What need is there to say more?
The childish work for their own benefit,
The Buddhas work for the benefit of others.
Just look at the difference between them.
– Shantideva
In Gratitude . . . a series focusing on the incredible gifts offered by a handful of people over the past 10 years to create the unprecedented project of Maitripa College.
This collection is a physical representation of the incredible dedication, expertise, love, and determination a very special group of people have brought to the Maitripa College project for only one purpose—the benefit of others. This page is intended as a focal point from which to recognize and rejoice in those efforts, and to inspire all those connected to Maitripa College to remember how far we have come, and dream about how far we will go.
Maitripa College Home Page
From Maitripa ALL NEWS AND MEDIA News and Announcements News Feed to Come Real Outcomes, Meaningful Transformation Just ask our students and alumni. 99% Deepened contemplative practice 95% Applied learning directly in their work or service 99% Would recommend Maitripa to others 95% Graduate satisfaction overall Data from the Maitripa College alumni survey.
Action Research Project (Capstone)
The Action Research Project is where the MA in Applied Buddhism comes to life. This capstone integrates students’ development as scholar–meditator–practitioners through a values-based, action-oriented research process. Grounded in action research methodology and contemplative inquiry, students design a practitioner-led project to improve practice within a specific community, institutional, ministerial, or social context. Through cycles of inquiry, action, observation, and reflection, students identify a lived-practice concern, situate it in relevant scholarly and Buddhist contexts, and develop an ethically grounded plan for action and investigation. Emphasis is placed on reflexivity, relational accountability, and integrating Buddhist values in both the research design and the researcher’s stance.
Minimum Technology Requirements
The Maitripa College hybrid low-residency model offers students both onsite and online course delivery formats, creating the conditions for an educational journey grounded in spiritual and community formation. A computer (ideally a laptop) is required for all degree, continuing education, and auditing students. This document describes the minimum technology requirements students must meet in order to ensure a reliable and effective learning experience at Maitripa College. Students are responsible for ensuring their equipment and internet access meet these requirements before beginning coursework. 1. Recommended Student Computer Specification The following specifications ensure smooth performance for online learning, document editing, web browsing, video conferencing, and multitasking between applications: Operating System: Windows 11, macOS 12+, or Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+, Fedora 35+, or similar modern distributions) Processor: Intel Core i5 (11th gen or newer) or AMD Ryzen 5 5000 series or Apple M1/M2 RAM: 8 GB minimum, 16 GB preferred Storage: 256 GB SSD minimum, 512 GB preferred Display: 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) Webcam: 720p or better (required for synchronous sessions) Internet: 10+ Mbps broadband (wired or reliable Wi-Fi) Audio: Built-in speakers/microphone or USB headset 2. Required Institutional Platforms Maitripa College uses the following platforms to deliver coursework, facilitate communication, and support academic operations. All students must be able to access and use these platforms. Account credentials and on-boarding instructions [...]
Spiritual Formation Lab
What We Mean by “Spiritual Formation” At Maitripa College, spiritual formation is an intentional, lineage-rooted, and assessable process that integrates academic study, contemplative practice, ethical development, and, where appropriate, professional identity. Formation is not an abstract ideal or private devotional experience. It is a structured and supported developmental process through which students gradually integrate Buddhist wisdom into their lives, relationships, and work. Rooted in the Tibetan Buddhist lamrim (“Stages of the Path”) tradition of Atiśa and Tsongkhapa, and expressed through a contemporary four-stage developmental scaffold, spiritual formation unfolds progressively and recursively throughout a student’s time in the program. A Lineage-Grounded, Contemporary Process The lamrim tradition presents the path as a gradual cultivation of ethical grounding, mental clarity, compassion, and wisdom. At Maitripa, this traditional framework informs a modern developmental arc that moves: From ethical grounding and identity clarity Through mental stabilization and emotional maturity Toward compassionate expansion and relational capacity Into integrative wisdom and service This process is not linear in a rigid sense. Students revisit these stages repeatedly as their understanding deepens and their responsibilities evolve. Spiritual formation does not require religious identification. Students engage teachings within an immersive Tibetan Buddhist educational environment where lineage provides coherence, ethical context, and relational accountability. Individuals of diverse backgrounds are welcomed into serious study and practice without pressure toward formal [...]
Low-Residency Transformation at Maitripa College
A Mission-Rooted, Student-Centered Evolution of Graduate Education Forming Scholar-Practitioners for Our Time Maitripa College’s Master of Arts degree program is a rigorous course of study grounded in traditional Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and practice directly from Tibetan lineage holders. The MA in Buddhist Studies is a 44-credit graduate degree under the direction of Yangsi Rinpoche, combining rigorous academic study with meditation and community service requirements to offer an integrated education in Buddhist Studies. Our curriculum couples meditative experience of the path with training to integrate Buddhist principles into active service, grounded in philosophical study, logic, contemplative analysis, and research. Graduates are formed as scholar-practitioners prepared for doctoral work, translation, leadership in Buddhist communities, and service in the wider world. The Low-Residency Transformation strengthens this formation model while expanding access, flexibility, and long-term sustainability. What Is Changing? Maitripa College is transitioning our MA and MDiv programs into a low-residency model designed to uphold our contemplative, lineage-rooted approach to education while expanding access, flexibility, and sustainability. Why We Are Making This Change This transformation allows us to align with accreditation best practices, integrate emerging educational technologies, and reach a broader community of practitioners and scholars—while preserving our traditional strengths in scholarship, meditation, and service. What Will Not Change Our mission, our lineage, and the heart of our educational model remain unchanged. The [...]
Dr. Willis on Scholar-Practitioners
Please enjoy this short clip:
Dr. Michael Ium (1984-2025)
The Maitripa College community mourns the sudden loss of a brilliant and most kind alum, Dr. Michael Ium (MA 2014). We delighted in his passion for Buddhist Studies and community while he was a student here, and have been so proud of his subsequent achievements and promising career. Michael will be missed by his many friends here. We also share the information with you that a Gofundme page has been started to help Michael’s mother, Young Hee Ium, shoulder the significant expenses facing her, such as repatriation of Michael’s body, funeral expenses, etc. Please offer what you can by clicking here. Dr. Michael Ium Michael Ium was born and raised in Toronto as the child of South Korean immigrants. He studied psychology at the University of Toronto, earning a BA in 2008. Becoming disillusioned with his subsequent career as a professional poker player, he wrote, “As a backpacker going through a quarter-life crisis, my interest in Tibetan Buddhism and the Geluk tradition was sparked by a ten-day ‘Discovering Buddhism’ retreat at Kopan Monastery [in Nepal] in 2011.” It was there that he learned about Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon, and enrolled that fall. Michael completed a Master of Arts in Buddhist Studies at Maitripa College, in 2014. He then received a prestigious Chancellor’s Fellowship and entered the PhD program [...]
Lapis Spring 2025
Please enjoy our Spring 2025 issue of Lapis The Learning Story, A Digital Journal. This issue features articles by Maitripa scholars on the topic of "Translating Classical Tibetan at Maitripa College." Click on "read now" and use the quick menu across the bottom of your screen for viewing options.
His Holiness Long Life ~ Mani Mantra Recitation Initiative
Dear Friends, You are warmly invited to join the FPMT community in this very special His Holiness Long Life ~ Mani Mantra Recitation Initiative, where students are invited to recite the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra. The total of all the recitations will be offered to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama on the 6th of July for his 90th birthday. The motivation of this initiative is to offer these mantras for His Holiness long, healthy and stable life, for the fulfillment of all His projects, for world peace/universal compassion and to fulfill Lama Zopa Rinpoche's wishes by offering our practices to His Holiness. To join, just write your name and at the end of each month write your total monthly mantra recitations in this spreadsheet (access from computers only, not phones). Please write the total MANTRAS you recite each month. For example if you recite one mala a day in March, (if your mala has 108 beads) that would be 108 * 31: write 3,348 in the March column beside your name, if you continue with your recitations, do similar for the next months. You can join for one, two, three or for all four months. Make sure that by 30th of June you have written down the total of your mantra recitations. Whatever you can is of great value!!!! For any further questions about how this practice works please write to: hello@yeshinnorbu.co.se Thank you so very much!!! Yeshin Norbu [...]
Thank You for Joining the Maitripa Membership Mandala!
Thank you for joining the Maitripa Membership Mandala! You will be hearing more from us very soon!
Maitripa Mandala Membership
ANNOUNCING! Under the direction and vision of Yangsi Rinpoche, the mandala of Maitripa College is growing! We are excited to bring you the opportunity of Maitripa Mandala Membership in order to connect you more closely to our vision, and to increase support for sustaining and expanding our many projects and the benefits they bring to countless beings, and especially to you, our friends! MOVING TOWARD A FISCALLY SUSTAINABLE MODEL While the Mandala’s vision and potential is unlimited, our present resources are not! In fact, Maitripa College has been subsidizing community programming for many years. We realize that in order to live our values in our operations, and to create an innovative and transformative institution for the study and practice of dharma that will endure long beyond our lifetimes, we must focus on achieving a more fiscally sustainable model. To this end, this year, we are introducing the Maitripa Mandala Membership opportunity, along with transparent suggested donation tiers for registration events, in order to sustain and strengthen our foundation, the College and Jokhang community. Generous patrons like you will enable us to go beyond breaking even to actualize our growth potential, while also offering support for expanding the mandala through the creation of the Maitripa Tara School and the Maitripa Rabjungma Community. We are also introducing new ways to connect! [...]
Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe
Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe was born in 1930 in Lho-Kha, Central Tibet and became a monk at the age of 13. He is a genuine contemplative master and a member of the last generation extensively trained in old Tibet. He received his monastic education at Drepung Loseling Monastery and, in 1969, was awarded the Geshe Lharampa, the highest degree of scholarship conferred within the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism. He is an emeritus professor at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (formerly formerly called Central University for Tibetan Studies) as a professor of the Indian Tradition of Buddhist Philosophy. He is an eminent scholar of both Madhyamaka and Indian Buddhist studies. His scholarly work includes a translation of The Essence of Good Explanation of Definitive and Interpretable Meanings (Tib. Lek-Shey Nying-Po) by Tsongkhapa into Hindi, and A Commentary on the Rice Seedlings Sutra (Skt. Salistamba Sutra) by Vasubhandu. He has facilitated numerous other research works, including the complete translation of Lama Tsongkhapa’s The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Tib. Lam Rim Chen Mo), a major project undertaken by The Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in New Jersey, where he teaches regularly.
Education of the Heart Children’s Curriculum
"Education of the Heart" is a unique and enriching curriculum designed by educators and spiritual teachers to support the development of young people’s minds. Rooted in Buddhist thought and inspired by the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, this program aims to nurture the hearts and minds of young participants. Among the learning objectives of this curriculum are a focus on mindfulness, friendship, empathy, wisdom, compassion, and love. This curriculum aims to provide a nurturing and supportive environment in which children will thrive as they learn valuable life skills, develop emotional intelligence, and internalize essential inner values, preparing them for a compassionate and mindful future. Education of the Heart Summer Camp Curriculum V1.0 Summer 2023 V2.0 Summer 2024 In Summer 2023, Maitripa College piloted its Education of the Heart curriculum at the Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association (NWTCA) Summer Camp in Washougal, Washington. Over 50 Tibetan young people ages 5-16 attended five days of sessions exploring themes crucial to personal and social development. This opportunity was extremely precious and a joyful opportunity for our collaborative of teachers, students, and practitioners from Maitripa College. As a result of the work over centuries of so many Tibetans, and as a result of the generosity of the Tibetan people from the 20th century into our present day, and especially as a result of [...]
Venerable Tenzin Drolma
Tenzin Drolma was born in Chicago, US, in 1961. She received her undergraduate degree in religious studies, philosophy and psychology. She has graduate degrees in Counseling Psychology from the University of Denver and in Buddhist Studies from Maitripa College. For 25 years she worked in the mental health field. Ven. Drolma was ordained as a nun in the Tibetan tradition in 2009. She moved to Vajrapani Institute and was resident sangha and assistant SPC for four years. From 2015 until 2022, she taught Introduction to Buddhism at Tushita Meditation Centre in India. Ven. Drolma’s teaching style includes the psychological aspects of Buddhism and she has been described as a very approachable teacher. While strongly based in the tradition of the Gelukpa school, her teaching emphasizes those aspects most helpful to modern students.
Compassionately Present with Grief as a Buddhist Chaplain
by Leigh Miller, PhD (Spring 2024) ... These were the gifts of grief ... And yet, the experience has also deepened my capacity to touch grief–my own, and others’ –in my clinical work as a Chaplain ... In my second unit of clinical pastoral education (clinical chaplaincy training), I had many opportunities to reflect on being a Buddhist, a mother, and on some experiences with death and grief. I had already been a Buddhist for almost 30 years, and a mother for almost 15 years. In the care of midwives, I gave birth naturally to two children, now ages 13 and 15. Between those two extraordinarily healthy pregnancies, I suffered a miscarriage. The thoroughly overpowering, singularly focused sorrow and loss that blew through me was shocking in its power, far beyond what I could have expected to grieve after less than two months of pregnancy. Part biology and hormones, part investment in the meanings I was starting to construct for this new life, this grief experience gave sobering depth to “motherhood”. In my bones, my two living children are inconceivably precious to me. I recall their early childhoods with much tenderness and wonder, remember the frustration and exhaustion of navigating it as a single working mother in graduate school, and marvel at their unfurling personhood. In our everyday [...]
Planned Giving: Legacy Gifts
One simple, flexible way to ensure that you are able to make an impact is to designate a gift to Maitripa College in your will or living trust, known as a charitable bequest. By including a bequest to Maitripa College in your will or living trust, you are ensuring that we can continue to impact the lives of students for years to come. How to do this? While planning or updating your will, simply tell your attorney that you want to leave a gift to Maitripa College. If you like, yourself or your representative can reach out by emailing education@maitripa.org to let us know. Also, inquire with your representative about Beneficiary Designations, which allow you to clearly identify how specific assets will be distributed upon your death.
Education of the Heart
Education of the Heart at Maitripa College is based on the aspiration to educate individuals in principles that develop integrity, virtue, and character in addition to intellectual knowledge. In the words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from Beyond Religion: “Just as we take for granted the need to acquire proficiency in the basic academic subjects, I am hopeful that a time will come when we can take it for granted that children will learn, as part of their school curriculum, the indispensability of inner values such as love, compassion, justice, and forgiveness.” Continuing Education at Maitripa College (Non-Degree Students; Open Enrollment) If completing a degree program is not your end goal, consider taking a class as a Continuing Education (CE) Student (Oregon resident; in person only) or Auditing Student (Non-Oregon resident; online only). Most courses offered through Maitripa College’s transformative education are available through a simple online application and registration process. Please contact us at any time to explore your options to enroll in future courses as a CE student. >MORE Open Community of Friendship, Learning, and Growth At Maitripa College, we view the interaction and relationship with the community as a major condition for the learning that happens here on all levels. Our community is comprised of degree program students, continuing [...]
Guru Puja Resources
About Guru Puja (Lama Chöpa) at Maitripa College Traditionally, the Guru Puja is celebrated on the 10th and 25th days of the Tibetan calendar. This puja lasts around 2 hours and consists of the recitation of a sadhana, visualizations, and prayers, including taking refuge and generating bodhicitta. Mantras, praises and requests are also usually recited. You may participate at whatever level you feel comfortable. Please check the community calendar here for upcoming Guru Puja dates. Guru Puja/Lama Chopa Practice Text (click here to download) “I thought to mention the importance of practicing Guru Puja, which was advised by Pabongka Rinpoche as the most important essential practice in our life, the integration of guru yoga, lamrim and thought transformation. It is Gyalwa Ensapa's traditional practice, and it contains the quickest means to achieve enlightenment. Guru Puja is the most profound secret that all those great yogis, Saraha, Naropa, Tilopa, Marpa, Milarepa, and all those in the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition who achieved enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerated time, including Lama Tsongkhapa disciple’s disciple, Gyalwa Ensapa, Drubchen Chökyi Dorje and all those many others—the essential thing that made them achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerated time is by this practice, the guru yoga. Among the guru yogas, this guru yoga [...]
Buddhist Spiritual Care Grief Support Group
View the Community Calendar for Upcoming Dates for This Group In these times, grief is common, but rarely spoken. Our hearts may feel disconnected from others we know, from our dharma practice, and from our daily lives. When gathering for sharing and listening in sacred space and in relationships built on dharma, we may experience a reconnection. This is a practice of deep listening, compassionate connection, and supportive presence. All are welcome to a facilitated sharing and listening circle centered on grief. We invite participants to join us in beginning and ending each session with contemplative practices and offer the opportunity to everyone to mindfully share our experiences of loss, or just compassionately listen. You may be grieving the loss of a specific individual(s) or pet who has died; or have lost a job, relationship, or the security of a home or health; you may be supporting someone who is dying or grieving; you may be feeling grief for the planet and for the lives of so many beings suffering the impacts of climate change, war, and injustice. A Buddhist spiritual care grief support group will continue to meet monthly at Maitripa College. These groups will be facilitated by people with a combination of religious and contemporary spiritual care qualifications. We will gather in a quiet space at Maitripa [...]
The Hardest Teaching (Reflections on the Passing of our Teacher)
The Hardest Teaching: An Attempt at Clarity from a Muddy Mind (Reflections on the Passing of our Teacher) by Namdrol Miranda Adams (May 31, 2023) For many days I have been aspiring to put into writing what this has been like. But I’ve been unable to; instead I’ve swung between the states of deepest grief and quiet resignation. Neither of those places makes me feel like writing a single word, particularly. But today I will try to express a few thoughts, briefly. I’ve been deeply considering how foolish I have been in this lifetime to think, with some assurance, that at certain points in this existence my heart would never break again. If I step back a bit I see that I have made a version of this error frequently, and with abandon. When I was small I thought for certain I would never learn to drive. In my twenties, I thought I would never leave my sweet and humble meditation room. And even today I am guilty of this assumption, as I sometimes look at the gifts around me and revel in how I have, finally, attained them, for good. The assumption that things will always stay the same has been such a gentle, constant companion in my life! And although I’ve done meditation practice for years and can [...]
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Maitripa College
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