Change of Retreat Leader due to Pema Khandro Illness

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…

Cutting Through Fear: Dzogchen Chod Retreat

With Pema Khandro

May 28 - June 1, 2025

May 28 - June 1 San Diego and Online In a world beset with fear, profound methods are needed to reclaim intrinsic wisdom and awaken innate courage. Join Pema Khandro and the Buddhist Studies institute for a contemplation of fierce compassion through the annual Chod retreat, Troma Nagmo teachings, and an optional five month Comprehensive Chod intensive training to follow. Chod is the profound method of psychological transformation in esoteric Buddhism. Chod means cutting, referring to cutting through the fictions that cause fear, anxiety, and hesitations in one’s life.

Fierce Compassion: Comprehensive Chod Training

With Pema Khandro

June 9 - October 13, 2025

Embark on a transformative five-month journey into the heart of Dzogchen Chod with Tulku Pema Khandro, Ph.D. and the Buddhist Studies Institute. This comprehensive Chod training offers a rare opportunity for an in-depth immersion in the Dzogchen Chod system, Healing Chod, and the Secret Black Dakini Teachings. Take your Chod practice to the next level and cultivate fierce compassion and psychological transformation while studying the Tibetan tradition.

April 6, 2018 by pemacom

Dear Friends,
As you may have heard on social media, Pema Khandro was hospitalized with Pneumonia and will not be able to travel to California this weekend.

Incredibly, Lama Lhanang Rinpoche and Gyaldak Rinpoche will be teaching in her place, so we will still be gathering in Berkeley for these auspicious teachings.

The updated schedule is as follows:

Friday, 6pm
Member Tea Reception
with Lama Lhanang Rinpoche

Friday, 7pm
Transforming Fear – Heart Advice from the Lama
with Lama Lhanang Rinpoche

Saturday, 10am-5pm
Anu Yoga Meditation Retreat: Ancient Tibetan Yoga for Body, Speech and Mind
with Lama Lhanang Rinpoche

Saturday, 6pm
Vajra Sangha Dinner
with Lama Lhanang Rinpoche

Sunday, 9am-1pm
Private Healing Sessions
with Lama Lhanang Rinpoche

Sunday, 6pm
Vajrayogini empowerment and Milarepa Tsok
with Gyaldak Rinpoche

Even as we grieve not seeing Pema Khandro Rinpoche, we look forward to being together in Berkeley this weekend with kind and eminent Rinpoche’s, as well as our wonderful community, and to drinking deep the dharma.

We hope you will join us and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Kindly,
Satya D Shiva
Chief Operations Officer
Ngakpa International – Buddhist Yogis Sangha

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