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

Maintenance Manager

As the Maintenance Manager at LMB, you will play a crucial role in maintaining the physical infrastructure, grounds, and overall functionality of our retreat center. Your primary responsibility will be to oversee all aspects of maintenance, including buildings, grounds, utilities, and equipment. You will lead a small team of maintenance staff and also liaise with other team members (housekeeping, facility rentals, spiritual program, center manager, director), utilizing excellent communication and teamwork skills, to ensure the smooth operation of our facilities. For more details and for information on how to apply, please download the job description below.

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

Throughout the year, Land of Medicine Buddha opens its doors to those who feel called to spend 2–3 months in our Work-Study Program. This is more than a volunteer opportunity—it is a chance to live within the beauty of Land of Medicine Buddha, to walk the path of service, and to let your daily life be infused with the Dharma.

Here, work and practice flow together. By offering your hands and heart to support the life of the Center, you help nurture a place of refuge for many. In return, you are invited to deepen your own spiritual journey, cultivate compassion and wisdom, and discover the joy of living in community.

Our Work-Study participants are cherished members of this mandala, and the rhythm of their presence is essential to the life of the Dharma Center. We ask for a minimum stay of two months to three months or longer with approval.

Come join us, and let your time here be an offering of love, generosity, and awakening!

The Work

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

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

The Study

In exchange for the work, participants are offered free access to Spiritual Program and Wellness classes that are ongoing at LMB. Participants also have access to the LMB library and 24 hour access to our beautiful Gompa (meditation hall).

Room and Board and Bonus Privileges

Work-study participants are offered free room and board. Housing consists of a simple single, private room with lock in the staff quarters with a shared bathroom with up to five other participants. Rooms have free wifi, are furnished with a twin bed (we provide bedding and pillows), a writing desk with chair, bookcase/shelves and clothing rack for hanging clothes. Laundry facility is free, including detergent. Participants bring own shampoo, toothpaste, etc. Use of our sauna and outdoor pool also included.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are prepared for service study participants when we have retreat groups or events taking place. We are a busy center, but when there is not a group on-site at LMB we have other options for meals. We dine on leftovers from the delicious retreat meals, our cooks prepare lunch when needed, and they also prepare extra meals that are available in our walk-in refrigerator. In addition, ingredients are available for you to prepare your own meals in our kitchen when it is not being used by the kitchen staff during retreats. The dining room is open 24 hours per day and is stocked with cereals and granola, milks (including plant based options), breads (including gluten free), nut butters, jams, fruits, coffee, and teas. Land of Medicine Buddha serves vegetarian meal and we do not allow meat to be prepared in our kitchen. Please note: we are not able to accommodate people with dietary restrictions that require special purchases. We can accommodate gluten free and vegan diets.

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 work-study positions. Work is busy but is dedicated to furthering the mission of LMB and serving all those that engage with our center.

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 work-study program remark that it is an incredibly rewarding and enriching place to live, work, and study.

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

Participants in the work-study program are welcome to apply for additional months with a limit of six-months total.

To apply, use the Application button below. If you have any questions, please contact our volunteer coordinator, Nicole, via email at volunteer.coordinator@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“

Local Volunteers

You are living in the area and you want to contribute your time, energy, and good heart to a place of peace and practice.

Local volunteers are the lifeblood of Land of Medicine Buddha. Your care and service help the land, the community, and the Dharma to flourish. Whether tending the gardens, supporting retreats, or helping with daily operations, every offering of time is a gift that benefits countless beings.

We deeply treasure our volunteers and warmly welcome you to join us in this joyful path of service.

If you are interested please contact us: [email protected]

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 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!“