Nalandabodhi

In October 2019, the Treasury of Knowledge Retreat in San Antonio marked its 25th anniversary. Rigpe Dorje Center and Nalandabodhi International hosted it over October 25-27, with Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche teaching on Mahāmudrā and on the 9th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje's text "Pointing Out the Dharmakāya." The event sold out, and Rinpoche agreed to a live webcast of the weekend. Nalandabodhi works this way, as a community that gathers wherever there is a room, or a screen, to hold it.

Nalandabodhi describes itself as a worldwide community of practitioners offering the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche is its founder and spiritual director. Its centers and study groups sit across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America, and each has its own director or council. Akasha serves as the community's virtual online Center. Nalandabodhi's Mitras, its Western senior teachers, supervise the three paths of Study, Meditation and Mindful Activity.

Retreats borrow other people's halls. In the winter of 2019-2020, an East Coast retreat ran from a Saturday dinner on December 28 through Wednesday lunch on January 1 at Copper Beech Institute in West Hartford, Connecticut. Acharya Lhakpa Tshering and Acharya Tashi Wangchuk taught from the Kagyu text "Instructions on the Four Letters of Mahāmudrā" and from "The Four Reminders," and Rinpoche joined one session by video link. It was open to the public, with some prior meditation experience recommended. A non-residential weekend with Acharya Lhakpa Tshering in Fredericksburg, Virginia, used a university convergence center, and attendees were invited to bring a bag lunch and picnic on the grounds.

Today the calendar mixes in-person and online. Practice sessions are held online for meditation, Tara and Chenrezig, and Sunday Teachings are offered. Nalandabodhi Colorado runs a Path of Study course, MAH 306, on the bodhisattva's path and the Paramitas. A weekend workshop on Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche's Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness is also listed. Its stated aim is a path to be wise, go kind and live fully.