By Justin Kelley, Executive Director, Tergar Schools
There is a particular kind of conversation that rarely happens in the world of education. Not the kind where organizations compete for the same donors or protect the carefully constructed fences around their own models. The kind where people who share a deep common purpose actually sit down together, look one another in the eye, and ask: what could we build if we stopped working alone?
That conversation happened at Forest Creek Refuge in Damascus, Oregon, from April 9 to 12, 2026. Our Director of Operations, Kai Johnson, and I had the privilege of being there for all of it.
The gathering was convened by the Khyentse Foundation and brought together a remarkable cross-section of people working at the intersection of Buddhist wisdom and childhood education in North America: educators, theorists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and, as one participant put it simply, genuinely kind-hearted people. The animating question was both simple and profound: could these projects, so often developing in parallel and in isolation, form something more cohesive? Could they become an alliance, not just a collection of individuals doing similar work in separate corners of the world?
It is worth being honest about why that question matters as much as it does. Buddhist-inspired education is still a young field. The organizations doing this work tend to be small, vision-driven, and fueled more by passion than by real resources. Without some degree of coordination, there is a real risk that the landscape remains fragmented, that momentum stays local, and that the wider world never gets to see what this approach to learning can genuinely offer. The impetus for the gathering was clear: working together rather than in silos is not just a nice idea – it is how this work will actually reach the children who need it.
At Tergar Schools, our work is rooted in a conviction that every child already carries the seeds of awareness, love, compassion, wisdom, and joy. Our role as educators is not to install these qualities from the outside, but to recognize them, cultivate them, and help them flower. We go deep into one living tradition, Himalayan Buddhism as transmitted through the vision of Mingyur Rinpoche, and through that depth we reach something universal. The Rimé principle at the heart of our approach holds that when you go far enough into any authentic tradition, you arrive at ground that all traditions share.
What this gathering made visible is that many organizations working in Buddhist-inspired education are working from a similar premise. The specific traditions and methods may differ, and the communities being served are distinct, but the root questions are shared: What does it look like to ground education in Buddhist wisdom? What happens when a school is designed not to produce achievement, but to fully embody the skills and techniques inherent in Buddhist tradition?
When people working from that shared root question come together, the possibilities for Tergar Schools shift considerably. One of the most significant realizations we came away with is that there is room for us to broaden our reach sooner than we had imagined. The pooling of resources that an alliance like this makes possible, and the united front it creates, could allow Tergar Schools to offer concrete support to other Buddhist-inspired organizations right now, expanding our impact well before we had anticipated being in a position to do so. That is not a small thing. Itchanged how we understand our own horizons and it came directly from sitting in that room with those people.
None of this would have happened without the owner and staff of Forest Creek Refuge. Their generosity in opening the Refuge for this conversation was extraordinary. The land itself was a presence. There is something about gathering in a place that carries its own stillness, its own invitation to slow down and listen, that makes the quality of thinking different. Forest Creek Refuge provided exactly that. We are deeply grateful to all of the staff there, and we hope it will become a continuing home for this kind of work. Likewise, much of what made it possible was the artful facilitation of Sera Thompson and Yulia Sheynkman, who held the balance between open-ended possibility and concrete next steps with real grace.
It is rare to find yourself in a room where dreams and pragmatic thoughts genuinely coexist. Where the bigness of the vision does not float away from the concrete reality of what needs to happen next. Where people leave not just inspired, but with actual commitments, actual relationships, actual next steps. April 9 to 12 was one of those occasions, and we are honored to have been part of it.
In a larger sense, this work belongs to all of us. Your support is what puts people like us in rooms like that one. We are honored to carry this work forward with you, our community. Thank you – truly. Together we can bring Buddhist-inspired wisdom into more classrooms, and more children’s lives.
