Purifying the Mind

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…

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.

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

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Buddhist Studies Institute

Entering the Heart of the Vast Expanse

Ngondro Training Module 2: Purifying the Mind

Starts Monday, April 24 – Online

5-6:30pm San Francisco (PDT)

8-9:30pm New York (EDT)

10-11:30am Sydney (AEST)

Join an international community on a profound journey into the heart of Vajrasattva meditation.

Vajrasattva is a transformative process of inner change and interpersonal healing. This meditation is used for clearing unprocessed experiences and past misdeeds and making amends for wrong doing.

Ngondro are the foundational tantric buddhist meditation practices. They include prayers, rituals, visualizations and meditations for purifying, training and empowering the body and mind.

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

“Being able to persevere and go beyond so many limitations in both body and mind, and through that glimpsing some profound potentials of the path. This entire year has been my refuge, the practice will continue to reverberate even once I complete the recitations, and I think that it’s given me an orientation for my life going forward.” ~C

“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

“I got a lot more kindness for myself, which I was in need of. I built a digital Sangha. The words that I’m saying at the beginning [refuge], were just words, and now feel true, it’s such a warm, lovely feeling, and it makes me excited to keep learning and exploring my practice.” ~G

“Deep and rich, in so many dimensions – to be practicing either literally or just in daily experience, it’s very meaningful and significant, and I felt a lot of growth through that.“ ~R

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.

Dzogchen Chod Retreat with Pema Khandro

At Dakini Mountain Retreat, Nevada City, CA

June 1st – 4th, 2023

Chod is a Tibetan meditation which is a potent, dynamic practice for cutting through fear and facing death. It is a practice of healing through ultimate compassion.

Mornings will focus on the Dzogchen Chod, known as Khandro Geykyang, the Laugher of the Dakinis, the concise version. Pema Khandro will give the transmission, lead the practice sessions and lead workshops on cutting through fear through the secret chod practice.

Midday sessions will focus on Troma practice, the profound deity yoga meditation on the black wrathful dakini from the Jeweled Garland of Chod, (the Rinchen Trengwa).

Evening sessions will focus on the Secret Chod – a path of profound psychological and embodied transformation. It is a direct path to healing through fear done in solitary practice and small community workshops.

Learn More