MAY 2026 NEWSLETTER
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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
One of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s deepest desire was to bring the vajrayana teachings to the West. Over the past few years vajrayana students of VCTR celebrated his Parinirvana which is on April 4. This fell on a Saturday this year. We gathered at Pawo Khandro Ling, which is the Wisdom Seats shrine room. We assembled both in person and online to celebrate and practice the Dharma Sagara Guru Yoga, a short guru yoga written by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche for the students of Trungpa Rinpoche after his death.
Guru yogas are in general a liturgical practice which expresses one's connection to the lineage or a specific teacher. The vajrayana path is 2 fold, based on Wisdom & Compassion. Guru yogas merge these two being expressed as devotion, specifically non-theistic devotion which is based on egolessness. Though this cadre of students appear as a special group the idea of who can join in is based on the idea that there isn't anything to hide or keep secret, but is a safeguard in making sure students are well soaked in the fundamentals with a proper foundation in the hinayana and mahayana. Without this basis these teachings can be misleading and potentially harmful.
The afternoon included the practice of the Dharma Sagara Guru Yoga with 16 people in the shrine room and 5 people online. After concluding this practice a number of us headed out to a local Chinese restaurant to enjoy ourselves in sharing our hearts, tummies and community which spontaneously arose into a magical feast.
Matt DiRodio
Strange Friends: Barry Boyce on The Dharma Protectors
Tue, May 12 | 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EDT
Zoom
In Tibetan Buddhism, the dharma protectors are among the most striking and mysterious figures in the entire tradition. Fierce, wrathful, often terrifying in appearance. What exactly are they? And what does it mean to actually work with them in practice?
The Power of Mind: The 7 Points of Mind Training
Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8pm Eastern, beginning May 19, 2026
Join us for an in-depth exploration of lojong, or mind training, starting May 19, 2026. Using the text The Power of Mind by Khentrul Lodro Thaye Rinpoche as our base, we will meet Tuesday evenings to practice and discuss the text.
A Householder Retreat with Jeremiah Fruchtman and Sean McMullen
July 23, 2026 – July 30, 2026
This in-person gathering offers a rare chance to step out of the usual pace of daily life and enter a disciplined retreat atmosphere. The retreat is open to all—whether new to meditation or returning to an established practice.
Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path
August 10-18, 2026
Drala Mountain Center
How do we navigate with wisdom, compassion, and fierce courage in an age of spiritual crisis?
Please join Buddhist teachers Michael Carroll and Susan Piver for a week of meditation, community, and real talk about how to take our practice off the cushion and into the beauty and confusion of our world.
The Wisdom Seat Retreat 2026
November 28 - December 6, 2026
at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra | Woodstock, NY
We invite you to join us for this in-person annual retreat at the Karma TriyanaDharmachakra monastery in the delightful upstate New York Catskill Mountains. Michael Carroll, cofounder of The Wisdom Seat will be leading this 8-day practice intensive, supported by members of The Wisdom Seat staff. This retreat is designed to help us deepen our mindfulness-awareness meditation and integrate it into our daily life.
Wednesday Meditation
Ongoing offering: Online meditation every Wednesday evening
6:15 to 7:30 PM EST
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!
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: May 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st
Here is the Zoom link for this session: Sunday Sitting Zoom Link
All are welcome to attend.
West Chester Meditation Center
Seeing Beyond Thought: An Introduction to Miksang Contemplative Photography
Sunday, May 3rd, 10 AM to 12 PM ET
Online via Zoom
Michael Wood and Julie DuBose
Can you recognize the truth of your own experience of seeing, free of conceptual overlays and preferences? Miksang Photography is based on authentic visual experience expressed exactly as seen—True to Life. In this presentation we will introduce Miksang through example images and a walk through and description of the practice of Recognizing Direct Perception. We will show how doing this can teach us to understand how we see habitually and how we can begin to see our world beyond our thoughts about our experience.
Registration link:
RIME SHEDRA
Pith Instructions on Śamatha and Vipaśyanā
MAY 5, 2026 TO JULY 28, 2026,
7-9:15 PM ET, VIA ZOOM
BASED ON THE BOOK: ŚAMATHA AND VIPAŚYANĀ: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PITH INSTRUCTIONS, COMPOSED AND TRANSLATED BY B. ALAN WALLACE AND EVA NATANYA
Registration Link: https://www.rimeshedra.nyc/rimeshedranyc-announcements/2026/4/20/next-course-pith-instructions-on-amatha-and-vipayan
EWAM GARDEN OF ONE THOUSAND BUDDHAS
Understanding the Mind: Where Buddhist philosophy meets modern psychology
May 16th & May 23rd
May 16th
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 23rd
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Ven. Jetsunma Jamyang Dolma
in this free 2-session series on
In person at the Missoula Public Library
or online via Zoom.
If you have any questions, or need further information contact us at admin@ewam.org
Who is Jetsumna Jamyang Dolma and her connection to the Lineage of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche: https://www.namchak.org/community/blog/jetsunmas-journey-through-tibetan-buddhism/
Oceans/The Milinda Talks Resource Group
Talk Four: Three Vows
with Luís Santiago Israel (Chagdud Gonpa)
May 23rd
These talks are held in
Ocean’s Main Shrine Room
Open to all
No registration required
Dorje Denma Ling
Mandala of the Empowered Feminine
May 12 - May 18, 2026
In-Person
Taught by Susan Lorraine and Friends
In this retreat, we will meet the dakinis—the dynamic, free, wise, compassionate, and sometimes fierce energies that dance within open awareness. Our main practice will be the Mandala of the Five Wisdom Dakinis. Lama Tsultrim will join our retreat remotely, to formally introduce the practice.
Registration Link: https://dorjedenmaling.secure.retreat.guru/program/mandala-of-the-empowered-feminine/?lang=en
Approaching Mahamudra: A Weekend Meditation Retreat
Taught by Richard John
June 5-7, 2026
In Person
This weekend will include in-depth instruction on shamatha and vipashyana. Shamatha, the training in calm abiding and non-distraction, becomes the ability to rest in and stabilize the natural state of mind. Vipashyana expands into the actual wisdom of emptiness, buddha nature itself. This weekend is open to all.
Registration Link: https://dorjedenmaling.secure.retreat.guru/program/approaching-mahamudra-a-weekend-meditation-retreat/
Mahamudra & Trekcho Retreat
Taught by Richard John
June 5-14, 2026
In Person
This retreat is an opportunity to go beyond conceptual study to direct personal experience, and to recognize and become capable of resting in buddha nature--the essence of mind. In the famous words of Tulku Urgyen, "Short moments many times--there is no other way." The full retreat is open to tantrikas, the first weekend includes Approaching Mahamudra, which is open to all practitioners.
Registration Link: https://dorjedenmaling.secure.retreat.guru/program/mahamudra-trekcho-retreat-save-the-date/?lang=en
Fully Being Meditation Retreat
Taught by Adam Kane
July 1-5, 2026
In-Person
Fully Being — A path of awareness, healing and insight We are fortunate to welcome Adam Kane, Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s primary translator and a senior Fully Being facilitator, for a 4-day meditation retreat at Dorje Denma Ling. Fully Being draws on Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s uniquely accessible approach to practice — one that helps us cultivate a grounded body, a warm and open heart, and a clear, steady mind. These teachings are practical and direct, inviting us to meet our experience as it is and to integrate meditation into daily life.
Registration link: Program - Dorje Denma Ling
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.
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.
Registration Link: https://gampoabbey.org/schedule-prerequisites-and-fees/
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 info@thewisdomseat.org.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Elizabeth Brownrigg, Chief Editor
Keyholes to the Sacred
by Elizabeth Brownrigg
After a string of four-hour sleep(less) nights, I was anxious, list-making, nit-picking, grabbing at every twig as I was swept down a river of exhaustion. I made my own whirlpools of ineffectuality and spun in them.
I sat down at my desk and typed, "writing feels like church." Then I wondered what I meant by that. All I knew was that it was what I needed.
What makes something feel like church?
The first time I visited our meditation center, it was indistinguishable from the group of little white houses that had been built for the workers at the nearby textile mill. Part of the house had been turned into a shrine room where the meditators sat. When I stepped into that room, I sensed a difference. By simply practicing over the years, people had created a sacred space. I could feel it.
Church is a sense of refuge. My writing isn't a literal place, but the habit of writing feels very much like gathering with others to meditate every week in a sacred shrine room.
In our sangha, we acknowledge the connection to our teachers all the way back to the Buddha, and the connection to the community we are now. Maybe when I write, I'm feeling a connection to the writers before me and around me.
Some spots are keyholes through which we might glimpse the sacred. They can be naturally occurring.
Primatologist Barbara Smuts studied the behavior of baboons in Kenya and Tanzania:
One incident... seemed to capture a kind of experience and sensibility which is not only impossible to classify scientifically in animals, but which mirrors the unclassifiable experiences of humans ourselves. We call it spirituality. Late one evening the baboons were making their way to a sleeping place, down a small stream they often traveled along, which was interspersed with many small pools. Without any obvious signal, each of the baboons sat down on a smooth stone surrounding one of the pools, and for half an hour (by human reckoning) they sat alone or in small clusters, completely quiet, staring into the waters. Even the normally boisterous juveniles slipped into quiet contemplation. Then, again at no perceptible sign, they stood up and resumed their journey in quiet procession.1
Some places, like the stone circles throughout the British Isles, were made by human beings.
Sacred spaces are all over. When we were in Italy, we meditated in the local cathedrals.
Practices serve as keyholes. In meditation, glimpses of luminous wisdom are also compared to chinks of light that appear through the ceiling of a dark room.
We peer through the keyhole to see a glimmer of light.
Copyright © Elizabeth Brownrigg. All Rights Reserved.
What is seen through conceptualization chains us, and that is what is being negated here.”
—Four Hundred Verses, 16:24.2
Āryadeva
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