About The Writer

I wanted to give those who might be curious as to the back ground of the writer, the choice of a brief introduction and a more complete and longer version for those who prefer a bit more detail.

The short version...

Kiwi born, average and fairly typical as a youngster aside from a fascination for small and isolated cottages... In my late teens I decided there must be more to life than studies, routines, parties and endless meaningless chatter so I broke away from 'main-stream' life and had a shot at 'self-taught' meditation. After that floundered and various other studies and endeavours bought no sense of fulfilment or meaning to life I packed up and travelled to Tibet.

Near the end of this journey, I met my Master, an ageing but extraordinary Tibetan Lama of high standing (Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche). From that meeting on-wards life changed dramatically and I spent the next three decades living in various locations in and around the Himalayas in India and Nepal.

The longer version...

I was born in Wellington, New Zealand as the third of four children. We grew up in Nelson, a small town at the top of the South Island.  At a very young age, two experiences occurred which dramatically propelled my life towards the 'spiritual' and a quest for truth.

The first happened when i was about seven years old, when a spontaneous and inexplicable awareness of 'Awareness' arose, consuming all else. This brief experience left an indelible impression.

The second incident took place about a year later when i was dragged out to sea by tidal currents and almost drowned...
Naturally, this drew, into sharp focus, matters of life and death.

When i was sixteen, i left home without my family's immediate knowledge and went to live in Australia. I felt it was time to explore 'life'.   As i was about to board my flight in Christchurch, i received an anguished but profoundly loving telegram from my parents in Nelson. Their shock at my sudden and unannounced departure had been dreadful, but with the help of my wise grandparents, they came through the crisis and accepted my early bid for freedom.

I spent the first two years in Australia travelling. This took me overland from Adelaide to Darwin via Perth and after a long stay in Darwin, again overland to Cairns.  It was in Cairns, at the age of eighteen, that i began my 'quest' in earnest.  I moved alone to a patch of tropical forest outside the small town of Kuranda and began to study meditation techniques and the Theosophical tomes of Helena Blavatsky and Alice A. Bailey.

After some months i realised that i could not achieve my purpose by sitting alone in the forest, no matter how sincere i might be or how determined.  Soon afterwards i left Cairns and moved down to Sydney, where i became actively involved with Sydney Goodwill and also began to train as a classical flautist at the Sydney Conservatorium.  During this time i attended classes in speech and drama at a Rudolph Steiner school and trained in various natural healing techniques, herbs and Osteopathy.

After several years of intensive studies, again, i felt i was getting no nearer to my true goal and at the age of twenty six i dropped everything and flew to Lhasa in Tibet.

After travelling overland from Lhasa to Kathmandu in the autumn of 1985, i visited Darjeeling in India, where i met my first teacher, the Tibetan Lama, Kalu Rinpoche.  A short time after this, i made a sudden and unplanned visit to Bodh Gaya, where i met my Root Master, the late Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

From this point on my life underwent a dramatic change and during the six years that followed, i stayed close to Khyentse Rinpoche in Nepal. In the spring of 1991, he left for a summer retreat in Bhutan where he later passed away.

After his passing, i decided it was time to begin serious sadhana practice in retreat.  I went to Parping, a village to the south of the Kathmandu Valley, where i stayed in a small retreat centre belonging to the great Dzogchen Master, Tulku Orgyen Rinpoche.

It was here that i met Kyabje Chadral Sangye Dorje, who was to guide me for more than two decades.

From 1991 until 2009 most of my time was spent near Chadral Rinpoche and in various retreat locations in the Himalayan foothills.  My  primary base being Das Mile Gompa near Darjeeling.

H.H.Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Kyabje Chadral Rinpoche

 I currently spend some months of the year at my forest home near Darjeeling and the rest of the time near the sacred Hill of Arunachala in the South of India.

From Das Mile Gompa near Darjeeling

Arunachala at Dusk

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Lyse Mai Lauren

Das Mile Gompa
Darjeeling
2011