Naropa University
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Buddhist-inspired liberal arts university combining academics and eastern wisdom practices. Naropa's three campuses in Boulder crackle with energy.
Naropa University is a Buddhist-inspired, student-centered liberal arts university in Boulder, Colorado. A recognized leader in contemplative education, Naropa's undergraduate and graduate programs emphasize professional and personal growth, intellectual development, and contemplative practice. Through rigorous academics, faculty mentoring, contemplative practice, and community engagement, Naropa students develop the ability to think critically, to communicate effectively, and to know their hearts and minds. The result: graduates who live deeply fulfilling lives, working to improve people's lives and the condition of our planet. Naropa may offer a contemplative liberal arts education, but that doesn't mean we're quiet. Students, faculty and staff fearlessly make art, write experimental prose, study Sanskrit, attend concerts, research environmental inequity, plant organic gardens, volunteer in the community, and campaign for social justice. You have the right to enjoy your Naropa education free from discrimination and misconduct. For more information please visit www.naropa.edu/gender-equity.
What happens when we lose the rituals that help us move through life’s biggest transitions?
In this 1974 conversation at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Joan Halifax explores rites of passage, transformation, healing, and the different transitions we move through in life, from birth and maturity to aging and death.
She reflects on what these rituals can offer us, and what happens when they’re missing from our lives.
Joan Halifax is a Buddhist teacher, scholar, and founder of Upaya Zen Center. This conversation was recorded as part of Naropa Institute’s Open Secret Interviews series in 1974.
What do we lose when we move through life without meaningful rites of passage?
Life, Death and Dying · August 5, 1974 · Boulder, Colorado
10/05/2026
Join us on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, for Community Practice Day—a day when classes and meetings are not held, and when we gather together in virtual and in-person community. For our Fall 2026 Community Practice Day, the theme is Collective Healing & Weaving Community.
We will gather to explore collective healing as a living practice of giving and receiving care, attention, and resources in community. The day will invite us to notice all that sustains us—each other, the land, our lineages—and to experiment with concrete ways of offering something back. Through guided practices, collaborative groups, and quiet reflection, we will tend our own nervous systems while also strengthening the web of relationship that holds our campus, so healing becomes not just something we receive, but something we actively co-create together.
Free for Naropa University students, staff, faculty & alumnx.
Meet Elena Camerin Young, Adjunct Faculty in Naropa’s BA Interdisciplinary Studies program, where she teaches Solo Singing in Style and Music Cultures of the World. Elena has taught voice and music since 1996 and has also been particularly active as a music instructor for students with special needs.
In this story, Elena shares a moment from her work with a student that reminded her just how powerful music can be as a form of communication.
Watch the full story. 🎶
What does “contact” actually mean in Gestalt therapy? 🌿
Harmony Kwiker, MA, LPC, ACS, explores how we make and break contact with ourselves, our environment, and the present moment. As adjunct faculty at Naropa University, Harmony teaches Gestalt I: Awareness and Gestalt II: Experiments in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program.
Curious to explore Gestalt therapy and the many ways Naropa approaches counseling, mindfulness, and whole-person learning? Explore what Naropa has to offer through the link in bio.
09/30/2026
What happens when we make space for new ways of seeing, writing and imagining? ✨**
This October, the Leslie Scalapino Lecture welcomes poet and writer Tsering Wangmo Dhompa to Naropa.
Dhompa will present *“Writing in Code: A Poetics of Liberation and Bardo,”* followed by a reading of her creative work and a Q&A with the audience.
The Leslie Scalapino Lecture invites contemporary writers to engage with innovative poetry, essays, plays and cross-genre work, continuing in the spirit of Leslie Scalapino’s visionary writing.
Monday, October 12 | 7–9:30 p.m.
Performing Arts Center, Arapahoe Campus
We hope you’ll join us for an evening of poetry, conversation and creative exploration. 🌿
Thank you Meadow Creek for having Naropa as an educational partner at Yahn Dawn in Buena Vista this past weekend! 🌈
We had so much fun playing in the woods with the Pretty Lights community, sharing the wisdom of the Maitri Buddha family energies, giving away colorful sunglasses, and making new connections along the way.
It was an honor to provide 60 meditation cushions for the festival’s wonderful lineup of wellness facilitators and everyone who joined their offerings. Thank you to the land that held us, the Meadow Creek team, and all the artists and festivalgoers who made the weekend so special.
And to the Naropa students and alumni who stopped by to say hello: we loved seeing you! 💙🤍❤️💚💛
09/11/2026
Join us for this keynote, practice, discussion, and Q&A with author and guest Emmanuel Vaughan Lee
In this dynamic event hosted by the Joanna Macy Center for Resilience and Regeneration, Emmanuel will draw from his new book Remembering Earth (Shambhala Publications, June 2026) to talk about the role of engaged spirituality at this critical time, and the universal elements within Sufism that can be applied across traditions to help root us in reverence and love for the Earth. In tandem with Naropa University’s practice week, the evening will include a guided spiritual ecology practice. Following this, Emmanuel will take part in a conversation and audience Q&A hosted by Dr. Monica Mueller, who is a philosopher of ethics and social transformation, and the chair of Naropa’s Eco-Psychology program.
This is event is offered both in person and online. Select your preferred choice on the ticketing page.
RSVP: https://tr.ee/rememberingearth
"The birthplace of the modern mindfulness movement."
Founded in 1974, Naropa set out to bring the wisdom traditions of the East into conversation with Western academics - Eco-psychology, contemplative psychology, yoga, tai chi, meditation, and more - decades before they were mainstream.
Five decades later, our community has grown far beyond that first summer session - but the work is the same: spark the mind, ignite the heart, illuminate the world. ✨
09/09/2026
Our community showed up in full color this week for the Fall Engagement Fair! Students and veterans, climbers and poets, new faces and familiar ones - our Beloved Naropa Community is bright ✨
Online students - stay tuned for a remote engagement fair built just for you 💜
09/08/2026
The late Joanna Macy spent her life making the case that grief and love are not opposites - that the ache we feel for a threatened world is proof of how much we belong to it. A scholar of Buddhism, systems theory, and deep ecology, she taught that despair, faced honestly, doesn't paralyze us - it opens us.
Naropa was fortunate to welcome her in dialogue and teaching over the years, an engagement that led to the creation of the Joanna Macy Center for Resilience and Regeneration. She passed in July of last year, but her framework - The Work That Reconnects - is still very much alive in how we think about grief, action, and interconnection.
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Boulder, CO
80301-80310, 80314, 80321-80323, 80328, 80329
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| Tuesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Wednesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Thursday | 9am - 5pm |
| Friday | 9am - 5pm |
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