The Ngedon School online presents an eight-course sequence for Vajrayana students of the Shambhala International sangha throughout the international community. Presented in cooperation with Naropa University's Distance Learning program, our online school opened in March of 2004. The courses, taught by acharyas and senior teachers, draw from the legacies of the Vidyadhara, the Sakyong, and from classical and contemporary sources and teachers from the Kagyü and Nyingma lineages. Please see the following sections for more on the history and mission of the school.
Note that due to the nature of the subjects that we discuss in Ngedon School, admission to the school is restricted to tantrikas practicing in the Shambhala International sangha. See the “Admissions” page for a description of entrance requirements. See also “Frequently Asked Questions.” If you are not sure whether you qualify, or have other questions, please email us at the address provided there.
History
The Ngedon School was founded by the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, in 1982 in order to prepare his Vajrayana students for deeper and more profound practice and realization, through study of the tradition. His son and dharma heir, Ven. Sakyong Mipham, Rinpoche, is now the guiding teacher. The founding faculty of the Ngedon School were members of Naropa University's Buddhist Studies faculty, the Office of Three Yana Studies, and the Nalanda Translation Committee. Branches of Ngedon School eventually developed in Halifax, Europe, and Karme Choling. Boulder, Colorado was, for twenty-two years, the primary venue for the live instruction program. That program ceased to operate in 2004 and our entire curriculum is now delivered online.
The Vidyadhara designed the Ngedon curriculum to mirror selected topics of traditional monastic education ( shedra in Tibetan), adapted to the needs and abilities of western students who practice in the busy style of householders. These courses introduce students to classical topics, including foundational texts from the Indian and early Tibetan traditions, contemporary commentaries by the Vidyadhara and the Sakyong, as well as by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, Rinpoche; Khenchen Thrangu, Rinpoche; The Dzogchen Ponlop, Rinpoche; H. H. Dilgo Khyentse, Rinpoche; and many more.
Since 1982 the Ngedon curriculum has remained in the eight-course format that was originally designed by Trungpa Rinpoche, enriched by additional translated sources as they have become available.
What is Ngedon School Online?
Our unique courses have been redesigned and adapted to an interactive distance-learning format to be delivered via the internet. Through streaming audio, chat rooms, bulletin boards, threaded discussions and other online communication tools, Shambhala Buddhist students from all over the world may join in study of their Buddhist heritage together.
Online students enroll for one eleven-week course at a time. The courses are presented in sequence so with a few exceptions, students enroll and begin with the Transmission course and proceed through the sequence of all eight. Each week students complete readings, listen to lectures on the web, and participate in online discussions with the teacher and a group of fellow students. A new segment of the course with lecture is posted online each week, concluding with a short written exam in the eleventh week of the class.
Faculty
Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown is the International Director of Ngedon School, and the founder and designer of the Online program. She has practiced Buddhism since 1971, and was a student of Ven. Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, and other Tibetan lamas of the Kagyü/ and Nyingma lineages. |
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She is an Acharya (senior teacher) in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage and teaches throughout the international mandala. She is also professor of Religious Studies at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and has taught in Naropa's Online Education program for the last five years. She was a founding faculty member of the Ngedon School, and has been teaching the Ngedon curriculum annually since 1982. Her books include Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism (Shambhala 2001) and (with others) Benedict's Dharma: Buddhist Comment on the Rule of St. Benedict (Riverhead 2001).
| Acharya Gaylon Ferguson has practiced Buddhism since 1973 when he took refuge with the Vidyadhara Chogyam Trunpa, rinpoche. Sakyong Mipham, Rinpoche appointed him an acharya (senior teacher) in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage in 2000. |
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He is also associate professor on interdisciplinary studies at Naropa University in Boulder. His article, "Making Friends with Ourselves," from Dharma, Color and Culture and Culture (Parallax Press) was chosen for the Best Buddhist Writing (2005). His essay "No Color, All Colors" appears in Mindful Politics (Wisdom Publications). In the summer of 2007, he led the Mahamudra Track of the Shambhala Dzogchen Retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center.
| Acharya Moh Hardin met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1972 in Berkeley, California, and became involved with the sangha. He attended the 1975 Vajradhatu Seminary, and then had the opportunity to teach or coordinate the educational component at four seminaries under |
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Trungpa Rinpoche’s direction, in 1978, 1981, 1982, and 1983, and one under Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s direction, in 1996.
From 1979 to 1984, Moh worked in the practice and study department at Karme-Chöling. He moved to Nova Scotia and developed an herb farm from 1984-1989. From 1991 to 2001, he was a Director of the Halifax Shambhala Centre. He is currently the regional Acharya for the Atlantic Provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland), and for Texas and Louisiana.
Reginald “Reggie” Ray received his PhD from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago in 1973. After spending 18 months in India on a Fulbright-Hays fellowship, studying Tibetan and completing his dissertation, he took up a tenure track position at Indiana University. |
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In the spring of 1974, at the invitation of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche , he resigned and moved to Boulder, Colorado where he became the first full-time faculty member and chair of the new Religious Studies Department at the Naropa Institute. Over the last 30 years, Reggie has studied with many accomplished masters of the Nyingma and Kagyü schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Zen. In recent years, he has worked with indigenous teachers from North and South America, and Africa.
Phil Karl, Education Director of Ngedon School Online.
Phil Karl completed dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Education in 1976. He formally became a student of Buddhism and of Chögyam Trungpa in 1977 and earned his Master of Arts degree in Buddhist and Western Psychology from Naropa University (then Naropa Institute) in 1979. |
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Currently the Educational Director for Ngedon School, Phil began his involvement with the school in 1987 as a faculty member, which continues to the present. He has been a teacher and trainer in both the Buddhist mandala and corporate business environments for over 25 years. He has developed and taught courses for the Boulder and other Shambhala Centers in the US and Canada, at Naropa University, taught at Shambhala International Seminary, and served in the administration of Vajradhatu International. In 2003 he completed the Tibetan three-year meditation retreat at Sopa Choling Retreat Center, Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, which confers the title of ‘Lama.’
Logo
Ngedon School is designed to cultivate prajna (Tibetan, sherap ), or penetrating insight, the non-conceptual understanding of things as they really are. Ngedon's patron of prajna is the great bodhisattva Manjushri, depicted pure white, seated in peaceful fashion. He holds aloft in his right hand the double-bladed sword, the masculine form of insight, and cradles a vase in his left hand, the feminine form of insight. The Tibetan seed syllable that expresses the power of Manjushri is the DHIH, the quintessence of penetrating insight. The DHIH, calligraphed by the Vidyadhara in 1982, is the logo of The Ngedon School.
Shambhala Buddhism
The Shambhala Buddhist lineage joins together the profound spiritual teachings of Buddhism from the Kagyü and Nyingma traditions cross fertilized with the terma ("discovered treasure") teachings of Shambhala, as revealed by the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. The unique blending of these two transmissions from Tibet enables western students to practice the profound spirituality of Buddhism in an enlightened cultural setting of Shambhala. For more information, see www.shambhala.org.
Link to www.shambhala.org
