Aspi Mistry has been involved over the last 49 years in organisation-building, social work and development, mass media, communications, and information technology. His experience ranges from grassroots level work in the villages of Maharashtra in India to documentary film production, to software development to teaching Buddhist philosophy and practice.



Aspi was introduced to Buddhism in 1992. He has been a practitioner since then, and has been associated with the Deer Park Institute in Bir, Himachal Pradesh since its inception in 2006. He is a student of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and a Board Member of the Siddhartha's Intent Society that runs the Deer Park Project.



In 2003, he founded the Dharma Rain Centre in Mumbai, which regularly organises teachings for the Bombay Sangha, by teachers such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, Geshe Lhakdor and others.



A socially engaged political activist since his student days, a lover of literature and films, Aspi likes to say with apologies to Shantideva, "May I be a thorn in the sides of those who desperately need a thorn in their sides..."