Yangsi Rinpoche teaching a meditation class in the Maitripa Jokhang, using the evolving hybrid model that accommodates in-person and online students.
Photos by: Maitripa College, Chris Majors, Mark Sakamoto

By Namdrol Miranda Adams

As Portland-based Maitripa College marks its 20th anniversary in 2025, we are embracing both reflection and reinvention. The most significant step ahead is the digital transformation of our graduate degree programs.

Our founding mission—to offer a rigorous and compassionate education grounded in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and service—remains at the heart of everything we do. Yet today, that mission is evolving in bold new ways to meet the needs of a changing world.

Starting this year, Maitripa College will begin transitioning its Master of Arts in Buddhist Studies and Master of Divinity programs, to a hybrid low-residency format. This move is part of a comprehensive institutional realignment guided by strategic planning, informed by student needs, and shaped by the shifting landscape of higher education. Our aim is to increase access to transformative Buddhist education, while maintaining the integrity of our contemplative lineage and community-based learning model.

Faculty and staff have been working diligently to redesign curriculum, strengthen learning methods to fit online approaches, and ensure that student experience remains rooted in the same spirit of relational depth and spiritual rigor that has always defined our programs. These changes also support our pursuit of national accreditation, with the goal of maintaining recognized academic standards while preserving the heart of what makes Maitripa unique.

This transformation is not a departure from our core values, but a natural next step in the maturing of our institution. It allows us to widen the circle—welcoming students who may not be able to relocate to Portland, but who seek a deeply rooted, practice-oriented Buddhist education.

A New Community Online: Maitripa Mandala

In parallel with this academic shift we are also launching Maitripa Mandala Online, a digital learning platform designed for non-degree learners. This initiative brings our vision of contemplative education to a broader audience, including dharma practitioners, educators, and seekers from around the world.

The platform will feature structured online courses in Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and service, with content appropriate for new students and experienced practitioners alike. It will include offerings such as The Power of Meditation, based on teachings by our spiritual director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and a redesigned Teacher Development Seminar for dharma teachers within the international Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) network. Maitripa is affiliated with FPMT.

This online initiative reflects our long-standing commitment to meeting students where they are—literally and figuratively—and supports the financial and mission-driven sustainability of the college.

Celebrating 20 years of dharma in action

As we move forward, we are also looking back. Maitripa College was established in 2005 by Yangsi Rinpoche, the late Dr. James Blumenthal, and several American students as a response to a growing need for serious Buddhist education in the West. In the two decades since, we have graduated over 60 students from our MA and MDiv programs, and hosted thousands of participants in public teachings, retreats, and community events.

Today, our alumni serve as chaplains, educators, translators, retreat leaders, caregivers, and community organizers. Their lives reflect the integration of study, practice, and service that lies at the heart of our approach. Whether working in hospitals, classrooms, non-profits, or dharma centers, they embody the potential of contemplative education to create wise, ethical, and compassionate responses to suffering.

This spring, our 16th commencement honored graduates who are already making an impact in fields such as suicide prevention, elder care, and special education. These graduates represent both a continuity and a renewal of our founding vision.

An expanding mandala of projects

In recent years, Maitripa College has expanded beyond the graduate school model. Today, our institutional ecosystem includes several aligned initiatives, which together form what we refer to as the Maitripa Mandala. These include:

• Maitripa College, our graduate program;
• Maitripa Mandala Online, our non-degree digital platform;
• The Maitripa Tara School, a preschool grounded in Buddhist values (opening its doors in 2026);
• The Maitripa Rabjungma Project, an initiative supporting monastic training for women.

Each of these efforts grows from the same root—a commitment to creating a spiritually grounded, intellectually rigorous, and ethically engaged form of Buddhist education in the West. Together they allow us to serve a wider range of learners, from young children to senior practitioners, while preserving the coherence of our lineage and institutional purpose.

Holding the Sacred

In honor of our 20th year, we are also investing in the spiritual and cultural foundations of our campus. The Holy Objects Project, launching this year, will be curating and preserving sacred statues, relics, and texts that have been entrusted to the college since its founding. These objects, many of which have been blessed by lineage teachers, create a sense of continuity with Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and offer our students and community an environment steeped in sacred meaning.

In the spirit of the traditional Buddhist emphasis on environment and context, we see this project not only as preservation, but as learning method: an invitation to deepen one’s relationship with the symbols, rituals, and practices that anchor the dharma in lived experience.

Wisdom in conversation

Another initiative launching this year is the Scholar-Practitioner Speaker Series, which brings together leading voices from across traditions and disciplines to explore what it means to live a life of integrity, inquiry, and service. Grounded in the three pillars of our approach—scholarship, meditation, and service—this series invites fresh perspectives on the relevance of contemplative traditions in today’s world.

Looking ahead, we are also planning major symposia on Buddhist chaplaincy and education, in partnership with national and international colleagues.

Looking toward the future

As we celebrate two decades of growth, the work before us is both exciting and sobering. We are reimagining what a Buddhist college can be in the 21st century—not only in format, but in impact. Our priorities include maintaining spiritual integrity, increasing access to underserved populations, and modeling an institution that is as wise and compassionate as the teachings it transmits.

We are undertaking this work with deep gratitude to our students, alumni, teachers, donors, and friends. Without their ongoing support, Maitripa College would not exist. And it is our hope that the next 20 years will be defined by an even wider circle of learning, practice, and benefit.

To learn more about Maitripa College, the 20th year initiatives, or our programs—online and in-person—please visit www.maitripa.org.