Latri Nyima Dakpa Rinpoche is Founder and Spiritual Director of the Yeru Bön Center in Los Angeles, California. He is Abbot and lineage holder of the La Tri Monastery in Kham/Dege, Eastern Tibet.  HE is also author of Opening the Door to Bön, a guide for Western students of Bön.

Rinpoche’s father was a lama of the Ta-Wa monastery in Tibet and the third reincarnation of Tsultrim Phuntsok, a great Bön practitioner of Eastern Tibet. Early in his life, Rinpoche lived in Dorbatan, Nepal where he received his first instruction from his father and from Tsultrim Nyima Rinpoche, the Abbot of Dorbatan Monastery.

Rinpoche entered sMenri Monastery in Dolnaji, INdia, the seat of Bön religion and education. There he was taught by His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche, the 33rd sMenri Trizin, receiving empowerment, transmissions and teaching instruction.  He studied as well with Lopon Tenzin Namdak, who held the position of chief teacher of all Bön education. In 1978 he joined the first graduating class of the sMenri Bön Dialectic School in Dolanji where he completed his studies and received his Geshe degree in 1987.

Latri Nyima Dakpa Rinpoche is the Founder and Director of the Bön Children’s Home in Dolanji, where he is in charge ofproviding for the physical and educational needs of Bön orphan children. He is the founder of the Yeru Bön Center in Los Angeles; the Shen Ten Ling Bön Centre in Vienna; the Shen Chen Ling in Minsk (Belarus); Sharza Ling Institute in Poland, and the Bön Shen Ling in Moscow. He travels regularly to these centers to give teachings. His organization, the Bön Shen Foundation raises funds to assist with the needs of the Bön Children’s Home.  Rinpoche is tireless in his compassion for others. He cars fot the needs of both Bön orphan children and of Western lay spiritual seekers. His devotion to spreading the teachings of Bön is for the benefit of all sentient beings.

In Opening the Door to Bön, Nyima Rinpoche has written a guide for Western students of Bön to prepare them to receive the Bön teachings. Grounded in an educational tradition that spans thousands of years, this book provides practical and explicit instructions for the student.  The book covers both the outer and inner fundamental practices of Bön. Topics include the attitude the student should have, how to cultivate that attitude, virtuous acts to strive for, and non-virtuous acts to avoid.  Rinpoche then teaches the Ngon Dro or Nine Preliminary Practices that a student should undertake in order to begin Bön practice and apply it to daily life. Writing in clear, simple language, Rinpoche brings to this task not only his formidable knowledge of Bön, and his compassionate desire to share Bön teachings with others, but also his unique experience of having taught Ngon Dro and other Bön teachings to American and European students since 1989.