He received his PhD.(1984) in Far Eastern Studies from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, specializing in Tibetan Buddhism under the guidance of Herbert Guenther. He has lectured on Buddhist and comparative philosophy for over 25 years in the United States, Asia, and Europe, including the University of California (Berkeley and Santa Barbara), Rice University, Harvard University, the Graduate Theological Union, Nyingma Institute, Naropa University, and Rigpa Shedra in Lerab Ling. In 1994 he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship for the study of Tibetan mystical poetry (nyams mgur) at the Rice University Center for Cultural Studies.