13 Facts About Ken McLeod

Ken McLeod was born on 1948 and is a senior Western translator, author, and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism.

Ken McLeod received traditional training mainly in the Shangpa Kagyu lineage through a long association with his principal teacher, Kalu Rinpoche, whom he met in 1970.

Ken McLeod describes himself as "retired", having withdrawn from teaching, and no longer conducting classes, workshops, meditation retreats, individual practice consultations, or teacher training.

Under Kalu Rinpoche's guidance, Ken McLeod learned the Tibetan language and completed two traditional three-year retreats.

Ken McLeod did so until 1990, when he founded his own organization, Unfettered Mind.

Ken McLeod has made this model available for others to use via the Unfettered Mind website, his teacher development program, and his publications, especially Wake Up To Your Life, which lays out the Buddhist path and practices.

Ken McLeod was born in 1948 in Yorkshire, England, and raised in Canada.

Ken McLeod was the English interpreter for Kalu Rinpoche's first two tours of the West.

In 1976, Ken McLeod joined Kalu Rinpoche in Central France to help establish, and then participate in, the first three-year retreat for Westerners, at Kagyu Ling.

In 1985, at Kalu Rinpoche's request, Ken McLeod translated and published The Chariot for Traveling the Path to Freedom: the Life Story of Kalu Rinpoche.

Also in that year, Kalu Rinpoche authorized Ken McLeod to teach, and asked him to be the resident teacher at his Dharma center, Kagyu Dongak Chuling, in Los Angeles.

Ken McLeod was an interpreter for several other Kagyu teachers, most notably for the third Jamgon Kongtrul at the 1990 Kalachakra empowerment in Toronto.

Ken McLeod realized that some practice obstacles arose because, in the context of contemporary American life, Tibetan Buddhist methods can't easily be practiced in the classical manner.