Information about this center is no longer updated. This data was last updated on 7 October 2013.

History 

The Boise Dharma Center was founded in May of 2003 as the Dzogchen Shen Pan Choling. The Center was founded by Dzogchen Kempo Chogo Rinpoche, the Meditation Master of Dzogchen Shri Singha International, an organization that has founded dharma centers all over the world. The Boise Dharma Center is run and taught by AlejAndro Anastasio. As a Tibetan Dzogchen Buddhist Temple, the center practices Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhism based in learning, contemplating, and meditating on the teachings of Buddha.

The Boise Dharma Center meets in a small stone building with a main room that’s richly colored and decorated with tapestries, pictures and statues of the Buddha. Members sit on mats on the floor and the teacher sits in the front of the room. The building is in between a Tom Heffner Real Estate building and an Idaho Youth Ranch. Across the street is an auto parts store. 

The Dharma Center has faced several past and ongoing challenges. Initially, they had difficulty finding a location for their Center as many landlords did not wish to rent space to a Buddhist group. The group has also had issues with their flyers being torn down, making it all the more difficult to obtain new members. In general, attendance and sufficient funding have been two ongoing challenges for the group.

Activities and Schedule

The group meets once week for standard Dzogchen practices, which includes preliminary practices, teachings on Buddhist concepts and then concluding practices. The center also offers a Basics Buddhism class once a week. An Introduction to Buddhism children’s class is offered infrequently and an additional 5-week Basic Buddhism class is offered on a different night of the week 3 times a year. The Boise Dharma Center also offers Public Teachings open to the public about once every two months as well as extra training workshops for people to practice mantras, accumulations, and meditation practice. In 2013, the group offered its first weeklong “Urban Spring Retreat.”

Each month, they celebrate Dakini Day and Padmasambhava Day with Tsok feasts; these are Tantra Ceremonial practices based in gathering the accumulations of merit and wisdom, and for purifying our obscurations. An important part of this practice is pure perception, and everyone is viewed according to his or her enlightened nature. Whether they celebrate these days depends on what day the holiday falls on, but Dakini Day and Padmasambhava Day are generally celebrated on the 10th and the 25th of the month, respectively.