With tender hearts, we share the passing of our beloved Barr Rosenberg, one of Tarthang Rinpoche’s oldest students and most generous supporters. After a fall, hospitalization, and a brief illness, Barr passed peacefully at his home in Odiyan on February 2, 2025, at 10:14 AM. 

Barr’s extraordinary life encompassed the heights of academic and professional achievement with the depths of spiritual altruism. A legendary economics professor and a pioneering innovator in quantitative financial analysis, he brought the same penetrating intellect to his study of the Dharma. His rare ability to dwell patiently in the realm of formless abstract concepts allowed him to bridge the worlds of analytical thinking and spiritual understanding in profound ways. 

For close to twenty years, he served as co-dean of the Nyingma Institute alongside Sylvia Gretchen, touching many lives through his teachings. Together, Barr and his late wife, June Rosenberg (who passed in 2022), lived a life of devoted practice and service. 

Barr embodied the highest altruistic mind, with a boundless sense of care for his community, family, and friends. We rejoice in a life dedicated to the Buddhadharma, animated by his gentle vision of the interconnectedness of all beings. His mastery of worldly knowledge, skillfully channeled toward the highest spiritual endeavors, had a historic impact in the preservation of Tibetan culture and the Dharma at a most critical time. 

Whatever knowledge, insight, or inspiration you received from Barr, we encourage you to offer prayers, dedicating it to his auspicious transition. 

Inspired by Barr’s example, may we aspire to live with kindness, goodwill, and generosity beyond measure. May all beings abide in the light of perfect compassion and transcendent wisdom. 

Stories of Life and Death

November 2, 2022 

by Laurie Hopman 

We teach our children ‘the facts of life’—when do we learn ‘the facts of death?’

Over the course of my life, death became a companion to life. Like most people I had experiences of illness in myself or in family members. 

As a physician, I became party to those intense times in many, many people’s lives. I worked hard to fend off sickness and death. This life [and my vocation as a doctor] is my dharma practice, and I have had the best job in the world, filled with joy and opportunity. The ‘facts of death’ became familiar with repetition.

I discussed with my patients their wishes for end of life care, and I recall smiling inside when a man told me he didn’t need anything in particular because he had decided that he was going to die in his sleep. I have seen people die in agony, I have seen people die unaware, I have seen people die peacefully and surrounded by love.

I thought about all those stories, and what I know from over 30 years of experience working as a physician, but the story that feels most mine to tell is my own. Though I saw impermanence so frequently, I still grew comfortable in my expectations, so accustomed to my own chronic illness and to all the suffering I saw every day that I relegated my [own] death to ‘later.’ 

Then suddenly, it was me who was dying right now. It was 2017. I was attending a retreat at the Nyingma Institute, as I had done once or twice a year since the 1990s. Suddenly I was ill, and in less than a day, with no warning came overwhelming abdominal pain, vomiting and blood. In the middle of the night I had an ambulance ride to the hospital, and my doctor-brain knew exactly what was happening to me as an ulcer ruptured and blood and digestive juices poured into my abdominal cavity. No drugs relieved the pain. With my condition deteriorating rapidly, I knew I might or might not survive.

At that moment I received the most precious gift I can imagine. I had a precious dharma friend, who took my wallet, clothes and phone, and held me and chanted quietly with me amidst all the beeps and noises of the ER. She helped me move my mind that was crazed with pain and chant the Vajra Guru mantra, and hold my concentration there when there was nothing else left that I could do. She was prepared, and she gave me support. In ways I hadn’t always clearly planned, I had prepared and practiced. I couldn’t have been in a better place to experience this crisis. 

By sharing what I know, using my medical knowledge and practicing compassion, as well as my personal experiences, I hope to ease suffering, reduce pain and fear, help people live longer and more satisfying lives, open up space for joy and love. Planning for death and knowing what to expect helps alleviates fear and gives us support. And it is only part of the story, for practice — learning how to relax deeply, how to work with mind, emotions, body, and senses — builds the habits of mind we can rely on. I treasure teachings from the Buddhist tradition to prepare for the time of death because I know the value of that support, and how much I need it. 

After all, ’the facts of death’ are as much part of living as ‘the facts of life,’ and they can help us see what is truly precious about each moment, as well as to face ourselves with less fear, more peace, and a deep abiding gratitude and love for the universe and opportunities we have before us. 

August 13, 2021

Starting in September 2021, Nyingma Institute Berkeley will offer a 9-Month Knowledge of Freedom international program. The teaching team includes Elske van de Dulst, dean of our sister center in Amsterdam. 

How did you first encounter the Knowledge of Freedom program? 

Elske:  The program was launched as part of an international Nyingma Centers teacher training in 2004 and has in fact since then been taught successfully in Europe and Brasil -in German, Dutch and Portugese. 

That teacher training was being held at the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, with Sylvia Gretchen, who was leading the program. I happened to arrive and receive permission to join this part of the program though I was just a beginning student.

I later took the program as a student at least another three times in Amsterdam. It’s very good to do the program several times—the first time through you begin to open up many topics, while there is much more to delve into. That’s good because this study banishes the illusion that one masters the material. The program can be repeated and done at increasingly deeper levels, kind of like a Kum Nye exercise.

After following the Knowledge of Freedom three times and studying many other programs as well, I began to co-teach with Joleen in Amsterdam. 

What do you most enjoy or appreciate about the program? 

I think what is very special is that it’s completely and entirely open and honest, relentlessly inviting you to further inquiry, without any dogma. It’s both challenging and very open. 
It’s beautiful to see how in this program people study their own motives, longings, and habit patterns in a very friendly but also truthful way which gradually starts opening up inner freedom. I also love how it unites people. We’re going into our own experience with these strong teachings as a tool. In doing so, we also discover how much we have in common, maybe much more so than what divides us. There’s a strong collective quality, a togetherness, even though we only work very individually on ourselves. 

Another beautiful thing is that everything that people think is so personal can open up. Every ego thinks they are the only one, there’s I, me, mine and then there’s all the others. The paradox is that we all do that very same thing! The program is great for working through one’s personal memories and experiences but there’s also a point in which through hearing each others’ experiences you suddenly realize maybe it’s not as personal as I usually assume. At that point you become less obsessed with you personal identity and self image, a genuine interest arises in mind’s workings in a less personal way. This opening gives you more freedom, as the title of the program promises. 

How would you describe its relationship to more traditional Buddhist approaches? 

I am told that Rinpoche wrote KOF after working with and teaching western students [Americans, Europeans and South Americans] for some years. For this program, he explicitly suggests the instructors not use Buddhist terminology of phenomena, as he says that the basis for Dharma practice should simply be an honest and fundamental study of the workings of mind. 

These days, where buddhist teachings are more abundantly available, you sometimes see people using buddhist terminology more like a self adornment. This KOF approach will not let you get away with that.  And it also brings in those students who are not into any -isms but are still interested in getting to know their own minds.

Why do you think it’s valuable? What need does it fill? 

More and more people have some kind of meditation, yoga, Kum Nye, or mindfulness practice. All of us start with high expectations and then we continue in this vein for a few years, but at a certain point if your initial dream doesn’t manifest it’s rare that you then come into the right situation to go deeper. For people like this, who are ready for further inquiry , this program can open up a lot. This is also the reason we now want to offer it on a broader scale, on an international level. I have the feeling that there are many people engaged in searching who might benefit from this program. 

What is the value of taking the program, as opposed to reading the book on your own? 

Direct experience rather than an idea, a concept. It’s very different. The book is not so easy to read for most people, and it’s even harder to read and also effectively go into your own experience at the same time. The program is skillfully designed and structured. It does not follow the book chronologically, and incorporates some of Rinpoche’s other teachings in order to make a process of deeper inquiry possible. 

People who have followed the program usually keep the book in an honored place in their bookshelf, like an old friend. It almost becomes like a person. 

What advice do you have for anyone considering getting involved? 

Check if you are ready.

Do you have enough previous background in meditation to really dive into different areas in meditation and in self-observation? To notice your defenses? If that’s the case, then register soon because spots are limited and it may be full very soon. 

An official statement has also been released by President Biden:

“Jill and I extend our warmest wishes to Buddhists in the United States and around the world as they celebrate Vesak, a day honoring the birth, enlightenment, and passing of the Buddha. The ceremonial lighting of a lamp, the symbol of this holiday that has been celebrated for over 2,500 years, reminds us of Buddhism’s teachings of compassion, humility, and selflessness that endure today. On this day, we also commemorate the many contributions of Buddhists in America who enrich our communities and our country as we all work together toward brighter days ahead.” — President Joe Biden