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.

June 3, 2019

Dear participants of the Women’s Meditation Practice Group,

We were delighted by the interest and enthusiasm generated in our first two Sunday gatherings, and were pleased that attendance grew significantly on the second Sunday. We anticipate that it will continue to grow as more women hear about it who are interested in finding community support for their individual practice, or starting a practice. We hope that the gathering will support both seasoned and beginning meditators.

We are learning about how to best serve this budding community. We will vary the practices offered in the meditation room, and follow with tea and discussion for those who are interested in participating. Our format during tea last Sunday – with questions as sparks for discussion in small groups – may have worked for some, and not for others. Bear with us as we refine what follows the communal meditation.

Many of you have been in the Nyingma community a long time, or have practiced for many years. We really welcome your participation if you are interested in leading group practices, want to offer topics for discussion, or are skilled in facilitating discussion. Please reach out to us. Snacks to share are also welcome!

Our intention is to promote a beneficial and supportive experience. We can speak more about our wishes for our community as a group.

We so look forward to our next opportunity to be together. Upcoming dates in 2019 include June 30, July 28, and August 25. If you are receiving news of this group for the first time, we hope you consider joining us.

Warmest regards,

Donna and Abbe

Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche first created the Human Development Training Program, an eight week residential summer program, for psychologists, social workers, educators, counselors and other professionals interested in the nature of mind. This program was held annually from 1973-1977.

In 1984, it was expanded into the Four Month Human Development Retreat. Practices in this program were carefully sequenced to help explore the very fundamental operating systems and patterns of human thinking, feeling, and sensing.

In 2019, we are offering a new take on our keystone program. The practices of the Human Development Program will be offered in a two month format — the Healing Mind Retreat. 

Last July, when my father, Tarthang Rinpoche, requested that we become the new deans of the Nyingma Institute, it came as a great honor and surprise. It also made us pause and look with very full hearts to the previous deans, Sylvia Gretchen and Barr Rosenberg. For eighteen years, Sylvia carried out her role as Dean and lead teacher at the Institute with unfaltering love and devotion; in the process, she was able to share the healing wisdom of the Dharma with thousands of students. Barr, too, tirelessly supported the Institute as Dean and as a creative and invigorating teacher, with a profound dedication to the vastness of Rinpoche’s vision.

For quite some time, unfortunately, Sylvia has been facing mounting challenges to her health, and, with the deepest gratitude for her extraordinary contribution to the Nyingma Institute all these years, Rinpoche saw that a new deanship was the compassionate decision for all. It is our hope that we can honor the efforts of our predecessors and continue to learn from their noble and selfless example.

As my husband Lama Palzang and I have stepped into our new roles, we are grateful for this opportunity to offer our energy, knowledge, experience, and deep commitment to the Nyingma lineage. Since I was a child I have witnessed the Nyingma Institute, the first Tibetan Nyingma center in America, take root and flourish and give rise to a remarkably dedicated community. Though Rinpoche went on to engage in other monumental Dharma activities, the Nyingma Institute has always remained central to his mandala of organizations, and the portal through which many of his long-term students have come.

On the surface it might seem as if there is a great chasm of space, time and knowledge between our cultures. Tibet has had an unbroken lineage of realization since the 8th century, when Padmasambhava arrived like a thunderbolt of realization in Tibet, and together with King Trisong Detsen and the Abbot Shantarakshita, laid the field for fruitful transmission. Yet I have found that many Westerners find themselves drawn to the Nyingma tradition that springs from these roots, as if Padmasambhava were answering an important question for them, a question they could not quite put into words.

Perhaps Westerners have such an affinity for that period of early transmission in Tibet, because, we too, find ourselves now in a similar moment of tremendous hope and uncertainty, a moment of knowledge transmission as urgent as it is profound.

Over the last 45 years at the Institute, more than a hundred thousand students have passed through these doors. Since that time, America has undergone great cultural shifts. The first generation of Dharma practitioners in America has already passed; thanks to the efforts of those early pioneers, Buddhism is much more mainstream now, with magazines on all kinds of Dharma topics available at the check-out of every Whole Foods store across the country. But in truth the perspective offered by the Dharma is still a very new one for Westerners, and its future here is still fragile.

It is for this reason that the Nyingma Institute offers two approaches: a path that emphasizes Dharma Studies and practices with a Nyingma orientation; and a more secular, humanistic path that offers the wisdom, beauty and practices of Buddhism but does not require belief in a special doctrine. Both paths are reliable, versatile and accessible: trustworthy ways that the ordinary person can benefit from the riches of teachings that Rinpoche has shared with the West.

How do we honor the Awakened Ones with the precious gift of Dharma that we have received? How does Dharma ennoble our life beyond giving us a set of methods that ease our personal suffering? We want to help nurture a community that addresses these deeper questions—a community that studies, contemplates, and meditates upon the teachings of the Buddha and the Nyingma lineage and at the same time, endeavors to benefit others in the most effective way, by working to support the longevity of the Dharma on this planet.

From our standpoint, especially at this moment in history, the purpose of studying Dharma is not just to gain peace for ourselves, but to find a dynamic point of balance between individual practice and active engagement in service of humanity, so that all we learn can become a force that brings more and more goodness into the world.

Lama Palzang and I, along with our dedicated faculty, would like to share the teachings in ways that speak to and benefit the whole person at all stages of life. As a community composed of individuals and families, we aspire to create a place of contemplative refuge, a spiritual home where all can learn to nurture and align the heart, mind, and body and deeply open the senses and discover a sense of the sacred, and enter a traditional path if they wish.

Lama Palzang’s teaching will draw upon his own extensive training in Tibetan Buddhist mantra and authentic retreat practices, as well as crucial fundamental practices like Ngondro. These preliminary practices are common to all the Tibetan schools, and it is an honor and a privilege to make them available to our students here in the West.

For those who aren’t inclined to the ritual or cultural aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, we will, of course, continue to offer teachings such as Kum Nye Yoga, Nyingma Meditation and Psychology and Skillful Means—healing and inspiring paths that help restore well-being, arouse energies of love and compassion, expand inner freedom, and awaken the potential in all of us to live meaningful lives based not on ego, but on kindness and respect for all beings.

Over the years, many who studied with Rinpoche have gone on to become influential pioneers in their fields, whether in physics, psychology, philosophy, religion, or meditation. We are very interested in reconnecting with our old students, and working together to bring new and diverse perspectives to the Nyingma Institute. Exploring the arc of the knowledge they gained here, we could create new programs, seminars and talks together that are relevant to the needs of our time.

With all our hearts, we thank you for supporting the Nyingma Institute all these years. As your spiritual friends, we hope that you will approach us with your needs and concerns so that we can carry out our purpose of serving you and supporting your practice. It takes all of us, deeply seeking beings, showing up with our full humanity to make a vibrant and luminous community together.

Love,

Pema Gellek and Lama Palzang

Deans, Nyingma Institute