A Letter From Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
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Dear students, friends and supporters of the Dharma,
I send you my heartfelt wishes for a healthy and happy New Year.
I feel that Ligmincha and our sangha continue to mature and grow. The changes at our retreat center, Serenity Ridge, have helped to support our growing sangha through teachings, practice, special events and improved facilities. I want to thank everyone for their support over this past year. The dedication and support of our sangha are widely felt and appreciated!
We have been able to accomplish some important cost-saving improvements this year, including moving our Charlottesville administrative offices and consolidating them at our Serenity Ridge retreat center, paying down our loan on the second wing of the Garuda House, renovating the Teachers’ House so that our administrative offices can reside there, upgrading the garage so that the bookstore has a permanent space there. We also now have wireless Internet available for retreat participants in the downstairs dining area and out on the new bookstore deck.
I want to assure everyone that we are doing our best to use your donations wisely and to save money wherever we can. We have ideas for new projects at Serenity Ridge, so that our retreat center continues to expand with new opportunities for practice for our worldwide sangha.
I look forward to an upcoming year of continued growth. We are planning a number of additional activities.
We welcome Lharila Kalsang Nyima to Serenity Ridge as our resident lama. We are pleased to announce some additions to our retreat center schedule: Beginning in January, Lharila will perform a ritual each month, such as the Healing Waters of Yeshe Walmo or Soul Retrieval. Lharila will also teach a five-day Ngondro retreat in March. We are also very happy that Menri Lopon Rinpoche will return to our retreat center this year to teach the Experiential Transmission, Part 2. We are inviting sangha to arrive before and after most retreats to do personal practice. And, we also plan to have a 10-day period scheduled for personal practice during the spring. I hope that many of you will join me at Serenity Ridge this year to receive the precious Bon teachings, experience support as we gather together as sangha, and deepen in your study and practice.
We will continue to develop our retreat center this coming year so that we can accommodate more retreats and other events. We plan to make improvements to our kitchen and dining hall, continue to improve the furnishings in the dormitories, improve the signage at Serenity Ridge, and continue to pay down the loan on the second wing of the Garuda House.
For those of you who are able to send a financial contribution, we appreciate it greatly.
With my heartfelt blessings and best wishes for 2010,
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
