2024 – New Cycle of the Three-Year Retreat

Gate Opening Ceremony Group G Three-year retreat Fall 2015

New Retreat Cycle – Starting Fall 2024

Pema Chödrön, Gampo Abbey, Shambhala Canada Society and the Gampo Abbey Monastic Society are pleased to announce that planning is underway for another cycle of its three-year retreat to be held at the Sopa Choling retreat center at Gampo Abbey, Nova Scotia, Canada. This retreat was envisioned by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, founded and designed by Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche, Abbot of Gampo Abbey and senior tutor to the 17th Karmapa.

Unique structure – all practices and texts in English

Unlike other three-year retreats, this retreat is designed to allow participants to mix deep meditation with post-meditation, life. It is therefore structured into 3 phases with a gap year between the first and second phases and between the second and third phases. The result is that the retreat extends over 5 years.

All practice texts (liturgies) and commentaries have been translated into English by the Nalanda Translation Committee, and all practice is done in English.

The retreat is being sponsored by the Gampo Abbey Monastic Society and its patrons.  We are looking for additional sponsors to help offset some of the costs of operating the retreat and are reaching out to some organizations that may provide funding for scholarships. All students of the Buddha are invited to submit an application for consideration.

It lies nestled on the rugged north Atlantic coast, sheltered from the pounding surf and raging winter winds. A virtual wildlife sanctuary with whales, dolphins, and seals gracing icy waters, and eagles, moose, and the occasional bobcat circumambulating its boundaries. This is Söpa Chöling, “dharma place of patience,” and it is a sanctuary for the practice of sanity. For it is here, in a uniquely Western approach to an ancient tradition of applied wisdom, that meditation is practiced under the most luxurious, and intense, of conditions. Söpa Chöling is a sane asylum…

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Andrew Holecek, graduate of Group D 1998-2003
Lhasang for Group G Gate Opening Ceremony