ABOUT
About Us
We are a Buddhist meditation retreat center (501(c) (3) non profit organization) on 45 acre beautiful redwood forest in Los Gatos Mountains with giant redwood trees, running creeks, small waterfall and natural spring. Easy commute with only 30 min to the heart of Silicon Valley (Apple and Google), 30 min to the Santa Cruz beach, and 1 hour to San Francisco.
We are of the Nyingma Tibetan Buddhism lineage, from the largest Buddhist Buddhist Institute in the world Larung Gar in eastern Tibet. We teach a very rich variety of different meditation techniques, from Mindfulness meditation, to Compassion meditation, Mantra meditation, Shamatha meditation and Vipassana meditation etc.
We offer various programs, from beginner's 4 week classes, 1 year class, to multi-year program for serious and advanced practitioners, and retreats of various lengths from one day to months.
Cofounder President - Jessica Huai
Jessica worked in the high tech industry for over 20 years after she got her M.S. in Computer Science from Purdue University. After she achieved financial freedom she left her Senior Engineering Manager job at Apple to cofound the Luminous Wisdom Meditation Retreat Center.
She has been meditating since 2013 with various meditation techniques accumulating over 7000 hours of meditation by 2023, gaining enormous benefits in terms of physical health, mental strength, career development, true happiness and wisdom cultivation.
She has been under the direct guidance of two renowned meditation masters from the world's largest Buddhist Institute Larung Gar (in Tibet) Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro and Khenpo Sodargye, who were invited to US to give talks at Google, Apple, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Columbia etc in the last few years, as well as many meditation and Buddhist centers.
She is trained rigorously in the meditation program taught by Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro who visited the San Francisco bay area annually from 2015 to 2018.
She has finished Khenpo Sodargye's 4-year Program and is in the 5-year Advanced Program.
She founded Luminous Meditation and co-founded Luminous Wisdom Meditation Retreat Center. She also co-founded the Apple Buddhist Community in 2016 when she worked at Apple.
More on Jessica at Unbelievable Journey - Jessica's Meditation Story
Cofounder COO - Bryant Liu
Bryant Liu is an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley. He started meditation in 2015 and exhibited quite some talent in meditation practice and understanding of the Buddha dharma. He also did scientific research on meditation, published research paper in IEEE explore and presented at IEEE conferences. He competed in the 2023 Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) with his research on meditation using Machine Learning and was named as the top 300 Regeneron STS Scholar.
In April 2016 he met Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro for the first time when Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro came to the San Francisco bay area to give teachings. Khenpo gave him guidance on meditation and the dharma name of Yuan Zheng which means Dzogchen (great perfection) enlightenment. In three years he accumulated one million times of the Manjushri (wisdom) mantra at the age of 14.
In Dec of 2016 Bryant went on his first pilgrimage in Tibet to visit the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute. He met with both Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro and Khenpo Sodargye at Larung Gar and received teachings.
In Dec of 2017 Bryant went back to Tibet again, visited both Larung Buddhist Institute and Yarchen Gar Monastery which is the largest Buddhist meditation retreat center. He met with many high lamas at both places and received teachings and empowerments.
He cofounded the Luminous Wisdom Meditation Retreat Center and founded MindstreamX.
In 2022 he founded the Mediation and Wellness Club at Saratoga High, the first high school meditation club in CA. San Jose Mercury News reported Bryant's research on meditation and his meditation activities.
Cofounder CTO - Kyle Liu
Kyle Liu is a high school student in Saratoga High. He started meditation in 2017 after meeting Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro for the first time in 2016.
In Dec of 2016 Kyle went on his first pilgrimage in Tibet to visit the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute. He met with both Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro and Khenpo Sodargye at Larung Gar and received teachings.
In Dec of 2017 Kyle went back to Tibet again, visited both Larung Buddhist Institute and Yarchen Gar Monastery which is the largest Buddhist meditation retreat center. He met with many high lamas at both places and received teachings and empowerments.
He cofounded the Luminous Wisdom Meditation Retreat Center.
Vice President - Dr. Yikuan Lee
Dr. Yikuan Lee is a distinguished professor in the International Business Department at the Lam Family College of Business at San Francisco State University. With a wealth of academic accomplishments and a deep commitment to fostering creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and mindfulness, Dr. Lee’s contribution has been acknowledged through the receipt of several research grants and award.
Dr. Lee specializes in teaching creativity and innovation, entrepreneurship, and international marketing. Her passion for cultivating an entrepreneurial culture on campus has been evident through her initiation of "The Next BIG Thing in Sustainable Innovation" Shark Tank competition, an event she has hosted each semester since 2015.
Beyond her academic expertise, Dr. Lee is a dedicated mindfulness meditation practitioner with over a decade of meditation experience. Her unwavering commitment to foster a culture of mindfulness culture on campus and guiding students toward intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy through mindfulness practice underscores her dedication to holistic well-being.
Lineage
Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro is a venerable contemporary Nyingma teacher of Tibetan Buddhism based at Larung Gar, where he serves as a standing Vice Principal in charge of teaching for all the Tibetan monks and nuns, tens of thousand of them. Over the last two to three decades he has trained a large cohort of outstanding monastic students, many of whom are now teaching all around the world.
Khenpo’s teachings is well structured and organized, easy to understand yet with profound meanings. Khenpo is really good at referring to scientific studies and examples, explaining arcane dharma theories using languages and terminologies modern people are familiar with, hence Khenpo is very popular among the intellectuals. Khenpo also put equal emphasis on both theories and practices, always coupled the explanation of theories with corresponding guidance for practices.
In terms of his own practice and realization, Khenpo started practicing the highest level of Nyingmapa tantra meditation since he was 24, and his practice achievements and realization were recognized and verified three times on a one by one basis personally by his master H.H. Jigme Phunstok Rinpoche, who founded the Larung Gar and passed away in 2004.
Khenpo also has many publications in Tibetan and Chinese, and some have been translated into English. Among all the publications, the 10-volume series "Luminous Wisdom" is acclaimed as a Buddhism masterpiece which can stand the test of time, from theory to practice, with rigorous sequencing, and encompassing both sutra and tantra in harmony. The content of the series is very practical, the language is concise yet penetrating, tailoring to the needs of the modern audience and practitioners, hence becoming widely accepted and very popular.
Since 1990 Khenpo took further research into western science, philosophy, psychology etc. In the last few years Khenpo has also responded to invitations to take part in academic dialogues and give talks at tertiary institutions including Harvard University, University of Oxford, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Columbia University, George Washington University, University of Virginia, Toronto University, University of Auckland, University of Sydney and University of Melbourne. He has also accepted invitations from companies like Google and Apple to take part in activities alongside experts and scholars of science, philosophy and psychology to discuss topics central to science and Buddhism that probe the mysteries of life and mind.
Google Talk - Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro & David Presti: "The Scientist & the Monk”
Khenpo Sodargye
Khenpo Sodargye has become one of the most eminent contemporary Buddhist masters. As a Tibetan lama, a Buddhist scholar and teacher, a prolific translator into Chinese, and a modern Buddhist thinker, he is renowned across Asia and the west for his interest in the integration of traditional Buddhist teachings with global issues and modern life.
Khenpo studied the traditional course of philosophical treatises and also received the entire corpus of Tibetan esoteric Buddhist transmissions. He also served as H.H. Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche’s main translator for Chinese disciples and was assigned by Rinpoche as the head of Chinese division at Larung Gar and in charge of teaching the Chinese deciples, including thousand of monks and nuns at Larung Gar and tens of thousands Chinese lay students in mainland China.
Khenpo has lectured extensively across China and other parts of East, South, and Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand as well as Europe and North America. He has recently given talks at a number of prestigious Universities including Peking University, Tsinghua, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, University of Toronto, McGill University, University of Auckland, Melbourne University, National University of Singapore, National Taiwan University, University of Hong Kong and University of Gottingen.
