Dr. Lourdes Arguelles
Dr. Lourdes Arguelles (Lopon Dorje Khandro) is Professor Emerita of Education and Cultural Studies at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont ,California (CGU). Before joining the CGU faculty, she taught at the University of British Columbia, University of Waterloo, Loyola College of Montreal, Arizona State University, University of California, Los Angeles, and Pitzer College where she was the Mac Arthur Chair in Gender and Feminist Studies and Professor of Latino/a Studies. Dr. Arguelles was also a community organizer in the Pt. St. Charles area of Montreal, East Harlem and the Lower East Side in New York, and Ontario, California.
Dr. Arguelles is a retired California Licensed Psychotherapist and End of Life Doula who worked mostly pro-bono providing therapeutic and end of life services to survivors of political and domestic violence in the US-Mexico Borderlands.
Dr. Arguelles academic research studies in transnational migration, LGTBQ+ studies, psychotherapy, pedagogy , destructive cults, and other ways of living, learning and dying have been published in books and articles in several languages around the world. .
Dr. Arguelles after several decades of studying and doing retreat with Tibetan Buddhist and Bon Buddhist Masters of several lineages mostly in India and Nepal was ordained a Ngakma (lay tantric practitioner ) by HE the 8th Garchen Rinpoche.She was installed as a Lopon (Dharma Teacher) by HH the 37th Chetsang Rinpoche, head of the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Vajrayana (Tiberan) Buddhism} and appointed as a Dharma Teacher at Drikung Kyobpa Choling (DKC) Meditation Center in Escondido, California. .Her classes at DKC are conducted in both English and Spanish and focused on the teachings of the Bardo Thodol ( aka Tibetan Book of the Dead) and the Six Perfections or the Path of the Bodhisattva or Compassionate Practitioner working for the benefit of all beings.
Currently Dr. Arguelles lives in retreat when not teaching the Buddha Dharma, doing Death Work with human and non human beings, and conducting inquiries into and participating in ritual practices with seen and unseen beings. With Dr. John Freese., a former monk in the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition and a Professor at Sakya Buddha University , Orange, California, she is also preparing two monographs for publication: Dementia Dharma: Caregiving Sentient Beings with Neurodegenerative Diseases (based on a Process Exploration's presentation for the Center for Process Studies, Claremont, California on 2 June/ 2026) and Death Work in a Charnel Ground with La Santa Muerte and the Buddha (based on previous research and published articles by Dr.Arguelles and Dr, Freese).