Voice of Clear Light
Volume 15, Number 6 / December 2015
Ligmincha Learning First Large-Scale Free Online Course a Success
Future Courses Planned for 2016
To celebrate the publication of his latest book, The True Source of Healing, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche chose to offer Ligmincha Learning’s first large-scale free online course, which has been amazingly successful.
Ligmincha Learning has been offering online courses for many years. Previous courses, though, have all been four to seven weeks in length, with a mentor answering participants’ questions each day, for a modest registration fee. “The True Source of Healing” course was designed from the beginning as a free offering to practitioners around the world, and would encompass an entire year of teachings based upon the practices described in the book, with participants supporting each other through discussion forums.
The project required coordination and dedication of many volunteers from around the world. Polly Turner, editor of The True Source of Healing book, produces the live webcasts each month. This is more complicated than it sounds, for with Tenzin Rinpoche’s demanding travel schedule, he has hosted webcasts from many different locations worldwide, while Polly manages the technical coordination, as well as content issues and online communications, from South Carolina. A variety of other volunteers worldwide, most notably Nick Block and Scott Clearwater in California, provide Rinpoche with onsite technical assistance. Lourdes Hinojosa in Mexico coordinates the live translation of the webcasts, with translators across the Americas and Europe providing as many as 12 languages in live translation streams. Lourdes also helps to implement the international promotion of the webcasts in teamwork with Polly, Vickie Walter in Maryland and Florencia Fernandez in Mexico, along with invaluable support of many other dedicated volunteer coordinators around the world. Salvador Espinosa in Mexico creates original videos that introduce each webcast; and after the completion of each broadcast, Salvador creates video segments from the recorded webcast and Scott edits the audio recordings. John Jackson in Virginia pulls together all the recordings and translations and posts them into the online course, along with any written support materials, links and instructions. Online forums are provided for participants to discuss and clarify the teachings within each section of the course.
The course has been immensely popular, with more than 2,550 people enrolled from countries all around the world, and with new people continuing to join. People in many locations have created practice groups that gather together regularly, and warm friendships have formed within our cyber-sangha. We very frequently hear from people how much they value and appreciate this free offering of the teachings.
The last installment of the course will be added in January 2016, and the materials will remain freely available for some time afterwards.
With the popularity of this course, and the continuing popularity of the other online courses offered through Ligmincha Learning, we are now planning to expand course offerings further in 2016. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche plans to develop two more free courses, and we also have plans to produce two more mentored courses. Ligmincha Learning also is moving its learning management system to a more robust hosting system, and will involve more teachers and support staff in the creation and management of online learning.
Ligmincha Learning’s next course offering, “Transforming Your Emotions through the Six Lokas,” will begin January 16, 2016. (See the article below.) You’ll be seeing announcements of these new offerings in future issues of Voice of Clear Light and on the Ligmincha International website. To view upcoming course descriptions visit Ligmincha Learning.
You can order Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's book, The True Source of Healing: How the Ancient Tibetan Practice of Soul Retrieval Can Transform and Enrich Your Life. Hay House, July, 2015, from Ligmincha's Tibet Shop.
