Sundays, 6:00 – 7:00 PM / Dharma Talk or Gathering

September 27th: Women’s Meditation

October 4th: Mark Henderson “An Essential Instruction on Refuge and Bodhicitta”

This Dharma talk will introduce Patrul Rinpoche’s presentation of the essential foundations of Mahayana Buddhist practice: Refuge and Bodhicitta. Tarthang Rinpoche provided this text to his earliest students in the West as an essential framework for correctly engaging the Dharma according to the Nyingma tradition. This talk will describe the objects of refuge, the duration of refuge, the actual practice of refuge, and the precepts of going for refuge. Further, we will discuss relative and ultimate bodhicitta and the precepts of bodhicitta.

October 11th: Santosh Philip “Revisiting the Seven Gestures”

The Seven Gestures are the gestures of body, mind and awareness that make up the simple act of sitting. It is said that they constitute a complete practice in themselves. How could that be? Can arriving in the gestures of sitting actually change you — body and mind? In this talk we will explore a very precise way of coming into the seat, one that lets us slip into a calm, still state of being, as though the body already knows what to do.

October 18th: Hugh Joswick “Expanding Feeling into Meditation”

“When we learn to relax the body, breath, and mind, the body becomes healthy, the mind becomes clear, and our awareness becomes balanced,” writes Tarthang Tulku in Awakening the Balanced Mind: A Guide to Meditation, Self-Healing and Awareness. Once we find an entry into relaxation, meditation may unfold naturally, incorporating whatever arises into our practice. Nyingma Institute instructor, Hugh Joswick will lead students through a key relaxation practice in Awakening the Balanced Mind and discuss the importance of expanding feeling to appreciate and enjoy meditation. 

October 25th: Women’s Meditation

November 1st: Olivia Hurd “Finding Inner Truth: Cultivating an Attitude of Honesty & Taking Responsibility”

This Nyingma Psychology presentation will be part talk, part practicing with direct experience. In clarifying a sense of our intention in meditation, we can cultivate a receptive, open attitude to our experience, whatever arises, taking responsibility for how that unfolds, through keen observation of mind, body and feelings. . Buddhist Psychology and Meditation Instructor Olivia Hurd, will then offer meditation practices to support  transformation of experience through enhancing these important qualities of mind. 

November 8th: Abbe Blum “Healing Circle for Peace”

“We depend on nature, and nature, indeed the whole universe, depends on us. The world will be balanced when we are balanced.”

Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga pages 7-8

On this Sunday we gather in person and online to create a circle for balancing and healing ourselves and the world. The circle begins with movement exercises for balance and ease. It includes meditation and chanting. Those who register and attend have their short prayers for peace and balance for themselves and others read as part of the aspiration for healing and understanding.

The healing circle is based on practices featured in Kum Nye Healing, a program last taught jointly by Nyingma Institute Berkeley and Nyingma Centrum Nederland. It will be set out by Berkeley Kum Nye instructor Abbe Blum, assisted by others in the Nyingma community.

After registering, please send very short prayers to the Nyingma Institute:

This is the first of Sunday Kum Nye Healing circles.

November 15th: Donna Morton “Kum Nye Face Massage: Relaxing into Feeling”

As one of the most sensitive and expressive areas of the body, the face often carries subtle patterns of tension, especially around the eyes, jaw, mouth, and forehead. In this experiential Dharma Talk, we will explore the face massage practices of Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga as a way of softening these patterns and awakening feeling.

Through gentle massage, stillness, and awareness, we will stimulate feeling and give the sensations that arise time to deepen, expand, and unfold. As tension in the face softens, breathing may become easier, the senses quieter and more open, and relaxation can spread throughout the whole body.

No previous experience with Kum Nye is necessary.

November 22nd: Khenpo Kalsang “The Buddha’s Complete Teaching in One Verse”

Together with Khenpo Kalsang, we will study and reflect on one of the most concise and profound verses in the Buddhist tradition:

Commit no evil whatsoever;
Practice virtue in its full perfection;
Thoroughly subdue your own mind:
This is the teaching of the Buddha.

Although these four lines are simple, they contain the essential meaning of the Buddha’s teachings. The verse appears in several Buddhist scriptures, including the Prātimokṣa-sūtra and the Dharmapada-sūtra, and presents a comprehensive path that can be understood in relation to the Buddha’s Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma and the three yānas, or vehicles.

In this talk, we will explore the verse not simply as a Buddhist teaching to study, but as a practical guide for our own lives.

We will focus on three questions:

What does it mean to abandon evil?
How do our actions, speech, and thoughts create suffering, and how can we recognize and avoid harmful actions?

What does it mean to cultivate virtue?
How can we develop positive qualities and actions that bring benefit to ourselves and others?

What does it mean to subdue our own mind?
Why is working with our own mind at the heart of Buddhist practice, and how can we gradually transform the thoughts and emotions that cause suffering?

Through these three points, we will reflect on how the Buddha’s teaching can be applied directly to our everyday lives—not only as something we learn, but as something we practice.

Abandon harmful actions.
Cultivate what is wholesome.
Transform the mind.

This is the path taught by the Buddha.

November 29th: Women’s Meditation

December 6th: Emily Provosty “Maintaining a Peaceful Heart”

We may have the intention to treat all beings with loving-kindness, but when we are unable to maintain our patience in the face of difficulty and anger, our good intentions do little to help us in daily life. It takes diligence and conscious effort to change our habitual reactivity and respond to difficult situations with compassion and equanimity. Tarthang Tulku says, “Through patience, difficulties can be used to our advantage”, meaning that we can actually choose to see difficult people and circumstances as opportunities for us to grow our patience and progress on our spiritual path. In this dharma talk, we will contemplate approaches and practices that can help us maintain a peaceful heart as we navigate the challenges of our life. 

December 13th: Pauline Yu “Awakening Through Beauty: Amitabha and the Land of Bliss”

A buddha presiding over a radiant realm in another world can feel like a stretch for many Western practitioners. How might we approach Amitabha and his Pure Land, Sukhavati, in a way that feels honest and alive? Pauline Yu will offer a brief reflection on a Buddhist vision of the cosmos and an introduction to Amitabha’s origins from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective. Together we’ll explore beauty as one doorway into this Pure Land, and close with a guided contemplation.