Don Handrick is a touring teacher for the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), sharing the Dharma with centers and study groups in North America and other parts of the world, both in-person and online.

Don's study of Buddhism began in 1993 after reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. Over the next two years he practiced with Sogyal Rinpoche's organization, until he began attending classes in 1996 with Venerable Robina Courtin at Tse Chen Ling in San Francisco.

Don left the Bay Area in 1998 to attend the FPMT's Masters Program of Buddhist Studies in Sutra and Tantra, a seven-year residential study program conducted at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Tuscany, Italy, taught by the scholar and kind Spiritual Friend, Geshe Jampa Gyatso. He successfully completed all five subjects of this program in 2004, receiving an FPMT final certificate with high honors. Don then moved to Santa Fe, serving as the Spiritual Program Coordinator for Thubten Norbu Ling, before being appointed as their resident teacher in 2006.

Don served as the resident teacher for Thubten Norbu Ling until the end of 2020. During that time, he also taught regularly in Taos at Ksitigarbha Tibetan Buddhist Center and volunteered for the Liberation Prison Project, teaching Buddhism once a month at a prison in nearby Santa Rosa. Since 2012 he has been an active member of the Interfaith Leadership Alliance of Santa Fe.

In 2015, Don had the honor of being selected by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to lead the renowned November Course, a one month teaching and meditation retreat held annually at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Don has received teachings from many esteemed lamas in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ribur Rinpoche, Choden Rinpoche, and Khensur Jampa Tegchok.

He is also available for personal consultation on Buddhist practice upon request through the “Contact Don” page.

Weekly teachings - ThuRSDAYs : January 11-APRIL 25, 2024, 7:30-9:00 Pm CET (11:30 am-1:00 PM MST)

LAM Rim: THE ESSENCE of NECTAR (online only)

The Essence of Nectar is an extensive prayer written by Yeshe Tsondru (19th century) which he composed as a complete meditation manual on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Lam Rim). In the process he draws examples from various facets of life in order that one may enrich one´s meditations on the Graded Path and easily apply the practices to the development of one´s thought and conduct.
This course is being offered by Nagarjuna Madrid in both English as well as simultaneous translation into Spanish.

Nagarjuna Madrid

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Weekly teachings - ThuRSDAYs : January 11-MAY 30, 2024, 6:00-7:30 Pm MST

Practical Advice for Training Your Mind: Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend (IN Person and online)

In the Letter to a Friend, composed around the 2nd century of the common era, the outstanding Indian scholar Nagarjuna reaches out to instruct his friend King Gautamiputra with a concise set of 123 verses. While being relatively brief, this timeless text provides a priceless guide on leading a balanced secular life in which one can embody the full teachings of the Buddha while attending to the demands of family and society. In this course, we will explore the verses within this text with the aim of elucidating the meaning of each one and extracting the practical advice therein for application in our contemporary lives.

Ksitigarbha Tibetan Buddhist Center

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VISIT TO SAN FRANCISCO - MARCH 3-5, 2024

MIND AND ITS POTENTIAL PRACTICE DAY: MArch 3, 2024, 1:00-4:30 Pm PST (IN person and online)

This is an opportunity for group practice of the meditations in Module 1 of Discovering Buddhism

Tse Chen Ling

Loss And Grief: A BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE: MArch 4 & 5, 2024, 6:30-8:00 Pm PST (IN person and online)

Grief is a natural reaction to loss and we all experience it to some degree, whether it be the death of someone we love or the many other experiences of change and disappointment that occur all too frequently in our lives. The Buddha’s teachings have much to offer to help us engage in our grief within the context of practicing our spiritual path, and thus make the painful process of grieving fruitful and beneficial for ourselves and others. In this two-evening interactive series on loss and grief, Gen Don will help us examine grief in the context of Buddhist teachings and learn how we might truly grow from our encounters with one of life’s most difficult emotions.

Tse Chen Ling

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Weekly teachings - MONdays : MARCH 25-APRIL 22, 2024, 6:00-7:30 Pm PDT, With a Practice day on APril 28, 1:00-4:30 Pm PDT

FPMT DISCOVERING BUDDHISM - MODULE 2: HOW TO MEDITATE (online only)

​In this class, we will discuss the definition and purpose of meditation plus learn basic meditation skills, including how to sit, how to set up a meditation session, different meditation techniques, and how to deal with obstacles in meditation.

How to Meditate is the second in a series of classes called Discovering Buddhism. In this course, we explore 13 essential topics in Buddhism, from Meditation to Karma to Death and Rebirth, and more! This is an excellent course of study for those who have some basics but want to go deeper into Buddhist philosophy. DB was developed by the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition.

Tse Chen Ling

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VISIT TO CAMPBELL, CA - MARCH 10, 2024

Embracing the Unwanted:
How to Work with Challenging People and Situations: MArch 10, 2024, 1:30-3:30 Pm PDT (IN person and online)

Whether at work or in our social lives, we inevitably have to face difficult people and undesired situations, and yet, according to Buddhist teachings, these challenges have the potential to become a wellspring of opportunity to deepen our practice and enhance our wellbeing.

In this session we will examine how to modify our perception of such difficult circumstances and thus deepen our awareness of the dimensions for learning that are not immediately evident to us. We’ll also examine the practical steps we can take to apply that new understanding to welcome and respond more effectively to those things we usually find unwelcome.

Ocean of Compassion Buddhist Center

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VISIT TO BOULDER CREEK, CA - MARCH 14-17, 2023

Transforming PROBLEMS into happiness: Experiential retreat on Mahayana Mind Training (IN person only)

"Transforming miserable conditions into necessary conditions that help us move along the path to enlightenment has great benefit, especially in the exceptionally difficult times in which we live. … If you cannot make use of every condition that arises, both undesirable and desirable, you are in danger of losing the Dharma, and you will never achieve the unsurpassed and lasting happiness of enlightenment.” – Lama Zopa Rinpoche

 Just before the Buddha attained enlightenment, Mara and his demon army shot scores of arrows at him, but as the arrows approached, they turned into flowers and fell harmlessly at his feet. Similarly, life never has a shortage of arrows that are flung at us either, whether they're the everyday frustrations and annoyances or the more serious and challenging problems we are sometimes forced to face. In the same way that the Buddha turned Mara’s arrows into flowers, many of the past and present practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism utilize the teachings of lojong, or mind training, to transform their suffering into exactly what is needed to progress in their spiritual practice and attain happiness.

In this residential retreat we will examine the instructions in a short text by Jigme Tenpe Nyima and the advice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on that text, as well as practice advice from other great masters of lojong, to aid us in the process of accepting and even welcoming adversity as a necessary and helpful support for our practice of the path to enlightenment. Our exploration of this timeless teaching will aim to reveal its richness and depth, and discover the practical advice for transforming all our thoughts to respond to our problems and difficulties with more compassion and insight.

The retreat setting is a unique opportunity to immerse ourselves in the study of this important subject through the addition of daily meditations, discussion groups, and mindfulness practices between sessions to aid in integrating the teachings into our lives.

Vajrapani Institute

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SatUrday Workshop: MARCH 23, 2024, 10:00 AM-3:30 Pm MST

THE HEALING POWER OF FORGIVENESS (In person & online)

Throughout our lives, each of us has been wronged and has inevitably wronged others as well, but holding onto these wounds will only upset our own mental well-being. The practice of forgiveness has great power to prevent harmful thoughts from taking root in our minds and to generate true peace and happiness

instead. In this workshop we will examine forgiveness within the context of the Buddha’s teachings and explore what it means to practice it genuinely and completely for both ourselves and others.

Thubten Norbu Ling