Chakrasamvara Empowerment & Teachings with Drupon Rinpoche & Pema Khandro Khandro -SEND 3/28

Upcoming Events

Bardo Teachings – Self Paced Course

With Pema Khandro, Father Francis Tiso, Lama Lhanang Rinpoche, Chagdud Khadro, Shugen Roshi, Julie Rogers, Jim Tucker, M.D., Koshin Paley Ellison and Dr. William McGrath

Open Dates

Teachings on Death and Dying Facing realities of dying, death, and grief are central to our human experience. This program offers practical instructions for helping others in the process of dying and an overview of essential knowledge on death, bardo, and rebirth. This includes self-paced lectures on dying, loss, grief, and illness from Lamas and scholars of Buddhist Studies. Support the Buddhist Studies Institute by donating for these precious teachings. Your contribution, big and small, helps makes in-depth Buddhist training and education more accessible for all. May the teachings spread and flourish!

Buddhism & Sexuality – Self Paced Course

With Dr. Nicole Willock, Julie Regan, Ph.D., Pema Khandro, Lama Willa Miller, Amy Langenberg , Dr. Ann Gleig, Dr. Nida Chenagtsang, Lama Rod Owens, Dr. Jim Hopper, Dr. Elizabeth Call and Damchö Diana Finnegan

Open Dates

Join Pema Khandro and a group of esteemed Buddhist Studies scholars for an exploration of the history of Buddhist Sexualities from celibacy, to sacred sexuality in Buddhist Tantra and a simple approach to embodied integration with nature in Dzogchen. Support the Buddhist Studies Institute by donating for these precious teachings. Your contribution, big and small, helps makes in-depth Buddhist training and education more accessible for all. May the teachings spread and flourish!

Buddhist Ethics – Self Paced Course

With Pema Khandro

Open Dates

This course on Buddhist Ethics goes through the Five Buddhist Precepts. The five precepts form the basis of a Buddhist way of life and the vows that Buddhists Seek to follow. The Five Precepts are a discipline of freedom, honor, and precision that cover the potent themes of life from the extraordinary perspective of non-duality. Support the Buddhist Studies Institute by donating for these precious teachings. Your contribution, big and small, helps makes in-depth Buddhist training and education more accessible for all. May the teachings spread and flourish!

Women in Tantric Buddhism – Self Paced Course

With Holly Gayley, Judith Simmer-Brown, Sarah Jacoby, Amy Langenberg , Damchö Diana Finnegan, Venerable Karma Lekshe Tsomo and Pema Khandro

Open Dates

This is the missing history of women in Tantric Buddhism. This course addresses the fascinating story of nuns, mothers, teachers, consorts, prophets, and disciples. Taught by scholar-practitioners whose groundbreaking research on women and Buddhism has changed the way we think of Buddhist history. This course will address the history of women in Buddhism, the history of yoginis and dakinis in India and Tibet, the stories of important Buddhist women, Buddhist philosophy on gender, sex, and sexuality, and the role of the consort in historical Tibet, and contemporary manifestations and so much more. Support the Buddhist Studies Institute by donating for…

Breakthrough Retreat (Tekchod)

With Pema Khandro

June 27 - 29, 2025

Breakthrough Retreat Online with Pema Khandro June 27-29. 9am-12 pst, each day. In the protected space of retreat, we will investigate the essence of Breakthrough—learning to allow thoughts and emotions to self-liberate without suppression or engagement, discovering the spaciousness that remains when we release our habitual grasping. This retreat will be led online by Dzogchen teacher and scholar, Pema Khandro. Each day will include study and practice of breakthrough practice, Trekchö (ཁྲེགས་ཆོད་, sometimes transliterated as “tekcho”), from the Heart Essence of the Dakinis

Ngondro Module 3 – Mandala Offering

With Pema Khandro

June 30 - September 7, 2025

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). Pema Khandro offers Ngondro teachings for serious students who wish to do intensive contemplative…

March 28, 2023 by Buddhist Yogis

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Buddhist Studies Institute

Chakrasamvara Empowerment & Teachings

with Drupon Pinpoche and Pema Khandro

April 7-9 2023

9am-12pm San Francisco [PDT]
12-3pm New York [EDT]
5-8pm London {GMT]

Tibetan tantric meditation unravels the root of suffering through addressing the mind’s relationship with self and identity. Through the deity yoga practice (yidam), tantric meditations provide a direct and potent pathway way to go beyond the limiting concept of self to disinhibit the profound wisdom within.

Led by Drupon Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche and Lama Pema Khandro, this exceptional program will feature three mornings of instructions, practice, and meditations led by Lama Pema Khandro, and the empowerment of Chakrasamvara given by Drupon Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche.

We are honored to host the most excellent interpreter, Ina Bieler! The empowerment will be translated into lucid and easy to understand English.

Ngondro Training Module 2

Purifying The Mind

Monday, April 24th – Online with Pema Khandro

5-6:30pm San Francisco [PDT]
8-9:30pm New York [EDT]
10-11:30am Sydney [AEST]

Vajrasattva Meditation – Purification of Karma
Ngondro self-paced classes and live webinars will be led by Lama Pema Khandro, scholar and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. Khandro-la’s teachings emphasize Buddhist philosophy and practice from a trauma-informed, feminist perspective that engages tradition with the great questions of our time. Classes with Pema Khandro will be given by self-paced videos and live meetings once a quarter, with practice sessions led in between by Tsalgyur.

Ngondro in the Dzogchen Tradition
This Ngondro training focuses on the foundational esoteric practices of the Nyingma tradition, of Tibetan Buddhism which emphasizes reliance on intrinsic wisdom, through its highest teaching, Dzogchen. The Heart of the Vast Expanse is a cherished ngondro cycle of the Nyingma lineage. It is also known as the Longchen Nyingthig, (klong chen snying thig). This is a cycle revealed by the brilliant eighteenth century Buddhist yogi, Jigme Lingpa, poet, leader, historian, and treasure revealer, whose texts synthesize Longchenpa’s teachings.

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

Testimonials From Recent Ngondro Grads

“What a precious opportunity it has been to receive the transmissions, dharma teachings and practices of the Longchen Nyingtig Ngondro from Pema Khandro Rinpoche! Having completed Longchen Nyingtig Ngondro even just once has been foundational to my life and my practices.” ~K

“This was such a great experience that it made me think a lot about the possibility of this practice, of the high level of beauty, magic, integrity, and tenderness – all of it’s there. It is a better world. It’s a world that I can go to and that’s really like a refuge. I didn’t know what a difference I would feel when I started this. The shimmering of life is dulled down for all these weird reasons, and this is a great remedy for that.” ~I

All of the ngondro meditations are highly psychological and psycho-physical. They deal with the fundamental issues of a spiritual life, ones identity, body, relationships, past and future.

Pema Khandro on cultivating the boundless love of a bodhisattva for The Lion’s Roar

How to Open Your Heart Further

“When our love is tired or has hit its limits, Buddhism suggests we open our hearts further and tap into a more expansive love”.

This is the advice to cultivate boundless love for all sentient beings when we are parted from those we love is a teaching for us all.

Ngakpa Training Discussion Group

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

For students enrolled in Ngakpa Training, we will have a Ngakpa Training discussion group to talk about key parts of our reading from the Treasury of Words and Meanings.

The Ngakpa Training offers an in-depth study of Vajrayana Buddhism. The five-year curriculum focuses on a study of Vajrayana Buddhist history, philosophy and practice, focusing on the Inner Tantras of the Nyingma Tradition, also known as MahaYoga, AnuYoga, and Dzogchen. These studies alternate with one on one dialogues with the Lama in phone classes, private meetings, and Vajra Sangha retreats.

Pre-requisites

This class is open to students who have completed the following requirements

Foundations of Buddhist Philosophy Series
Buddhist Meditation Series
A period of six months in Vajrayana Training or attending three in-person retreats with Pema Khandro
Application
Interview