Biography
The Sky Dharma Community in Europe—an intimate circle of retreat practitioners devoted to authentic Dzogchen training—is presently guided by Lama Ivo (Ngakpa Dorje Rigpa’i Tsal). He is a practitioner-teacher in the yogic tradition of the Great Perfection (Dzogchen) of the Nyingma school, known for maintaining a non-monastic, practice-first approach.
His involvement with study and retreat began in his teens. Over subsequent years he lived and trained in the Himalayas under major masters of the last generation. Among his principal mentors were H.H. Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, the late head of the Nyingma lineage; Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche, the throne holder of the Pema Lingpa tradition; and Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. He also received significant transmissions from H.H. the Dalai Lama, H.H. Sakya Trizin, Shar Khentrul Rinpoche, Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, H.E. Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, along with more than fifteen other custodians of the old Tibetan lineages, and from teachers in Tibet who transmitted yogic lines but cannot be named for political reasons.
Over more than thirty years of sustained practice, he has come to hold the complete transmissions of a special close yogic lineage of the Longchen Nyingthik. In addition, he holds the Khandro Nyingthik, Pema Lingpa’s Kunsang Gongdü, the Northern Treasures (Byang-gter), and several other Dzogchen cycles. His retreat record includes a four-year solitary retreat as well as many shorter retreats and phases of strict seclusion, all anchored in a simple yogic discipline that emphasises meditation and lived experience of the yogic Dzogchen terma lineages.
On the advice of one of his root teachers, he remains outside monastic institutions so that the yogic line of the terma traditions can be transmitted in a way that is both pure and effective. He offers guidance only to practitioners who are sincerely committed, working quietly and directly without public programmes. His style is straightforward and uncompromising—based on direct experience, free of display, and offered as an expression of gratitude to the lineage rather than personal pretence.