Refuge and Bodhisattva Vows, Fall 2025

Time & Location

Sep 28, 2025, 2:00 PM – 5:30 PM EDT

Pawo Khandro Ling,

209 Engle Dr, Wallingford, PA 19086, USA

On line participation available  

Requesting to take vows 

To request Refuge or Bodhisattva Vows, please register for this event which will send your request to Michael Carroll, who will be conducting the vow ceremony.  After submitting the request, Al San Valentin, a Wisdom Seat board member, will contact you to discuss your request, answer your questions and schedule a follow up interview with Michael.   

About the event

We will be offering Refuge & Bodhisattva Vows at an in-person & on-line event this September 28, 2025. These vows will be offered by Michael Carroll who has been authorized by Judy Lief to impart these vows in the tradition and lineage of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Al San Valentin will be assisting Michael in preparing those wishing to take vows.

These vows are taken as part of traveling the Buddhist path and are usually taken separately over a period of a few years. Taking Refuge essentially is how we make a formal commitment to becoming a Buddhist. We dedicate ourselves to a daily meditation practice and to taming our minds and dismantling our own self-deception.

Traditionally, the Bodhisattva Vow is taken a few years after taking Refuge. As we soften and make friends with ourselves, we develop a natural kindness toward others and an interest in the world which inspires us to dedicate our lives to the benefit of all beings.

To learn more about the tradition of the refuge and Bodhisattva vows please see “The Heart of the Buddha” by Trungpa, Rinpoche chapters five and six.

https://www.shambhala.com/the-heart-of-the-buddha-725.html

REFUGE VOWS 

“Becoming a refugee is acknowledging that we are homeless and groundless, and it is acknowledging that there is really no need for home, or ground. Taking refuge is an expression of freedom, because as refugees we are no longer bounded by the need for security. We are suspended in a no-man’s land in which the only thing to do is to relate with the teachings and ourselves. It is very personal. You experience a sense of loneliness, aloneness. A sense that there is no savior, no help. But at the same time there is a sense of belonging; you belong to a tradition of loneliness where people work together.” 

• from Heart of the Buddha by Trungpa Rinpoche

BODHISATTVA VOWS

“Taking the bodhisattva vow is a public statement of your intention to embark on the bodhisattva path. We no longer are intent on creating comfort for ourselves; we work with others. This implies working with our other as well as the other other. Our other is our projections and our sense of privacy and longing to make things comfortable for ourselves. The other other is the phenomenal world outside, which is filled with screaming kids, dirty dishes, confused spiritual practitioners, and assorted sentient beings.”

• from Heart of the Buddha by Trungpa Rinpoche