Biography of Training, Teachers and Teachings

Troma Rigtsal Rinpoche, also known as Kali Ma, inherited the tradition of the MahaSiddhas when she was in her early twenties. Born in the US, her parents taught her the importance of kindness and respect for others as well as a passion for learning. She learned to meditate when she was five from a Buddhist and Yogini couple who taught her family martial arts. Throughout her childhood she embraced religious songs and contemplative practice. Introduced to Hatha Yoga in France, she found a passion for the practice and for meditation. She began teaching meditation and yoga after intensive studies and training in Yoga and the non-dual Indian Tantra tradition. It was then she discovered the Buddhist path of the Dzogchen Tantric teachings. When she heard the life-story of the Buddha, she realized she was a Buddhist and has celebrated that path since.

Her earliest dharma training was with an unconventional, eclectic Dzogchen master called Isa, who trained her in the ethos of the MahaSiddhas, where the path was a matter of awareness and going beyond dualistic fixations. This phase of her training lasted seven years, during which time she was recognized as a Siddha and an emanation of the mother, the wisdom principle in the Yogic tradition. Of this she said, "These recognitions are merely injunctions for me to serve the dharma whole-heartedly."

In 1999, together with her husband, she founded MahaSiddha Buddhism, previously called MahaSiddha Dharma. They opened a public center, Ayurveda clinic and several residential training facilities in Southern California. After having a near-death experience and four pivotal dreams, she felt compelled to teach more regularly. At over five hundred public teachings for the past decade, she shared the MahaSiddhas Heart Essence Teaching in public programs, in retreats and trainings, revealing Tantric Buddhism through the lives of the MahaSiddhas and their distinctly simple dharma style which emphasizes the view as the path and discovering that path in everyday life. She developed her school, MahaSiddha Buddhism together with her devoted students who first gathered around in her 1998 and 2000, most of whom are still with her to this day as the community has grown. Many of them serve their local communities as senior practitioners, mentors and instructors of classes in meditation and the path.

In yearly pilgrimage to India and Nepal, she met two orphanages, which she and her students actively sponsor and support. Her husband, Derrick Seng-ge Pawo is an Ayurvedic Practitioner and together they have founded two Ayurveda Clinics. In Mumbai, she studied Ayurveda with Drs Smita and Pankaj Naram and also continues her studies of Ayurveda and Natural Healing with Dr. Bob Marshall, which has remarkable results in healing through nutrition and understanding the energy fields of body and their role in healing.

She also trained in Vajrayana with Gangten Tulku Rinpoche, from whom she received several dozen empowerments and mentorship over a six year period. From that experience of orthodox Vajrayana Buddhism, she was further inspired of the importance for sharing the MahaSiddha's Buddhism and the non-monastic path. She credits Rinpoche with being a example of spiritual leadership and his profound teachings of been an inspiration to her entire community. He came twice to visit her centers and given teachings to her students in Long Beach, Berkeley and Santa Cruz in 2001 and 2005.

Her first book, Doorways to Enlightenment was published in 2002, followed by her book, Peacock in the Garden of Poisons in 2003, a manual for practicing Tantra Yoga Sadhana. She is currently finishing her third book, MahaSiddha Buddhism, set to be completed in 2008.

2003 was a pivotal year, when Rinpoche moved the headquarters of her work to Northern California in the Santa Cruz mountains and her students opened the center in Berkeley. Also in 2003, she met her Teachers and Vajra Lamas, Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Dechen who are the holders of the Aro-gter and who ordained her in the gö kar chang-lo school of the Nyingma Tradition. They are rare Masters of the Dzogchen teachings whose humor, brilliance and kindness reveal the living heart of the Buddha's wisdom. From them, she received the names Troma Rigtsal and Ngakma 'ö-Zér A-Dzé Min'gyür Khandro Rinpoche. They gave her the Tantric Ordinations of Naljorma and Ngakma, that come from the MahaSiddha Aro-Lingma. With them she continues to study the Dzogchen and Tantric path and the dynamic and vibrantly direct practice of Maha Yoga in terms of Dzogchen. Her own students have also received teachings and practices from the Aro-gter through Ngak'chang Rinpoche's visits to the MahaSiddha Center in Berkeley, which have occurred three times since 2006.

In 2003, she opened up a form of training students called the Mandala, through which specific levels of the path and teachings are presented to make available the whole scope of the teaching, including the most introductory and advanced phases. Rinpoche's first center was in San Diego California where she also had several residential practice communities. In 2003, Santa Cruz California became her primary residence and is currently being developed into the main seat of her teaching. Originally the Northern California residential center was located in Oakland, but on the inspiration and urging of the community, it was moved to Berkeley. Meanwhile, through the dedication of a few students, a community in Grass Valley sprang up, making five communities of MahaSiddha Buddhism and the Tantric Yogas therein. Kali Ma currently travels regularly to teach in Grass Valley, Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Berkeley, Santa Cruz and Los Gatos California. More rarely, she also teaches once a year in India and Nepal.