Welcome to the new ‘Rigpa Monthly’ sangha newsletter and ‘Sangha Member Portal’ web page
Sangha Engagement Team
We’re excited to offer you the new ‘Rigpa Monthly’ email newsletter and the ‘Sangha Member Portal’ web page.
Sometimes our inboxes get so full that we can’t find that crucial email we’re looking for, or the link to that event we want to join. Or we need to plan ahead in order to prioritise our spiritual life. We hope these new tools will be one way to help you find the right information, get inspired by news and happenings, and support you on your path.
In several countries, the Rigpa teams have been sending weekly, bi-weekly or monthly emails to their sanghas for some time, bringing together in one place that latest news, programmes and other content. It’s so appreciated that lots of sangha members say that they look forward to these newsletters and read them from start to finish.
We also received valuable feedback from sangha members in last year’s survey about communication that, while most appreciate the quality, timing and content of the emails they receive from Rigpa, one third said they feel overwhelmed by too many emails. We want to get the balance right!
‘Rigpa Monthly’ email newsletter
We have now consolidated many international emails into one monthly newsletter, in order to simplify and streamline things for you, the sangha, and learning from what works well in several countries.
The new ‘Rigpa Monthly’ email newsletter will replace the ‘Rigpa Practice Events’ email, ‘International Online Programme’ email, ‘Sangha Connection’ blog email, some Vision Board emails, and various other emails from international teams.
✼ Look out for the new ‘Rigpa Monthly’ email newsletter in your inbox on Guru Rinpoche Day each month.
In ‘Rigpa Monthly’ you’ll find the latest news from Rigpa, an overview of upcoming events according to your level of the path, as well as important updates from Prajna and ZAM.
Click on the tags ‘Foundation’, ‘Mahayana’ etc at the top of the programme section to jump straight to the programmes for each stage of the path, OR
Scroll through the whole newsletter to get an overview of everything.
*If you missed the first ‘Rigpa Monthly’ email, you can find it here.
*If you’re a Rigpa sangha member and are not subscribed to emails from Rigpa, you can update your settings in your student page in Admin and Care.
2. ‘Sangha Member Portal’ web page
The second part of simplifying information for the sangha is the ‘Sangha Member Portal’ webpage.
This page will help direct you to find main information including:
Sangha News
Sangha Programme
Rigpa Teams
Prayer Requests, and more
More topics will be added to the Sangha Member Portal in the coming months.
Share your feedback! using the feedback buttons on the ‘Sangha Member Portal’ page so we can improve and develop this tool for the sangha.
💡 Some tips to get the most out of the Sangha Member Portal
• CLICK on the icons
Look out for these and other icons in the ‘Rigpa Monthly’ email and the ‘Sangha Member Portal’ - just click on the icon to go to the page you want.
• FILTER to find what’s for you
Rigpa offers a rich programme of events and retreats in all countries throughout the year. It can be tricky to determine what’s for you. What’s most important?
To make it easier, and thanks to the experimentation by Rigpa France to find this great filtering tool, you can click on the filter buttons to select the events you're most interested in.
Do you want to see all events?
Just online events?
Just courses?
Only Mahayana events?
Only Dzogchen events?
Simply select from the filters to see the events of most interest to you.
Then click on ‘more info’ to go to the main page where you’ll find the full details about the event and how you can join. For example, an event might be hosted by Lerab Ling, Dzogchen Beara, Dharma Mati, Prajna or another Rigpa country. That’s where you find the full details.
Keep connected with your national and local programmes
The events on the Sangha Member Portal are those that are available to the sangha world-wide, according to the different levels of the path - Foundation, Mahayana, Vajrayana Preliminaries, Vajrayana Main and Dzogchen. These are often significant events that people will travel to join or they can follow online. They are also precious opportunities to meet and connect with Rigpa sangha members from around the world.
In addition to these programmes shared on the Sangha Member Portal, your national and local Rigpas continue to share courses and programmes with your ‘home sangha’. You’ll receive the usual emails from your local and national Rigpa teams keeping you connected with local events and sangha.
How do you know who an email is from?
‘Rigpa Monthly’ will come to you from the email sender ‘Rigpa’ because it is sharing Rigpa news and programmes from all around the world.
Emails from your national and local Rigpas will be easy to spot, with addresses like ‘Rigpa Australia’, ‘Rigpa Deutschland’, ‘Rigpa mandalamail’ (Netherlands), and so on.
🌟 A reminder of the key points about the new sangha communications:
‘Rigpa Monthly’ newsletter is about Rigpa news and programmes from around the world. (It is not a full list of every Rigpa event worldwide, instead it focuses on main international events.)
This newsletter replaces the ‘Practice Events News’, ‘International Online Programme’ email, ‘Sangha Connection’ blog email, and various other emails from international teams.
You will still occasionally get emails just on one topic, when the topic is really important.
You will continue to get your regular emails from your national and local Rigpa teams, Prajna (for subscribers*), ZAM (for subscribers*), Lerab Ling and Dzogchen Beara.
‘Rigpa Monthly’ will come to you from the email sender ‘Rigpa’ because it is sharing Rigpa news and programmes from all around the world.
Emails from your national and local Rigpas will be easy to spot, with addresses like ‘Rigpa Australia’, ‘Rigpa Deutschland’ and so on.
Share your feedback! using the feedback button ‘Sangha Member Portal’ so we can improve and develop this tool for the sangha.
This is just the beginning
These two new tools are just the beginning and they will continue to evolve based on your feedback and needs.
In the future, we hope to add other tools like a social media platform (not Facebook) where, as a worldwide community we can engage more directly with each other, building on the existing chat groups and social media pages that have been growing organically throughout the sangha.
✼ If you are interested in helping develop this please contact us!
With your feedback and engagement we can implement the best ways to communicate with the worldwide sangha.
A little note of gratitude
Thanks to everyone in the sangha who gave feedback and shared their ideas in the 2023 survey about communication. Thanks also to the representatives from Rigpa teams around the world who advised and gave input into the development of the ‘Rigpa Monthly’ newsletter and ‘Sangha Member Portal’ web page.
May this be of benefit.
*If you’re not currently subscribed to Prajna, join here.
*If you’re not subscribed to ZAM’s regular newsletter about dharma products, you can subscribe here.
The Sangha Engagement Team, who brings you this project, is a group of Rigpa students from different countries who together are leading projects related to Communications and connecting to our audiences.
The members are: Derek Corr, Gill Kainey, Hans Fredrik Gustafsson, Richard Grimes and Rob Van Willigen.
