This Autumn 2021 DCC Newsletter Special Edition is lovingly created to honour the memory and celebrate in a small way what would have been the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche's 90th birthday.
Several months ago Trudy was delighted to re-discover amongst old files, photographs taken by Gerry Kopelow of Namgyal Rinpoche's Memorial Service held at the Dharma Centre in November 2003: 'Seeing faces, once again after almost 18 years, so many of us. Our younger selves. Others now long gone. Our sadness and our joy. Our coming together to create beauty and pay homage to a being who had touched every person in that tent so very deeply. I felt strongly that these photos ought to be shared and sent a link to Marion and Marta knowing their connection to the DCC would make these photos a wonder to behold.'
After sharing the photos we thought about all the DCC visitors and practitioners who had never met “Sir.” We reflected how so many of the people who now study with our present-day teachers never met, yet are so strongly influenced by this extraordinary being. He was heard to have said: 'The Dharma Centre is my body', and here we are, serving him still. The idea came into being to dedicate this issue of the DCC Newsletter to Namgyal Rinpoche. Through the voices of this small number within the countless many who spent time and studied with Rinpoche, we present some memories and stories. We acknowledge that we have not asked enough people and we’ve missed some whom we probably ought to have asked. Yet each story herein has been gifted to this newsletter and each is so heart-warming and heart-felt that we hope everyone reading this newsletter will get some sense of the vastness of this Teacher’s loving and compassionate presence.
The newsletter also includes updates from our hard-working Board of Directors as well as retreat testimonials and news about upcoming retreats. Please read the article about the AGM — board nominations are welcome and needed for this year’s Dec 5 AGM.
If you have a story you’d like to share — please get in touch!
Stay safe. Stay well.
Marion & Trudy (Co-editors)
We respectfully acknowledge that the Dharma Centre of Canada is located in the traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Nations, collectively known as the Williams Treaties First Nations. The Dharma Centre also acknowledges that the Williams Treaties First Nations are the stewards and caretakers of these lands and waters in perpetuity. We are all Treaty people. We also recognize the unique history, culture and traditions of Métis, Inuit, and other First People for their wisdom, contributions and teaching.
I've been a solo retreatant at the Dharma Center for the past 6 years coming often with a focus on retreats through the winter months. Winter on the land here has such a deep quality of stillness… it invites and awakens experiences of all ranges.
Peter Kok
Read MoreThe Dharma Centre is such a wondrous place of transformation - literally. From an abandoned mink farm it has become a beloved place of refuge and a foundation for spiritual growth, exploration and awakening for so many.
Trudy and Marion (co-editors)
Read MoreIn December 1961, after five years travelling in the East, Bhikkhu Ananda Bodhi was invited by the English Sangha Association to teach in England, where he established a Buddhist vihara and meditation centre.
Lama Sonam Gyatso
Read MoreAs I reminisce on the latter sixties, when the Kinmount Dharma Centre’s somewhat wild and crazy history began, my recall is a sketch containing fragments, bits and pieces culled from my and a few friends’ memory banks.
Heather Rigby (Ravalokha)
Read MoreOriginally, Tseringma House was built for the much loved and highly respected, Ven. Chorpel Dolma, one of Namgyal Rinpoche’s first students in England who had followed him to Toronto in the 60s.
Karma Chime Wongmo
Read MoreI’ve been asked what it is like being on the board of the DCC while based outside Ontario. It’s not only outside of Ontario, but outside of Canada, outside of North America!
Eva Gohl
Read MoreHello! My name is Travis Olsen and I was asked by the DC board and Spiritual Directors to be the Project Leader for the Temple Project. Before I share an update with you, I’d like to begin by humbly expressing my gratitude…
Travis Olsen
Read MoreRecently I volunteered to update the Dharma Centre’s participant contact list. Over the years many email addresses, street addresses and phone numbers have changed and the Centre was losing touch with many of the people who had contributed…
David Berry
Read MoreWell it has been a summer to remember! So many events competing for attention as we all struggled to adapt to Covid times. And more and more people who recognize the refuge that the DCC affords.
Terry Hagan (on behalf of the Monument restoration committee)
Read MoreWalking around the quiet streets of the city, passing by all the closed restaurants, bars and many businesses that would usually be packed this time of year, there’s a sense of stillness and calm that ironically hasn’t been translating into an inner sense of peace or calm.
Hagop Alanjian
Read MoreHaving been raised in the dark ages of dish pan hands, before there was a mute button on the television remote, and before there was a remote, for that matter, I remember there was a character named Madge…
Jeff Riches
Read More2020, a new decade, a leap year, a year that began for me in a small room on top of a roof on North Galiano Island during a 4-month Abhidhamma retreat.
Marion Herlet
Read MoreWe are pleased to be sending out a refreshed version of the DCC’s newsletter. This Summer 2020 issue focuses on and contains several articles about the DCC’s Monuments…
Trudy & Marion
Co-editors
Last week while in retreat, we were drawn to the window by the rumble and thunder of an impending storm…
Mala Sikka and Terry Hagan
Read MoreWe are aging. So are the DCC’s monuments. Time to repair and return them to their beauty again….
Trudy Gold
Read More“… The Buddha recommended developing five qualities for all beings who are on the Bodhisattva path….
Lama Chokyi Gyaltsen (Lama Mark Webber)
Read MoreI returned to the Dharma Centre recently after more than a decade away, to continue the work of maintaining the Centre’s various monuments begun almost fifty years ago….
Oliver Harte
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