This Very Moment Episode 9: Larry Mermelstein

June 15, 2026

This Very Moment
Episode 9: The Dance of Sound and Meaning with Larry Mermelstein

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Show Notes

In this episode of This Very Moment we are joined by Larry Mermelstein, a longtime student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and a founding member of the Nalanda Translation Committee.

Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Rochester, New York, Larry recalls growing up in a Jewish household with mixed religious observance. His father, raised Orthodox with a Hasidic grandfather, described himself as a “non-observant Orthodox Jew,” while his mother came from a Reform background. Larry attended Hebrew school reluctantly but found genuine engagement in the musicality of Jewish prayer during his study for bar mitzvah. However, as he grew older and began reading the English translations of Hebrew prayers, he found the meaning uninspiring, and his interest in Judaism faded.

As a teenager Larry found refuge in a spiritualist minister in New Jersey, who opened him up to the idea that this reality is not the only reality. He continued studying with him through his last two years in high school. In college Larry discovered Alan Watts, D.T. Suzuki, and other “Zen stuff,” inspired by the hippie era emerging at the time, including Ram Dass’s famous recordings that would later be published in book form as the beloved Be Here Now.

With a growing interest in yoga and meditation Larry found his way to Scotland to chase rumors of “lamas in Scotland” only to stumble upon Samye Ling, where he met Akong Rinpoche and Kalu Rinpoche, which later threaded the connection for him to return home and spontaneously attend a seminar at Tail of the Tiger (now Karmê Chöling), where he met his teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

From that moment the direction of his life changed. His love of music and interest in something deeper in life laid the foundation for him to study Sanskrit and later Tibetan with a small group of students in Chögyam Trungpa’s sangha. Subsequently, during the 1976 Seminary with Trungpa Rinpoche he and a group of translators came together to translate the Vajrayogini Sadhana, an important liturgical text for the Vajradhatu community, birthing not only the Nalanda Translation Committee but also the Shambhala teachings. In the following years Larry went on to shape the development of Naropa University, Prajna Press, and the Naropa Bookstore, which was housed at Backcountry Bookstore (now Boulder Bookstore). Today, he continues playing an active role as executive director of the Nalanda Translation Committee.

In this interview Larry comments heavily on the importance of translation as well as the difficulties of translating liturgy in poetic English designed for chanting and musicality. In his words he states:

“It is the biggest flaw of what we do as liturgy translators. This is the most serious thing that we don't really do. And there’s no question it’s not good. It needs to be remedied. I believe that the ultimate remedy, and this is maybe a little too high in the sky, but I really think that the work of translation is a temporary bridge…until you have people that have whatever it is, some kind of sufficient realization to then start writing all this stuff natively in English and other modern languages, then is when the musicality will be much easier.”

About the Interviewee

Larry Mermelstein is a founding member and executive director of Nalanda Translation Committee. He became a close student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1971 and worked closely with him in translating and presenting Buddhist teachings in English-speaking communities. He is among a dedicated group of translators who worked directly with Trungpa in translating all of the Shambhala termas from Tibetan to English, making them widely available to students and practitioners all over the world.