Volume 24, Number 2 / April 2024
Letter from the Editors
Nourishing Wellness and Presence
Dear Friends,
There is big news in this issue from CyberSangha, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's international online community. A NEW app has been developed by CyberSangha that will be launched on April 1! See all the details in the article below on how this new, dedicated social media platform can help you connect to Rinpoche's teachings and to each other.
How can we incorporate the latest findings about health and well-being into our spiritual path? How can we better take care of ourselves through life's many challenges? Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche has been looking for ways of doing just that, bringing awareness of both the body and the mind into a lifestyle that integrates both our physical well-being and our spiritual practice. His interest, enthusiasm and energy about this is inspiring and infectious. In the excerpt below he entices us to come explore with him the many ways that we can all bring wellness into our journey, and have it all infuse our lives to become our best selves.
Rinpoche welcomes all in a unique opportunity to explore this doorway to wellness at the spring retreat at Serenity Ridge, April 10-14. Join in this first Health and Wellness Retreat! Details below.
More news and events at Ligmincha:
- See Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's upcoming teaching schedule.
- Join us April 6 on Zoom for the next in the series of Sacred Interviews with Geshe Choekhortshang Rinpoche.
- New book by Sangmo Yangri available.
- Upcoming summer retreats on Tummo Part 4, at Serenity Ridge and at Chamma Ling Poland.
- Several Ligmincha Learning online courses start soon.
- Serenity Ridge Retreat Center welcomes Lama Kalsang Nyima for April and May.
- GlideWing's online course on The Truth That Sets You Free begins May 11.
- 3 Doors Academies begin this year in North America, Europe and Latin America.
- From the VOCL archives, read an article on the meaning of Chod, the subject of the fall retreat to be held in Nepal in October 2024.
- In the Student and Teacher article, Rinpoche responds to a student's question about how an individual can help the world in a strong way.
- Read the Spanish translation for the December VOCL.
In Bon,
Aline and Jeff Fisher
Bringing Wellness and Awakening to Life
An Excerpt from a Webcast with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, January 2024
People talk about the importance of finding the balance of life and work, or the balance of life and spiritual practice. However, I feel that it's not so much about a balance, but rather that life should be a practice; and that work should be a lifestyle. In other words, whatever you do in your life, it has to be joyful, it has to be nourishing, it has to be healing. If it's not, and if most of the time your life is not nourishing you, then it's not a healthy lifestyle. And if you only portion out an hour of meditation from your day, or an hour of being kind, or an hour of being aware, then it won't have very much effect on the other 23 hours in your day.
I feel instead that it has to become a lifestyle. And that is true for all spiritual practices, regardless of whether you're a student, a yogi or a teacher, anybody. And here, I don't mean a specific spiritual path; you can be Christian, you can be Buddhist, or you may not connect to any specific tradition; you may simply believe in your own community, or your family; or you may simply believe in yourself, your health, your personal development and your well-being. But whichever path it is, I feel that it has to become a part of one's life.
For many years I have been talking about resting, because this is really an important part of the dzogchen teaching. But resting doesn't mean you don't work. That's the whole Enjoying your llife oesn't mean not taking responsibility. You have to take responsibility and enjoy; you have to work, then get rest. This integration seems very important.
For a while now, I've also been really interested in many of the latest findings in Western science. Although many doctors and nurses may not necessarily keep abreast of all of the latest developments related to health and wellness, we are all very fortunate nowadays for the ease of access that we can have to much of the latest scientific information that's out there. There are a number of people, too, who are very skilled at conveying the import of these findings and sharing them in ways that everyone can understand. And even though I don't have a Western background, or Western training, I have been pursuing learning a good bit about the science behind these findings. Toward that end, I am very dedicated to spending hours and hours, literally hours a day, learning about it.
That is some of the background leading up to my creation of the new spring retreat at Serenity Ridge in April, where we will focus on integrating into a harmonious whole the many aspects of wellness and longevity, along with the essential insights and practices of this ancient wisdom tradition of Bon; not simply as a religion or a faith, but rather with emphasis on its direct application in working with our body and our movement, and working with our breath, as well as working with the natural elements, and also with our sleep and dreams.
So we're very excited about this first retreat concentrating on bringing a lot of awareness to our lived health and our lived well-being. Of course, we will have a lot of fun. We will wake in the mornings and get to choose from a lot of options based on people's physical condition: we will be doing yoga, tsa lung and breathing exercises. And we will do the sun gazing, but not directly. Nowadays, the science is so clear that for many aspects of our health, having 5 to 10 minutes of exposure in morning sunlight is beneficial. Particularly because it is a natural source of the blue wavelengths of light, which have a powerful effect on your sleep cycle and in setting your circadian clock in the right way. Of course the science simply says, get exposure to the sun, but during this retreat we will definitely want to bring more of an element of the nature of mind to it; resting mind, calming mind, contemplative meditative kindness, while exposing yourself to the sun.
We will also focus on the many aspects of breath as viewed from both the ancient wisdom tradition and the latest science. For instance, science shows that when asleep, people who are healthier breathe at a rate of around 12 breaths per minute. If one is not so healthy, then the rate will be higher. And the latest findings for the most efficient rate of daytime breathing is about 5.5 breaths per minute, which is not so easy to keep up throughout the day. However, at this retreat we will really have an opportunity to talk about why we need to breathe in the right way, and what the long-term effect of that is on our overall health. Then also, we can explore how that integrates with our meditation and our awareness.
As well, there is an emerging body of evidence for some immediate and long-term benefits of cold water immersion, whether it's a plunge or a cold shower. I have been doing these every day now and enjoying it very much. I know that it's not for everybody, but we will also provide that as another option for people to engage in during this retreat. So you may want to check and make sure that you're in the right condition for doing these, if you would like.
We will also be spending a lot of time out in nature, walking within the almost 100 acres of beautiful and partially forested property around Serenity Ridge, which includes a creek and a river. And we will also have a lot of community time, too, just spending time together socially and connecting with each other.
Trail blessing at Serenity Ridge with Menri Shedrup Khenpo Geshe Nyima Dhondup Rinpoche
We will make time for taking a nap in the afternoon, as well. What I used to do afternoons at retreat is before the teaching session, I'd have a little cup of coffee. Now as a rule, I no longer have any coffee after noon. It's the little details like that can make such a difference. There will be a lot of information on making other effective lifestyle changes, too, which I think will benefit people so much, not only while here on retreat, but also by integrating them into your daily life.
I can speak very easily about these aspects from the point of view of the teaching. However, from the point of view of the science associated with them, I'm still a baby here. But many of the elements and factors of longevity are also clearly part of an ancient spiritual tradition. You name it: sauna, sleep, fasting, sunlight, breath, water and integration with the natural environment. And the understanding of each of these aspects from the point of view of the teachings versus the point of view of the science is quite different.
For example, take sun gazing. From the point of view of the teachings (this is complicated, but I'll say it here anyway) it involves exercising with lights and visions that arise while sun gazing. And what you are really trying to gain insight into is that whatever you are experiencing, whatever you see as forms and images along with their stories and their associated emotions which support your deeper sense of identity whether they are internal or external, in reality there's nothing there; there's simply just light. That's touching on the ultimate purpose of sun gazing practice found in the teachings.
Modern science, though, emphasizes the importance of morning sunlight for one's getting exposed to the full spectrum of light, and particularly the blue light. There is also evidence that other portions of the light spectrum, other frequencies of light, can have other beneficial health effects on us. That, too, is very interesting, because the Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyud devotes four or five hundred pages of one volume of text to teachings about one's awareness and its relationship to the five pure lights. So we're really excited to try and bring these understandings together, but starting first from the level of meeting very basic fundamental needs like helping you to sleep, and to have a better mood, or to overcome depression, and in general to be able to make some really effective lifestyle changes.
So, this spring retreat is different in scope and in style from the other retreats that we've had. And because it's open to all, regardless of background, one very important aspect of this style of retreat is that you can bring your friends and family along with you. We will not be doing any strange chanting [laughter]. You'll feel comfortable to walk around, take a cold plunge, sun gaze, do the breathing and spend time together. So I encourage everyone, and particularly all of our students, to invite your friends and family. I have invited some friends of mine who've already registered.
And this will be the right place for this kind of retreat, and springtime, the perfect time, especially for those who really need some changes in their lifestyle for improving their health and well-being.
April 1 Tenzin Rinpoche Unveils New CyberSangha Community App!
Join Us Online for This and Other Upcoming Live Broadcasts
After a long period of design and testing, we're excited to announce that a new CyberSangha community app will officially launch on Monday, April 1, in a live online broadcast with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and CyberSangha co-director Oliver Wirtz.
In this inspiring, dedicated online space, the cyber sangha can regularly connect with each other and Rinpoche, receive teachings and support in our practice, and be notified of the upcoming events and messages we truly care about. Participants will be able to communicate closely and freely on social media without the drone and distraction of political memes, irrelevant posts and toxic comments.
The app was created and hosted by volunteers under Rinpoche's guidance and is free of charge. See below for details of this and other April CyberSangha broadcasts. (And don't miss the volunteer opportunity listed further below.)
Monday, April 1, 12:30 p.m. New York time
Rinpoche Unveils New CyberSangha Community App
It's been a long time in the making, and now you are invited to try it for yourself! Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Oliver Wirtz introduce a new CyberSangha app and explain how to access it on both mobile and desktop devices.
Learn more & view live
Friday, April 5, 12 noon New York time
The Best Cure for Burnout, Part 2
In Part 2 of a two-part series, guests Eve Ekman and Cristina Lanata discuss with host Alejandro Chaoul how the fatigue, irritability and related physical issues of burnout can be prevented and eased using mind-body practices such as yoga, tai chi and massage therapy.
Learn more & view live
Sunday, April 7, 10:30 a.m. New York time
A Bridge to Everywhere. Bringing Computer Skills to Remote Nepal
Humla is a Himalayan community so remote it is accessible only on foot or by small aircraft. In a live online conversation, Tsewang Norbu Lama will explain the ccommunity's pressing needs. He is chair of MS Kundrol Ling, an organization founded on the advice of H.H. Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche, the 33rd Menri Trizin. The organization's proposed Humla Computer School has already begun serving Humla's needs. Learn more about the school and how you can help. Hosted by Jhama Lhamo, half-sister of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Presented in both English and Tibetan.
Learn more & view live
Tuesday, April 23, 10 a.m. New York time
24-Hour Full Moon Practice. Finding Refuge Within
Our 24-hour online practice begins with a meditation guided by Lourdes Hinojosa and is followed by a 24-hour session of mantra recitation, contemplative breathing practice and further periods of guided meditation. All are welcome!
Learn more & register now
Wondering why teachings by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche aren't showing up here on our long-term schedule? His upcoming broadcasts remain central to CyberSangha, but Rinpoche plans to announce them only a few days in advance. Visit cybersangha.net to find out othe date and time of his broadcasts as soon as they are on the calendar.
Volunteer Opportunity!
Writer
CyberSangha is preparing to launch a new podcast program that promises to greatly expand the reach of the recorded teachings of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Through the generous efforts of volunteers, the technical aspects are all in place. All we need now is a capable, devoted volunteer with professional writing experience who can prepare written descriptions of upcoming podcast episodes based on information already compiled at cybersangha.net.
Volunteering is a great way to stay connected with a community of friendly, motivated volunteers who together share the mission, vision and values of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and CyberSangha. If you're a writer with interest in helping us launch this podcast program, please contact us here. Let us know your ackground and skills, and how much time per week you might be able to help. The time you commit to is up to you.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Worldwide Teaching Schedule
Upcoming Retreats
Here is Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's upcoming teaching schedule. Rinpoche's travels this year will include teaching in Virginia, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, England, Poland, France, Hungary and Nepal.
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.
- April 10-14, 2024. Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia. Spring Wellness Retreat
- April 19-21, 2024. Bologna, Italy. Spontaneous Creativity
- April 26-28, 2024.Practice of the Six Lokas
- May 3-5, 2024. Berlin, Germany. Nine Winds, Part 2
- May 10-12, 2024. Bulle, Switzerland. The Heartdrop of Chamma, the Loving Mother
- May 17-19, 2024. Vienna, Austria. Sleep Yoga: The Sleep of Clear Light
- May 24-26, 2024. Madrid, Spain. Awakening the Sacred Body, Part 2
- May 31-June 2, 2024. Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Six Lamps, Part 3
- June 22-July 6, 2024. Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia. Summer Retreat: Tummo, Part 4
- July 19-21, 2024. London, England. Dream Yoga
- August 13-18, 2024. Wilga, Poland. Tummo, Part 4
- August 19-25, 2024. Buchenau, Germany. TBA
- August 30-September 1, 2024. Bourg-en-Bresse, France. TBA
- September 6-8, 2024. Budapest, Hungary. Sherab Chamma Healing Practice
- October 9-13, 2024. Kathmandu, Nepal. Fall Retreat: Chod: Awakening Confidence by Taking Fear as a Path
- November 16-17, 2024. Online: 3 Doors Retreat. TBA
- December 27, 2024-January 4, 2025.Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia. Winter Retreat
Spring Wellness Retreat at Serenity Ridge
April 10-14 with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
There is still time to register for this unique Spring Wellness Retreat at Serenity Ridge beginning on April 10 with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. The retreat will include morning sky gazing, cold plunge, Tibetan Yoga for all mobility levels, meditation instruction, forest bathing, nature walks on our 100 acres, massage, a special delicious plant-based diet, optional intermittent fasting possibility, ancient Tibetan treatment to support better sleep, evening bonfire and much more!
Experienced practitioners and those new to meditation are all welcome!
Over four days, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and guests will share ancient methods, supported by modern research and scientific findings, to realize our inner source of well-being and grow beyond often unconscious self-defined limits to engage with our lives in creative, inspired and fun ways. We will discover ways to release stress, decrease anxiety, rebalance energy, deepen inner peacefulness, and reconnect to ourselves and the world around us. Be empowered to make healthier choices that support your wellness on every level.
Those who cannot participate in person can join online on Zoom. Information about the online schedule is on serenityridgva.org.
Sacred Interviews with Geshe Choekhortshang Rinpoche
Online on Zoom April 6
Join us for a fascinating conversation with Geshe Choekhortshang Rinpoche on Zoom April 6. This event is open and free for everyone.
This is the second session of Ligmincha's Sacred Interviews event series. The series aims to introduce our beloved teachers more closely and to give space for questions from students and practitioners from all over the world.
Choekhortsang Rinpoche, a well-known and beloved teacher in the European Ligmincha sanghas, will describe his unique cultural and family background and the Himalayan traditions of Dolpo. Participants will learn details about his journey from the East to the West, his present academic activities, and the teachings he has been giving for more than 10 years.
Choekhortshang Rinpoche is often invited to teach in different European countries. He has also taught at Serenity Ridge in Virginia, the headquarters of Ligmincha International. This occasion is a precious opportunity for students from other continents to get to know him better, listen to his engaging and rarely heard stories and ask him questions.
Please note that this session can only be followed live on Zoom. The recording will not be available afterward. Translations will be available in Spanish, Portuguese, and Hungarian.
To attend, please register through this link. You can also submit your questions here.
Geshe Choekhortshang Rinpoche is a lama of the Bon tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in 1976 in Dolpo, a high Himalayanmountain region of northwestern Nepal bordering Tibet, to an important local family. He is the head lama of Tashi Namgyal monastery in Dolpo.
According to tradition, when he was 8 years old his father and grandfather took him to India, to be raised and educated at Menri Monastery, in the village of Dolanji in Himachal Pradesh. There he received a basic and modern education at the local school. In 1992, when he was 16, he took monastic vows and started studying traditional subjects such as philosophy, astronomy, astrology, Tibetan history and literature, Tibetan traditional medicine, healing rituals and meditations. After 16 years, in 2008, he obtained his geshe degree, and since then he has been engaged in intense academic activities, both at the monasteries and at prestigious universities such as Leiden, Oxford, Kyotoand Charles. Since 2017,after completing his PhD, he has been an assistant professor at Charles University in Prague.He was elected as an advisor board member of the International Seminar of Young Tibetologists (ISYT) in 2018, and elected as an advisory board member of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (IATS) in 2022.
Over the years, he has been teaching the spiritual practices of the Bon tradition in many European countries such as Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Denmark, and Holland. In 2015, he was officially enthroned at Menri Monastery and given the title of Rinpoche by His Holiness the 33rd Menri Trizin.
New Book by Sangmo Yangri Available Now
The Lamp of Uza Rinchen Sal
You are here because your elemental body was taken away.
You are here because, just as a rainbow fades, your body has disappeared too.
You are here because, like a lustrous, fragrant flower, your life was taken by the frost of impermanence.
Mind moves like lightning, life is like a season of summer and winter, it changes.
You are here because the Lord of Death appeared like a shadow.
The Lamp of Uza Rinchen Sal, p. 34
In this remarkable narrative by author Sangmo Yangri, the first Tibetan woman to receive a PhD in Tibetan Bon philosophical studies, Uza Rinchen Sal, a 15th century Tibetan woman, guides us through the realms beyond death. Falling ill, Uza Rinchen dies, travels with guides through the lands of the dead (the Bardo), visits the realms of the enlightened ones, and returns to life just before her body is to be burned.
Her amazing and detailed account is entirely in accord with the teachings of Bon, Tibet's oldest spiritual tradition, and the advice she receives from her guides and the many compassionate teachers along her path, both human and nonhuman, are powerful reminders that we must all practice compassion in this very life, and that the only escape from samsara is to recognize the nature of one's own mind.
The Lamp of Uza Rinchen Sal: Illuminating the Illusory Vision of the Bardo, the Purifying Period of the Karmic Vision of the Six Lokas, and a Pure Vision of the Sugatas, is Sangmo Yangri's second book for Sacred Sky Press, the publishing arm of Ligmincha International. Sacred Sky's mission is to support the translation of Bon texts and teachings, preserving this ancient tradition and making it available to modern-day practitioners.
Sangmo Yangri, Ph.D., is a scholar, teacher, and translator, and the first Tibetan woman to receive a Ph.D. in Tibetan Bön philosophical studies. A recipient of the Jwaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund grant, she won the Prime Minister Award from the Tibetan Government in Exile in India in 2013.
Sangmo's first book, published in 2019, was Escape from Darkness: The Spiritual Journey of the Buddha's Daughter Shenza Nechung.
Both books are available for purchase through Lulu.com.
Tummo Part 4 Summer Retreats
At Serenity Ridge June 22-July 6 and in Poland August 13-18
Both the summer retreat at Serenity Ridge, June 22-July 2, and the summer retreat at Chamma Ling Poland, August 13-18, will focus on the culmination of a four-year cycle of Tummo teachings with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. These retreats will be in-person only and will not be available on Zoom.
The retreats are open only to students who have attended the Tummo Part 3 teachings in 2023 at Serenity Ridge or Chamma Ling Poland, or Geshe Gyatso's preparatory Tummo practice retreat in 2024.
Tummo refers to inner heat, and its teachings are designed to burn away subtle obscurations and cultivate bliss. Rinpoche will teaching from the text Ku Sum Rang Shar (Spontaneous Arising of the Three Kayas), written by Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen Rinpoche, a Bon master who attained the body of light (rainbow body) in 1934.
More information and registration coming soon! See ligmincha's website.
Upcoming Ligmincha Learning Courses
Sleep Yoga, Five Elements, Sherap Chamma & Ngondro
Ligmincha Learning is happy to invite you to attend online courses with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche beginning soon: Sleep Yoga and The Five Elements starts March 29; Sherap Chamma with Marcy Vaughn begins April 12. Ngondro, The Foundational Practices began March 1 and continues through December 31; you can join anytime. 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.
Sleep Yoga, The Yoga of Clear Light
March 29-April 27, 2024
The course will introduce simple techniques to enter into sleep in a healthy, balanced way. Even if we do not consistently enter into clear light sleep, we can benefit from a refreshing, relaxed sleep that gives us deep renewal. This is supported by breathing techniques, physical postures and guided visualizations. Tenzin Rinpoche also will provide meditations to wake up in a beautiful way, feeling the blessings of sleep and stepping into our day with serenity. Through these simple practices we can transform our sleep to be one of tranquility and awareness.
Learn more/register
The Five Elements, Healing with Form, Energy and Light
March 29-May 12, 2024
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.
Learn more/register
Sherap Chamma, Mother of Wisdom and Love
April 12-May 12, 2024
In this online course, participants will learn a beautiful and simple meditation practice enabling each to directly connect with the divine feminine energy. Within the support of the group, we create an environment to promote profound healing of physical, energetic, emotional and spiritual dimensions of life. With visualization, the sound of mantra and deep contemplation, we make a personal connection to this sacred form of the universal mother, Sherap Chamma, and are guided through this connection to our innate wisdom and the love and compassion that naturally radiate from that wisdom. Those experienced in meditation as well as those who are beginning are warmly welcomed.
Learn more/register
Ngondro, The Foundational Practices
March 1-December 15, 2024 (join at anytime)
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/register
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.
Serenity Ridge Welcomes Lama Kalsang Nyima
In Residence for April and May
Serenity Ridge Retreat Center is fortunate to have Lama Kalsang Nyima, a resident lama in Mexico, come stay in residence at Serenity Ridge in April and May.
He will join Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche for the annual Spring Retreat April 10-14.
Other plans include a land blessing ceremony and five elements teaching, a soul retrieval teaching and ritual, sang chod ritual and cooking lesson and a two-day Sacred Arts event. He also plans to be available for blessing rituals while he is in Virginia.
More details will soon be available on serenityridgeva.org.
Lama Kalsang Nyima is a resident lama of Ligmincha Mexico. He is well known as an artist and thangka painter of the Bon tradition. Previously a resident lama for Ligmincha Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia, he now lives at the Great Bon Stupa for World Peace in Valle de Bravo, Mexico. Learn more about Lama Kalsang Nyima on the Ligmincha website.
The Truth That Sets You Free
Next GlideWing Online Workshop Begins May 11
GlideWing is pleased to offer The Truth That Sets You Free, a three-week online workshop with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche from May 11-June 2, 2024. This workshop is about becoming liberated from fear and other disturbing emotions so you may live more fully and genuinely in all aspects of life. Ultimately, it's about achieving final liberation, or enlightenment.
Nearly all of us feel strongly attached to our physical body and to our sense of identity as a professional, a spouse, a son or daughter, for example. But our genuine self is far simpler, and more profound, than any of these. Through the practice of sleep yoga and other guided meditations, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche helps you to discover the truth of who you are: a sense of spacious awareness that is beyond the ego-based identity and which is eternal, changeless, indestructible and serene. Realizing this truth is what liberates us from the fear and negative emotions that have trapped us in suffering. It can help us overcome fear even during the most challenging moments, including the time of our own death.
Upcoming. Healing from the Source. June 15-July 7, 2024.
Ongoing. Focusing and Calming Your Mind, The Tibetan Practice of Zhine, a free two-weel self-guided online workshop.
Learn more at glidewing.com
3 Doors Academies Begin in North America, Europe, Latin America in 2024
Also Save the Date for a Weekend Retreat with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
The 3 Doors is delighted to offer its signature program, the Academy, in three different regions this year. Academies in North America, Europe and Latin America are all slated to begin in 2024.
The 3 Doors Academy is an iimmersive 2.5-year program that provides participants the opportunity to engage deeply in the process of self-discovery. Participation involves both in-person and online components, including six in-person group retreats, monthly group Zoom sessions, individual mentor sessions with the teachers, personal retreats and more.
The 3 Doors is an international nonprofit organization founded in 2010 by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Its mission is to transform lives through meditation using practices from the Tibetan Bon tradition grounded in wisdom and compassion.
The 7th North American Academy
The first retreat of the training begins April 25 at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center in Virginia, home of Ligmincha International. The retreats will be led by senior teacher Marcy Vaughn and teacher Phil Tonne. Registration is now closed.
Learn more
The 3rd European Academy
The first retreat of the training begins October 17, 2024. The location will be announced soon. Presenters will be senior teacher Raven Lee and teachers Nicolas Gounaropoulos, Walter Hofmann and Tonny Maas. Applications are due by June 30, 2024.
Learn more
The 2nd Latin American Academy
The first retreat of the training begins September 9, 2024 in Brazil. More information will be announced soon.
To learn more
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.
SAVE THE DATE: November 16-17, 2024
Online 3 Doors Weekend Retreat with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Online Via Zoom
Offered in multiple languages
Open to all
The 3 Doors website will be updated soon with more details.
The 3 Doors offerings include immersive programs to deepen your learning, global online gatherings to experience the vitality of community, and ongoing drop-in practice groups to receive the benefits of steady support. Also offered are prerecorded programs and short daily meditations to bring attention to the present and connect with openness.
For more information visit www.the3doors.org.
From the VOCL Archives: Sharing the Timeless Joy
Cutting Through One's Fear
This article invites us to look at the meaning of Chod, a practice in the Tibetan Bon tradition. The Chod practice will be the focus of the fall retreat with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Chod: Awakening Confidence by Taking Fear as a Path will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal in October, 2024. Previously published in Voice of Clear Light, August 2016.
The meaning of chod (Tib: chod) Literally, to cut off, to cut through. Also known as the "expedient use of fear" and the "cultivation of generosity." Chod is a ritual practice meant to remove all attachment to one's own body and ego by compassionately offering all that one is to other beings.
In the Foreword to Alejandro Chaoul-Reich's book, Chod Practice in the Bon Tradition, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche writes:
The core purpose of chod is to turn fear into a path to liberation. The practitioner actively seeks out fearful experiences, using fear as an opportunity to visualize cutting apart one's own physical body, symbolizing the cutting of the ego, and thus cultivating wisdom. The practitioner further visualizes transforming the body into an offering that satisfies all beings, thus cultivating generosity and detachment. Through this ancient and profound practice, anyone who is able to recognize their own fear, whether its source is external or internal, can face that fear, challenge it, and overcome it. Ultimately, fear becomes a tool to cultivate enlightened qualities.
Further, Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche writes in the Foreword:
In the Bon tradition, all practices, regardless of whether they pertain to Sutra, Tantra, or Dzogchen, lead one towards the path of liberation. Chod, however, is a special method with particular characteristics for this. Although Chod is common to both Tibetan Bon and Buddhist schools, the original basis of this practice in the two traditions is quite different. The Chod practice according to Buddhist tradition is said to be originally based on the Prajnaparamita while that of Tibetan Bon rests upon Tantric practices. However, in both traditions the Chod practice is performed in a manner which has more in common with Tantra than Sutra, and in both traditions it is known as a very effective and powerful practice bringing the practitioner a strong experience of profound generosity as well as liberation from self-grasping, the root of Samsara. It is, then, a forceful tool for developing one's practice and as such, makes up one of the Four Generosities of the Bon tradition which are practiced on a daily basis.
Alejandro's book, Chod Practice in the Bon Tradition, published by Snow Lion in 2009, is available through Amazon, as is The Nomadic Sacrifice: The Chod Pilgrimage Among the Bonpo of Dolpo by Martino.
Student and Teacher
Together on the Path
Student. As an individual practitioner, hat is an effective way to benefi the entire world?
TWR. It has something to do, first of all, with your openness, right? You really need to feel space to want to do that. The individual needs to be open, so open that there is not such a strong sense of individual there. Many times we say, I want to help my family, my country, my this, my that. So me and my are always attached to something. And in order to expand that, it has to do with the openness. This is what we talk about all the time in the teachings, being open. And when we look to expand our openness, we can ask ourselves:
Am I open to myself?
Am I open to my family?
Am I open to my friend?
Am I open to sangha members?
Am I open to strangers?
Am I open to the one who I don't care about?
Am I open to the one who bothers me?
Am I open to the one who I really do't like?
If you see these levels of openness there, then that's how you help.
So having a genuine sense of a strong ability to help would be based on how open you are, both in yourself and in relation to others. And how conscious you are in that expansion of openness, from in to out, from easy to difficult, from normal to not so normal.
Spanish Translation of VOCL
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