Our Mission Print E-mail

What is your Mission?
What are your values?
How do you protect the environment?


Benefiting Others

  • Vision: Inspired by Lama Tsong Khapa’s rich living tradition of wisdom and compassion, Vajrapani Institute is a community of committed spiritual practitioners cultivating a sacred retreat environment where beings may realize their highest potential for the benefit of all.

  • Mission: Vajrapani Institute is a secluded Tibetan Buddhist retreat center in the stillness of the California redwood forest. Our purpose is to inspire deep spiritual work by providing supportive conditions. Retreatants from all traditions are nurtured by the energy of our founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and by the power of our blessed land, holy objects, and teachers. We are a community of practitioners committed to understanding and serving the needs of retreatants.

Embodying the Path

Shared values are the bedrock of our spiritual community, holding us accountable to ourselves and to others. Our staff and community aspire to embody:

  • WISDOM: Where mind awakens. Developing awareness of impermanence and interdependence.

  • HARMONY: Where joy flows. Honest, open communication and mindful actions where the sense of ‘we’ is stronger than the ‘I’.

  • LOVING-HEARTEDNESS: Where kindness lies. Warmth and kindness towards self and others through sincerity, openness and generosity in time, headspace and heart.

  • SPACIOUSNESS: Where all expands. Going beyond one’s personal agenda through cultivating a flexibility and expansiveness of mind.

  • CLARITY: Where vision is present. Focused, centered and aware in all actions of body, speech and mind.

  • TRUST: Where friends share. Being honest with oneself and others while holding patience and faith in the unfolding; inspiring trust in others by being dependably real.

Simple Living

The combination of our isolation and commitment to service means that Vajrapani operates in a low-impact, eco-friendly way.

Our community:

  • Generates its own electricity through solar and hydro systems

  • Conserves and processes its own water from a natural spring

  • Cares for the forest and all of its inhabitants

  • Limits the use of fossil fuels

  • Buys local, organic produce

Back to top