Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Dharma Friends,

Is there something that remains? After all the stress, traumas, injuries, and exhaustions of a life — after the slow erosion that comes simply from living in difficult times — is there something that remains pristine, unscathed, purely whole and good? Is there anything within us that is a fresh space, untouched by the confusion and suffering we carry? And if so — how do we access it? How do we find our way back to it when the noise of our lives has become deafening?

These are not idle philosophical questions. They are the questions that arise in the middle of the night, in the aftermath of grief, at the edge of burnout. They are the questions we bring to practice when practice itself feels like it is no longer enough. And they deserve more than vague reassurances.

One of the greatest Buddhist philosophers of all time takes on exactly these questions — not with abstraction, not with platitudes, but with breathtaking precision and depth. His name is Longchenpa, the fourteenth-century master and brilliant systematizer of the Great Perfection, Dzogchen. In his Treasury of Words and Meanings (Tshig don rin po che’i mdzod), one of the celebrated Seven Treasuries, Longchenpa offers what may be the most detailed, evocative, and philosophically profound account of our primordial nature ever composed. This is not a text that gestures vaguely toward “buddha nature” and leaves you to fill in the blanks. Longchenpa unfolds, with startling specificity, the what, where, and how of primordial knowing — ye shes, gnosis — that luminous awareness which, according to the Dzogchen teachings, has never been damaged by anything that has happened to us.

Think about that for a moment. The claim is not simply that we have potential, or that we can become whole through effort. The claim is that there is a dimension of our being that has always been whole — that the ground of who we are possesses an intrinsic luminosity, a spontaneous presence, and a compassionate responsiveness that has never once been compromised. Not by our worst moments. Not by our deepest confusion. Not by the full weight of everything we have endured. Longchenpa maps this ground with extraordinary care, showing how its essence, nature, and energy give rise to the entire spectrum of experience — awakened and deluded alike — and, critically, how non-recognition sets in motion all the wandering of cyclic existence.

This is the heart of the Dzogchen view. It is the guiding light that can be carried into the darkest stretches of the path — not as a concept to hold onto, but as a direct understanding of how things actually are at the most fundamental level. Longchenpa addresses the basis of how all things unfold, how they take place on an ultimate level, and how we come to know them. He draws together cosmology, ontology, and epistemology, (how things arise, how things are, and how we know them) into a single, coherent vision that is as philosophically rigorous as it is contemplatively alive. And in doing so, he gives us something we desperately need: a view that does not collapse under the weight of real suffering.

Generally, the topic of what is ultimate — the nature of mind, buddha nature, the ground — falls into an area too often addressed in vague, abstract, and disembodied ways. We hear that our nature is pure. We hear that awareness is luminous. But rarely do we encounter a teaching that lays out, in precise and evocative detail, exactly how that purity is structured, how it expresses itself in a body, and how we regain contact with it. This is precisely what Longchenpa provides in chapters three and four of the Treasury, which form the focus of our weekend study. These chapters contain his most sustained account of the ground and its display — the architecture of primordial awareness and the mechanics of delusion. To study them is to receive a transmission of extraordinary philosophical clarity, the kind of clarity that changes not only how you think but how you see.

These are times when ultimate wisdom is sorely needed. Buddhist texts tell us plainly: bereft of that knowledge, we wander lost in cyclic existence. That wandering is not merely an abstract condition — it is the felt experience of disconnection, confusion, and exhaustion that so many people carry. Longchenpa wrote in the fourteenth century, but his words land with uncanny force in our own moment, because the questions he addresses are timeless and the answers he offers are precise enough to meet us where we actually are.

I cannot overstate what an extraordinary opportunity this is. This weekend of study will be led by three remarkable teachers: Dr. David Germano, one of the world’s foremost scholars of Dzogchen and Longchenpa’s writings, whose depth of knowledge of these texts is unparalleled; Khenpo Yeshi Rinpoche, whose mastery of the tradition brings the living voice of the lineage directly into the room, and the rare combination of traditional scholar and western academic, myself, Dr. Pema Khandro, a lineage holder, scholar, and teacher committed to making these teachings accessible without compromising the rigor and depth. To have all three of these teachers together, guiding us through one of the most important texts in the entire Dzogchen canon, is genuinely rare. 

Don’t let this opportunity pass. Whether you are a long-time practitioner seeking to deepen your understanding of the view, a student of Buddhist philosophy hungry for Longchenpa’s remarkable precision, or someone who simply feels the pull of that fundamental question — is there something within me that remains whole? — this weekend is for you.

Join us. Register now, and come sit with the question that matters most.

My best to you always,

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Friends,

We invite you to join us for Finding Wisdom Awareness, an upcoming live online immersion exploring the Dzogchen view of Buddha nature through the profound philosophical and contemplative language of Longchenpa. Longchenpa was the great forefather and synthesizer of the Dzogchen teachings. He lived in the fourteenth century and his writings became the basis for the flourishing of the Dzochen tradition thereafter.

This weekend teaching (April 17–19) continues our close study of the Treasury of Words and Meanings, focusing on how awareness itself—primordial, luminous, and already present—becomes obscured, and how it may be recognized directly. It address the view of buddhanature as uniquely spoken through the Dzogchen view of a world made of primordial knowing.

Rather than approaching these teachings as abstract philosophy, this course offers a rare opportunity to engage them as a living system of insight: a way of understanding mind, perception, and reality at their root.

You will be guided through key frameworks within Dzogchen, including:

• The nature of the ground (gzhi)

• The relationship between primordial knowing and lived experience

• Commonalities between samsara and nirvana

• Was of understanding emptiness that are not nihilistic but profoundly positive and present

• How buddha-nature abides and can be discovered

• What buddha-nature is and its distinctive form in Dzochen

• Buddha-nature as it is discoverable through the natural world

• Natural liberation and innate wisdom

• The special metaphors, similies and other poetic pathways to recognizing the nature of mind

• The relationship between Longchenpa’s works and the seventeen tantras

• The difference between recognition and non-recognition

Together, these teachings present one of the most refined accounts of mind and reality within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Join three Dzogchen scholars on exploring the Treasury of Words and Meanings along with a vibrant community online.

Faculty

Guided by: David Germano, Ph.D., Khenpo Yeshi Rinpoche, and Tulku Pema Khandro, Ph.D. Each brings a distinct integration of lineage training, scholarship, and contemplative depth—offering a rare convergence of academic precision and direct experiential guidance.

Event Details

April 17–19, 2026

Live Online (recordings included with 1-year access)

Schedule

9am–12pm PST

12–3pm EST

5–8pm London

This is a course for those who want to understand—not conceptually alone, but structurally and experientially—how awareness functions, how confusion arises, and how recognition becomes possible.

Register now to join live or receive the recordings. If you’re on the threshold of engaging Dzogchen more deeply, this is an excellent place to step in.

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Friends,

We invite you to join us for Finding Wisdom Awareness, an upcoming live online immersion exploring the Dzogchen view of Buddha nature through the profound philosophical and contemplative language of Longchenpa. Longchenpa was the great forefather and synthesizer of the Dzogchen teachings. He lived in the fourteenth century and his writings became the basis for the flourishing of the Dzochen tradition thereafter.

This weekend teaching (April 17–19) continues our close study of the Treasury of Words and Meanings, focusing on how awareness itself—primordial, luminous, and already present—becomes obscured, and how it may be recognized directly. It address the view of buddhanature as uniquely spoken through the Dzogchen view of a world made of primordial knowing.

Rather than approaching these teachings as abstract philosophy, this course offers a rare opportunity to engage them as a living system of insight: a way of understanding mind, perception, and reality at their root.

You will be guided through key frameworks within Dzogchen, including:

• The nature of the ground (gzhi)

• The relationship between primordial knowing and lived experience

• Commonalities between samsara and nirvana

• Was of understanding emptiness that are not nihilistic but profoundly positive and present

• How buddha-nature abides and can be discovered

• What buddha-nature is and its distinctive form in Dzochen

• Buddha-nature as it is discoverable through the natural world

• Natural liberation and innate wisdom

• The special metaphors, similies and other poetic pathways to recognizing the nature of mind

• The relationship between Longchenpa’s works and the seventeen tantras

• The difference between recognition and non-recognition

Together, these teachings present one of the most refined accounts of mind and reality within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Join three Dzogchen scholars on exploring the Treasury of Words and Meanings along with a vibrant community online.

Faculty

Guided by: David Germano, Ph.D., Khenpo Yeshi Rinpoche, and Tulku Pema Khandro, Ph.D. Each brings a distinct integration of lineage training, scholarship, and contemplative depth—offering a rare convergence of academic precision and direct experiential guidance.

Event Details

April 17–19, 2026

Live Online (recordings included with 1-year access)

Schedule

9am–12pm PST

12–3pm EST

5–8pm London

This is a course for those who want to understand—not conceptually alone, but structurally and experientially—how awareness functions, how confusion arises, and how recognition becomes possible.

Register now to join live or receive the recordings. If you’re on the threshold of engaging Dzogchen more deeply, this is an excellent place to step in.

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Friends and Members,

In Japanese folklore, there is a night in mid-summer, the night parade of one thousand demons. It is a night when all the demons and spirits fill the streets marching in a loud and unruly crowd of monsters. People hide in their houses because, if one sees them, even glimpses at them, they will be abducted. It is a time when the boundary between humans and spirits becomes thinner, a liminal time when what is usually repressed comes to the surface and one needs mantras, spells, and charms to relate with the chaos safely.

We could think about that night as a tale about what happens to humans in a life, dark nights when one is haunted and or overtaken, abducted by inner forces and the currents of the past karma. The chod tradition has such a profound perspective on what one could do on such nights. Instead of hiding from it, it invites us to ask, what happens when we send love and compassion to the monsters? What happens if we invite them for dinner, to talk to them and educate them? And most importantly, what do we discover about ourselves when, through these encounters, we bring love and compassion to our innermost hidden aspects of body and mind?

In a deeply polarized world, I believe we need a different approach, one of deep listening, along with wise, boundaried care. This isn’t about pathological compassion, an idiot compassion that enables harm. Instead it is a caring, fierce wisdom that dares to enlighten and liberate.

This week I invite you to join me in these practices, a period of innate bodhichitta, extending love and compassion to ones own body mind, a period of deep personal healing and an encounter with a powerful, resilient wisdom within.

We will explore the Rinchen Trengwa Chod and Longchenpa’s chod advice on chod practice. The full Rinchen Trengwa Chod, the Jeweled Garland of Chod, is usually the longest cycle of chod and it is practiced by Nyingma and Kagyu since the fourteenth century when the third Karmapa compiled it. It contains multiple Chod cycles and feasts. When I was enthroned as a tulku, Gyaldak Rinpoche had suggested our community practice this sadhana to awaken our karmic connection with the wisdom mind of the first Pema Khandro, who was an emanation of Vajrayogini. However it is an extensive practice and we had only a little time. Recognizing that we needed something very pithy, that gets to the heart essence, I condensed the entire three day Chod cycle into a short practice of the three dakinis’ chod cycles it contained. Thus it is the essence of the Rinchen Trengwa and we practice it in short sessions.

What was stunning to me about this Chod cycle is the first two dakini practices. One is a peaceful purification and healing. It is a soft practice of receiving healing energy from the Great Mother Buddha Prajna Paramita. It addresses an issue in doing deep work on nights when there is a parade of demons, which is that one must feel resourced, centered, calm and loved to do that work.

The second chod in it is a lotus family version of chod, that cultivates magnetizing energy. In this one allows one’s body to melt into a wish fulfilling nectar. It reminds us that there are other ways, other than domination, to deal with obstacles and enemies. The text here refers to subduing by splendor, fulfilling the deepest needs of beings, remembering we have all that is needed. It is profoundly affirmative and celebratory of the deep wealth of buddha nature. It contemplates love and riches, feeding and nourishing.

And then there is also the unforgettable third feast of Troma Nagmo. Unlike the more common form of troma holding the skull and dakini knife, she holds a human skin and a thigh bone trumpet. The human skin held aloft represents the total transmutation of dualistic clinging in which one opens oneself completely to a totally connected presence.

And on the last day of the retreat, as I do every year, I will read from my translation of the Troma sang gyu, the secret troma tantra from the seventeen dzogchen tantras. This is wisdom that cuts through the root of suffering.

I welcome you to join us for this profound and liberating practice online, March 11-14.

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Friends and Members,

In Japanese folklore, there is a night in mid-summer, the night parade of one thousand demons. It is a night when all the demons and spirits fill the streets marching in a loud and unruly crowd of monsters. People hide in their houses because, if one sees them, even glimpses at them, they will be abducted. It is a time when the boundary between humans and spirits becomes thinner, a liminal time when what is usually repressed comes to the surface and one needs mantras, spells, and charms to relate with the chaos safely.

We could think about that night as a tale about what happens to humans in a life, dark nights when one is haunted and or overtaken, abducted by inner forces and the currents of the past karma. The chod tradition has such a profound perspective on what one could do on such nights. Instead of hiding from it, it invites us to ask, what happens when we send love and compassion to the monsters? What happens if we invite them for dinner, to talk to them and educate them? And most importantly, what do we discover about ourselves when, through these encounters, we bring love and compassion to our innermost hidden aspects of body and mind?

In a deeply polarized world, I believe we need a different approach, one of deep listening, along with wise, boundaried care. This isn’t about pathological compassion, an idiot compassion that enables harm. Instead it is a caring, fierce wisdom that dares to enlighten and liberate.

This week I invite you to join me in these practices, a period of innate bodhichitta, extending love and compassion to ones own body mind, a period of deep personal healing and an encounter with a powerful, resilient wisdom within.

We will explore the Rinchen Trengwa Chod and Longchenpa’s chod advice on chod practice. The full Rinchen Trengwa Chod, the Jeweled Garland of Chod, is usually the longest cycle of chod and it is practiced by Nyingma and Kagyu since the fourteenth century when the third Karmapa compiled it. It contains multiple Chod cycles and feasts. When I was enthroned as a tulku, Gyaldak Rinpoche had suggested our community practice this sadhana to awaken our karmic connection with the wisdom mind of the first Pema Khandro, who was an emanation of Vajrayogini. However it is an extensive practice and we had only a little time. Recognizing that we needed something very pithy, that gets to the heart essence, I condensed the entire three day Chod cycle into a short practice of the three dakinis’ chod cycles it contained. Thus it is the essence of the Rinchen Trengwa and we practice it in short sessions.

What was stunning to me about this Chod cycle is the first two dakini practices. One is a peaceful purification and healing. It is a soft practice of receiving healing energy from the Great Mother Buddha Prajna Paramita. It addresses an issue in doing deep work on nights when there is a parade of demons, which is that one must feel resourced, centered, calm and loved to do that work.

The second chod in it is a lotus family version of chod, that cultivates magnetizing energy. In this one allows one’s body to melt into a wish fulfilling nectar. It reminds us that there are other ways, other than domination, to deal with obstacles and enemies. The text here refers to subduing by splendor, fulfilling the deepest needs of beings, remembering we have all that is needed. It is profoundly affirmative and celebratory of the deep wealth of buddha nature. It contemplates love and riches, feeding and nourishing.

And then there is also the unforgettable third feast of Troma Nagmo. Unlike the more common form of troma holding the skull and dakini knife, she holds a human skin and a thigh bone trumpet. The human skin held aloft represents the total transmutation of dualistic clinging in which one opens oneself completely to a totally connected presence.

And on the last day of the retreat, as I do every year, I will read from my translation of the Troma sang gyu, the secret troma tantra from the seventeen dzogchen tantras. This is wisdom that cuts through the root of suffering.

I welcome you to join us for this profound and liberating practice online, March 11-14.

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Friends,

A private queen room with a shared bath has just become available for the Three Dakinis Chöd – Rinchen Trengwa Retreat with Tulku Pema Khandro in San Diego, March 11–15.

If you have been considering attending in person, this is a rare opportunity.

While the teachings are offered online, the in-person retreat provides something distinct: the lived mandala of practice in the presence of the Lama and sangha. The chanting, the feast offerings, the afternoon sessions (only offered in-person), the shared rhythm of study and practice deepen Chöd beyond instruction into direct experience.

Accommodations currently available:

• Private Queen room with shared bath

• Couch/Bedroll

• Camping

Chöd is a practice of cutting through hesitation and self-grasping with courage and compassion. If you feel called to enter this cycle more fully, to practice the peaceful, magnetizing, and wrathful Dakinis in community, this is the moment to step in.

We look forward to practicing together.