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Chakrasamvara Empowerment & Teachings

with Drupon Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche and Pema Khandro

April 25-27, 2025

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Course Details
Chakrasamvara Empowerment is an initiation into the inner tantra practice of generation stage meditation, led by Drupon Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche and Lama Pema Khandro. This exceptional program features instructions, empowerment, and meditations of Chakrasamvara. It will be led by Drupon Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche who will give the empowerment and Lama Pema Khandro who will give the instructions for practice. We are honored to host the most excellent interpreter, Ina Bieler! The empowerment will be translated into lucid and easy to understand English.

What is Chakrasamvara Meditation

The Chakramsamvara meditation focuses on the non-dual union of the great hero and heroine, Chakrasamvara and Vajrayogini (as Vajravarahi). They are the two key deities of esoteric Buddhist meditation. This is the practice that raises the innate wisdom to persevere, even in the face of tremendous difficulties. As the great hero, Chakrasamvara calls forward innate stability and skill. As the wheel of great bliss, Chakrasamvara calls forward the joy of non-dual union of male and female energies within being.

Deity Yoga

Tibetan tantric meditation unravels the root of suffering through addressing the mind’s relationship with self and identity. Through the deity yoga practice (yidam), tantric meditations provide a direct and potent pathway way to go beyond the limiting concept of self to disinhibit the profound wisdom within. By understanding the transformative potential of how things appear in deity yoga, one enters into a direct an experiential engagement with the view of emptiness and appearance as co-emergent, non-dual, and the basis of liberation. This wisdom is not created or constructed, it is the authentic, uncontrived wisdom that lives within being. This is not merely a mental exercise but instead, it is a transformation of embodied experience. By stabilizing deity yoga in one’s body and mind, the inner wisdom manifests as the felt sense of pervasive presence.

April 25-27

  • 9am-12pm San Francisco (PST)

  • 12-3pm New York (EST)

  • 5-8pm London (GMT +1)

About the Teachers

Drupon Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche

Drupon Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche

Tibetan Lama & Spiritual Director of Chicago Ratna Shri Center

Drupon Rinpoche received teachings on the Fivefold Path of Mahamudra and Kunsang Lama’s Words of Profound Instruction, Dzogchen’s Great Completion Parting from Samsara and Nirvana, Pointing Out the Nature of Mind, and other teachings from Tulku Nyendrak Gyaltsen Rinpoche. Rinpoche has also received Chakrasamvara according to Drilbupa, including the empowerment, scriptural transmission, and pith instructions from Tulku Thogme Rinpoche.
Drupon Rinchen Dorjee joined the Drikung Kagyu Institute in 1993, and has received instruction in philosophy, Gongchig, Theckchen Tenying, Dhagpo Thargyan, and Uttaratantra from Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen and other profound teachers of the Lineage. In 1995 Drupon received full ordination vows from His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche, and in the same year accomplished the ngondro practices to mahamudra and the grand mantra recitation of Chakrasamvara. In 1996, he received initiation into the Profound Path of the Six Yogas of Naropa. Drupon Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche has completed two (2) three-year retreat courses, one at Almora and one at Labchi, the holy retreat place of the great yogi, Milarepa. He has received profound instructions too numerous to mention during these retreats. In 2005, he received the five-deities Hevajra according to Marpa’s tradition of empowerment, transmission and instructions from His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche, and in 2006 he completed the grand mantra recitation of glorious Hevajra’s fire puja at the Almora retreat center.

Pema Khandro, PhD

Pema Khandro, PhD

Founder of the Buddhist Studies Institute

Pema Khandro is an internationally renowned teacher and scholar of Buddhist philosophy. She is the founder of Ngakpa International and its three projects, The Buddhist Studies Institute, Dakini Mountain and the Yogic Medicine Institute. In her work as a Buddhist teacher she is an authorized Lama and lineage holder of the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions and was enthroned to carry on the lineage of her predecessor, the first Pema Khandro, an early twentieth century yogini from Eastern Tibet. She has led a vibrant world-wide community since 1999. Through the Buddhist Studies Institute, she also offers a complete curriculum of training in Tibetan meditation and Buddhist Philosophy. She has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, a Master’s degree specializing in Tibetan studies, and a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Virginia. Her scholarly research focuses on the history of Dzogchen and on Women in Tibetan Buddhism.

Prerequisites

This event is open to the public. In order to practice the generation stage Chakrasamvara meditation, Drupon Rinpoche requires that one must have completed the ngondro, or preliminary practices, of Vajrayana first. One may, however, receive the empowerment and teachings before completing ngondro to receive the blessing and prepare for later practice and to build a strong dharma connection with Chakrasamvara. To do the practice in an ongoing way to accumulate the mantra, one has to have completed ngondro first. For more info on how to complete ngondro with the Buddhist Studies Institute: Ngondro Training

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Tuition

Early Enrollment Tuition by 3/10 – $199

Regular Tuition after 3/10 – $277

Financial Aid Considerations All course costs are set at a minimum fee already, with financial aid built into all tuition rates. Because we are a non-profit organization, the costs of all activities and overhead of our organization must be covered by the participants of the courses or donations and all courses are offered at below cost. For those who are experiencing genuine financial hardship and wish to enroll in the course, Scholarship applications are available. Applications must be received in advance. Programs are always free for monastics. 

Financial Aid Application: https://forms.gle/xwYaTamt2autMLKa9

Monastic Scholarship Application: https://forms.gle/yudBajX8wXXXsB2FA

Notes about Online Teaching

Disclaimer: Note from Pema Khandro About Online Teachings
“Online retreats and teachings are a contested issue in Tibetan Buddhism when it comes to Vajrayana. Some people are staunchly against it, others favor it. This event is co-sponsored by the Buddhist Studies Institute, our project which is founded on the idea that online technology can transform the way that Buddhist teachings are offered to make them more accessible. This theory has been proved through ample evidence of our courses which have a diverse student body reflecting diverse racial, ethnic, social, economic, gender and gender orientations. Bodies that are differently abled have attended online programs when in-person events would be too difficult. Single mothers who are not able to leave their child alone for a weekend have attended. Participants in ten countries have attended, making connections across cultures. Therefore, the accessibility and potential of online programs has been demonstrated to make a positive impact. 

I believe that the point of Buddhist teachings is to reduce suffering and promote peace and technology is a beautiful way to do that. The Buddha himself said that he would teach Buddhism in the language of every type of being. Technology is a new language, through which Buddhist training is being interpreted. 

At the heart of the debate about online programs is the fascinating question of what makes ‘transmission’ possible. In Tibet, India and Nepal, I have attended many empowerments where thousands of people received the ‘transmission’ even though many hundreds were not even in the building. Due to oversized crowds, they sit outside and sometimes watch on screens. Yet these empowerments are considered to be authentic empowerments due to the intention and connection.  How is this different from or the same as watching on screen from home while a program is broadcast live??? Out of great caution and respect I have primarily reserved the online programs for our weekly Wednesday night Buddhist philosophy study classes, since this question of what constitutes transmission is such a serious and profound one. However there are certain urgent occasions, when so many other Lamas are giving empowerments online that I have judged it suitable to host an online empowerment by a guest Lama or give a reading transmission.

I reject an overly reductionist assessment of the issue in binary terms and instead simultaneously respect both beliefs as true: that Vajrayana should be taught online and that it should not be taught online, according to the particular teacher, lineage and circumstances of the students. This school will respect diversity in ways of expressing dharma, each approach will have their place. In Vajrayana Bodhichitta is the most important matter and an extension of authentic bodhichitta will be to respect the diverse approaches of others without casting shade. 

Furthermore, I take comfort that all the teachings given in this program have, in recent times, been taught online by other important Lamas and teachers. I salute their bravery in paving the way and follow their example. I follow sentiments such as those by Garchen Rinpoche and Khenchen Tsultrim Lodro Rinpoche who have said that if the student has bodhichitta or a connection with the teacher then it can be just as powerful as in person. May Buddhism be an accessible resource to relieve suffering in all times to come and in all formats possible.”

– Pema Khandro

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