Khenpo Gurudas Sunyatananda was born, Frederick Robert Salvato, to Francis and Cecilia Salvato, amidst what some have called auspicious conditions, in the Metropolitan Pittsburgh area, on 16th February 1963 (the Tibetan Year of the Tiger). His parents were devout Catholics, and consecrated their firstborn to Our Lady of Grace, an emanation of the Mother of All Compassion.

As a youngster, Khenpo (the Tibetan word for “abbot”, as his students now call him) subjected his earthly body to extreme physical pains, including febrile convulsions, for which doctors could find no apparent cause. As he grew, he continued to subject himself to both physical and emotional obstacles, pain and ridicule. No form of suffering would be foreign to the young man, resulting in the development of a genuine compassion, born out of empathy, for those who are marginalised, sick, suffering or oppressed.

When he was almost seven, a visiting Benedictine monk, conducting a parish mission, while visiting New Jersey, recognising the natural devotion and inner wisdom the seven year-old Khenpo possessed, began to instruct him in the non-dualistic philosophy of the path of Advaita Vedanta, and Buddhasharma, and upon receiving the Refuge Vows of the young Khenpo, he gave him the spiritual name Little Sunyatananda — meaning “the bliss of emptiness” — a reflection of the young boy’s desire to become empty, to “decrease, so that compassion expressing itself as me can increase,” he would write his refuge lama one morning, while waiting to accompany the priest for the celebration of Liturgy.

According to the perspective of other monks and Dharma teachers, from the time of his early childhood, the powerful imprints of a previous incarnation as a Bodhisattva were clearly manifested in all that Little Sunyatananda did. He was naturally drawn to a more distinctively Japanese form of prayer and meditation, and at the age of nine, went on to earn his first-degree black belt in the Japanese martial art of Aikido, from Robert Danza Sensei, one of the personal students of the art’s founder, Morehei Ueshiba (O’Sensei). He continued to study Japanese spirituality (Zen Buddhism and Shinto/Omoto-kyo), and excelled as a master of Ki, under the tutelage of Zen Masters Robert Danza Sensei and Marianne Donoghue Sensei.

During his early teen years, this natural devotion to Buddhist Masters and Catholic Mystics continued, with the young Sunyatananda secretly spending many nights with little or no sleep, chanting and meditating, in a state of still, silent spiritual ecstasy. It was as a young teen that he found his Tsawa Lama (Root Teacher), Lama Thubten Yeshe, with whom he studied until shortly before Yeshe-la shed his mortal coil in 1984. Lama Yeshe promised Khenpo that he would find a second teacher, who would “be as much of a tsawa lama as I have ever been”.

While these were painful words for Khenpo to hear, he recognised that his Root Teacher was the embodiment of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, and his unflinching devotion and trust compelled him to accept his Teacher’s instruction.

Khenpo often tells of how much he misses Lama Yeshe — even during the eight year period, following his choosing no longer to use his Tibetan name, in protest of the cruel and duplicitous behaviour of the Dalai Lama toward his fellow Shugden-pa — he spoke with warmth and love, sharing something Yeshe-la taught him early on:

“Many people misunderstand Buddhism. Even some professors of Buddhist studies look at just the words and interpret what the Buddha taught very literally. They don’t understand his methods, which are the real essence of his teachings. In my opinion, the most important aspect of any religion is its methods: how to put that religion into your own experience. The better you understand that, the more effective your religion becomes. Your practice becomes so natural, so realistic; you easily come to understand your own nature, your own mind, and you don’t get surprised by whatever you find in it. Then, when you understand the nature of your own mind, you’ll be able to control it naturally; you won’t have to push so hard; understanding naturally brings control.” – Venerable Thubten Yeshe