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!
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!
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!
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…
Join us for the 21 Taras. The twenty-one taras is a sublime chanting meditation and praise of the forms of the female Bodhisattva Tara, each one a contemplation of all the forms of compassion ranging from gentle to fierce. This event explores the outer, inner and secret meaning of the twenty-one taras. This will be a joyous fundraiser in honor of our beloved Pema Khandro Rinpoche’s birthday. Wednesday, December 4th 6 pm pt | 9 pm et
Choying Dzod Retreat With Pema Khandro and Khenpo Yeshi
August 4-6, 2023 – Online
9am – 12:00pm San Francisco (PDT)
12pm – 3:00pm New York (EDT)
Choying Dzod is the meaning of the innate nature of mind, dharmakaya.
It elucidates naked primordial wisdom without affirming or negating anything.
It is the heart essence of the visions of the Omniscient Lama Longchen Rabjam.
It is the most profound of all profound teachings.
It is the vivid arising of pure dharmakaya as the teaching.
This excellent teaching is a living buddha.
It fulfills the Buddha’s activities in this world.
It manifests the absolute vision of the Buddha.
Even if you were to see the Buddha in person, there would not be [any] greater teaching than this
– Paltrul Rinpoche
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, The Treasury of Basic Space is the quintessential Dzogchen text by the fourteenth century master, Longchenpa.
Join Buddhist Studies Institute for this special program taught online by two esteemed Dzogchen scholars, Khenpo Yeshi, and Dr. Pema Khandro. Experience the power of the coinciding of study and practice.
Strengthen your Compassion for Self, Others & Your World.
Practice Ngondro in a Supportive Community.
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).
Intrinsic Wisdom. This module focuses on the key theme of Vajrayana, which is empowerment, to experience the power of the indestructible buddha nature within oneself. It begins with Vajrayogini meditation and the seven line prayer, a prayer used widely in the Nyingma tradition to supplicate the awakened mind. This is followed by the guru yoga meditation and merging into Buddhahood.
Ngondro are the foundational tantric buddhist meditation practices. They include prayers, rituals, visualizations and meditations for purifying, training and empowering the body and mind.
Paying focused attention to the breath can help beginner and expert meditators by bringing them back to the present moment and reducing the influence of the “monkey mind“.
Join De’dzin Drolma and Namkhai Jigdral on the third Wednesday of the month for this accent practice that involves raising the body temperature to new levels using a combination of visualization, breathwork, and muscle tensing.
Finding Rest & Ease: In the Nature of Mind
Longchenpa’s Guide to Dzogchen with Pema Khandro
September 8-10 Online
8am – 12:30pm San Francisco (PDT)
11am – 3:30pm New York (EDT)
Encounter the profound instructions of the trilogy of comfort and ease, the exposition on the stages of the journey by one of the great Tibetan philosopher, Longchenpa (1308-1364). Experience three days of profound study and meditation in this three-day online retreat with Dr. Pema Khandro.
Lion’s Roar:The Four Points of Letting Go in the Bardo with Pema Khandro
“The bardo teachings are really about recognizing the value of giving up the game, which we play without even giving it a second thought.” Pema Khandro
In this article, Pema Khandro explains four essential points for understanding what it means to let go, and what is born when we do.
“Confusion is the raw material of wisdom.” Pema Khandro