Teaching Issue
Volume 17, Number 3 / June 2017
Letter from the Editors
Celebrating Twenty-Five Years
Dear Friends,
How time flies ... it's hard to believe Ligmincha is 25 years old this year! We looked back at some of the earliest Voice of Clear Light newsletters to find some memories to share with you. There are so many! What an amazing dream and vision that Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche had when he established Ligmincha Institute in 1992 here in Virginia. Now it's all grown up as Ligmincha International, with centers throughout the world and a board of 10 dedicated volunteer members. Inspiring so many people, Rinpoche has tirelessly brought the Bön teachings alive for Westerners everywhere. Emaho!
In this issue, we share a special excerpt from a talk Rinpoche gave in Boston in May 1993. He speaks about how he came to the U.S. (Thank you to the Dzogchen Community in Massachusetts for inviting Rinpoche to America to give his first teachings and to Anne Klein for inviting him to teach at Rice University in 1990.) He talks about his challenges of bringing the Bön teachings, specifically dzogchen, to Westerners and the huge responsibility he feels in preserving the Bön. He reminds us all of the precious Oral Transmission of Zhang Zhung, an unbroken lineage of masters who have kept Bön alive. This summer, Rinpoche will be giving pith instructions of Bön dzogchen lineage masters during the Summer Retreat morning teachings, followed by afternoon teachings from the Bön Ma Gyü (Mother Tantra). See below for all the details on the two-week Summer Retreat, June 25–July 8, to be followed by a new one-week practice retreat.
Be sure to check out the latest TWR LIVE Facebook free weekly broadcasts on Dream Yoga, beginning June 6, and the upcoming GlideWing and Ligmincha Learning online workshops starting in June and July. A special 25th anniversary celebration will be held this fall on October 22, following the annual Fall Retreat at Serenity Ridge and just prior to the two-day Science and Spirituality Conference. Mark your calendars and join in the festivities!
Also growing and thriving is The 3 Doors organization, with its latest Compassion Project expanding to a nine-month online course. Find out below how to apply. And don't miss this Spring's Ligmincha Europe Magazine. Mark your calendars, too, for the European retreats that Rinpoche will be holding this August and September – there are a lot! You can always find Tenzin Rinpoche's teaching schedule by date and by location on the Ligmincha International website. You'll find the link to the Spanish translation of the April issue of the Voice of Clear Light below, with the Portuguese translation coming at a later time.
Enjoy!
In Bön,
Aline and Jeff
Young Lama Has Big Dreams
An Excerpt from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche’s Talk in Boston, May 1993
Lopon Tenzin Namdak, Tenzin Wangyal and Lungtok Tenpai Nyima
This teaching is an edited excerpt from the Summer 1993 Voice of Clear Light newsletter. It gives us a glimpse of a young Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche speaking of his life and his deep commitment to bringing the Bön teachings to the West.
First, I want to say a little bit about myself by way of an introduction. I was born in India of Tibetan refugee parents. In my early years, my father was Buddhist and my mother was Bön. I lived in a Buddhist community, a Tibetan settlement in northwest India, until I was 5 or 6.After that I went to a Christian school, but I did not manage to stay there very long. When I was 10, my parents brought me to a monastery of the Bön tradition. There I met my teacher, Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche.
When I finished my monastic education in 1986, I went to Tibet and returned to India. I worked in the library in Dharamsala, where I was appointed as a member of the Assembly by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but I did not decide to do that and wanted to pursue my studies. Norbu Rinpoche invited me over to Italy to do some work at the Institute there. I was also invited by some professors to give talks in Sweden and so spent time in Scandinavia. I did not originally plan to come to the West to teach. I came to learn, not to teach. But, while I was in Italy, many friends who knew about my practice asked me to teach. And this has continued all over the world for the past five years. I am not learning as much as I wanted.
I first came to the United States in 1990 at the invitation of the Dzogchen Community in Conway, Massachusetts, to teach. While teaching as the guest of various organizations I ended my trip in Houston, Texas, where I had no plan to spend time. But that has changed my life here. Professor Anne Klein of Rice University asked me to give a couple of talks there. Then they wanted me to come back for two weeks, all the way from Italy. Then they asked me to apply for a Rockefeller Fellowship and I got that and spent a year there doing research and teaching. I felt that I could learn more about Western culture in that setting, since I feel now that there is a mission for me in the West and I want to do it. I want to learn the best way to communicate with Westerners. It is a great challenge to grow up in one culture and then try to transplant the teachings in the West.
It is not always easy to get people to understand, really understand. In the West, it is not difficult to get people excited. The problem is to continue with it and make a deep space in themselves, where, no matter whether there is a teacher there or not, it will always be there and always grow. Making that kind of connection and making that kind of space in people seems much more complicated unless you really know how to communicate with people.
While I did not plan to teach in the West, and when I taught I was not sure if it was right or important for me to teach, now I do feel that it is important for me to do, and that this is a mission. It is like a secret that had been kept from me and is clearer now. Now I am sure because I am a Bönpo. I do not know how much you know about Bön or if what you know is very good. As I mentioned, my father was a Tibetan Buddhist, but generally I believe that every Tibetan is a Bönpo. There are no Tibetans who do not practice Bön, even if they do not call it that. It is not a question of what one calls oneself, but what one actually believes. Tibetan Buddhism has a character which cannot be separated from the indigenous tradition of Bön. The beliefs of that tradition are rooted in their bones, blood, mind and brain—every part of their existence. On an official level, my mother was Bön and my father was Buddhist and, as I told you, I also went to a Christian school. So I have a lot of combinations. Growing up and being trained in my monastic community and being very close to my teacher, I know how much responsibility he took on his shoulders in coming all the way from Tibet and coming to the West years ago. He also was sponsored by a Rockefeller Fellowship and came to the West in 1961 and spent about three years in the West. When he returned to India, he took on the responsibility to establish a community and monastery which keeps alive the word, the believers and the faith of the Bön tradition. He preserved a very important part of Tibetan culture.
H.E. Yondzin (Lopon) Tenzin Namdak with Rinpoche
While I was growing up with him, I did not see that aspect of his responsibility. I just saw what I needed to learn from him for me. Now, coming to the West and seeing a lot of things that happen here, I realize that the Bön teachings should be kept alive. There are so many centers in the West—I am not criticizing them—that it would not make much difference if one of them were not there, since there are so many others. But it would make a lot of difference if I don‘t do what I am doing. Nobody else is going to do it. Being here in the West, I see my face everywhere I go and say to myself, if you do not do it, who is going to do it?
Even though I could easily come here and teach in the university and survive myself, I cannot leave this other important responsibility that I feel to preserve the Bön tradition. It is not that I need to spread the Bön religion as a form of religion. It is a form of knowledge, an important tradition, that has many things to offer for this time and period, as many native traditions do, if people in the modern world have the ear to listen to it and the mind to think about it. There are so many things to learn from them. There is important value and wisdom there. If the few of us who know these traditions do not try to bring them out, they wont be there and wont grow; instead, they end.
My teacher, when he finished giving us the teachings and transmissions, said to us: ‘Now I have produced a new generation. It is up to you. I did not want to make a gap.’ He did not make a gap, he produced teachers. So I feel very responsible, particularly when it is difficult to do it. As I said, it would not make any difference not to have another dharma center in the West. Many masters from the East have done it. But preserving Bön is very important. Every Tibetan knows that the Bön is a very important tradition and is the root of Tibetan culture. There is no way to explain Tibetan culture unless you know something about Bön. Even among scholars, they have so much training in this tradition and used it in their daily life, but they have not thought about what it really means. They do not look back into their roots.
The Buddhist way of looking at Tibetan history is not realistic. It is important to realize how much benefit it [Bön] brought into Tibetan culture. All the parts of the tradition—the texts, the beliefs, the rituals, the mythology—are disappearing. For example, the Bön Canon has over 170 books. Scholars in the West and many Tibetans do not know about these texts because they are not open in that way. I am trying to speak realistically about the situation now.
All our literature is disappearing. There is only one copy of the canon left in Tibet. Eight people hid the texts in the mountains during the Chinese cultural revolution. Half of those were killed by the Chinese but they would not tell where the books were hidden. These books are lost.
It is not like losing the books that are written here in the universities and in bookstores. It is not about the confusion of individuals; it contains the wisdom of individuals. Those books cannot be reproduced.
Students gather for meditation in the Serenity Ridge shrine room, where texts from the Bon Canon are preserved
I strongly feel my responsibility toward these things. A year and half ago, I founded the Ligmincha Institute. Ligmincha is the name of the king of Zhang Zhung. Zhang Zhung is the place where most of Tibetan civilization starts.
I have a plan and a form to teach continuously over the next many years. The dream is there; I dreamed it clearly. To manifest it takes time. Everything will manifest when it needs to manifest. If you want to collaborate with me in all of these plans that I have been making, you may do so in whatever form suits you. This is written in our newsletter. Please take and if you have thoughts, let me know.
Tonight, as a formal introduction to dzogchen, in the first place it is very difficult to say anything about dzogchen. It is difficult to talk about something that you cannot talk about. But you can always talk about it. What I am really saying that you can talk about dzogchen in a way that will not make much sense. In the same way, you can see books on emptiness. They are very thick books. It is very similar. You can talk a lot about how very difficult it is to explain.
I want to say a little bit about the tradition of dzogchen as far as it is connected to me. The reason is that in the Tibetan tradition, a very important part of the teaching, and preserving teaching, is to trace back the tradition of the teaching. We say “I am giving these teachings to you people, but I have been practicing and have received this teaching from somewhere.“ I need to trace it back to make it authentic and feel comfortable with it. If it is not something that is connected with the transmission, it is different. It is not a thought, it is not like going to a holistic bookstore to read 10 books on it giving me now something to talk about. Tracing the roots in the tradition is considered an important part of the tradition, the fact that it goes way, way back. One of the reasons it is preserved until today is because of that tradition.
If the way to deal with the teaching is the way it is generally treated in the West, it wont last as it has been kept until this time. People within the tradition know how to live in the tradition and follow it up and preserve it – preserve it not by confusing it with other traditions, but respecting its nature and giving value to its continuity in the future.
My teaching is connected with the Bön dzogchen. In the tradition of Bön, the first person to teach dzogchen was Shenrab Miwoche. He lived 17 thousand years ago. It is not important to prove whether he was a historical person or not or where he really lived. This belief has come down through centuries among practitioners of dzogchen that dzogchen was taught 17,000 years ago and that lineage has been unbroken until today. The form of this lineage is fresh and vivid. I feel that it is my responsibility to see that this lineage continues. It has to continue. I cannot decide in my generation to just let it drop, after it has been brought to the present time after 17,000 years.
This is particularly true for what is called the "oral transmission of Zhang Zhung," which came from Shenrab Miwoche. From him there have come many masters through whom has come what is know as the "single transmission" (gcig rgyud), transmission from the master to one single disciple. This particular lineage was kept through only a few people. There are other lineages of dzogchen. One is called ‘Ati’ and another called ‘Dzogchen’. These have more followers in them. This one I am talking about is a very tiny lineage, kept as very private.
Lopon Sangye Tenzin
When I was about 13 years old, I received these teachings from my first master, Lopon Sangye Tenzin, who was a teacher of Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, my second teacher. For three years we received this teaching. This was called an oral transmission because it had never been written down before [until the eighth century]. These teachings were meant to be taught initially in what is called "mental transmission" – transmission that occurs mind to mind. Then it came to oral or spoken explanations. There was no reference point of written literature in this oral transmission but each master would explain "this is my experience and what it is about."
This form of teaching my master taught to me and I have been practicing. Now I explain it this way, but there is a slightly different manifestation of experiences. Some people have more experience of the bliss part. Some people have more experience of the void part. Some people have more experience of the unity part. Some people have more experience of the inseparability part. So there are many aspects of the nature of mind that one can experience. For whatever reason – biological or psychological – some people have stronger experiences of one aspect of it and other people have stronger experiences of another aspect of it. It is always one. But when they do have slightly different experiences they write it down. And one of those lineages of transmission is called the "experiential transmission." In this form, the master would write down about four to eight lines about what they have experienced. They would write in very simple language, not poetic, a simple, direct form of communication.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will teach on the“Bön Dzogchen Pith Instructions“ from the masters of the oral transmission of the Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyü at the Summer Retreat at Serenity Ridge, June 25–July 8.
View other issues of Voice of Clear Light beginning in 1992
TWR LIVE Facebook Inspiring Many in Weekly Broadcasts
New Series on Dream Yoga
The latest TWR LIVE series, a two-month series on dream yoga, is being offered by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche June 6–August 8, 2017.
The title of the series is "Dream Yoga: Deepening Your Awareness Night and Day." The practice of dream yoga is a powerful tool of awakening, used for hundreds of years by great masters of the Tibetan traditions. It aids us in deepening awareness at all moments of life: while dreaming at night, during the dreamlike experience of the day and in the bardo experiences after death. Ultimately, dream yoga helps us to recognize the true nature of mind.
Each Tuesday throughout the series, you can visit Rinpoche's Facebook page at 1 p.m. New York time, or Eastern Daylight time U.S. (12 noon on June 20) to view either a live teaching and guided meditation, or a live conversation between Rinpoche and an invited guest on a topic related to dream yoga. Between these 30- to 40-minute Tuesday sessions, Rinpoche will offer occasional, unscheduled live sessions to elaborate on the previous session and answer viewers' questions. All sessions are recorded for future viewing.
Weekly topics will includer:
- June 6, 1 p.m.: Introduction to Dream Yoga
- June 13, 1 p.m.: Conversation Live with Dylan Tuccillo, Jared Zeizel and Thomas Peisel, co-authoars of A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming: Mastering the Art of Oneironautics
- June 20, 12 noon: Dream Yoga Foundational Practices
- (Date TBA): Basics of Lucid Dreaming
- (Date TBA): Healing Through Lucid Dreaming
- (Date TBA): How to Transform Recurring Dreams
- (Date TBA): Dream Yoga as a Lifetime Practice
About TWR LIVE
TWR LIVE is an innovative way for you to connect with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, the ancient Tibetan teachings and fellow students around the world through regular live broadcasts that can be easily viewed on Rinpoche’s Facebook page. All broadcasts are free and open to all—you don’t need a Facebook account to view them.
To access the viewing screen, visit Rinpoche’s Facebook page at the time of the broadcast. If the screen doesn’t appear right away, the broadcast may not have begun yet, so try reloading the page. If you have a Facebook account, you’ll have an opportunity to submit questions and receive answers from Rinpoche—be sure to “like” his page and click “Follow” to receive a notification each time Rinpoche goes live.
Archive of TWR LIVE recordings
Learn more/ access real-time translations
25th Anniversary Celebration Includes October 22 Festivities
Registration Opens for Fall Retreat, Science and Spirituality Conference
Please join us in celebrating Ligmincha’s 25th Anniversary this fall, including a special day of festivities on October 22. Registration is now open for two retreats at Serenity Ridge: the annual Fall Retreat from October 18–21 and the Science and Spirituality Conference October 23–24.
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche founded Ligmincha Institute in March 1992 in Richmond, Virginia. Ligmincha headquarters soon moved to Charlottesville. Serenity Ridge Retreat Center in Nelson County, purchased in 1998, became the organization's headquarters in 2009. Over the past 25 years, Ligmincha has become an international organization with centers and sanghas around the world and an active online cyber-sangha.
The Ligmincha International sangha is warmly invited to join us for one or all events at Serenity Ridge in Virginia, headquarters of Ligmincha International, for this very special celebration.
Fall Retreat: The Knowledge and Wisdom of Longevity
October 18–21, 2017
In this special four-day retreat, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will, for the first time, offer in-depth teachings on The Knowledge and Wisdom of Longevity from the Tsewang Jarima, a text written by Tsewang Rigdzin. Rinpoche also will offer the empowerment related to its practice. The son of the eighth century Tibetan master Drenpa Namkha, Tsewang Rigdzin is known as the “King of Longevity.” In addition to composing many ritual texts aimed at alleviating suffering, he was a dzogchen lineage master.
The Bön tradition has many practices to extend one’s lifespan and recapture any life force lost due to negative external or internal factors, or from ignorance of our true nature. These practices include visualization and meditation, ritual, and healing through nature and the elements. The wisdom of Tsewang Rigdzin and the practices associated with this teaching can help us retrieve, extend and enhance our life force: healing environmental, physical, emotional and energetic imbalances in our lives.
Learn more/register
Day of Celebration October 22
On the day following the Fall Retreat, on October 22, all are invited to attend a celebration of Ligmincha‘s 25th Anniversary. Join Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Ligmincha’s resident lamas and other special guests. A special morning of activities is planned for sangha members, including a sang chod ceremony and celebration in the gompa.
Afternoon activities will be open to the Tibetan community and area residents. From 12 noon until 4 p.m., all can enjoy a public event that includes music (Tibetan, sacred and offerings from our sangha), Tibetan food vendors, a Tibetan market, viewing of the new building, and more. Ligmincha's Bookstore and Tibet Shop will be open. Look for additional information as plans develop.
Because of the high cost of travel for Ligmincha's resident lamas, Ligmincha is seeking donations of frequent flyer miles to help with their airline tickets. If you would like to donate frequent flyer miles to help the resident lamas, please
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.
Science and Spirituality Conference
October 23–24, 2017
Join Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and a select group of presenters to learn about how meditation and other spiritual practices can bring about healing of physical and emotional pain. Rinpoche will deliver the keynote address at this special Science and Spirituality Conference, guide meditation sessions and participate in a panel discussion.
This is an exciting opportunity to be part of the growing dialog on contemplative science. Invited scientists, researchers and other presenters will discuss their work on the impact of contemplative meditation practices on physical, emotional and mental pain, with opportunities for participants to share in discussions and meals with the presenters.
The conference will begin on Monday, October 23, at 9 a.m. and will end Tuesday, October 24, at 3 p.m. Participants are encouraged to come earlier to attend the annual Fall Retreat and the free daylong celebration of Ligmincha’s 25th Anniversary on October 22.
Next GlideWing Online Course Starts Soon: June 10– July 2
Three-Week Course on 'Tibetan Sound Healing'
The next GlideWing online workshop with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, “Tibetan Sound Healing,” will be held June 10–July 2, 2017. With Rinpoche’s personal guidance participants will learn to use the healing power of five sacred syllables known as the Five Warrior Syllables. Guided by the mind and carried by the breath through subtle channels within the body, the power of sound can open the potential to bring joy and love to your life, facilitate personal healing, dissolve energetic disturbances and awaken positive action in the world around you.
Changing life for the better isn’t easy – especially when we’re trying to change by thinking or worrying our way out of problems. Overcoming a nagging physical issue, bad habit, negative emotion or harmful thought pattern can take months, years, even decades of trying. The Tibetan spiritual traditions offer a faster route to lasting happiness and well-being. Through the ancient practice of the Five Warrior Syllables, you will discover the power of pure, primordial sound to quickly cut through the obstacles to lasting change and to open the space for profound healing of body, energy and mind.
Tenzin Rinpoche’s teachings are based on his popular book Tibetan Sound Healing. The book is available in Ligmincha's Bookstore and Tibet Shop.
Also upcoming: July 22–Aug. 20, 2017: a four-week online workshop on Tibetan Dream Yoga
Summer Service Retreat: June 18–23, 2017
Join in Joyful Service
Serenity Ridge Retreat Center
Join us at Serenity Ridge on June 18–23, 2017, for a special service retreat prior to the annual Summer Retreat. Participants in the full service retreat will receive 50 percent off the cost of registration for one week of the two-week Summer Retreat, scheduled for June 25–July 8. Each week of Summer Retreat will focus on two topics: pith instructions on the nature of mind, dzogchen, in the mornings and teachings from Bön Mother Tantra in the afternoons.
This service retreat a wonderful time to share with the sangha and to be of joyful service. Each day includes vigorous work periods, daily meditation practice, and free time to walk along the Serenity Ridge grounds or swim in the Rockfish River. Free accommodations in the Garuda House dormitory will be provided starting the evening of June 17, and simple meals will be provided.
Summer Retreat Teachings on Dzogchen Pith Instructions and Bön Mother Tantra
June 25–July 8 with Practice Retreat Week to Follow
Both new and continuing students are warmly invited to gather at Serenity Ridge for a special summer retreat with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Rinpoche’s founding of Ligmincha International.
Rinpoche has graciously agreed to teach on two topics this summer: pith instructions on the nature of mind (dzogchen) and teachings from Bön Mother Tantra. These are the focus of Rinpoche’s own personal practice and the core of his teachings for the past 25 years.
Week 1: June 25–July 1, 2017
Week 2: July 2–8, 2017
You are welcome to attend one or both weeks. If you can only attend one week, Rinpoche suggests that newer students attend the first week. Simultaneous translation into Spanish will be available.
The morning teachings of both weeks will focus on the pith instructions of Bön dzogchen lineage masters. Dzogchen, which translates as “great perfection” or “great completion,” is the highest among the array of profound teachings of the Bön and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. These teachings point out our true nature, the source of wisdom and all positive qualities. In the afternoons of both weeks, Rinpoche will teach from the Bön Mother Tantra. His focus will be on the six great methods of the path of the Ma Gyü cycle, one of the major tantric cycles of Bön.
Summer Practice Retreat: July 9–15, 2017 with Geshe Tenzin Yangton
A summer practice retreat with Geshe Tenzin Yangton, resident lama at Serenity Ridge, will follow the Summer Retreat.
Geshe Yangton will lead two daily practice sessions, with ample time for individual practice and reflection. The sessions will focus on practices taught during the previous two weeks at the Summer Retreat. Participants also may schedule one private, 10-minute interview with Geshe Tenzin Yangton.
Next Ligmincha Learning Online Course Starts July 7
'Transforming Our Emotions Through the Six Lokas'
Shenla Okar – Essential Buddha of the Six Lokas Practices Sign up now for Ligmincha Learning's online course with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche on “Transforming Our Emotions Through the Six Lokas.” This seven-week course runs from July 7–August 16, 2017.
At one time or another each of us suffer strong emotions that throw us off balance, cause us to act in ways that we later regret and make us lose touch with our true nature. Centuries ago, the masters of the Bön lineage developed the meditations of the Six Loka specifically to remedy this situation, to help us live our lives in a balanced and relaxed way.
The meditations focus on the root causes of our suffering: anger, desire or greed, ignorance, jealousy, pride and laziness. Through each meditation we examine our habitual patterns so that we may recognize them, then invoke the enlightened energy of the Buddhas to purify and transform us so that we and all other beings might not continue to suffer in this way. The practices have a deep healing and transformative power, and are traditionally practiced at length as a preliminary to dzogchen contemplation.
UPCOMING: September 1–October 7, 2017: Sherap Chamma, Mother of Wisdom and Love, taught by Marcy Vaughn.
Learn more
Ongoing FREE Ligmincha Learning online course available: Starting a Meditation Practice
3 Doors Compassion Project Grows
Registration Open for Nine-Month Live Online Program
Following the success of a nine-month Compassion Project teaching in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, The 3 Doors is pleased to announce a new live online Compassion Project program beginning September 17, 2017. Registration is now open.
The 3 Doors Compassion Project teaches caregivers practical meditation methods to maintain their motivation and recharge their energy, so they can respond to whatever arises in the moment from a natural place of presence.With more than 50 percent of healthcare professionals reporting symptoms of burnout, the need for self-care practices has never been greater. The Compassion Project teach select practices that support compassionate care and self-compassion for healthcare professionals, educators, therapists and anyone who is motivated by compassion.
Marcy Vaughn
Gabriel RoccoThe Compassion Project was co-founded by teachers Marcy Vaughn and Gabriel Rocco, who live in Bryn Mawr. Twenty-nine people recently completed the first nine-month program, funded by a generous donor. In May, a five-week intensive class served 43 more people.
The project is one of several new initiatives of The 3 Doors, an experientially based program whose practices have their roots in the dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Bön Buddhism and are taught in a way that is accessible and relevant for modern life. Practitioners from 19 different countries have participated in 3 Doors Academies and other initiatives in Europe, North America, and Latin America.
Now, the benefits of the Compassion Project are being brought to participants throughout the world through the new nine-month, live online program. Registration is now open to accept up to 60 people and then begin a waitlist. With a personalized approach of monthly live online teachings, combined with twice monthly live online small group sessions of up to eight people and additional support materials, this program is a start toward creating a global community around compassionate action toward self and others.
Participants in the nine-month Compassion Project in Pennsylvania
A key aspect of the Compassion Project is a 3 Doors research program that is monitoring the effects of The 3 Doors meditation practices on compassion and self-compassion, mindfulness, work burnout, anxiety and depression, quality of relationships and quality of life. In October 2017, Marcy and Gabriel will be joined by Compassion Project principal investigator Mike Gawrysiak, Ph.D., to present the preliminary findings at the Science and Spirituality Conference hosted by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center in Virginia. The theme of the conference is The Medicine of Mind: Healing Physical and Emotional Pain.
Register for the nine-month online program
Donate to support continued Compassion Project programs
Learn more about The 3 Doors
Ligmincha Europe Magazine Spring Issue
Sangha News in Europe and Worldwide
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's 2017 Teaching Schedule
Several Upcoming European Retreats
Rinpoche will be teaching several retreats in Europe this summer. Here is a list of the upcoming August and September retreats:
- August 7–13: Buchenau, Germany, European Summer Retreat: Twenty-One Nails, Part 3 (of 3)
- August 15–19: Wilga, Poland Retreat: Dream Yoga
- August 20: Warsaw, Poland Seminar: Dream Yoga
- September 1–3: Rome, Italy Seminar: Connecting to the Living Universe: Teachings on the Five Elements
- September 9–10: Budapest, Hungary Seminar: Tibetan Sound Healing and Long Life Practice of Tsewang Rigdzin
You can always find Rinpoche's teaching schedule by date and by location on the Ligmincha International website.
View schedule by date
View schedule by location
Spanish Translations of VOCL
Links to April Issue Now Available
We hope to have the translation of VOCL in Portuguese at a later date.
Look for the translations of Voice of Clear Light newsletters at the top of the Voice of Clear Light website.
Upcoming Retreats
Serenity Ridge Retreat Center
The retreats listed below will take place at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Ligmincha International headquarters located in rural Nelson County, Virginia. To register or for more information, click on the links below,
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or call 434-263-6304.
June 18–23, 2017
Summer Service Retreat
Participants in the full service retreat will receive 50 percent off the registration cost for one week of Summer Retreat.
Learn more
June 25–July 8, 2017
Summer Retreat: Bön Dzogchen Pith Instructions & Sadhana of the Bön Mother Tantra with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.
You are welcome to attend one or both weeks. If you can only attend one week, Tenzin Rinpoche recommends attending the first week. Live translation available in Spanish.
Learn more/register
July 9–15, 2017
Summer Practice Retreat with Geshe Tenzin Yangton
Learn more/register
October 18–21, 2017
Fall Retreat: The Knowledge and Wisdom of Longevity: Teachings and Empowerment from the Tsewang Jarima with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Learn more/register
October 22, 2017
Special Celebration: Ligmincha’s 25th Anniversary
Join us for a day of celebration, including music, food, viewing of the new building, and more.
Learn more
October 23–24, 2017
Science and Spirituality Conference with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and expert presenters
Learn more/register
December 27, 2017–January 1, 2018
Winter Retreat: The Experiential Transmission of the Zhang Zhung, Part 4 with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Prerequisite: Previous completion of Part 3 of the Experiential Transmission of Zhang Zhung series.
To register for any of the above retreats, or for more information about teachings in the Bön Buddhist tradition of Tibet, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , call 434-263-6304 or visit the Serenity Ridge website.
