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Buddha’s Anniversary Celebration this Tuesday!

Saga Dawa is the most auspicious day of the Tibetan Buddhist Calendar and a day celebrated by Buddhists all around the world. It is the anniversary of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and the day he passed away into parinirvana. The effects of actions on this day are said to be multiplied by ten million times because of the spiritual power of this full moon on the fourth month. 

Join us for a celebration of prayers and aspirations on this auspicious occasion.

For Saga Dawa, Khenpo Gawang will teach the Sadhana of Sakyamuni Buddha and give the initiation for the practice and for the mantra. This will be a reading transmission, or rlung.

Join Khenpo Gawang, Pema Khandro, friends and members  for this joyous celebration of the Buddha’s Anniversary.

Learn More

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Upcoming Discussion

With Pema Khandro

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Calendar At A Glance

 

RECURRING PROGRAMS

Every Day – Daily Meditation with Our New Teachers

Every Monday – Ngondro Practice with Tsalgyur 

1st & 2nd Weds – Vajrayana Training with Pema Khandro

3rd Weds – Ngakpa Training – Pre-requisites requited

4th Weds – Excellent Path with Pema Khandro

JUNE

June 14 – Saga Dawa

June 21 – Buddhism After #metoo

June 21 -Women in Tantric Buddhism Discussion Group

JULY
July 15-17 – Fierce Compassion -Troma Nagmo Retreat

July 23 – Teaching Meditation in a Multicultural World

July 30 – Meditation Instructor Training Graduation

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A one day meditation retreat online devoted to gentle quiet, deep rest and introspection.

Join Pema Khandro and the Buddhist Studies Institute for a day of guided meditations, restorative yoga, chanting the White Tara meditation and contemplating dharma poetry. Drawing on the great poets of Buddhism, Pema Khandro will teach on Longchenpa’s instructions for Finding Comfort and Ease in the nature of mind.

Restorative Yoga practices led by BSI faculty will focus on establish deep states of rest and ease in the body.

White Tara Meditation led by the Group Leaders will raise the wisdom energy of White Tara who rescues beings from calamities, disasters and wars.

Community Tea time will offer an opportunity for dharma conversation with like minded dharma friends. Participants are encouraged to bring their favorite dharma poem to share in small groups.

This one day retreat will offer an opportunity for quiet, meditation, contemplation and conversation. It is open to participation by guests with all levels of experience, new and long time practitioners alike.

Learn More

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HELP US CHANGE HOW MEDITATION IS TAUGHT

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SELF-PACED COURSES

Tibetan Dream Yoga

with Pema Khandro

Self-Paced Course Online

Open Teaching – No Prerequisites

This Course focuses on the Tibetan Buddhist methods for navigating Dream, Waking Life, and Sleep.

Considered the practice most similar to our experience at death, Dream Yoga is about navigating in the real and unreal aspects of our experience without falling asleep to awareness. It is a practice of recognizing the nature of our minds.

Waking, dreaming, and deep sleep present transformations of perception and they highlight the continuity and discontinuity of experience. Through recognizing the opportunities for meditative awareness in these states, we can understand our own minds and face all our experiences with greater presence. A teaching based on the Six Yogas of Naropa – which is a system of harnessing ordinary experience for awakening.

Register Now

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PEMA KHANDRO IN LION’S ROAR

Breaking Open in the Bardo

by Pema Khandro   | January 2, 2022

 

“It’s when we lose the illusion of control – when we’re most vulnerable and exposed – that we can discover the creative potential of our lives.” 

Read Now

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UPCOMING CALENDAR AT A GLANCE

Monthly Programs at 6pm PT / 9pm ET

Every Day – Daily Meditation with Our New Teachers! 

Every Monday – Ngondro Practice with Tsalgyur  

1st & 2nd Weds – Vajrayana Training with Pema Khandro

3rd Weds – Ngakpa Training – Pre-requisites requited

4th Weds – Excellent Path with Pema Khandro 

 

March

 

Mar 12 – Meditation Instructor Training Graduation

 

Mar 19 – Resting in Dharma Poetry – 1 Day Retreat with Pema Khandro

 

Mar 26 – Next Meditation Instructor Training Begins

Mar 28 – Dakini Day Chod w/Pema Khandro

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ONLINE   |   CALENDAR   |   GIVE

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A LETTER FROM PEMA KHANDRO – AFTER MINDFULNESS

Dear Friends,

It has been a long time since the beginning of the mindfulness movement began. It was catalyzed by groundbreaking early pioneers. For example, John Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programs in the 70’s and his inspiring book, Full Catastrophe Living, which was published in 1990. So much has changed since then. This was before the internet. It was before the internet became integrated with the fabric of our lives. This was before we were talking about the impacts of orientalism and colonialism in the appropriation of Buddhist traditions. This was before we were collectively thinking through the lens of trauma and addressing the question of why it is that we don’t always feel better when we meditate. This was before we were talking about power structures in teacher-student ethics. This was before the #metoo movement in Buddhism and before the collective awakening to racial trauma. This was before we had collectively woken up to the need for racial healing and diversity skills in the meditation class. These are defining concerns that change what the meditation teacher of the future is. It is why I developed the Meditation Instructor Training, with a deep wish to empower meditation teachers to meet the urgent and pressing contexts of our time.

Some things do remain the same since the beginning of the mindfulness movement. The persistent suffering, the emotional dysregulation that dominates a life, and the sense of disembodiment and alienation that can overshadow a life. The power of meditation to stabilize and heal the body and mind is only more and more evident due to so much research. It is clear to me that, perhaps more than ever, there is a great need for meditation instructors who can serve as a soothing balm in these troubled times. But there are all these new questions that must be cared for in the training of new meditation instructors, or they will be ill equipped and underprepared for the great challenges that await.

I originally initiated the Meditation Instructor Training with the intention in mind that Buddhist philosophy and ethics should be kept intact with meditation. As a scholar of Buddhist philosophy, I have long been impressed at how often people who were exposed to mindfulness training also longed to experience the fuller context of Buddhist philosophy and ethics. The curiosity and appetite for that knowledge is unending and I reimagined the training of the meditation instructor to return to that source material. Going beyond the artificial and ethnocentric construct of a secular/religious binary, imperative questions about the context of meditation loom large for meditators. What is meditation for? What is mind? How do we work with emotions? How is our consciousness conditioned by our values and actions? What is the point of meditation? How do the obstacles to meditation relate to our identity, to our body and to our society?  These are just a few of the issues that Buddhist philosophy and ethics weigh in on and why I felt that they must be taught in tact with the meditation methods that were shaped by these very concerns.

When Satya and Aruna joined me as co-teachers of the Meditation Instructor Training, we developed the teaching into an online format to make it more accessible to people with full and demanding lives. I felt like we were standing together to face the challenge of nurturing and supporting the meditation instructors of the future. And that commitment has been expressed thoroughly in our new expanded training format.

Now as we are poised to begin our next cohort of training, I am also proud to celebrate that our training addresses those invisible yet overwhelming factors that sit alongside us on the meditation cushion. We are always doing meditation practice in the context of power, sexuality, race, trauma and technology. This is not just a training in techniques, but instead in the robust array of traditional Buddhist meditation practices in tact with philosophy and ethics along with a deep care for how meditation teaching and practice intersects with issues of power, sexuality, race, trauma and technology. We are training the meditation teachers of the future.

The new beginning of this program is good news in a time when it is so easy to be overwhelmed by all the stories of suffering and sorrow that appear in our news feeds every day. I draw encouragement and relief from this beautiful project of creating empowered meditation instructors. It gives me great relief to know that they will be leaders that bring compassion, care and wisdom to a world that so sorely needs it and to know that they will be prepared and ready to meet the turbulent times ahead.

With joy,

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HELP US CHANGE HOW MEDITATION IS TAUGHT

Meditation Instructor Training 2022

With Pema Khandro, Aruna Rig’dzen, & Dr. Satya

150 Hour Certification Training

Begins March 26, 2022

Learn how to support others in finding the freedom that comes from being able to control one’s own mind.

As people all over the world turn to Buddhist meditation as a source of wisdom, we recognize the need for meditation teachers that are trained to meet the challenges of the future while remaining deeply connected to the robust philosophy, ethics, and practices of Tibetan Buddhism.

Meditation Instructor Training focuses on five forms of meditation, known as calm abiding meditation – Zhine, in Tibetan. The goal is resting in calm space of presence, to train to rest in the wakeful present moment, which is the only constant thing in life. Circumstances and bodies change, everything changes, but the capacity for wakeful presence remains. This is where we can find home, rest, and know exactly what we are.

Learn More About The Training

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LOSAR CELEBRATION FOR MEMBERS THIS FRIDAY!

Celebrate the Tibetan New Year Together!

Year of the Water Tiger

with Pema Khandro and Wonderful Sangha and Friends

Friday March 4

San Francisco 5:30-7pm  

New York 8:30-10pm 

London March 5 – 1:30am 

Australia March 5 – 12:30pm

Nepal March 5 – 7:15am

Timezone Converter:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

All members are welcomed for our annual

Tibetan New Year Celebration – Online!

There is so much to look forward to:

• The Member of the year celebration.
• Celebration of Iron Mice who finished Ngondro last year!
• Celebration of those who finished 108 Chod!
• Conversations about what you learned from the pandemic.
• Celebration of accomplishments of the sangha members.
• Buddhist jokes!
• And so much more!!

Iron Mice, please wear black!

Water Tigers, please wear blue!

Members at large, please wear maroon or red!

If you can dress festively, please do so!

If you forget and wear random clothing, no problem!

Registration for the annual Losar celebration is limited to members only, but it is open to all members, new and long-time members. This is a time for the members from all the various programs to reunite and celebrate together. To find out more about member levels and benefits, or to become a member, visit Become a Member.

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SELF-PACED COURSES 

A Return to Sanity
Buddhist Ethics

with Pema Khandro

 

Self-Paced Course Online

Open Teaching – No Prerequisites

 

This course focuses on tantric interpretations of the Five Buddhist Precepts. The Five Precepts are a discipline of freedom, honor, openness and precision that cover the potent themes of life from the uncommon, extraordinary perspective of non-duality. 

 

Topics covered in this course include:

• Buddhist theories about vegetarian lifestyle vs. meat-eating, 
• Buddhist perspectives on alcohol and substance use 
• Conscious use of sexual energy, Buddhist philosophy about desire
• Handling resources, money and spirituality
• Honesty, and the speech that takes us beyond confusion.

 

Register Now

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PEMA KHANDRO IN LION’S ROAR

When Sadness Rages Like Fire

by Pema Khandro   | August 11, 2020

 

“Throughout his profound spiritual awakening, the great Tibetan yogi Shabkar experienced immense loss resulting in grief marked by raw pain, a sense of disorientation, sadness, and tears. Witnessing how a Buddhist master mourns can shed some light on how we can navigate our own grief and demystify any fantasies we might have about a peace that negates sadness.

Read Now

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UPCOMING CALENDAR AT A GLANCE

Monthly Programs at 6pm PT / 9pm ET

Every Day – Daily Meditation with Our New Teachers! 

Every Monday – Ngondro Practice with Tsalgyur  

1st & 2nd Weds – Vajrayana Training with Pema Khandro

3rd Weds – Ngakpa Training – Pre-requisites requited

4th Weds – Excellent Path with Pema Khandro 

 

March

Mar 4 – Losar Celebration for Members

Mar 12 – Meditation Instructor Training Graduation

Mar 19 – Resting in Dharma Poetry – 1 Day Retreat with Pema Khandro

Mar 26 – Next Meditation Instructor Training Begins

Mar 28 – Dakini Day Chod w/Pema Khandro

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Dakini Day Chod 

with Pema Khandro

Feb 26

1pm PT | 4pm ET

Join us on Saturday for meditation and
instructions on compassionate letting go
through Tibetan Chod meditation.

Chod is a meditation method through meeting fear and affliction with compassion. Rather than renounce these mind states, in Chod, they are allowed to transform and be reintegrated as keys to innate wisdom. Chod is an intermediate to advanced level Tibetan meditation practice. It involves, chanting, meditation, rehearsing dying and working directly with emotions and experiences. All are welcome. By Donation. This class is led by Pema Khandro, Tibetan Buddhist teacher and scholar.

Dakini Day Chod returns. This class will focus on the Laughter of the Dakinis, the Chod from Longchen Nyingthig.

Learn More about Dakini Day Chod

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THE WORLD NEEDS MEDITATION TEACHERS MORE THAN EVER

Meditation Instructor Training 2022

With Pema Khandro, Aruna Rig’dzen, & Dr. Satya

150 Hour Certification Training

Begins March 26, 2022

Learn how to support others in finding the freedom that comes from being able to control one’s own mind.

As people all over the world turn to Buddhist meditation as a source of wisdom, we recognize the need for meditation teachers that are trained to meet the challenges of the future while remaining deeply connected to the robust philosophy, ethics, and practices of Tibetan Buddhism.

Meditation Instructor Training focuses on five forms of meditation, known as calm abiding meditation – Zhine, in Tibetan. The goal is resting in calm space of presence, to train to rest in the wakeful present moment, which is the only constant thing in life. Circumstances and bodies change, everything changes, but the capacity for wakeful presence remains. This is where we can find home, rest, and know exactly what we are.

Learn More

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PEMA KHANDRO’S NEW ARTICLE IN LION’S ROAR

LOSAR CELEBRATION FOR MEMBERS

Celebrate Losar – Tibetan New Year!

Year of the Water Tiger

with Pema Khandro and Wonderful Sangha and Friends

Friday March 4

San Francisco 5:30-7pm  

New York 8:30-10pm 

London March 5 – 1:30am 

Australia March 5 – 12:30pm

Nepal March 5 – 7:15am

Timezone Converter:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

All members are welcomed for our annual

Tibetan New Year Celebration – Online!

There is so much to look forward to:

• The Member of the year celebration.
• Celebration of Iron Mice who finished Ngondro last year!
• Celebration of those who finished 108 Chod!
• Conversations about what you learned from the pandemic.
• Celebration of accomplishments of the sangha members.
• Buddhist jokes!
• And so much more!!

Iron Mice, please wear black!

Water Tigers, please wear blue!

Members at large, please wear maroon or red!

If you can dress festively, please do so!

If you forget and wear random clothing, no problem!

Registration for the annual Losar celebration is limited to members only, but it is open to all members, new and long-time members. This is a time for the members from all the various programs to reunite and celebrate together. To find out more about member levels and benefits, or to become a member, visit Become a Member.

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UPCOMING EVENTS & OTHER NEWS

Monthly Programs at 6pm PT / 9pm ET

Every Day – Daily Meditation with Our New Teachers!

Every Monday – Ngondro Practice with Tsalgyur  

1st & 2nd Weds –Vajrayana Training with Pema Khandro

3rd Weds – Ngakpa Training (has pre-requisites)

4th Weds – Excellent Path – Free 30 Min Monthly Teaching with Pema Khandro

February

Feb 21 – Ngondro: Refuge & Bodhichitta Live Class w/Pema Khandro

Feb 19 & 26 – Meditation Instructor Training Final Practicum with Aruna Rigdzin & Dr. Satya

Feb 26 – Dakini Day Chod w/Pema Khandro

March 

Mar 4 – Losar Celebration for Members

Mar 12 – Meditation Instructor Training Graduation

Mar 19 – Resting in Dharma Poetry – 1 Day Retreat with Pema Khandro

Mar 26 – Next Meditation Instructor Training Begins

Mar 28 – Dakini Day Chod w/Pema Khandro

As more details roll out for our Upcoming Events, please visit the Event List Here.

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SELF-PACED COURSES

Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen

with Pema Khandro

Learn at Your Own Pace
Includes 5 video/audio recordings and class slides.

Does the study of Buddhism sometimes leave you overwhelmed with questions and contradictions? What is emptiness really? What is enlightenment? Is the goal of the path to transcend or show up? Why are there sometimes contradicting messages in different Buddhist books? What is Buddhist Tantra and what is its relationship to Dzogchen?

This course investigates the major principles of Buddhist Philosophy from the perspective of Tibetan Buddhism’s great perfection teachings (Tib. rdzogs chen). In order to promote perception of oneself and reality with greater depth and perspective, it begins with an exploration of the Buddhist philosophy of personhood as a doorway to grappling with questions of ultimate reality. The classes focus on:

• emptiness
• the five Skandhas
• the five elements
• Prajnaparamita
• the two truths and the unity of the two truths
• prasangika madhyamaka
• yogacara madhyamaka
• the history of development of tathagatagarbha theory
• Dzogchen Buddha-nature teachings.

Register Now

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ONLINE   |   CALENDAR   |   GIVE _______________________________________________________________________

A LETTER FROM PEMA KHANDRO – SILENCE AS A BATTLEGROUND

Dear Friends,

In our current ngondro group, the Water Tigers, we are meditating on the purification of speech and part of the power of speech is also the power of silence, right silence. It reminds me of the debates I have had over the last few years about the proper role of silence in times of war, injustice and oppression. There are my friends who say, “if you aren’t mad then you are enabling,” (but what about grief!! Anger is not the only right response!) and that stunning saying “silence is violence.” That last one really strikes me because silence can be so many things.

For the brave voices of the #metoo movement, breaking the silence healed, transformed and protected. There are times when silence is understandable and necessary.  It can be a trauma response – and in that case, it is ok to be silent and care for your mental health. Silence can also reinforce trauma too, prolonging that sense of being haunted by unprocessed material. Something I learned as a person of color is that silence can also be a way of getting to safety.  There are times when silence is necessary in order to pick one’s battles and, once again, take care of one’s mental health or the safety of one’s friends.

Silence can be a posture of the deep listening that is needed for genuine transformation. Without that silence there may only be aggression and escalation. Silence can be the silent meditation that we so desperately need in order to be sane and clear through tough times.

And, indeed, silence can enable violence as well. It can be a matter of privilege and denial that allows oppression and violence to continue to take place. Thus, it seems that silence arises in so many ways.

One of the most powerful things I have seen about silence is when someone is healing from past trauma and learns, for the first time, that they can be safe in a group. There is some somatic knowing that awakens or is restored, the realization that it is safe to be calm together with others. Psychologically speaking,  it is a profound experience that involves attachment and attunement, where one can get in sync with one’s environment and people around them, self-regulating but at the same time, co-regulating together. This is one thing that is so powerful about group meditation practice. Healing happens so quietly, in simple silence, with no one naming it or orchestrating it. I often think about that before teaching meditation, this may be the only time someone here has ever been peaceful and safe in a group.

So for this reason, and so many others, I still believe in the power of silence. And, of course, I know that my friends do too. It is just hard to make a one-size fits all slogan that works as a response to dangerous times, hard to find a slogan that covers it all, is fair to the situation and accommodates the range of possible appropriate responses to difficult situations. They were talking about one kind of silence, a silence that enables violence and oppression to continue. I am also talking about other kinds, trauma, meditation, healing, transmission. It is hard to say in a short slogan that we need silence and talking, all at the right times. Maybe we could say something more rigorous, like “Learn how to use silence properly,”  or “Silence, can be dangerous or liberating, healing or harming.” And here we see that in these statements about silence, we all are agreeing to an implicit acknowledgement that silence, in its vast openness, and dare I say, emptiness, is also interwoven with ethics, morality, identity, individual and society.

Silence is a serious thing indeed, one that, from the Tibetan Buddhist point of view, takes serious training to learn how to skillfully engage with.

My very best to you always,

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Join Us In Changing How Meditation Is Taught

As people all over the world turn to Buddhist meditation as a source of wisdom, we recognize the need for  meditation teachers that are trained to meet the challenges of the future while remaining deeply connected to the robust philosophy, ethics, and culture of Tibetan Buddhism.  The world needs meditation teachers that are trained in understanding how traditional practice intersects with issues of power, sexuality, race, trauma and technology.  Deepen into the equanimity, calm, peace, inner strength, and resilience found in meditation through the generous act of learning to be a meditation teacher.

Learn More About The Training

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Dakini Day Chod

Learn More about Dakini Day Chod

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EXCELLENT PATH

Excellent Path

With Pema Khandro

Wednesday Feb 23

6pm PT | 9pm ET

Buddhist Philosophy Online ~ Open Teaching Webcast

30 minute teaching and short meditation with Pema Khandro

Free and open to the public.

This is a monthly class to support your study of Buddhist philosophy and meet the challenge of integrating Buddhism into a full, dynamic life. This class includes meditation instruction, Buddhist teachings, and remedies for navigating through challenges to practice.

Learn More

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Losar Celebration for Members!

Celebrate the Tibetan New Year!

The Year of the Water Tiger

Losar Celebration

with Pema Khandro and Wonderful Sangha and Friends

Friday March 4

San Francisco 5:30-7pm  

New York  8:30-10pm 

London March 5 – 1:30am 

Australia March 5 – 12:30pm

Nepal March 5 – 7:15am

Timezone Converter:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

All members are welcomed to join our annual Tibetan New Year Celebration – Online!

There is so much to look forward to:

• The Member of the year celebration. 
• Celebration of Iron Mice who finished Ngondro last year! 
• Celebration of those who finished 108 Chod!
• Conversations about what you learned from the pandemic.
• Celebration of accomplishments of the sangha members.
• Buddhist jokes!
• And so much more!!

Iron Mice, please wear black!

Water Tigers, please wear blue!

Members at large, please where maroon or red!

If you can dress festively, please do so!

If you forget and wear random clothing, no problem!

Registration for the annual Losar celebration is limited to members only, but it is open to all members, new and long time members. This is a time for the members from all the various programs to reunite and celebrate together. To find out more about member levels and benefits, or to become a member, visit Become a Member

____________________________________________________________________________

SELF-PACED COURSES

Monthly Programs at 6pm PT / 9pm ET

Every Monday – Ngondro Practice with Tsalgyur 

1st & 2nd Weds – Vajrayana Training with Pema Khandro

3rd Weds – Ngakpa Training

4th Weds – Excellent Path

Every Day at 12pm PT/3pm ET

 Daily Meditation with Our New Teachers! 

 

February
Feb 21 – Ngondro: Refuge & Bodhichitta Live Class w/Pema Khandro

Feb 26 – Meditation Instructor Training Final Practicum

Feb 26 – Dakini Day Chod w/Pema Khandro

 

March 

Mar 4 – Losar Celebration for Members

 

Mar 12 – Meditation Instructor Training Graduation

 

Mar 19 – Resting in Dharma Poetry – 1 Day Retreat with Pema Khandro

 

Mar 26 – Next Meditation Instructor Training Begins

Mar 28 – Dakini Day Chod w/Pema Khandro

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