Buddhist Studies Institute

Meditation Instructor Training 2024

February 19 – August 5

Are you stuck in a cycle of doom scrolling and hopelessness? Though we live in a complex and challenging world, we don’t have to be swept away by every thought or emotion that arises in our mind. There’s another, more wakeful way of being. Let this be the year you take back your awareness and befriend your own mind.

Join our 2024 Meditation Instructor Training and steep yourself in the power of Buddhist meditation, philosophy and ethics. Led by internationally renowned Buddhist scholar and teacher Pema Khandro, this updated course offers self-paced curriculum, live interactive classes, weekly mentoring and a community of fellow instructors engaging in the path in the deep way. Not only will you strengthen your own wakeful mind through these esoteric and potent practices, you’ll also be able to bring that radiant awareness to others through teaching within your personal community and the world at large. Give the gift that keeps on giving and join us today!

The Meditation Instructor Training supplies the fundamental knowledge and experience necessary to lead meditation classes and one-day meditation intensives.

3 Modules

Traditional Meditation

Teaching Practicum

Teaching Ethics

This training is a pre-requisite for the Chaplaincy Certificate offered summer of 2024.

The Freedom of Being: The Choying Dzod Retreat

Online with Khenpo Yeshi & Pema Khandro

February 23 – February 25

9am – 12pm PST | 12pm – 3pm EST | 5pm – 8pm GMT

Beyond effort and achievement is the state of natural ease, the basic space of being. How to breakthrough to find this innate expanse is the focus of a profound Buddhist meditation manual known as The Treasury of Basic Space, The Choying Dzod (chos dbyings rin po che’i mdzod). It presents the essence of esoteric Tibetan Buddhism, known as Great Perfection, or Dzogchen (rdzogs chen) in verse form. Venerated as a manifestation of the expanse of reality itself,  is the quintessential Dzogchen text by the fourteenth century master, Longchenpa.  It refers to the expanse of reality and pure experience of meaningfulness as the revelation of the ground of being.

The Treasury of Basic Space is a manual for meditation and liberation, as well as being a text that one reads to a dying person to introduce them to the nature of mind at death. Read during dying, it offers the crucial support at the most important time, by guiding the dying person to realize the nature of mind. Indeed, The Treasury of Basic Space has been read at the time of death of many great Dzogchen masters.

The Treasury of Basic Space details the elements of breakthrough meditation (trek cho), instructions which cut through misunderstandings of emptiness and point to the vivid wakefulness of sublime knowing.

Join Buddhist Studies Institute for this special program taught online by Khenpo Yeshi, Dzogchen Nyingthig scholar and Drikung Kagyu teacher and Dr. Pema Khandro, Dzogchen scholar, lama and lineage holder of the Nyingma tradition. The three days of online classes will include the lung, the oral initiation into this profound text by Khenpo Yeshi, study, and practice led by Khenpo Yeshi and Dr. Pema Khandro.

Touching Earth: Buddhism & the Environment
with Pema Khandro & esteemed guests

Online – April 5-7, 2024
9am – 12pm PST | 12pm – 3pm EST | 5pm – 8pm GMT

Re-imagine the world and a human being’s place in it through the perspective of twenty-five hundred years of Buddhism. Join Pema Khandro and esteemed scholars: Lama Willa, PhD; Debbie Kasper, PhD; & Devin Zuckerman, PhD candidate; to reconsider earth, the elements, nature and environment within a sense of interdependence, impermanence and an ethic of profound care.

Be Kind to Yourself
by Pema Khandro for Lion’s Roar

“When people talk about daily practice, they usually mean doing silent meditation, a ritual, or mantra recitation. These are important parts of our daily practice, but there is another crucial dimension: it is being kind to our own body-mind. This is a method for connecting with our buddhanature during our daily activities.” says Pema Khandro.

Are you interested in helping us spread the dharma?

The Buddhist Studies Institute is actively seeking a Manager to be available for 5-10 hours a week. This is a volunteer position.

Manager Responsibilities Include:

• Create clear project plans and goals.

• Establish a work plan at each stage of the project, and allocate resources accordingly.

• Create and manage project budgets.

• Review project plan to determine time frames

• Remind team members of deadlines and keep team members on deadlines

• Identify and remove any obstacles that might hinder the team’s ability to meet deadlines.

• Effectively communicate project-relevant details throughout the organization.

• Facilitate project-related team meetings.

• Share project reports with governance committee

• Collaborate on the Organization’s plans and priority

• Design and launch evaluation surveys among team and community members.

• Be the main point of contact for projects.

For more information, please email volunteer@buddhiststudiesinstitute.org or simply click the box below.

2024 Schedule of Events

ONGOING MONTHLY TRAINING

Daily Meditation Online
Vajrayana Training – 1st & 2nd Wednesday of each month
Ngakpa Training – 3rd Wednesday of each month

FEBRUARY

Meditation Instructor Training – February 19 – August 9
Choying Dzod: The Freedom of Being – February 23- 25

APRIL

Touching Earth: Buddhism and the Environment – April 5- April 7

MAY

Vajrayogini Retreat – May 31 – June 2

*All Times are noted in Pacific Time (PT) – Check your Timezone