Lama Justin von Bujdoss

Lama Justin von Bujdoss is an American Vajrayana Buddhist teacher, writer, the Founder and Spiritual Director of Yangti Yoga Retreat Center, and co-founder of Bhumisparsha, an experimental Buddhist sangha, along with Lama Rod Owens. His primary focus being the Yangti Yoga Retreat Center which is dedicated to the practice of Dark Retreat, or Yangti Yoga. Lama Justin’s dharma teaching focuses on Ati Yoga (Dzogchen) and Yangti Yoga (Dark Retreat).

​He is the author of Modern Tantric Buddhism: Authenticity and Embodiment in Dharma Practice published by North Atlantic Books, and contributor to Buddhism and Whiteness: Critical Reflections published by Lexington Books. He is also the author of a forthcoming title on dark retreat to be published by Wisdom Publications.

​From 2016 until December 2021 Lama Justin served as the Executive Director of Chaplaincy and Staff Wellness for NYC Department of Correction where he also served as Staff Chaplain supervising over 30 chaplains and guided wellness programming for staff. He has years of professional experience in home hospice and hospital settings as a pastoral caregiver. From 2018 to 2024 Lama Justin served as the chaplain for Hart Island, New York City’s public cemetery, and is currently the chaplain for the Shelburne Falls/Buckland Fire Department.

Lama Justin was ordained as a repa, a lay tantric yogin in the tradition of Milarepa, by His Eminence Gyaltsab Rinpoche, one of the heart sons of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, and is a ngakpa in the Yuthok Nyingthig tantric Buddhist lineage under Dr. Nida Chenagtsang. Lama Justin has presented on Buddhist practice at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, University of Chicago, Wellesley, Columbia University, has been a visiting instructor at Union Theological Seminary. He is passionate about helping to create the conditions for authentic embodied dzogchen practice, especially that of Yangti practice (Dark Retreat) as well as the lineage practices of the Yangti Nakpo.