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
Open Position: Spiritual Program Coordinator
The Spritual Program Coordinator (SPC) is an essential role that develops, plans, and implements the spiritual programming at LMB. The SPC consults with resident and visiting teachers, and collaborates closely with the Executive Director to oversee the program. An ideal candidate would be driven by a deep wish to serve and a dedication to the vision of Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, FPMT, and LMB.
Open Position: Part-Time Cook
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.
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“
Residential Volunteer Position: Work-Study
Come join us to live at LMB as a participant in the Work-Study program. This volunteer opportunity is intended for people who are inspired to serve others and embody the values of compassion, wisdom, and generosity. As a Work-Study participant, you will have the opportunity to share your talents, serve our community, and develop your own spiritual practice. Work-Study positions are essential to the functioning of the organization, and their input is invaluable to the Land of Medicine Buddha. Our work-study positions require a minimum commitment of one month with a maximum stay of three months (can be extended with approval). We have an initial one-week provisional period to ensure that it is the right fit for you and us.
To apply, use the Application button below. If you have any questions, please contact Patrick McGinn, via email at patrick@medicinebuddha.org.
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.
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!“