Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Dharma Friends,

I have been studying Buddhism for a long time, first when I was a girl and then as I grew up I ended up dedicating my whole life to Buddhist service. So when the questions about transmissions online where raised I also was swept into the doubts. For some the core issue is – can Vajrayana empowerments happen online? Empowerments are the most sacred, intimate, and personal aspect of Vajrayana education. The represent a ritual, oral, and explanatory introduction to the practices of entering buddha-nature. In empowerments, the Lama does the yidam practice themselves. So if it is a Troma empowerment, then we are receiving the empowerment from the Troma aspect of the Lama. That is something very sensitive, especially because Lamas stake their lives on these practices, they have used their whole life to understand the meaning of that Troma practice. They have put their feelings and experiences on that altar. I know first hand, because of course, I am a Lama and a long time Troma practitioner.

So the question stood for me what makes transmission possible? For some people it is a question that is not really interrogated intellectually, because it is in the domain of sacred experience beyond concepts. Also, because it relates to something that has been happening in a certain way for more than a thousand years. However, you should know that empowerments happen differently in different contexts. I remember many times in Nepal or Tibet, being in an empowerment that was so large that I was sitting outside in an overflowing crowd. Sometimes none of us could hear even though there were loud speakers, sometimes none of us could see even though there were tv screens outside, because we were positioned so far away in a huge crowd. And this was still considered transmission. I compare this to when Drupon Rinchen Dorje Rinpoche came to give us the Vajrayogini empowerment online. We could see him so close up. When he meditated, we saw when his eyes fell closed in feeling. When could hear every word he said. He could see every one of our faces as we came on screen and made offering prayers in our beautiful robes. And afterwards, in the private meetings I do with retreatants after most retreats, I talked to every one of the students. The direct contact with the Lamas was palpable. And for me, in that moment, I knew for the first time with total conviction, that yes, transmissions can happen online.

When I first came around to this idea it had been with Garchen Rinpoche, witnessing how radically generous he is with the dharma. I was at a Mahamudra teaching with him and he had printed these little Mahamudra books and was passing them around, saying – give these away to your friends. Like he actually wanted people to realize the nature of mind. Without any fear, greed, elitism or exclusion. He just wants everyone to be liberated. And of course since that time all of us have seen so many of his generous teachings online. That has been a model for me. It changed what I thought was possible. And I remember him saying to us, it depends on the motivation, if the student has bodhichitta (the altruistic enlightened intent) then it can be even stronger online.

In Vajrayana we have the paradigm of the five certainties. This is the notion that for a transmission to properly take place it depends on the teacher, the teaching, the audience, the time, and the place. All of these factors need to be right for a transmission to properly happen. That day, with Drupon Rinpoche was the same time that the horrible events surrounding George Flyod, the murder, and the following week of the video circulating and the eruption of protests. One of the students that took that Vajrayogini empowerment did the whole retreat with a helicopter flying outside her window while hundreds of people had flooded the streets below her apartment shouting. Another was in a tent in her back yard. Others far far away from the chaos. But the teacher, the teaching, the audience, the time, and the place were all only fortified, because we were together and with the Lamas. We prayed together, we practiced together, and we became Vajrayogini together, even while our nations greatest wounds were ripped open. That timing had a deep personal meaning for me, being an indigenous woman, as a direct experience of refuge. And I wasn’t alone. I remember the overwhelming feedback of transformation that people experienced and I remember that the people who attended that empowerment told me they had waited for years, some for decades,  to receive Vajrayogini empowerment.

And it was true for me personally as well, the five certainties were there. I remember during that empowerment hearing the words like I had never heard them before. “The buddhas do not wash away peoples karma with their hands. They do not transfer their enlightenment to others. Beings are released through the teachings of the truth, the final reality. Therefore I will liberate those not liberated. I will release those not released. I will relieve those not relieved and set living beings in nirvana.”

And so it was that transmission happened. If transmission refers to a conferral of the understanding of practice, insight into the nature of mind and reality, if it refers to a pure connection with the Lamas and sangha, if it refers to the making of vows, and changing of minds, and the passing on of Vajrayana traditions, then yes, transmission can absolutely happen online. Empowerments are so righteously powerful, technology only amplifies that for those who know how to use the platform in that way.

Yet I believe we are all correct, that there is more than one right way. Diversity is beautiful. I respect each of us finding our different ways into the future of dharma. For people who hold the conviction that Vajrayana empowerments should never be online – they never should be. For people who know how to make use of those platforms they should do it – for the benefit of beings. We should all follow the highest integrity of dharma service that we can. We come up with different answers, but the intention, of bodhichitta is what matters the most.

For me these questions are about the generative exploration of how online technology can help bring Buddhist resources into people’s lives. How can we use technology, phones, computers, and whatever tools come just like that prayer? “… to liberate those not liberated, to relieve those not relieved and set living beings in nirvana….?”

It is a question that me and my team are deeply embroiled in and one that we hope to answer in better and better ways with your help. This year our fundraiser is aimed at our wish to revamp and uplevel our technology. We can’t do this alone, we will rely, as we always have, on individual donations. Any amount helps, and every donation makes a huge difference as an encouragement, as a sense of camaraderie and support and as the practical help that is the crucial key to making this next step possible.

Our goal is to raise $50,000 by December 31st, 2023.

We have currently raised $8,000! Thank you to all who donated!

Please help us reach our goal. To donate, you can click the donate button below or mail your check to the address listed below. No amount is too small or too large. Every gift counts and makes a difference.

My very best to you always,

Thank you for your support! We are a small grassroots organization, completely dependent upon individual generosity to continue.

Gifts can also be made by check, payable to

Ngakpa International

P.O. Box 2396

Nevada City, California 95959, USA.

Ngakpa International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit EIN 68-0529687 and all gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Friends,

First of all, I would like to express gratitude to those of you who have donated to the Fall 2023 Buddhist Studies Institute Fundraiser.  Each friend, each sangha member who has donated is helping make the Buddhist teachings more vital.

Do you ever think about power?  It’s a provocative subject.  

One of the ways I like to think about it is “What can I do to make a difference?  What’s my power to do that?”

Honestly, at times I find it frustrating, not to speak of heartbreaking, to look out at the world and see the tremendous amount of suffering.  So much of it seems completely unnecessary, like “Can’t you all think of a better way to do this?”

What’s a Buddhist person to do?  There’s probably many ways to answer that question.  I like the saying of the Dalai Lama, “My religion is kindness.”   I ask myself how can I be a little more kind to the people I meet casually through the day, the people I am intimate with and even the people I happen to think of, whether I know them or not.

I think it’s a great place to start.

Another powerful thing to do is make a donation right here, right now to support these teachings.

Each dollar, each gift helps make possible classes, retreat and trainings for people like you and me to learn how to be more kind and have less suffering in our personal lives.  And it always extends out to others.

This was the Buddha’s teaching, how to relieve suffering.

Please support this campaign with your donation today.  If it’s just a few dollars, wonderful.  If you can afford more, so much the better.  If it’s your second or third time giving to this campaign, thank you!  Large or small, your donation means a lot to all of us who care about Pema Khandro’s teaching and the Buddhist Studies Institute and want to see it grow.  Thank you!

Gifts can also be made by check, payable to:

Ngakpa International
P.O. Box 2396
Nevada City, California, 95959
USA

Ngakpa International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit EIN 68-0529687 and all gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

May we all be more powerful in the most kind way.

Wishing you the best,
Janak

Janak Kimmel
Director of Fundraising
Ngakpa International
Buddhist Studies Institute
www.buddhiststudiesinstitute.org
P.O. Box 2396
Nevada City, California 95946
USA

Buddhist Studies Institute

Ngondro Training
Heart of the Vast Expanse with Pema Khandro

Module 1 begins January 29

Mondays Online

5pm Los Angeles PT  | 8pm New York ET  | 12pm Sydney AET

Ngondro presents the core practices of Buddhist psychology, working with core needs in identity, relationality, forgiveness and repair, resources and the sense of empowerment. Join Pema Khandro and the Buddhist Studies Institute for a journey into Ngongro, the core practice of Buddhist tantra.

Ngondro meditation is the foundation of a solid experience of spiritual growth. Ngondro refers to a series of meditation practices for purifying, training and empowering the mind & body. 

Ngondro means ‘before going.’ In traditional Vajrayana practice, it represents the cognitive, physical, emotional and philosophical components which are keys to the practice of liberation. It is the basis for all Vajrayana practice and thus it is used as a the pre-requisite for the great practices of the Vajrayana tradition. However, ngondro itself is a beloved meditation series for its own sake. It is often practiced many times throughout a life cycle by great yogis of the Nyingma tradition such as Patrul Rinpoche (eighteenth century). 

Without proper instruction ngondro can be incredibly complex and difficult. This course offers a simple, thorough, direct and supported experience of ngondro – making the heart essence of Vajrayana accessible for serious practitioners.

Meditation Instructor Training

Begins February 19th

Mondays – Online

1pm Los Angeles PT  | 4pm New York ET  | 9pm London GMT

People all over the world have turned to Buddhist meditation as a source of wisdom. Meditation offers a powerful method to access a sense of spaciousness, peace and authentic presence. The practical benefits of meditation are well documented. Research shows it improves mood, reduces stress (Brown & Warren 2003), it improves memory, visuospatial reasoning, sustained attention and executive brain function (Zeidan et al. 2010). It reduces sub-clinical depression and anxiety (Schreiner and Malcolm 2012).

From a Buddhist point of view, when we know how to meditate, we learn how to work with mind and emotions. We have a practice for unraveling conditioned scripts and unconscious habits. Meditation is a pathway to discovering human goodness by making peace with our mind. Ultimately it is a method for getting free from dissatisfaction, resolving confusion and waking up to see reality more clearly.

The Meditation Instructor Training supplies the fundamental knowledge and experience necessary to lead meditation classes and one-day meditation intensives.

3 Modules

Traditional Meditation

Teaching Practicum

Teaching Ethics

This training is a pre-requisite for the Chaplaincy Certificate offered summer of 2024.

40-Day Meditation Marathon

January 1 – February 10

Daily Online

12pm Los Angeles PT  | 3pm New York ET  | 8pm London GMT

January 1st is the kick-off to our 40 day meditation marathon. This is an invitation to practice every single day for 40 days from January 1st to Losar on February 10th. It’s so wonderful to be able to share this commitment with others and we invite you to join us every day for our free Daily Meditation sessions. Each 30 minute session is lead by an Certified Meditation Instructor from the Buddhist Studies Institute. Whether you practice on your own time or join us live, we will celebrate all those who complete the 40 day marathon at our Losar Event on February 12.

Pema Khandro for Lion’s Roar
When we have no choice

Sometimes there’s no way out. It’s at those times that we can discover the depth and resilience of the mind. Read what Pema Khandro says about When We Have No Choice, in Lion’s Roar.

2024 Schedule of Events

ONGOING MONTHLY TRAINING

Daily Meditation Online
Vajrayana Training – 1st & 2nd Wednesday of each month
Ngakpa Training – 3rd Wednesday of each month

UPCOMING EVENTS

JANUARY

Ngondro Training – January 29th – October 28

FEBRUARY

Meditation Instructor Training – February 19 – August 9
Losar Celebration – February 12

Click Here to view the BSI Calendar View
Click Here for Events List and Registration
*All Times are noted in Pacific Time (PT) – Check your Timezone

Buddhist Studies Institute

The 21 Taras
Pema Khandro’s Birthday Celebration & Fundraiser

December 2, 2023

Online

6pm – 7:30pm PT San Francisco

9pm – 10:30pm ET New York

1pm- 2:30pm AEDT Sydney

The twenty-one taras is a sublime chanting meditation and praise of the forms of the female Bodhisattva Tara, each one a contemplation of all the forms of compassion ranging from gentle to fierce.  This event explores the outer, inner and secret meaning of the twenty-one taras.

This will be a joyous celebration in honor of our beloved Pema Khandro’s  birthday.

Buddhist Studies Institute

The Heart Sutra

with Pema Khandro, Ph.D

& Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi

December 1 – 3

Online

9am PST San Francisco | 12pm EST New York | 5pm GMT London

The Heart Sutra for more than two thousand years has been chanted daily by Buddhists around the world. Known as Prajnaparamita, the Heart Sutra, powerfully illuminates the path of freedom from suffering. The Heart Sutra contemplates the way we perceive, and what is beyond what our dualistic assumptions portray. This course with Lama Pema Khandro & Shughen Roshi explores the Heart Sutra from the Tibetan Buddhist perspective including the pivotal teachings of the four extreme mistakes on the spiritual path, discovery of one’s true nature and one’s true purpose.

The 21 Taras
Pema Khandro’s Birthday Celebration & Fundraiser

December 2, 2023

Online

6pm – 7:30pm PT San Francisco

9pm – 10:30pm ET New York

1pm- 2:30pm AEDT Sydney

The twenty-one taras is a sublime chanting meditation and praise of the forms of the female Bodhisattva Tara, each one a contemplation of all the forms of compassion ranging from gentle to fierce.  This event explores the outer, inner and secret meaning of the twenty-one taras.

This will be a joyous celebration in honor of our beloved Pema Khandro’s  birthday.

Meditation Instructor Training 2024

February 19 – August 5

People all over the world have turned to Buddhist meditation as a source of wisdom. Meditation offers a powerful method to access a sense of spaciousness, peace and authentic presence. The practical benefits of meditation are well documented. Research shows it improves mood, reduces stress (Brown & Warren 2003), it improves memory, visuospatial reasoning, sustained attention and executive brain function (Zeidan et al. 2010). It reduces sub-clinical depression and anxiety (Schreiner and Malcolm 2012).

From a Buddhist point of view, when we know how to meditate, we learn how to work with mind and emotions. We have a practice for unraveling conditioned scripts and unconscious habits. Meditation is a pathway to discovering human goodness by making peace with our mind. Ultimately it is a method for getting free from dissatisfaction, resolving confusion and waking up to see reality more clearly.

The Meditation Instructor Training supplies the fundamental knowledge and experience necessary to lead meditation classes and one-day meditation intensives.

3 Modules

Traditional Meditation

Teaching Practicum

Teaching Ethics

This training is a pre-requisite for the Chaplaincy Certificate offered summer of 2024.

2 Minute Madhyamaka

with Pema Khandro

Walk in nature with Pema Khandro as she briefly discusses the Madhyamaka philosophy from the Nyingma Buddhist perspective. This is a method for deconstructing all the concepts, ideas and rigid identities that obstruct direct communication with reality.

2023 Schedule of Events

ONGOING MONTHLY TRAINING

Daily Meditation Online
Vajrayana Training – 1st & 2nd Wednesday of each month
Ngakpa Training – 3rd Wednesday of each month

DECEMBER

December 1-3 Heart Sutra with Pema Khandro & Shugen Roshi

December 2 The 21 Taras – Pema Khandro Birthday Celebration & Fundraiser

2024

JANUARY

January 29 – October 28  Ngondro Training

FEBRUARY

February 19 – August 5, 2024 Meditation Instructor Training

February 12 – Losar Celebration

Click Here to view the BSI Calendar View
Click Here for Events List and Registration
*All Times are noted in Pacific Time (PT) – Check your Timezone

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Friends,

If you wanted to make a donation but didn’t get the chance, you can still do it.

The goal is to bring in $50,000 to keep the Buddhist Studies Institute vital digital infrastructure workable for the staff and even more available, robust and user friendly for all the students and friends who partake of it.

This technology makes it possible for people like you and me to have access to online classes, retreats and trainings.  

Your donation large or small is greatly needed.  Thank you!

Gifts can also be made by check, payable to Ngakpa International, and mailed to Dakini Mountain, P.O. Box 2396, Nevada City, California 95959, USA.

Ngakpa International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit EIN 68-0529687 and all gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Ngakpa International

P.O. Box 2396
Nevada City, California 95946
USA

May we all be more powerful in the most kind way.

Wishing you the best,

Janak

Janak Kimmel
Director of Fundraising
Ngakpa International
Buddhist Studies Institute
www.buddhiststudiesinstitute.org
P.O. Box 2396
Nevada City, California 95946
USA

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Dharma Friends,

There is a dakini story related to the life of Naropa, a famous master of Tibetan Buddhism. He had been a learned scholar until he had a surprising encounter with a strange looking dakini. She told him, you understand the words, but you don’t understand the meaning. In other words, his understanding was merely intellectual and he was missing the crucial point. In the story she has a gloriously non-normative body, deformed, and crooked in all these places, and also visibly aged. Her very body was revealing something of the messy, somatic, wrinkly nature of life. After this he practiced Chakrasamvara meditation which led him to the visions of where to find his teacher. That was the beginning of an epic journey of awakening that has been told and retold for hundreds of years.

That profound search for meaning speaks to a tender human experience – the realization that there is more than what we know, to yearn to know it and sometimes to rip open our lives to go find it.

Everyone’s journey in the dharma is different. We all come to Vajrayana Buddhism for a variety of reasons, but the longing to know more, to see further, to know the genuine meaning of what we are and what reality is – that is what so many of us all have in common with Naropa. We don’t want to know just the words, we want to know the meaning.

But to know the meaning takes time, it takes practice. It is more than just a peak experience once a year or once every few years when we go on retreat. To actualize this part of self that loves to learn and grow requires something ongoing and deep.

When I was first teaching I struggled with how to meet this need, because I teach householders, and householders can only take short periods out of their life to go on retreats. How would we study the epic works of Vajrayana or proceed through the entire sequence of esoteric contemplative practices in just a few days? And then a few of us started meeting online. I have a handful of students who met with me for a decade online, every week. And thats when I started to see. We would gather for retreats with a large group and those students, the ones who had been studying with me weekly online, had a practice that was light years beyond those who didn’t. Their understanding of the principles, the practices, the obstacles to practice – it was unmatched. They went deeper in retreat. They had insights into the ground of being because they had been primed for practice. And the strangest most wonderful thing was that, we knew eachother so very well. I felt close to them and them to me because we had dialogued week after week about the dharma, I knew their questions and doubts, and they even knew mine. I started to see what was possible through online training. And that is when we started going into the longer, more epic studies like that of Finding Rest and Ease. We were able to take our time, because from home, they could make the time for a couple hours a week. The profound results of online practice and study speak for themselves. Anyone who doubts it should meet my sangha, a group of new and advanced practitioners, but who, on a regular basis pursue the genuine meaning.

As we step into 2024, our leadership team has seen the potential of what we can do online. We are in the midst of a complete technology revamp, to make it even more accessible and supportive to our dharma friends everywhere. We want to invest in a future where our team can come to your living room, where I can continue to meet with you one and one, and where you can interact with your fascinating and brilliant dharma friends. I invite you to help me make this possible by supporting our fundraising effort with a donation this year, to celebrate the embrace of Buddhism and technology and to enable the continual unfolding of this benevolent, generative effort that we have made.

Our goal this year is to raise $50,000 to revamp our online platform to fulfill this potential at the next level. We can’t do that without your donations! We are a grassroots organization and all of our funding is based on individual donations. I hope you will remember us in your end of year giving and of course, if you cannot, then we also enjoy the continual support of good will and prayers, the positive energy that has kept us going for all these years! So please feel free to give however you can. I look forward to a new year of programs and to meeting each other again and again.

To make a donation, you can click the donate button below or mail your check to the address listed below. No amount is too small or too large. Every gift counts and makes a difference.

My very best to you always,

Thank you for your support! We are a small grassroots organization, completely dependent upon individual generosity to continue.

Gifts can also be made by check, payable to Ngakpa International, and mailed to Dakini Mountain, P.O. Box 2396, Nevada City, California 95959, USA.

Ngakpa International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit EIN 68-0529687 and all gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Ngakpa International
P.O. Box 2396
Nevada City, California 95946
USA

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Friends,

Giving Tuesday is tomorrow.  Please make a donation to support the End of Year 2023 Buddhist Studies Institute Fundraising drive.

The goal is to bring in $50,000 to keep the Buddhist Studies Institute vital digital infrastructure workable for the staff and even more available, robust and user friendly for all the students and friends who partake of it.

This technology makes it possible for people like you and me to have access to online classes, retreats and trainings.  

Your donation large or small is greatly needed.  Thank you!

Gifts can also be made by check, payable to Ngakpa International, and mailed to Dakini Mountain, P.O. Box 2396, Nevada City, California 95959, USA.

Ngakpa International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit EIN 68-0529687 and all gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Ngakpa International

P.O. Box 2396
Nevada City, California 95946
USA

May we all be more powerful in the most kind way.

Wishing you the best,

Janak

Janak Kimmel
Director of Fundraising
Ngakpa International
Buddhist Studies Institute
www.buddhiststudiesinstitute.org
P.O. Box 2396
Nevada City, California 95946
USA

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Dharma Friends,

There is a saying that the Buddha taught in all the languages of all the 84,000 different kinds of beings. It is something I have heard over and over again. That the Buddha was this compassionate to manifest even as a teacher in the underworld to teach nagas. Likewise we have the notion of the bodhisattas manifesting in samsara and even in the depths of hell to teach beings. I thought of this as I wrestled with the question of how much to bring Vajrayana teachings online. Would the Buddha teach online? This was before students finished ngondro online, before we started Longchenpa’s epic cycle of Finding Comfort and Ease online, before we trained over a hundred teachers online. It was when no one else was doing it and alot of people thought it was wrong. Facing this question by myself while already having the liability of being a woman teacher (which many made clear is outrageous) was difficult. But I was pushed by wise students to do it for years and then I finally said yes. And what put me over the edge – was this contemplation, that the Buddha taught in the language of all the beings. To the fish he taught fish dharma. To the nagas. To every single one. And I finally felt that of course Vajrayana should be online. I came into this conviction that dharma resources should be wherever people are. I believe should be easy to access dharma, especially for serious practitioners. Wherever samsara is – the dharma should be there, on the phone, in the car, on the computer, everywhere. Wherever beings are suffering, buddhism should be there as a resource, shining the light of brilliant sanity. So, with this intention, me and my dharma friends gradually built up an online school behind the scenes and in 2019 we officially launched our public online platform.

And now here we are years later and there is so much online dharma!!!! It is starting to happen, but slowly. The world of Vajrayana has been slow to embrace technology, but the pandemic helped cut through those inhibitions a lot. It’s not that polite to say we were right. But we were. There is no going back. It’s just like dharma books, people are reading them, restricted or not, so as his His Holiness said, we may as well give them expert commentators to help them make sense of it. Likewise, we can’t put the rabbit back in the hat. Online dharma is here to stay and I am committed to using our communal resources to generatively and imaginitively rise to meet this occasion. The Buddha absolutely would have done this. The Buddha taught in all the 84,000 language of beings, wherever beings are, that is where dharma should be.

As we go forward into 2024, we are stepping forward with a new vision and revamping our online platform. We want to invest in a future where our team can come to your living room, where I can continue to meet with you one on one, and where you can interact with your fascinating and brilliant dharma friends. I invite you to help me make this possible by supporting our fundraising effort with a donation this year, to celebrate the embrace of Buddhism and technology and to enable the continual unfolding of this benevolent, generative effort that we have made. Our goal this year is to revamp our online platform to fulfill this potential at the next level. We can’t do that without you. We are a grassroots organization and all of our funding is based on individual donations.

Please help us reach our goal of raising $50,000 by December 31, 2023. To make a donation, you can click the donate button below or mail your check to the address listed below. No amount is too small or too large. Every gift counts and makes a difference.

As a token of appreciation, you, a cause you hold dear, or your loved ones in need, will be included in the Dedication of Merit that will take place at the annual celebration of Losar (the Tibetan new year) which will happen in February. This is a great way to spread the blessings and to practice one of the essential Buddhist teachings – dedicating the merit of your good actions to others. You can easily include your dedication of merit request with your online donation or include a note naming those to whom you wish the dedication to be made with your mailed donation.

My very best to you always,

Gifts can also be made by check, payable to Ngakpa International, and mailed to Ngakpa International, P.O. Box 2396, Nevada City, California 95959, USA. Ngakpa International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit EIN 68-0529687 and all gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

The Heart Sutra

with Pema Khandro, Ph.D

& Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi

December 1 – 3

Online

9am PST San Francisco | 12pm EST New York | 5pm GMT London

The Heart Sutra for more than two thousand years has been chanted daily by Buddhists around the world. Known as Prajnaparamita, the Heart Sutra, powerfully illuminates the path of freedom from suffering. The Heart Sutra contemplates the way we perceive, and what is beyond what our dualistic assumptions portray. This course with Lama Pema Khandro & Shughin Roshi explores the Heart Sutra from the Tibetan Buddhist perspective including the pivotal teachings of the four extreme mistakes on the spiritual path, discovery of one’s true nature and one’s true purpose.

The 21 Taras
Pema Khandro’s Birthday Celebration & Fundraiser

Online & In-person at Dakini Mountain

December 2, 2023

6pm – 7:30pm PT San Francisco

9pm – 10:30pm ET New York

1pm- 2:30pm AEDT Sydney

The twenty-one taras is a sublime chanting meditation and praise of the forms of the female Bodhisattva Tara, each one a contemplation of all the forms of compassion ranging from gentle to fierce.  This event explores the outer, inner and secret meaning of the twenty-one taras.

This will be a joyous celebration in honor of our beloved Pema Khandro’s birthday.

Meditation Instructor Training 2024

February 19 – August 5

People all over the world have turned to Buddhist meditation as a source of wisdom. Meditation offers a powerful method to access a sense of spaciousness, peace and authentic presence. The practical benefits of meditation are well documented. Research shows it improves mood, reduces stress (Brown & Warren 2003), it improves memory, visuospatial reasoning, sustained attention and executive brain function (Zeidan et al. 2010). It reduces sub-clinical depression and anxiety (Schreiner and Malcolm 2012).

From a Buddhist point of view, when we know how to meditate, we learn how to work with mind and emotions. We have a practice for unraveling conditioned scripts and unconscious habits. Meditation is a pathway to discovering human goodness by making peace with our mind. Ultimately it is a method for getting free from dissatisfaction, resolving confusion and waking up to see reality more clearly.

The Meditation Instructor Training supplies the fundamental knowledge and experience necessary to lead meditation classes and one-day meditation intensives.

3 Modules

Traditional Meditation

Teaching Practicum

Teaching Ethics

This training is a pre-requisite for the Chaplaincy Certificate offered summer of 2024.

She Was a Natural Yogini

Pema Khandro on Buddhist Women in Tibetan History

Sources about women in Tibetan Buddhism and women in Buddhism in general are sparse. Expand your awareness through some of Pema Khandro’s research on this underrepresented topic.

2023 Schedule of Events

ONGOING MONTHLY TRAINING

Daily Meditation Online
Vajrayana Training – 1st & 2nd Wednesday of each month
Ngakpa Training – 3rd Wednesday of each month

DECEMBER

December 1-3 Heart Sutra with Pema Khandro & Shugen Roshi

December 2 The 21 Taras – Pema Khandro Birthday Celebration & Fundraiser

2024

January 1 – 40 Day Meditation Marathon Begins
January 29 – Ngondro Training Begins
February 19 – Meditation Instructor Training Begins

Click Here to view the BSI Calendar View
Click Here for Events List and Registration
*All Times are noted in Pacific Time (PT) – Check your Timezone

Thank you for your support! We are a small grassroots organization, completely dependent upon individual generosity to continue.

Gifts can also be made by check, payable to Ngakpa International, and mailed to Dakini Mountain, P.O. Box 2396, Nevada City, California 95959, USA.

Ngakpa International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit EIN 68-0529687 and all gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Dakini Mountain Retreat Center
P.O. Box 2396
Nevada City, California 95946
USA

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Dharma Friends,

Since 2011 we have had this bold vision of integrating Vajrayana and technology. It is a highly contested issue amongst Vajrayana communities, how much, if at all, can online programming and Vajrayana education be utilized. All the concerns are legitimate, such as concerns about the quality of transmission, so sacred to Vajrayana. There are concerns about the personal relationship between teacher and student. There are concerns about the quality of study and practice. I acknowledge all these concerns as real. We are all right, people who can’t see technology for the possibility that it offers could not experience it the way that I have – because I also have seen that so much of Vajrayana online depends on how it is used. An online course can be an alienating talking head, or it can be a lively, dynamic, intimate, engaged experience. For me it has been an opportunity to showcase the aesthetics of Vajrayana, the art, the music, and the integration with the natural world. When I teach online I can use images, video, sound all integrated with my thoughts in real time as well as with my planned lesson. It’s so engaging for me and for my students because we are visual, somatic, and auditory, we need all the senses engaged and that is our tradition, to use the senses for liberation.

In my time of teaching online I have taught students the bardo teachings as they sat at the bedside of a dying mother. I have taught students dying instructions while they were on their own deathbed, waiting for their terminal illness to complete its unfolding. I have taught teachers, therapists, and business leaders who had only one hour and used that one hour to raise bodhichitta or sharpen their mastery by learning cutting-through practice. I have taught single mothers who attended yidam instructions with their child on their lap. These are advanced practitioners yet they never would have been able to leave their home, travel to an expensive retreat center and leave their child behind. I have seen that people build community online, they form bonds, and get to know each other. They find best friends, they find belonging, some of them get married and have kids. Deep relationships can be fostered through online community, keeping the sangha jewel alive, I have seen it.

It isn’t for everyone, but it is for us. We will continue with our in person and local events but it is my goal to offer the full array of Vajrayana practices to my online students as well.

I invite you to help me make this possible by supporting our fundraising effort with a donation this year, to celebrate the embrace of Buddhism and technology and to enable the continual unfolding of this benevolent, generative effort that we have made. Our goal this year is to revamp our online platform to fulfill this potential at the next level. We can’t do that without you. We are a grassroots organization and all of our funding is based on individual donations.

Please help us reach our goal of raising $50,000 by December 31, 2023. To make a donation, you can click the donate button below or mail your check to the address listed below. No amount is too small or too large. Every gift counts and makes a difference.

As a token of appreciation, you, a cause you hold dear, or your loved ones in need, will be included in the Dedication of Merit that will take place at the annual celebration of Losar (the Tibetan new year) which will happen in February. This is a great way to spread the blessings and to practice one of the essential Buddhist teachings – dedicating the merit of your good actions to others. You can easily include your dedication of merit request with your online donation or include a note naming those to whom you wish the dedication to be made with your mailed donation.

My very best to you always,

Thank you for your support! We are a small grassroots organization, completely dependent upon individual generosity to continue.

Gifts can also be made by check, payable to Ngakpa International, and mailed to Dakini Mountain, P.O. Box 2396, Nevada City, California 95959, USA.

Ngakpa International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit EIN 68-0529687 and all gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Dakini Mountain Retreat Center
P.O. Box 2396
Nevada City, California 95946
USA