Birdie Ciccarelli

Birdie was born in Seoul, South Korea. After being adopted as a child, she was reared in the United States, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She has always enjoyed dancing, yoga, gymnastics, empowering children, travelling, math and sciences. The latter led her to her undergraduate degree at Oregon State University. Since she was a child, she has always been surrounded by children and to this day, she continues to find ways to connect with and inspire them.  

For as long as Birdie can remember, it has been in her heart to somehow give back to others. She started volunteering as a teenager and continued through her adult life landing her in places such as Haiti, El Salvador, Peru, South Africa and Mexico. While in South Africa Birdie read the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. At that point she decided to alter her path and, instead of going back to Asia, she connected with Dzogchen Beara with the intention of meeting Sogyal Rinpoche. Less than six months after reading the book, Birdie was volunteering in the hostel at Dzogchen Beara.  

After attending Sogyal Rinpoche’s retreat in Dzogchen Beara, Birdie felt that her time and efforts would be better served by focusing her energy on a different path. At that point she made a deep aspirational prayer to support in any way that would allow Sogyal Rinpoche to continue to teach and impact others, as she saw him do it in such a way she never could. Less than a week later, Birdie was invited to go Lerab Ling, in France, to support the hospitality team. She purchased a ticket to France and left for Lerab Ling with less than 20 Euros in her pocket and started her journey in dedicating her life to the Dharma.  

For the next two years Birdie travelled to Australia, United States and within Europe to help behind the scenes while Sogyal Rinpoche held retreats, public talks and teachings.  

She settled in Lerab Ling in the summer of 2017, when Rinpoche went into retreat, to care for his mother, Mayumla, continued to support hospitality and to study/practice the Dharma.   

She stayed in France for the next four years supporting Lerab Ling as much as she could. After leaving Lerab Ling she continued to support Rinpoche’s teachings by contributing her skills to the Prajna team and the Bodhi Project. She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest and feels very privileged to be aiding in the works of Rigpa US with their administration, finance, bookkeeping, communications and hospitality.