Acharya Eve Rosenthal’s journey with the dharma began in 1973 after she had had her first big dose of impermanence following the death of her father. While in graduate school, a friend had mentioned the name of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and upon hearing his name, Eve knew he was somebody she wanted to meet. In fact, during a trip to India, the inspiration of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s name prompted her to take a Land Rover to the Tibetan border. What she saw there was the awesome grandeur of the mountains, a view which later helped her to understand what Tibetan meditation masters meant by “vastness”. When she returned from India, she asked her friend for some books, and was given a copy of Trungpa Rinpoche’s “Meditation in Action” and Suzuki Roshi’s “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”. In this period of her life, she also completed her Master Degree in Systems and Information Science. Soon after, Eve moved to Boston and received meditation instruction. She experienced a small glimpse of peaceful abiding and was “sold” on meditation.
It was during the 1973 “Boston Dharma Fair” that Eve saw Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche for the first time and was rendered temporarily speechless. The experience of meeting him made it clear that she was home and that she needed to seek no other teacher. In the same year, she went to the then Naropa Institute, where she made a formal commitment to Buddhism by taking refuge with Trungpa Rinpoche and began her study of Tai Chi. When her mother started the journey to her death, Eve returned to New York City to care for her. She continued her studies of the dharma at the New York Shambhala Center, as well as her studies of Tai Chi and piano. She served as Resident Director of Shambhala Training in the mid-eighties, and it was during this period that Eve began to teach the dharma.
Eve moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1990, and began to teach and lead retreats more widely in North America and Europe, and also began teaching Tai Chi. Upon completing her doctorate in Computer Science in 1998, she immediately went into a 108-day solitary retreat—a fitting response to the conclusion of doctoral studies.
She served on the Board of Shambhala Training International and in recent years has been working on special projects with the Shambhala International Office of Practice and Education, assisting with projects such as developing “Shambhala On-line,” (holding classes on-line through video conferencing) and helping to lead gatherings for teachers and meditation instructors.
Eve developed a close relationship with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, serving on the faculty of the 2004 and 2005 Vajrayana Seminaries and assisting him with the “Turning the Mind into an Ally”, “Ruling Your World” and “Enlightened World” programs. The Sakyong empowered her as a senior teacher in 2004, conferring upon her the title of Acharya.
Presently, Eve is an associate professor of information technology at Mount Saint Vincent University, and an instructor of tai chi. She lives with her spouse, Basia, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
