Voice of Clear Light

Volume 15, Number 4 / August 2015

Thanking Two of Our Volunteers

Service to the Sangha

At the end of every retreat at Serenity Ridge we make an effort to acknowledge the volunteers who supported the retreat. This past July during the summer retreat at Serenity Ridge, in addition to these thanks, we had the opportunity to recognize Vickie Walter and Vicki Wheaton for their years of service to the sangha. As thanks for their work, Rinpoche gave to each of them beautiful pieces of his calligraphy

Both Vickie Walter and Vicki Wheaton have been students of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche’s for many years, and service work is a significant part of their personal practice.

Vicki Wheaton

Vicki Wheaton is “Abadidi” to Senghe – Rinpoche’s and Tsering’s son – whom she has helped care for since he was very young. As an extension of her direct service to Rinpoche and his family, Vicki also is the Lama House Manager at Serenity Ridge. In this role Vicki works to ensure that the needs of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and his family, Geshe Yangton (Serenity Ridge’s resident lama), and all visiting lamas and their guests are met. During retreats one can see Vicki working joyfully from early morning into the evening in service to our teachers.

Vickie Walter

Vickie Walter works behind the scenes, but everyone sees the results. Vickie is the Director of Communications for Ligmincha International. Vickie works with the editors as part of a small team, all volunteers, to create Voice of Clear Light, the newsletter you are reading right now. Vickie also writes, updates and does much of the maintenance of the ligmincha.org and serenityrdge.ligmincha.org websites, and she creates and places the advertising for both Serenity Ridge and Ligmincha International. She also writes much of and prepares our Annual Report.

The mission of Ligmincha is to preserve and present the teachings of Tibetan Bon Buddhism in ways that are accessible to Westerners. Everything that we do, from running retreats in our own centers and other locations around the world, leading practice sessions, offering live Internet broadcasts in multiple languages, publishing teaching transcripts and other support materials: all is done by volunteers. Without people like Vickie and Vicki, who find ways to use their skills and knowledge in service to others, the service we work to provide would not exist. To all of our volunteers around the world, thank you for all that you do. You have the entire sangha’s heartfelt appreciation for your work.