Awakening to Wellness: Spring Retreat with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Special Guest
April 9–13, 2025 at Serenity Ridge and online on Zoom
As nature renews itself this spring, a unique opportunity for personal renewal awaits at the “Awakening to Wellness” retreat led by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. This transformative four-day experience, scheduled for April 9-13, 2025, offers participants a chance to harmonize with nature’s rhythms while exploring ancient wisdom and modern science.
Held at the serene Serenity Ridge Retreat Center with an online option available via Zoom, the retreat brings together an impressive lineup of experts. Joining Rinpoche are Dr. Tawni Tidwell, the first Westerner certified as a Tibetan doctor; Dr. Danny Lewin, a sleep and circadian researcher; and Dr. Wenli Liu, an integrative medicine specialist with extensive experience in cancer treatment.
The retreat’s holistic approach combines meditation, movement, breath work, and nature connection. Participants will start their days with sunrise meditation and Tibetan yoga suitable for all mobility levels. The program includes forest bathing, nature walks, and evening bonfires to foster connection with natural elements. For those seeking additional wellness challenges, optional cold plunges and intermittent fasting are available.
What sets this retreat apart is its integration of traditional Tibetan practices with contemporary health science and practical, take-home knowledge. Presenters will share actionable information on sleep optimization, stress reduction, anxiety management, and energy rebalancing. We will also explore finding balance and healing through connection to nature. The retreat aims to empower participants to make healthier lifestyle choices that enhance overall wellbeing.
This event is intended for everyone, whether you have experience in meditation and wellness or are just beginning your journey.
For those looking to extend their transformative experience, a Tibetan Yoga Retreat with Alejandro Chaoul follows immediately after, with a free night’s stay offered to those registering for both events.
As we emerge from winter, this spring wellness retreat offers a timely reminder that by reconnecting with nature’s patterns and our own inner wisdom, we can discover new sources of vitality, peace, and joy.
Registration is now open for both in-person and online participation.
International news
Experience the Power of Giving
Fundraiser dinner – June 23, 2023
Just one day before the summer retreat, Serenity Ridge Retreat Center organized and hosted a fundraiser dinner to support the orphans and semi-orphans of the Bön Children Welfare Center (BCWC) in Dolanji, India. His Holiness, the 34th Menri Trizin, the spiritual leader of Bön and the abbot of Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Ligmincha International’s resident lamas also attended to support the cause.
About the Bön Children’s Welfare Center
The Bön Children’s Welfare Center (“BCWC”) is a Tibetan boarding school for orphans, and disadvantaged children in Dholanji, India. The Center was established in the 1970s by His Holiness the 33rd Menri Trizin Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche, and his tireless efforts are now continued by His Holiness 34th Menri Trizin 34th spiritual head of the Bon Buddhist tradition of Tibet.
BCWC is run under the Yungdrung Bon Monastic Centre Society and is registered in India as a society under the Himachal Pradesh Societies Registration Act 2006. This society is run through donations by generous people from all over the world. BCWC’s mission is to provide food, clothing, shelter and education, school supplies, healthcare and medicine, and other essentials to children, who are typically arriving to the center from the poorest villages. Currently, there are at least 89 boys studying in the center, who are from the remote areas of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and India.
Thank you for your donation!
Our sangha and guests raised over $11,000! We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to everybody who supported the cause. This amount will cover the most essential needs – such as food, clothing, education, and medical care – for many students.
We will continue to collect funds for them through August. If you would like to donate to support the orphans, you can still do so:
Donate now to BCWC
Forty-Three Trainings for an Enlightened Mind – New Book Translated by Raven Cypress Wood
The newest publication from Sacred Sky Press is now available through Ligmincha Store: Forty-Three Trainings for an Enlightened Mind and Other Divine Writings, by Kundun Sonam Lodro, the 22nd Menri Trizin, translated by Raven Cypress Wood.
The book presents four short texts by the 22nd Menri Trizin (1784-1835) and a series of appendices by the translator that offer valuable context, background and explication for the reader. The main text, the Forty-Three Mind Trainings, outlines in a clear and quintessential way the conditions necessary to experience and realize one’s own nature of mind, the methods for developing and expanding it, and the fruit of practice.
Through his boundless wisdom and compassion, Kundun Sonam Lodro’s teachings reflect the views of sutra, tantra and dzogchen all at once. He teaches the paths of renunciation, transformation and of leaving it as it is. As such, his verses are not easy to paraphrase or summarize. Almost every verse can stand alone and merits reflection.
Consider Verse 4: Attachment to friends and relatives is like boiling water. Hatred towards enemies is like a blazing fire. Designating what to accept and what to reject is like being enveloped in the darkness of close-mindedness. By abandoning the homeland, the root of virtue is established.
Here we see advice to turn away from worldly attachment in the first sentence, in keeping with sutric teachings. In the second sentence he warns about the poison of anger and aversion, but also brings in a tantric viewpoint, transforming that energy into bodhicitta, or unbounded compassion. Abandoning what to accept and what to reject, we move toward the nonduality of the dzogchen view. Finally we are advised to abandon our homeland. This can be read as a method of renouncing outer obstacles of home and place, or of allowing one’s own naked awareness to become empty and rootless, similar to the advice found in the Invocation of Tapihritsa. Every verse of this text is equally rich and worthy of contemplation.
Without exception, suffering and misery arise from desiring happiness for only myself. A perfect buddha arises from a mind that benefits others. Because of that, I will develop the doubtless ability to exchange my happiness with the suffering of others.
Forty-Three Trainings, page 22
While Forty-Three Trainings for an Enlightened Mind is a largely analytic text, guiding us to see and understand the causes of suffering and the path that leads from it, it is followed by three more experiential prayers that lead us to contemplate our own suffering and its causes and to seek dharma as the medicine. The first is a meditation on the causes of worldly suffering and a prayer to the root lama to lead us to great bliss. The second is a prayer to the lama to remove the obstacles along the spiritual path that lead to suffering or block realization.
The third and longest of the prayers begins with a supplication to Kuntu Zangpo and the ultimate state of one’s own realized mind. This is the goal of practice. Taking refuge in all worthy beings and objects, it then guides us to purify our mindstream by experientially encountering the enlightened wisdom of the buddhas in each of the six lokas and chakras of the subtle body, and then realizing the inseparability of all the buddhas from one’s own awakened awareness. Finally, His Holiness the 22nd Menri Trizin reveals how awakened awareness manifests. This beautifully translated prayer can inspire one to a deeper place of devotion, connection and commitment to practice and benefit others.
Forty Three Trainings for an Enlightened Mind is a very short text, with 27 of its 92 pages the Tibetan language version of the four translated texts. Following the Tibetan texts, the translator provides four explanatory appendices and a glossary of terms. But in that space it unpacks all aspects of practice, from what is needed to practice successfully in the first place, to the outer conduct and meditations that will tame our mindstream, to all the inner signs of realization. One would be hard pressed to find a more clear, concise or beautifully rendered description of the path of practice.
His Holiness’ Visit and Serenity Ridge’s Summer Retreat
We are honored to welcome His Holiness, the 34th Gyalwa Menri Trizin Rinpoche, spiritual head of the Bön tradition, back to Serenity Ridge. He will be with us for the full two weeks of our summer retreat, June 24 – July 8 2023.
Registration is now open, and you can join for one or both weeks in person or online.
- Week 1: June 24 – July 1
- Week 2: July 2 – July 8
His Holiness was last at Serenity Ridge for the 2019 Summer Retreat while on his worldwide tour after being enthroned in early 2018. This summer, he will be with us for the full two weeks of the summer retreat. His Holiness and Rinpoche will teach separately each day on different topics.
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will teach Tummo, Inner Fire of Realization, Part 3, third in a four part series. Tummo refers to inner heat, and its teachings are designed to burn away subtle obscurations and cultivate bliss. Rinpoche will teach 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.
His Holiness will teach from the Twenty-Four Masters, and will give the oral transmissions (lung) of the chapters from the Bon Mother Tantra on Dream Yoga, Elements, Chod, Powa, Bardo and Sleep Yoga. In addition, His Holiness also will offer the Sherap Chamma initiation (wang) on Saturday, July 1.
You may attend one or both weeks of the retreat. New students are welcome to attend, and the retreat is open to everyone. If only able to join for one week, Rinpoche advises those new to these teachings to come to week one.
We hope you can join us!
Learn more/register for onsite retreat at Serenity Ridge
Learn more/register for online retreat on Zoom
Starting in February: Ligmincha Learning’s Sherap Chamma and Treasures of Bön
Ligmincha Learning is pleased to offer two courses starting in February. “Sherap Chamma” with senior teacher Marcy Vaugh begins February 1. “Treasures of Bön” with Ligmincha Texas resident lama Geshe Denma Gyaltsen and course mentor and teacher John Jackson begins February 29.
Join Us Online January 26 for Events Honoring H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche
Join Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Ligmincha sangha members worldwide this Saturday, January 26, on Facebook Live to celebrate the life and work of His Eminence Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. The schedule for both the US and Europe is listed below.
New 3 Doors Course on Creativity with Marcy Vaughn Starts January 24
The 3 Doors is pleased to announce a new online course starting in January. Join 3 Doors senior teacher Marcy Vaughn for Igniting the Fire of Creativity from January 24–March 6, 2020.
Are you living an inspired life? Participants will explore meditation practices that support having a vital relationship with your inherent creativity, to care well for yourself and others, and to awaken the inspiration to express your life fully.
Participate in Global Mantra Marathon January 11 and 12 for H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche
Join us for a Global Mantra Marathon on January 11 for the benefit of His Eminence Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche on the occasion of his 95th birthday. For 24 hours, from January 11, 2020 at 10 a.m. (New York time) until January 12, 2020 at 10 a.m. (New York time,) Ligmincha will host an online space to recite and accumulate long life mantras. Everyone is invited to participate in this event, which will take place via Zoom.
Special New Year’s Broadcast with Tenzin Rinpoche: Long Life Mantra for H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche
Toward the long life of His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, Ligmincha sangha and friends are invited to join Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche online for a special live broadcast, scheduled for New Year’s Day at approximately 9:30 a.m. New York time.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche Plans Yearlong Sabbatical in 2021
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha International, is planning to take a yearlong sabbatical beginning on January 3, 2021. During that time he will be spending more time with family, making space for personal retreat, and actively engaging with and exploring stillness, silence and spaciousness.
3 Doors Online Course: ‘The Healing Power of Silence’ with Gabriel Rocco
A new six-week self-guided online course with 3 Doors senior teacher Gabriel Rocco will be offered December 6, 2019–Jan 17, 2020 (with a break on December 27). This course will support participants in recognizing patterns of inner and outer speech and how to use precision of attention to rest in powerful, transformative inner silence.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche Launches CyberSangha
One of the greatest strengths of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche’s ongoing program of free Internet teachings is the community of individuals around the world who regularly follow Rinpoche’s teachings and guided meditations and share mutual support. As a resource for this lively and growing community, with the help of volunteers Rinpoche has now launched a new website, CyberSangha.net.
Fundraiser for Great Bön Stupa in Mexico
The Great Bön Stupa for World Peace in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, was consecrated on December 4, 2010. Now, Ligmincha Mexico has a program to improve the retreat center and also allow groups and individuals to generate merit by sponsoring a series of new stupas.
Tibetan Language Bön Course: Invocation of Tapihritsa
The Tibetan Language Bön Prayers Program is pleased to announce a new online course focusing on the Invocation of Tapihritsa taught by Geshe Denma Gyaltsen, resident lama of Ligmincha Texas. It will be offered October 20–November 17 through Ligmincha Learning.