Sakya Institute for Buddhist Studies

Sakya Institute for Buddhist Studies was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1990 by Acharya Lama Migmar Tseten with the patronage of His Holiness Sakya Trizin.  Offering both beginning and advanced courses, Lama Migmar teaches Abhidharma, Madhyamika, Prajnaparamita, Tantra, and Mind-Training, such as Parting From the Four Attachments, Wheel of Sharp Weapons, Seven Points of Mind-Training, Bodhicharyavatara, Triple Vision as well as classic Sutra texts such as the Dhammapada.

Other affiliated centers include the Sakya Retreat Center in Barre, MA, where students have completed solitary retreats up to three and a half years in length, and the Sakya Manjushri Temple in Shrewsbury, where an ongoing program of monthly ritual services are held.

The practice taught at Sakya Institute for Buddhist Studies is based on the classic gradual approach, beginning with Mind-Training and concluding with advanced Vajrayana deity practice.

Venerable Acharya Lama Migmar Tseten was born in 1956 at Chimdok, Gyaltse in Central Tibet.  He left Tibet with his family in 1959 and resettled in South India. In 1970 he became a monk and joined the Tibetan Institute at Sarnath, Varanasi, where he studied Sutrayana (Hinayana and Mahayana)  Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan literature, as well as Sanskrit, English and history, under the late Sakya Khenpo Rinchen and the Khenpos from Gelug, Nyingma, Kagyu, and Indian masters.  He achieved the position of first among his class of students from the four lineages every year, for nine years. In 1980 he received the Acharya degree and His Holiness the Dalai Lama recognized his achievement with a special gift of a brocade scarf, silver medal and a Bodhicharyavatara text. In 1981 at the request of H.H. Sakya Trizin, Lama Migmar became the head of the Sakya Main Monastery at Puruwala, India and the Sakya Center at Rajpur, India. While serving these monasteries, he continued his study and practice in Sutra and Tantra, and received transmissions such as Lam Dre, the Path and Result, Vajrayogini and many others, from H.H. Sakya Trizin, H.E. Chogye Trichen, H.E. Ludhing Khenchen Rinpoche, Khenpo Sangye Tenzin and Khenpo Appey Rinpoche.

In 1990, Lama Migmar became the head of the Sakya Retreat Center in Barre, MA. He founded the Sakya Institute in Cambridge, MA and the Manjushri Temple in Shrewsbury, MA. In Addition to the regular programs in Cambridge and Shrewsbury, MA, Lama Migmar teaches and leads retreats at various Buddhist centers throughout the United States.  He is also a Buddhist chaplain at Harvard University.