Happy Saga Dawa!

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…

Pema Khandro Birthday Celebration & Fundraiser

With Pema Khandro

November 19, 2025

Your presence, prayers, and generosity sustain the living stream of this wisdom tradition through the Buddhist Studies Institute, allowing authentic Dharma to reach countless beings. You are cordially invited to spend this special evening with Pema Khandro and the worldwide BSI community. Each year, Pema Khandro’s birthday celebration is a heartfelt gathering of our worldwide community, and a joyful evening of dharma, music, stories, and connection. Khandro-la’s annual birthday wish is that offerings go directly to the Buddhist Studies Institute’s Core Support Fund

Meditation Teacher Training 2026

With Pema Khandro, Dr. Satya and Aruna Rig'dzin

January 26 - June 27, 2026

Equanimity, calm, peace, inner strength, resilience, centeredness… there are so many reasons the world needs meditation teachers. Meditation Teachers can offer important tools for relating to these tumultuous times. Meditation promotes mindfulness and equanimity – the ability to let emotional states arise and pass without becoming overwhelming. With mindfulness, we are able to become aware of our mind-states, rather than carried away by them. It promotes the state of equanimity, the ability to respond skillfully to situations. Instead of responding with knee-jerk reactions, blame, resentment and anger we can choose healthier responses, such as loving-kindness and compassion. "The new…

Buddha Nature: Longchenpa’s Treasury of Words and Meaning

With Pema Khandro and Dr David Germano

February 6 - 8, 2026

Join us for a transformative weekend with scholars-and-practitioners of the highest calibre. In this immersive course, we dive into the luminous heart of the Dzogchen tradition through the lens of the great fourteenth-century master Longchenpa. His seminal work, the Tshig-dön mDzöd (The “Treasury of Words and Meaning”), offers a profound mapping of the mind’s nature, the ground of reality, and the path of awakening. Guided by David F. Germano — distinguished Tibetologist whose scholarship illuminates Longchenpa’s philosophical architecture. And by Tulku Pema Khandro, Ph.D.— a recognized lineage holder in the Nyingma-Kagyu streams, bridging deep contemplative practice with academic clarity. Together, they will…

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June 14, 2022 by Buddhist Yogis

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Buddha’s Anniversary Celebration this Tuesday!

Join Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche

& Pema Khandro

Saga Dawa is the most auspicious day of the Tibetan Buddhist Calendar and a day celebrated by Buddhists all around the world. It is the anniversary of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and the day he passed away into parinirvana. The effects of actions on this day are said to be multiplied by ten million times because of the spiritual power of this full moon on the fourth month.

Join us for a celebration of prayers and aspirations on this auspicious occasion.

For Saga Dawa, Khenpo Gawang will teach the Sadhana of Sakyamuni Buddha and give the initiation for the practice and for the mantra. This will be a reading transmission, or rlung.

Join Khenpo Gawang, Pema Khandro, friends and members for this joyous celebration of the Buddha’s Anniversary.

Learn More

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Upcoming Discussion

A dialogue between two Buddhist teachers and scholars, making sense of Buddhism, lineage, transmission and devotion in light of abuse revelations in the #metoo movement. This conversation focuses on how these issues have shaped our approaches to dharma practice and teaching. This is not proscriptive advice, but instead a conversation and reflection on how our practice and teaching approaches have changed and will continue to change with great concern for all survivors and for the future of women in Buddhism.

Learn More or Register

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Our Mid-July Retreat

tromaretreat

With Pema Khandro

Friday, July 15th – Sunday, July 17th 2022
9am – 12pm PST | 12pm – 3pm EST

Compassion has many forms, it can be gentle and warm, but it can also be decisive and fierce. In Vajrayana, the fierce compassion is that which is self-less, beyond the duality of self/other, in the state of great clarity and care for every single being and the entire situation.

The retreat focuses on the fierce compassion meditation of Troma Nagmo, the black wrathful lady, supreme dakini who escorts beings to the state beyond fear and fierce form of Vajrayogini, The teachings and practices will focus on the Troma cycle in the Rinchen Trengwa Three Dakini Chod and Troma Nagmo deity yoga. This retreat is taught by Lama Pema Khandro in an online format to support retreat practice at home.

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Pema Khandro in Lion’s Roar

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Breaking Open in the Bardo

By Pema Khandro Rinpoche | January 2, 2022

“There are times like these in our lives—such as facing death or even giving birth—when we are no longer able to manage our outer image, no longer able to suspend ourselves in pursuit of the ideal self. It’s just how it is—we’re only human beings, and in these times of crisis we just don’t have the energy to hold it all together. When things fall apart, we can only be as we are. Pretense and striving fall away, and life becomes starkly simple.”

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