Gar Drolma Choling Dharma Center

Eric Fry-Miller

Ani Rinchen Khandro Eric Fry-Miller began studying with his root teacher, Garchen Rinpoche, in the late nineties. He began studying Tibetan at Naropa University in 1999. Later, Eric did an intensive summer Tibetan language course at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He spent the following year in Nepal and India, doing a study abroad program through the University of Wisconsin. In the spring of 2002, Eric received a B.A. degree from Prescott College in Religious Studies with a focus on Tibetan Buddhism.

Eric then moved to the Garchen Institute in Chino Valley, AZ, where he lived for the next six years. During that time, Eric completed two hundred-day retreats under the guidance of both Garchen Rinpoche and Traga Rinpoche. Also during that time, Eric received many important empowerments, reading transmissions, and oral instructions in the traditions of Mahamudra and Dzogchen.

In 2003, Eric was asked by Garchen Rinpoche to begin translating for the Lamas at the Garchen Institute. From that time until the fall of 2005, Eric served as one of the translators at the Garchen Institute, and he also translated for a number of different Lamas throughout the United States.

Eric completed a three-year retreat at the Garchen Institute from September 2005 to November 2008. During three year retreat, he practiced the Drigung Kagyü tradition of Five-Fold Mahamudra, Vajrayogini, and the Six Dharmas of Naropa. Eric lives with his fiancée in Bloomington, IN, continues to do oral translation, and works on various textual translation projects under the guidance of his teachers.