Volume 23, Number 6 / December 2023
Letter from the Editors
Bringing Our Best into Being
Dear Friends,
When we struggle with uncertainty and our anger, our pain and our fears get the best of us, we limit the possibilities in our lives. We know this is true, but how do we handle the anger and the fears? How do we see through them? Read Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's clear and inspiring guidance in the excerpt below from a webcast series on The Healing Power of Your Breath, from 2017, archived on the CyberSangha website.
Lots to look forward to at Ligmincha in 2024! Read Rob Patzig's letter for a sneak preview of coming attractions.
We have exciting news! The Voice of Clear Light newsletter is getting an upgrade, a new website! Not only will it be more functional, but also attractive, easy to navigate, more mobile friendly. And it will still feature the important beautiful content that we all enjoy. We hope to launch with our February issue. Looking forward!
More news and events at Ligmincha:
- Upcoming Annual Winter Retreat: Experiential Transmission of Zhang Zhung, Part 4 (prerequisite Parts 1-3) December 26, 2023- January 1, 2024, to be held both in person at Serenity Ridge and on Zoom.
- See Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's upcoming teaching schedule.
- Tummo Practice Retreat in January with Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso, at Serenity Ridge and on Zoom.
- View upcoming CyberSangha events.
- Starting soon! Ligmincha Learning online course on Meditation, Breath and Movement with Alejandro Chaoul-Reich begins December 1.
- Announcing the new schedule of GlideWing online courses for 2024.
- "Sacred Interviews" is a new free online event series.
- Join The 3 Doors December 2 and 3 for an online retreat with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche on Self-Transformation. Plus learn more about the 3 Doors Academies starting in 2024.
- From the VOCL archives, we share an article from December 2006 with two students' reflections about their life-changing experiences while on retreat.
- In the Student and Teacher article, a student asks about experiencing fear in dissolving the ego.
- Read the Spanish translation for the October VOCL.
In Bon,
Aline and Jeff Fisher
End-of-Year Letter from Rob Patzig
Very Active Plans for 2024
Dear Sangha and Friends,
As we come to the end of 2023, Ligmincha International and Serenity Ridge are looking forward to a very active 2024. Many of these plans involve programs that will begin at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center only to turn into programs that may be held at other retreat centers, or online for our global community. But first, there are two major changes to the Ligmincha International calendar that I would like to share with you.
From October 9-13, 2024, Ligmincha International will host a retreat in Kathmandu, Nepal, with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche! Rinpoche will teach the practice of Chod: Awakening Confidence by Taking Fear as a Path. The teachings will be taken from the Ma Gyu and from Laughter of the Dakini by Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen. Details are being worked out, and information will become available early in 2024. Students will book their own travel and accommodations, and we encourage participants to spend extra time in Nepal. Pilgrimage, trekking and more possibilities will be available, and we will be making recommendations for hotels, touring agencies and more as plans take shape.
Kathmandu
Triten Norbutse MonasteryA tea offering at Triten Norbutse Monastery also is being planned for October 14, following the retreat, where we also will join for blessings from H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche. This retreat means that we will not have our annual fall retreat at Serenity Ridge in 2024.
Another special opportunity takes place much sooner, in April, at Serenity Ridge. Unlike past spring retreats which take place on Friday through Sunday, the spring Wellness Retreat will span four full days, from April 11-14, 2024. Join Rinpoche and other special guests as we discover methods for wellness of body, mind and spirit from the Tibetan tradition. This retreat will give you tools and techniques that you can take home with you to strengthen and nourish body and soul. Along with teachings and practice, we will have time to be in nature, walk Serenity Ridge's expanding trail network, and draw on other modalities such as massage, pulse reading and more to truly and deeply relax.
Summer retreats at both Serenity Ridge and at Chamma Ling Poland in Wilga will be the culmination of a four-year cycle of tummo teachings. These retreats will be in person only and will not be available on Zoom. They are open only to students who have had some prior experience with the practice of tummo. As a support for all students interested in attending these summer retreats on Tummo, Part 4, or just deepening their existing knowledge of tummo, Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso will be leading a three-day and seven-day practice retreat from January 4-11, 2024 in person at Serenity Ridge and online via Zoom. Even if you were not able to attend Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Tummo, Part 3 teachings this past summer, attending this January practice retreat will allow you to attend Tummo, Part 4.
Also coming up at Serenity Ridge in 2024, and on Zoom, will be the winter retreat in December, Experiential Transmission of Zhang Zhung, Part 5. The culmination of the five-year cycle of the Experiential Transmission teachings, based on the Chag Tri by the great adept Drugyalwa Yungdrung, provides complete instructions for those on the path of dzogchen, the path of self-liberation. This year in the Part 4 teachings, Rinpoche and participants will explore, enhance and reinforce the practices of the five postures, the five gazes and more.
The new year also marks the beginning of a new era for Serenity Ridge Retreat Center. Ligmincha's amazing resident lamas, Geshe Denma Gyaltsen of Ligmincha Texas, Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso of Ligmincha Poland, Lama Kalsang Nyima and Lama Yungdrung Lodoe, both of Ligmincha Mexico, each have agreed to spend about two months per year at Serenity Ridge for at least the next five years. Each resident lama will lead retreats, offer community programs, and be available for rituals and private consultation. Geshe Gyatso is initiating the new Lama Residency Program with a stay from November 2023 to January 2024. During that time he will support Tenzin Rinpoche's winter retreat, teach a weeklong tummo retreat in January, and more.
The tentative schedule for the lamas is:
- November 2023 through January 2024, Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso
- March through April 2024, Lama Yungdrung Lodoe
- June through August 2024, Geshe Denma Gyaltsen
- August through October, Lama Kalsang Nyima
- November 2023 through January 2024, Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso
As a part of our Lama Residency Program, each lama will be developing one or more training programs, with the goal of teaching western students how to perform various rituals and practices from the Bon tradition for themselves.
Geshe Gyatso will develop and teach programs for the Yang Kuk (hooking of wealth). This ritual can help attract prosperity, energy and abundance in one's life. The ritual brings peace, tranquility and the sources of wealth. Geshe-la also will teach the Rabney ritual, a blessing or space clearing ritual for homes, offices, business, etc.) This ritual clears unwanted energies, dullness and instability in a space by cleansing the space and inviting positive energies to bring peace, harmony and prosperity. Finally, he will teach the Dharchok Charwa (hanging of prayer flags). Hanging prayer flags is a common and important tradition in Tibetan/Himalayan culture. Prayer flags especially Lung-ta (Windhorse) flags, are raised to mark auspicious occasions and encourage positive quality to oneself, relatives and in the community. But there are many aspects that must be considered when hanging them, including day, time, location and purpose. And the hanging involves a number of prayers and rituals to ensure that the flags are fully empowered with blessing energy.
Geshe Denma will teach the DU TRI SU Drib-Jong rites (an essential practice for purification of karma and karmic imprints that one has accumulated.) These are rites related to the mantra A KAR A ME. The mantra and its rites are common within Yungdrung Bon and can be performed for both the living and the deceased.
Lama Kalsang will teach the Lha Lu ritual for retrieving life force energy. This is especially powerful for restoring or repairing lost lung, prana or chi for oneself and others. It is also a powerful tool for healing from illness and physical injury.
And Lama Yungdrung will teach us Tibetan Sachey (feng shui), to determine the suitability of land for auspiciousness (not just for building a house or buildings. The Sachey ritual also helps the environment, brings longevity and prosperity, clears obstacles and uplifts the spirit within one's family, with relatives and in the community.
These programs will become certification programs. Students with a deep interest in one or more of them will have the opportunity not only to learn how to incorporate them into their personal practice, but may pursue authorization to perform them on behalf of others. In the coming year we will work with Rinpoche, Khandro Tsering Khymsar and our resident lamas to develop and plan the programs. We hope to begin making them available in late 2024 or early 2025.
There is so much that we want to accomplish in the coming year, and we need your help! If you would like to assist in manifesting these programs, or help continue to enhance and expand our existing programs, please write to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . There are opportuities to come to Serenity Ridge for weeks or months at a time, to live and work and practice at the center; and there are opportunities to work on these projects online. May your practice nourish you, and may it help to heal this world and all of its suffering beings.
In service,
Rob Patzig
President, Ligmincha International
Gaining an Unshakable Trust in One's Basic Nature
An Excerpt from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Webcast Series on The Healing Power of Breath
It's not uncommon these days to hear people express feelings of helplessness in what they are experiencing as an uncertain world. I know many of us are probably feeling similar things, such as feeling doubtful and not feeling safe as our sense of certainty is shaken by all of the political situations, the fighting and the ongoing instability within the country and around the world.
Let's look at what we can do in the face of this uncertainty, and the anger and fears that arise in us. First of all try not to act from that fear and anger. Rather, try and act as much as possible from the spaciousness and awareness that is your nature. When you are open, you can see more clearly what to do and, just as importantly, what not to do.
What you try to do is to be aware of the fear and that uncertainty as a thought, as a feeling, as an emotion. Then be aware of the stillness in your body, be aware of the silence in your speech, and be aware of the spaciousness of your mind. Feeling that stillness, silence and spaciousness deeply enough, then you'll feel a deeper connection to yourself, your eternal self, and not your pain. When you feel a deeper connection to that openness, that awareness in you, then from that open awareness, you look at your fear, your anger, your feeling of uncertainty, and you accommodate that, you host that, you give a spacious, luminous warm hug to your fear, your anger. And when you do that, then gradually you will feel the anger and the fear is dissolving by itself.
Once you feel its cessation then what you feel is openness, you feel awareness, you feel warmth, and that is who you are. As I'm speaking, I hope you are having glimpses of experiences of feeling that space, feeling that awareness, feeling that warmth. The union of that space and awareness is the eternal body. You are that eternal body. Indestructible. Changeless. Feel that certainty in this sacred space. That will help you to overcome, to transcend, to liberate the uncertainty that you are experiencing at this particular time in the world.
That is what I would recommend, and of course I know there are many people who are activists who would say, I don't want to just sit in that space and awareness and warmth, I want to do something! For sure, whatever it is that you feel is right to do, then you should do it, just as long as you are not coming at it from a sense of pure fear and pure anger. Whenever you are feeling pure anger and pure fear, then take care to address that and self-reflect through these practices. Then instead you will be taking action from a much more open place, a place of awareness and compassion and kindness, That is a strength, an unshakable strength. And it is the place where you will find much more certainty in doing what you're doing and what you plan to do. It is the place where you will be of much more benefit to yourself and to society.
That unshakable strength manifests out of the space of one's nature. That space exists not simply as empty, but rather as empty of the pain identity, and as the presence of full self. The word empty seems kind of a negative word, but instead think of it as empty of that pain identity, empty of that anger, empty of that fear. So the space is not simply empty, that space is a perfected space. That space is perfected with love, perfected with confidence, perfected with hope, perfected with all 10 prajnaparamitas. So not only does that space exist, but it is a space of perfection. That is why in the dzogchen teaching we talk about great perfection, dzogchen. Dzogpachenpo literally means great perfection or great completeness. Completeness means that all the enlightened qualities are perfected there; all the prajnaparamitas are completed there.
So not only does that emptiness exist, but it exists with fullness. And whenever we are aware, whenever we are connecting with that emptiness or that space (I prefer more to use the word space in the dzogchen teachings, rather than the word empty) then we are accessing all of our potentiality; that's where we discover all of our qualities. When you are not able to be fully conscious of and have access to that space, then you're not accessing the potentiality and the qualities, and as a result you don't feel the liveliness, you don't feel energized.
Uncertainty can manifest in many ways, even as an irrational fear toward being successful in your life. To overcome the fear of success, the practice is always the same. You go deeper into the stillness, deeper into the silence and deeper into that spaciousness, in your body, in your speech and in your mind. Once you feel a deep enough connection to yourself and you feel a deep enough openness and awareness, then through that openness and awareness, you look at this fear directly.
That's very important. Many times we notice fear, but we don't know what to do with that fear. However, the fear clearly knows what to do with you! It destroys you. It becomes an obstacle for you. It becomes a blockage to your success. Usually we are not able to see fear from the right space, the right awareness. In order to overcome and liberate and transcend that fear, we need to see it from the right space and from the right awareness. The moment you see it from that space and awareness, you will immediately feel a shift and a change in that fear. For example, you will now be able to sit with that fear, you will be able to smile at that fear, you will be able to laugh at the fear, you will be able to have an open conversation with your fear, you will be able to teach your fear, guide your fear.
Or you will even be able to not care at all and have a very neutral experience. When what would have otherwise been a trigger arises, it will now be easy to engage with. The fear instantly liberates. We say self-liberation; the fear liberates by itself without you doing anything. By seeing clearly from that space and awareness, I see the truth, and it clears all of my projections instantly, and at that very moment the fear is gone. At that very moment I have found the connection back to myself.
In these times of feeling kind of shaken, given the whole world situation right now, it could be the case that fear arises even amidst something good that's beginning to happen to you. It may be because, as the saying goes, one is more comfortable with a familiar hell than with an unfamiliar heaven. In that way, you might have fears arise regarding the good things coming into your life, because those things are a little bit unfamiliar to you compared to your familiar pain and conditions that you've been living with for a while. So although those conditions are painful and not fun, you may still like to be sitting there, stuck there, rather than entering the unfamiliar space of infinite possibility.
If that's the case, have a little bit more sense of trust toward yourself, toward that sacred space; and a little more trust to that inner awareness, that inner light; and a little more sense of trust to that inner warmth. With those trusts, you take a little step forward into that unknown world, that world of infinite possibility, into that beautiful perfected world of dynamic energy. That is what I would recommend.
View more on the CyberSangha website teaching series The Healing Power of Your Breath
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Worldwide Teaching Schedule
December 2023 and Upcoming in 2024
Here is Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's upcoming teaching schedule. Many new dates have been planned for 2024. Continue to check the Ligmincha website for updates and additions to Rinpoche's schedule. Rinpoche returns soon to Serenity Ridge for the annual winter retreat at the end of December. Then beginning in 2024 Rinpoche will be traveling a lot, teaching in Brazil in January, then back to the US in February through April, then traveling to many places in Europe during April and May., back for summer retreat in June and July at Serenity Ridge, and then to Poland and Germany for the August summer retreats.
You can find the latest listings and any changes in the Events section of the Ligmincha website or the Serenity Ridge website. Please register for these online retreats through the specific Events box on the website. Updates will be provided on the website as they become available. Continue to check the Ligmincha website for updates and additions to Rinpoche's teaching schedule.
- December 26, 2023-January 1, 2024: Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia. Winter Retreat: Experiential Transmission of Zhang Zhung, Part 4. (Prerequisite: Having attended Experiential Transmission Parts 1-3)
- January 14, 2024: Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Power of Breath in the Ancient Yogic Tradition of Tibet
- January 17-21, 2024: Sao Paulo, Brazil. Tibetan Yoga of Dream and Sleep
- February 26-March 1, 2024: Big Sur, California. Tibetan Dream Yoga
- March 8, 2024: Houston, Texas. Public Talk: Melody of Luminous Poetry
- March 9-10, 2024: Houston, Texas. Healing with Form, Energy and Light
- April 10-14, 2024: Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia. Spring Retreat: Wellness Retreat
- April 19-21, 2024: Bologna, Italy. Spontaneous Creativity
- April 26-28, 2024: Ireland. TBA
- May 3-5, 2024: Berlin, Germany. Nine Winds, Part 2
- May 10-12, 2024: Bulle, Switzerland. TBA
- May 17-19, 2024: Vienna, Austria. TBA
- May 24-26, 2024: Spain or Portugal. TBA
- May 31-June 2, 2024: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. TBA
- June 22-July 6, 2024: Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia. Summer Retreat: Tummo, Part 4
- August 13-18, 2024: Wilga, Poland. Tummo, Part 4
- August 19-25, 2024: Buchenau, Germany. TBA
- September 6-8, 2024: Budapest, Hungary, TBA
- October 9-13, 2024: Kathmandu, Nepal. Chod: Awakening Confidence by Taking Fear as a Path. More information to come.
- December 26, 2024-January 1, 2025: Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia. Winter Retreat: Experiential Transmission of Zhang Zhung, Part 5
Annual Winter Retreat December 26, 2023-January 1, 2024
Experiential Transmission of Zhang Zhung, Part 4
The Experiential Transmission series, the centerpiece of Rinpoche's dzogchen teachings, is presented each year at the Serenity Ridge winter retreat. This December, Part 4 of the five-year cycle of teachings focuses on overcoming obstacles to realizing the nature of mind.
You can attend the retreat in person at Serenity Ridge or online through Zoom. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche encourages people to attend in person if possible, to create a more intimate time to connect with one another and with the teachings.
The Experiential Transmission retreats allow Rinpoche to continually guide and nurture a growing community of practitioners devoted to the authentic Tibetan Bon dzogchen path handed down from the masters of Zhang Zhung, a lineage unbroken from ancient times to this day. The concise and essential practice manual of the Experiential Transmission, the Chag Tri, by the great adept Drugyalwa Yungdrung, provides complete instructions for those on the path of dzogchen, the path of self-liberation.
As Rinpoche has been doing throughout the year, the focus of this retreat will be on practice. Last year he gave descriptions of the practices that support trekcho and togel and eventually dark retreat. This year participants will explore, enhance and reinforce the practices of the five postures, the five gazes and more.
Live translation will be available in Spanish.
Prerequisite: This retreat is open to those who have received the teachings for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the Experiential Transmission of Zhang Zhung from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche either in this current teaching cycle or previously.
The teachings will begin on December 26 at 7:15 p.m. EST (New York time), and conclude by 2 p.m. EST on January 1, 2024.
Those attending in person may wish to consider staying on for the Tummo Practice Retreat with Geshe Gyatso January 4-11, 2024.
Tummo Practice Retreat in January
The Bliss of Inner Fire with Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso
Join us this January for our first Tummo Practice Retreat at Serenity Ridge, with Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso. You can attend for three or seven days, in person at Serenity Ridge or online via Zoom.
All are welcome! Anyone who attend the retreat, including those new to the practice of tummo, will meet the prerequisite to attend the teachings of Tummo Part 4 with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche at the summer retreats at Serenity Ridge in Virginia and at Chamma Ling Poland in 2024.
The practice retreat will be held January 4-11, 2024 and is intended to support practitioners who have participated in Tenzin Rinpoche's tummo teachings. Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso, resident lama of Ligminicha Poland, will give instruction and advice on all the components of tummo that Rinpoche has covered in his current teaching cycle, including the prayers, nine breathings, tsa lung, the ordinary and extraordinary preliminaries, and the practice of jam lung. But the focus will be on developing a deeper familiarity and experience with the practices.
Students who have the time are strongly encouraged to attend for the full week to experience the fullest ripening of their practice. Because the mission of Ligmincha is not only to preserve and share the Bon teachings but also to see their capacity for personal and social transformation come to fruition, the cost of attending practice retreats is kept to a minimum.
Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso is the resident lama of Ligmincha Poland. He lives in the Chamma Ling Poland center in Wilga, near Warsaw. He also teaches throughout Europe.
More about Geshe Gyatso
Upcoming CyberSangha Events
Next Live Broadcasts with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
You are warmly invited to join Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, invited guests and fellow participants for any or all of these upcoming online events. Free and open to all, most of these events are part of Embracing Life with Wisdom & Compassion, Rinpoche's free yearlong program.
Tuesday, December 19, 12:30 p.m. New York time
Awareness as Medicine: The Best Cure for Burnout Is Here, Within Us
A live online conversation with researcher and Buddhist teacher Nikki Mirghafori, Ph.D.; psychology professor and meditation instructor Paul Condon, Ph.D., and host Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, Ph.D.
Learn more & view live
Saturday, December 23, 12 noon New York time
Embracing Apathy, Cultivating Joyful Engagement
Join Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche as he guides us in meeting any sense of apathy we may be experiencing with openness and warmth, clearing and opening the pathways to fuller, more joyful engagement in life.
Learn more & view live
Tuesday, December 26, 10 a.m. New York time
24-Hour Full Moon Practice: Embracing Apathy, Cultivating Joyful Engagement
Our 24-hour online practice begins with a guided meditation and is followed by a 24-hour session of mantra recitation, contemplative breathing practice and further periods of guided meditation. You may join the session for 30 minutes or more at a time, at whatever time works for you. It is open to all and there is no cost to participate, but registration is required.
Registration opens after November 26
Wednesday, January 24, 12 noon New York time
Embracing the Suffering Me: Cultivating the Freedom of Being No One
Join Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche as he guides us in meeting our pain identity, the mistaken sense of self who continually suffers, with openness and warmth, clearing and opening the pathways to realizing the liberating truth of no-self.
Learn more & view live
Thursday, January 25, 10 a.m. New York time
24-Hour Full Moon Practice. Embracing the Suffering Me: Cultivating the Freedom of Being No One
Our 24-hour online practice begins with a guided meditation and is followed by a 24-hour session of mantra recitation, contemplative breathing practice and further periods of guided meditation. You may join the session for 30 minutes or more at a time, at whatever time works for you. It is open to all and there is no cost to participate, but registration is required.
Registration opens after December 26
You can learn all about the free yearlong program here.
We hope to see you online soon!
Thank You for Supporting Ligmincha
Please Consider Year-End Donation
Prayer flags and stupa at Serenity RidgeDear Sangha and Friends,
This year, we have all seen images in the news of the great suffering many around the world are experiencing. How very fortunate we are to have come into contact with the precious Bon teachings and teachers who so generously share their wisdom and knowledge so that we may connect with our inner wholeness beyond suffering, and with compassion for ourselves and others.
This year has been a testament to the resilience and strength of our community. Despite the challenges posed by the ongoing global situation, we continue to adapt and evolve, ensuring that the teachings of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Tibetan Bon Buddhism remain accessible to all who seek them.
Thanks to the support of our wonderful donors and volunteers, we continue to enhance and expand our in-person and online retreats, courses, and practice materials. We also work to preserve and translate the rich tradition of Bon with new courses and books on a variety of topics. These projects allow individuals in many countries and speaking many languages to partake in the journey of self-transformation that is meditation.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to all those who have supported Ligmincha International either financially or through volunteer work. Your generosity and dedication play a pivotal role in our ability to share the transformative teachings of Bon, impacting lives around the world. As we approach the end of this year, we invite you to consider a year-end donation to Ligmincha International. Your support, no matter the size, helps enable us to:
- Enhance and expand our online platform to reach more individuals seeking teachings outside of a retreat setting. In 2024 we will focus on migrating to a new and improved course platform, and we are developing several new courses for 2024 and 2025.
- Provide scholarships for those facing financial constraints, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility for all. In 2023 we were able to offer several hundred people free access to online teachings and reduced fees to dozens more. One dozen people received financial support to attend in-person retreats at Serenity Ridge.
- Maintain and support Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, the headquarters of Ligmincha International, creating more opportunities for deepening one's practice in a serene and supportive environment.
Together, we can continue to change the world, one person at a time, with the power of the ancient wisdom of Bon. Your generosity will help foster inner peace, resilience, and compassion in a world that greatly needs it. As we say at the end of each practice session: In liberating our own being, may we benefit others.
To donate, please visit our website or contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
With heartfelt appreciation,
Rob Patzig
President, Ligmincha International
Ligmincha Learning Tsa Lung Course Starts December 1
Look for Sleep Yoga Course in the New Year
Ligmincha Learning is pleased to offer Meditation, Breath and Movement with Alejandro Chaoul-Reich beginning December 1. In 2024, Sleep Yoga with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will be offered in March and again in November 2024. Stay tuned for more courses to be announced soon on the Ligmincha Learning website.
These online courses feature beautiful video teachings, guided meditations, readings, journal writing activities, and the opportunity to interact with senior mentors and classmates from around the world.
Meditation, Breath and Movement with Alejandro Chaoul-Reich
December 1-30, 2023 (offered with Spanish & Portuguese subtitles)
Tsa lung is a series of ancient yogic practices that brings balance and harmony to our physical body, energy and mind. The term tsa lung can be translated as the energy-winds (Tibetan lung, Skt. prana, Chinese qi) in the channels, for these practices are designed to open the subtle channels, guiding the healthy flow of the energy-winds so that we can enjoy good health and reconnect with more calmness to a quiet, peaceful mind. These exercises are easy to perform and are beneficial for everyone.
Learn more/register
Upcoming in 2024
March 29-April 27: Sleep Yoga
November 15-December 14: Sleep Yoga
Free courses; enroll at any time: Starting a Meditation Practice; The True Source of Healing; Living with Joy, Dying in Peace
Learn more at ligminchalearning.com
Newly Scheduled: 2024 GlideWing Workshops
With Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
All GlideWing online video workshops listed below also feature personal support and guidance throughout from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.
January 13-February 4: Awakening the Sacred Body
Over three weeks you will learn simple, life-changing practices of Tibetan yoga that have been used for thousands of years to open and awaken the energy centers and channels of the subtle energy body. By clearing uncomfortable emotions and other obscurations, they can open the space from which joy, love, compassion and other positive qualities spontaneously manifest.
Learn more/register
February 17-March 17: Dream Yoga
Based on Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's best-selling book Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, this newly updated four-week workshop guides you in cultivating greater awareness, freedom and flexibility during every moment of life, including during your dreams at night.
Learn more/register
May 11-June 2: The Truth That Sets You Free
Through guided practices of sleep yoga and other dzogchen meditations, this three-week workshop supports you in becoming liberated from fear and other disturbing emotions so you may live more fully and genuinely in all aspects of life. Ultimately, the course is about achieving final liberation, or enlightenment.
Learn more/register
June 15-July 7: Healing From the Source
We tend to view emotional and physical pain as the enemy. This three-week online workshop with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche reveals why we shouldn't, and shows us how meditations based on ancient Tibetan dzogchen teachings can transform or heal our own pain and sickness through the warmth of loving-kindness.
Learn more/register
July 20-August 11: Tibetan Meditation. Achieving Great Bliss Through Pure Awareness
This ancient Tibetan meditation practice helps you to enter a state of pure awareness that can bring you peace, joy and ultimately full realization. Over three weeks, Rinpoche guides you through a series of five simple yet profound meditations known as the Fivefold Teaching of Dawa Gyaltsen.
Learn more/register
August 30-October 25: Dream Yoga
Rinpoche's popular Dream Yoga workshop has been updated and expanded into an eight-week course offered by Wisdom Academy in collaboration with GlideWing. Through advanced spiritual practices, rediscover your dreams as potent vehicles for enhancing awareness in both dreaming and waking states and for transforming your consciousness and your life.
Learn more
Join Us for Sacred Interviews
A New Free Online Event Series
Ligmincha International and Ligmincha Brazil launched a new online program in November called "Sacred Interviews. During the first session, participants learned more about the life and background of Geshe Denma Gyaltsen, resident lama of Ligmincha Texas.
The series aims to introduce Ligmincha's beloved teachers more closely and to give space for questions from students and practitioners. Geshe Denma is a well-known and respected teacher not only in the US but also in the Ligmincha community all over the world through his regular online teachings.
Participants were able to submit their questions beforehand to Geshe-la. After he answered questions, he led a short practice.
The transcription of this session will be available soon on the Ligmincha International website.
The next Sacred Interviews conversation and practice will take place in March 2024 with Geshe Choekhortshang Rinpoche. Follow our news for updates!
The program is free and open to all.
Join 3 Doors Self-Transformation Retreat December 2 and 3
Coming in 2024: Three Signature Academies Around the World
Everyone is welcome to join The 3 Doors community on December 2 and 3 for a dynamic weekend retreat with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche as he explores the topic of self-transformation. Rinpoche, Tibetan meditation teacher and founder of Ligmincha International, founded The 3 Doors in 2010 to support people to transform their lives through meditation.
Also, coming up in 2024 will be new 3 Doors Academies: North American, European and Latin American. The two-and-a-half-year signature program offers an immersive meditation training, with both in-person and online components.
December 2-3, 2024
The Heart of Self-Transformation: Exploring the Medicine of Breath, Awareness and Being
An Online Weekend Retreat with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
This online retreat, offered on Zoom, is open to everyone. Participants will be supported to reflect on habitual patterns that limit health, vitality and the expression of goodness that is inherent to us all. These habits can show up in our bodies as tension or exhaustion; in speech that is divisive or judgmental; and in our minds as fears and insecurities. Through simple meditation practices that have been used for centuries, we awaken the natural medicine of breath and awareness as we open the doors of our body, speech and mind. Translation available in Spanish, French, German, Hungarian and Portuguese.
Learn more/ register
The 3 Doors signature program, the Academy, was developed with transformation in mind. Over two-and-a-half years, participants are guided to explore the power of meditation and community to support self-discovery, personal transformation and actions that benefit others.
At his A-tri dzogchen retreat this past summer in Crestone, Colorado, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche shared about the transformation he has seen in 3 Doors practitioners:
I see deep and beautiful changes in people in the 3 Doors community. Their voices are different, gentler, softer, kinder. There is a space, a gap. They take time to respond because they have discovered a new space through their inner silence, a space from which they are able to articulate and express fresh and original words. The reason we are interested in discovering our inner silence is because we want to be playful and kind and laugh and smile. When silence is not discovered, our voice is occupied by wounds, and we cannot truly express our gratitude and love.
The 3 Doors looks forward to launching three Academies in 2024. Below is information, along with a quote from a new teacher with each Academy.
Beginning March 2024
3rd European Academy with senior teacher Raven Lee and teachers Nicolas Gounaropoulos, Walter Hofmann and Tonny Maas
This Academy includes six in-person retreats at Pauenhof Meditation Center in Sonsbeck Hamb, Germany, as well as multiple monthly online classes and guided practices.
Applications are due by January 10, 2024.
Learn more and apply
Take a deep breath, bring your attention inside, look with a soft gaze at what you perceive there, abide without wanting to change.
Walter Hofmann
Beginning April 2024
7th North American Academy with senior teacher Marcy Vaughn and teacher Phil Tonne
This Academy includes six in-person retreats at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center in Virginia, as well as multiple monthly online classes and guided practices.
Applications are due by January 21, 2024.
Learn more and apply
As I turn inward, I find beauty in places I wouldn't previously have expected, arising within the difficult parts of being human. Meditating with others has led to a sense of being free and at home in life.
Phil Tonne
Beginning September 2024
3rd Latin American Academy with senior teacher Alejandro Chaoul-Reich and teachers Rosario Arellano, Lourdes Hinojosa, Patricia Vigil and Carlos Villarreal
This Academy includes in-person retreats in Brazil (location to be announced), as well as multiple monthly online classes and guided practices.
More details coming soon.
In teaching I feel a deep inner connection and the richness of practicing in the group
.Patricia Vigil
Additional programs offered online and in person around the world can be found on The 3 Doors homepage.
Sharing the Timeless Joy
From the VOCL Archives
Here we share two students' writings about their experience and joy in finding connection to Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche while on retreat, and what it meant to them to meet the kind sangha we all share. This article was previously published in the December 2006 VOCL.
Reflections on the Summer Retreat
I've been to America twice, and both times for half a year, one-twentieth of my entire life. And for the first time, I found such nice, generous, sometimes funny, never frowning, always kind and willing-to-help people; I found them at Serenity Ridge. I didn't hear a rude word from a single person there. It was a little shock for me to get back to the ordinary world. But something changed in me. I quit finding the reason of my worries and obstacles in the outer world, and I started finding them inside. And that's great; one always should know he should change the inner first when trying to change the outer. And that's just one thing I loved about being on this retreat. All the practice I did affected me somehow. Maybe I didn't feel it at once, but it's like a glass that is not full until the water reaches the brim. You don't feel progress with each drop of water added, but with a single drop, you are fulfilled. Rinpoche is not just a teacher. He is The Teacher, the one that I was looking for for a long time. I know that the time will come when I'll be at Serenity Ridge again, because if you really try to achieve your dream, it's impossible not to achieve it. Thank you to everyone I was so lucky to meet at the retreat.
Alex Sudakoff (Russia)
***
My Tummo Experiences
I read about the Tummo practice in the late '50s, but had given up on the idea of ever learning it. I knew the teaching was complex, and yet Tenzin Rinpoche made it simple. So simple that even I could do it.
Amazing clarity of teaching. I have done esoteric training within Eastern and Western spiritual
traditions since the late '50s but never obtained such a deep level of cleansing of karmic seeds and negative emotions. I have attended many retreats, but never gained so much from such clarity and simplicity of teaching as at this one. The sangha are among the friendliest I have seen at any retreat. They made me feel at home and welcome, even though I was from another tradition. During the
retreat I made up my mind to devote my practice fully to Bon, and with Rinpoche's blessing, I am now doing Bon as my practice.
In Bon,
Ron Loving (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Student and Teacher
Together on the Path
Asked whether fear arises in the dissolution of one's ego, Tenzin Rinpoche responds during a Facebook Live webcast in February 2017, archived on the CyberSangha website.
Student: Does the ego experience fear in the process of dissolving the ego?
Rinpoche: Yes, absolutely. You feel fear when the ego is dissolving, because your ego, this wrong sense of I, this false sense of I, the only sense of I that you are familiar with, is coming to an end, it's dying, it's dissolving. And because the ego is what you identify with as yourself, then absolutely you are going to be afraid of its dissolving.
But the truth is that you are not losing yourself.
And what would be the medicine for feeling that fear?
Your ego is not you. You can lose your ego but you will not lose yourself. Your pain is not you. You can have pain, but it is not you. The moment you realize, the moment you are able to see, to experience, to observe your pain without identifying with it, then in that very moment, the pain, the fear, the conflict, they all begin to shift and transform because of the power of realization. So this is obviously very important.
Spanish Translation of VOCL
Link to October 2023 Issue Now Available
Look for the translations of Voice of Clear Light newsletters at the top of the VOCL website.
