Teaching Issue
Volume 17, Number 1 / February 2017
Letter from the Editors
Celebrations Ahead!
Dear Friends,
Happy 2017!
With the beginning of the new year, we want to renew and reenergize our practice, and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is giving us many new opportunities to do this: retreats all around the world, free webcasts, TWR LIVE talks on Facebook, online workshops and, of course, Rinpoche's nine books, now available in many languages. We have many reasons to be grateful and to celebrate.
This year, 2017, we are celebrating Ligmincha International's 25th anniversary! Find out about plans for celebration in a letter from Ligmincha International President Rob Patzig. And it is almost time to celebrate Losar, the Tibetan New Year, beginning on February 27 – a time to clean and prepare for the new year, a time for practice and offerings, a time to be grateful for one's tradition, a time for prayers and a time for feasts. Mark your calendar for a live Losar broadcast on Saturday, March 4, at 10:30 a.m. New York time. Rinpoche and our resident lamas will be offering prayers and good wishes for the Year of the Fire Bird. Tashi Delek Losar!
This year we will see big changes at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, home of Ligmincha International in Virginia. View photos and read an update about the construction now under way for the new building at Serenity Ridge, which will meet the needs of the Ligmincha community worldwide. And find out how your contribution of any amount can make a difference.
More exciting news to share from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche for the New Year! Visit Rinpoche's Facebook page to see TWR LIVE. These new live broadcasts on a range of topics will connect with you to Rinpoche on a regular basis. In a recent Facebook Live broadcast, Rinpoche gave us all some advice for the start of the new year: "Reflect on your life as the new year begins. And do not get trapped in those old patterns of so many old stories that don't serve anything anymore, not at this moment in your life nor in the future."
One opportunity for growth and exploration available to us every day is during our sleep – the topic of the teaching excerpt in this issue. Rinpoche describes sleep as a sacred dimension, one in which we can leave behind our ego and pain and instead grow, be aware and come to experience the clear light of sleep, our true nature. We hope you enjoy the excerpt. Don't miss the simple exercise that Rinpoche describes at the conclusion.
Mark your calendar for the next free live webcast with Tenzin Rinpoche on February 11, the last in the series on "Living in Joy, Dying in Peace." There are simultaneous translations of the webcast in up to 12 languages, as well. The next GlideWing online course with Tenzin Rinpoche, on meditation as medicine for body and mind, begins February 25. A six-week Ligmincha Learning online course on the five elements starts March 3.
Join Rinpoche for the annual Spring Retreat at Serenity Ridge March 31–April 2 on "Meditation on the Six Lokas: Purifying the Obstacles to Enlightenment." Spring is also a great time to be at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center – why not plan to come early or stay longer offering your help during the Spring Service Retreat? Just around the corner is the annual two-week Summer Retreat from June 25–July 8. During each week Rinpoche will offer both dzogchen teachings of the Bön lineage masters and teachings from the Bön Mother Tantra.
You can always find Tenzin Rinpoche's teaching schedule by date and by location on the Ligmincha International website. Last but not least, you'll find the links to the Spanish and Portuguese translations of the December issue of Voice of Clear Light.
Best wishes in Bön,
Aline and Jeff
Ligmincha Celebrates 25th Anniversary in 2017!
A Letter from Ligmincha International President Rob Patzig
Tenzin Rinpoche and Rob Patzig in Austria
Twenty-five years ago Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche had a vision. He saw a vehicle by which the ancient traditions and wisdom of Tibetan Bön Buddhism could be preserved and also be made accessible to a modern Western audience. He named the vehicle “Ligmincha.”
Since then, through his constant activity, kindness and grace, five retreat centers, dozens of practice groups, online courses, thousands of hours of recordings and many books have come into being. More importantly, tens of thousands of people around the world have encountered these teachings and seen their lives change. Whether we attend retreats in person or are part of the cyber-sangha, we are all part of the Ligmincha community.
Celebrations throughout the year will emphasize building and growing as communities of practice, both online and in person. We will begin on Saturday, March 4, at 10:30 a.m. New York time with a live Losar broadcast. Rinpoche and our resident lamas will be offering prayers and good wishes for this year of the Fire Bird. Then, throughout the year at gatherings where Rinpoche is teaching, different activities will take place. Learn more about suggested Losar preparations on the Ligmincha International website and also at your local practice or retreat center website or Facebook page.
Serenity Ridge
At Serenity Ridge, the home of Ligmincha International, we will celebrate with two special occasions. This summer Rinpoche will teach for two weeks on both dzogchen (pith instructions from Bön dzogchen lineage masters) and the Bön Mother Tantra. These teachings are very close to his heart, and he will share them together for the first time on this special occasion.
Then, in the fall, Rinpoche will give teachings on The Knowledge and Wisdom of Longevity. Following the retreat, a day of events on October 22 will celebrate Ligmincha’s 25th anniversary and the opening of a new building at Serenity Ridge. This will be followed by a conference on Science and Spirituality, with a range of presenters and with Rinpoche in attendance and guiding practices each day.
While Ligmincha is an organization – running retreat centers, managing websites, organizing teachings and managing a small staff to support Rinpoche, our resident lamas and Western teachers – it is so much more. Ligmincha is us, all of us. Ligmincha is a collective of people speaking many languages and living in many countries. Ligmincha is people who attend retreats and people who watch the teachings online without ever visiting a retreat center. Ligmincha is all of us working together to ensure that these teachings and the transformations they are capable of effecting are kept alive. Whether you practice alone in an apartment in Moscow, lead a weekly practice session at one of our practice communities like in Torreon, Mexico, or are part of the collective of practitioners known as the “cyber-sangha,” you are Ligmincha. Together, we are Ligmincha.
So much has happened in these 25 years. Our anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on all that has been accomplished, and to celebrate those accomplishments. But more importantly, it is a time to reconnect to the teachings and to one another and to look ahead. Many people have benefited from the dharma, the work of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Ligmincha. There is still so much suffering in the world and so many opportunities to help others. As a community of practitioners, we can accomplish more together than by working alone.
In the coming days and weeks much more detail on the activities of the year will be made available. Please do check our websites and Facebook pages for updates.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche Facebook
In service,
Rob Patzig, President
Ligmincha International
Update on Serenity Ridge Building Construction
New Facility Will Serve Ligmincha Community
You may recall reading in the August issue of VOCL about the Tibetan ritual groundbreaking ceremony for the planning of the new building at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center. Here we want to share with you an update and some recent photos.
The new building is now under construction in the area between the gompa (meditation hall) and the Lama House. The foundation has been dug and many rocks removed. (Envision a lovely rock garden near the building in the future!) As the walls go up, this new building will transform Serenity Ridge. With its welcoming space, dining room with expansive view of the hills beyond, new kitchen, rooftop meditation deck, and fully equipped recording studio to develop more online programming and recorded teachings, the facility will help support practitioners around the world with the loving, healing practices of the Bön tradition.
As you know, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche teaches at Serenity Ridge four times a year, including an annual two-week summer retreat. Serenity Ridge is the only place in the world where one can be with Rinpoche for study and practice for such an extended period of time.
We are grateful to sangha members who have helped make this new building possible. A special thanks goes to John Massie, who designed the new building. Due to the generosity of members of our sangha, we have raised more than half of the needed $2.5 million for construction. Your contribution toward this project will help ensure that Serenity Ridge will serve as a spiritual home for all of us for many years to come.
Please join us in helping make this new building possible! We are at a critical time in moving forward, and gifts of every size will make a big difference.
You can donate directly here.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us directly with any questions and to learn more about our progress.
Email
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, President, Ligmincha International
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, Executive Director, Ligmincha International
Ligmincha International, and its Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, are a 501(c)3 nonprofit, EIN 52-1772036. Donations are tax-deductible. Please accept our heartfelt thanks if you have already given.
Announcing TWR LIVE
Connect with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche Through Live Facebook Broadcasts
With the start of the new year, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche has launched an innovative way for you to connect with him, the ancient teachings and fellow students around the world through regular, live broadcasts that can be easily viewed on his Facebook page.
Every few days, Rinpoche will broadcast live discussions of his books, interviews with experts in the fields of science and spirituality, pith wisdom teachings from the Tibetan Bön Buddhist tradition and much more. Through these new TWR LIVE broadcasts, viewers can even enjoy occasional impromptu live streams featuring Rinpoche, his family and/or his travels. As with Rinpoche’s other webcasts, viewers will have an opportunity to submit questions and receive answers from Rinpoche.
These broadcasts are free and open to all. You don't need a Facebook account to watch TWR LIVE; simply visit Rinpoche’s Facebook page and scroll down to the viewing screen. If you do have a Facebook account, be sure to like his page and click on "Follow" to receive a notification each time he goes live. The upcoming schedule and archives of all recorded broadcasts can be found at Ligmincha Learning.
A new TWR LIVE seven-week series live on Facebook is now under way!
Rinpoche is taking advantage of new Facebook Live technology to connect more often with students in an informal way. Through TWR LIVE you can broaden your knowledge and deepen your connection to the ancient wisdom traditions of Tibetan Bön Buddhism. You also can learn meditation practices and cultivate awareness for greater social and personal transformation.
Conversations LIVE on Facebook
In this special feature of TWR LIVE, Rinpoche will talk with experts in many fields including science, health, philosophy, medicine and spirituality. Presenters will share from their specialties their perspectives on relevant issues of our time, and Rinpoche will weave in pertinent aspects related to the ancient Tibetan Bön Buddhist teachings. Opportunities will be available to engage in question-and-answer sessions with Rinpoche and presenters.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is the founding spiritual director of Ligmincha International, a worldwide network of Tibetan Bön Buddhist centers and spiritual communities. For more information about Rinpoche, his teaching schedule, online learning and books, visit the Ligmincha International website.
Your ideas for future broadcasts are most welcome! So is your support, whether through online technical assistance or monetary donations.
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Donate now
View upcoming schedule and access recordings
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Upcoming Conversations LIVE on Facebook
Join Rinpoche and Guest Presenters
Sunday, February 12, 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time U.S. (New York time)
A Conversation with Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, Assistant Professor and Director of Education, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and guest presenter Alejandro Chaoul-Reich discuss the benefits of Tibetan yoga and sound meditation in cancer patients as revealed in research findings at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Since 2000, they formed a team that included MD Anderson researchers and Ligmincha Texas practitioners to investigate the possible benefits of the ancient Bön mind-body practices of tsa lung and trul khor with different cancer populations and their caregivers. They also have researched the benefits of Tibetan sound meditation to ease cognitive impairment after chemotherapy in women with breast cancer. This research has helped reshape the clinical group and individual meditation sessions that MD Anderson provides to patients and caregivers, and now also to faculty and staff.
‘Sleep Well and Awaken to Luminous Mind’
An Edited Excerpt from Oral Teachings by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Every single night when we go to sleep, there is this sense of there being a great opportunity to have a lucid dream and to have a clear light sleep. And lucid dreams and clear light sleep will both have a direct impact in the process of dying. When we're dying, we will more likely be able to be aware in the first stage of the intermediate state if we have more experiences with sleep yoga. And we will be more awake in the second stage of intermediate state if we have more experiences with the dream yoga practice. Both of these, dream and sleep yoga, are very much preparing you for that moment. Not only that, but every single night is a great, great opportunity to explore and develop yourself.
What do you normally do every night for your process of going to sleep? What is your attitude as you're going into the bedroom and to the bed, and you're lying down, turning off the light, closing your eyes? Is it a sense of totally letting go and losing connection, losing awareness? Or is there a sense that you are entering into the sacred space, entering into the sacred dimension, entering into the infinite possibility, entering into the space of freedom, entering into the infinite light? We don't go to sleep that way, we just give up, give up, give up. But recognize that as you are giving it all up, it's not that nothing happens after that. Actually, a lot of things are happening. Your awareness is diminishing, but the hidden experiences of your fear, your pain, your conflict, your challenging experiences of the day, your stress, they are still there – many of them ignored, unacknowledged, unconscious, manipulated, suppressed. And the more disconnected you are and the less conscious you are, the more they will come alive. Be aware of that.
They come alive as experiences that show up in your body and in your dreams when you are sleeping. You say that you simply slept last night, but so many things were alive, so many stories were active, so many interactions were there, so many energies were produced, so many thoughts and feelings and emotions were produced, so many things were accumulated when you slept. So it's not just that you went to sleep and then there was nothing. There is this other side of ourselves that we don't want to be active, but which becomes very active when we are asleep. And just imagine how many years it's been going on like that – each time you've fallen asleep everything becoming active again and again. Amazing!
Why am I saying all of this? Because if that dark side – negative thoughts, emotions, feelings, fear and the pain – can become so alive when we sleep, then that means that the light, the awareness, the warmth, the virtues, compassion, love, joy, the bliss, the creativity, solutions, discovery, that part can also become equally alive. That is a very important point. But just as important is that you come to trust that you'll be able to do that yourself, or at least be curious enough to want to explore the possibility.
Think about the possibility that every single night as you go to sleep, you are preparing yourself to be more conscious and more aware, so that while your body is sleeping, and your conscious mind is sleeping, your awareness is fully awake. Because, while you are deep asleep, there is the possibility of being conscious, of awakening to the clear light, your true nature.
If you think, “How will it be possible for me to awaken in my sleep?” remember the conceptual and emotional side of sleep and how alive all those stories and interactions can be once they awaken. Well, if the ignorance can awaken in your sleep, why not the wisdom? Why not the light? Why not the awareness? Why not the warmth? If you can lose those in your sleep, then why can't you also find them there, too? I'm not just saying that, I have personally experienced it and have seen many other people who've experienced it, too.
Many people have reported similar kinds of awakening in their near-death experiences – they die in a very real sense, and during that time, they become alive. They wake up in a different dimension. They wake up in a space that they were never familiar with in their life. They wake up in a light that they've never seen before – an intensity, clarity, vastness, boundlessness. And with an infinite ability to do things or move things.
There have been many reports like this. And many people who've gone through a near-death experience report becoming much more spiritual people than before they had that experience; something awakens in them.
So think about that in relation to sleep practice. Imagine going to sleep and every morning you wake up, you are a little more spiritual. And there's more development happening in that period of your sleep than during the daytime when you're going to the temple, to the church, and you are doing all these complicated things, trying to convince everyone to be kind and nice, and meanwhile you're getting stressed out trying to be too kind. No development happening there. But imagine that you go to sleep and you wake up, and you are a better person. Without doing anything. Why? Because your conceptual effort is not there, but the potentiality of awareness is there; the connection of awareness is there.
So, before death comes, or a near-death experience occurs, is it possible to have experiences similar to that? Absolutely you can! Every single night you go to sleep you have the opportunity. As your body goes down, as your ego goes down, as your conflict and pain go down, as your ignorance goes down, in that darkness, the light can arise. In that ignorance, the wisdom can arise. In that sleep, the awareness can arise. I'm sure many of you have had those experiences, but you haven't paid so much attention to them or made that big a deal of them. But in a way, you should, because if you witness it happening one time, you can witness its happening many more times. And with practice you can even develop control over its happening.
From the Sleep Yoga practices from the Ma Gyud there is one simple exercise that I would like to share with you. To be clear, the purpose of doing this exercise is to connect with the clear light of sleep. And the purpose of doing that is to be conscious during the process of dying and to connect with the clear light of the death.
For those of you who are not as familiar with dream and sleep yoga, you can learn much more about them from my book The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep.
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This exercise from the Sleep Yoga teachings from the Ma Gyud is very simple and the explanation is very simple. As it is very simple, I hope that you will apply it as much as possible in your life. You can pray and trust in it. And don't give up – it is a lifetime practice.
The exercise is as follows: sit in the five-point position, close your eyes, breathe deep three times – each time you do it, inhale and hold, re-inhale a little more and hold, then breathe out through your nose and release the tensions in your body, breath and mind.
Be aware of the stillness, silence and spaciousness.
Then look at all of the objects of your ego and pain and fear and imagine dissolving those objects into light. If you look right now in your life, you can find that you are afraid, you are afraid of something – there's an object of that fear. Or you are feeling pain – and there's an object of that pain.
Visualize those objects, those places and people, and then imagine dissolving them into light. So first imagine one of them very clearly – and then have it dissolve into light.
Continue in that way imagining every object and transforming into the light.
In every object you have stored some emotions. When the mind goes back to that object and transforms that object into light, there are no longer any stories there. Its hard-drive is broken, and the memory can no longer hold them. So it's completely free from those stories. It doesn't occupy the space. It is dissolved.
And then, imagine and visualize that the light from each object that is dissolved comes back toward you, and when it touches a part of your body, for instance your hand, then your hand gently transforms into light, or it touches your head and your head transforms into light. As you proceed, every part of your body, every cell in your body, transforms into the light.
The idea is – if you can feel pain, the more concrete forms of pain, the shapes of pain, the pain identity, the pain body – if you can feel that, you can also transform that into the light in the same way as with all the external objects.
So, everything transforms into light. Light, light, light. Transforming your body into a light body. Then imagine that the light coalesces into one single sphere of light in the area of your forehead. So that you are nothing more than that sphere of light. Your sense of self – there's no solidity – only a sense of a sphere of light in the region of your forehead.
Once you come to that place and feel very clearly about that, then let it dissolve – let that sphere of light gently explode into the boundless space, dissolving into the space. Pixels of light spreading out into the vast unboundedness of space.
Now what is there? There's nothing but that boundless space and that pure presence of awareness of that space. Simple pure presence of light. You don't have a solid body anymore. Unbounded space is your body. You don't have a concrete limited mind anymore. Your infinite awareness is your consciousness. You have this unbounded body, you have infinite awareness consciousness. The possibility is infinite since you are not identifying with your body, your body is gone, but your awareness is still there.
If you exercise this, develop this more and more and more, then as your physical body – which is not who you are – goes to sleep, your awareness starts to wake up – that's who you are. Awakening the luminous mind. Awakening yourself. That is what that means.
(You can learn more about dream and sleep yoga from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's book The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, available at Ligmincha International‘s Bookstore and Tibet Shop. This book has been translated into many languages.)
February 11: Next Free Live Webcast with Tenzin Rinpoche
‘Helping Loved Ones Through Sickness and Death’
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Join Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche from your computer for the next free live webcast on February 11 (Saturday), 3–4:10 p.m., on the topic of "Helping Loved Ones Through Sickness and Death.“ This webcast is Part 6 of a free six-month course on Living With Joy, Dying in Peace. Each webcast is free and open to all!
The time may come when you feel called to support a friend or loved one through the struggles of aging, sickness and death. According to the Tibetan traditions, to be of true service a helper needs three beneficial qualities: openness, awareness and warmth. In this webcast, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche explains how to:
- Open yourself more fully to your friend or loved one without being driven by fears or expectations.
- Connect more fully with the person, rather than disengaging due to stress, emotion, or
compassion fatigue.
- Host the other person in the warmth of loving-kindness, to nurture a genuine sense of acceptance,
comfort, protection and trust.
Real-time translation will be offered in as many as 12 languages.
Register now for this free live webcast
Next GlideWing Online Workshop Begins February 25
‘Healing from the Source: Meditation as Medicine for Body and Mind'
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche’s next three-week GlideWing online workshop, on “Healing from the Source: Meditation as Medicine for Body and Mind,” will be held February 25–March 19. This workshop, with personal support and guidance from Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, focuses on cultivating loving-kindness as a means for preventing and healing both physical and emotional pain.
Based on ancient teachings of dzogchen from the Tibetan Bön Buddhist tradition, the workshop helps one discover the “great healer within.” The core teachings of dzogchen introduce us to the nature of mind, to our own inner refuge, the true source of healing. Everyone has access to this source through the three doors of body, speech and mind, Rinpoche has explained. He describes stillness of the body, silence of speech and spaciousness of the mind as the “three precious pills“ – a powerful medicine you can take at any time, with no side effects, to help divert you from your self-punishing tendencies, clear pain and negativity, cultivate awareness and ultimately access the healing qualities that spontaneously arise in that space.
Upcoming GlideWing Workshop April 29–May 21, 2017: Tibetan Meditation – Achieving Great Bliss Through Pure Awareness
Next Ligmincha Learning Online Course Starts March 3
'The Five Elements: Healing with Form, Energy and Light'
Sign up now for Ligmincha Learning's six-week online course with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche on “The Five Elements: Healing with Form, Energy and Light.” This course runs from March 3–April 14, 2017.
In this course Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche explores how each of the five elements relates to our daily experiences, emotions and relationships. Rinpoche guides meditations for each of the elements, designed to help clear our obstacles and bring balance to our lives.
Each section of the course includes a video of Rinpoche’s teaching, Rinpoche leading a guided meditation, readings from his book Healing with Form, Energy and Light and assignments for journal writing, discussion, and formal and informal practice. The course is designed so that you may integrate study and practice into your everyday routine, learning at your own pace, yet enjoying the support of classmates and the course mentor.
Upcoming Ligmincha Learning online course May 5–June 10, 2017: The Three Heart Mantras
Spring Retreat: March 31–April 2 at Serenity Ridge
Meditation on the Six Lokas: Purifying the Obstacles to Enlightenment
Join Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche March 31–April 2, 2017, for the Spring Retreat on "Meditation on the Six Lokas: Purifying the Obstacles to Enlightenment."
At one time or another each of us suffers strong emotions that throw us off balance, cause us to act in ways that we later regret, and disconnects us from the clear open space of our true nature. Centuries ago the masters of the Tibetan Bön Buddhist lineage developed the meditations of the Six Lokas (or realms) specifically to meet our powerful emotions, find the medicine in so doing, and live our lives in a balanced and relaxed way.
The practices of the Six Lokas have a deeply healing and transformative power, and are traditionally practiced as a preliminary to dzogchen contemplation.
Tenzin Rinpoche welcomes everyone to join him at Serenity Ridge to explore these powerful teachings and apply them in our lives. During this retreat, Rinpoche will explain how physical movements, breath, mantra, imagery and contemplation can deeply purify the seeds of our karmic patterns and support the healing that comes from resting in one’s true nature, the source of all joy and happiness.
Spring Service Retreat at Serenity Ridge
March 29–30 and April 3–4
Join us at Serenity Ridge on March 29–30 and April 3–4 for a special service retreat just before and just after the annual Spring Retreat. This is a wonderful time to share with the sangha and to be of joyful service. Participants who work a total of 18 hours will receive 50 percent off the cost of Spring Retreat registration.
Join Us for Special Two-Week Summer Retreat
Bön Dzogchen Pith Instructions & Teachings on the Bön Mother Tantra
Both new and continuing students are warmly invited to gather at Serenity Ridge for this special summer retreat with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Rinpoche’s founding of Ligmincha International. Registration is now open.
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
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. Knowledge from the 24 dzogchen masters of the ancient country of Zhang Zhung (located in what is now Western Tibet) was distilled into pith instructions pointing out the empty and luminous nature of mind. Rinpoche will share these teachings in a meditative setting that supports students to open their hearts and connect with their nature of mind. During the second week of the retreat, Rinpoche will give the transmission for the pith instructions of the Twenty-Four Masters of the Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyu.
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. These six methods include the teachings of the elements, chöd (cutting fear and attachment), bardo, powa (the transference of consciousness), and the yogas of sleep and dream. They compose the principal tantric teachings for our sangha and provide support for the practice of dzogchen.
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.
Immediately following Summer Retreat, you are invited to attend a practice retreat led by Geshe Tenzin Yangton, the resident lama of Serenity Ridge. Consider staying from one to six days to deepen your connection to these important teachings.
The special teachings of the Summer Retreat retreat are in honor of Ligmincha International’s 25th anniversary; however, the main anniversary celebration will be held on Sunday, October 22, following the Fall Retreat.
Learn more/register and read a special invitation from Rinpoche
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's 2017 Teaching Schedule
Links by Date and Location
On the Ligmincha International website you can always find Rinpoche's teaching schedule by date and by location.
Spanish and Portuguese Translations of VOCL
Links to December Issue Now Available
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, email us or call 434-263-6304.
March 29–30 and April 3–4, 2017
Spring Service Retreat
Learn more
March 31–April 2, 2017
Spring Retreat: Meditation on the Six Lokas – Purifying the Obstacles to Enlightenment
with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
June 25–July 8, 2017
Summer Retreat: Bön Dzogchen Pith Instructions & Teachings on the Bön Mother Tantra
with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
You are welcome to attend one or both weeks. Live translation available in Spanish.
Learn more/register and read a special invitation from Rinpoche
October 18–21, 2017
Fall Retreat: The Knowledge and Wisdom of Longevity
with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Note: Ligmincha’s 25th Anniversary celebration will follow the retreat.
October 22, 2017
Special Celebration: 25th Anniversary of Ligmincha International and Viewing of New Building
October 22 (evening)–October 24, 2017
Science and Spirituality Conference
with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and expert presenters
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 email the registrar, call 434-218-1290 or visit the Serenity Ridge website.
