Work & Teachings
Acknowledging that no one approach is appropriate for all individuals and contexts, Lama Karma teaches a variety of methods and approaches including:
Wilderness Retreats
Leading journeys into the wild spaces and forgotten places of nature, Lama Karma leads wilderness retreats and facilitates solo retreats that focus on reconnecting with the natural sacredness of the elements and animal world.
Relational Mindfulness
Learning to use our relationships as the stage for awakening. Relational Mindfulness practices are a path of intimacy and vulnerability. Through learning to offer the gift of non-judgmental presence, we have the unique opportunity to see ourselves reflected in the awareness of the other, in order to go beyond self and other altogether.
Insight Meditation
Secular practices that deeply investigate and unmask our habitual baggage, liberating our perceived limitations into the joy of boundless openness.
Self-Compassion/Care for Caregivers
Through a variety of methods taken from the Tibetan tradition and modern psychology, Lama Karma has offered a variety of programs to restore the ability to care, and to bring the healing power of presence into the places that hurt the most.
Calm Abiding Meditation
Mindfulness methods to cultivate peace, well-being, and happiness.
Somatic Practices
Somatic meditation awakens the wisdom of the body to bring love and awareness to trauma, sickness, and sufferings of body and mind. The body is a vast field of experience beyond the conceptual mind, and offers immense potential as the ground of wisdom and insight.
Teachings on Death, Grief and End of Life
“Clear Light” is the training for the time of death. How do we bring the greatest depth of awareness and authenticity to the most important moment of our life? How do we “die before we die” in order to live more fully? What is the unborn and undying nature of mind beyond birth and death? Teachings and practices on death and dying are some of the most profound and important gifts we can offer ourselves.
Training Compassion
How do we learn to expand our capacity to benefit others, without sacrificing our own well-being? How do we contribute to building a sacred society of mindfulness and compassion? Making use of the rapidly growing field of secular compassion studies, Lama Karma offers programs to awaken the courageous heart in the midst of troubled times, and offers teachings on how to mindfulness practice can become an agent of societal transformation.
Ways to Participate
Contemplative Counseling/ Mentorship—Lama Karma offers personalized guidance in mindfulness theory and practice in person and online. Rates are given on a sliding scale based on need.
Online Classes and Groups—Lama Karma offers a weekly online program in mindfulness meditation called Retreat Within Reach and also a weekly online Introduction to Buddhist Theory and Practice.
Talks and Practice Sessions—Lama Karma has given lectures and evening workshops in hospitals, schools, universities, prisons, businesses, churches, yoga studios and community centers on the benefits of meditation and the wild world of mindfulness. He has also led practice sessions in a variety of similar venues.
Day-Long or Weekend Workshops—these longer programs allow participants to go deeper into practice and inquiry, and are part of cultivating a sense of community and support.
8-Week program in Open Mindfulness—Open Mindfulness is a secular mindfulness curriculum developed by Lama Denys Rinpoche in France. Inspired by the awareness traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, it offers an in-depth training in the nature of the mind as stainless presence—attentive presence, open presence, and the presence of the heart.
Retreats—at Milarepa Retreat Center in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee
Pilgrimages—On the Appalacian Trail and around the world