TSK103 Inviting Knowledge

The presence of knowledge within our lives brings into experience light and clarity, nuance and confidence. Embodying knowledge, we are free to be creative and responsive. To realize this embodiment, we must first invite knowledge into our being. The activation of this step is the guiding intention of this course. The course entails practice, readings, and deep and honest inquiry.

SKM214 Working Well with Knowledge

To be active in our modern cultures, we need to work well with knowledge. This practice-oriented course helps us to contact the roots of our knowledge, explore the thought process experientially, and improve our thinking by involving our senses. We learn how to think productively and creatively and learn readily through experience. With the aid of innovative interpersonal exercises, we discover forms of meditative concentration that fully engage our mental resources and allow knowledge to illuminate all we do.

Readings drawn from unpublished materials by Barr Rosenberg.

KNR203 Stimulating Inner Energy

As we move and experience, even as we breathe, the energies within and around us continuously interact… When these energies are flowing smoothly, we have access to an abundance of energy, the body becomes healthy, the mind clear, and the senses vital as every aspect of our being regenerates. Tarthang Tulku, Tibetan Relaxation.

Tibetan Yoga practices in this class stimulate the free flow of inner energy, increasing health and vitality. Our embodiment grows toward the harmonious fulfillment of physical, emotional, and spiritual goals. Our body is revealed as a treasure house of experience that is already ours.

Based on Tarthang Tulku’s Tibetan Relaxation.

KNR108 Working with Energy Centers

This class explores how we can enhance our well-being by activating the flow of energy in the four main energy centers of the body. We can learn to contact and enliven what is dormant within us and calm what tends to be overactive. Our bodies can become more healthy, and our minds more clear.

MED303 Advanced Meditation: The Thirty-Seven Practices of the Bodhisattvas

This class will draw upon the lojong, mind training, practices presented in the text Thirty Seven Practices of the Bodhisattvas by the 14th century Tibetan master, Gyalse Tokme Zangpo. This widely beloved text offers precious instructions on how to quell disturbing emotions and achieve abiding happiness through cherishing and working for the welfare of all living beings. Contemplating and practicing these instructions, we undertake a complete re-orientation of mind that embraces adversity as the catalyst for unfolding its full potential.

Those attending this course will benefit from also attending the Advanced Kum Nye course. 

MED203 Intermediate Meditation: Meditations to Open the Heart

“Imagine that we could offer our hearts safety, well-being, and security. Imagine that we found ways to restore our heart to its place at the center of the inner mandala, allowing it to circulate healing energies through our whole being.” Tarthang Tulku, Love of Beauty.

Genuine satisfaction, love, and beauty are found within the heart. Silent and guided meditations open the heart to feeling. Students develop new integrity and balance.

DHS212 Thus Have I Heard: Reading of the Prajnaparamita Sutra

The Prajnaparamita, or Perfection of Wisdom, Sutras propound the perplexing view of Mahayana Buddhism – shunyata, or emptiness. In this practice-oriented class, you will find no ready answers or complex explanations, but rather a conducive space to cultivate a deeper connection to what is sometimes termed the Mother of the Buddhas. We will engage the texts themselves by reciting the Heart Sutra aloud, employ meditative practices that cultivate receptivity and openness to this transcendent, non-conceptual wisdom, and come into contact with chapters of the 8,000 Line Prajnaparamita.

DHS113 Guide to Chanting Tibetan Prayers

This class presents a special opportunity for individuals to learn chanting of traditional prayers without prior knowledge of the Tibetan language. Practice materials will be provided showing the Tibetan text, phonetic pronunciation, and English translation. In addition to providing background teachings, Lama Palzang will methodically guide students in the correct pronunciation, melody, and rhythm of selected traditional Buddhist prayers, including Lama Mipham’s profound and beautiful Practice of Shakyamuni and the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra.

DHS201 An Awakened Vision of Being

Dynamic and alive, the lineage of the Buddha’s teachings has the power to liberate us from suffering and pain. The Nyingma Institute is pleased to offer a two year intensive program inspired by Tarthang Tulku that explores how the path of liberation is activated and applied.

We begin by focusing on embodiment: how ordinary human being can be transformed into awakened being. We then sequentially explore teachings of awakened speech, mind, qualities, and action, with each quarter deepening the understanding of the path and its practices.

Join us for the first class of this year’s Path of Liberation Program. This course is a journey into the Buddha’s vision of what embodiment means. Students will explore the teachings of the Buddhist Abhidharma, be introduced to the life story of the Buddha and the symbolism of the form of the Buddha, and learn to recognize the stages on the Buddhist path.

Students are encouraged to attend these associated workshops: DHS408 Wheel of Life, May 5–6 and NPR408 Honoring the Buddha, May 27