banyan course description:

The Journey of the Planetary Bodhisattva

As you enter the second year of your journey with Planetary Dharma, you are stepping into a profound new phase—one that invites you into deeper introspection and a wider embrace of the Bodhisattva path. This is no longer just about personal transformation. Together, we are walking a sacred path of awakening in service to all beings.

We are living in a time of immense unraveling and extraordinary potential. This is the Fourth Turning of the Dharma—a planetary rite of passage calling us to rise with compassion, clarity, and courageous love. Our world is shifting, and so are we. To walk the Bodhisattva path now is to say yes to becoming a conscious participant in birthing a world destined to become a Garden University of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.

As we move forward, your inner realizations begin to align with the evolutionary heart of the planet. You are invited to bring your deepest knowing into form and step into your role as an agent of planetary awakening.

Practicing Absolute and Relative Bodhicitta:

In this next phase, our practices evolve from personal disciplines into living transmissions. Together, we deepen into Absolute Bodhicitta—the experience of boundless openness and interbeing. As you train, you begin to feel the body, perceptual field, and self-structure soften and dissolve into a greater whole. You experience the Unbounded HeartMind, a natural, compassionate awareness beyond separation.

We also begin walking the path of Relative Bodhicitta, also known as Heroic Altruism. Here, we learn to meet suffering—not as a burden—but as a gateway into service. You are not alone in this. We awaken together so that we may awaken others. As planetary Bodhisattvas, we are called to act from the deep knowing that all time is always already now. In this awareness, we become vessels of compassion, guardians of wisdom, and emissaries of planetary healing.

Awakening Bodhicitta also activates your capacity for non-conceptual valid cognition—a form of buddhic intelligence that intuitively perceives deeper truths and aligns with the unfolding synchronicities of life. This is not merely intellectual understanding, but a living, vibrational awareness that guides action with clarity and purpose. As this deeper knowing awakens within you, the path—and the heroic trials that accompany it—will naturally accelerate. You may find yourself drawn with renewed devotion to turning the Wheel of Dharma alongside your fellow Bodhisattvas.

This path also asks us to mature into fully individuated human beings—capable of bridging and weaving between inner and outer worlds, tradition and innovation, the personal and the planetary. As Bodhisattvas in training, we are expected to meet the challenges of self-responsibility and soul-guided leadership. You are called to shape the life conditions—spiritually, relationally, and materially—that support deeper participation, clearer integrity, and meaningful service within your communities.

what you will learn:

In the second year, you’ll engage in powerful, embodied practices that will deepen your resilience and expand your presence in the world. Together, we will:

• On the Bodhisattva path of training, you’ll explore Insight and Emptiness (Openness) practices rooted in the Mahamudra tradition, supporting the direct realization of the nature of mind.

• Train in Absolute Bodhicitta, cultivating direct openness in the body, perceptual field, and self-sense—and awakening as Soul.

• Practice Heroic Altruism (Relative Bodhicitta) through the Bodhisattva Lojong/Mind Training.

• Deepen your capacity to meet adversity as a path to awakening, using lojong slogans and meditative self-inquiry to transform challenge into insight and compassionate presence.

• Explore and develop the different fuels of motivation to sustain you through the journey ahead.

• Begin to shape your multi-incarnational narrative self, preparing to fulfill the deeper arc of your soul’s evolutionary purpose.

• Deepen your commitment to the vow of Sacred World by aligning your actions with your deepest intentions.

• At the end of the academic year, an optional in-person retreat is offered as a culmination of your journey. During this retreat, you will have the opportunity to take your formal vow as a Planetary Bodhisattva—a personal and collective commitment to serve the awakening of all beings and align with the deeper evolutionary purpose of our planetary system.

*Optional Track: Medicine Dharma

For those who feel called, the Medicine Dharma Track offers a powerful supplemental path into the sacred use of cannabis for transformation, shadow integration, and awakening. Rooted in ethical frameworks and skillful means, this year-long journey invites participants to deepen their practice through guided ceremony, seasonal ritual, and earth-based rhythm—always in service of human flourishing and the evolution of consciousness. Registered Banyan cohort members will receive access to a discount code on the Welcome page of their new 2025/2026 membership area.