Matteo Pistono

The most renowned meditation master in Tibet, Akhyuk Rinpoche, Jamyang Lungtok Gyaltsen (aka Drubwang Lungtok Gyatso) passed away Saturday at his remote encampment in the highlands of Eastern Tibet. Together with the late Khenpo Jikmé Phuntsok (1933-2004) of Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, Akhyuk Rinpoche revitalized the study and...

The historic synagogue at 6th and I Street near Chinatown was host Sunday night to Sharon Salzberg , renowned meditation teacher and NY Times best-selling author, and Krishna Das, often called the rock-star of the Western yoga scene for his captivating devotional chanting. Both have made...

HuffPost blogger Matteo Pistono is writing regularly from the Dalai Lama's "Kalachakra for World Peace" event in Washington D.C., running July 6-16. Scroll down to read all of Matteo's updates.

Saturday 7/9: Dalai Lama Speaks to Thousands on the National Mall

The Dalai Lama spent his...

There are 10,000 people expected to attend events with the Dalai Lama in Washington D.C. every day for the next ten days. If you were to ask each of them, "Who is the Dalai Lama?" you will likely receive different response from every individual. Most certainly deep respect and veneration...

Part spiritual biography, part nail-biting undercover reporting, In the Shadow of the Buddha: Secret Journeys, Sacred Histories and Spiritual Discovery in Tibet is the result of Matteo Pistono's quest to uncover long-hidden spiritual truths and real-time violations of religious freedom in Tibet. This is a behind-the-scenes look at...

To understand the Dalai Lama's statement yesterday about devolving his political authority to a democratically elected leader, one must keep in mind what the Tibetan leader calls his three commitments. First, as a human being, the Dalai Lama is committed to the promotion of basic human values of...

Today is the anniversary of the 19th century Tibetan mystic named Tertön Sogyal. Tertön Sogyal was a meditation teacher to the 13th Dalai Lama, the predecessor to the current Dalai Lama. In the late 1990s, I began a ten-year pilgrimage to Tibet in Tertön Sogyal's footsteps. I was drawn to...

March 10 marks the anniversary when Tibetans rose up in the streets of Lhasa against China's nascent occupation of Tibet. It is also when a 24-year-old Dalai Lama fled a pursuing Chinese army and eventually crossed Tibet's border into India as a refugee. That was 52 years ago.

With...