About the Program

Chöying Khandro

Chöying Khandro, founder and spiritual director of Dakini’s Whisper, embodies a rare fusion of scholarly brilliance and deep meditative realization. Her journey into the view of emptiness began in her native Japan, where she studied Pali, Sanskrit, and classical Chinese scriptures under the esteemed Buddhologist Professor Akira Hirakawa at Waseda University.

Her academic journey began with a focus on the Prasannapadā (“Clear Words”), culminating in a BA thesis titled Emptiness – Chandrakirti’s Interpretation of Nagarjuna, reflecting her early dedication to the Madhyamaka tradition. She continued her studies with an MA thesis centered on the Śamatha and Vipashyanā sections of The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path (Lamrim Chenmo). This scholarly foundation was enriched through years of private study with Venerable Geshe Thubten Tsering and Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe—one of the foremost living scholars on Nagarjuna’s philosophy— in Sarnath, India.

Since relocating to the U.S., her academic work at the University of Michigan has built upon this strong Madhyamaka foundation, focusing on the Geluk Chö tradition.

In addition to her scholarly training, Khandro-la has dedicated decades to Vajrayana practice, including long-term solitary retreat and direct transmissions from her root guru, His Holiness the 9th Khalkha Jetsun Dampa. Her teachings on emptiness are not simply philosophical—they are born of deep contemplative experience.

Through the lens of Tsongkhapa’s clarity, Khandro-la makes the subtle view of Prasangika Madhyamaka accessible without losing its profundity. Her approach empowers students to bridge intellectual understanding with direct, meditative insight, illuminating the path to freedom from conceptual grasping.

Her ability to guide Western practitioners through this delicate terrain of insight and experience is rooted in a lifetime of authentic transmission, rigorous study, and heartfelt devotion to the path of awakening.