Stephen Batchelor

Stephen Batchelor studied for eight years under the guidance of Tibetan lamas and completed a three-year Zen training in Korea. A former Buddhist monk, he is the author of 'Alone with Others', 'The Faith to Doubt', 'The Awakening of the West', 'Buddhism without Beliefs' and 'Verses from the Centre: a Buddhist Vision of the Sublime'. He is a member of the Gaia House Teacher Council and co-founder of Sharpham College for Buddhist Studies and Contemporary Enquiry.

Since 1992 Stephen has been a contributing editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. He teaches worldwide and lives in South West France. Stephen's most recent publication is 'Living with the Devil'. He is currently writing a novel on the Buddha's life based on canonical and commentarial materials in Pali.

Official Website of Stephen Batchelor

Teachings by Stephen Batchelor

A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life

The structure of Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life is broadly based on the Mahayana teaching of the six perfections. In this weekend teaching, rather than follow this sequence, Stephen Batchelor examines four major themes that run through the text: afflictive emotions, the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, the Bodhisattva as a model of human life that we can aspire to and emptiness, the insight which grants liberation from cyclic existence.

Root text

Guide to the Bodhisattva's way of life by Shantideva

Tenzin Josh Gluck

Tenzin Josh Gluck studied at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala before heading off to start up his own business and to start a family. At the Institute he studied the first year subjects (Dura, Lorig, tarig), then Prajnaparamita (receiving a BA at the end) then Madhyamika (receiving a first class MA) then most of Abhidharma. Privately he studied
vinaya with Gen Damchoe and some other teachers.

Teachings by Josh Gluck

Types of Mind, Ways of Knowing

Students will be given copies of the translation of the base text for the course, Purbuchok's presentation in his Magic Key text, andwill be given handouts with tables etc. Josh will also give out homework for students
to do in between the weekends. Josh will bring the particular flavour of his teacher Gen Lobsang Gyatso to the study of the text - where everything is open to sincere questioning and challenge. Purbuchok's text is perfect for this approach, being written to provoke thought rather than just to present stuff to be wolfed down uncritically and to be swallowed whole and unchewed.

Thupten Jinpa

Thupten Jinpa Langri (b. 1958) has been a principal English translator to the Dalai Lama since 1985. He has translated and edited more than ten books by the Dalai Lama including *The World of Tibetan Buddhism (Wisdom Publications, 1993), *A
Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus* (Wisdom Publications, 1996), and the New York Times bestseller *Ethics for the New Millennium (Riverhead, 1999).

Thupten Jinpa Langri was born in Tibet in 1958. He received his early education and training as a monk at Zongkar Choede Monastery in Hunsur near Mysore, Karnataka, South India and later joined the Shartse College of Ganden monastic university, in Mundgod, Karnataka, South India, where he received the Geshe Lharam degree.

He taught Buddhist epistemology, metaphysics, Middle Way philosophy and Buddhist psychology at Ganden for five years. Jinpa also holds a B.A. Honors degree in Western Philosophy and a Ph.D. degree in Religious Studies, both from Cambridge University, UK. From 1996 to 1999, he was the Margaret Smith Research Fellow in Eastern Religion at Girton College, Cambridge and he has now established the Institute of Tibetan Classics where he is both president and editor-in-chief of the Institute's translation series. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Mind and Life Institute, dedicated to fostering creative dialogue between the Buddhist tradition and Western science.

Teachings by Thubten Jinpa

A fearless heard

"A Fearless Heart is a rare book that shows how the meeting of contemplative insights and practices with modern science can lead to offerings that are beneficial for everyone interested in deeper personal spiritual transformation.” His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Ven Amy Miller

Ven. Amy has worked and managed various FPMT centres, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche projects from 1994 until now. In 2004, she completed a seven-month solitary retreat in California. For most of 2005 and 2006, she organized international teaching tours for and traveled with the esteemed Tibetan Buddhist master, Ven. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. She has also led pilgrimages in India and Nepal for the Liberation Prison Project. Amy was ordained as a Buddhist nun in June 2000 by the great Tibetan master, Ven. Choden Rinpoche, and has been teaching extensively since 1992.

Teachings by Ven Amy Miller

Making Friends with Death

Preparing Now for Life's ultimate transition

Conquering stress and anxiety

Join the venerable Amy Miller to try out different approaches to dealing with the stresses and anxieties of daily life. All informed by Venerable Amy's vast practical understanding of Buddhism and her vast compassion and loving kindness.

Ven Rita Riniker

Ven Rita is a fantastic teacher - very down to earth, practical, wise, knowledgeable and compassionate. She has been ordained for over 17 years, and has vast teaching and retreat experience.

Teachings by Ven Rita Riniker

Understanding our emotions

Do we control our emotions, or do they control us? Who is the controller, and who is being controlled? What went wrong with our mental make up? Why is it so difficult not to hate the ones we love? Why aren't we just simply happy? Do you think and feel like that sometimes? By understanding our minds and our emotions, we gain so much more wisdom and freedom in our lives. We can begin to control them rather than being controlled by them, and we can start to let go of the pain they cause us and others and instead increase our understanding and kindness. Ven Rita will introduce key Buddhist concepts and meditative techniques that you can use to learn more about your mind and to deal better with your emotion.

Why Do We End Up Hating the Ones We Decided to Love?

Attachment is based on selfishness: If you are good to me, I'll be good to you. Altruistic love is based on equanimity: I realise that others are like me and want happiness just as much as I do. It is wishing others to be happy, just because they exist. Venerable Rita explores the topics of love, attachment and anger, and how they relate to each other.

Wise Love in the Modern Love

How Much Ego do I need?

If we are not careful we can mistake the Mahayana Buddhist teachgings on no self and on selflessness and altruism as an exhortation to become a door mat for every badly behaved person we meet. Such misunderstanding can feed into pernicious deep seated ideas about not being worthy, of being unattractive, of being incapable, whatever. Such ideas act to block our passage to freedom.
But actually the practice of Buddhism requires a robust, realistic, healthy view of who and what we are and of our potential.
If anyone can help sort out just ‘How much Ego do I need’ it is the venerable Rita Riniker. Long established as a nun and highly thought of by practitioners, the Swiss national Venerable Rita is an inspiration on the path. She embodies vitality, humour, loving kindness and rigorous honesty like very few people you will ever meet.
We are enormously happy that she can stop by London on the way through to her main UK teaching engagement at Jamyang Leeds, our sister centre. Whatever you do don’t miss that. This nun is pure gold.

Venerable Ani Karin

Venerable Ani Karin (Karin Valham) was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1949. She came to Kopan Monastery in Nov. 1974 and attended the seventh meditation course there taught by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. A year later she received ordination and since then has studied mainly the lam-rim (the Graduated Path to Enlightenment) with many great teachers, including H.H. the Dalai Lama and his senior and junior tutors, Ven. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, Ven. Denma Locho Rinpoche, Geshe Ngawang Dhargye and other venerable geshes, who were all introduced to her by her root gurus.

Since Lama Yeshe's passing she has been giving lam-rim courses at Kopan Monastery.

Kopan Monastery

Teachings by Venerable Ani Karin

Life of Lama Yeshe - Venerable Ani Karin

Ven. Ani Karin talks about the life of her teacher, Lama Thubten Yeshe Rinpoche, founder of the FPMT.

Life of Lama Zopa - Venerable Ani Karin

Ven. Ani Karin talks about the life of her teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the FPMT.

Venerable Antonio Satta

Ven Antonio has been studying and teaching meditation for many years now, and has developed a name around the world as a very skillful leader of retreats, in particular his trademark teachings on Vipassana. His emphasis on bringing mindfulness into all dharma practises is greatly appreciated by students who attend his retreats.

Teachings by Venerable Antonio Satta

Vipassana and Mind Training 2010

Vipassana retreat and mind training... done at Jamyang Buddhist Centre 2010.

Vipassana Retreat 2013

Vipassana, or Insight, is a powerful system of meditation to cut through the fog of discursive thinking and pay attention to our lived reality of the everyday moment. Though it can be difficult for some to step back from gross conceptuality, the experience of Vipassana retreat is extraordinarily grounding and the discovery of the richness of everyday experience, usually obscured by the tsunami of unnecessary concepts, is very inspiring. The technique is particularly useful for Buddhists who want to experience the reality of subtle impermanence and change in their lives and experience the liberating spacious transformation that that felt understanding brings to their daily lives.

Though Jamyang London is a busy city centre, we do like to try to give people a taste of meditation retreat can be like - mainly to inspire people to want to retreat and to help bring about a proper retreat facility in UK through the FPMT Land of Joy Project.

Just as the heart of Buddhism is daily meditation, the heart of daily meditation is extended periods of meditation retreat. This long weekend is just a taster of what can be experienced if we take the time to step aside from the daily hurly burly of our our pell mell busy lives 'to stop and stare".

Ven. Antonio Satta was born in Sardegna Italy in 1956. He was first introduced to Tibetan Buddhism at Lama Tsong Khapa Institute, Italy. After meeting Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Italy, he took novice ordination in 1979 and then full ordination from HHDL in 1981.

Ven. Antonio has received teachings from HHDL, Ling Rinpoche, Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche, Song Rinpoche, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, Rilbur Rinpoche and various other teachers, including Geshe Jampa Lodro and Geshe Ngawang Dhargye. He also studied (including Tibetan language) for 4 years at Tharpa Choeling, Switzerland, with Geshe Rabten, and for 4 years at Nalanda Monastery with Geshe Jampa Techok. His main teachers are Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In late 1981 Ven. Antonio spent a number of months in Sri Lanka at a Mahasi Sayadaw Insight Meditation Centre learning the practice of Vipassana.

Since 1991 Ven. Antonio has been living in Australia translating and teaching at Vajrayana Institue, Sydney; teaching and tutoring for the Buddhist Study Program at Chenrezig Institute; and teaching at other FPMT centres in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the United States, and Nepal and India.

Please visit Venerable Antonio's website for more information on this remarkable FPMT teacher and his worldwide teaching programme
http://venantonio.com/

Venerable Gelong Namgyal Wangchen

Venerable Phara Gelong Namgyal Wangchen or Thupten Gyaltsen (Christened name) was born in 1934. He joined Drepung Loseling Monastic University at the age of 10 and at 16, he started his studies of ?Major? Buddhist Texts? under the kind supervision of grateful spiritual masters Venerable Khensur Puma Gyaltsen (Ex-abbot of the monastery) and venerable Shakor Khen Rinpoche Nyima Gyaltsen.Gen Wangchen ? la flew to London and spent seven years teaching at Jamyang Buddhist Center in the 80's. As recommended by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Gen-la has already authored eight volumes (in Tibetan) on insightful meanings of ?The Five Treatises? that serve as an eye opener and reference texts indispensable especially to the beginners in understanding the ?Root Texts?. He is currently at the Drepung Loseling Monastery in India.

Teachings by Venerable Gelong Namgyal Wangchen

Training The Mind

Uttaratantra

Madhyamakavatara

Mind & its Functions

Root text

Lam Rim by Tsongkhapa

Gom Rim (Stages of Meditation)

Practical Instructions regarding the right internal and external conditions for meditation as well as guidelines regarding the stages of shamatha (calm-abiding).

Root text

Gom Rim

Buddhist Tenets & Schools

"Ornament of/for Clear Realization[s]"

Root text

Abhisamayalamkara by Maitreya

Abhisamayalamkara

Praise to Dependent Arising

Audio recordings from The Jamyang Audio Archive

Root text

In Praise of Dependent Arising by Tsongkhapa

Venerable Robina Courtin

Venerable Robina Courtin was ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun in 1977. She was the editorial director of Wisdom Publications until 1987 and then editor of the international Buddhist magazine Mandala until the end of 2000. Since 1997 she has run the Liberation Prison Project for Buddhist Practitioners which works with people in prisons throughout the US, helping them with their practice and studies. She is an enthralling teacher, using direct language to powerfully put across her strong message.

Venerable Robina's teachings are unrelentingly challenging, hard-hitting, serious, funny, visceral, inspiring and empowering. She specialises in applying the wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism to contemporary city life, using examples from TV, magazines and film. She has taught meditation to prisoners all over the world, developing a particularly close connection with people with life sentences in the USA. She is founder and director of the Liberation Prison Project, and the subject of an award-winning Australian documentary called Chasing the Buddha.

Links:

The Liberation Prison Project

Teachings by Venerable Robina Courtin

The Lies Our Mind Tells Us

Buddha is saying we live in a fantasy world. This world that we think is normal and real, with apples and carpets and flowers and people and dogs, he says, is a complete fantasy world. We're making reality up and it's all we've ever done. But when everything appears incredibly solid and real, it's hard to see that it's all an illusion.

The Nature of Mind

What we're dealing with in practicing a spiritual path is the mind, so it is important to have an understand of what this is. This teaching looks at how our mind shapes our experience and ways of using Buddhist teachings to work with and understand our mind.

Karma

In this clear but concise teaching Venerable Robina summaries the main points concerning the law of cause and effect or karma. Robina weaves contemporary examples into her explanations detailing how our past actions ripen as current or future experiences.

Being Sane in a Mad Mad World

Is the world we are presented with the best and sanest choice we can make? Is there an alternative to the straightjacket so many of us put ourselves in? In this course Ven. Robina will explore the reasons why we willingly bring such misery upon ourselves in order to be happy, and by asking what happiness really is she will give us tools to deconstruct our mental chains and review where we really want to go.

Karma and Emptiness

Root text

Lam Rim by Tsongkhapa

The Psychology of Tantra

Tara Retreat

Venerable Robina is one of the senior teachers and senior nuns in the Foundation for the Development of the Mahayana Tradition and one of the few people still teaching in the FPMT who was a close disciple of Lama Thubten Yeshe, the founder, and is a close disciple of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche our spiritual director. She is also one of the FPMT teachers with the longest standing connection with Jamyang London, she knew as we were born all those years ago, through our childhood, our adolescence
Her teaching style is quite probably unique; highly energetic and energising, highly engaged and very direct. To get a sense of her style checks out her videos on You Tube. Great fun, great impact. Also check out the Australian art house DVD ‘Chasing Buddha’ which gives some real insight into her life and her resilience.
But how many people know Retreat Robina, the Robina of contemplation and mediation as well as of explanation?
Come along and share an uplifting two days with her in a retreat on Tara, the glorious emerald green female fully enlightened Buddha always ready to help people out of suffering, ‘The Swift one’, ‘The liberator’. Robina is very fond of Tara practice as will become shiningly clear on this retreat. Join Venerable Robina for a mix of meditation sessions and teachings and experience a different facet of this Diamond Lady

Vajrasattva Retreat

The Vajrasattva practice also has the extraordinary ability to be worked with by all people no matter where they are on the path, from complete beginner to high exalted Bodhisattva. Simple yet unbelievably profound, this practice offers a real experiential taste after a short time of repeated engagement with it.

Get Real: How to live a life true to ourselves

What are referred to in the Mahayana Buddhist literature as the “eight mundane concerns” or the “eight worldly dharmas” are simply primordial levels of attachment, neediness, that exist virtually at the level of assumption.

This assumption is that I must get what I want every second, thus causing us to constantly crave happy feelings, nice things, pleasant words with our name in them, and people's approval. Attachment can't stand it when we get the opposite!

And the deepest of these is attachment to approval, to what others think of us. It’s so ingrained, so spontaneous, and takes such courage to counteract.

The more we look into our minds - be our own therapists, as Lama Yeshe wisely puts it - the more we see that this attitude informs most of our decisions in daily life, thus causing us anger, anxiety, depression and so much confusion and pain.

Reversing this - so radical! - is the essence of spiritual practice.

Join Venerable Robina Courtin for another keen clear vivid presentation of how to grow spiritually and healthily.

Venerable Sangye Khadro

Ven. Sangye Khadro was born Kathleen McDonald in California in 1952 and has been a Tibetan Buddhist Nun for 30 years. In the last three decades, she has been traveling around the world, teaching, studying and doing retreats. An inspiring role model and a wise counsel, Ven. Sangye Khadro is one of the foremost teachers of Buddhism in the West today. Her warm, gentle and unassuming manner of teaching paired with her ability to present the Dharma in a contemporary and personal way has been touching and transforming the hearts of spiritual seekers around the world. Kathleen is also the author of the best-selling Dharma book ?How to Meditate?, an excellent introduction and beautifully simple guide book on Buddhist meditation.

Teachings by Venerable Sangye Khadro

Transforming Disturbing Emotions

We spend our lives being seduced by the outside world, believing completely that happiness and suffering come from ?out there?. But in fact, our experience depends on us. We have full responsibility for our lives. The more we are aware, the better we become at making skillful choices.? Venerable Sangye Khadro will challenge our concepts of seeking satisfaction in a material world-not as a method of escape from the world, but as a way of balancing our material well being with our inner well being to create a harmonious world.

Dealing With Depression

We spend our lives being seduced by the outside world, believing completely that happiness and suffering come from ?out there?. But in fact, our experience depends on us. We have full responsibility for our lives. The more we are aware, the better we become at making skillful choices.? Venerable Sangye Khadro will challenge our concepts of seeking satisfaction in a material world-not as a method of escape from the world, but as a way of balancing our material well being with our inner well being to create a harmonious world.

How To Overcome Fear

We spend our lives being seduced by the outside world, believing completely that happiness and suffering come from ?out there?. But in fact, our experience depends on us. We have full responsibility for our lives. The more we are aware, the better we become at making skillful choices.? Venerable Sangye Khadro will challenge our concepts of seeking satisfaction in a material world-not as a method of escape from the world, but as a way of balancing our material well being with our inner well being to create a harmonious world.

How To Meditate

We spend our lives being seduced by the outside world, believing completely that happiness and suffering come from ?out there?. But in fact, our experience depends on us. We have full responsibility for our lives. The more we are aware, the better we become at making skillful choices.? Venerable Sangye Khadro will challenge our concepts of seeking satisfaction in a material world-not as a method of escape from the world, but as a way of balancing our material well being with our inner well being to create a harmonious world.

Venerable Sean Price

Ven. Sean was born in Sussex in 1968. After studying Japanese and Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan language in Asia, he took ordination and in 1993 studied for five years at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in India before studying traditional Gelug and Nyingma treatises at Drepung and Shechen monasteries. During this time he served and translated for many great masters including Kyabje Denma Locho Rinpoche, Kyabje Trulshik inpoche, Geshe Wongchen and Yongzin Yeshe Gyaltsen. He now spends most of his time locating and preserving rare Tibetan books as well as translating them into English.

Teachings by Venerable Sean Price

Letter to a Friend

Root text

Letter To A Friend by Nagarjuna

Happiness Through Mindfulness

Ven Sean Afternoon Teachings

Venerable Steve Carlier

Venerable Steve Carlier was born in the UK, and has been studying Buddhism since 1977. He first met Lama Yeshe, the founder of the FPMT, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, its current head, in 1978. He was ordained as a Buddhist monk by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1979 and received full ordination from Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche the following year. He studied for eleven years at Nalanda Monastery in France, and from 1993 to 2004 was one of only a handful of Westerners who have followed what His Holiness Dalai Lama refers to as the 'Nalanda Tradition' of studies at Sera Monastery in India. Since 1979 he has been a student of the revered abbot emeritus of Sera Je monastery, Khensur Jampa Tegchog. More recently he has served as this great master's interpreter. He is currently at Land of Medicine Buddha, teaching the Basic Program.

Teachings by Venerable Steve Carlier

Dealing With Emotions

There is a Sanskrit term klesha, usually translated as delusions or afflictive emotions. Kleshas refer to factors of the mind that rob us of our peace of mind: anger, jealousy, attachment and so forth. Not all emotions have this effect - some help to bring peace of mind rather than destroy it. This teaching examines the basis on which destructive and helpful emotions arise in our mind and how we can understand and work with them.

The Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths were the subject of the Buddha's first teaching to the five ascetics shortly after he attained enlightenment. In this teaching the Venerable Steve Carlier presents a thorough examination of the Four Noble Truths covering many fundamental ideas in Buddhist philosophy such as Samsara, Nirvana and the Eightfold Path.

Stages of the Path

Root text

Lam Rim by Tsongkhapa

Commitment to the Buddhist Path

Talk on monasticism

Venerable Tenzin Palmo

Venerable Tenzin Palmo was raised in London and while in her teens she became a Buddhist. In 1964, at the age of twenty, she decided to go to India to pursue her spiritual path.

There she met her Guru, His Eminence the 8th Khamtrul Rinpoche and became one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. She remained with Khamtrul Rinpoche and his community in Himachal Pradesh, northern India, for six years and then he directed her to the Himalayan valley of Lahaulin order to undertake more intensive practice. Tenzin Palmo stayed in a small monastery there for several years, remaining in retreat during the long winter months. Then, seeking for more seclusion and better conditions for practice, she found a nearby cave where she remained for another 12 years, the last 3 years in strict retreat. She left India in 1988 and went to stay in Italy where she taught at various Dharma centres.

Before H.E. Khamtrul Rinpoche passed away in 1980, he had on several occasions requested Tenzin Palmo to start a nunnery. In 1993, the Lamas of the Khampagar monastery in Himachal Pradesh India again made this request. This time Tenzin Palmo was ready to take on the formidable task and she began slowly collecting funds. Tenzin Palmo also agreed to cooperate with Vicki Mackenzie in the writing of her life story 'Cave in the Snow' and the book has been of immense value in raising interest in and support for Tenzin Palmo's nunnery project. In 1999 she established a Charitable Trust in India to establish Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery.

Official Website

Teachings by Venerable Tenzin Palmo

Cave in the Snow Talk

Author Vicki MacKenzie briefly introduces her book "Cave in the Snow" and her initial encounters with Buddhist teachings and with the English nun, Venerable Tenzin Palmo, the subject of her book. She then proceeds to introduce a talk given by Venerable Tenzin Palmo herself.

Venerable Thubten Chodron

Born in 1950, Venerable Thubten Chodron grew up near Los Angeles. In 1975, she attended a meditation course given by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and subsequently went to their monastery in Nepal to continue to study and practice Buddha's teachings. In 1977, she received the sramanerika (novice) ordination and, in 1986, went to Taiwan to take the bhikshuni (full) ordination.

She has studied and practiced Buddhism of the Tibetan tradition for many years, as well as teaching in Europe and Asia and in the United States. Ven. Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha's teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well-known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. Recognising the importance and necessity of a monastery for Westerners training in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, she is currently involved in founding Sravasti Abbey.

Her books include Open Heart, Clear Mind, Buddhism for Beginners, Working with Anger, How To Free Your Mind: Tara The Liberator, and Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig.

Official Website
Sravasti Abbey

Teachings by Venerable Thubten Chodron

Karma and Rebirth

The question of rebirth is often quite difficult for westerners since our cultural background tends to look at the existence of only this life. There is also a general attitude that if something cannot be seen with our eyes it doesn't exist.

Although Buddhism is very concerned with the concepts of rebirth and karma, it is still possible to use many of the psychological techniques of Buddhism to deal with our daily life problems without having to take on board these traditional concepts.

However, if the idea of past and future lives makes sense, it makes the techniques the Buddha desceribes a lot easier to apply and can answer a lot of questions.

Purification

Karma is not predestination. Just as when a farmer plants a seed, the seed is going to turn into a plant if all the cooperative conditions come together. But if the farmer burns the seed then nothing is going to grow.

In the same way, our actions leave imprints on our minds which, unless we destroy them, will turn into experiences. Positive actions that we create without being under the influence of delusions will ripen into positive experiences unless we burn them by destructive emotions such as anger and hatred or by generating wrong views. In the same way, destructive actions will bring an unpleasant result unless we engage in some kind of purification practice.

Yangsi Rinpoche

Born in Katmandu, Nepal, in 1968, Yangsi Rinpoche was recognized as the reincarnation of the Geshe Ngawang Gendum, a scholar from western Tibet, at the age of six. He trained in the monastic system for 25 years, starting his studies at age ten, and graduating in 1995 from Sera Je Monastery in South India. After completing more studies, in 1998 he came to the West. Yangsi Rinpoche (whose name means "precious reincarnation") had the desire to teach and benefit Western students of the Buddha dharma, and since then he has traveled extensively in America and Europe. For five years he was the resident teacher at Deer Park Buddhist Center in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Yangsi Rinpoche was also the Spiritual Director for Ganden Shedrup Ling Buddhist Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Recently at that center, the first group of students completed the initial phase of a two-year program of study and practice. This program is based on traditional Tibetan curriculum, but it is tailored to modern students of the Buddha dharma. Yangsi Rinpoche is President of and on the faculty at the Maitripa Institute, a new Buddhist University in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches regularly. Yangsi Rinpoche teaches in English, and has found a ready Western audience for his unique blend of the Dharma and of Western culture. His embodiment of the compassion and wisdom of the Buddhist path is obvious to all who he comes into contact with. Rinpoche has a deep understanding of the traditional teachings and a gift for explaining them in contemporary language. He also has a good understanding of Western metaphors and the Western mind.

Teachings by Yangsi Rinpoche

Education in the West

Yangsi Rinpoche will be giving a talk about Maitripa University and Dharma education in the West

Heart Sutra Chant

Chanting of the Heart Sutra by Yangsi Rinpoche. Recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche @ the FPMT.

Root text

Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra by Avalokiteśvara

What is Enlightenment

Wistreich & Tate

Andy is a FPMT recognised retreat leader and has completed the full approximation retreats for Kalachakra and Guhyasamaja. He is a well known practitioner of Kalachakra and leads retreats in the practice around the world. He is also an FPMT touring teacher again with many commitments worldwide. We are very fortunate that he has been able to make time in his very busy schedule to teach on this, one of his favourite texts. Andy is well known and highly respected for his greatly compassionate teaching style.

Shan Tate was hosting the Manjushri (now Jamyang) London meetings in her flat in November 1980, when Andy Wistreich visited London for a weekend teaching, and the two of them got together. Then through the eighties they helped organise the centre, together with Robin Bath, Mike Murray and others. This is how they received teachings on The Sublime Continuum from then resident teacher, Geshe Wangchen.
At the end of that decade they moved to Somerset and started the Saraswati Buddhist Group, where they have led Dharma courses together since 1992. Now they are offering courses together in other parts of the world, for example recently in Israel and soon in Spain.

Sublime Continuum

The Fourth part of the first chapter of Maitreya’s Sublime Continuum teaching is the part that sets out the teaching of Buddha Nature, our inalienable ability to become fully enlightened for the sake of others should we choose to make the effort. It is a key part of Tibetan Buddhist teaching, introducing us to the concept that unhelpful mental activity is superficial and removable and that the most subtle most basic nature of our awareness is good, unsullied and pure.

It also acts as a bridge to the teachings on subtle levels of mind and how to activate them found in the Highest Yoga Tantra teachings.