Meditation and Wisdom to Transform Everyday Life
2026-06-06 15:00 - 17:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown, Sydney, NSW, 2042, Australia
The Tibetan Buddhist tradition’s meditative insights and timeless wisdom offer many practical methods to help us thrive and be at ease as we face the everyday challenges of anxiety, depression, anger, loneliness and physical pain.
These Saturday afternoon sessions offer an introduction to meditation and practical advice from some of the foremost Tibetan Buddhist teachers of our age.
This Buddhist wisdom can help us:

meet the challenges of daily life in these difficult times,
heal ourselves,
connect with the heart of who we really are, and
unleash our capacity for peace, compassion and wisdom.

Each session includes:

Video teachings from Tibetan and Western Buddhist masters including Sogyal Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Dungse Jampal Norbu, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel and Sharon Salzberg.
Meditation practice
Time for contemplation
Group discussions and Q&A, offering you the opportunity to explore the teachings and practices in an open supportive environment and to connect with a community of practitioners.

Sydney and Online
🗓️ Saturday afternoons, first Saturday of the month
⏰ 3:00-5:30pm AEST (6:00am CET,1:00am US East)
📍 Online via Zoom, Rigpa Sydney 158 Australia St, Newtown
💰 $20, concession $10, free for Rigpa subscribers
7 Feb, 7 Mar, 2 May, 4 Jul, 1 Aug, 5 Sep, 7 Nov, 5 Dec
(we’ll be holding other retreats in April and June)
Book now
Adelaide
🗓️ Saturday mornings, first Saturday of the month
⏰ 9:30am-12:00noon Australian Central Time
📍 Rigpa Adelaide, 310 South Terrace, Adelaide
💰 $15, concession $10, free for Rigpa subscribers
Email adelaide@rigpa.org.au for details

Inspiring a Revolution in Your Heart and Mind - Bringing the Mind Home - Sydney & Online June 2026
2026-06-10 18:30 - 20:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown, Sydney, NSW, 2042, Australia
Bringing the Mind Home
Take a deep dive into a rich variety of meditation techniques to transform your moods and emotions. And discover how the whole purpose of meditation is to transcend our ordinary mind, to discover our vast, wise and compassionate fundamental nature, which we have lost touch with. The highest goal of meditation is to awake in us the sky-like nature of mind and introduce to us who we really are: our unchanging pure awareness.

Self-Forgiveness in the Light of Compassion
2026-06-20 18:00 - 20:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Online via Zoom, Australia
Discover how to live with a lighter, kinder heart. Many of us carry beliefs that we’re unworthy of love or beyond forgiveness, leaving us trapped in guilt and self-blame. But punishing ourselves only deepens our suffering and prevents us from realizing our natural state. Through insight, compassion, and guided meditations, you’ll learn to soften your “inner critic,” release false beliefs, and understand why you can let yourself off the hook—all of which frees your heart. As you cultivate forgiveness and compassion for yourself, you’ll naturally feel a genuine compassion and understanding for others—and the world.
Seminar topics:

The spiritual dimension of self-forgiveness
Dismantling the barriers to forgiving oneself
Understanding your life with compassion and insight
Transforming your ‘inner critic’
Really good reasons you can let yourself off the hook
Meditations that deepen compassion and forgiveness for yourself and others

Feedback from past participants
“It was helpful to be constantly reminded that no matter what, we are fundamentally good and our mistakes do not define us. They are only a very small part and we can always shift towards the centre of ourselves with love.”
“Forgiveness – of ourselves and others, frees us. The seminar is a rich and deep dive into self-forgiveness using experiential learning in a supportive, engaging and accessible format, and is inclusive to people of all and no faith traditions. The content and guided meditations draw on different sources and this, along with the kindness, clarity and skill of Christine act as an invitation to a more profound connection with our own basic goodness.”
“The seminar has brought profound understanding and healing. It was both liberating and extremely challenging with the emergence of once unacknowledged emotions. A moving and heartfelt experience.”
“The seminar was timely as I’ve had a few new challenges, while already living in a shut-down state. I’ve been able to offer my younger self love, compassion and forgiveness which in turn has softened my heart to others I’d been closed off to. Now, I feel more open and spacious.”

3 sessions:
20 June 6:00pm-8:30pm AEST
27 June 6:00pm-8:30pm AEST
4 July 6:00pm-8:30pm AEST
(6:00pm AEST = 4:00pm Hong Kong Time, 9:00am GMT, and 9:00am Central European Time)
Time and date converter
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20260620T080000&p1=31&p2=240&p3=196&p4=102&p5=136&p6=103&p7=176
If you need to miss one of these sessions, you’ll be able to catch up by viewing a recording.

About Christine
Christine Longaker is a pioneer of the hospice movement and author of Facing Death and Finding Hope , translated into 9 languages. She’s co-author of Are You Ready and of published research on the benefits of Spiritual Care Training. She founded Rigpa in the USA in 1981, the Spiritual Care Education Program in 1993, and co-produced an in-depth accredited Contemplative Palliative Care training at Naropa University. Christine has produced an album of meditations: “Joy, Ease and Self-Forgiveness”, guides self-compassion meditations online every Sunday and leads a yearly retreat in Sri Lanka. Christine infuses her seminars with heartfelt presence, humor, and clarity. Read more at www.christinelongaker.com.

Meditation and Wisdom to Transform Everyday Life
2026-07-04 09:30 - 12:00 (Australia/Adelaide) | Rigpa Adelaide, 310 South Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000, Australia
Where can we find lasting happiness?
Saturday 4 July | 9.30am – 12.00 noon
These Saturday morning sessions offer an introduction to meditation and practical advice from some of the foremost Tibetan Buddhist teachers of our age.
Many of us experience dissatisfaction or feeling that something is missing in our lives, even when on the surface things seem quite good. This session presents teachings by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and Sogyal Rinpoche that show us how turning our mind inwards, through reflection and meditation, offers us a path out of endless dissatisfaction to finding true, lasting happiness.
Feel free to come along to any session that suits you. No need to register, just drop in.
Fee: Standard $15, Concession/Student $10
We do not have credit card facilities, please bring cash.
Cost negotiable depending on your financial circumstances.

Where Can We Find Lasting Happiness? | Meditation and Wisdom for Every Day
2026-07-04 15:00 - 17:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown, Sydney, NSW, 2042, Australia
Many of us experience dissatisfaction or feeling that something is missing in our lives, even when on the surface things seem quite good. This session presents teachings by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and Sogyal Rinpoche that show us how turning our mind inwards, through reflection and meditation, offers us a path out of endless dissatisfaction to finding true, lasting happiness.

A session in the Meditation and Wisdom to Transform Every Day Life series.

Spend time with your best self on a journey from sadness and anger to peace and joy. The timeless wisdom and meditative insights of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition offer many practical methods to help us heal and thrive as we face the everyday challenges of anxiety, depression, anger, physical pain, loneliness, and burnout.
This series of Saturday afternoon sessions offer an introduction to meditation and practical advice from some of the foremost Tibetan Buddhist teachers of our age. Applying these teachings can help us meet the challenges of these difficult times, to heal ourselves, and to bring us to the core of our own peace, compassion and wisdom.
Led by Western meditation instructors with many years of experience, each session consists of:

Video teachings from Tibetan Buddhist masters including Sogyal Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Dungse Jampal Norbu and Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.
Meditation practice
Time for contemplation
Group discussions and Q&A, offering you the opportunity to explore the teachings and practices in an open supportive environment and to connect with a community of practitioners

Dates and Topics for 2026
4 July Where Can We Find Lasting Happiness?
1 August Everything is Workable
5 September Overcoming Depression
3 October Accentuate the Positive: How to Work with Negative Emotions
7 November Beating Burnout and Stress
5 December How to Remain Unshaken By Life’s Ups and Downs
📍 Online and Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown.

Everything Is Workable | Meditation and Wisdom for Every Day
2026-08-01 15:00 - 17:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown, Sydney, NSW, 2042, Australia
The Buddha compared the universe to a vast interdependent net woven of a countless variety of brilliant jewels. Each jewel reflects every other jewel in the net. If we are interdependent with everything and everyone else, even the smallest thought can have long-lasting consequences. This session presents a short teaching by Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel on how taking interdependence to heart can change the way we relate to trauma in our life and how we care for the people around us.

A session in the Meditation and Wisdom to Transform Every Day Life series.

Spend time with your best self on a journey from sadness and anger to peace and joy. The timeless wisdom and meditative insights of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition offer many practical methods to help us heal and thrive as we face the everyday challenges of anxiety, depression, anger, physical pain, loneliness, and burnout.
This series of Saturday afternoon sessions offer an introduction to meditation and practical advice from some of the foremost Tibetan Buddhist teachers of our age. Applying these teachings can help us meet the challenges of these difficult times, to heal ourselves, and to bring us to the core of our own peace, compassion and wisdom.
Led by Western meditation instructors with many years of experience, each session consists of:

Video teachings from Tibetan Buddhist masters including Sogyal Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Dungse Jampal Norbu and Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.
Meditation practice
Time for contemplation
Group discussions and Q&A, offering you the opportunity to explore the teachings and practices in an open supportive environment and to connect with a community of practitioners

Dates and Topics for 2026
1 August Everything is Workable
5 September Overcoming Depression
3 October Accentuate the Positive: How to Work with Negative Emotions
7 November Beating Burnout and Stress
5 December How to Remain Unshaken By Life’s Ups and Downs
📍 Online and Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown.

Overcoming Depression | Meditation and Wisdom for Every Day
2026-09-05 15:00 - 17:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown, Sydney, NSW, 2042, Australia
The Buddhist path offers many tools for turning our mind away from depression and inspiring ourselves to take on a more positive, uplifting frame of mind. In this session we’ll work with some simple practical techniques taught by Sogyal Rinpoche that can lift your mood quickly and reliably.

A session in the Meditation and Wisdom to Transform Every Day Life series.

Spend time with your best self on a journey from sadness and anger to peace and joy. The timeless wisdom and meditative insights of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition offer many practical methods to help us heal and thrive as we face the everyday challenges of anxiety, depression, anger, physical pain, loneliness, and burnout.
This series of Saturday afternoon sessions offer an introduction to meditation and practical advice from some of the foremost Tibetan Buddhist teachers of our age. Applying these teachings can help us meet the challenges of these difficult times, to heal ourselves, and to bring us to the core of our own peace, compassion and wisdom.
Led by Western meditation instructors with many years of experience, each session consists of:

Video teachings from Tibetan Buddhist masters including Sogyal Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Dungse Jampal Norbu and Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.
Meditation practice
Time for contemplation
Group discussions and Q&A, offering you the opportunity to explore the teachings and practices in an open supportive environment and to connect with a community of practitioners

Dates and Topics for 2026
5 September Overcoming Depression
3 October Accentuate the Positive: How to Work with Negative Emotions
7 November Beating Burnout and Stress
5 December How to Remain Unshaken By Life’s Ups and Downs
📍 Online and Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown.

Accentuate the Positive : How to Work with Negative Emotions | Meditation and Wisdom for Every Day
2026-10-03 15:00 - 17:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown, Sydney, NSW, 2042, Australia
Negative emotions such as anger cause us and others so much unnecessary suffering. In this session, supported by teachings by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and Sharon Salzberg, we’ll investigate how, through meditation and reflection on some simple open questions, we can ground ourselves in the face of negative emotions.

A session in the Meditation and Wisdom to Transform Every Day Life series.

Spend time with your best self on a journey from sadness and anger to peace and joy. The timeless wisdom and meditative insights of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition offer many practical methods to help us heal and thrive as we face the everyday challenges of anxiety, depression, anger, physical pain, loneliness, and burnout.
This series of Saturday afternoon sessions offer an introduction to meditation and practical advice from some of the foremost Tibetan Buddhist teachers of our age. Applying these teachings can help us meet the challenges of these difficult times, to heal ourselves, and to bring us to the core of our own peace, compassion and wisdom.
Led by Western meditation instructors with many years of experience, each session consists of:

Video teachings from Tibetan Buddhist masters including Sogyal Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Dungse Jampal Norbu and Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.
Meditation practice
Time for contemplation
Group discussions and Q&A, offering you the opportunity to explore the teachings and practices in an open supportive environment and to connect with a community of practitioners

Dates and Topics for 2026
3 October Accentuate the Positive: How to Work with Negative Emotions
7 November Beating Burnout and Stress
5 December How to Remain Unshaken By Life’s Ups and Downs
📍 Online and Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown.

Beating Burnout and Stress | Meditation and Wisdom for Every Day
2026-11-07 15:00 - 17:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown, Sydney, NSW, 2042, Australia
These days many of us feel overstretched and stressed. This session presents some short teachings by Sogyal Rinpoche offering simple ways that we can bring meditation and the compassionate Buddhist view into our daily life to help ease and cut through our stress and worry.

A session in the Meditation and Wisdom to Transform Every Day Life series.

Spend time with your best self on a journey from sadness and anger to peace and joy. The timeless wisdom and meditative insights of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition offer many practical methods to help us heal and thrive as we face the everyday challenges of anxiety, depression, anger, physical pain, loneliness, and burnout.
This series of Saturday afternoon sessions offer an introduction to meditation and practical advice from some of the foremost Tibetan Buddhist teachers of our age. Applying these teachings can help us meet the challenges of these difficult times, to heal ourselves, and to bring us to the core of our own peace, compassion and wisdom.
Led by Western meditation instructors with many years of experience, each session consists of:

Video teachings from Tibetan Buddhist masters including Sogyal Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Dungse Jampal Norbu and Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.
Meditation practice
Time for contemplation
Group discussions and Q&A, offering you the opportunity to explore the teachings and practices in an open supportive environment and to connect with a community of practitioners

Dates and Topics for 2026
7 November Beating Burnout and Stress
5 December How to Remain Unshaken By Life’s Ups and Downs
📍 Online and Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown.

How to Remain Unshakeable | Meditation and Wisdom for Every Day
2026-12-05 15:00 - 17:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown, Sydney, NSW, 2042, Australia
This session presents a teaching by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche. Drawing on his experience as a refugee, he offers advice on how to live a meaningful life, the power of kindness and compassion, and how by setting aside worry we all can find strength to face the ups and downs of modern living.

A session in the Meditation and Wisdom to Transform Every Day Life series.

Spend time with your best self on a journey from sadness and anger to peace and joy. The timeless wisdom and meditative insights of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition offer many practical methods to help us heal and thrive as we face the everyday challenges of anxiety, depression, anger, physical pain, loneliness, and burnout.
This series of Saturday afternoon sessions offer an introduction to meditation and practical advice from some of the foremost Tibetan Buddhist teachers of our age. Applying these teachings can help us meet the challenges of these difficult times, to heal ourselves, and to bring us to the core of our own peace, compassion and wisdom.
Led by Western meditation instructors with many years of experience, each session consists of:

Video teachings from Tibetan Buddhist masters including Sogyal Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Dungse Jampal Norbu and Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.
Meditation practice
Time for contemplation
Group discussions and Q&A, offering you the opportunity to explore the teachings and practices in an open supportive environment and to connect with a community of practitioners

Dates and Topics for 2026
5 December How to Remain Unshaken By Life’s Ups and Downs
📍 Online and Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown.
