This retreat offers an exploration of selected mind training (Lojong) slogans which are concise, practical teachings that distill the essence of compassion and wisdom into simple, memorable lines. Traditionally organized into key themes such as preparing the ground, transforming difficulty, working with relationships, and sustaining practice, they offer a step-by-step path for training the mind in everyday life. Each slogan points to a way of relating to our experiences, especially those that are challenging or uncomfortable.

The retreat draws on a range of methods, including meditation that helps us build awareness, stabilize attention, and connect more directly with our inner experience. Study and reflection support an understanding of the slogans and their relevance, while guided practice allows them to be internalized through repeated contemplation, gradually shaping how we relate to thoughts, emotions, and reactions. Through reflection, shared inquiry, and experiential exercises, participants will learn how to integrate these teachings into daily life, particularly in times of difficulty, uncertainty, and complexity.

1:00- : 3:00 pm Registration & Check-In 

4:00-5:00 pm Introduction talk to Thosamling Nunnery

5:00-6:00 pm Dinner

6:30-8:00 pm Introduction to the course

6:00 am Wake up Gong

6:15 am Gompa Gong

6:30-7:00 am Morning Meditation

7:00-8:00 am Breakfast

8:30-10:00 am Session 1

10:00-10:30 am Tea Break

10:30-11:30 am Session 2

11:30 – 2:00 pm Lunch + Rest

2:00-3:00 pm Session 3

3:00-3:30 pm Tea Break

3:30 – 5:00 pm Session 4

5:00-6:00 pm Dinner

6:30-7:00 pm Session 5 Evening Meditation/Dharma Talk

6:00 am Wake up Gong

6:15 am Gompa Gong 

6:30 – 7:00 am Morning Meditation 

7:00-8:00 am Breakfast 

9:00-10:00 am Session 1 Final session 

10:00-10:30 am Tea Break 

10:30-11:30 am Session 2 Feedback, Photo 

11:30 -12:30 pm Lunch 

1:00-2:00 pm Check out process begins

For more information and registration, email us at [email protected]

Ven. Dr. Tenzin Paldron was born Julie Thomas in Cochin, Kerala and grew up in Mumbai, India. After completing her Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Mumbai, she went to the US and obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and her Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Dartmouth College, NH. She then taught for about twelve years at Youngstown State University in Ohio, USA. Being inspired by the teachings she received from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama (HHDL) in the US and realizing that Buddhism, and in particular the Indian Nalanda Buddhist tradition had the answers to the questions of suffering and healing that she was looking for she decided, on the behest of her Guru, Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche to take the novice ordination vows with HHDL in 2014 at McLeod, Dharamshala, India.

After receiving her ordination, Rinpoche asked her to serve as the Director of Root Institute at Bodhgaya, a Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) Center which she did from June 2015 to Dec 2019. In 2021 Sept, she became a resident nun at Thosamling Nunnery and Institute (TSL) in Dharamshala, India and is currently the Program Coordinator at TSL. She has been a full time online and onsite student of Buddhist philosophy Logic and Debate and Tibetan Language studies since Sept. 2020. She periodically leads meditation courses and has a deep interest in universal education and in promoting mental health and well being.

Dr. Nivedita Challil is a licensed counsellor (UAE & India) and the founder of ARTH, a mental health initiative offering counselling, Arts-Based Therapy, and reflective learning spaces for individuals, groups, and organizations. She is trained in Occupational Therapy and Arts-Based Therapy, and holds a Master’s in Medical Psychiatric Social Work, along with an M.Phil. and Ph.D. from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, where she has also served as faculty. Her work is informed by Buddhist philosophy, which she continues to study through Tibet House (New Delhi). With over 25 years of experience, she has worked across hospitals, academic institutions, community programs, and crisis settings, including suicide prevention and disaster relief.

She currently practices in Dubai and India. Her approach is trauma-informed and attentive to the layered and changing nature of human experience, integrating psychological understanding, contemplative practice, and creative processes to support a more aware and compassionate engagement with one’s inner life. Her courses and retreats in Applied Buddhist Psychology offer a space to explore the nature of mind, emotion, and self, and how cultivating this understanding in daily life can deepen our ease as we grow and change.