General Spiritual Director
Spring Festival 2026 Day 6
May 27, 2026
Making Dharma accessible for everyone
Tharpa US offers a free 21‑Day Online Meditation Challenge—the perfect way to begin the year cultivating inner peace—while Kadam Tim Larcombe introduced meditation and Buddhist teachings to children at Copenhagen International School.
FREE 21-Day Meditation Challenge
Tharpa US offers a FREE 21-Day Meditation Challenge for those unable to attend in-person retreats. Receive daily guided meditations, tips, and inspiration to cultivate inner peace and build a lasting meditation practice from home.
STARTS SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 2026
We decided to create another free online meditation challenge as a way to help as many people as possible either begin a meditation practice or renew their current practice. When a Kadampa Center offers a meditation challenge, they may reach 20, 50, or 100 people, depending on their community. Tharpa US has a much bigger audience and can reach thousands of people.
How to Understand the Mind felt like the perfect book to base this challenge on, given everything going on in the world. Since the world is created by our mind, this book gives us hope that there is a practical way forward. It offers a profound understanding of the mind and shows how knowing its nature and functions can make our daily life more peaceful and meaningful.
Happiness and suffering are feelings - parts of our mind - and so their main causes are not to be found outside the mind.
- How to Understand Your Mind by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, page 1.
We’re pleased to have Kadam Kyle Davis, Resident Teacher at Kadampa Meditation Center Brooklyn and second Resident Teacher at Kadampa Meditation Center New York, guiding this meditation challenge once again.
This is our second annual free Tharpa online meditation challenge, and we’re really excited to share it with you. Whether you’re new to meditation or a long-time practitioner, we hope you’ll join us for this special event as we explore how understanding the mind through meditation can help us solve life’s daily challenges together.
Join our free online 21-Day Meditation Challenge on How to Understand the Mind: The Nature and Power of the Mind.
Once you sign up you'll receive a link to the Meditation Challenge Portal. This portal includes the introduction video with Kadam Kyle and then all the meditations after that. When the
challenge starts you'll receive:
- A daily video with a guided meditation
- Clear commentary on how to connect with this meditation more deeply
- An inspiring Buddhist quote to contemplate during the rest of your day
- An essential meditation tip to keep your practice more joyful and effective
No experience needed. Just curiosity and an open heart.
Want to share the wisdom? Send everyone you know this link to join:
https://tharpa.com/us/events/meditation-challenge
Meditation Event at Copenhagen International School
Recently Kadam Tim Larcombe, Resident Teacher of KMC Copenhagen in Denmark, was invited to Copenhagen International School to introduce meditation and guide sessions during school assemblies.
The school already runs a “Training the Mind” program for children, making meditation a natural and welcomed addition. Two groups of pupils took part in the sessions with Kadam Tim: one aged 7–9 and another aged 9–11. The sessions included discussions on questions such as What is happiness?, the nature of the mind, the difference between mind and body, and how the mind is not the brain.
The children engaged enthusiastically and asked thoughtful questions, including “Who was Buddha’s teacher?”, which provided an opportunity to introduce the idea of beginningless time and the lineage of Buddhist teachings in an age-appropriate way.
The children also practiced the Clarity meditation and were invited to share their experiences. One young boy described the meditation by saying, “It felt like I was sleeping in the sky.” Three books by Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso were donated to the school library and quickly became very popular among the pupils.
Some parents and teachers also attended the sessions, and the overall atmosphere was warm, focused and uplifting. Primary Principal Jan Humpleby commented: “The children really enjoyed the sessions – especially those who normally have difficulties concentrating. They particularly liked the analogy of the mind being like a puppy running all over the place, and the books donated to the library have been highly sought after.”
