Summoned by the Earth
facilitated by Cynthia Jurs & Rick Jansen
for Young Adults 18-35
A Six-Week Online Book Course
Mondays & Thursdays, April 6th-May 14th, 2026
‘’How can we bring healing and protection to the Earth?’’
That is the question that Cynthia Jurs brought to the old wise man in a cave high up in the Himalayas. This question and his answer, to procure earth treasure vases made of clay and potent medicines, to fill them with prayers and symbolic offerings, and bury them around the world where healing is called for, propelled Cynthia’s life onto her true path. In the book Summoned by the Earth; Becoming a Holy Vessel for Healing Our World, Cynthia reflects on the many adventures that followed traveling around the world with the vases, working with elders, activists and diverse communities. On the way, she learns a lot about how to become a vessel of healing herself, her life moves deeper and deeper into a non-traditional dharma path, trusting her own inner compass while seeking answers and solutions for the myriad crises of our times. This course is for you if you carry similar concerns and questions about the state of our world and your place and role in it.
What is mine to do? How can I make the most of this life? How do I discover and listen to my inner compass? What do I truly care about?
Each of us has a guiding question and an answer that is waiting for us, which can truly open our path. There is a calling waiting for each and everyone of us.
This course will be a transformational journey of study and experience. Answering the call of our times in a genuine way leads firstly to hearing and feeling the cries of the world. Through really feeling the pain for our world in a supported and constructive way, we may discover what we most care about personally. Discovering and following the thread of our care may lead us to our calling. A transformational process of becoming a ‘’holy vessel’’ begins. We become a human being who knows who they are, why they are here. They know their role and their gift and they start to live it. We become that one unique flower, that only we can be, in the garden of humanity. Being in service to the whole in this way, contributes and leads naturally to the process of collective awakening.
The book and this six-week course intends to facilitate that process of individual and collective awakening. Without knowing it, effortlessly, we may enter into the slip-stream of the mystery of our own lives, where we discover our own burning question and find the answers that lead us to the next real step(s) on our personal path of awakening into a purposeful, aligned and connected life.
Course Structure
The course runs from April 6th to May 14th with two live sessions per week.
We’ll meet every Monday for an interactive teaching-session and every Thursday for a discussion group to explore the topics and ideas of the book more personally. Cynthia Jurs and Rick Jansen will be present during all the sessions.
The sessions are on Monday evenings from 7pm to 9pm ET and Thursday evenings from 7pm to 8pm ET.
Upon registration, participants will need to obtain a copy of the book Summoned by the Earth: Becoming a Holy Vessel for Healing Our World by Cynthia Jurs. Dharma Gates has a limited number of physical copies that we can send to participants at no charge. If you’d like to receive a copy from Dharma Gates, please indicate so in your registration form.
Like all Dharma Gates events, this course is intended for young adults 18-35, and is offered by-donation.
Dharma Gates events are offered within the practice of Dana (दान), the Sanskrit/Pali word meaning generosity or giving. Rather than operating on a fee structure, we instead ask you to engage with us in a relationship of reciprocity, giving what feels aligned with your circumstances and values. If these experiences are precious to you, we invite you to donate in a way that reflects that. Doing so will breathe life into our efforts, helping us to continue creating beautiful, accessible practice opportunities for young people for years to come. Donation for this course is possible via the registration link.
About the Teachers
Cynthia Jurs, the author of “Summoned by the Earth; Becoming a Holy Vessel for Healing our World”, became a Dharmacharya in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing in 1994, and is honorary lama in the Tibetan tradition. She is the founder of the Earth Treasure Vase Project and the Gaia Mandala Global Healing Community. Today, inspired by 30 years of pilgrimage into diverse communities and ecosystems to bring healing to the Earth, Cynthia is forging a new path of dharma in service to Gaia rooted in the feminine, honoring indigenous traditions, and teaching an embodied sacred activism devoted to collective awakening. Cynthia lives at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico where she is often found walking in the wilderness or gardening with her husband.
Cynthia Jurs
Rick Jansen was born in the Netherlands and lives most of the year in the Sacred Valley in Peru. Rick’s spiritual path began in 2013 in Nepal where he met his first teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. He carries a deep connection to both the Vajrayana teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and the Plum Village tradition. Rick works as a teacher and facilitator in the Gaia Mandala Global Healing Community, and after stewarding an Earth Treasure Vase for Tibet and now for the Andes, he is supporting other ETV stewards in this practice. Rick also assists the School of Lost Borders as a Rites of Passage-Vision Fast guide enacting his own calling to support primarily young adults in finding their authentic path.
Rick Jansen
FAQs
-
No. All experience levels are welcome, including beginners.
-
Nope. You do not have to be Buddhist to participate in this course. The invitation is to encounter the teachings, to build confidence in the teachings as we verify them through our experience, and to maintain a healthy, open, discerning, and inquisitive mind.
-
Yes. All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants, in case you can’t make it to a session. That being said, if you anticipate missing many of the sessions, we encourage you to join us for another course in the future, instead. This course is highly interactive and discussion-based, with an emphasis on the power and importance of learning together.
-
Dharma Gates events are offered within the practice of Dana (दान), the Sanskrit/Pali word meaning generosity or giving. Rather than operating on a fee structure, we instead ask you to engage with us in a relationship of reciprocity, giving what feels aligned with your circumstances and values. If these experiences are precious to you, we invite you to donate in a way that reflects that. Doing so will breathe life into our efforts, helping us to continue creating beautiful, accessible practice opportunities for young people for years to come.
For this course, the purchase of the book may cost money if you plan to purchase an e-book, audiobook, or physical copy not provided by Dharma Gates
To make a donation, to Dharma Gates, please follow this link:
https://www.every.org/dharma-gates-inc#/donate/card
To make a donation to Gaia Mandala, the non-profit run by Cynthia and Rick, please follow this link:
-
Dharma Gates was founded because there are too few spaces where young adults can practice Dharma together. As such, we limit our retreats to folks age 18-35.