Volume 25, Number 1 / February 2025
Letter from the Editors
Simply Taking the First Step
Dear Friends,
In this issue's teaching excerpt Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche draws our attention to the gifts of loving-kindness, reminding us to be the one to take the first step, to forgive and share our open hearts. How do we miss doing that? Rinpoche continues to lead us on the journey to finding peace and joy in our lives.
To all, a very Happy Losar! The Tibetan New Year will be celebrated from February 28 to March 2, 2025. See more details in the article below.
More news and events at Ligmincha:
- Spring Wellness Retreat, April 9-13, at Serenity Ridge & online on Zoom now open for registration.
- See Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's teaching schedule.
- Honoring His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche on his 100th Birthday.
- Check out the new CyberSangha Podcast & a special series of February broadcasts from Kathmandu.
- Register for the Du Tri Su training program beginning March 12, 2025.
- Ligmincha Learning's online courses start in March on Ngondro, Sleep Yoga and Five Elements.
- GlideWing's online course Awakening the Sacred Body begins February 15.
- From the VOCL archives, enjoy a brief excerpt of Tenzin Rinpoche on H.E. Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche during the 2000 retreat in Nepal.
- In this Student and Teacher article, Tenzin Rinpoche gives advice about the dzogchen teaching on leaving it as it is.
- View the Spanish translation for the December VOCL.
- Learn about the 3 Doors many offerings.
In Bon,
Aline and Jeff Fisher
On Loving-Kindness and the Gifts of an Open Heart
An Excerpt from Teachings Given by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in Nepal, 2024
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who will be 90 in July, has been spreading his message of loving-kindness and compassion so wonderfully in this century. He is genuinely reaching out and publicly promoting the message of bodhicitta, compassion, and loving-kindness. It's a very simple message. And for us, the motivator for generating this mind of bodhicitta is the fact that you will be more happy if you care about other people, than if you only think about yourself. That's the motivator. We all want to be happy. So where does this un-happiness come from? It comes from a self-centered focus; worrying solely about yourself for so many hours throughout the day, and then not even recognizing that when you are thinking about other people, you're still thinking about yourself. These are the causes of unhappiness.
If you're trying to heal your sickness, clearly bodhicitta and loving-kindness are the medicine. Researchers studying the effects on monks who did 15 minutes of compassion practice found that something like 40 percent of their stem cells were activated in that 15-minute time period. Clearly, when your heart opens and feels that kind of loving-kindness towards someone, your body's ability to protect and heal itself is activated probably better than any supplements can do. Simple as that. Bodhicitta is better than any sleeping pill. And there are no side effects. Or rather, there are many good side effects. Every cell in your body is getting a message of loving-kindness.
If you want peace in your life, then the answer is bodhicitta. Why don't you have peace? Because it seems that somebody is interfering with your sense of peace. Somebody did something, or somebody made a comment that attacked your ego, or that touched your ego, or that pressed your buttons, and you are not able to respond to that any differently than in the habitual way in which you've always reacted to such things. You felt reactive, and took it personally, and you are still circling around it in a very small circle of thoughts and emotions. And consequently, you are staying at that level of thought, feeling and emotion, and you don't feel at peace.
Maybe it was that a friend made a comment, or a brother or a sister did something. For sure it's not pleasant, and maybe it's not good. But that one action, that one short moment has lasted 20, 30, 40 years, and it's still continuing and might actually take up the rest of your life. And it may even come up in the next life, that one single attitude, and those actions and hurtful feelings. So, what is the solution? It's bodhicitta. What is bodhicitta? Forgiveness. How do you forgive? By understanding their pain. Because very often, we are not understanding of their pain; we are not open to it, because we are completely stuck in our pain and we identify with that.
In those cases, it's not that you have a pain, rather you are pain. If you have a pain, then you are likely to have some window of opportunity to get out of it. But, when you are pain, then it is difficult to come out of it. Without identifying as the pain, you can recognize and see, Oh yes, it sounds like I am almost becoming what they are saying I am! Then you open up instead of just react. And then you can say, Okay what they did to me, what they said to me, for sure it's not acceptable. But you can also clearly see that what you're doing to them is also not good. And at some point you have to try and understand the full picture of why that person did that thing to you in the past, and also try to see clearly what you've been doing for the last 25 years to them in the way of your negative thoughts and emotions, and your occasionally criticizing them openly and judging them. Many years of that; it's equally not good.
Then it comes down to the question of, Yes somebody's got to change. Who is the one? Very often I've heard people say things like, I called my sister, and now it's their turn to call me. You actively decide to wait for somebody else to take a step. Why do you have to wait for somebody else to take a step? In the race toward enlightenment, you would want to be the first, wouldn't you? Even if you are competing with family members, you want to be the first, right? That's a healthy competition; you're competing in your journey toward enlightenment. However, you are sabotaging your chances whenever you are waiting for someone else to take the first step! Of course, I too have a tendency to wait sometimes. But then I simply remind myself, this is the race for enlightenment, and by my simply taking the first step, again and again and again, I will never lose. And if in the process I am not able to help the other person to open too, then at least I'm able to open myself up more than I had been previously. And then I just repeat the process. So take those steps. Each one is the step of bodhicitta.
Please just take a moment right now and see what it is that you are wanting to accomplish or achieve in your life. I hear many say, I really need some peace in my life. The answer is always loving-kindness. And you are probably saying, Oh, you mean showing loving-kindness toward everybody other than those people who I have a problem with? No, those people are the very first focus of your loving-kindness! And for now, you can forget about everybody else, okay? Because those whom you don't know have no power to create disturbances in you. But those whom you do know, do have a chance to create disturbances in you. And when you disconnect from those people, then they have more power to create disturbances in you. Therefore, they are the object of your compassion. The problem, though, is that instead you're avoiding them; you're running away; you're disconnecting; you're distancing. But the bodhicitta compassion is not distancing; rather its connecting and caring. And these simple words - connecting and caring - are what you're missing in relation to those people.
As I'm saying this, you might be thinking, It seems like he did not encounter big problems in his life. He doesn't know my famous person. No, I have a lot of famous persons. That's all that is missing: connecting and caring. And most of our famous person stories are not that powerful of a story. We can easily let go. We can forgive, and open our heart.
What is the gift of the dharma, the dharma which you have learned, which you have practiced, which has helped you? It is that you can help those people in your life who you have disconnected with, who you have not forgiven. You have the power to do that. And then absolutely, I guarantee, you will have peace. You'll gain a peace by forgiving them. What else do you want in your life apart from peace? If you name anything that you want, then I will explain how the answer is loving-kindness.
Just think about how loving-kindness is the answer. It's a very practical thing, isn't it? We are victims of intellectualizing and conceptualizing things too much in our life. This is what we do, we analyze everything, we calculate everything. But, if you are a good calculator, then the natural outcome of your calculation would be the healing. Any calculation which produces more pain than the existing pain is a bad calculation. And any analysis which produces more pain than an existing pain is a bad analytical approach. Any peace conference or meeting which produces more conflict is a bad conference, bad conversation, bad negotiation. Because in all of those conversations, what is lacking at their core is loving-kindness.
And there is no lack in our lives of people who will criticize. Just look at social media. The only thing to do with those people, who only know how to criticize, is to just not hurt them. That's the commitment. No matter what they do to you, don't hurt them. Be patient, be silent, be kind. Find a solution.
And in the end, they will learn from your silence more than they would from your pain speech. They will learn from your patience rather than from your aggression. What I am saying here is that there will be people who will bring about enough storms, but right now in the world, we need more people with constructive, not destructive, attitudes, and more of a focus on how people can be brought together, rather than becoming more separated. So to conclude, I will say it again, whatever it is that you want - anything - the answer is bodhicitta. It is the solution for everything.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Worldwide Teaching Schedule
Upcoming in 2025
Here is Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's upcoming teaching schedule. Rinpoche will be traveling a lot beginning with the celebration in Nepal for H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche's 100th birthday in early February. Rinpoche's schedule includes retreats throughout the year in the U.S., Mexico, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Poland.
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.
- February 17-21, 2025. Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California. Dream Yoga
- March 6-9, 2025. Valle de Bravo, Mexico. Five Wisdoms, Part 2
- March 28-30, 2025. Houston, Texas. TBA
- April 4-6, 2025. Berkeley, California. Twenty-One Nails, Part 6
- April 9-13, 2025. Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia. 2025 Spring Wellness Retreat
- April 25-27, 2025. Vienna, Austria. Six Lokas. Ligmincha Austria
- May 9-11, 2025. Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Six Lamps, Part 4. Ligmincha Netherlands
- May 30-June 1, 2025. Bulle, France. TBA. Ligmincha France & Suisse Romande
- July 12-26, 2025. Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia. 2025 Summer Retreat with special guest, His Holiness 34th Menri Trizin Lungtok Dawa Dargyal Rinpoche. TBA
- August 11-17, 2025. Buchenau, Germany. TBA. Ligmincha Germany
- August 19-24, 2025. Wilga, Poland. Experiential Transmission of Zhang Zhung, Part 1. Ligmincha Poland
- August 30-31, 2025. Bourg-en-Bresse, France. TBA. Ligmincha France & Suisse Romande
- October 7-12, 2025. Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia. Serenity Ridge Dialogues: Powa
- November 3-7, 2025. Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California. TBA
- January 2-10, 2026. Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia. Winter Retreat: Dzogchen Practice Retreat
Spring Wellness Retreat at Serenity Ridge & Online on Zoom
April 9-13 with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Special Guests
In spring the world is born anew. By connecting to the rhythms and patterns of nature, we step into our own well-being. Join us April 9-13 for our Spring Wellness Retreat, Transforming Life and Health Through Nature, Movement, Breath and Meditation, an invitation to bring awareness into the patterns of our daily life for reflection, renewal and transformation.
The retreat will be held in-person at Serenity Ridge and online on Zoom*.
Over these rejuvenating four days, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and special guests Tawni Tidwell, Dr. Danny Lewin and Nick Polizzi will share ancient methods alongside modern research and scientific findings focused on spiritual, mental and physical well-being. This retreat is designed to help you uncover your inner source of well-being and transcend self-imposed limits, empowering you to engage with life in creative, inspired, and joyful ways. We will explore techniques to release stress, decrease anxiety, rebalance energy, deepen inner peace, and reconnect to ourselves and the world. Be empowered to make healthier choices that bolster your wellness on every level!
The retreat, held at Serenity Ridge and online via Zoom, is highly interactive and participatory. With meditative techniques to enhance our well-being and self-awareness, restoring, energizing and healing our whole being through nature, we will explore ways to use sleep, food and self-care to enhance our quality of life and our overall health. This event is intended for everyone, whether you have experience in meditation and wellness or are just beginning your journey!
*Note that the online retreat will not have access to all outdoor activities.
Our days include:
- Sunrise meditation (weather permitting)
- Tibetan yoga (for all levels of mobility) or walking
- Meditation instruction appropriate for beginners and experienced meditators
- Connecting to the elements of nature through forest bathing and nature walks, river and stream access, sky gazing and evening bonfires
- Time for journaling and reflection
- Presentations full of actionable information by experts in health, wellness and sleepÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÂ
- Delicious plant-based meals
- Guided relaxation
- Ancient Tibetan practices for better sleep and relaxation
- Intermittent fasting (optional)
- Cold plunges (optional)
- More to be announced!
Celebration of H.E. Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche's 100th Birthday!
Sending Gratitude and Prayers
On the occasion of His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche's 100th birthday, Triten Norbutse Monastery is hosting a series of special events in Kathmandu, Nepal in February 2025. H.E Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche is the foremost living teacher and protector of Yungdrung Bon, and we are deeply fortunate to have received his wisdom, guidance, and kindness over many years. Yongdzin Rinpoche's centenary celebration, a Long-Life Ritual and Mandala Offering will all be held on February 6, 2025.
Whether in-person or from afar, may we all join in sending our heartfelt wishes and prayers on this sacred, historic and joyful occasion celebrating His Eminence Yongdzin Rinpoche's life and accomplishments. E MA HO!
Old Temple and New TempleIn addition, other events taking place at Triten Norbutse include a consecration and inauguration of the newly constructed temple at Triten Norbutse Monastery, a Geshe Graduation Ceremony and the Sixth International Conference on Bon.
Here is the link for those of you who have been accumulating long-life mantras to be reported by January 31. These will be officially presented to Yongdzin Rinpoche on February 6, 2025, during the Long Life Ritual and Mandala Offering at Triten Norbutse Monastery in Nepal.
Long Life Mantra: SO DRUM A KAR MU LA TING NAM O DU MU YE TSE NI DZA
Long Life Prayer for Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche
More about H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche's life
Upcoming CyberSangha Events
New CyberSangha Podcast, Special Series of February Broadcasts, More
On the occasion of Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche's 100th birthday celebration in early February, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche invites you to join him for a special series of eight online dialogues with invited guests. Before we say more about our full schedule of fascinating upcoming broadcasts, we'd like to share a bit of other big news:
Welcome to the new CyberSangha Podcast featuring Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
The CyberSangha Podcast is officially launched! Born through the generous efforts of volunteers, the podcast is part of our expanding digital community bringing content to a global audience. Tune in for illuminating teachings, guided meditations, lively dialogs, and other offerings during your daily commute or while working out, doing household chores, or resting after a long day. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform - new episodes are released each Wednesday.
Learn more & start listening!
February 2- 8, 2025
Kathmandu Dialogues: Celebrating 100 Years of Wisdom
This series of eight live online dialogues, each hosted by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche from Kathmandu, Nepal, is offered in connection with the early-February celebration honoring his esteemed root master, Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. The series explores a range of topics bridging ancient wisdom and modern insights into health and spiritual well-being, everything from sleep and dreams to mindfulness, compassion, and even balanced diets for monastics.
Learn more & view live
Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 10 a.m. New York time
24-Hour Full Moon Practice: Finding Refuge Within
On February 11, join us online for a 10 a.m. meditation guided by Mai-Linh Leminhbach, followed by a 24-hour session of silent contemplation alternating with periods of guided meditation. Our online gathering offers a sacred space in which we acknowledge personal pain and societal challenges while abiding within the open, clear warmth of inner refuge - who we truly are. To keep the practice unbroken, 16 shifts of practice leaders around the world guide the practice in multiple languages. Feel free to join any shift and follow along with the meditation text in the language of your choice.
Learn more & register now
Seeking a Podcast Volunteer
As we begin our new CyberSangha Podcast program, we need some advice from someone with experience in podcast management or digital content distribution. If this is you, can you spare some time to help us out? Specifically, we need someone who can suggest ways to enhance the podcast's visibility and reach. If you can volunteer some initial advice, or even some ongoing help, Rinpoche and the team would be most grateful!
Please contact us if you're able to help.
We hope to see you online soon!
Happy Losar 2025!
The Year of the Female Wood Snake
Prayer flags below Triten Norbutse Monastery in Kathmandu, NepalThe Tibetan New Year (Losar) will be celebrated from February 28 to March 2, 2025. It is the year of the Female Wood Snake.
As we have been doing since 2016, Ligmincha will be holding opportunities to celebrate the new year all around the world, and some of these activities will be available via Zoom. We don't have the schedule finalized yet, but we will be posting it on Ligmincha's website, Ligmincha.org, and via social media. There will be Losar greetings from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Khandro Tsering Wangmo Khymsar, live practices in several languages, and more!
In the Tibetan calendar, the snake is one of the twelve animal zodiac signs and is associated with qualities such as wisdom and intuition. The element of wood adds characteristics like growth, creativity and harmony. Therefore, the female wood snake may be seen as embodying intuitive and creative energies, bringing a period of transformation, growth, and new beginnings.
As we move into the new year, this is a great opportunity for cleaning one's home, giving away things that you don't use or need, making offerings to monasteries or organizations that benefit your community, expressing gratitude and giving thanks to the natural world, accumulating mantras, preparing special foods, hanging prayer flags and more. As Rinpoche has said on several occasions: Start the year with the energy that you want to experience throughout the whole year.
Be sure to check the Ligmincha website or Facebook page for Losar events!
DU TRI SU Training Program begins in March
With Geshe Denma Gyaltsen and Khandro Tsering Wangmo Khymsar
The DU TRI SU Training Program will provide an intimate setting to learn deeply about an important ritual for dispelling obstacles, performed for those who have passed away as well as for those experiencing challenges in their lives. We will be guided by Geshe Denma Gyaltsen, and supported by Khandro Tsering Wangmo Khymsar for this program from March 2025 - April 2027.
Learn more
And to apply for the program, click here.
View an interview here by Rob Patzig with Geshe Denma and Tsering Wangmo about the program.
Dates of DU TRI SU Training Program:
Session 1: March 12-16, 2025, at Serenity Ridge
Session 2: September 10-14, 2025, online
Session 3: March 11-15, 2026, at Serenity Ridge
Session 4: September 9-13, 2026, online
Session 5: April 8-11, 2027, at Serenity Ridge
Upcoming Ligmincha Learning Courses
Ngondro, Sleep Yoga, Five Elements Start in March
Ligmincha Learning is happy to invite you to attend several online courses with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche beginning this March. 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. Ngondro: The Foundational Practices begins on March 7; Sleep Yoga: The Yoga of Clear Light begins March 21; and Five Elements, Healing with Form Energy and Light begins March 28.
Ngondro: The Foundational Practices
March 7-December 21, 2025
The ngondro teachings are a set of nine practices that offer complete instructions for taming, purifying and perfecting the suffering mind. Although these practices are considered the foundation for entrance into the five-part cycle of Tibetan Bon dzogchen teachings, the highest teachings on the nature of mind, many practitioners adopt the ngondro as their main meditation and complete the nine sets of 100,000 repetitions over the course of a lifetime. Within each is contained the entire path to liberation. They are considered to be the foundational practices for the entire tradition.
Learn more
Sleep Yoga: The Yoga of Clear Light
March 21-April 20, 2025
We spend one-third of our life in sleep, yet for most people sleep is a period of unconsciousness. Through the practices of the Yoga of Clear Light we can learn to be completely aware during our sleep, open, clear, resting in deep meditative presence. But how do we get from our current stress and disrupted sleep patterns to the state of clear light?
The course will introduce simple techniques to enter into sleep in a healthy, balanced way.
Learn more
The Five Elements, Healing with Form Energy and Light
March 28-May 11, 2025
This course provides a thorough introduction to the Five Elements practices of the Bon tradition, which bring a life filled with balance and harmony.
Learn more
Free courses; enroll at any time. Starting a Meditation Practice; The True Source of Healing; Living with Joy, Dying in Peace
Awakening the Sacred Body
GlideWing Online Workshop Begins February 15
GlideWing is pleased to offer Awakening the Sacred Body, a three-week online video workshop with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, from February 15 to March 9, 2025. Over the 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
Find more in Rinpoche's book on Awakening the Sacred Body, available at Ligmincha's Bookstore.
Upcoming: Tibetan Meditation- Achieving Great Bliss Through Pure Awareness; Tibetan Dream Yoga; The Truth that Sets You Free
Ongoing:Focusing and Calming Your Mind, The Tibetan Practice of Zhine, a free two-week self-guided online workshop.
Learn more at glidewing.com
Sharing the Timeless Joy, from the VOCL Archives
Rinpoche Shares a Memory of His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche and Gives Some Heart Advice
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche shares a fond memory of Yongdzin Rinpoche and offers meaningful insights on how we approach the teachings. This excerpt is from teachings given in January, 2000 during the Millenium retreat in Nepal and was previously included in the October 2019 issue of VOCL.
This retreat is a wonderful opportunity for us to have His Eminence Yongdzin (Lopon) Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche here, especially for those of you who don't know him. Yongdzin Rinpoche is the principal teacher of the Bon Buddhist tradition, and for me, personally, he has been my root master and the person who cared for me when I was growing up. This morning I was making a little pancake for breakfast for him, and he said, Oh, this is what I used to make for you! When I was 10 years old I didn't know how to cook, so he made me that pancake a number of times. Now 30 years later, he could say, This is what you learned from me! [laughter] I have been very fortunate, and we all are so fortunate that I can now share my teacher like this with you.
There are so many different ways we can approach learning the dharma. When we approach the teachings in Lopon's scholarly way, very carefully going through all the details of the ancient texts, I know what must go through new people's minds! Please have patience. Understand as much as you can of the details. Try to get as much as possible. But as I said this morning, don't worry about what you don't get. Listen and try to understand, and what you don't understand, don't worry about it. This is the place to work with what you do understand, what you do connect with, what you do feel. And what you don't understand, don't work too much in that area.
Speaking a bit more on what Lopon said today, we are cultivating devotion, inspiration and connection, and if you didn't want to do that, you wouldn't be here. It is your wanting that brings you here - wanting to engage with the practice. Ultimately, hopefully, the wanting and wishing and desiring will be the basis of your illumination. Illumination comes from there. In the West sometimes people misunderstand this. Especially in the 60s and 70s, spiritual pursuits often seemed to be more about Don't worry, be happy, have no attachment, do whatever comes to mind. This is not what the teachings are saying. The teachings encourage us to be responsible. Whatever happens to you, the consequences are based on your actions.
Opportunities for Deepening Your Practice with The 3 Doors
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche Self-Paced Retreat & Save the Dates
The 3 Doors is an international nonprofit organization founded in 2010 by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche with the mission of transforming lives through meditation practices grounded in wisdom and compassion from the Tibetan Bon tradition. Upcoming opportunities include: Self-Paced Retreat with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and 3 Doors Teachers; The 3 Doors Latin American Academy begins in August 2025 in Brazil; Self-paced, pre-recorded programs developed and taught by 3 Doors teachers.
The Heart of Self-Transformation: Breath, Awareness, and Being
Self-Paced Retreat with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and 3 Doors Teachers
In November 2024 Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and 3 Doors teachers offered a two-day online retreat. The entire retreat is now available for purchase. It includes 6.25 hours of recorded teachings and guided practices with Rinpoche, Lourdes Hinojosa, Raven Lee, Gabriel Rocco, and Marcy Vaughn. Practitioners were supported to reflect upon the limited patterns held in our bodies as tension, exhaustion, and illness; in speech that can become divisive or judgemental and cause harm to ourselves and others; in the mind arising as fears and insecurities. All of these habits limit our capacity to bring forth the inherent creativity and goodness of being that is fundamental to everyone.
Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian
No meditation experience necessary - share with a friend
Learn more
Watch/Listen to a free guided practice led by 3 Doors Senior Teacher Marcy Vaughn during the retreat.
The 3 Doors Academy
The 3 Doors is delighted to offer its signature program in Brazil beginning in August 2025! The 3 Doors Academy is an immersive 2 1/2 year program that provides participants the opportunity to engage deeply in the process of self-discovery. Participation involves both online and in-person components, including monthly group Zoom sessions, individual mentor sessions with the teachers, personal retreats, and four on-line and two in-person week-long group retreats.
The first retreat of this training begins in August 2025 in Brazil with teachers Alejandro Chaoul, Rosario Arellano, Lourdes Hinojosa, Patricia Vigil, and Carlos Villarreal.
Offered in Spanish and Portuguese
Learn more
8th North American Academy
The 3 Doors is just beginning to plan the next North American Academy. If you are interested, please reach out to Emily Light, Program Coordinator, at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
to express your interest and be added to the list to receive future updates.
Self-Paced 3 Doors Programs
Self-Paced programs provide support to deepen your practice and explore at your own pace with pre-recorded courses and retreats designed and taught by 3 Doors teachers. These programs can be a meaningful support for daily practice and self-directed personal retreats.
Walking the Healing Path
With Raven Lee
Learn more
Embracing a New Beginning with an Open Heart
With Phil Tonne and Marcy Vaughn
Learn more
The Healing Power of Silence
With Gabriel Rocco
Learn more
The Joys of Embodied Presence
With Laura Shekerjian, former 3 Doors Senior Teacher
Learn more
Embracing Death in the Inner Refuge
With Marcy Vaughn
Learn more
Igniting the Fire of Creativity
With Marcy Vaughn
Learn more
Student and Teacher
Together on the Path
In this excerpt Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche responds to a question about the dzogchen precept of leaving it as it is. This was previously included in the June 2023 issue.
Student: I need some clarification about when to follow the precept of leaving it as it is versus when to put effort and energy and work toward making something manifest.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche: That is a good question to consider for oneself, right? What to work on is very simple. What is it that wakes you up in the middle of the night, what takes your smile away, what makes your body very stiff, what makes you not able to speak up, what makes you not able to be playful? What are those things? Well, you can say that is a big story, a long story, especially if you are Buddhist, then you have many lifetimes of story.
Okay, but let's think about it. What are the immediate ones that come up? When you wake up, there are some thoughts that you engage with, right? Simple things, one simple story, or maybe it's not that simple if it's waking you up. Well, that's it! There's a story. There's a fear. There is anxiety. And there you are, in relation to that story, creating all of that story. That's the reality you have created. As a practitioner, that's how this should work.
So you see? You don't have to worry, because what you need to work on picks you. And when it picks you, the only thing to say is, thank you for picking me. I'm going to work with you. It's as simple as that. But whatever that one simple thing is, the reason why you need to pick that one is that it interferes with your real and current life, like waking you up in your sleep; or due to not having a better relationship with certain people, you stop talking with them. You stop seeing the potentiality to work with them. Then those are the things that are choosing you. It's really that simple.
Spanish Translation of VOCL
Link to December 2024 Issue Now Available
Look for the translations of Voice of Clear Light newsletters at the top of the VOCL website.
