Who should apply?

• Anyone with sincere interest in the Kalachakra path can undertake this ngondro — you do not need to be a current student of Shar Khentrul Rinpoche or an experienced Vajrayana practitioner to apply.

• Those who are ready to commit to a year of steady daily practice and want the structure, guidance, and flexibility to integrate ngondro into real life circumstances.

• Practitioners who wish to receive the Seven Empowerments of a Growing Child (Kalachakra Initiation), prepare for the Four Higher Empowerments, and eventually enter the Six Vajra Yogas.

• Students who have already received these empowerments and want to deepen their generation stage practice while continuing to accumulate merit and wisdom.

• Anyone who aspires to strengthen their connection to the Kalachakra path, the Jonang lineage, and Rinpoche’s vision of a Golden Age of peace and harmony.

Khentrul Rinpoché Jamphel Lodrö is the founder and spiritual director of Dzokden. Rinpoche is the author of Unveiling Your Sacred Truth, The Great Middle Way: Clarifying the Jonang View of Other-Emptiness, A Happier Life, and The Hidden Treasure of the Profound Path. Rinpoche spent the first 20 years of his life herding yak and chanting mantras on the plateaus of Tibet. Inspired by the bodhisattvas, he left his family to study in a variety of monasteries under the guidance of over twenty-five masters in all the Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Due to his non-sectarian approach, he earned himself the title of Rimé (unbiased) Master and was identified as the reincarnation of the famous Kalachakra Master Ngawang Chözin Gyatso. While at the core of his teachings is the recognition that there is great value in the diversity of all spiritual traditions found in this world; he focuses on the Jonang-Shambhala tradition. Kalachakra (wheel of time) teachings contain profound methods to harmonize our external environment with the inner world of body and mind, ultimately bringing about the golden age of peace and harmony (dzokden).

Yeshe Wangmo is the co-founder and CEO of Dzokden and a devoted practitioner of the Jonang Kalachakra lineage. She has dedicated her life to preserving, practicing, and supporting the transmission of these rare and precious teachings. Since 2015, she has studied closely with Shar Khentrul Jamphel Lodrö Rinpoche, serving as a senior student, assistant instructor, and ritual coordinator. Since 2017, she has organized and assisted with Kalachakra Empowerments and major international teachings, helping to arrange Rinpoche’s rituals and support the global flourishing of the lineage. She has received nearly every major empowerment and transmission Rinpoche has offered, including the Second Vajra Yoga Transmission, and is an authorized teacher of the Jonang Kalachakra Ngondro. Her training reflects a true Rime spirit. In addition to Jonang teachings, she has received instruction in the Gelug, Nyingma, Sakya, and Kagyu traditions, and trained in the Burmese Mahasi Sayadaw meditation lineage under Kenneth Folk. She has also studied meditation with John Yates (Culadasa) and completed over 650 hours of yoga teacher training. Residing at Tashi Gadu House in the United States, she remains deeply grateful to her teachers — especially Segyu Chopel Rinpoche and Khentrul Rinpoche — and is committed to supporting the vision of a Golden Age rooted in authentic Dharma.

Zopa Chotso (Otgontugs Samdan)
Zopa Chotso was born and raised in Mongolia in a devoted Buddhist family. From an early age, she was immersed in spiritual life, deeply influenced by her parents—especially her father, who had monastic training and later lived as a householder during a period when openly monastic life in Mongolia was difficult.
In 2018, she met her root guru, Shar Khentrul Jamphel Lodrö Rinpoche, and since then the Dharma has been at the center of her life. While she has received teachings from masters of the Sakya, Kagyu, and Gelug traditions, her principal path is the Jonang Kalachakra lineage under Rinpoche’s guidance. She has received the Higher Kalachakra Empowerment and has been formally authorized by Rinpoche to serve as an instructor of the Jonang Kalachakra Ngöndro. She has translated seven of Rinpoche’s published books from English into Mongolian, making these profound teachings accessible to Mongolian practitioners. For more than five years, she has served as Rinpoche’s live Mongolian simultaneous translator and has extensively translated Dharma teachings. In addition to Rinpoche’s teachings, she has translated teachings by other masters on topics including Dzogchen, the Six Yogas of Naropa, and The Eight Verses of Bodhisattva Training. Through her translation work, teaching, and unwavering devotion to her guru and lineage, Zopa Chotso is dedicated to supporting the flourishing of the Jonang Kalachakra tradition in Mongolia and beyond.

Graduates will have:

• A complete understanding of the Jonang Kalachakra Ngondro path and confidence in practicing the ngondro.
• Clarity regarding what a step-by-step path to enlightenment looks like through an authentic lineage under the guidance of a qualified vajra master and personal clarity regarding where they are on the path and how they want to walk it.
• A strong foundation for, depending on your effort throughout the program and inside the program, continuing to apply for the higher empowerments and engage in completion stage practices and studies including those offered at Learn.Dzokden.org such as an in-depth study of Zhentong, Jonang Guru Puja and the Kalachakra Tsok, the Tantric Fire Pujas, and additional generation stage practice courses.
• A connection to an ongoing Dzokden Ngondro online practice group and a karmic connection to Khentrul Rinpoche, the Jonang Lineage, and the Kalachakara generation stage practice.

For those who want to deepen their Guru Yoga practice after the program, they should consider the Enlightened Activities Program.