Jewel Heart Chicago Courses (2025-2026)
New Course: The Healing Practice of White Tara
White Tara is a fully enlightened being. A Buddha made of compassion and wisdom in a female form. People throughout the world engage in her practices of healing, longevity and compassion.
Join us as we explore her qualities through guided meditation, mantra and visualizations. All are welcome. No need to be a Buddhist to benefit from her practice or to find the Tara within ourselves.
* 1:00-2:15pm Wednesdays: 7/29, 8/5, 8/12, 8/19
* Logan Square Branch, Chicago Public Library, 3030 W. Fullerton Ave.
* Free
* All are welcome
* Please email [email protected] with any questions
Wednesday Meditation
This series of analytical meditations on various Mahayana points is intended to help calm mind and body, improve concentration, and deepen spiritual understanding and development. This course concluded in July 2026.
Deepening Awareness: The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness explored mindfulness of body, feelings, thoughts and phenomena. It shifted awareness gradually from immediate physical sensation to more and more subtle mental phenomena, inside and outside of the meditator’s body-mind complex. This course concluded in March 2026.
Creating Space: Clarity and Insight
Creating Space used the breath as an anchor to gently hold the mind, allowing the mind to notice the arising and fading of various physical, emotional and mental phenomena that naturally occur. Staying close to the breath in this way can be profoundly grounding and relaxing. This course concluded in October 2025.
Recent Dharma Events
Local Sangha Gathering with Demo Rinpoche: Summer 2026
Jewel Heart Chicago sangha enjoyed a delightful visit from Demo Rinpoche on a recent summer weekend in Chicago.
We toured the Art Institute of Chicago after a pleasant lunch around the courtyard fountain. An intricate, 100 foot long allegorical painting entitled Paradise Lost by Raqib Shaw provided plenty of symbolism to ponder together. We admired a pocket-sized, carved and painted Lama Chopa Tree from Mongolia. Rinpoche pointed out the stories on the huge Buddhist Votive Stele, from A. D. 551.
We considered sculpture, photography, and textiles before taking a refreshment break on the rooftop. There, we were able to sit, discuss and take in the lake, city and park views. We stopped for a photo in Millennium Park in front of Zac Landsberg’ Reclining Liberty (posed as reclining Buddha). A few of us cooled our toes while enjoying the sounds of happy children playing in the Jaume Plensa fountain.
Sunday morning Rinpoche warmly and logically explained how we are our own savior. We are responsible for how we make decisions and live in the world. He taught on how practice, in many forms, makes a positive impact on our lives, now and in the future. Meditation can help us live purposefully and compassionately, cut our negative emotions and lead us out of suffering. He explained that reading and listening to Buddha’s teachings are also meditations if we let them affect our minds. Rinpoche answered our questions. He gave us a beautiful way to sharpen concentration by rhythmically chanting mantras with a nectar-receiving visualization. The generous teaching was followed by a backyard picnic of Indian food, salads, fruits and desserts. Many thanks to all who organized the visit, brought delicious food and conversation to share.
Demo Rinpoche Spring 2025 Chicago Event
His EminenceDemo Rinpoche delivered a public talk in Chicago in the spring of 2025 at the Bucktown-Wicker Park Branch of the Chicago Public Library. Titled “Strong Like a Mountain, Flow Like a River” the talk addressed how to calm your mind in challenging times. Key messages included how to use shamatha meditation to stabilize the mind, how crucial it is to recognize, analyze and strive to eliminate negative emotions, and why we must press forward even though obstacles may be ahead or behind us.
Demo Rinpoche: Choose Compassion Over Fear (2024)
In June 2024, in the community room of a local church, His Eminence Demo Rinpoche presented a talk on how to “Choose Compassion Over Fear.” The talk explored how compassion can help overcome the limitations caused by fear and confusion, and serve as a reliable guiding force for our everyday lives.
As a follow-up, senior sangha members led a multi-week course on The Four Noble Truths.
About Jewel Heart Chicago
Jewel Heart Chicago coalesced in the 1980s and 1990s to embrace the authentic and accessible teachings of Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche.
Over the years we have hosted numerous teachers, public events, discussion groups, dharma classes, guided meditations and local sangha celebrations, influenced by Rimpoche’s teachings. Although we lost our dedicated physical space during the pandemic, we continue to seek out and find venues to share the dharma with others. Please stay tuned and join us for upcoming classes, public talks and sangha gatherings.