Land of Medicine Buddha (LMB) is a rustic retreat center located on 108 acres of scenic redwood forest. We offer a wide range of teachings and retreats on Tibetan Buddhism, universal education, meditation, and more; and employees are welcome and encouraged to attend the center’s activities whenever possible.

Working at LMB is a wonderful opportunity to work and, at the same time, study and practice Buddhism through service. Please consider joining our team to serve others, preserve our precious Dharma center, and contribute to a more peaceful world.

Employment

Cooks are responsible for preparing vegetarian meals for retreat groups of 12 to 50 people at the Land of Medicine Buddha. They work closely with the head chef and other kitchen staff to ensure that meals are prepared in a timely and efficient manner while maintaining high standards of quality and hygiene. Cooks are also expected to maintain a clean and organized kitchen and to assist with other kitchen duties as needed.

To apply, please download and read through the job description

The purpose of Dharma center organizations is for you and your friends to learn more, to deepen your understanding, to help each other, to inspire each other, and, most importantly, to develop realizations of the path to enlightenment. Then you can overcome the sufferings of samsara by ceasing the cause: delusion, by practicing together the Buddha’s teachings, especially the three principle aspects of the path to enlightenment: renunciation, bodhicitta, and correct view.
–Lama Zopa Rinpoche, May 2008
Excerpted from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, “The Need for Organizations“

Service Study

The Service-Study program is intended for people who are inspired to serve others and embody the values of compassion, wisdom, and generosity. As a Service-Study participant, you will have the opportunity to share your talents, serve our community, practice the Bodhichitta of Aspiration and Application, and deepen your own practice and learning in Dharma. Service-Study positions are essential to the functioning of the organization, and their input is invaluable to the Land of Medicine Buddha. Our service-study positions are offered in three-month increments, with an initial two-week provisional period.

The Service

Service-study participants are generally scheduled in the following departments at the center:

  • Kitchen
  • General Cleaning
  • Housekeeping
  • Grounds / Maintenance
  • Service-study participants contribute 25 hours per week, generally broken up into five 5-hour days.

The Study

In exchange for the service, participants are offered free access to Spiritual Program and Wellness classes that are ongoing at LMB. Participants also have access to the LMB library, resident teachers, and staff-only workshops and classes.

Room and Board

Service-study participants are offered room and board. Housing consists of a simple single, private room in the staff quarters with a shared bathroom. Meals include breakfast and lunch every day. Dinner is prepared when we have retreat groups or events taking place. When there is not a group on-site at LMB, ingredients are available for you to prepare your own meal. Land of Medicine Buddha serves vegetarian meals.

What is the community like at Land of Medicine Buddha?

Land of Medicine Buddha is a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center that is affiliated with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). We host our own Spiritual Program of classes and retreats and rent out our facility to other organizations and groups with similar missions. We host many yoga and body movement groups, as well as retreats for other spiritual traditions. Some staff members live at the center, and some live off-site and are here mainly during work hours and for classes. We are a diverse group of people from many faith traditions and with many different motivations for offering service at Land of Medicine Buddha. We seek open-minded and diverse applicants for our program.

Is LMB a restful or relaxing environment?

The demands of our community keep us very busy; and enthusiasm and hard work are required from all of our staff, including service-study positions. Work is busy but is dedicated to furthering the mission of LMB and serving all those that engage with our mandala.

On your time off, you can enjoy the 108 acres of gorgeous redwoods that are at your front door, swim in the pool, use the sauna, and do your own meditation and practice. There are also many places nearby to hike, swim, and relax. Past participants of the service-study program remark that it is an incredibly rewarding and enriching place to spend three months.

Can I stay for longer than three months in the service-study program?

Participants in the service-study program are welcome to apply for a second three-month period with a limit of six-months total. At times, some past service-study participants have applied for and been hired as part- or full-time paid staff after their service.

To apply, use the Application button below. If you have any questions, please contact our Center Manager, Kai Johnson, via email at [email protected].

Serving others, taking care of others with a good heart, with love and compassion, is the best life. Especially here, your service in looking after others is very important because the people coming here are trying to meditate, to practice Dharma, and trying to liberate themselves from samsara and to achieve enlightenment. Even though you are not actually teaching Dharma, your contribution is similar, since you are helping them get out of samsara and helping them achieve enlightenment.

–Lama Zopa Rinpoche, June 2009
Excerpted from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive “Serving Others is the Best Life“

Volunteer

Volunteers are essential at the center and are indispensable to the flourishing of the land. We treasure our volunteers and welcome you to join our community and work for the benefit of all beings. To become a volunteer with LMB, please click the button below and fill out our Volunteer form. After filling out the form, we will be in touch to communicate about specific opportunities as they arise.

As a volunteer, there are many ways to engage with Land of Medicine Buddha, including the following:

On a weekly basis

  • Ad-hoc for specific programs or opportunities
  • During volunteer days (a few specific times a year)
  • For specific events such as teachings or retreats

We are happy to utilize help in nearly all aspects of the organization so there are many different ways to use your skills, such as the following:

  • Hosting classes and pujas (online and in-person)
  • Helping in the kitchen
  • Helping with housekeeping
  • IT infrastructure support
  • Water bowls
  • Welcoming Visitors
  • And many more!

The Volunteer Coordinator acts as a bridge between LMB and our volunteers, helping match volunteer skills and interests with LMB’s needs and opportunities. This is an incredibly special opportunity to help both LMB and volunteers in generating merit.

This is an unpaid, volunteer position that would be a great fit for an excellent organizer and communicator who wishes to be of service to LMB. Although this is unpaid, there are some great perks, as described in the position description.

To apply, please download and read through the position description

The Benefit of Working for the Center – Wow!

Thank you very, very much for working for the center, arranging facilities and so forth. The Dharma center is to benefit sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering — all the sufferings — and bring them to enlightenment. So you working for the center means that. You are working for every single animal, even the ants you see on the road and the birds that fly in the sky. You are working for every one of them, from the tiniest insect that you can see only through a machine to the largest ones in the oceans like the whales. There are so many animals living in the depths of the oceans. There are big ones that eat so many small ones and many small ones that eat the big ones. You are working for every single cow and sheep, for all the animals, for them to achieve liberation from samsara and full enlightenment, as well as for every single hell being, every single hungry ghost, every single human being — not only in that state, not only in that country, but every single human being in the universe, in all the universes — and every single sura and asura being. You are working for everybody, EVERYBODY, to bring them to full enlightenment.

People come to the center to meditate on bodhicitta and to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. You can’t imagine the benefit to everybody who comes to the center to do this, working to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. So the work can be hard, but can you see the benefit? Can you imagine the benefit? Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! The benefit to every living being! Can you imagine the benefit of working for the center?

For example, you work for the people coming to the center with the motivation of bodhicitta and they practice Dharma to benefit sentient beings. Can you imagine? Even by that? Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!

–Lama Zopa Rinpoche, May 2012
Excerpted from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive “The Benefit of Working for the Center – Wow!“