...when we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings.

In 1987 Rinpoche was invited to become spiritual director of the centre in County Cork in the west of Ireland which was to become Dzogchen Beara Rigpa’s first long-term retreat facility. ris med) movement which rose to prominence in eastern Tibet in the nineteenth century he frequently refers to teachings of all Tibetan traditions and also quotes from non-Tibetan sources such as the Dhammapada and teachers belonging to other traditions such as the Zen master Shunryu Suzuki. Rinpoche attended a Catholic school in Kalimpong and then university in Delhi before coming to the west.

He has been teaching for over 30 years and continues to travel widely in Europe America Australia and Asia. Sogyal Rinpoche (Tibetan: བསོད་རྒྱལ་ Wylie: Bsod-rgyal) (born 1947) is a Tibetan Dzogchen lama of the Nyingma tradition. Significant controversy due to claims of student abuse have been prominent for much of his career.