About Us
The Gampopa Buddhist Meditation Center
Tashi delek! Greetings and many blessings to you!
About The Center
The Gampopa Center is a spiritual community, where we learn and practice the teachings (philosophy, meditation, and science of mind) of the Buddha. Our Dharma center holds a variety of spiritual practices, ranging from meditation to philosophical study and sadhana practices. Rooted in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the Gampopa Center draws on the teachings and practices of countless realized figures across many different lineages and schools of thought. When it comes to Dharma studies and activities, we consider ourselves as nonsectarian followers of the Buddha, whereby we invite Dharma teachers from all major traditions of Buddhism, to teach Dharma in ways that preserve those different traditions. However, when we are doing more serious and specific Dharma practices, we follow the Kadam masters and the Kagyu lineage of Vajrayana.
About The Dharma Community
The Gampopa Center was founded in 2009 in Annapolis, Maryland, by Lama Phurbu Tashi Rinpoche, based on the Buddhist understanding that the teachings of the Buddha can bring us peace, happiness, and freedom.
Rinpoche’s students were excited to welcome a qualified Tibetan Buddhist teacher into the community and wanted to provide a place for learning and practicing Dharma—the teachings of the Buddha. 
In accord with this vision, the Gampopa Center holds weekly study sessions, short courses, and special events at our Annapolis location. Our location offers the perfect environment for friends and members to fully experience the teachings. Inspired by the great 11th century teacher Gampopa, the center’s namesake, the Sangha strives to enable others to receive direct insights into the teachings of the Buddha.
As a growing community of lay Dharma practitioners, we are grounded in, but not limited to, the Karma Kagyü lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Since 2009, our continuing objective is to sustain a Sangha or a virtuous community in Annapolis. The Center’s mission is to offer an authentic tradition and make it relevant to the lives of modern-day people.
Rinpoche’s students were excited to welcome a qualified Tibetan Buddhist teacher into the community and wanted to provide a place for learning and practicing Dharma—the teachings of the Buddha. 
In accord with this vision, the Gampopa Center holds weekly study sessions, short courses, and special events at our Annapolis location. Our location offers the perfect environment for friends and members to fully experience the teachings. Inspired by the great 11th century teacher Gampopa, the center’s namesake, the Sangha strives to enable others to receive direct insights into the teachings of the Buddha.
As a growing community of lay Dharma practitioners, we are grounded in, but not limited to, the Karma Kagyü lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Since 2009, our continuing objective is to sustain a Sangha or a virtuous community in Annapolis. The Center’s mission is to offer an authentic tradition and make it relevant to the lives of modern-day people.
Our Lineage
The Gampopa Buddhist Meditation Center draws on the teachings and practices of many real figures from different streams and schools of thought. In terms of Dharma studies and activities, we consider ourselves to be non-sectarian Buddhists, in that we invite Dharma teachers from all three main traditions of Buddhism to teach the Dharma in a way that preserves those different traditions. However, when we do more serious and specific Dharma practices, we follow the Kadam gurus and the Kagyu tradition of Vajrayana.
Our foundation is named after Gampopa Sonam Rinchen (1079-1153), Milarepa’s chief disciple, who studied under Marpa. Collectively, they are known as the three masters of the Kagyu lineage. Gampopa, a tantra scholar, physician, and teacher renowned for his clear teachings, laid the foundation for the Kagyu school as we know it today, by synthesizing the monastic tradition and structured instruction from the Kadam practices with the oral teachings of Mahamudra.
Gampopa first studied as a Kadam monk for six years, practicing the stages of the path (lamrin) at the Kadam Monastery. At the age of 32, he met the yogi ascetic Milarepa, from whom he learned the Mahamudra teachings on the nature of mind and the Six Yogas of Naropa.
Before Gampopa, Mahamudra, like most tantric practices at that time, was mostly performed by household yogis practicing in remote places. Gampopa codified these ascetic teachings and founded Dakhla Gampo Monastery as the first center to study the Kagyu method in a structured, community-based monastic setting. His major work, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, was the core text for the Kagyu and the first lamrin written in Tibetan, serving as the source on which all subsequent lamrin texts were based.
Gampopa, our lineage teacher, thus inspired our foundation to be clear in our intentions, to be systematic in our approach, and to establish learning centers to spread authentic Dharma for the liberation of all beings.
Our Spiritual Teacher
Lama Phurbu Tashi Rinpoche is the founder and spiritual teacher of the Gampopa Center in Annapolis, Maryland, United States of America and the Gampopa Indonesia Foundation.
He was the first initiator of the 100 million Om Mani Padme Hung recitation activities in Indonesia. At the age of thirteen, Rinpoche was recognized as the reincarnation of Tsatsa Khenpo Thubten by Bo Gangkar Monastery. For ten years, he studied at Rumtek Monastery College in Sikkim, India and completed a three year traditional retreat under Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche at Bokar Monastery in Mirik, India. After completing the retreat, Bokar Rinpoche appointed Lama Phurbu Tashi Rinpoche as the Drupon, or retreat leader.
His book on vegetarianism, The Lamp of Scriptures and Reasoning, was praised and recommended by the 14th HH Dalai Lama and 17th HH Karmapa. Rinpoche is also the author of Ancient Wisdom for Modern Society, Mind and Meditation, Illuminating the Path of Meditation, as well as translating various texts. Lama Phurbu Tashi Rinpoche currently spends his time teaching in Annapolis USA, Medan and Jakarta Indonesia.
