15 Facts About Ole Nydahl

Since the early 1970s, Nydahl has toured the world giving lectures and meditation courses.

Ole Nydahl is the author of more than twenty books about Diamond Way Vajrayana Buddhism, with translations into multiple languages.

Ole Nydahl was born north of Copenhagen into an academic family.

Ole Nydahl began but did not finish a doctoral thesis on Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception.

Ole Nydahl used this time in pre-trial detention for meditation and read "Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrine" by Walter Evans-Wentz.

Until 2013, Ole Nydahl taught conscious dying or phowa, as well as other Buddhist meditation practices, but in recent years he has been focused on giving Mahamudra; teachings on the nature of mind.

Ole Nydahl traveled almost constantly for over 40 years, teaching in a new city nearly every day, until 2017 when his health necessitated reducing his travel schedule.

Together with his students, Ole Nydahl has created Buddhist centers that provide access to Vajrayana meditation methods without requiring an understanding of Tibetan language or culture.

The total number of Ole Nydahl's adherents is unknown, but can be estimated conservatively to include 15,000 to 70,000 students and casual sympathizers worldwide.

Ole Nydahl's "self-identification and legitimization as a Western Karma bKa' brgyud lay teacher" is an important part of a "continual hagiographical tradition he and his inner circle are writing and rewriting".

Ole Nydahl has referred to the Islamic religion as "criminal", has called Allah a "terrible god", and has characterized Muslim beliefs as antithetical to freedom of speech and women's rights:.

Ole Nydahl says that he does not make political comments in his capacity as a lama, but as a "responsible, thinking human being", and that no one can make such statements from a Buddhist perspective because Buddha Shakyamuni did not comment on religious ideas founded centuries after his death.

Ole Nydahl met his future wife Hannah when he was 10 and she was five.

In 2014 Ole Nydahl married Alexandra Munoz Barbosa at the Copenhagen Diamond Way Buddhist center.

Ole Nydahl has written several books in English, German and Danish, which have been translated into several other European languages.