Lama Shenpen Hookham has led a fascinating life with over fifty years dedicated to Dharma, training in the Mahamudra & Dzogchen traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, under the guidance of some of the foremost teaching masters of our time from the Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

On the advice of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Lama Shenpen travelled to India in 1969, aged 24, to take meditation instruction from Karma Thinley Rinpoche. There she also received teachings from Bokar Rinpoche and Kalu Rinpoche, and practised their instructions in retreat. She took ordination as a nun from H.H. the16th Karmapa in India, who subsequently asked her to return to the West to teach.

Having spent several years as a translator for Gendun Rinpoche in France, she met her main teacher Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, a great scholar and highly accomplished meditation master, who instructed her to cease being a nun and to engage in academic study. 

After disrobing, Lama Shenpen pursued a doctorate at Oxford University. It was there that she met Michael Hookham (later known as Rigdzin Shikpo) and they married in 1982. Rigdzin Shikpo subsequently became one of Lama Shenpen’s teachers.

Lama Shenpen has been encouraged to teach meditation and the Buddhist path by all her teachers. She was authorised by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche to give transmission of Mahamudra, the innermost teachings of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

To find out more about Lama Shenpen’s teachers click here

Following advice from the teacher of all her teachers, H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Lama Shenpen established the Hermitage of the Awakened Heart in North Wales as a retreat centre and built an enlightenment stupa there.

It was in North Wales that Lama Shenpen developed the Living the Awakened Heart training, a comprehensive training where students can study and practise Buddhist meditation and daily life awareness in an experiential way. The training is a way of bringing the profound and foundational principles of the Dharma to Western students and Lama Shenpen continues to train her students in meditation, reflection and insight using the framework of the Tibetan Mahamudra tradition.

Lama Shenpen has spent over twelve years in meditation retreat and has translated a number of Tibetan texts into English for her students. On Khenpo Rinpoche’s instruction she produced a seminal study of the profound Buddha Nature doctrines [according to the Shentong interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhaga], published as The Buddha Within, gaining a doctorate in this from Oxford University. Lama Shenpen has become well known for this important study and for her Shentong view of emptiness teachings – the name of this website was chosen as a reflection of that.

She is also the author of There’s More to Dying than Death, The Guru Principle and her acclaimed autobiographical life story Keeping the Dalai Lama Waiting & other stories.

In addition, Lama Shenpen is the translator and editor of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche’s seminal work Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness which has been translated into many different languages and is considered a standard text teaching meditation students to connect to the experience of Emptiness.

To find out more about Lama Shenpen’s publications click here.

Become a student

Lama Shenpen lives in semi-retreat at the Hermitage in North Wales and spends her time engaging in meditation/reflection, teaching and working on her writing.

To find out how to become a student of Lama Shenpen and a member of the Awakened Heart Sangha click here.

Here is an excerpt from Lama Shenpen’s life story book, ‘Keeping the Dalai Lama Waiting and other stories’ (narrated by Yeshe Palmo)