Many, many students who start at Maitripa College approach me with this question early on, often with some anxiety.
And the answer is absolutely not.
At Maitripa College, we have no vested interest in what belief system you ascribe to or do not ascribe to. However, to be transparent, Maitripa College is a Buddhist environment, and we do follow Tibetan Buddhist religious norms in our meditation hall and other spaces. You are welcome to join in as you feel comfortable and you are also welcome to abstain. We only ask that you are respectful of everyone around you.
I also think it is important to note here that the Nalanda tradition of Buddhist thought, from which Tibetan Buddhism is directly derived, is a dialectical tradition that relies entirely on the questioning, discussion, and debate of the statements found in the texts. In the Ghanavyuha Sutra (Sutra of Dense Array), Buddha himself famously said: “O bhikshus and wise men, just as a goldsmith would test his gold by burning, cutting, and rubbing it, so you must examine my words and accept them, but not merely out of reverence for me.”
The use of reasoning and dialectical discourse as a method to understand the teachings is a hallmark of this tradition, and in that spirit we welcome and invite questions and challenges grounded in a genuine interest in understanding in our classes, discussion sections, and community. Without such dialogue, from our perspective, we could hardly claim to be an educational institution.