Drupon Khenpo: Teachings on Buddha Nature and Mind Training

Kagyu Changchub Chuling is thrilled to announce that Drupon Khenpo Lodrö Namgyal has accepted our invitation to visit North America and will be teaching at KCC over two weekends in late August to guide and inspire our Dharma practice. Each weekend of teaching will have its own distinct theme, and attendance can be for one or both of the weekends.

These weekends of teaching will be held at KCC and via Zoom, with the schedule listed below. Please select during registration which weekend(s) you will be attending, along with whether you plan to attend in person or over Zoom.

Fridays: 6:30–8:30pm
Saturdays and Sundays: 10:00–12:00pm, 2:30–4:00pm, and 4:30–6:00pm

Buddha Nature: Our Original Purity
Friday–Sunday, August 21–23

The teachings on buddha nature tell us that the nature of the mind of all beings is exactly the same as the nature of mind that Buddha Shakyamuni discovered some 2,600 years ago. Upon his realization, the Buddha described his experience when proclaiming: “Profound, peaceful, beyond concepts, luminous, and uncompounded; I have discovered this nectar-like truth…”.

This means that our process of awakening is not about searching for something that exists outside of us. Awakening simply entails progressively removing the veils and misconceptions that keep us from directly experiencing our deepest, truest nature. All of the teachings of Buddhism are supports for priming our being to be more capable of seeing what we always have been.

The Essence of Mind Training: Radical Openheartedness as Transformation
Concluding with the Bodhisattva Vow
Friday–Sunday, August 28–30

The genre of teachings known as Mind Training is considered the very essence of Mahayana Buddhism. Mind Training provides instructions and practices for realizing both the wisdom of ultimate bodhichitta and the compassion of relative bodhichitta. Mind Training’s many aphorisms provide us with various tools to utilize our everyday experiences as means to reduce our self-grasping tendencies and to increase our loving-kindness and compassion.

These teachings on relative bodhichitta are like a handbook for life between meditation sessions. Many students have discovered the profundity of these instructions and benefited deeply from their accessibility and practicality. The implementation of the Mind Training curriculum is critical to progressing along the Buddhist path and further allows us to be more skillful companions in our broader and more intimate communities.

To deepen our commitment to this path of wisdom and compassion, Drupon Khenpo will offer the opportunity to formally take the Bodhisattva Vow on the final afternoon of these teachings. In this ceremony, we affirm our aspiration to attain awakening for the benefit of all beings and pledge to engage in the practices that manifest it. It will serve as an auspicious conclusion to two special weekends of Dharma sharing! Those who do not wish to take the vow may still attend the ceremony.

Drupon Khenpo Lodrö Namgyal
“Drupon Khenpo” is actually two titles denoting his spiritual training. He first earned the title of khenpo after excelling in scholarship as part of the initial class of enrollees at Rumtek Monastery’s monastic college or shedra. He subsequently entered the traditional three-year retreat under the direction of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche at Pullahari Monastery. Upon completion of these three years of meditation practice, he was appointed drupon or “retreat master” by Rinpoche. Thus, Drupon Khenpo’s teachings combine his vast scholarship with deep experience in meditation, both of which are enhanced by his joyous and humorous personality. Upon his retirement from leading annual classes and retreats for foreigners at Pullahari Monastery in Nepal, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche appointed Drupon Khenpo as his successor, and he has been teaching in this capacity since 2005.