End of August, 1999: In hindsight it was a stunning date, in that we had no idea how the coming new millennium would stand our world on its head and make us wonder what planet we were on. It was a perfect time, in other words, for a gently committed center for the study of Buddhism to establish itself on Martha’s Vineyard.

Initially leaders of a venerable Tibetan Buddhist lineage called Karma Kagyu purchased a house on Mayflower Lane in Vineyard Haven. Brand new, the dwelling was in some ways ideally suited for a spiritual center. It had a large wrap-around porch where students could park their shoes in that Asian style that saves householders a pack-load of vacuuming; and it had a large living room open to a giant counter and kitchen for the laying out of grapes, cheese, tea and cookies for the post-meditation-and-lectures, schmoozy side of things. Downstairs was the pièce derésistance: an enormous walk-out basement with French doors, white walls, white vinyl flooring, plenty of room to spread the traditional red-wine-colored mats (with chairs aplenty for those whose knees resisted too much time in the lotus pose).

On one of the last days of August of that year, the leader of the lineage, Shamar Rinpoche — as a child a Tibetan refugee in India (as was the Dalai Lama), as an adult both a capable administrator and fully-realized master of Buddhist teachings — spoke to an audience of at least 70 spiritual practitioners and curiosity seekers. This reporter was in attendance and, along with so many others of the listeners, was mesmerized enough, along with continuing new and interested students, to show up for meditation sittings, lectures and retreats. (A funny anecdote: Children’s author Carol Carrick attended this initial meeting and, fascinated as she was, admitted she experienced some difficulty with Rinpoche’s Tibetan accent. “I kept wondering why he spoke so often of green beans. I mean, I know they’re good for you, but how could a spiritual practice put so much emphasis on green beans? Then finally I realized he was saying ‘human beings’!”)

Shamar Rinpoche had a Kagyu empire to oversee, and the following day he flew away to his Bodhi Path center in Virginia. After that, he had on his docket lectures in New York and visits to a university in India and his monastic retreat center in the Dordogne. In the past 10 years, the list has at least tripled, with Bodhi Path centers now in Washington D.C., Germany, California and Illinois, among other venues. But shortly after this end-of-summer talk, a charming and thoroughly radiant teacher was dispatched to the Vineyard to preside over the physical plant and to dispense the teachings. She similarly supervises the New York center and the Bodhi Path in a small village in the Black Forest of Germany.

Lama Yeshe Drolma was born on a small island north of Germany called Wyk auf Fohr. She was married in her twenties, deeply engaged in the fashion industry, and yet at a certain point, much like St. Francis stripping off his ducal robes in Assisi’s town square, she turned her back on the glitzy aspects of her life as she fell under the spell of Shamar Rinpoche and his exquisite comprehension and transmission of the Buddha’s teachings. Lama Yeshe began her practice with multiyear retreats in the Dordogne monastery, which included time spent in solitude in a hut in the woods — a bit like a Buddhist Thoreau. At a certain point Shamar Rinpoche spotted Lama Yeshe’s own emerging — and luminous — teaching abilities.

It wasn’t long before the Kagyu organizers recognized that the house on Mayflower Lane had too many drawbacks to sustain a long-term center. For one thing, parking on this quiet road presented a problem. Another was the low thrum of traffic noise from State Road. While Alan Watts once wrote, “If you can’t meditate in a boiler room, you’re not meditating,” he wasn’t necessarily referring to newer adepts with less sitting time to focus their minds and strengthen their posterior muscles. The answer was the purchase of a modest home halfway to North Point Beach on Waldron’s Bottom Way. Over the past few years an expansive sanctuary has been built, with French doors opening onto a wrap-around deck, windows overlooking well-tended lawns and gardens, and interior walls and ceilings painted with Tibetan colors of goldenrod yellow, hyacinth blue, burgundy, celadon green, burnt orange and navy. It sounds exotic, and yet the overall look is beautiful but understated: this is Buddhism for folks with a low threshold for the fancy and the baroque.

On one of Lama Yeshe’s Sunday teachings this summer, she spoke of the preciousness of our human life, of how the mind is constantly grasping, the ego clinging to either aversion or desire, of how we can become aware of the workings of the mind and return to the perfect peace of the present moment. “We must get in touch with this truth: nothing will ever remain unchanged. We don’t need to attach so much to anything, because we’ll never be able to hold anything by our attachment.”

Later she explained that the amount of fear we experience shows the amount of ego clinging in which we’re indulging. “Turn the awareness to others — turn the attention to others with good wishes such as ‘May all beings be free of fear.’”

The possibilities for the adaptation of mind are limitless, according to Lama Yeshe: “If one has become a negative person, at any moment one can change.”

Of course, one can only give the smallest glimpse of the pearls of wisdom that fall from Yeshe’s lips, or from those of any of the other teachers who visit the center. One of the proud facets of Buddhism is that it isn’t purveyed or perceived as a religion, but rather as non-sectarian instruction, all aimed at building awareness, loving kindness, and moving ever-so-steadily, in how many lifetimes it requires, towards enlightenment, of ourselves and others. “It’s a companion course for any religion, self-help movement, philosophy or field theory,” a visiting teacher named Lama Khedrup told me a few years back. In other words, both devout mystics and determined atheists can equally discover transformative wisdom in Buddhist teachings.

On Saturday, August 29, from 5 to 8 p.m., the Bodhi Path Buddhist Center on Martha’s Vineyard invites the community to join the participants as they celebrate the 10th anniversary of their presence on the Island. There will be a silent auction of jewelry and thangkas (colorful Tibetan-style tapestries of the life of the Buddha), along with wine and refreshments, hors d’oeuvre and good conversation. Bodhi Path hosts encourage members of the community to enjoy and explore the wonderful meditation center and its surrounding grounds, and meet some of the teachers.

The center is located at 21 Laurand Drive in West Tisbury. For more information call 508-696-5929 or visit bodhipath.org/marthasvineyard. Laurand Drive is approximately one mile down Waldron’s Bottom Road, then take a left (you’ll see a small Bodhi Path sign) and follow this a short way to the center.

Om mani padme hum.