Through service, we strive to engage in our environments with a simultaneous hope to bring about positive change and a complete separation from expectation. Relationship is paramount to service, and the practice of service, on the basis of powerful spiritual formation, helps us shift our understanding and ideals into action in the world to benefit others. Follow the links below to explore some foundational knowledge on service related to the Maitripa College tradition.
Namdrol Miranda Adams is the Dean of Education and a founder of Maitripa College. Since 1998 she has dedicated her life to the study and practice of the Tibetan language and the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. She has worked extensively with the texts of the tradition as an editor and translator of dozens of publications, has completed the major retreats on the sutra and tantra traditions of the lineage, and was ordained as a Buddhist nun for 7 years. She is currently completing her doctoral work in Educational Leadership at the University of Portland. Her work is focused on contemplative education, pedagogy, and building sustainable and socially responsible institutions of higher education. >MORE
Lineage: Love, Transformation, Action by Namdrol Miranda Adams
One of my first experiences with lineage was in 1997, in New York City, at the end of a three day teaching on the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras and Buddhist Refuge with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. At the end of the teachings, His Holiness and an entourage of about twelve Tibetan monks were packing up to leave. I remember remaining in the theater, watching them until the last, and walking outside to see them exit the stage doors with their belongings, get into cars, and drive away. One of them saw me watching and stopped, looked deeply and kindly at me, and smiled. Then he continued loading up the cars. As they pulled away from the theater, I was crying.
I remember a distinct, powerful, and quite surprising longing that arose as foremost in my mind and heart at that time: I wanted so much to go with them. Actually, I felt as if I should be with them…
…In retrospect, this was an early experience with a connection to a Buddhist lineage. Formally, a Buddhist lineage is a line of transmission of the Buddhist teaching that is traced back generations to Buddha himself. There is a great deal of conversation, debate, and discussion about lineage in Buddhism, and in Tibetan Buddhism it is particularly important.
The Maitripa College Service Curriculum
Our Students and Alumni in Service to the World
Click below to explore ways that Maitripa College students and alumni bring what they have learned with us into the world to benefit others:
Lineage: Meditation
Lineage: Service
