The Heart of Buddhism: The Great Perfection

The Great Perfection is an online Dzogchen course within Tara Mandala's yearlong Buddhist studies program, The Heart of Buddhism. It is Course Five of "The Heart of Buddhism: A Year of Study & Practice," taught by Lama Tsultrim Allione, Sangye Khandro and Tulku Ösel Dorje. It suits people drawn to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition who want to learn how to recognize natural awareness.

What to Expect

The course is a multi-week spiritual workshop held online. It focuses on essential practices for recognizing natural awareness, the heart of the Dzogchen, or Great Perfection, teachings. Along the way you explore feminine perspectives within Dzogchen lineages, and you see how recognition unfolds spontaneously as benefit for others.

Each five-week course in the yearlong program builds on the one before it while standing alone as a complete teaching, so this one may be taken individually. The program as a whole covers the history, core teachings and practices that guide Buddhist practitioners in the Tibetan tradition in waking up to their true nature of innate compassion and wisdom.

About the Teachers

Lama Tsultrim Allione is the founder of Tara Mandala, the Digital Dharma Hub where the center's online programs are hosted. She is known for Feeding Your Demons®, which blends Tibetan wisdom with modern psychology, and for her work on Machig Labdrön. She also received Machig Labdrön's Longevity Sadhana while meditating in Machig's sacred cave in Bhutan in 2017. She leads this course alongside two co-teachers.

Sangye Khandro is among the teachers of the full Heart of Buddhism program and contributes her teaching to this Dzogchen course.

Tulku Ösel Dorje is also part of the yearlong program's faculty and teaches in this course.

Before You Go

This course is offered through the Gateway track of Tara Mandala's Extended Studies and Long Term Paths, and it takes place entirely online, so you can join from wherever you are. The material lists no prerequisites for the course, and each course in the series can be taken on its own. If you are new to Dzogchen, you may still wish to look at the earlier courses in the series, which cover the Buddha's path, the Eightfold Path and the Mahayana teachings on wisdom and compassion, and which lead into this one.