sangha because they are inspired by what they are uncovering in their own experience as a result of studying and practicing in the Living the Awakened Heart teachings. 

In those teachings and in the relationships with Lama Shenpen and fellow students they have found a spiritual home. Members live all over the world and connect with one another both in online practice groups, and in person at The Hermitage of the Awakened Heart in North West Wales, a sacred space where Khenpo Rinpoche visited, taught, blessed and gave the title, ‘Chang Chub Dzong’.

Lama Dashon

Lama Dashon has been a student of Lama Shenpen since 2002 and has taken the role of Dharma Director for the AHS. He has completed three years of solitary retreat, and works closely with Lama Shenpen and other senior students in guiding the spiritual vision and direction for the Awakened Heart Sangha.