Andy Karr

ANDY KARR is a teacher, author, and photographer who offers profound and penetrating insights into dharma and mind. He trained at the San Francisco Zen Center under Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and under Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Boulder, Colorado. Andy co-founded the first Shambhala Centre in France and taught regularly in Paris and other European dharma centers for ten years.

After Trungpa Rinpoche passed away in 1987, Andy and his family moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1993 he began studying Mahamudra, and the stages of view and meditation, with Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. He later became a senior teacher in his sangha.

In the late 1990s, and early aughts, Andy studied contemplative photography with Michael Wood. This was an opportunity to bring together the Dharma Art teachings of Trungpa Rinpoche, the Mahamudra teachings of Khenpo Rinpoche, and Michael’s insights into photography as a contemplative practice.

Andy’s first book, Contemplating Reality, is a series of investigations into the nature of mind and the phenomenal world. Andy’s second book, written with Michael Wood, The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes, teaches the most essential photographic skill—clear seeing. His next book, Into the Mirror: A Buddhist Journey through Mind, Matter, and the Nature of Reality, shows how Mahayana teachings can meet modernity, without losing their profundity. The book is due out in the Spring of 2023.

Nowadays, Andy mainly teaches Mahayana view and meditation, and Mahamudra. To learn more about Andy’s work, go to www.andykarrauthor.com.