JANUARY 2026 NEWSLETTER
- Kaya Fruchtman
- Dec 22, 2025
- 10 min read
Updated: Jan 2
IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
Happy 2026!
Looking back at 2025:
Together we gathered for 26 events this past year - not even counting our weekly Wednesday evening meditations. Our podcast was downloaded 2,215 times, and our blog posts were read 5,989 times. Thank you for showing up, listening, and practicing together.
Our sangha spans the globe. While 26% of us are in Pennsylvania, we heard from practitioners in Colorado, California, New York, Canada, England, Australia, Spain, Thailand, and more. 59% of our community is outside the Mid-Atlantic region.
What we learned from our first community survey:
Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. Your feedback is helping us think about what's next. Here are just a few insights:
About a quarter of us said we'd like to feel more connected to other practitioners. We're contemplating what that could look like.
70% want classes on topics like sadhana, vajrayana, and lojong. 57% specifically asked for teachings from Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's tradition.
Many respondents liked the idea of 4-6 week classes.
Many didn't know about Wednesday nights. This one surprised us: 35% didn't know we have weekly Wednesday evening meditation at 6:15pm ET. Wednesday meditation returns January 7th after our holiday break.
We're taking all of this in and discerning where to focus our energy. More conversations to come.
This month:
Wednesday Meditation returns January 7th: Every Wednesday evening, 6:15-7:30pm EST.
Nyinthun is January 11th: Note this month it's the second Sunday, not our usual first Sunday.
On Jan 27, for this month's Mindful Gathering we will discuss the chapter Synchronizing Mind and Body from Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior.
A few things you might have missed:
We recently started publishing interviews Michael Carroll has with practitioners about bringing these teachings into everyday life on our podcast. You can listen at thewisdomseat.org/podcast.
Last month we had a conversation with Irini Rockwell about the Five Wisdom Energies. She's teaching a class this month through Shambhala Online: The Essence of Tantra: Awakening Through Direct Experience.
And if you missed Anam Thubten Rinpoche's teaching on the Dudjom Lineage from this fall, it's available on our YouTube channel.
If you have thoughts about any of this, just reply to this email.
Looking forward to practicing together in 2026,
Bill Moriarty
Board President, The Wisdom Seat
Exciting News from Sanskrit for Mere Mortals!
We're thrilled to share that Dr. Varun Khanna has just opened registration for Kickstart Sanskrit, his first online Sanskrit course! This integrated learning experience will teach you to speak, read, and write Sanskrit from the ground up—no prerequisites needed.
The course runs for 15 weeks starting January 20th, with two 90-minute sessions per week. Early-bird pricing is available until December 20th, and there are limited scholarships for those facing financial obstacles.
If you enjoyed our Mindful Gathering with Dr. Khanna back in August (where we explored the vibrations behind "Om" and broke down the Heart Sutra mantra), you won't want to miss this opportunity to dive deeper into Sanskrit with him.
Watch our August conversation: https://youtu.be/17XM3Gq2XxU
Learn more and register: sanskritformeremortals.com/kickstart-sanskrit
The Wisdom of Mindfulness Meditation
Engaging the paradoxes of our modern world with insight, skill, and compassion
with Andrew Safer and Michael Carroll
Thursday, February 5, 2026, 6:00 to 7:00 pm (EST); 7:30 to 8:30 pm (NST)
Zoom
In a world that offers untold resources and possibilities, we also face widespread tragedies of war, environmental crisis and geopolitical toxicity. How can we face such a profound paradox and how can we lend a hand to a world in need of so much help?
A Mindful Gathering
Tuesday, Jan 27, 2026, 7pm - 8pm (EST)
Community Discussion
"Synchronizing mind and body is not a concept or a random technique someone thought up for self-improvement. Rather, it is a basic principle of how to be a human being and how to use your sense perceptions, your mind and your body together."
Wednesday Meditation
Ongoing offering: Online meditation every Wednesday evening
6:15 to 7:30 PM EST
Holiday Hiatus: Last meeting Dec 17th and Returning Jan 7, 2026
Worldwide Wednesday evening online sitting meditation practice.
We, at The Wisdom Seat, invite you to meet on Wednesday evenings from 6:15 – 7:30 PM Eastern Time to practice the sitting meditation discipline as taught in the Buddhist & Shambhala tradition of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Nyinthun: Everyone is welcome!
Please note our Holiday Hiatus Dec 24th-Jan 7th. Nyinthun for January will be 1/11/2026. Happy holidays!
Ongoing offering: Nyinthun (in-person and online)
The first Sunday of every month.
All day sitting interspersed with walking meditation. The word nyinthun*, is Tibetan for “day session.”
In understanding dharma, Trungpa Rinpoche placed a strong emphasis on mindfulness/awareness meditation practice. This community practice of Nyinthun - all day sitting interspersed with walking meditation - gives us the opportunity to experience the full spectrum of our mind, make friends with our immediate experience and rediscover our natural sanity.
Please take a look, and sign up to join us for some nyinthun retreat days. It is ok to join for as much of the day as you can.
Collaborative practice undertaking with The Wisdom Seat & The Profound Treasury Retreat
The Wisdom Seat encourages as many opportunities for practitioners to engage in the discipline of mindfulness/awareness (shamatha/vipashyana) as one can engage in. We are happy to invite the Profound Treasury Retreat (PTR) with their offering of Sunday sitting.
PTR community is hosting a 2-hour sitting session from 9:30am to 11:30 am EST
There will be meditation instruction every third Sunday of the month, given by a qualified meditation instructor.
Dates: December 14th, 21st, 28th
Here is the Zoom link for this session: Sunday Sitting Zoom Link
All are welcome to attend.
Karmê Chöling
Dathun
Led by Dr. Elain Yuen
Weekthun: Dec. 29 - Jan. 4
Half-Dathun: Dec. 29 - Jan. 11
Dathun: Dec. 29 - Jan. 25
An extended meditation retreat at Karmê Chöling in upstate Vermont. Meditation retreats are profound and transformative experiences – allowing one to discover the basic sanity of oneself and one’s world.
Elaine Yuen is an educator, chaplain and researcher. She has been a student and teacher in the Shambhala community since the early 1970’s. Between 2010 and 2012 she was a professor at Naropa University where she taught courses on pastoral caregiving (chaplaincy), contemplative education and Buddhist studies. Elaine is deeply interested in how we shape our social interactions with caring and authentic presence. She continues to explore the interfaces between Buddhism, meditation, creativity, and contemplative care-giving. Her website Contemplative Chaplaincy can be found at elaineyuen.com. She will be supported by a team of experienced meditation instructors. Regular dharma talks, individual meetings, and experiential exercises will be included.
Learn more & register at:
West Chester Meditation Center
WMC Annual Retreat The Three Pillars of Wakefulness: Stability, Openness and Kindness
March 6th - 13th
In-Person at the Garrison Institute
Led by Judy Lief, Derek and Jane Kolleeny, & Gene Bobker
A week-long immersive retreat is a powerful way to deepen our relationship to meditation and see its benefits. With a settled mind, we can tune into our innate wellbeing and our open heart. Mindfulness-awareness meditation, fully understood, can directly support overcoming our fixed, inflexible patterns, and allow the emergence of a more stable attitude of acceptance and kindness. We hope you can join us in exploring and fine-tuning these qualities that our world needs more than ever.
Registration Link: https://www.garrisoninstitute.org/event/the-three-pillars-of-wakefulness-wmc-2026/
Profound Treasury Retreat
Planting Seeds, Cutting Roots
June 12th -21st
In-Person at Saco, Maine
At the 2026 Profound Treasury Retreat, through a week of contemplation and practice, we’ll explore the Buddhist understanding of karma as the intricate chain of cause and effect that arises from ego’s attempt to secure its position in our world. By acknowledging the workings of cause and effect, we can begin to see our deep interconnectedness with all beings and recognize the reverberations of our actions through familial, cultural, and collective patterns. We will also explore the possibility of discovering freedom from karma in the present moment and how each future moment, therefore, could be completely open.
As Trungpa Rinpoche says, “But if, for a moment, you do something that is not based on a belief in separateness, if it’s not based on thoughts that have any kind of prerequisite or dependency, then your activity ceases to be karmic.” (The Karma Seminar - KCL September 1972)
The Profound Treasury Retreats are for everyone, whether you are new to meditation or a seasoned practitioner. Your presence and wisdom are welcome.
Apply soon - the first 20 participants to complete registration will win special PTR merchandise!
Registration Link: https://profoundtreasuryretreat.com/the-retreat/
Three Yana Retreats/Drala Mountain Center
The Third Entering the Vajra World Retreat
June 21st - July 21st
In-Person at Drala Mountain Center
The Three-Yana Retreat is designed for Buddhist practitioners with experience in study and meditation, who wish to establish a solid foundation for a life-long journey.
We are pleased to announce that an online information session with members of the faculty and staff of the 2026 Entering the Vajra World Retreat will take place on Zoom on January 25th, 2026 at noon Eastern Time. You must register to join the information session. The purpose of this session is to answer any question you may have and tell you more about the Entering the Vajra World Retreat that will be held at Drala Mountain Center between June 21st - July 21st 2026.
To register go to: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Vn2yP4rmR0OXdHuYeOdMAA
The Entering the Vajra World Retreat begins with a 13 week online study program on the Foundational Vehicle and the Mahayana. It is followed by a month-long, in-person retreat at Drala Mountain Center involving intensive practice and study of Mahayana and Vajrayana topics. During the third week of the retreat participants receive Vajrayana transmission and the opportunity to explore the ngöndro preliminary practices.
The Three-Yana Retreat is a contemporary version of the deep training that was the hallmark of Trungpa Rinpoche’s Vajradhatu Seminaries. It provides students with an introduction to Vajrayana practice in Trungpa Rinpoche’s tradition with a solid foundation in the three-yana principles.
Registration Link: https://www.3yanas.org/contact
Sopa Choling/Gampo Abbey
Attention: Vajrayogini Practitioners
Announcing a very rare opportunity to practice inner and secret Vajrayogini.
The retreat at Sopa Chöling has a few vacancies and we’re inviting you to apply.
A few details:
You must have completed the Vajrayogini mantras and attended an amending fire offering (see Dorje Denma Ling schedule, June 2026).
Optional:
Part 2 of this retreat is optional and includes outer, inner and secret Chakrasamvara. For this, Chakrasamvara empowerment is required.
Questions? Write to threeyearretreat@gampoabbey.org
Welcome to “Wisdom’s Melody,” our new series on the dharma in everyday life! We invite everyone in the The Wisdom Seat community to share how they bring meditation off the cushion and into the world.
How do the teachings show up in your ordinary days? What is your experience of mindfulness, awareness, compassion, skillful means? Does your meditation practice help you navigate difficult times?
Please submit your contribution of 800 words or less before the 20th of the month to kayafruchtman@thewisdomseat.org.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Elizabeth Brownrigg, Chief Editor
Elizabeth Brownrigg is an author of novels, essays, and feature articles. She teaches at the Durham Shambhala Center, where she has been a member since 2004. She writes about practicing the dharma and living in the difficult world in her Substack column, “Walking the Inspired Path” (https://inspiredpath.substack.com/)
The Fine Art of Uncomplaint
Recently I had conversations with two friends who live with chronic illnesses. We talked about when it’s good to share how they feel, and when it is better not to, how to keep a balance between needing support, and not dwelling so much on their discomfort that they are trapped by their own suffering.
When I was younger, I had the luxury of hypochondria. I regarded physical anomalies as harbingers of doom. Do I feel dizzy? Why does my knee hurt? My heart’s beating too fast. Did it skip a beat? Was that the last beat? At that age, death really did come without warning to peers who had cancer, early heart attacks, car accidents.
Now everyone’s aging, with the symptoms to prove it. I have noticed that the more I complain about my stuff, the worse I feel, until I become one bundle of obstacles, instead of a relatively healthy adult who can go out and do things. When I’m by myself, I can still brood until I’m bound up in barbed wire made of aches and pains, teetering on the banks of the River Styx.
A few years ago, I looked to my doctor for reassurance. She replied, “You’re a high-functioning sixty-nine-year-old,” which sounded awfully close to high-functioning alcoholism, depression, anxiety, and all those other conditions that make it difficult to function highly. Better than dysfunctioning, I guess.
I saw my neighbor in the pool at the rehab center. We said it felt like we were bringing our bodies into the shop for repairs so we could hit the road again.
Meditation and mindfulness help. They don’t erase the pain, but they do keep it from grabbing the headlines. It’s not so much mind over matter as mind with matter.
The consciousness that sitting practice cultivates is open to many kinds of experience, not all of them necessarily pleasant. If at any given moment I am aware of ten different elements—my bottom on the chair, the sound of cars passing outside, the thought of the laundry I have to do, the hum of the air-conditioner, an unpleasant stab of sharp knee pain, cool air entering my nostrils, warm air going out—and one of them is pain, that pain will dominate my life. But if I am aware of a hundred elements, those ten plus more subtle sensations—the animal presence of other people sitting quietly in the room, the shadow of the lamp against the wall, the brush of my hair against my ear, the pressure of my clothes against my skin—then pain is merely one of many elements of my consciousness, and that is pain I can live with. - Darlene Cohen
I try to avoid complaining about what is not important: the inconvenient detour, the malfunctioning phone, the mediocre meal, the ensuing heartburn, the misdirected package. My journal used to be a litany of woes as I worked out my feelings on paper. Perhaps some of that was therapeutic, but more often my anger built with every furious sentence until my resentment became its own edifice of outrage, a building with no exits.
Let’s face it - shit’s getting real and life is getting harder. We need to be able to lean on each other, and share our sorrows. There’s no harm in griping sometimes about random annoyances. We should definitely point out problems and address them. But when does complaining create bars of words and shadows of attitude, and become the prison instead of the release?
Maybe the best guide to skillful complaining is to simply be aware of when I’m doing it. Is this helping? Is there any possible good outcome? Am I acknowledging a truth?
Copyright © 2025 Elizabeth Brownrigg. All Rights Reserved.
Just like the body faculty in the entire body, delusion resides in all [afflictions].
Therefore, all afflictions will be destroyed through the destruction of delusion.
—Four Hundred Verses, 6:10
Āryadeva
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