Stories of Kindness: Jataka Tales and Q&A
with Venerable Losang Gendun
Tuesdays & Thursdays, Sep 8, 15, 17, 22, 24, 29 & Oct 1, 3-5pm EDT
IN-PERSON & ONLINE
Join us for an informal and engaging session with Venerable Gendun as he shares some favorite jataka tales and offers an extended Q&A session for students. On the night of his awakening, the Buddha went through a series of transformational stages, one of which was the spontaneous recollection of past lives. While for him this was a mark of accomplishment, a siddhi, later these stories of past lives were used by the Buddha and others as instructional fables for those on the path. Their engaging quality spawned a whole genre of South Asian literature, the beloved jataka tales. Jatakas were important to early Buddhists and a separate class of oral reciters (jataka-bhanaka) preserved their transmission. For us, they provide an engaging and intuitive way to grasp important points of Buddhist ethics, outlook, and practice.
Sponsorship
Due to Ven. Gendun’s extended stay, our costs for hosting will be substantially higher than normal – anticipated to be around $5,000 for flights, housing, transportation, food and other miscellaneous expenses. We welcome your support to enable these precious teachings to happen. Any amount is greatly appreciated and very karmically beneficial!
If you plan to attend in-person or via Zoom, please donate using the registration process (Register button).
If you just wish to help sponsor the teachings or make additional donations, you can do so via this link using any card, PayPal or Venmo. Please remember to select “Ven. Losang Gendun – New York Visit 2026”.
Please note that donation via this link is separate from and is not a registration. Please email us at registration@shantidevanyc.org if you need assistance.
Food Offerings
Important Note
This is an in-person and online event. For online, the events will be administered using Zoom.
After registering, the system automatically sends a confirmation email (if opted in) and/or a receipt email that contains the Zoom meeting link and/or other instructions. Some email domains like Yahoo, AOL are rejecting the auto emails. If you don’t immediately receive the system email(s) or you have any other questions, please contact us at registration@shantidevanyc.org.
Registration
Suggested: $20 per session
Other offering options: free, $5, $10, $30
The suggested amount helps support teacher offerings and expenses, direct costs and rent. Shantideva member benefits will apply automatically if you have a membership in MindBody.
Shantideva Center may publish recorded sessions in the public domain (e.g., on YouTube). By registering for this event, you are agreeing to give your consent to this process. Please be conscious of any personal information you share. Recordings are typically made to spotlight only on the teacher or facilitator so participants are usually not visible.
Time zone: US Eastern Daylight Time (GMT/UTC-4)
For questions regarding registration, please email registration@shantidevanyc.org for assistance.
Additional Materials
If you are a registered student, you may access the course materials on our password protected page. Please refer to the confirmation email (or receipt email) for the page link and password. Please contact us at registration@shantidevanyc.org if you have questions about accessing this page.
Past teaching videos and audio from Ven. Gendun:
Discover Mindfulness with a Master (VIDEO)
The Art of Letting the Mind Rest (VIDEO)
Ven. Losang Gendun: Insight Meditation in the Tibetan Tradition (VIDEO)
Cultivating Emptiness & the Luminous Nature of Mind in a Fragmented World (VIDEO)
Venerable Losang Gendun: Bridging Traditions, Building Communities (#199) from Wisdom Podcast (LISTEN)
Recordings
For ongoing events, the latest recording is usually shown by default. Please select desired session if it’s a playlist.
Public teachings are searchable in Recorded Teachings and on our YouTube channel. And public playlists can be found here.
About the Teacher
Venerable Losang Gendun has spent nearly four decades in Buddhist practice, and has been living as a fully ordained gelong in the Tibetan tradition for the past twenty years. His training spans ten years of monastic study across France, India, Nepal, and Myanmar, and more than four years in solitary retreat in the Tibetan Mahayana and the Burmese Theravāda traditions.
For the past eighteen years he has taught Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and meditation worldwide within FPMT, serving the vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In 2023, as a gesture of gratitude to his teachers, he founded The Buddha Project (TBP), offering long-term guidance for serious meditators. TBP webpages serve as the online learning platform for its core programs, the FPMT In-Depth Meditation Training and the FPMT Ngondro Lamrim Training.
