Dale Asrael

Dale Asrael

Dale Asrael, growing up in a suburb of Washington, DC, studied music and dance and, even as a young child, ruthlessly searched for answers. Through her Jewish ancestry, she learned to celebrate the sacredness of life and, simultaneously be aware of the depth of human suffering. After completing university studies in film and Eastern religions, Dale moved to Canada in 1970, disheartened by the Vietnam War. Shortly after she took Refuge Vows at the Kagyü Center in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dale heard reports of a "revolutionary young lama" who was teaching about chaos and wisdom. She journeyed to Boulder to meet him, and during her first interview with the Vidyadhara in 1973, realized she was "being given answers to questions I hadn't even begun to articulate."

Dale attended the first session of Naropa Institute in 1974 and the first public dathün at Rocky Mountain Dharma Center that same summer. An early member of the Kootenay Dharma Study Group, she spent the next six years traveling from B.C. to Boulder attend programs with Rinpoche. During that time, she completed university studies in Education and became a music teacher in the British Columbia public schools.

Dale attended the 1978 Vajradhatu Seminary, a program remembered for Rinpoche's regular gatherings for post-talk singing in the hotel lounge. In 1979, she moved to Boulder to study intensively with the Vidyadhara. She taught music at the Buddhist-inspired Vidya School for five years. At Rinpoche’s request, she moved to Rocky Mountain Dharma Center to serve as Head of Practice and Study at from 1985-1990. In that role, she had the ‘inexpressible good fortune” of working closely with Rinpoche during his last two Seminaries.

Dale teaches as Core Faculty at Naropa University, in the M.A. Buddhist Studies, Contemplative Education, and Counseling programs, and is an Upadhyaya (Buddhist minister). She leads retreats and dathuns internationally, and is especially interested in the training of meditation instructors and the next generation of dharma teachers at our Centers. "I am continually humbled by studying and practicing the profound teachings of our lineages. The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know."


2008
Dec 16 - 27 Shambhala Mountain Center Winter Dathun "Nurturing the Seeds of Peace" w/President Richard Reoch

 

2009
Jan 2 - 25 New Zealand SY Seminary w/Acharya David Hope


Books