About Lama Ole

Lama Ole Nydahl is one of the few Westerners fully qualified as a Lama and meditation teacher in the Karma Kagyu Buddhist tradition. After completing three years of intensive meditation in 1972, Lama Ole started teaching Buddhism in Europe at the request of Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. He has transmitted the blessing of the lineage, traveling as an authorized Lama and tirelessly teaching around the world in a different city nearly every day. His depth of knowledge and dynamic teachings inspire thousands of people at his lectures and retreats in North and South America, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and Asia.

He captivates his audience with charisma and joyfulness, integrating modern style and ancient wisdom. Lama Ole challenges people's concepts of life and Buddhism in an unorthodox manner. He has been a major driving force in bringing Buddhism to the West, and to date has established over three hundred Buddhist centers worldwide, which represents the largest body of students practicing Diamond Way meditation. Hannah Nydahl, his wife, travels part of the time with Lama Ole, and spends the rest of her time translating for the highest Rinpoches in the lineage. Lama Ole also travels with Caty Hartung from Germany, who has been instrumental in the organization and development of the Diamond Way Centers in Europe.

It all began in 1968 when Ole and Hannah Nydahl went to Nepal on their honeymoon. There they met their first Buddhist teacher, Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche. It was Rinpoche who sent them to meet the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, the spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Hannah and Ole Nydahl became his first Western students. Gyalwa Karmapa had a profound influence on their lives, and later recognized Lama Ole as a protector of the Karma Kagyu lineage. Between 1969 and 1972 Ole and Hannah studied under the direct guidance of the 16th Karmapa. There they received empowerments and instructions in Buddhist meditation practice and philosophy.

Lama Ole holds the transmission for a unique Diamond Way practice called Phowa, in which one learns to transfer one's consciousness at the moment of death to a state of highest bliss. Since 1987, he has taught this practice to over 50,000 people around the globe.

Lama Ole Nydahl has given numerous print, television and radio interviews, and is the author of six books translated into many languages: Entering the Diamond Way (1985); Ngondro (1990); Mahamudra (1990); Riding the Tiger (1992); The Nature of Mind (1993); The Way Things Are (1996). Publisher, Blue Dolphin Press, Inc. (1-800-643-0765)