Dear Friends and Members,

Last night, my partner, Natana and I spent some time with Anne, a young woman who is Natana’s niece.  Anne is attending college in the Boston area, in a master’s program to be a school guidance counselor.

I was deeply impressed with Anne.  She was completely present with us, authentic, kind, humbly confident and she had learned a great deal about trauma, racism, microaggressions and how to assist people in healing and learning better ways of living.  This was much more than intellectual learning for Anne as it was for me when I encountered these topics in Pema Khandro’s classes.

Anne had struggled in the growing up process like many of us do, surrounded by dysfunction and the example of a “me, first” society.  But she has transformed herself and learned how to embody compassion for others and for herself.  To me, Anne is the kind of leader that makes such an important difference in our world.

I believe in the great power of being good – the power that comes when we bring our good intentions to reality in our bodies, emotions, and actions.  When I meet people who live this way, I feel inspired.  I want to become better – more kind, more serviceful, more loving.  That’s the power of being good.  It spreads.

Being good means having a strong support system for our good intentions.  Buddhism and Pema Khandro’s teachings provide this.

Pema Khandro’s teachings are traditional Buddhism in the post-modern context. 

I hope you will take full advantage of what Pema Khandro and the Buddhist Studies Institute has to offer.

And I invite you to help keep this work vital by caring for the physical center and home of Pema Khandro’s work, Dakini Mountain, the new Buddhist retreat center in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California.

As we enter the final months of 2021, critical funds are needed to complete the $50,000 Dakini Mountain Fundraising goal to fund critical maintenance, property tax and insurance.   Thanks to your generosity, $25,000 has already been raised.  $25,000 more will complete the goal to keep Dakini Mountain alive and moving forward.

Any donation you can make, large or small, makes a difference.

Please donate now to support Dakini Mountain alive and the work of Pema Khandro.  Thank you! 

Also, long term financial support is needed now for the 

Dakini Mountain loan refinancing.  If you don’t have funds to donate now, but you do have the ability to be a loan guarantor or participate in estate planning or legacy giving, there are many ways you could help. 

Refinancing to reduce the costs of Dakini Mountain is a top priority for this year, but one to three more loan guarantors are needed. For more information on becoming a guarantor or legacy giving, please reply to this email.

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.

For more information about Dakini Mountain, visit www.DakiniMountain.org

Wishing you joy and happiness,

Janak

Director of Fundraising

Ngakpa International

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dakini Mountain Retreat Center

P.O. Box 2396

Nevada City, California 95946

USA

Dear Friends,

This Monday, November 1st, will begin our season of practice. 

This begins the period when I challenge all the members to practice meditation every day, without missing a day until Losar, the Lunar New Year, March 3rd 2022. This will be 123 days of practice! 

We will kick off the season of practice together with a community night. 

That is this Monday Nov 1st, at 6pm PST/9pm EST. 

• I will facilitate a member to member conversation about the role of practice in our lives and our goals for the season of practice. 
• And, I will lead us in the first practice of the season of practice as we all begin together. 

All members are welcome! It would be wonderful to see you and hear your voice, to chat together and laugh together. 

The link to join will be sent to members on Monday. 

Can’t attend Monday night or want more support for 123 Days of Practice?

• Tweet me every day and tell me how your practice went @Pema_Khandro –  I am still learning how to use Twitter so this helps us both!
• Attend Daily Meditation for free led by our wonderful MIT leaders https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/daily-meditation/
• Did you forget to complete your registration?? Late enrollment for Meditation Instructor Training closes on Nov. 12th https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/courses/meditation-instructor-training-2021/

Looking forward to celebrating together Monday night!

With joy,

My article in the Real Reasons to Meditate issue of LionsRoar:

https://www.lionsroar.com/youre-caught-in-a-dream-wake-up/

Reasons why you should join the season of practice:

Meditation can prevent fight or flight, prevent heart disease and help you quit smoking.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-heart-meditation/meditation-may-help-prevent-heart-disease-doctors-say-idUSKCN1C82B0

Meditation can improve heart health, gut health, mental health, reduce anxiety and improve your quality of life. https://www.everydayhealth.com/meditation/manage-illness/

How to Tweet Me For Each Day of Your Practice!

To Tweet me every day and tell me how your practice went @Pema_Khandro

How to Tweet from a Computer

1. Go to Twitter and sign in to your account.
2. Type your tweet in the box in the top left corner of the page. To send someone an @reply, enter the person’s Twitter name at the beginning of the tweet in the format @username. To send someone a mention, type his or her Twitter name anywhere within the tweet. Each tweet can contain up to 140 characters.
3. Click “Tweet” to send your message.

Source: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/tweet-someone-twitter-66853.html

MEDITATION INSTRUCTOR TRAINING

Meditation Instructor Training

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

Late Enrollment Closes Nov 12th, 2021

Oct 30th 2021 – Feb 26th 2022

• Robust, 150 hours of In-Depth Training
• Self-Paced Curriculum & Live Classes
• Teaching Practicum & Weekly Mentoring
• Traditional Meditation + Buddhist Philosophy + Buddhist Ethics
• Completely Traditional + Completely Current
• For Teachers Facing A Diverse Tumultuous World

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

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.

Learn More

MEMBER NIGHT

LETTER FROM PEMA KHANDRO

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 have remained 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 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 MIT, 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.

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 beginning of this new program is cheerful 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,

MEDITATION INSTRUCTOR TRAINING

What People are Saying about Meditation Instructor Training

“I can’t imagine a better,  more thorough teacher training available to people online. The ease of being in the comfort of our home is amazing. The depth of the dharma teachings are brilliant, it goes far beyond a simple meditation training class. It is an immersion into Buddhist thought in a deeply experiential way. WELL DONE!”

-Zat B., Men’s Coach

“I enjoyed all of the lectures with Pema Khandro. She is really clear in her way.  I also enjoyed the practicums with Satya and Aruna. They helped me to feel really welcome and free to ask questions for the purpose of learning. I would recommend this training.  It was good for me to begin to understand a framework for all of this wisdom.”

-Jonathan M., Software Product Manager

“I enjoyed the guided meditation practice. It was very good for me to get back into a strong daily practice. It is very beneficial as a student and prospective teacher. There is a lot of great curriculum and the teachers are very accessible and knowledgeable.”

-Doug S., Real Estate Broker

“This course was superbly done, and so much more than I could have expected. It was wonderfully rigorous—which contributed to my respect for the process and my motivation along the way—and, at the same time, totally doable. The lesson series was comprehensive and left me feeling extremely well-prepared.”

-Debbie K., College Professor

Meditation Instructor Training

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

Oct 30th 2021 – Feb 26th 2022

• Robust, 150 hours of In-Depth Training
• Self-Paced Curriculum & Live Classes
• Teaching Practicum & Weekly Mentoring
• Traditional Meditation + Buddhist Philosophy + Buddhist Ethics
• Completely Traditional + Completely Current
• For Teachers Facing A Diverse Tumultuous World

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

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.

Learn More

MEDITATION INSTRUCTOR TRAINING

What People are Saying about Meditation Instructor Training

“I can’t imagine a better,  more thorough teacher training available to people online. The ease of being in the comfort of our home is amazing. The depth of the dharma teachings are brilliant, it goes far beyond a simple meditation training class. It is an immersion into Buddhist thought in a deeply experiential way. WELL DONE!”

-Zat B., Men’s Coach

“I enjoyed all of the lectures with Pema Khandro. She is really clear in her way.  I also enjoyed the practicums with Satya and Aruna. They helped me to feel really welcome and free to ask questions for the purpose of learning. I would recommend this training.  It was good for me to begin to understand a framework for all of this wisdom.”

-Jonathan M., Software Product Manager

“I enjoyed the guided meditation practice. It was very good for me to get back into a strong daily practice. It is very beneficial as a student and prospective teacher. There is a lot of great curriculum and the teachers are very accessible and knowledgeable.”

-Doug S., Real Estate Broker

“This course was superbly done, and so much more than I could have expected. It was wonderfully rigorous—which contributed to my respect for the process and my motivation along the way—and, at the same time, totally doable. The lesson series was comprehensive and left me feeling extremely well-prepared.”

-Debbie K., College Professor

Meditation Instructor Training

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

Oct 30th 2021 – Feb 26th 2022

• Robust, 150 hours of In-Depth Training
• Self-Paced Curriculum & Live Classes
• Teaching Practicum & Weekly Mentoring
• Traditional Meditation + Buddhist Philosophy + Buddhist Ethics
• Completely Traditional + Completely Current
• For Teachers Facing A Diverse Tumultuous World

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

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.

Learn More

Dear Friends and Members,

What’s your vision?  For your life?  For those you hold dear?  For the world around you?

The Buddhist teachings refer to having “karmic vision” where you see things in the same unsatisfying way that has become habitual or having “pure view” where you learn a new way to see things that brings great fulfillment.

So many people speak of the importance of having written goals and holding a vision that becomes reality.

To me, all of this has great power and I hope that your personal vision is inspiring and real to you.  

And I have to ask:  What is the vision for Dakini Mountain, the new Buddhist retreat center in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California?

And where do these two visions, your personal one and Dakini Mountain’s intersect?

Can I share with you how I see it?

My short-term vision is all of us having a “spiritual renewal” together at the Dakini Mountain retreat on June 2 – 5, 2022.  I see us there laughing and enjoying a communal feeling of love and kindness.  I see us practicing together with Pema Khandro, reaching new levels of inspiration and life-changing liberation that bring renewal to our lives and great benefit to the world around us.

My long-term vision is seeing Dakini Mountain become a full-fledged pilgrimage site where you can go and feel the immense power of a spiritually charged holy site.  I’ve been to these types of places.  Perhaps you have too.  There’s nothing else quite like it.  You enter these places one way and you come out a new way based on a spiritual power that is hard to explain but easy to feel.

It is my sincere wish that these visions become reality, the one of your strongest aspirations coming true and the one of Dakini Mountain reaching its full potential.  If you have that same wish, I ask you to please support Dakini Mountain with your donation.

We are entering the final months of the 2021 fundraising effort to provide critical funds to keep Dakini Mountain alive and moving forward.  At this time, $30,000 more is needed.

Any donation you can make, large or small, will make a difference.

Please donate now.  Thank you!  

Also, long term financial support is needed now for the new Dakini Mountain financing.  If you don’t have funds to donate now, but you do have the ability to be a loan guarantor or participate in estate planning or legacy giving, there are many ways you could help. Refinancing to reduce the costs of Dakini Mountain is our top priority this year, but one to three more loan guarantors are needed to do this. For more information on guarantor or legacy giving, please reply to this email.

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.

For more information about Dakini Mountain, visit www.DakiniMountain.org

Wishing you joy and happiness,

Janak

Director of Fundraising

Ngakpa International

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dakini Mountain Retreat Center

P.O. Box 2396

Nevada City, California 95946

USA

VAJRA SANGHA RETREAT

Dear Friends and Members,

I want to share with you what, in my opinion, is the best reason to support Dakini Mountain, the new Buddhist retreat center in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California.

It’s a way to support Pema Khandro Rinpoche.

I know how much Dakini Mountain means to her as I’ve been hearing her speak longingly of Dakini Mountain for the entire time I’ve known her, about 15 years.

Simply put, Dakini Mountain is the physical center of her work.

There are many worthy Buddhist teachers in today’s world.  The one I know the best is Pema Khandro and the more I get to know her, the more I admire and appreciate her.

If I had to describe her essential qualities, I would use the words, integrity, authenticity, dedication, and kindness.

Her teachings and community reflect this with an emphasis on ethics, zero tolerance of abuse, empathy training, healing of the body and the emotions, respect for diversity and support for a balanced, healthy life.

Here’s a real example of how she lives:  Years ago, I accompanied her to visit someone who had just lost their husband by a sudden death.  This person had come to a number of teachings with Rinpoche but was not a close or highly active student.  Rinpoche went to visit this woman in her home and Rinpoche spent as much time there as it took to hear the entire story of this woman’s loss as if Rinpoche had all the time in the world.  There was not the slightest sense of hurry.

That’s what Pema Khandro is like.  I know you’re hearing this from one of her biggest fans, me, but I tell you she has the biggest heart of anyone I know, to go along with extraordinary knowledge and embodiment of the Buddhist teachings.

If this email reaches you, because you feel a connection with Pema Khandro and you would like to support the Buddhist teachings in today’s world, please make a donation.

The 2021 fundraising effort provides critical funds to keep Dakini Mountain alive and moving forward.

Any donation you can make, large or small, will make a difference.

Please donate now.  Thank you!

Also, long term financial support is needed now for the new Dakini Mountain financing.  If you don’t have assets to donate now but have the ability to be a loan guarantor or participate in estate planning or legacy giving, there are many ways you could help.  For more information on guarantor or legacy giving, please reply to this email.

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.

For more information about Dakini Mountain, visit www.DakiniMountain.org

Wishing you joy and happiness,

Janak

Director of Fundraising

Ngakpa International

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dakini Mountain Retreat Center

P.O. Box 2396

Nevada City, California 95946

USA

MEDITATION INSTRUCTOR TRAINING

Meditation Instructor Training

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

150 Hour Certification Training

Registration Is Now Open

Oct 30th 2021 – Feb 26th 2022

About Meditation Instructor Training:

• Robust, 150 hours of In-Depth Training
• Self-Paced Curriculum & Live Classes
• Teaching Practicum & Weekly Mentoring
• Traditional Meditation + Buddhist Philosophy + Buddhist Ethics
• Completely Traditional + Completely Current
• For Teachers Facing A Diverse Tumultuous World

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

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.

Learn More

Vajra Sangha Retreat

Dear Friends and Members,

On behalf of Pema Khandro and Ngakpa International, I want to express a HUGE thank you to all of you who have generously donated.  

You are making it possible for the Buddhist teachings to flourish in the 21st century and beyond.

One of the three projects founded by Pema Khandro is the Dakini Mountain Retreat Center in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California.  Dakini Mountain is the physical center of Pema Khandro’s teachings.

Since the beginning of Buddhism, centers like this have been critical to keeping Buddhism alive and vital.  Many of you who have been to a Buddhist holy place know that such places can change your life, open your eyes to your potential and instill the momentum to bring your potential to reality.

There is a critical need for your continued support to keep Dakini Mountain alive.

About 35% of the 2021 goal of $50,000 to cover critical maintenance, property tax and insurance costs for Dakini Mountain has been met.  $30,000 more is needed.  Any donation you can make, large or small, will make a difference.

Please donate today.  Thank you! 

Also, long term financial support is needed now for the new Dakini Mountain financing.  If you don’t have assets to donate now but have the ability to be a loan guarantor or participate in estate planning or legacy giving, there are many ways you could help.  For more information on guarantor or legacy giving, please reply to this email.

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.  

For more information about Dakini Mountain, visit www.DakiniMountain.org

Wishing you joy and happiness,

Janak

Director of Fundraising

Ngakpa International

Buddhist Studies Institute

Dakini Mountain Retreat Center

P.O. Box 2396

Nevada City, California 95946

USA

NGONDRO TRAINING