Kunzang Palyul Choling

Jetsunma believes strongly in the transformative power of prayer.[15] She initiated a 24-hour Prayer Vigil for World Peace in her Kensington, Maryland shrine room on April 18, 1985. It relocated later that year to the newly purchased World Prayer Center (now Kunzang Palyul Choling).[3] Students engage in traditional Buddhist practices in the Nyingma tradition. In addition for the ongoing prayers for peace, members and individuals not associated with KPC request prayers be dedicated to loved ones, pets, the recently deceased, or those hit by natural disasters. Occasionally Jetsunma asks that the vigil be dedicated to specific situations. For example, the members dedicated eight months of prayer for Asia Claus, a three-year-old daughter of temple members who was suffering from her second bout of cancer. The effort concluded when doctors could find no trace of the cancer, sparking renewed media attention.[16][17]

The Maryland vigil continues unbroken to the present day.[18] A simultaneous 24-hour Prayer Vigil was conducted by KPC students in Sedona, AZ from October 31, 1999 to August 31, 2008.[17]

Like many Buddhist Lamas, Jetsunma has long extolled the benefits of building stupas, Buddhist reliquaries said to represent the mind of enlightenment in architectural form.[19] Her students built one of the first large stupas in America, the 36’ Enlightenment Stupa, as an offering to Penor Rinpoche on the occasion of his conferral of the Rinchen Terdzod empowerments in 1988. Other stupas built by Jetsunma's students include:

• The Migyur Dorje Stupa, 38’, in KPC Maryland's Peace Park[20]
• The Amitabha Stupa, 36’, in Sedona, Arizona[21]
• The Long Life Stupa, 18’, in KPC Maryland's Peace Park, surrounded by eight 6’ stupas in a traditional symbolic depiction of the Eight Great Deeds of Shakyamuni Buddha.[22]

Many stupas have been built at Kunzang Palyul Choling's two locations, all containing relics pertinent to the Nyingma lineage. The first stupa, the 36-foot (11 m) enlightenment stupa in Maryland was built and consecrated in 1988.[23][24]

In 1991, a stupa peace park in Maryland containing all eight types of stupas, representing the eight great deeds of the Buddha, was completed. The central 18-foot (5.5 m) long life stupa in the park is dedicated to the long life of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.[25]

In 1995, Penor Rinpoche gave Jetsunma a relic from Terton Migyur Dorje, which is now housed in the 38-foot (12 m) tall Migyur Dorje Stupa in Maryland.[26][27] This particular stupa is dedicated to the eradication of diseases for which there is no known cure.

The most recent is the Amitabha Stupa in Sedona, Arizona, completed and consecrated in 2004.[28]

From June to September 1988, Penor Rinpoche was in residence at KPC in Poolesville to transmit all of the teachings contained in the Rinchen Terdzod ("Treasury of Precious Termas"), Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye’s massive 19th-century compilation of all of the extant revelations of Guru Padmasambhava’s teaching cycles known as terma. This was the first time that these teachings had ever been conferred in a Western country.,[29] According to Penor Rinpoche’s explanation at the time[30] there is a point toward the end of the Rinchen Terdzod transmissions, during the conferral of the Vajrapani empowerment from Rigdzin Godem’s Jangter ("Northern Treasures") cycle, where it is customary to perform enthronement of tulkus. Thus, on September 24, 1988, Penor Rinpoche conducted this ceremony for Jetsunma as the tulku of Genyenma Ahkon Lhamo. Jetsunma considers Penor Rinpoche to be her root guru, along with Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of Yeshe Nyingpo based in Ashland, Oregon, who is recognized as an incarnation of the first Ahkon Lhamo's brother, Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab.

In September, 1988, toward the end of Penor Rinpoche’s conferral of the Rinchen Terdzod, 25 of Jetsunma's students underwent the traditional ordination ceremony to become monks and nuns, instantly creating one of the largest communities of ordained Westerners in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition in North America.[31] Though some have since left their ordination or died, others have joined, and by 2008 the number of KPC's ordained had grown to 40.[32]

Growing out of a friendship with then Mongolian Ambassador Choinkhor and his wife, Jetsunma asked her students in 2004 to create the Mongolian Buddhism Revival Project (MBRP) to help with Mongolia's post-Communist revival of its Buddhist culture, especially the Nyingma lineage. Permanent staff was sent to Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, in early 2005.[33] In June, 2009, at Jetsunma's direction, staff was removed from Mongolia.

From 1996 to 2001, Jetsunma hosted the Migyur Dorje Institute of Higher Buddhist Studies (MDI). Under this program, taught by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso, students received complete commentary teachings on classic Buddhist texts by Shantideva, Chandrakirti, Asanga, Ngari Panchen, and Mipham Rinpoche. This curriculum was supplemented by annual 30-day retreats teaching the traditional Nyingmapa sequence of the inner tantra: Ngondro, Tsa Lung, Trekchod, and Togyal. With Penor Rinpoche’s development of a similar program at the Palyul Retreat Center in McDonough, NY, the MDI program has been discontinued.[34]

Following Hurricane Katrina, in 2005 Zeoli led a group of students to New Orleans to rescue animals left behind. She founded a No Kill animal shelter, Tara's Babies, in order to continue to rescue animals. The target group was dogs on death row, so Tara's Babies mainly rescued dogs from shelters, specializing in fearful and other dogs other shelters rejected.[35] Initially caring for 130 dogs, the sanctuary was set in 148 acres (60 ha) of former ranch land nestled in the three-million acre (12,000 km²) Tonto National Forest near Payson, Arizona. After finding homes for the dogs, closed in 2011 due to volunteer staffing challenges and lack of funding.[36]

• Palyul Productions - records Jetsunma's teachings to preserve and disseminate them.
• Tara's Babies - animal sanctuary founded in 2005 to rescue animals abandoned during the Hurricane Katrina evacuation.[39]
• Garuda Aviary - rescues macaws and many other neglected and abused parrots; based in Poolesville, Maryland[40]
• Blinded By View - originally known as Skydancer,[41] Blinded By View produces Jetsunma's music.
• Prison Program - monks and nuns are trained to visit and teach meditation to those who are incarcerated.

• The Capital Campaign - Current fundraiser to build new temple.[7]
• Tara Studios - Tara Studios, producing small Buddhist statues, was founded in 1991 with the hopes to financially support KPC's monks and nuns.[42][43]
• Ladyworks - Jetsunma designed a hair care product line which sold in The Sharper Image. In 1996 Ladyworks created a million-dollar infomercial for the products featuring Jetsunma.[44][45]
• Chocolate Passion - A dessert company formed in 1992 also in hopes to financially support KPC's monks and nuns.[46]