Classes (In-Person & Online)
Bring awareness practice into your everyday life. Classes are a wonderful way to cultivate a regular meditation practice or to engage with contemplation, inquiry, or deep relaxation of mind, body, senses over a longer period of time than afforded by a workshop or a retreat.
All classes are online; a select number are hybrid (both online and in person) based on the discretion of the instructor. After you enroll, you will receive an email with the Zoom link from faculty about a day before your class begins. The same link will be used each week for your class.
EARLY FALL CLASSES
8 weeks: Monday, August 19 – Saturday, October 12, 2024
BUDDHIST STUDIES
The World as Sacred Space (DHS210)
Tuesdays, 7:00 – 8:30 PM, PT (August 20 – October 8, 2024)
Online and In Person at the Nyingma Institute
Buddhist symbols and thought point toward a comprehensive vision of the universe as a mandala—a sacred space in which the journey to awakening is assured. We explore this vision, studying how every aspect of experience can be transformed. We look at prayers and practices associated with Buddha-fields and how the mandala is a potent symbol for awakening. We also locate the bodhisattva path within this vision of sacred space. Two workshops, “Path of Prayer to the Land of Bliss” and the “Teaching of Vimalakirti,” are part of this class and develop further the idea of a Buddha realm. Open to all with a sincere interest in Buddhist thought and action.
Instructors: Mark Henderson and Hugh Joswick. Cost: $144. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2664019
MEDITATION
Advanced Meditation: Profound Instructions from Lama Mipham (MED329)
Thursdays, 10:00 – 11:30 AM, PT (August 22 – October 10, 2024)
Online Only
Meditation advice from the great masters can feel as if it is speaking directly to us, radiating profound love and compassion across time and space. Eminently practical and grounded in embodied realization, their counsel is designed to free us from the limitations imposed by the ordinary mind, allowing us to enter the path of the Awakened Ones.
This course offers a comprehensive journey through Lama Mipham’s incisive, subtle, yet direct instructions on: calm abiding; stillness, movement, and awareness; the equality of different states of experience; as well as his expression of yogic realization.
We will contemplate and meditate upon liberating instructions from Lama Mipham, including: Profound Instructions on Shamatha, The Importance of Mindfulness and Vigilance, and A Song of Debate Between Waking and Dream States.
Instructors: Lama Palzang & Pema Gellek. Cost: $144. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2664024
Late Summer Community Garden Meditation
(Sundays) 4:00 – 5:00 PM, (September 1, 8, 15, and 29)
Join us for a one hour outdoor meditation in our beautiful Padmakara Garden. All are welcome — free. Learn more: https://nyingmainstitute.com/community-meditation/
Instructor: Suellen Ehnebuske. Cost: free.
KUM NYE
Advanced Kum Nye: (KNR302)
Tuesdays, 7:00 – 8:30 pm, PT (August 20 – October 8 , 2024)
Online Only
“Just as water in a clear pool reflects the image of the moon and stars without being affected by that image, awareness can reflect perceptions to us, without our haveing to be affected by them” – Joy of Being p. 174
In this year-long series for experienced Kum Nye practitioners, we will approach each of the six perfections through Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga as embodied forms, feelings, and movements.
The six perfections are the practices of a bodhisattva, one who has oriented their entire being to pure altruism and awakening. This term’s class is inspired by and will playfully explore the paramita of Wisdom
Instructor: Santosh Philip. Cost: $144. Prerequisite: two years of Kum Nye practice. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2664028
Foundations of Kum Nye Relaxation: Focus on the Seven Gestures (KNR141)
Wednesdays, 8:00 – 9:00 AM, PT (August 21 – October 9, 2024)
Online Only
Kum Nye Tibetan Relaxation is a gentle healing system that relieves stress, transforms negative patterns, helps us to be more balanced and healthy, and increases our enjoyment and appreciation of life. In these times when confusion and chaos are a part of daily activity, we are often too tense and charged up to enjoy life. Kum Nye opens our senses and hearts so that we feel satisfied and fulfilled and can appreciate more fully every aspect of our lives.’
– Tarthang Tulku, Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga
This course will introduce the basic theory and develop the foundational practices of Kum Nye Relaxation, as presented by Tarthang Tulku in the text Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga. The practice of Kum Nye includes stillness and movement, breath, and self-massage.
Each term, through Late Spring of 2025, will highlight a different area of practice. This term will place a special focus on developing the Seven Gestures posture, our ‘home base’ for practice.
This course is appropriate for those new to Kum Nye Relaxation, as well as those wishing to continue to deepen their understanding and embodiment of Kum Nye.
Instructor: Donna Morton. Cost: $96. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2664059
Exploring the Joy of Being (KNR230)
Thursdays, 6:00 – 7:30 PM, PT (September 5 – October 24, 2024)
Online Only
If you ask, “How is it possible for us to give bliss to our minds at will?” The answer is as close as our own bodies, breath, and senses.
The Joy of Being, p. xvii
Join us for this 8-week course introducing the Tibetan yoga text by Tarthang Tulku, The Joy of Being—Kum Nye for the mind. Practices in Joy of Being integrate body and mind, creating a “new home of feeling” grounded in self-knowledge. Each week introduces topics for becoming “complete in ourselves,” including: relaxing deeply via our senses, opening and healing painful knots from within, and giving mind space to be. Joy of Being encourages flexibility and confidence — opening us to a joy that is our birthright!
This course can be taken online at two different days and times with several instructors.
—Thursday evenings through the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley California,
September 5 – October 24, 2024 (8 weeks)
6-7:30 P.M. Pacific time 2 -3:30 AM U.K
Abbe Blum instructor.
Online registration for U.S. https://nyingmainstitute.asapconnected.com/
—Wednesday evenings September 4 – October 23, 2024
(8 weeks).
6:30- 8pm U.K. time/ 10:30 AM – 12 noon Pacific time in the U.S.
Bram Williams, Angela Bushaway instructors
UK bookings are through: https://bookwhen.com/bodhiyogauk
If you miss one class in the U.K. you can catch it in California / U.K (and vice versa) . or by recording.
This class can be taken as a stand-alone course for those with an interest in Kum Nye and /or meditation. It will involve some home reflection each week, and there will be suggestions for practices to do between classes— for those who wish.
It can also serve as a basis for those who intend to deepen their Kum Nye practice – and it is a special doorway into the upcoming Joy of Being teacher/facilitator program that will begin in the early fall of 2025. Details for this teacher training program will be available soon.
Instructor: Abbe Blum. Cost: $144. Some Kum Nye experience recommended or with consent of the instructor. Scholarships are available. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2664061
NYINGMA PSYCHOLOGY
Deepening Dimensions of Mind 9 month Program (NPS520)
Thursdays, 10-11:30 AM (PDT)/ 19-20:30 (CEST) (September 5 2024 – May 22 2025)
Online only
Deepening Dimensions of Mind is a nine-month program (32 classes and two weekend retreats) that follows the order of topics presented in Tarthang Tulku’s Dimensions of Mind. We also bring in additional readings from Rinpoche’s work that aim to release worries, entanglements, and negative patterning by uncovering structures of mind that condition suffering. Working with inquiry, contemplation, sharing, and relaxation practices, we cultivate transformation and open to the rich opportunities available to us.
The first part of the program develops a basis for well-being, inviting us to let go of the limiting conditioning of our experience. Through experiential exercises and deep inquiry, we begin to develop understanding of the four immeasurables—love, compassion, joy, and equanimity—boundless qualities that can open positive potential in all dimensions of time, space, and knowledge.
Deepening Dimensions of Mind is a continuation of the Knowledge of Freedom program, but it can be taken separately.
Instructors: Abbe Blum, Elske Van de Hulst. Cost: $585 or €585 can be paid in 9 monthly installments of €65 per month. Retreats can be taken by those not in the program. Scholarships are available. Email to learn more or visit here: https://nyingmainstitute.com/ddom/ Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2661487
TIBETAN LANGUAGE
Advanced Tibetan Tutorial (TIB302)
Fridays, 3:30 – 4:45 pm, PT (August 23 – October 11, 2024)
Online only
This advanced Tibetan course consists of continuing reading and translation in the classical Tibetan language. It is for those who already have a good grasp of grammar, vocabulary, and working with Tibetan texts.
Instructor: Barr Rosenberg. Cost: $120. Prerequisite: Consent of the instructor. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2664062
Intermediate Tibetan Level VII (TIB207)
Thursdays, 6:15 -7:45 pm, PT (August 22 – October 10, 2024)
Online Only
Continued reading and translation of traditional texts and prayers in the classical Tibetan language.
Instructor: Mark Henderson. Cost: $144. Prerequisite: Consent of the instructor. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2664064
EARLY FALL CLASSES
8 weeks: Monday, October 21 – Saturday, December 14, 2024
BUDDHIST STUDIES
Majestic Aspirations (DHS211)
Tuesdays 7:00 – 8:30 PM, PT (October 22 – December 10, 2024)
Online and in person at the Nyingma Institute
“Drawing on the power of compassion, a single individual can transform the whole universe.”
Tarthang Tulku, Path of Heroes.
We look at the power of Buddhist symbols to transform consciousness. Using the achievements of Tarthang Tulku’s Nyingma organizations as an example, we come to appreciate the scope and scale of Rinpoche’s aspirations and actions, including the challenges of forming a spiritual community in today’s world. The wish to free others from suffering can motivate us to overcome all obstacles to spiritual growth. For centuries Buddhist practitioners have expressed their wishes to aid all living beings through reciting a prayer of aspiration known as the “Sovereign Prayer for Enlightened Practice” (the Pranidhanaraja). We conclude our study of the path of liberation by focusing on the vast scope of compassionate aspiration in this text, opening to the possibility that it may inspire us for our journey through life. Readings will be provided. One workshop, “The
Power of Buddhist Symbols” is part of this class.
Instructors: Mark Henderson and Hugh Joswick. Cost: $144. Prerequisite: sincere interest in the Buddha’s teachings. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2667368
MEDITATION
Advanced Meditation: Meditations and Prayers for Rebirth in Sukhavati (MED330)
Thursdays, 10:00 – 11:30 AM, PT (October 24 – December 12, 2024)
Online Only
Join us for an enriching 8-week meditation course focused on preparing for an auspicious departure from this realm and rebirth in Sukhavati, the blissful Buddha field of Amitabha.
Sukhavati, also known as Dewachen in Tibetan, is a realm where sentient beings experience neither physical pain nor mental suffering, and the conditions for practice and realization are limitless. This course will guide you through the profound practices and prayers that cultivate the aspiration to be reborn in this pure land, a realm reverberating with awakening.
Great masters across various Buddhist traditions have cultivated the practice of aspiring for rebirth in Sukhavati for centuries. It is regarded as a highly effective method for all levels of practitioners and a natural extension of the bodhisattva’s intention to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.
The meditations will emphasize becoming familiar with the visualization of, and wholehearted surrender to, Buddha Amitabha. We will also present beneficial mantras and essential advice for practitioners as they approach death.
The class will include a variety of instructions on how to connect with Buddha Amitabha, drawing upon the prayers of great masters such as Karma Chakmé, Jigme Lingpa, Dodrupchen Jikme Tenpe Nyima, and Shabkar.
Instructors: Lama Palzang & Pema Gellek. Cost: $144. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2667379
KUM NYE
Advanced Kum Nye: (KNR303)
Tuesdays, 7:00 – 8:30 pm, PT (October 22 – December 10, 2024)
Online Only
“Rejecting nothing, accepting nothing, setting up nothing – these are the guidelines for relaxation that open wide the gateways to meditation” – Joy of Being p. 186
In this year-long series for experienced Kum Nye practitioners, we will approach each of the six perfections through Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga as embodied forms, feelings, and movements.
The six perfections are the practices of a bodhisattva, one who has oriented their entire being to pure altruism and awakening. Last term we started an exploration of the paramita of Wisdom. This term, we will further develop this exploration
Instructor: Santosh Philip. Cost: $144. Prerequisite: two years of Kum Nye practice. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2667397
Foundations of Kum Nye Relaxation: Focus on the Breath (KNR142)
Wednesdays, 8:00 – 9:00 AM, PT (October 23 – December 11, 2024)
Online Only
‘Once we know how to contact the energy of breath, breathing becomes an infinite source of vitalizing energies.’
– Tarthang Tulku, Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga
This course will introduce the basic theory and develop the foundational practices of Kum Nye Relaxation, as presented by Tarthang Tulku in the text Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga. The practice of Kum Nye includes stillness and movement, breath, and self-massage.
Each term, through Late Spring of 2025, will highlight a different area of practice. This term will place a special focus on developing the breath practices of Kum Nye.
This course is appropriate for those new to Kum Nye Relaxation, as well as those wishing to continue to deepen their understanding and embodiment of Kum Nye.
Instructor: Donna Morton. Cost: $96. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2667487
NYINGMA PRACTICE
Essence of the Lotus Trilogy: Wisdom of Padmasambhava (NPR300)
Three Year Program
Fridays, 10:00 – 11:30 AM, PT (October 25 – December 13, 2024)
Online Only
Body, language, and mind are like lotuses rising from the muddy waters of our experience. For our journey to be meaningful, we can cultivate them well and encourage them to open fully, with the aspiration to be of benefit to all beings.
This course is part of Essence of the Lotus Trilogy: Wisdom of Padmasambhava. Learn more: https://nyingmainstitute.com/trilogy/
Instructors: Lama Palzang, Pema Gellek, Abbe Blum, & Hugh Joswick. Scholarships are available. Registration coming soon.
NYINGMA PSYCHOLOGY
Deepening Dimensions of Mind 9 month Program (NPS520)
Thursdays, 10-11:30 AM (PDT)/ 19-20:30 (CEST) (September 5 2024 – May 22 2025)
Online only
Deepening Dimensions of Mind is a nine-month program (32 classes and two weekend retreats) that follows the order of topics presented in Tarthang Tulku’s Dimensions of Mind. We also bring in additional readings from Rinpoche’s work that aim to release worries, entanglements, and negative patterning by uncovering structures of mind that condition suffering. Working with inquiry, contemplation, sharing, and relaxation practices, we cultivate transformation and open to the rich opportunities available to us.
The first part of the program develops a basis for well-being, inviting us to let go of the limiting conditioning of our experience. Through experiential exercises and deep inquiry, we begin to develop understanding of the four immeasurables—love, compassion, joy, and equanimity—boundless qualities that can open positive potential in all dimensions of time, space, and knowledge.
Deepening Dimensions of Mind is a continuation of the Knowledge of Freedom program, but it can be taken separately.
Instructors: Abbe Blum, Elske Van de Hulst. Cost: $585 or €585 can be paid in 9 monthly installments of €65 per month. Retreats can be taken by those not in the program. Email to inquire about late registration. Learn more here: https://nyingmainstitute.com/ddom/
TIBETAN LANGUAGE
Advanced Tibetan Tutorial (TIB302)
Fridays, 3:30 – 4:45 PM, PT (October 25 – December 13, 2024)
Online only
This advanced Tibetan course consists of continuing reading and translation in the classical Tibetan language. It is for those who already have a good grasp of grammar, vocabulary, and working with Tibetan texts.
Instructor: Barr Rosenberg. Cost: $120. Prerequisite: Consent of the instructor. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2667570
Intermediate Tibetan Level VIII (TIB208)
Thursdays, 6:15 -7:45 pm, PT (October 24 – December 12, 2024)
Online Only
Continued reading and translation of traditional texts and prayers in the classical Tibetan language.
Instructor: Mark Henderson. Cost: $144. Prerequisite: Consent of the instructor. Registration: https://go.asapconnected.com/?org=4698#EventID=2667578