Harvey Aronson (Lama Namgyal Dorje) holds a BS in Chemistry from Brooklyn College, an MSW from Boston University, and a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin. He has studied extensively with prominent teachers in the Geluk, Dzogchen, and Theravada traditions in Asia and the United States. Harvey is the author of Buddhist Practice on Western Ground and Love and Sympathy in Theravada Buddhism and is a recognized scholar on the intersection between traditional Buddhist practice and Western therapeutic modalities. He has immersed himself in many diverse therapies, and of late particularly centered his interest in Emotional Focused Couples Therapy and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy. He has been working with families, couples, and individuals for over 35 years. He has spent much of his professional working with individuals who have a deep spiritual involvement and find benefit in psychotherapy.
In 1974, Harvey began studying Tibetan Buddhist Nyingma Dzogchen with Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche, who was the author of a 13-volume history of all of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and taught extensively in Asia and the West until his death in 2009. In 1999 Harvey began studying with two eminent Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ad.Zom Rinpoche and Jetsun Wangmo, with the former formally recognizing him in 2010 as Dorje Lopön (Vajra Study Master) and empowered him to provide support to advanced students immersed in traditional Buddhist practices
Since 1969 Harvey has been in relationship with Anne Klein (Lama Rigzin Drolma) and in 1994 they formed Dawn Mountain in Houston, Texas. This is a Buddhist religious educational organization devoted to preserving the wisdom of traditional Tibetan Buddhist practice, translating it into modern Western language, and offering support for modern Western practitioners. Harvey and Anne are informed by the supportive insights available from modern psychological and phenomenological science. They are oriented to providing an optimally supportive community environment for the flourishing of their teaching.
Anne Carolyn Klein/Lama Rigzin Drolma, is Professor and Former Chair of Religious Studies, Rice University, where she developed a contemplative studies concentration for graduate students in the Department of Religious Studies. She is also a Founding Director and Resident Lama of Dawn Mountain Tibetan Temple and Dawn Mountain Community Center & Research Institute. In connection with this work she was named a Dorje Lopon by her teacher Ad.Zom Rinpoche in 2009.
Her translation work encompasses both Tibetan texts and oral commentary on them. Her books include Knowledge and Liberation on Buddhist distinctions between intellectual knowing and direct experience; Path to the Middle: The Spoken Scholarship of Khensur Yeshe Thupten, on preparing to meet the ultimate; Meeting the Great Bliss Queen, contrasting Buddhist and feminist understandings of self; and, with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Unbounded Wholeness, which translates and discusses a Dzogchen text from the Bon –Buddhist tradition. Her most recent publication is Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse: A Story of Transmission, a Chantable English translation of Jigme Lingpa’s Foundational Practices and a condensation of this by Ad. Zom Rinpoche. It includes a CD of chanting in English and Tibetan. She is currently completing Strand of Jewels, a synthesis of essential Dzogchen instructions from his heart teachers by Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche, and closing in on a book on Jigme Lingpa offering several of his Wisdom Chats and other works for the first time. She has been a plenary speaker at the Summer Mind and Life Institute in Garrison, NY and also at major public programs of Mind and Life with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
In all of these endeavors, her central thematic interest is the embodied interaction between head and heart as illustrated across a spectrum of Buddhist descriptions of the many varieties of human consciousness. She has studied deeply in three of the five Tibetan traditions, her scholarly work and community teaching-retreats draw from all of these, with special emphasis on Nyingma and Heart Essence traditions in Dharma contexts, or reframing its principles to strengthen life-skills for those seeking to enrich their lives thru contemplative practice.
She brings her 40 years of study and practice in Heart Essence Dzogchen traditions to her teaching at Dawn Mountain and, especially, to the Dzogchen Cycles program, where committed students receive full transmission of Heart Essence practices, including, uniquely a broad spectrum of recent Revealed Treasures by one of one of very great Dzogchen masters in Tibet today.