Keeping the Dalai Lama Waiting, by Lama Shenpen Hookham

How does an English, Christian girl grow up to be an acclaimed Tibetan Buddhist Lama? It was a search for Truth and a deep wish to understand the mind that led a young, determined Susan Rowan (b.1946) from suburban Essex, England, to the foothills of the Himalayas in the early 1970s. On the instruction of famed Tibetan Buddhist master Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, she headed East to ‘absorb the vibes’ as he put it. There she met and was taught by some of the most eminent Tibetan Lamas and yogins of our time, including Kalu Rinpoche, Bokar Rinpoche and The 16th Karmapa, who ordained her as a nun and subsequently sent her back to the west to teach.At the request of her students, Lama Shenpen Hookham tells her fascinating and unconventional life story. Her encounters with her teachers are insightful, moving and often humorous anecdotes of her extraordinary spiritual journey, sharing first-hand experience of how differing cultures and ways of thinking overlap and collide with unexpected consequences. At the heart of this book is a quest for truth – an ongoing discovery of the true nature of mind, yet as we discover, this is more about the heart in its deepest sense. Working as a translator to the first wave of Tibetan Buddhist teachers to Europe, gave Lama Shenpen a unique insight into how to adapt the most profound teachings of the Buddha for a western audience. Since gaining a PHD at Oxford in Buddhist doctrine in the 1980s (doing so on the advice of her main teacher Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche,) she has worked tirelessly to make the profound Truth at the heart of Buddhist teachings on meditation, reflection and insight (Dzogchen and Mahamudra) accessible to others, through a unique training called Living the Awakened Heart.On the advice of H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Lama Shenpen made her base in north-west Wales where she lives today in semi-retreat, working on her writing and teaching her students, members of the Awakened Heart Sangha - www.ahs.org.uk"This is a fascinating personal account of a young English woman finding a connection with Tibetan lamas and nuns during and after the 1970s in India and Nepal.” Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo “Lama Shenpen Hookham is an inspiring figure in the world of Tibetan Buddhism with her great knowledge of the precious Buddhadharma and mastery of the Tibetan language. “ Her Eminence Khandro Rinpoche“Shenpen points to the power of seemingly ordinary student teacher encounters, and how much transpires in intimate, tender, humorous moments of connection so central to the spiritual path.” Judy Lief, Buddhist teacher, author & editor