Karin Behrendt grew up in Berlin, where she received teacher training at the Academie of Arts and worked as a percussionist. She started to practise Zen Buddhism in her early twenties, before encountering the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, particularly of the Kagyü and Nyingma lineages, and learning to love the richness and profundity of their teachings and practices.
Since her first retreat with Sogyal Rinpoche 1986 Karin has worked in many roles to establish and support Rigpa and its growing number of students. To many students she is known as Sogyal Rinpoche’s ‘German voice’, having served as his interpreter and supporting his events and retreats for over 20 years.
To put the teachings she received from him and the many eminent teachers visiting Rigpa into practice, she has observed several long term retreats in Dzogchen Beara and Lerab Ling, Rigpa’s retreat centres in Ireland and France.
As a teacher she loves to introduce her audience to Buddhism’s deep understanding of impermanence and death as an integral part of life as presented in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and its methods to get to know and work with one’s own mind to be best prepared for both life and death. She lives with her partner in southern France, close to Lerab Ling.
