Kirsten Czeczor (1958–2025) was, for more than four decades, a key figure in the development of Rigpa in Germany.

From her first encounter with the Buddhadharma in 1985, she dedicated her life to the practice, study, and teaching of the Dharma, always marked by devotion, humor, and gentleness.

She was one of Rigpa's senior teachers and as such was deeply involved in the organization of the Sangha, taught at national retreats, and deepened her practice in numerous retreats, especially during the three-year retreat.

From 2009 onward, Kirsten lived at Dharma Mati in Berlin, where she initiated Drupchös, supported the community, and inspired many as a teacher—particularly through her profound devotion to her master, Sogyal Rinpoche, and to Guru Rinpoche.

On August 21, 2025, she passed away peacefully, leaving us with an enduring example of deep practice and clarity.

Read a fuller tribute below from many of her close sangha friends.

Kirsten Czeczor: 30. May 1958 - 21. August 2025

The beginning and the deep dive

- by Doris Wolter, Jaborah Arnoul and Herbert Winkler

For more than three decades, Kirsten – our beloved sangha sister, dharma friend as well as dharma teacher and practitioner – was one of the most important figures in contributing to the vision of Sogyal Rinpoche and Rigpa in Germany. In so doing, she dedicated the major part of her life to serving and practicing the Buddhadharma, a perfect example of a practitioner who characterised the saying „little needs and much contentment“.

Kirsten first encountered the Buddhadharma forty years ago together with Jaborah Arnoul, in the summer of 1985. They attended their very first retreat with Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche in a remote forest location. One day, he spoke about the dreamlike nature of existence, that life is an illusion: “At any moment we need to be aware that we dream.” For Kirsten this was a turning point. With great astonishment she intuitively knew that all her questions about life would be answered by following the Buddhist masters and the truth that they taught.

In 1986/87, again together with her close friend Jaborah Arnoul, she met Sogyal Rinpoche. From that moment onwards, her trust and devotion to Sogyal Rinpoche was unwavering and she developed a very close and heartfelt connection to Guru Rinpoche, especially in recent years. Her passionate talks about the precious Guru will be deeply missed.

Around that time, the German Rigpa-Sangha was growing rapidly; Kirsten moved to Berlin to train as a naturopath and the school at Hasenheide that she attended served as the first venue for the Berlin Sangha´s Ngöndro- and Tsok practice gatherings. Beyond Berlin, Kirsten attended all the major European Retreats with Sogyal Rinpoche and other visiting masters and regularly worked there as a volunteer.

She also took part in the first Three-Month retreat at Lerab Ling in 1992 and stayed on to live and work at Lerab Ling afterwards, mainly in different administration areas. However the situation in Lerab Ling with its rough living conditions (at that time the only accommodation consisted of poorly insulated chalets without proper heating) and her heavy workload, contributed to a serious deterioration of Kirsten`s health. Therefore, in 1995, she moved back to Berlin to assist Doris Wolter in the national Rigpa Germany office. After the German edition of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying was published in 1993, Rigpa’s work and activities in Germany grew rapidly and therefore Kirsten herself soon needed volunteer assistants in the office.

During Khandro Rinpoche's retreat in Berlin_May 2023.JPG

In the following years she became an important and reliable member of the German national team, however it became increasingly clear that her main interest was not in administration or organisational work, but in study and practice. So she increasingly took over responsibilities in this area, working together with people like Elisabeth Nowotny and Tom Geist to organize courses (for example, the so-called ‘Streams’) and to hold national instructor training. Kirsten was one of the main presenters at the national retreats at Kirchheim together with Elisabeth Nowotny, Karin Behrendt, Jaborah Arnoul; later both Verena Pfeiffer and Ian Ives joined the team.

After the national office moved from Berlin to Munich in 1998, she also moved there and supported Rigpa Germany in the area of Teaching Services.

The Three-Year retreat

- an account by Kirsten DeLeo

These are incredibly fortunate encounters when you meet a dharma sister or brother, and you feel a deep connection immediately. An unspoken, tender recognition, “I know you”. This was the case with Kirsten, my dear dharma sister and ‘Namensschwester’ (namesake). Kirsten and I sat next to each other during the Three-Year retreat. In past lifetimes, we must have sat side by side in small wooden meditation boxes with bell and dorje in a small nunnery or damp cave in the Himalayas, practising together and following the instructions of our precious lama.

It’s hard to write about Kirsten in the past tense, ‘Kirsten was…’. For me, Kirsten is. She is present. This is one of her wonderful qualities. She is present when you are with her. And she is present in what she does. A beautiful woman, ‘bodenständig’, as we say in German, grounded, fiercely devoted, humble, self-reflective, honest, incredibly stubborn in some situations (you may perceive this as ‘gradlinig’, or persistent), with a disarming sense of humour and a rare sweetness. She can take things seriously. At times, too much, perhaps, but only because she cares deeply. If you have her as a friend, it is for life (and the next).

During the Three-Year retreat, we went through hell and heaven and back again, only to discover it’s your mind. It’s your mind you have to work with. Until you take this fully to heart, you continue to make excuses and look elsewhere. During the retreat, I witnessed her determination to keep going no matter what she faced. She always had a deep understanding of suffering and, yet simultaneously, a lightness of heart and acceptance. This profound understanding came through during these past months of her illness. “I have entered the bardo of dying”, she acknowledged, matter-of-factly, the last time I saw her in the hospital. And there are these flashes of memories that make me smile inside and out. Her father had been a ‘one-man band’ entertainer in the nineteen-fifties, if I remember correctly, and I feel he must have passed a bit of his humorous streak onto his daughter. During the summer months of the retreat, when we were allowed to talk, she told Heinz Erhardt’s anecdotes with great gusto. Erhardt was a beloved German comedian famous for his nonsensical language, a Beckett yet with warm humour. We, her German friends, keeled over with laughter. The other nationalities, well, they looked a bit puzzled. “Ach Mensch…” she says with a deep sigh when samsara again turns out to be both heartbreaking and ridiculous.

Kirsten is gone, and she isn’t. Dreamlike.

You are still here, and I miss you terribly.

Dharma Mati and the beautiful challenges of a community

- by Holger Sieler and Gabriele Maaß

Kirsten came to Dharma Mati (at that time known as Rigpa-Zentrum Berlin) in 2009, directly after the Three-Year retreat. It was a big step for her to move into a community. With her crystal-clear, pure and mellifluous voice she often led our practices, especially on important anniversary days. When life in the community became somewhat rocky, she was appointed by Sogyal Rinpoche and Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche as ‘Spiritual Friend’ to the community, a role that she embraced with great enthusiasm. She inspired the community to lead a virtuous and Dharma-centred lifestyle, which she herself upheld so nobly, with notable success.

At the same time, she was also part of the Rigpa Germany team and played an important role in connecting the community and local sangha with this body. She also made sure projection files and chanted texts/handouts were well prepared and made live translation for the various masters who visited us.

Dharma Mati shrineroom with Ingbert_May 2018.jpg

For many, she was a patient listener, a skilled and warm-hearted advisor for those who had questions related to their personal practice and spiritual path—the challenges of balancing study and practice in a dharma centre buzzing with activity and a city teeming with chaos and distractions.

After her entrustment as a Senior Teacher, the field of her Dharma service expanded yet further. She traveled to many of the local Rigpa Germany centres, talking mainly about her greatest passion—Guru Rinpoche. She radiated the vastness of Guru Rinpoche as soon as she started to invoke him. She also was the main teacher of the Home Retreat 2.0 in Germany since its start in 2020. A student who had never met Sogyal Rinpoche but is studying the Home Retreat 2.0 intensively, said of Kirsten, after her passing away, that with her, for the very first time, he gained a sense of what it means to have a teacher.

Kirsten’s final moments

- by Jaborah Arnoul and Karin Behrendt

“Too fast,” Kirsten said several times during her last week – and indeed, the change from trying to heal and recover to turning towards the next life, or hopefully liberation, came so quickly that it is still hard to grasp, let alone put into words. Khandro Rinpoche wrote just a couple of hours after her last breath:

“Our thoughts and prayers are with you and all at Dharma Marti at this sad time of passing away of our dear Kirsten.
While Kirsten as a practitioner held herself with courage and serenity as best as she could through all the experiences of the past months, the decline of her health and now the passing has been rapid and a powerful experience for all.
I am sure Kirsten will be steady with her mind and awareness as she moves into this next phase of her journey, and she will definitely be supported and blessed by all the prayers from all the teachers and Sangha members.
Kirsten's devotion to her Guru and the Dharma will hold her and guide her and we all remain with her in our thoughts and prayers.
My love and prayers to you and all our friends at Dharma Mati and Rigpa.”

Her last days were remarkable, held by a wonderful circle of friends and her beloved “almost daughter”, Inanna. Though she was in great pain, as Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche once said, she was a practitioner, and she carried herself with courage and serenity as best she could. When the pain subsided, she sometimes looked as if she were deeply asleep or dulled by medication, but whenever something mattered to her, she was fully present, clear, and able to express her needs. A nurse even remarked the day after her passing that Kirsten was always present and awake in a way she had never seen in any other patient.

Many who knew Kirsten remember her humbleness and her no-nonsense approach and humor. Even her last weeks were marked by laughter and wit. When I once tried to read a bardo verse to her, she waved her hand to dismiss me, saying she didn’t want to hear any “big words.” And even at the very end, when she could hardly speak, she managed a dry little laugh when Inanna told her it was okay for her to let go, not even waiting for her brother who was delayed – as if to say: “That’s easier said than done, dying is not that easy!”

Kirsten with Ringu Tulku Rinpoche together with members of the Dharma Mati team, 2021

Ringu Tulku Rinpoche who had visited her said: “You have the Dharma, you know what to do,” and simply sat with her. Witnessing her process, I can confirm that she did.

The last Dakini Day will never be forgotten. In the early morning we told her: “Dakini Day dawns!” She responded joyfully in a sweet voice: “Oh, Dakini Day. This is the day I want to leave.” Yet she also wanted to wait for her brother, who was on his way from New York. Later, in the middle of the night, she suggested – with fearless humor – to celebrate a Dakini Tsok with beer. Thanks to never-sleeping Berlin, it was possible. We did a very abbreviated practice, made a toast to her departure, and she took several small sips of the beer. She then said her last illusion of good taste was now destroyed. She giggled, saying: “Ah, he is here, there he is, yes, that’s how he is,” as if greeting Guru Rinpoche himself.

Kirsten in her last days, with close friends Jaborah and Karin

In the evening she joined, from her hospital bed, with the practice in Lerab Ling and toasted with champagne: “köstlich, exquisite!” The next day her brother arrived. In their silent exchange of eyes and heart, one could feel compassion, love, and relief. After that, she needed almost nothing more from us, only the occasional short reading as a reminder of her journey. Slowly her breath softened… until it stopped. Natural great peace. Deep stillness. Machöpa.

Kirsten accomplished the purpose of life: on 21 August 2025 she left her illusory body in this dreamlike world and remained undistracted in the clear awareness of the nature of mind, united with her master’s mind. An elegant final legacy from a trekchö practitioner.

Practitioners around the world - masters and students alike - practised for her directly afterwards and will continue to do so for the 49 days after her passing. The celebrations and burial will take place on 4th October 2025. For more information please contact Jaborah.Arnoul@rigpa.de.