Being Closer to Your True Self

Dear Friends,

We hope the New Year is treating you well! In this teaching excerpt, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche shows us how to use our thought-filled, story-making, serious minds and emotions, which are always quite good at stealing the show, as a means for coming back home to the spacious awareness that is the source. Our gratitude, Rinpoche, for this timeless wisdom that is beyond words. E MA HO.

Happy Losar! Celebrate the Tibetan New Year on February 21. It's the year of the water rabbit; the rabbit symbolizes longevity, peace and prosperity. This is an auspicious time for renewal and celebration for Tibetans and dharma practitioners around the world. It is a time for saying goodbye to the old year and letting go of negativities and harmful habits and tendencies, a time for cleaning the home, preparing special foods, hanging prayer flags and offering prayers. And a time for inviting all good and auspicious things to come! May all beings be happy! Ligmincha will be offering online practices for Losar at different times on February 19 through 21 to accommodate different regions. Be sure to check the Ligmincha website or Facebook page for Losar events!

Lots more in this issue:

• Upcoming Serenity Ridge Spring Retreat, The Heart Drops of Kuntu Zangpo, will be held in person and on Zoom April 13-16, 2023.
• Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's 2023 schedule.
• Two simultaneous retreats at Serenity Ridge and on Zoom, February 16-19, Sherap Chamma with Marcy Vaughn and Abiding in Refuge with Gabriel Rocco.
• Mark your calendar! Special Serenity Ridge Summer Retreat June 24-July 1 & July 2-8 on Tummo, Part 3, with honored guest H.H. the 34th Menri Trizin.
• Several upcoming Ligmincha Learning online courses.
• Upcoming CyberSangha events.
• Thank you to Serenity Ridge operations manager Gram Slaton.
• Help support Ligmincha's umdzes (practice group leaders).
• Learn about The 3 Doors new European Academy and Pre-Academy and meet one of The 3 Doors teachers.
• Read Ton Bisscheroux's interview about the Chamma Ling Poland retreat center's good news.
• GlideWing online workshop, Discovering Your Inner Wisdom Through Practices of Waking and Sleeping, begins February 11.
• NEW feature, one of many favorite articles from the archive of VOCL newsletters.
• Student and Teacher, a question about pain identity and cutting through pride.
• Spanish translation for the December VOCL.

In Bon,
Aline and Jeff Fisher