Overview of Certificate Programs
Certificate Programs at the Nyingma Institute
The Nyingma Institute offers a series of programs that lead to certificates of completion. Certificate programs provide a cohesive series of classes, workshops, and retreats that enhance cognitive and experiential learning. Although students may still attend individual classes, workshops and retreats as auditors, we recommend a certificate program in order to gain the greatest benefit from study at the Nyingma Institute.
Nyingma Institute operates in the State of California pursuant to provisions of the California Private Postsecondary Education Act (CPPEA) of 2009, which became effective on January 1, 2010. However, Nyingma Institute’s Approval to Operate has not yet been reviewed by the Bureau for Postsecondary Education. The Bureau can be reached at: P.O. Box 980818, Sacramento, CA 95798-0818; (916) 574-7774.
Both the Nyingma Meditation and the Kum Nye Programs have at their heart a series of beginning classes that present fundamental movement and sitting practices to calm body, breath, and mind. These practices form the basis for life-long learning and inner growth. The Nyingma Psychology Program introduces cognitive and experiential practices to recognize negative emotional patterns and cut them at their root. Each of these three programs is designed as a one-year course of study, but students may take up to two years to complete them.
The Two-Year Nyingma Studies Program provides students who already have a background in Nyingma teachings with a path to deepen their training, and the Four-Month Human Development Training Retreat provides an intensive, reliable method to greater self-knowledge and spiritual transformation. Our two ongoing Dharma studies programs—the Path of Liberation and Path and Practices of Liberation—are a gateway to the teachings of the Buddha. In these programs, we study the great vision of the Buddha, and learn to practice introspective techniques designed definitively to lead us out of the state of confusion and suffering that is the hallmark of our fragmented, modern world.
The Programs
Nyingma Psychology Program
Begins any quarter
The Nyingma Psychology Program focuses on how to use analysis and meditation to precisely determine mental and emotional states. With this knowledge, students learn to apply antidotes that transform negative states and discover how to act in ways that are genuinely positive. At the heart of the Nyingma Psychology Program is the Healing Mind class (NPS101). The program includes an additional four classes, five workshops, and one week-long retreat for the total cost of $1500.
Beginning Nyingma Meditation Program
Begins any quarter
Nyingma Meditation traces its origin to the time of the Buddha, 2,500 years ago. This ancient practice promotes inner calm and clarity, balancing emotions and opening the meditator to new dimensions of conscious experience. The Beginning Nyingma Meditation Program introduces students to the fundamentals of Nyingma Meditation practice and provides the support for students to develop an on-going, daily practice of their own. Components of the program include six classes, four workshops, and one week-long retreat for $1,500. Students may join the Beginning Nyingma Meditation Program in any quarter.
Kum Nye (Tibetan Yoga) Program
Begins any quarter
Kum Nye (Tibetan Yoga) is a natural healing system based on Tibetan medicine and the mind-body disciplines of Buddhism. In the Kum Nye Program students will learn Kum Nye’s basic movement, massage, and breathing practices, which were designed by Tibetan Lama Tarthang Tulku to promote physical and emotional health. Components of the program include six classes, four workshops, and one week-long retreat for $1,500. Students may join the Kum Nye Program in any quarter. The program is designed to be completed in one year of study, but students may take up to two years to complete their coursework.
Two-Year Nyingma Studies Program
Begins any quarter
This program is designed to allow students to sample teachings from all areas of Nyingma studies, coming to a more comprehensive and deeper knowledge of the Nyingma tradition. Working with an advisor, students select courses from the following areas of study, with a focus on intermediate and advanced offerings: Nyingma Meditation, Kum Nye (Tibetan Yoga), Nyingma Psychology, Time, Space, and Knowledge, Skillful Means, Nyingma Practices, Tibetan Language, and Dharma Studies.
Students in the Two-Year Nyingma Studies Program have the option to concentrate on a single area, such as Nyingma Meditation, or they may choose to study in several different areas. They may take up to four years to complete their course of study. Students choose twelve classes, eight workshops, and two week-long retreats from an extensive listing of Nyingma Institute offerings. The cost of this program is $2,750 and students may join in any quarter.
Four-Month Human Development Training Retreat
Begins August 30, 2010 and August 29, 2011
This retreat provides students with an intense four-month period of study and practice of Nyingma teachings. The retreat curriculum is a program in human development, working both cognitively and experientially with mind, body, and spiritual awareness. Students develop insight into the nature of consciousness, emotion, thought, embodiment, and feeling. Exercises release the hold of negative habitual patterning within body and mind, allowing previously untapped human qualities to emerge. Retreatants attend day and evening classes and weekend workshops for a total of 622 hours. Retreat dates for 2010 are August 30-December 16; retreat dates for 2011 are August 29-December 15. The cost is $5,200 (nonresidential) and $7,600 (residential). Both residential and nonresidential costs include meals.
Why Choose a Certificate Program?
- You will receive a thorough grounding in the subjects studied with a clear path of experiential practice and cognitive study.
- You will be advised by skilled faculty and staff so that you make the most of your training.
- The cost of the programs is less than the cost of attending the equivalent number of individual classes or workshops.
Programs offered through the Nyingma Institute are not vocational in nature and are not represented to lead to employment.
The transferability of credits you earn at the Nyingma Institute is at the complete discretion of an institution to which you may seek to transfer. Acceptance of the certificate you earn in your program is also at the complete discretion of the institution to which you may seek to transfer. If the credits or certificates that you earn at Nyingma Institute are not accepted at the institution to which you seek to transfer, you may be required to repeat some or all of your coursework at that institution. For this reason, you should make certain that your attendance at the Nyingma Institute will meet your educational goals. This may include contacting an institution to which you may see to transfer after attending the Nyingma Institute to determine if your credits or certificate will transfer.
Nyingma Institute has not entered into any articulation or transfer agreement with any other postsecondary school.
Certificates awarded in Nyingma Institute Programs are not teaching credentials. Earning a certificate in a Nyingma Institute Program will not, by itself, qualify you to teach at the Nyingma Institute, or anywhere else.
For complete information regarding our Certificate Programs, including financial information and school policies, see our 2010 School Catalog.