Elias Capriles teaches philosophy, Buddhism, Asian art and other subjects at the University of The Andes in Merida, Venezuela, and is an instructor in the Santi Maha Sangha Buddhist and Dzogchen training in the International Dzogchen Community presided by Tibetan Dzogchen Master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. He ran spiritual emergency refuges in India and Nepal in the mid 1970s, and spent most of his time in retreat in caves and cabins in the higher Himalayas intensively practicing Dzogchen from 1977 through December 1982. He is the author of over a dozen books and many articles and book chapters on comparative philosophy, transpersonal psychology, Buddhism, Dzogchen, political philosophy, philosophy of history, political ecology, Asian and Latin American history, Asian religions and mysticism, the history of Asian religions, sociology, etc., which have been published in the US, Spain, Italy, India, Venezuela and El Salvador; presently has prospective transpersonal publications in Russia and France. His work has been discussed in books on Latin American philosophy in France, Spain and Venezuela, in papers in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology and other academic journals, and in many Encyclopedia entries. He is a member of the International Board of the recently refounded International Transpersonal Association, of the Board of the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies and of the Board of the Journal of Transpersonal Research, of the Revista de Derechos Humanos y Estudios Sociales (Journal of Human Rights and Social Studies: REDHES: San Luis Potosí, Mexico), as well as of various academic journals on philosophy, cultural studies, etc., and is Associate Editor of two academic journals in Venezuela (Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana, on philosophy, and Humania del Sur, on South-South cooperation). He has lectured in Universities in Korea, India, Ecuador, Peru, and Costa Rica, and presented papers in Conferences in Spain, India, Korea, Russia, Peru and Venezuela.