Surya Das is a Dharma heir of Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche, a Nyingma master of the non-sectarian Rime movement, with whom he founded the Dzogchen Foundation and Center in 1991.

[4] Surya Das was born Jeffrey Miller and raised in Valley Stream, Long Island, New York.

[5] After his best friend's girlfriend, Allison Krause, was killed during the Kent State shootings,[1] Surya Das began pursuing spirituality.

[15] In 1977, Surya Das helped establish Gyalwa Karmapa's Karma Triyana Dharmachakra monastery on a mountaintop overlooking Woodstock, New York.

[19] These admissions came after five women, working through a lawyer, brought allegations of sexual misconduct by Surya Das to Dzogchen Foundation's board of directors in 2019.

Three of them said Surya Das suggested that meditating while naked in his lap (based on the yab-yum image) would help their spiritual practice.

Two others recounted sexual encounters with Surya Das, including one who said that he told her sleeping with him would complete her Buddhist training.