Practicing Together with NyingmaNet

April 8, 2020

Dear Friends of Nyingma,

In these uncertain times, it seems especially important to practice together, find new ways to keep in touch with each other near and far, and deepen our understanding.

The undersigned, all long-time students of Tarthang Tulku, invite you to join NyingmaNet, a free new program to be offered online starting Friday, April 17.

NyingmaNet meetings will take place online every Friday from 8:00-8:45 AM California (PST) time on Zoom. Teachers and members throughout the international Nyingma community will contribute to NyingmaNet. There will always be some form of meditation or Kum Nye or other practice to support our inner balance. There will also be interviews, project updates and special practices drawn from other aspects of Rinpoche’s teachings.

To join NyingmaNet please send an email to . We will do our best to send you program information ahead of time. New friends are welcome, so feel free to invite others who may be interested.

The first session of NyingmaNet will take place on Friday, April 17, from 8:00-8:45 am, California time (12:00-12:45 in Brazil and Argentina and 5:00-5:45 pm in Europe. There will be 6 sessions through Friday, May 29. In mid-May we will decide if we continue the series.

At the first meeting of NyingmaNet, in addition to a practice for calm and stability, we will have some updates on how the community is responding to the pandemic and Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek from the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley will lead us through some powerful mantras and prayers.

As this is an experiment for all of us, we hope you will share your feedback, suggestions for program items, and tips by sending them to .

We look forward to meeting with you Fridays, starting April 17.

Elske van de Hulst
Abbe Blum
Jack Petranker

Garden of the Sacred: The Padmakara Meditation Garden

By C.M. Kushins — journalist and author

March 1, 2020

“Without any commentary or explanation, we can walk through a garden and feel the fullness of the experience … Sustained, nourished, and supported by beauty, the heart begins to open, like the petals of a flower unfolding.  The flower of the heart is the center of the mandala.  When the heart opens, we begin to realize the unity of existence and our communion with nature.”

—Rinpoche Tarthang Tulku

Nowhere are the words of Rinpoche Tarthang best echoed than within one of the Nyingma Institute’s most important and ambitious projects, the Padmakara Meditation Garden. 

Since 1973, the meditation garden has been a beautiful, intimate place for students, retreatants, and visitors to practice and reflect in a space of tranquility and refuge. Now, almost 45 years later, the garden is in need of renovation in order to continue serving our community, friends, and visitors.

Thanks to the efforts of a world-class landscape designer, the mindful labor of the Nyingma Institute’s dedicated volunteers and staff, and the generosity of our donors, the garden’s progress is now on an incredible track into restoring the beauty and luster it has long represented within Tarthang Rinpoche’s vision for a sacred space for Nyingma residents and visitors alike.

“This is definitely the largest-scale project that I’ve worked on for the Institute,” says Yuji, a volunteer and resident who has been a core crew member of the Nyingma Institute’s many sacred art and sacred space projects.  “I’ve worked on maybe a dozen projects here, but this is the biggest in scope and one of the largest for the whole Bay Area community.”

The garden itself has long been considered the crown jewel of the Nyingma Institute, and its initial construction dates to the spiritual facility’s 1973 founding.  Envisioned as an intimate place for students—both devout Buddhists and secular alike—retreatants, and visitors alike to practice and reflect in an area of tranquility and refuge, the intricate design of the garden not only contains material embodiments of all eight auspicious symbols of Tibetan Buddhism, but was uniquely framed to exemplify the Tibetan concept of “the value of sacred space.”

Demolition began in the fall of 2018, with the needed machinery and crew line-up ready to begin the true groundbreaking by May of the following year.  Working alongside officials from the Bay Area—along with inclement weather and the always-needed fundraising for such spiritual endeavors—all added to the ongoing process to get to the garden’s current progress.  Just last month, the concrete was finally poured for what will shape the garden’s gorgeous overall layout, framing the interiors of the intricate design features with a large pond—which, in and of itself—proved mandatory to the beautiful water addition: the reservoir’s concrete also acts as a form of foundation for the garden’s many beautiful elements, including a hillside path for walking meditation, waterfalls, bamboo groves, and a stone courtyard with a lotus medallion design in the center.

“I think that the scale of the project is what drew us in as volunteers,” said Kris, another resident and team member. “We’ve been part of the bigger projects that are part of the community’s mandala, and this seemed like a great crew to work with as one of the largest community efforts in the Institute’s history.” He and Katie have both been involved in numerous large-scale projects at Odiyan Retreat Center, where they gained construction experience and honed their skills.

Of the Padmakara Garden’s successful progress, Katie added, “It’s always funny when you work on an ongoing project like this … There are so many intricate elements that have to go in place, that you don’t always realize how much progress you’re actually making!  Since the weather has warmed up over the last few weeks, we’ve made so much headway, the real beauty of the garden is started to take shape.” 

All are invited to be part of the creation of Padmakara Garden — a precious jewel of a cultural heritage garden, with Tibetan sacred art and architecture set in a lush Himalayan themed garden, balanced by modern architectural accents. As the final element of the Tibetan sacred symbolism, the completed garden will act as the crown “jewel” of the Institute, serving as a living representation of Tibetan cultural heritage for visitors and residents of the Bay Area to enjoy and find inner peace. 

Learn More: nyingmainstitute.com/garden

December 2019

Dear Friends,

As a new year approaches, it’s worth contemplating what you would like to cultivate and invite into your life. Here at the Nyingma Institute, we take to heart our responsibility to hold open a space for inquiry, discovery, and transformation, so that we can empower individuals with life-long tools for accessing their own inner wisdom. We see ourselves as part of a greater movement supporting meaningful living, universal wisdom, and visionary goodness in a time when the planet’s very survival depends on such values.

Many of the fields of study we offer are powerful and unique in that they essentially address how to balance and transform mind without relying on Buddhist terminology, dogma, or ritual. In addition to supporting well-being and balance, we also hold open a doorway to an authentic and ancient lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in the Nyingma tradition for those seeking the richness, depth, and beauty of a traditional Dharma path. All these transformative teachings reach us through our founder, Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, to whom we are tremendously grateful.

Awakened beings have described our experience of suffering to be like a bubble or weather pattern that forms when we operate from a view of the absolute centrality of the self. How can we investigate the dark unknowing that swirls in the center? We are very fortunate, here at the Institute, to be able to draw upon an array of incisive, accessible methods that allow us to question, touch, and release the deepest knots of mind, taking us right into the mystery of our being. As practitioners we come to understand that we must continually seek out the edge of the known, where there is an incredible play of light that moves between confusion and knowing. It’s deeply rewarding to see how individuals encounter these teachings and engage their own direct experience, shining light on fractured areas and discovering that these are the very places where wholeness and freedom can manifest.

We warmly invite you to join us at the Nyingma Institute for a class, workshop, or retreat this year, so that you may delve into your own being through Tibetan Yoga, Buddhist studies, contemplation, and meditation.

Pema Gellek and Lama Palzang
Deans, Nyingma Institute

P.S. How you can help:
• Have an old but reliable van or car you’d like to donate? We are seeking a vehicle.
• Full-time and part-time volunteer positions are open. Experience in bookkeeping, IT, promotions, or construction is particularly helpful.
• We have a major renovation and construction project to create a sacred contemplative garden that will continue through 2020. Donations are tax-deductible, as we are a volunteer-run, 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Thank you so much for your support!

This program is an excellent entry point to the vastness of this body of knowledge that is our lineage, a living path, and a shared human inheritance that becomes all the more precious the more we appreciate its origins, sources, and context.

Two Year Buddhist Studies Program 

The Path of Liberation Program is a training in Buddhist study and practice that introduces students to the basic cognitive and experiential teachings of the Buddha. Texts will be drawn primarily from the Mahayana tradition.

Upon completion of the Path of Liberation Program, students will have a basic understanding of fundamental Buddhist teachings, such as the Four Noble Truths, the Eight-fold Noble Path, Karma and Klesha, Interdependent Co-operation, and the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. They will be familiar with Buddhist history and important works of literature.

Deepen your understanding of the living spirit of Buddhist teaching and practice.

Program components: 10 classes, 15 workshops, 1 retreat.

Why enroll in the Path of Liberation program?

Complete a two year course of study that is about the living spirit of Buddhism, an “insider’s” approach to practice, history, and its traditions. 

This is more than being exposed to inspiring ideas, it’s about your inner journey, integration, and embodiment.

Please contact us to talk to an advisor!  (510) 809-1000 

August 8, 2019

Dear Friends,

It is well known that the Buddha taught a universal love and compassion that had a profound effect on all who met him, but he was also modeling a revolutionary way of caring for our mind at the deepest level, in order to resolutely pursue and come to know reality. The path he opened did not lead to some other transcendent dimension free from suffering. Instead, he offers us the possibility of a journey straight into the heart of reality, into an unfailing operability of knowing, shining and pulsing within each present moment.

His proclamation of reality as the ultimate medicine of liberation remains as startling today as it was two and a half millennia ago.  We stand, just like the Buddha’s first disciples, astonished at his invitation to enter reality as it is, and begin the ultimate journey that lies before all beings: to awaken from the dream of the self to a freedom that has no derivation, no point of reference in our limitations, and no reversibility.

The “how” of how we get there has been taught by the Buddha as an exacting process of study, contemplation and meditation.  Not merely cleansing and cultivating the intellect, this training aims at total embodiment of wisdom and compassion through a deep form of caring for the endlessly creative producers of experience — mind, body, speech, the sensory fields, and the subtle energies.

We live in a culture and an age of self-improvement, where we are always trying to “fix” ourselves, and worship at the altar of the ever-elusive perfect version of ourselves.  What would it mean to expand our imagination, to relinquish attachment to all “image”, and journey inward instead, into the depths of mind, where experience gets prepared, cooked, and consumed with the convincingly impenetrable feel of the “real”?

Here at the Institute, in a holistic way, we can practice the teachings of the Buddha, Padmasambhava, and other enlightened, extraordinary masters of this wisdom-lineage, including our founder and my father, Tarthang Rinpoche. Thanks to Rinpoche’s great skill and compassion, we have a rich array of secular and traditional dharma teachings that provide accessible, incisive lines of inquiry that can help us unfold our own unique manifestations of wakeful humanity.

Lama Palzang and I, our faculty and our staff are here to support you, ready to share our own curiosity, joy, and experiences on the path as we hold the space for your own discovery.  Please know that when you step into the Institute as a student, you enter a place that is connected to an authentic lineage of enlightenment. This lineage does not seek worldly power or many followers. It exists in order to keep alive the sublime pathways to the heart of what it means to be human. Its treasures are available today because its masters were passionate lovers of knowledge, tenacious practitioners of merit, and deeply devoted servants of universal awakening. Together, we can follow in their footsteps. Together, we can do our best to cultivate the same passion, tenacity, and devotion on our own journey.

With all best wishes, 

Pema Gellek and Lama Palzang

Why Study Tibetan?

A Language Created for Translating Dharma

Translation literally means “to carry across.” It is said that the Tibetan language was created with the purpose of translating Dharma texts. Translations into English are still works in progress and in the process of being improved upon. 

What might people be surprised to learn about the Tibetan language?

Tibetan is the largest and most comprehensive repository of the Dharma in the world. The Tibetan written language was specifically and consciously designed to translate the teachings of the Buddha. Unlike Chinese and other East Asian languages, Tibetan is alphabetic and largely mirrors the Sanskrit alphabet, thereby affording highly precise and accurate translations.

What type of person is the Tibetan language course designed for? Or, what kind of person would particularly be interested?

Many Tibetan students are engaged in traditional study, including a personal engagement with the ngondro or preliminary practices. The study of Tibetan provides the time to engage traditional Dharma materials in much greater depth and detail than simply reading translations in English.

How much homework is there?

We recommended that students engage in Tibetan for a minimum of 20 minutes each day.

What types of reading / texts do you frequently work with for Beginning classes? What about for Intermediate?

Once students have grasped the basics of the alphabet and grammatical structure, we start with short prayers and texts, gradually moving towards longer works like the Bodhicaryavatara by Shantideva. Our focus is on writers central to the Nyingma tradition such as Lama Mipham and Longchenpa.

What does the Beginning class start out focusing on?

Beginning Tibetan starts with studying the alphabet and then moves into a close study of the phrase connectors that form the unique grammatical structure of classical Tibetan.