Yeshé Zértsal

In the late 1960s—in Greenwich Village—I picked up a book entitled Zen. It was a small book left as an impulse item on the checkout counter. I was drawn to the word, leafed through the book but left the shop without buying it. Sometime later, I learned meditation instruction from a different book that described sitting, counting exhalations until ten, and returning to one. During my first exhalation I fell in love with practice.

For the ten years that I lived in and worked for a Zen community and although rife with possibility, I longed for a genuine introduction to the nature of Mind that I just couldn’t access there. After a year-long cajoling by a friend I agreed to meet Ngak’chang Rinpoche at a talk one evening in New York City. It was then that I found the authentic connection to practice that I wanted so badly.

Having taken the yogic ordination as a Ngakma in 1998, I have come to understand the importance this tradition offers to those of us who are not monastically inclined and yet wish to devote ourselves to realization through authentic lineage.

In 2013 I began introducing many of the practices and teachings I have learned through the years and in 2019 opened a small meditation gompa called Aro Zértsal Ling in Nyack, New York. There, and through other channels, a sangha formed. Sadly, the pandemic forced the closure of the gompa however, our sangha meets several times monthly via Zoom and holds retreats periodically.

If, on my deathbed someone was to ask what the best part of my life was, without hesitation I would answer, the extraordinary people I have met—the Seventeenth Karmapa Örgyen Thrinley, Bernie Glassman Roshi, Dung-sé Thrinlé Norbu Rinpoche, Kyabjé Chhi’mèd Rigdzin Rinpoche, Kyabjé Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche, Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Sang-gyé Pema Shèpa and above all, my Heart Lamas, Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen.

I have had the happy joy of having traveled to Vajrayana pilgrimage sites in Nepal and Bhutan several times—a great enrichment of the heart.

For many years, I have worked in hospice and currently live in Rockland County, New York with my husband Bill and two Bichon Frises - Moonstone and Arlo. Also, my horse, Jesse James lives just down the road.

I am always happy to speak with anyone who is inspired by the teachings, practices and especially by the Lineage Lamas.