The 21 Taras
Teaching and Practice with Drupon Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche
December 16th, 6pm Pacific Time
Timezone Converter

Tara is considered to be the mother of all Buddhas. Prayers to her counteract illness and obstacles. There are numerous prayers, praises and meditations upon Tara, one of the most precious is that of the 21 Taras. The 21 Taras meditation is a poetic supplication of the female bodhisattva Tara in her many forms. It is practiced in all the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism as a prayer for protection from fears, calamities, and harm. It celebrates the manifold powers of the divine feminine as nurturing, magnetizing and fierce in her many forms as mother, teacher and tamer.

The beautiful practices of Tara were revealed as treasures and commented on by great masters of Tibetan Buddhism including an oral commentary tradition of Rongzompa, Taranatha, Jigme Lingpa and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. In this program, Drupon Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche will give the oral transmission (lung) which is the initiation to practice the meditation known as the Praises to the 21 Taras. He will also give an explanation of the practice. Following this, chanting of this profoundly inspiring practice in English will be led by sangha members.

This program is offered as part of our seventh annual year-end celebration of Tara on the birthday of Lama Pema Khandro Rinpoche. Every year on Pema Khandro’s birthday, the community celebrates with a practice of Tara led by guest Lamas.

All the proceeds from this event will go to support the Dakini Mountain Emergency Fund. Pema Khandro’s birthday wish is for donations to go to Dakini Mountain Emergency Fund  Due to the temporary closure of Dakini Mountain due to the pandemic, this year’s year-end fundraiser is more important than ever!

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2020 Fall Calendar

ONLINE OPEN TEACHINGS
*All times are listed in Pacific Time UTC-8 Timezone Converter

Now – Feb 12th Tibetan New Year (Losar)
100 Days of Practice – Meditation Marathon
Free, Short, Daily.

Starts December 10th, 8am
A Course in Valid Cognition with Geshe Sonam
Winter Pramana Study

December 16th, 6pm
The 21 Taras – Teachings and Practice with Drupon Rinpoche
Pema Khandro’s Birthday Celebration and Fundraiser

Members-Only Classes
Learn More about Membership

1st & 2nd Wednesdays – Vajrayana Training

3rd & 4th Wednesdays – Ngakpa Training

Every Monday – Meditation Mondays
Group Meditation with Janak Kimmel & Guest Teachers

Dec 21st, 6-7pm – Tara Day
White Tara Meditation is a Buddhist prayer offered in times of calamities, natural disasters, wars, and major obstacles in order to bring peace and healing to the community and environment. Learn the mantra, mudras and visualization practice of White Tara, and also practice the 21 Taras. Led by Dr. Satya.

Dakini Mountain Emergency Fund

BUDDHIST YOGIS INFO  ♦  DONATE  ♦  VISIT OUR WEBSITES

Ngakpa.org
PemaKhandro.org
BuddhistStudiesInstitute.org
DakiniMountain.org
YogicMedicineInstitute.org

Copyright Ⓒ 2019
Ngakpa International • PO Box 2396 • Nevada City, CA • USA

Together we have built a beautiful community.

We have continued to meditate and study throughout a most difficult year. Now we need your help to continue.

Giving Tuesday is today! Please don’t forget to make a year-end contribution to support the work of Pema Khandro, Ngakpa International and its projects – Dakini Mountain and the Buddhist Studies Institute. We need your support, your donation can make a huge difference in helping these projects flourish.  

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

The pandemic has had a drastic impact on our finances. Dakini Mountain, our budding retreat center, as well as our membership both suffered serious losses. For the safety of our community, we cancelled all in-person events, including our summer retreats. This would have been the main source of support for Dakini Mountain and for our operations. In response to the crisis catalyzed by the pandemic – our goal is to raise $350,000 for our Year-End Fundraiser  – to ensure that our projects can continue.

Despite the challenges of the global pandemic, we have continued to offer service, with even more programs than in previous years. Our goal was to provide comfort, practical tools, community connection and the reprieve of dharma study to help our friends weather these tough times.

In 2019
We offered 261 retreats, classes and trainings.
161 of these were free.
Over $20,000 in financial aid was given.

In 2020
We offered 304 retreats, classes and trainings.
248 of these were free.
Over $25,000 in financial aid was given.

This expansion of our programs was met with responses from all over the world, our community has grown and flourished in this pandemic year. To continue to provide this service, we need your help!

Throughout all these programs we have offered Tibetan Buddhism in the context of today’s world with an emphasis on the following:

• Making Buddhist education accessible through online classes and by creating a robust portfolio of live online classes and a rich online library of recorded teachings.
• Promoting gender equality through teaching about women in Buddhism, making all gender identities welcome and giving equal opportunity for leadership and participation.
• Promoting embodiment of compassion by teaching empathy skills, self-care and healing of trauma.
• Speaking out against colonialism and ethnic, racial and gender bias.
• Respecting diversity within Buddhism and promoting the value of open mindedness, healthy boundaries and cooperation.
• Promoting awareness of the body mind connection and natural healing methods to support healthy life and successful Buddhist practice.
• Having clearly stated ethics and zero tolerance of abusive behavior.

I invite your support for this Giving Tuesday to keep this school and its programs growing.

PLEASE CONSIDER AN URGENT GIFT TO OUR EMERGENCY FUND!

The Dakini Mountain Emergency Fund is our plan to sustain our retreat center and our operations through this year of the pandemic. We are optimistic, as we hold onto our retreat center, not only as a sound investment for the school but also for the days when we will be able to gather in person again. In order to make it to that time, we will need your help to make it through the pandemic.

• If a hundred friends donated $300 today we would be able to complete to the fire clearance at Dakini Mountain. You can help by clicking here.
• If a hundred friends donated $500 today we would be able to keep our operations going through the next two months of the challenging winter of the US pandemic. Please donate by clicking here. 
• If three hundred and fifty friends donate $1000, we will have met our total fundraising goal and the Dakini Mountain Emergency Fund will be a success. Since the community we serve is much larger than this, this goal is reachable! Please give by clicking here.

Ngakpa International is a non-profit organization. To keep our volunteer run organization here in the U.S. we run two centers, keep lawyers, accountants, bookkeepers, three staff, insurance, permitting and many other legal expenses, technology and equipment costs and so much more. We have only been able to continue to meet all these expenses for the last twenty years through the generosity of individual donations. But this year, due to the drastic effects of the pandemic, donations are more important than ever. We ask for our friends and members to help us continue our service and sustain our programs for another year.

YOUR DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE!

Here are some more ways to express your support on this Giving Tuesday:

• If you are not already, Become a Member at $12 per month.
• If you are already a member, consider increasing your monthly contribution.
• Make a one time donation.  Large or small, one time donations add up to more Buddhist teachings for more people.
• Donor Rewards. Without large individual donations, Dakini Mountain will not make it through the pandemic. Take a look at these remarkable Thankgas (Tibetan deity art) available as donor rewards.

Thank you!  May your generosity bring great good karma to you and life changing teachings to more and more beings.

Best wishes!

Janak (he, him, his)
Ngakpa International/Buddhist Studies Institute
www.ngakpa.org
janak@ngakpa.org
P.O. Box 2396
Nevada City, CA 95959
USA

P.S. If you wish to make your donation by check, please make it payable to Ngakpa International and mail to the above address.

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

LATEST NEWS

Meditation Instructor Training
Our robust Meditation Instructor Training launched last month and is now in its third module. The combination of self-paced classes and online learning culminates in over 150 hours of training. It is currently being attended by 15 people from 8 countries.

100 Days of Practice
This year has had its challenges, reminding us all that learning to self-regulate and return to calm and clarity are crucial skills. In support of our world-wide community, we are offering a daily free meditation class – in the 100 days of practice. It is not too late to join! Come on the days you can or come every day.

Thanks to Pema Khandro’s teachings and thanks to so many leaders and volunteers in the community this 100 days of practice will continue every day through the winter.

And its Free!
Register here to join 100 Days of Practice.

WINTER SCHEDULE

Meditation Mondays for Members will continue to be offered throughout the month of December.

A White Tara Meditation has been added on December 21st led by Dr. Satya during the regular Meditation Mondays for Members time slot.

Wednesday December 16th is Lama Pema Khandro Rinpoche’s Birthday. We will host an online fundraiser and year-end celebration that evening. Stay tuned for more details. In lieu of birthday gifts, Pema Khandro’s birthday wish is for donations to the Dakini Mountain Emergency Fund. Click here to make a gift.

There will be no Wednesday Night classes on December 23rd and 30th due to the Holidays. Wednesday night classes will resume on January 6th with Vajrayana Training.

Winter Pramana Study
Valid Cognition Course with Geshe Sonam

Thursdays Mornings for One Hour Starting December 10th

 8am San Francisco / 11am New York / 4pm London

What is Valid Cognition?
What are reliable Ways of Knowing?

Study Buddhist logic and epistemology to understand how mind knows, (in Sanskrit, Pramana or in Tibetan, tshad ma) and identify how wrong knowledge causes cyclic suffering. This is the study of a classic text on Valid Cognition, the Pramanavaritika, translated into English by Geshe Sonam.

To register – email info@buddhiststudiesinstitute.org

Geshe Sonam
Following his more than twenty years of intensive monastic studies on the five major treatises of Buddhism, and upon clearing all the six successive years of examination, in Jan 2019, Geshe Ngawang Sonam was formally conferred the highest degree of Geshe Lharampa [Traditional degree equivalent to PhD in Buddhism] by Gelugpa Monastic Seat of Learning [Gelugpa Monastic University]. In Nov. 2016, His Holiness the Dalai Lama called him to work in His Office, and presently he works there as a translator and a Buddhist scholar. Geshe Ngawang Sonam’s first book ‘In the Footsteps of Siddhartha’ was published in 2010. His translation of Shantideva’s work Bodhisattvacharyaavatara is going to print very soon. Alongside his office work, he also finds time to teach and attend conferences with modern scholars and scientists as a speaker.

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Starts this Wednesday
Join Live or By Recording

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. 

Pema Khandro offers Ngondro teachings for serious students who wish to do intensive contemplative training. Dedicated to training yogis, householders and lay people outside the monastery, Pema Khandro presents these practices in their concise, essential form. This comprehensive course on Ngondro will be taught in four modules to support the accomplishment of practice over the period of one year, with the training modules completed in nine months.

2020 Fall Calendar
Buddhist Studies Institute
FALL QUARTER – ONLINE OPEN TEACHINGS
*All times are listed in Pacific Time UTC-7 (Timezone Converter)

December 16, 6pm

Pema Khandro Birthday Celebration & Fundraiser
Details TBA

FALL QUARTER – MEMBERS-ONLY CLASSES

*The Curriculum below is for Members Only. Learn More about Membership

1st & 2nd Wednesdays – Vajrayana Training

3rd & 4th Wednesdays – Ngakpa Training

Every Monday – Meditation Mondays
Group Meditation with Janak Kimmel & Guest Teachers

Nov 23rd, 6-7pm
Tara Day
White Tara Meditation is a Buddhist prayer offered in times of calamities, natural disasters, wars, and major obstacles in order to bring peace and healing to the community and environment. Learn the mantra, mudras and visualization practice of White Tara. Led by Dr. Satya.

BUDDHIST YOGIS INFO  ♦  DONATE  ♦  VISIT OUR WEBSITES

Ngakpa.org
PemaKhandro.org
BuddhistStudiesInstitute.org
DakiniMountain.org
YogicMedicineInstitute.org

Copyright Ⓒ 2019
Ngakpa International • PO Box 2396 • Nevada City, CA • USA

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Dear Friends,

I wanted to make sure you knew about the 100 Days of Practice happening now until February 12.

There is no fee and the 100 Days of Practice is open to anyone who would like to participate.

The 100 Days of Practice is called a “concentration” in the terms of a Buddhist practitioner, a time of focus to improve one’s practice and benefit beings.

Put simply, it’s taking the next 100 days (approximately) from now until February 12, the date of the Tibetan New Year and doing some form of practice every day without fail.  Even if the amount of practice is “small” or “short,” like simply reciting daily prayers which can be done in one minute, it qualifies as a concentration when it is done every day without fail.  Of course, we don’t get too hung up on failing.  We do our best and keep trying.  That’s what counts.

You choose the daily practice that seems like the right challenge for you and if you need help with that, I can provide.

Later in this message, I’ll give more examples and ideas of what your practice could look like.  Or maybe you already know, maybe there’s a practice aspiration you’ve already had that you have been just waiting for a nudge to get started on.

The 100 Days of Practice is the Buddhist practitioner’s way of closing out the year and getting ready to start the new one.  It’s an opportunity to increase your practice in a way that empowers you and you won’t be doing it alone.   In the 100 Days of Practice, we build our focus and success together.  To support you in this, there is an online meditation every day from now until Feb 12 for 30 minutes at 12 noon Pacific Time.  Of course, you can practice on your own and that’s great but if you need or want support and connection, you can sign up for the online daily practice here:

Again, the 100 Days of Practice is free and open to all.

Earlier, I said I would give you some ideas of what your practice could look like, just in case, you wanted to prime the pump on the practice choice for you.  Here’s a few ideas.

DAILY PRACTICE IDEAS

Very Easy:  Reciting the Daily Buddhist Prayers of Refuge and Bodhichitta – one minute per day.

Fairly Easy to more Challenging:  Daily Silent Sitting – Calm Abiding Meditation. 5 minutes and up per day.  You choose your daily time, of course.

Advanced: Could be anyone of a number of practices, for example, mantra repetition, Chod practice, Ngondro.

I am available to help you on these points if you wish.  Email me with the address below.

I hope you join in the 100 Days of Practice.  I believe together we will help our world to be a better place and have happier, saner lives.

Best wishes!

Janak (he, him)
Director of Fundraising
Ngakpa International & The Buddhist Studies Institute
www.ngakpa.org  |  www.BuddhistStudiesInstitute.org
P.O. Box 2396
Nevada City, CA 95959
USA

100 Days of Practice ~ Starts Nov 1st

FREE  –  ONLINE  –  30 MINUTES  –  DAILY  –  SUPPORT

Take your meditation to the Next Level!

MEDITATION INSTRUCTOR TRAINING
Starts Tomorrow
You Can Still Join In

ABOUT MEDITATION INSTRUCTOR TRAINING
150-Hour Certification Training
Oct 31st – Feb 2021

• Robust, 150 hours of In-Depth Training
• Self-Paced Curriculum & Live Classes
• Teaching Practicum & One on One 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.

FOR THE MODERN MEDITATION TEACHER
New Topics have been added to the curriculum to help instructors navigate teaching in our current times. 

1. Trauma Informed Meditation Instruction
2. Mindfulness of Power
3. Anti-racism & anti-sexism
4. Considerations for Teaching Online 

2020 Fall Calendar
Buddhist Studies Institute
FALL QUARTER – ONLINE OPEN TEACHINGS
*All times are listed in Pacific Time UTC-7 (Timezone Converter)

Oct 31 – Feb, 2021

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

Nov 1st – Feb 12th Tibetan New Year (Losar), 12pm 
100 Days of Practice – Meditation Marathon
Details Coming Soon!

Nov 14, 10am – 12pm 
Trauma Informed Meditation Instruction
Open to all Meditation Instructors

Nov 18-20, 1-3pm 
Ngondro Training – Entering the Heart of the Vast Expanse
Ngondro are the foundational practices for purifying, training and empowering the body-mind. They form the basis of Vajrayana meditation and serve as the foundation for the highest practices.

December 16, 6pm

Pema Khandro Birthday Celebration & Fundraiser
Details TBA

Nov 14, 10am – 12pm 
Mindfulness of Power in Teaching Meditation
Open to all Meditation Instructors

FALL QUARTER – MEMBERS-ONLY CLASSES

*The Curriculum below is for Members Only. Learn More about Membership

1st & 2nd Wednesdays – Vajrayana Training

3rd & 4th Wednesdays – Ngakpa Training

Meditation Mondays
Group Meditation with Janak Kimmel & Guest Teachers

Nov 23rd, 6-7:15pm

Tara Day
White Tara Meditation is a Buddhist prayer offered in times of calamities, natural disasters, wars, and major obstacles in order to bring peace and healing to the community and environment. Learn the mantra, mudras and visualization practice of White Tara. Led by Dr. Satya.

BUDDHIST YOGIS INFO  ♦  DONATE  ♦  VISIT OUR WEBSITES

Ngakpa.org
PemaKhandro.org
BuddhistStudiesInstitute.org
DakiniMountain.org
YogicMedicineInstitute.org

Copyright Ⓒ 2019
Ngakpa International • PO Box 2396 • Nevada City, CA • USA

Dear Friends,

One thing that unifies all of us is trauma, or as we put in Buddhism, the shared experience of human suffering. How we talk about this suffering changes what we assume about its causes and remedies. 

When I think about it as anxiety, then a whole host of physiological and psychological issues comes to mind. 

When I think about it as the felt experience of oppression, then ideas about social structures, conditioning and decolonization come to mind. 

In Buddhism, this term ”suffering” encompasses this wide range of unnecessary suffering that we experience. Lately, however, I have been thinking of suffering in terms of trauma, the ultimate form of dukha as that invisible weight that shapes us, binds us and blinds us – but sometimes can be used as a stepping stone to practices of liberation.

This contemplation of trauma made me think of the Meditation Instructor Training in a new way this year. As we prepared this year’s course, on the forefront of my mind has been how crucial understanding of trauma adaptation is to the situation we are facing in our society. The anger, the denials, the glib admonishments towards positive thinking – social media is like a textbook display of trauma responses. And I have been seeing this in our responses not just to the pandemic and politics, but also in our responses to issues of racism and sexism. A large-scale awakening is taking place – but so is a showcase of maladaptive attempts to deal with suffering. 

I am inspired and stretched by the challenge of training meditation instructors who will be prepared to step into this climate of turmoil. What does it mean to train teachers to be of service in such tumultuous times? I am driven by this question of how to prepare teachers to share Buddhist techniques for self-regulation, care for self, others and world – while there is so much rage, pain, denial, danger and depression.

Before, I framed it as a training that could provide the Buddhist philosophy of mind and body and Buddhist ethics to provide a more tradition-rooted approach to meditation teaching. I had already included a feminist agenda in there – driven by the question of how we can create responsible, ethical meditation instructors who will make Buddhism safe for vulnerable people. 

Then the pandemic hit. And George Floyd. And the protests. And four million acres burned in California all around us. And the skies above grew thick with dark and toxic clouds of smoke. 

Standing under the weight of all these circumstances, I let the scope of the Meditation Instructor Training expand to accommodate the great need to address acute suffering through contemplative practice. It is now a 150-hour training, spread over four months, a requirement which is on top of the three years of meditation practice prerequisite. The result is a training that goes in-depth into techniques and philosophy while it also reconsiders the Meditation teacher as someone who must be prepared to lead students into inner knowledge while they are weathering their toughest times.

It can be heavy and distressing to think of all these topics, whether you are joining the upcoming training or not. If so, we can take breaks, take our time and reach out to our networks of support. 

It is also important to realize that all forms of oppression grow their power from our disconnection from our inner knowledge. Trauma rules our lives through our avoidance techniques (even though for the time being avoidance may be the best we can do).  It is clear that the suffering of collective and institutionalized oppression gains power from that disconnection too. In Buddhism, we often repeat this core belief – that suffering comes from our disconnection from intrinsic wisdom. But the alternative to disconnection is to connect, and that is the complex, epic journey we embark on through practices of liberation. Somehow, step by step and painstakingly, sometimes crawling along and sometimes by leaps and bounds, it is possible to unravel the roots of suffering. 

I have always loved that Dzogchen says that fundamentally, we are not just our suffering, there is also always something present in us which has remained wise and whole. As we listen to our body, cultivate a sense of wholehearted presence, act and speak with congruence with our highest values, when we listen and practice empathy – these are moments when we are living beyond the bounds of colonized, conditioned mindsets. This is how we break the chains. This is how we relieve suffering and live from a whole, good, loving place. In this sense, Buddhist practice gives me great hope that we can experience liberated moments and cultivate cultures of non-harming.

So it is coming to pass, that, in the middle of a global pandemic, while our forests have literally burned down around us, during this time of collective trauma and collective awakening, I will be training meditation teachers. I hope that this training will facilitate relief, empowerment and connection with inner knowledge.

I am pleased to be facilitating this training once again alongside my wonderful colleagues Aruna Rigdzin and Dr. Satya. This will be our fourth cycle of the online format. We begin on Saturday, October 31st. If you haven’t enrolled to join us yet, you can by Clicking Here: Meditation Instructor Training.

If you have already completed meditation teacher training, I encourage you to take the new modules on trauma-informed meditation teaching and mindfulness of power. You are welcome to join me:

November 14th – Trauma Informed Meditation Teaching

January 16th – Mindfulness of Power

For those of you who do not join us, you can still participate in our year-end meditation challenge.  November 1st marks the first day of our “100 days of practice” annual meditation challenge. Starting on November 1st until Losar, the Tibetan Lunar New Year on February 12th, our entire community (at least those willing!) will practice meditation every single day. 

I invite you to join us in pledging to do a daily practice. Whether it be five minutes a day or one hour a day, the important thing is the consistency and continuity. Training the mind in calm and focus requires consistency above all else. It will likely be a difficult period to maintain practice within. We are currently in a charnel grounds more than a pure land. But there is something empowering about remaining disciplined in the inner work during such troubled times.

If you aren’t sure how to do the meditation for the 100 days, As always, we will be there to support you in your practice and study. 

We have planned these programs to support you (Timezone Converter): 

Janak leads Meditation Mondays at 6pm Pacific Time to learn Zhine – Calm Abiding (for Members)

Dr. Satya leads White Tara Practice on Monday, Nov 23rd at 6pm Pacific Time (for Members)

Pema Khandro leads the last online Chod Training of the year on Nov 10th – 11am LA / 2pm New York / 7pm London / 6am Sydney

Pema Khandro leads Ngondro Training 18-20th 

12pm LA / 3pm New York / 8pm London / 7am Sydney 

This includes the Lung – the transmission to practice.

May you and all beings be free from suffering and its causes. May you and all beings have strong health, safe places to be and moments of peace. May we listen and understand others and use our voices in all the forms of love whether that is gentle or fierce.

Yours in dharma,

*Teachers Needed

Have you already graduated from Meditation Instructor Training? We are looking for instructors to volunteer to lead online classes during the 100days of practice. Email us at info@BuddhistStudiesInstitute.org if you are available!

*Continuing Education

Are you a graduate of our Meditation Instructor Training in the past? Volunteer in this year’s training as a teaching assistant, Email info@BuddhistStudiesInstitute.org if you are available!

*Podcast 

Have you listened to Pema Khandro’s interview about living with a life-threatening illness at the LionsRoar podcast? She interviewed Karma Lekshe Tsomo. Pema Khandro asked her about what happened when she almost died from a snake bite. Click Here to listen in on their conversation.