The Berkeley Circle
UPCOMING EVENT
What is the mind?
Date : Jul 3, 2026 | Time : 6.30 – 8.30 PM PDT | Location : Dharma College
A Dialogue Between Neuroscience and Buddhist Insight
What is the mind? Is it simply the activity of the brain, or is there something more subtle to discover through direct experience?
In this Berkeley Circle dialogue, neuroscientist David Presti and Buddhist scholar Khenpo Choying Dorjee explore one of the most enduring questions of human life. Drawing from neuroscience, contemplative practice, and Buddhist insight, they will examine how perception, identity, emotion, habit, and awareness shape our experience of reality.
This evening is not a debate, but an inquiry an invitation to look more closely at the mind we live with every day, and to ask how understanding it may open the way to greater clarity, compassion, and freedom.
Speakers Profile
David E. Presti
David E. Presti is a professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of California in Berkeley, where he has taught neurobiology and psychology for 35 years. For a decade he also worked in the clinical treatment of addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center. And for the last 25 years he has engaged in dialogue and teaching on science with Tibetan Buddhist monastic communities in India, Nepal, and Bhutan – this via Science for Monks & Nuns, a program initiated by the Dalai Lama.
He has taught and provided mentoring for the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) program in psychedelic therapy and research since the program’s inception in 2016 and is a founding faculty member of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP). His undergraduate education is in physics, chemistry, and mathematics, and he has doctorates in molecular biology from the California Institute of Technology and in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon. He is author of the books Foundational Concepts in Neuroscience: A Brain-Mind Odyssey (Norton, 2016) and Mind Beyond Brain: Buddhism, Science, and the Paranormal (Columbia University Press, 2018), and of the edX online public education course Psychedelics and the Mind (2023).
Khenpo Choying Dorjee
Khenpo Choying Dorjee is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar known for his fresh and engaging way of presenting Buddhist philosophy. He was a devoted student of the late Khen Rinpoche Kunga Wangchuk. Khenpo joined the Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro Institute (DKCLI) in 1992, receiving his Khenpo title in 2002, and his Khenpo degree (the monastic education equivalent to a PhD in Buddhism) in 2004. He then spent many years in various teaching and leadership roles at DKCLI, and in 2010, was appointed as a teacher to Sakya Dungsay Avikrita Rinpoche.
In 2011 Khenpo was sent to UC Berkeley in the U.S. as a visiting scholar by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, and was also appointed by Rinpoche as the head principal of DCKLI for the 2013-2016 term. Since then Khenpo has been directed by Khyentse Rinpoche to give teachings and to lead practices around Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. His rich knowledge and deep understanding of Buddhism have benefited the many students who have attended his teachings.
UPCOMING EVENT
Arya Tara
Date : Jul 5, 2026 | Time : 2.00 – 6.00 PM PDT | Location : Dharma College
The Mother and Essence of all Buddhas
The Profound Essence of Tara: An Introduction by Khenpo Choying Dorjee
Green Tara is the embodiment of the swift compassion and enlightened activity of all the Buddhas. Known as the Mother of all Buddhas, she is the source from which protection from the eight great fears arises and fulfills the needs of those seeking enlightenment.
In this introductory session, Khenpo will explore the history and significance of the Zabtik Drolma (The Profound Essence of Tara). This particular practice is a Terma, or Hidden Treasure, revealed in the 19th century by the great Terton Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa, with the support of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche. Its blessings are considered especially direct and potent for our modern age. This gathering is a special opportunity to dedicate our practice to the 25th Anniversary of the Khyentse Foundation and the long life of our teachers.
- 2.00 – 3.30pm — Teaching on Tara by Khenpo Choying
- 3.30 – 4.00pm — Break and Preparation
- 4.00 – 6.00pm — Zabtik Drolma Green Tara Puja (21 Taras Puja)
Speaker's Profile
Khenpo Choying Dorjee
Khenpo Choying Dorjee is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar known for his fresh and engaging way of presenting Buddhist philosophy. He was a devoted student of the late Khen Rinpoche Kunga Wangchuk. Khenpo joined the Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro Institute (DKCLI) in 1992, receiving his Khenpo title in 2002, and his Khenpo degree (the monastic education equivalent to a PhD in Buddhism) in 2004. He then spent many years in various teaching and leadership roles at DKCLI, and in 2010, was appointed as a teacher to Sakya Dungsay Avikrita Rinpoche.
In 2011 Khenpo was sent to UC Berkeley in the U.S. as a visiting scholar by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, and was also appointed by Rinpoche as the head principal of DCKLI for the 2013-2016 term. Since then Khenpo has been directed by Khyentse Rinpoche to give teachings and to lead practices around Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. His rich knowledge and deep understanding of Buddhism have benefited the many students who have attended his teachings.
Mission of the Berkeley Circle
The Berkeley Circle is designed as an intimate gathering of no more than 45 participants. By keeping the circle small, we create the conditions for genuine dialogue, meaningful exchange, and the depth of reflection that large audiences cannot easily sustain. These evenings are not simply lectures, but living conversations at the crossroads of science, innovation, and wisdom.
The Berkeley Circle is an invitation-only forum hosted by Dharma College in our historic downtown Berkeley building. Conceived as a living space for sustained inquiry and dialogue, the Circle brings together invited voices from contemplative traditions, science, philosophy, the arts, and public life to explore the deeper questions shaping our time.
Created with the support of an initial grant from the Lenz Foundation, the Berkeley Circle was born from a recognition that knowledge alone is no longer enough. We live in a world of accelerating technological change, social fragmentation, ecological uncertainty, and profound questions around consciousness, ethics, and human meaning. The Circle exists to cultivate something equally necessary: wisdom, discernment, reflection, and the capacity to meet complexity with clarity and care.
Rather than a lecture series or academic panel, the Berkeley Circle is a practice of dialogue. Participants gather in an intimate setting to think together, listen deeply, question assumptions, and explore how contemplative insight, scientific understanding, ethical responsibility, and lived experience can inform the future of culture and human life.
Rooted in Dharma College’s commitment to wisdom as a living curriculum, the Circle extends the college’s larger mission of integrating contemplative practice into everyday life. Through conversation, reflection, and shared inquiry, we hope these gatherings become places where genuine encounter can occur and where new understanding can emerge in service of a more compassionate and awake world.
The Purpose of the Berkeley Circle
The Berkeley Circle was created to cultivate thoughtful dialogue across disciplines and lived experience, bringing contemplative insight into conversation with the pressing questions of our time.
Its mission is to:
- Foster meaningful exchange between contemplative traditions, science, philosophy, the arts, and public life
- Create a trusted environment for deep listening, reflection, and inquiry
- Explore wisdom as a practical and developable human capacity
- Encourage forms of knowledge grounded in responsibility, compassion, and care
- Support conversations that can positively inform culture, education, leadership, and community life
The Berkeley Circle is not a lecture series, but an ongoing practice of dialogue where invited participants gather as equals in a shared commitment to inquiry and understanding.
As the Circle evolves, Dharma College welcomes collaboration with patrons and partners who value contemplative inquiry, ethical reflection, and the cultivation of wisdom alongside innovation.
Our hope is that these gatherings generate insights and relationships that extend beyond the room and into the wider world.