Ksitigarbha Tibetan Buddhist Center

525 Salazar Road, Suite B      PO Box 1434      Taos New Mexico 87571

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Ksitigarbha Tibetan Buddhist Center (KTBC) provides Buddhist teachings in the tradition of the 14th Dalai Lama and the founders of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. Our purpose is to foster love and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings.

The Center reopened in August 2022 for teachings and pujas, and we will continue to provide them online using Zoom.

For as long as space remains,
For as long as sentient beings remain,
Until then may I too remain
To dispel the miseries of the world.

Regular Teachings

We have regular teachings every Thursday, as shown below. Teachings are normally at our Gompa in Taos, and are also available on Zoom – click on the teaching you want to attend to get the zoom link. If you would like to receive our weekly Big Love email, please contact us at breathe@taosnet.com to receive it.

November – December 2024

Geshe Sherab’s last teaching of the year, on November 7, introduces us to Tantra, and talks about its importance in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. There will be a celebration of his time with us this year on Friday the 8th – please join us at the Farmhouse Cafe in El Prado at 9 am if you are in town…

November 14th will be a movie night, Gompa only, with popcorn and lively discussion afterward.

On November 21 we start a series of four teachings with Venerable Angie Muir, currently the resident teacher at Vajrapani Institute in the Bay area of California. Her topic will be ‘The Green Tara Practice: A Transformation of Heart and Mind.’ 

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of Green Tara practice within the context of the teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Green Tara, a powerful female deity in Tibetan Buddhism, is  revered for her swift and compassionate assistance in overcoming obstacles and fulfilling wishes. Through this course, participants will delve into the profound symbolism, practices, and benefits associated with Green Tara.

* Introduction to Green Tara’s iconography, symbolism, and historical significance.
* Core practices associated with Green Tara, including mantra recitation, visualizations, and chanting prayers.
* Understanding the application of Green Tara practice to the path to enlightenment.
*Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s commentary on the meaning of the mantra and the benefits of recitation
* Guided meditation on Green Tara practice to help you integrate it into your daily life
Course Materials: Participants will receive the Tara mediation practice as well as supplementary reading materials.

Our Center

We offer regular teachings Thursday evenings, normally 6 to 7:30 pm at our Gompa and by Zoom. Our center is located at 525 B Salazar Road in Taos, NM (just north of Sipapu Street). There is no charge to participate, but donations are appreciated. The Ksitigarbha Tibetan Buddhist Center is an affiliate of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). To learn more about FPMT, visit www.fpmt.org.

If you would like to receive our weekly Big Love email, please contact us at breathe@taosnet.com to receive a description of the teaching and the zoom link.

KTBC now offers our members access to Thubten Norbu Ling’s calendar of teachings, meditations, and other events. If you feel this service is worthwhile, please consider an additional donation to KTBC to cover the cost of our Center’s fees to provide this service. TNL’s calendar for the current month is available here. 

Latest Recordings

Ksitigarbha Tibetan Buddhist Center has its own YouTube Channel which you can find by going to YouTube and searching for KTBC Taos. All of our video recordings will be migrated from archive.org to this new channel in the next few weeks – our most recent recordings of Geshe Sherab’s commentary on ‘A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment’ can only be seen on YouTube.
Ksitigarbha YouTube Channel

All Archived Recordings

All of our older video recordings can be found here, at archive.org. Newer recordings are available on our YouTube channel – search  ‘KTBC Taos’.

All Recordings

“As soon as your object of concern changes from yourself to someone else, your heart is released from the bondage of the self-cherishing thought. As soon as you change the object of your cherishing, there is peace in your heart.” 

– Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Thubten Yeshe

Lama Thubten Yeshe was born in Tibet in 1935. At the age of six, he entered Sera Monastic University in Tibet where he studied until 1959, when as Lama Yeshe himself has said, “In that year the Chinese kindly told us that it was time to leave Tibet and meet the outside world.” Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, together as teacher and disciple since their exile in India, met their first Western students in 1965. By 1971 they settled at Kopan, a small hamlet near Kathmandu in Nepal. In 1974, the Lamas began touring and teaching in the West, which would eventually result in The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. Lama Yeshe died in 1984. “It is important to understand that true practice is something we do from moment to moment, from day to day. We do whatever we can, with whatever wisdom we have, and dedicate it all to the benefit of others. We just live our life simply, to the best of our ability.” –Lama Thubten Yeshe

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

His Holiness the 14th the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, is the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He was born Lhamo Dhondrub on 6 July 1935, in a small village called Taktser in northeastern Tibet. Born to a peasant family, His Holiness was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama, and thus an incarnation Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, was born in 1946 in Tham near the cave Lawudo in the Mount Everest region of Nepal, where his predecessor meditated for the last twenty years of his life. When Rinpoche was about four years old, he was put in a Monastery close to the border between Nepal and Tibet, and studied there until he went to Tibet and took getsul ordination in 1958.

In 1959 Rinpoche escaped from Tibet and continued his studies in Sera Je monastery in Buxa Duar, in northern India, were he met and became the disciple of Lama Thubten Yeshe. Lama Yeshe and Zopa Rinpoche’s contact with Westerners began in 1965 in Darjeeling, when they met Princess Zina Rachevsky from Russia. She became the Lamas’ first Western student.

At the insistence of Zina Rachevsky the Lamas started to teach courses on Buddhism for Westerners at Kopan. In 1971 Rinpoche took gelong ordination from His Holiness Ling Rinpoche in Bodh Gaya. By 1975, twelve centers had started. In 1976, the growing worldwide organization was named by Lama Yeshe ‘the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition’ (FPMT).

Geshe Sherab teaching with the new light offerings added to our altar.

The members of KTBC outside our new Center with Geshe Sherab

Members with our precious Lama Zopa Rinpoche when he came to teach at our sister center in Santa Fe, August 2017

Geshe Sherab blessing the space for our center when we moved in 2017.

Who is Ksitigarbha?

The Ksitigarbha bodhisattva has a deep relationship with the beings of the earth: humans and especially with the hungry ghosts and hell beings. This is mainly because these ghosts and hell beings are the most difficult to raise into a more fortunate condition due to their previous unwholesome actions. Thus Ksitigarbha has been known as the Teacher of the Dark Regions because of his past vow to save them all. The famous declaration “If I do not go to hell to help them, who else will?” is popularly attributed to Ksitigarbha. He has a connection with any being, no matter what crime or the karma and his aim is to help free them from suffering. He has many emanations and he has manifested in countless forms to save beings at different times and places.
Ksitigarbha was chosen by Lama Zopa as the patron bodhisattva for our assembly here in Taos.

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Checks can be made out to KTBC and mailed to PO Box 1434, Taos, New Mexico 87571

 

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