Join us for an extraordinary exploration of compassion in action, where distinguished speakers Lama Padma Samten, Bruno Davanzo, Rob Patzig, and co-hosts Geshe Tenzin Wangyal and Dr. Alejandro Chaoul will illuminate how selfless service transcends individual boundaries, creating a powerful ripple effect of kindness. This transformative live online dialogue will reveal how compassionate action emerges not from grand gestures, but from intentional, mindful engagement—demonstrating how serving without attachment to results can foster social resilience, personal growth, and deep community interconnectedness. Participants will gain profound insights into overcoming personal biases, balancing self-care with service, and understanding how one act of genuine compassion can inspire collective healing and transformation.
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This event is one of a series of eight “Kathmandu Dialogues” offered by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in conjunction with a February 2025 celebratory event for His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, the foremost living teacher and protector of the Yungdrung Bön tradition of Tibet. Learn more
About the Presenters
Lama Padma Samten has helped countless people in their daily lives and in their relationships with Buddhist teachings that relate to the most diverse areas of knowledge.
A physicist with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Lama Padma Samten (formerly Alfredo Aveline) served as a physics professor from 1969 to 1994. During this period, he devoted himself especially to examining quantum physics, a theory in which he found an affinity with Buddhist view. In the early 1980s, he intensified his interest in Buddhism and in 1986, founded the Boddhisatva Center for Buddhist Studies (CEBB). In 1993, he was accepted as a disciple by Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche and in 1996 was ordained a lama, a title that means leader, priest and teacher.
Bruno Davanzo, has been a student of Lama Padma Samten since 1995. In 1997 he co-founded CEBB Curitiba (Brazil), and in 2014 CEBB Sukhavati, where he serves as president. Bruno has taught Tibetan Buddhist meditation since 1997 and currently teaches introductory and advanced courses. He serves as a tutor in Lama Padma Samten’s Dharma Facilitator Program, guiding instructors and meditation practitioners. He helped to organize the visit of H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama to Curitiba in 1999, and has also coordinated visits from prominent Buddhist masters Chagdud Rinpoche, Monja Coen, and Master Tokuda, as well as Buddha relics. He has participated in meditation retreats with B. Alan Wallace.
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (co-host) was born in India in 1961, following his parents’ journey from Tibet to India in 1959. At age 11 he began formal studies as a monk at Menri Monastery near Dolanji, India, where he completed an 11-year course of traditional studies at the Bön Dialectic School. He was awarded his geshe degree in 1986. He now lives as a householder, and has been living and teaching in the West for more than 30 years. An accomplished scholar in all aspects of sutra, tantra and dzogchen, Rinpoche is an acclaimed author and a respected teacher of students worldwide. As the founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha International, he has established numerous centers and institutes of learning in the United States, Mexico, South America, Europe and India. Fluent in English, Rinpoche regularly offers online teachings in the form of live webcasts, online workshops and YouTube videos. He is renowned for his depth of wisdom; his clear, engaging teaching style; and his dedication to making the ancient Tibetan teachings highly accessible and relevant to the lives of Westerners.
More about Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Rob Patzig encountered Yungdrung Bön for the first time in 2007 and met Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in 2009. Since then he has been attending retreats in the Bön tradition and offering service to Ligmincha International. In 2014 Rinpoche asked him to become more active in the organization’s leadership, and Rob became president of Ligmincha International in 2015. Rob also teaches Tibetan yoga (trul khor) and hatha yoga. Previously he has worked as an investment manager, a director of market research, an English instructor at the university level, script writer, bicycle mechanic, short-order cook, and dishwasher. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife, Eileen, and their two dogs, and has two grown children.
Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, Ph.D. (co-host) serves as director of research for Ligmincha International. He has studied in the Tibetan traditions since 1989, and for nearly 30 years in the Bön Tradition with Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche, and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. He holds a Ph.D. in Tibetan religions from Rice University and is scholar and founding director of the Mind Body Spirit Institute at the Jung Center of Houston. For the last 20 years he has been teaching and researching the benefits of Tibetan mind-body practices for people touched by cancer. He is a Contemplative Fellow at the Mind & Life Institute, and is the author of Chöd Practice in the Bön Tradition (Snow Lion, 2009), Tibetan Yoga for Health & Well-Being (Hay House, 2018), and Tibetan Yoga: Magical Movements of Body, Breath, and Mind (Wisdom Publications, 2021).