Tara’s Triple Excellence Online Meditation Program
Tara’s Triple Excellence (TTE) is a unique online meditation program guiding you on the entire path to enlightenment. The TTE program is structured to provide you with daily guidance and meditation instruction leading to loving kindness, compassion, and profound wisdom. The program was created under the auspices of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, a world-renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher and meditation master.
This program is for those who wish to awaken to their own potential, embody the Buddha’s wisdom, and attain a degree of fulfillment that we, as ordinary beings, can barely begin to imagine.
Register today for the free 12-day Introduction to Tara’s Triple Excellence online meditation program.
CALM
The First Excellence
KIND
The Second Excellence
CLEAR
The Third Excellence
What Can I Expect?
As you progress through Tara’s Triple Excellence, you will uncover and nourish those sublime qualities that have always been within you.
The TTE program is divided into three stages called the First, Second, and Third Excellence. You will learn to be calm in the storm, and to stay centered no matter what is swirling around. You’ll experience the joy of releasing the burden of old painful habits and access the love and wisdom that is your fundamental nature.
This online program offers new content every day, including learning, reflection, and meditation to foster your spiritual growth. You can practice twice daily, or find the pace that suits your lifestyle.
How Does the Program Work?
The TTE program was designed above all else to be practical. Its objective is to incorporate and integrate the Tibetan Buddhist path into your daily life in order to effect life-transforming change. The program seamlessly interweaves the three essential activities that are crucial to transform your mind: study, reflection, and meditation.
A complete Buddhist practice for every day
Every day, you will be presented with new content in the form of morning and evening online meditation practice sessions that guide you step-by-step into a deeper relationship with the Buddha’s teachings. At the end of each morning contemplation you are given a “mindfulness practice of the day” to reflect on and integrate the teachings in your daily life. In addition to the two practice sessions, there is a short practice when you wake up and another when you go to sleep.
Each new topic of study begins with video teachings by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and includes additional practice videos with Drubpon Lama Tenzin Sangpo, selected from our archive of in-person seminars.
No Experience Necessary!
Whether you are new to meditation or an experienced practitioner, the enriching, transformative power of the TTE program is right for you.
The Entire Buddhist Path
The Tara’s Triple Excellence Tibetan Buddhist online meditation program contains original teachings by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and Drubpon Lama Tenzin Sangpo, and years of daily contemplations, each of which builds on the prior one, allowing you to obtain lasting, life-changing results.
Introduction to Tara's Triple Excellence
A Free 12-day Course
This introductory course is designed to give you a sense of the scope of the entire TTE program. Over the course of 12 days, you will be introduced to core concepts of Buddhism. You will experience the pattern of daily practice following the teaching and meditation sessions each day. Just as an apple tree can only grow from an apple seed, it is said that a mind of wisdom and a heart of impartial loving-kindness can only grow from the seeds of positive qualities that have been sown through practice. Make your precious life even more meaningful and join today!
You will retain unlimited access to this introductory course.
The First Excellence
Fundamental Mind Training
The First Excellence encompasses teachings that show the true nature of cyclic existence. The contemplations and meditations presented here teach us to calm the mind and cultivate a clearer sense of what is valuable in our lives. As a result of contemplating, reflecting, and meditating on the Four Mind Changings, Taking Refuge, and the Four Truths of the Noble Ones, we develop the resolve to free ourselves from suffering.
Duration: 18 weeks.
Content: 110 days of guided meditations, 30 teachings with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, and 26 optional practice seminars with Drubpon Lama Tenzin Sangpo.
Requirements: Introduction to TTE.
The First Excellence
Module 1
In the First Excellence Module 1, we contemplate over the course of 56 days the Four Mind Changings: the precious human body, impermanence, suffering of the lower realms, and karma, cause and effect. These four reflections help to turn our minds away from fleeting worldly concerns and support us in adopting virtuous qualities and creating a firm foundation for the next steps on the path to full awakening.
Duration: 8 weeks.
Content: 48 days of guided meditations, 15 teachings with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, and 11 optional practice seminars with Drubpon Lama Tenzin Sangpo.
The First Excellence
Module 2
In the First Excellence Module 2, we contemplate the profound meaning of the Three Jewels and take refuge in them while being supported by the Buddha Maitreya’s inspirational text: The Supreme Continuity (Uttaratantraśāstra). Thereafter we ponder the Buddha’s first sermon on the Four Noble Truths, which is divided into two topics: the Causes and Effects of Samsara and the Causes and Effects of Liberation.
Duration: 10 weeks.
Content: 62 days of guided meditations, 15 teachings with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, and 15 optional practice seminars with Drubpon Lama Tenzin Sangpo.
The Second Excellence
The Bodhisattva Path of Compassion
The Second Excellence, divided into three parts, brings us to the great vehicle, or Mahayana. It is the path of the bodhisattvas, whose overwhelming compassion leads them to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. Here we will first train in developing loving kindness and compassion, exchanging ourselves with others and developing the mind of awakening. Thereafter we will dive deep into the first five paramitas: generosity, discipline, patience, diligence and meditations, and finally illuminate them with the sixth paramita, the perfection of wisdom.
Duration: 63 weeks.
Content: 400 days of guided meditations, 62 teachings with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, and 26 optional practice seminars with Drubpon Lama Tenzin Sangpo.
Requirements: Completion of the Introduction to TTE, and the First Excellence.
The Second Excellence
Module 1
The Second Excellence Module 1 is an intensive training in loving kindness, compassion, realizing the equality of self and others, and exchanging oneself with others. The culmination of these practices is developing the most precious mind state: the awakened attitude of bodhicitta. As a result of these contemplations and meditations, our rigid fixating mind softens and allows kindness toward oneself, friends, strangers, and even those who, in the past, caused us stress and agitation.
Duration: 20 weeks.
Content: 130 days of guided meditations, 18 teachings with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, and 16 optional practice seminars with Drubpon Lama Tenzin Sangpo.
The Second Excellence
Module 2
In the training of the Second Excellence Module 2, we study and practice the first five of the six paramitas, or “perfections:” generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, and meditation; in the last of these, learning to calm and stabilize our mind (shamatha practice) is emphasized.
Duration: 25 weeks.
Content: 162 days of guided meditations, 15 teachings with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, and 10 optional practice seminars with Drubpon Lama Tenzin Sangpo.
The Second Excellence
Module 3
The Second Excellence Module 3 guides us through practices to develop the paramita of wisdom. We investigate the nature of appearances and the nature of the mind as we practice settling into uncontrived naturalness during our meditation sessions.
Duration: 18 weeks.
Content: 108 days of guided meditations and 29 teachings with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche.
The Third Excellence
The Secret Path of the Tantras
With the Third Excellence, we begin our journey on the path of the tantras, also known as the Vajrayana or the secret Mantrayana. This course is divided into seven parts, which in turn are divided by topic.
Also, due to the nature of the secret Mantrayana teachings, an online self-assessment and personal interview are required prior to being able to progress into the Third Excellence.
It is Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s wish that those who start the Third Excellence have studied and taken to heart the practices in the First and Second Excellences.
The self-assessment is not designed to be an obstacle. Rather, it is a reassurance that, indeed, you are on the path. After completing the First and Second Excellences, we invite and encourage you to take the self-assessment and request a personal online interview.
The Third Excellence
Module 1
In Module 1 of the Third Excellence, we contemplate key elements of the Vajrayana path and practice the Outer Tara sadhana, the Mandala Ritual Called the Essence of the Two Accumulations within the framework of Kriya and Upa tantras.
Duration: 11 weeks.
Content: 64 days of guided meditations, 20 teachings with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, the sadhana with a practice video, and other printed and video resources to help you in your practice.
Requirements: Introduction to TTE, First and Second Excellences, Outer Tara sadhana empowerment.
The Third Excellence
Module 2
In the Third Excellence Module 2 we practice the third of the nine tantric vehicles, Yoga tantra. In Yoga tantra, visualization practice is emphasized, and with abundant supportive material, we gradually train in the Inner Tara sadhana.
Duration: 11 weeks.
Content: 64 days of guided meditations, 12 teachings with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, and 19 practice seminars with Drubpon Lama Tenzin.
Requirements: Completion of Module 1, accumulation of practicing the Outer Tara sadhana 108 times, and Inner Tara sadhana empowerment.
The Third Excellence
Module 3
In the Third Excellence Module 3, we train in the special preliminary practices (ngöndro). This module is divided into five chapters.
- Refuge and prostrations. (Duration of contemplations: 6 weeks)
- Developing bodhicitta. (Duration of contemplations: 6 weeks)
- Visualizing Amoghavajra, a special practice of Amoghasiddhi and Tara in union through which we purify our obscurations. (Duration of contemplations: 5 weeks)
- The mandala offering which we present to Tara, allowing us to quickly perfect the accumulations and gather merit. (Duration of contemplations: TBD)
- Guru yoga, through which the flow of realization is transmitted to us. (Duration of contemplations: TBD)
Requirements: Completion of Module 2, accumulation of one million Tara mantras and 40000 activity mantras, Secret Tara sadhana empowerment.
The Third Excellence
Beyond Module 3
UNIQUE
This online meditation program belongs to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and derives from a terma (mind treasure) revealed in a vision of Green Tara, the “mother of all the buddhas”, by Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa. Passed down in an unbroken lineage from teacher to disciple, these precious, authentic teachings are now authorized by meditation master and lineage holder Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche to be shared with our modern world. It is said that there is great blessing in practicing this relatively recently revealed terma, which is “still warm with the dakinis’ breath.”
Seekers of all spiritual backgrounds and gender identities feel drawn to Noble Tara, who embodies the sacred feminine with her qualities of love, nurturance, and compassion in action, always ready to come to the aid of anyone who calls her.
The TTE program’s teachings and practices are all flavored with the perspective of Green Tara, guiding you through many forms of meditation and practice.
COMPLETE
In Chokgyur Lingpa’s vision, Green Tara said “Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!” and he instantaneously understood her entire set of instructions on completing the full path to enlightenment.
Each Excellence represents one of the three great vehicles of Buddhism:
- the Foundational vehicle,
- the Mahayana, and
- the Vajrayana, which contains practices leading all the way to the ultimate perspective of Mahamudra and Dzogchen.
TTE Lineage and Teachers
Noble Tara
Green Tara (also called “Noble” Tara) helps all beings who call upon her and liberates them from fear and danger. She is said to come faster than a flash of lightning. The moment we open our hearts and call upon her, she is present before us and assists us in that very instant. Tara is the expression of the nature of our own mind. She is a mirror, reflecting our innate, but not-yet realized perfection.
Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa
The great Tibetan master Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa (1829-1870) was among the last of Tibet’s great revealers of terma (treasure teachings). The transmission of the Triple Excellence that he received directly from Noble Tara, is the basis for the TTE program.
Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
Through a direct lineage of realized masters, this terma was transmitted to Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. Now, Rinpoche and the Tara’s Triple Excellence Team have leveraged today’s communication technology to transmit these teachings to dedicated practitioners around the world in an accessible, contemporary format.
Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche is a world-renowned teacher and meditation master in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Born in Tibet in 1951, he is the first-born son of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. As a child, he was recognized as the seventh incarnation of the Tibetan meditation master Gar Drubchen.
Drupon Lama Tenzin Sangpo
With Drubpon Lama Tenzin Sangpo’s deep knowledge of all aspects of the terma upon which the TTE is based, he guides the creation of the course content and leads retreats and seminars on all aspects of its theory, meditation, and practice.
Mag. Heidi Koppl
Mag. Heidi Koppl is a translator of Tibetan language and editor-in-chief of the TTE program. She studied with Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche from a young age. She currently resides at Gomde Pyrénées international retreat center in France, engaging in three-year retreat.
It’s easy to get started
Kind Words About the Program
Mike and Ellen
from UK
Marianne
from Austria
Esfir
from Israel
Serena
from Australia
Ellen
from the United States
Erik Pema Kunsang
Buddhist translator and teacher
Practice Support Groups
To support you during the Introduction, First, and Second Excellence modules, the TTE program offers the opportunity to study, reflect, and meditate together with fellow students. You will be able to ask questions, learn with others on the path, and explore the material together at a deeper level in groups of eight to 12 participants, meeting twice a month with two facilitators.
Online Activities
Online Reading Circles
Meet online with fellow practitioners to read and discuss Buddhist books in several languages.
