The New Monthly Gatherings - Getting Together as a Community ‘New and Old’
Rigpa Community Working Group
From October this year the Rigpa sangha will see a new, fresh, Monthly Gathering programme for everyone in the Rigpa Community—long time sangha members, newer members and anyone who has been joining Rigpa meditations or courses.
The Monthly Gathering will be an opportunity to get together, share a new Dharma topic each month and just hang out with friends ‘old and new’. Each month is ‘stand alone’ so you can just join when you can, you won’t be missing out on the thread.
Watch this 5-minute video from the international Community Working Group to learn more (or you can read all the info below).
Focusing on our Community
To give some more background and context, when the national and international teams came together in August 2020 to look at our priorities in Rigpa, it was clear for everyone that to take care of and build our community was a top priority.
An international Community Working Group with members from many different countries who all have a love and passion for our Community was established and organized early this year to look into how to enliven and strengthen our dharma community, and to welcome anyone who wants to be part of the activities in centers and online.
The aim of the group is to make sure that the topic of ‘community’ is alive and that it’s not just a point on a list that is maybe a good idea but it’s really an active guiding principle for decision making within our sangha. As a group we try to stimulate that by making suggestions and giving advice to different groups in international and national teams within Rigpa. For that reason, one thing that we became involved in is the conversation about how to reinvigorate the monthly gathering (which included separating it from the All Encompassing Path programme). The original intent of the AEP was to come together and to stay connected to Sogyal Rinpoche’s teachings and his activity as he toured and taught around the world each year. Then as time moved on and circumstances changed, for different reasons many people stopped joining and so we lost the opportunity for our whole sangha to come together on a regular basis.
So, the main point of these new gatherings is to really bring everyone together worldwide in each of our centres (online and in person) each month.
What’s in the new Monthly Gatherings?
Each gathering will stand alone, will have a short and juicy centerpiece, and be more spacious to allow conversations about the topic, to practice together, and just to catch up personally.
What is this centerpiece? This could be a teaching, it could be a current topic that’s relevant at the moment, or it could even be something that’s going on within Rigpa the organisation or something that a local sangha is going for its community.
Each of these sessions will be hosted and created by a different group each month. For the very first session, the Community Working Group is putting together a session for you where we will be exploring the topic of Community. It’s going to be new. It’s going to be refreshing and the Community team are so happy to bring this to the sangha. There will also be opportunities for the sangha to suggest topics they would like to see in the Gatherings (if something comes to mind you can share it in the form here).
Who are the new Monthly Gatherings Open to?
These sessions are open to anyone who is participating in some capacity in Rigpa whether that be a drop in meditation, maybe they are following some courses and of course, Rigpa mandala students.
The very first session will be in early October - check with your local centre / online group what date they will hold the Gathering and save the date in your calendar. See you there!
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