To provide opportunities for deep engagement in a collaborative and supportive environment, the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies offers multi-month Path Programs that integrate the study and practice of the dharma with a consistent cohort of practitioners.
The intention is to create a space expansive enough for teachers and participants to engage in far-reaching explorations of classical and contemporary Buddhism — cultivating wisdom, deepening practice, and building a community grounded in Buddhadharma.
See the links below for further information on the individual programs and how to apply or register for a Path.
Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about these programs at contact@buddhistinquiry.org.
Discover your innate buddha nature—boundless awareness, warmth, and wisdom—through this 11-month Path Program in Sustainable Compassion Training. With three residential retreats, monthly online sessions, and guidance from John Makransky, deepen your capacity to embody unconditional love and compassion in all of life.
A Contemplative and Clinical Exploration
This Path program will explore the complex nature and role of love as it is presented in Buddhist psychology and Western psychotherapeutic theory and practice. For both clinicians and meditators, this course will offer a deepening understanding of the spiritual challenges posed by authentic love and efforts to cultivate it with fewer unconscious conditions.
A BCBS Insight Dialogue Path Program
In this program, we will draw upon the practice of Insight Dialogue to explore the liberating potential of the Four Noble Truths in an immediate and relational way. Insight Dialogue is a relational meditation practice for developing awareness and wisdom, designed to help us awaken together and integrate our understanding of Dharma teachings in a direct and immediate way.
A BCBS Online Path Program
The Early Buddhist Meditation (EBM) program explores meditation in early Buddhist discourses, preserved in Pāli and other languages, offering the closest access to the historical Buddha’s teachings. Running from August 2027 to July 2028, it includes three online retreats with experienced teachers, optional meetings, and live instruction. Guided meditations, readings, and resources on Canvas support study and practice.
Retreat Dates:
Details and applications will be available in Spring 2027. In the meantime, explore our archived webpage of the 2023-24 EBM program by clicking the button below to get a sense of what to expect.
This Path program was an in-depth study of meditation as it emerged in the early Buddhist discourses, extant in Pāli, and compared with their parallels in Chinese and other languages.
This Path Program explored mindfulness, soulfulness, and social engagement in the face of such challenges as climate distress, immigration and demographic changes, economic inequality, the increasing implications of extractive technology, and the increasing visibility of White supremacy-based ideology and politics.
This Path Program adapted the practice of cultivating buddha nature from Tibetan Buddhism, with assistance from modern psychology, to make it accessible for people of all backgrounds and faiths seeking a way to cultivate unconditional love and wisdom.
This Path Program provided support and resources to change agents, community organizers, activists, as well as practitioners looking to engage more directly in justice work as spiritual practice during this time of accelerated change.
This Path Program explored the benefits of deep samādhi, developing the skills that support the attainment of jhāna, and experiencing the powerful role that right concentration plays on the path of awakening.
Jointly offered by BCBS and IMS, this Path Program explored how to cultivate our understanding of the core teachings of the Buddha, deepen our meditation practice, and help us to embody the dharma in spiritual friendship and community.
Deepening Practice,
Building Community.
Want to stay informed about news, resources, and upcoming programs at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies?
© 2025 Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
