Recent Posts by Khenpo Karten Rinpoche and the MDC Volunteers
See more blog posts at http://www.khenpokarten.org/
The Yurt is Going Up!
There is a yurt raising underway! On Friday, Oct. 24th, 2025, the students of Lama Lakshey Zangpo began erecting the yurt that will be part of a retreat space in the Santa Cruz mountains--lovingly and
What is the Purpose of Retreat?
Usually, when I am not very busy and have time, I will go on retreats for two to three months in a year. But when I am busy I will make it a point to
The Essence of Dharma
The essence of Dharma is supreme bodhicitta. Banish the demon of ego-clinging ignorance! The essence of happiness is blissful mental peace. Strive to always settle in meditation within. Wherever you go, practice holy Dharma. Whoever
2025 Blessing of the Butterflies
The day was sunny and beautiful, and a crowd of about 25-30 people gathered for the 2025 Blessing of the Butterflies on Saturday, October 11th. This year, the Esselen tribal leader Louise Ramirez could not
Reflections on the 2nd Annual Northern California Dechen Shingdrup
ཁ་ལི་ཧྥོ་ཉའི་བདེ་ཆེན་ཞིང་སྒྲུབ་ཆེན་མོ་ཐེངས་གཉིས་པ་ལེགས་གྲུབ་བྱུང་བའི་དགེ་བས་དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མ་དམ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ཚེ་བརྟན་པ་དང་། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པ་དར་ཞིང་འགྲོ་རྣམས་བདེ་དགའི་དཔལ་ལ་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་པའི་ཆེད་དུ་བསྔོའོ།། Tashi Delek! Sunday, October 5th, marked the conclusion of the second annual Amitabha Dechen Shingdrup in Northern California. It was held at the Sera Jey Foundation Dharma Center in El Cerrito (Bay Area)
The joys and sorrows of this short life
Don't forget sentient beings; always meditate on compassion for them. This is necessary to develop bodhicitta in your mind. Never forget death, always meditate on impermanence. That is necessary to give up attachments to the
Showing the Path to Liberation: An Exhortation To Seek Isolated Places
༅༅།། དབེན་པའི་གནས་ལ་བསྐུལ་མ་ཐར་པའི་ལམ་སྟོན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།། / Showing the Path to Liberation: An Exhortation To Seek Isolated Places / 勸居僻靜－示解脫道 ༅༅།། དབེན་པའི་གནས་ལ་བསྐུལ་མ་ཐར་པའི་ལམ་སྟོན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།། "Showing the Path to Liberation: An Encouragement To Seek Isolated Places" 勸居僻靜－示解脫道 ༡ མི་མེད་ལུང་པ་ཡི་དབེན་གནས། ། མ་བཅོས་རང་བྱུང་གི་ཡུལ་ལྗོངས། །
Leave your mind unmodified
Leave your mind unmodified, clarity-emptiness, without grasping Meditate that your body is that of the Yidam deity. Hear all sound and language as the mantra. Between sessions of meditation, view everything as dream, as illusion.