Listening – Contemplation – Meditation

Meditation & Teaching Series

The Meditation & Teaching Series offers an immersive opportunity to spend a meaningful day in practice, combining meditation, Buddhist teachings and live discussion.

Each day includes:

• extensive meditation practice;
• video teachings by Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX;
• live discussion and Q&A with Traleg Khandro;
• listening guides and reflection questions to support contemplation and practice between sessions.

Sessions are available in-person at E-Vam Institute and online.

The Psychology of Meditation
10 October · 7 November · 19 December 2026
9:30 am – 4:30 pm

How we relate to the thoughts, emotions and feelings that arise in our lives not only shapes our experience in meditation — it can also transform how we experience ourselves and influence who we are becoming.

Across this series, Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche challenges some familiar assumptions about meditation and explores what they mean for the way we relate to our experience and our lives, including:

• we may be meditating, but what are we actually doing? What makes meditative attention different from ordinary concentration, what distraction really is, and why mindfulness involves not only remembering what deserves our attention, but also learning what to let go of — what to forget;
• how through meditation we can learn from the past without being trapped by it or continually reliving it, loosen the hold of habitual patterns, make fuller use of the present, and influence the direction in which we are moving;
• how treating our thoughts and emotions as something separate from ourselves can leave us divided and fragmented, while learning to take our experience on board can help us become more integrated and more conscious of what we choose to nurture and what we need to let go of.

Across the three sessions, Rinpoche explores how meditation can enrich our lives by helping us recognise what is worth remembering and nurturing, what we need to forget and let go of, and how the way we relate to our experience can help direct us towards a more beneficial future.

Who is this series for?

• those who wish to deepen their meditation practice and understanding;
• experienced practitioners interested in how meditation can shape the way we relate to ourselves and our experience;
• those who are new to meditation 

Join us as we come together to listen, meditate and explore Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX’s profoundly practical teachings, with the support of Traleg Khandro guiding us more deeply into their meaning and application.

Session 1
10 October

What Are We Actually Doing in Meditation?
Mindfulness · Attention · Recollection · Distraction

Mindfulness practice is about paying attention to those things that we should be paying attention to and not paying attention to those things
that we should not be paying attention to.
So remembrance and forgetfulness go hand-in-hand. Learning to forget is just as important as paying attention to certain things with the use of mindfulness.

— Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX

We may be meditating, but what are we actually doing when we meditate? How is meditative attention different from the concentration and focus we use in other areas of our lives — and what really is distraction?

Meditation is often presented as simply being in the present moment, paying attention, or trying to enter a thoughtless state. Rinpoche asks us to look more carefully at these ideas.

For Rinpoche, taking full advantage of the present involves learning how to remember and forget the past — what deserves our attention, what is worth remembering and nurturing, and what we need to forget and no longer reinforce. In doing so, we can also influence the direction in which we are moving.

Among the themes explored

• what makes meditative attention different from ordinary concentration and focus, and what is actually happening when we become distracted;
• how mindfulness involves both remembering and forgetting — learning what is worth remembering and nurturing, while letting go of what keeps us habituated in old ways of thinking;
• why meditation is not simply about having no thoughts — thoughts may still arise, and recognising the thoughts, emotions and feelings going through our minds is part of what makes meditation beneficial and transformative.

Session 2
7 November

 Who Is the Meditator?
The Experiencer · The Evolving Self · Flow of Experience

What we are going to become is based on what we make of our own experiences. Simply thinking: ‘If I have a new experience I’m going to be changed’ doesn’t work. One has to think in terms of how the new experiences are helping or aiding one to go forward.

— Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX

We often try to understand ourselves by asking: Who am I? What am I really like? What is the “true me”?

Buddhism does not deny that there is a person who has experiences; rather, Rinpoche explains that “there is no experiencer apart from the experiences” — no fixed experiencer who somehow remains unchanged while experiences come and go. Rather than searching for some fixed essence of who we are, Rinpoche suggests that it is more beneficial to ask: What am I becoming?

As Rinpoche explains, “what one experiences is going to determine what one becomes.” And importantly, what we make of those experiences matters.

Rinpoche compares life to a river, with its undertows and undercurrents, periods of turbulence and periods of calm. We too are continually moving and changing. Rather than being defined by what has happened to us in the past, we can learn from the past without being trapped by it or constantly reliving it, loosen the hold of habitual patterns, and influence the direction in which we are moving.

Among the themes explored

• how understanding ourselves as evolving rather than fixed, opens the possibility for change and transformation;
• how we can learn and benefit from difficult experiences without continually reliving them, and avoid reinforcing unhelpful habitual patterns;
• how what matters is what we make of our experiences and how we use them to move forward.

Session 3
19 December

Integration: Not Separating Ourselves from Experience
Objectification · Fragmentation · Integration

When we evolve we have taken everything on board and we realise that, since thoughts, emotions and feelings are part of who we are, then the idea of forgetting and remembering becomes that much more important.

What we choose to nurture, to care for, remember, becomes extremely significant.

— Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX

In meditation, our thoughts and emotions can sometimes feel like unwanted intruders — disturbing us, getting in our way, or preventing us from having the peaceful mind we think we should have.

Rinpoche explores how treating our thoughts and emotions as something separate from ourselves can lead to solidification and fragmentation. Learning to be with them without objectifying, solidifying or turning them into “invading forces” is, as Rinpoche explains, “a good beginning, a good start.” This is part of becoming less divided in the way we relate to ourselves and our experience.

Because our experience is impermanent and always changing — and our thoughts, emotions and feelings are part of who we are — what we nurture, remember and let go of matters.

Rinpoche connects this with the Buddhist meaning of what is known as gathering merit — gathering positive thoughts, emotions and feelings so that our energies are less dispersed and can be directed towards what is productive, creative and useful.

Among the themes explored

• how objectifying our thoughts and emotions can leave us fragmented and disempowered;

• what it means to become more integrated and comfortable with our own minds;

• how gathering positive thoughts, emotions and feelings can help gather our energies, strengthen motivation and direct them towards what is productive, creative and useful.

Live discussion with Traleg Khandro

Traleg Khandro, long-time student and wife of Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX, will lead the live discussion and Q&A throughout the series.

Drawing on many years of study and practice under Rinpoche’s guidance, Khandro-la will help participants explore the teachings more deeply, answer questions, and consider their practical implications for meditation and everyday life.

See Traleg Khandro’s full bio below.

About Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX

Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX (1955-2012) was born in Nangchen in Kham, eastern Tibet. He was recognized by His Holiness XVI Gyalwang Karmapa as the ninth Traleg tulku and enthroned at the age of two as the supreme abbot of Thrangu Monastery….

Throughout his life Rinpoche gave extensive teachings on many aspects of Buddhist psychology and philosophy, as well as comparative religion, and Buddhist and Western thought.”
Read Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX’s full biography →

Traleg Khandro

Traleg Khandro, long-time student and wife of the late Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX, is a Director of E-Vam Institute in Melbourne and the U.S. and runs Shogam Publications, Traleg Rinpoche’s publishing arm.

Khandro studied Buddhism under Traleg Rinpoche’s guidance for many years and has undertaken numerous long meditation retreats. She has given commentary on Rinpoche’s teachings in Australia, America, Europe, the U.K. and South East Asia.

At Rinpoche’s request, Khandro also received traditional LuJong (Tibetan Yoga) training after qualifying as a Hatha Yoga instructor. She has a degree in Psychology.