The Shedra Project

Anton Rutkovskyi – Red International Gakyil
[email protected]

Shedra was created at first as a part of Shang Shung Institute activities and after some reorganizational activities is now supported by the IG and it is a part of the Atiyoga Foundation as it is published on the atiyoga.net website, so it is a part of both the International Dzogchen Community and the Atiyoga Foundation. Therefore, the International Gakyil has taken the responsibility to support this project and Kamil Selwa, who is the developer of this platform, and to communicate and spread the knowledge of this project. Eventually this platform will be open to the public and not only for members, because one of its main functions is to help in the development of activities for non-members so we made a lot of effort to give Shedra functionality for people from outside. If you would like details of costs for the project please contact the International Gakyil.

Today I would like to present the Shedra Project. This project is an educational platform for web management and instructor certification. First of all, I want to thank you for your generosity and for the auction that already took place to raise money for the development of this project.

The main goal of Shedra is to unify all the activities that are held in the International Dzogchen Community in the world. We are always interested in what is happening in the Lings and Gars, especially if we are traveling. It is not always easy to find this information, either open courses that we organize in Lings or Gars or closed courses for only IDC members. So the Shedra is where you can find all the information about Yantra Yoga, Khaita Dance, Vajra Dance and Santi Maha Sangha, Tibetan Language and Tibetan Medicine courses; everything in one place and on one website.

Rinpoche issued many certificates for instructors. The Shedra was designed as a digital platform for storing that information. You can see all the information about the instructors in the Dzogchen Community and their certifications in Shedra.

At the General Assembly in 2016, we decided that the three main functions of Shedra would be supporting educational activities, event management tasks for the Gakyil worldwide and as a digital storage place for certificates.

If you are Gakyil, you can use event management functions. You can go to Shedra  login page – https://atiyogafoundation.net/accounts/login/, and you organize an open course or a retreat. Shedra admin can use the certification section and see information about the instructors.

As a Shedra user you can see the list of certified instructors related to different teaching sections: Yantra Yoga instructors, for example – https://atiyogafoundation.net/en/studies/yantra-yoga/teachers/

In the educational program module section you can see all the descriptions of all the sections of the teachings that we have with their programs and benefits: KhaitaDances, Santi Maha Sangha(called “Inner Knowledge” for open public), Yantra Yoga, etc.

Also you can see different modules for the sections that we have, for example, the base level of Santi Maha Sangha, the first level, etc, and on the same page below you can see the instructors who are authorized to teach certain levels.

Regarding event management functionality, there are five main things you can do with the Shedra. First you can make the event, and you can find the description of the program of that event, and you can publish it on line. Also Shedra provides the automatic functionality of registration payments for these events, so you can do registration online and receive payments online. So for the Gakyil it is easier to organize events. Also we can send notifications to participants about the updates for that event. Also you can make the search for all courses available around the world. There is a function for the financial forecast for event organizers. It’s very simple to deal with the registration process and the process of donations, etc.

If the Lings and Gars Gakyil representatives fill in their information you can go to the page of the events calendarand you can see the list of all upcoming events, retreats and open courses that will take place in certain Lings or Gars. You can also see the contact information for the Lings and Gars and you can subscribe with your google calendar to the event notifications of certain Lings. You can see past events and all the details of the event; you can have a link to the profile of the instructors and the courses given and then be able to go to a page of that instructor describing all the courses they have given and their certifications, etc. All the information is stored in one place.

The three main functionalities are educational program management; the first is that you can see all the sections of all the teachings in one place, the second is all the instructors and their certification according to which section of the teachings they are authorized to teach and the third is the open and closed events management functions that helps Gakyils to organize events and simplify the process of organizing any courses.

Currently we are working with Kamil Selwa and Dina Priymak to bring new functionality to Shedra. We know that if a Gar or Ling has daily or weekly events, the Gakyil needs to send more frequent updates through various media, so we wanted to create one simple interface for all Gakyils. This functionality is more related to daily updates – the previous information of events management is more related to courses, retreats or certain kinds of events. This functionality deals more with daily programs that happen at Gars and Lings.

It is also important to say that this project is pretty complex and we constantly work on improving the functionality, so you may possibly find that some things are not working perfectly or you see something that needs to be improved. If you find difficulty in organizing events or using functionality, or you want training on how to use Shedra, we will be very happy to provide this support or to fix any problems in the system that you may see and help you understand how to use Shedra.

To start using Shedra you go to the atifoundation.net site, after you make sure you are listed as Gakyil in the dzogchen.net Members Management System, and then you go to the https://atifoundation.net/accounts/profilewith your dzogchen.net credentials. You use the same credentials, you don’t need to register in the new platform because we use the same membership data that we have in dzogchen.net. You can go to your profile on atifoundation.net and your information is already there. When you log into your profile, if you are Gakyil, the system automatically recognizes which kind of user role you have. If you are Gakyil you can go to the site and organize a new course or event.

If you are a member of the IDC, you can go and see the list of events and see the events by a certain teaching section, you can see the instructors and you also have the possibility to register to some course and events that are organized by the Gakyil. If you are Gakyil you can go to your personal page on the atiyogafoundation.netwebsite and have the functionality of organizing courses. Also if you are Gakyil and you need any assistance for using Shedra or you have anything to offer as  help or any comments or recommendations for us, you can contact our Shedra support manager Dina Priymak at <[email protected]>.

I also want to say that this is a work in progress, so it’s a process of improving Shedra step by step. Now we have come to the stage where we are ready to spread the word about Shedra and we invite you to test it and use it and we will improve the system together and bring it to the level that will bring much benefit to the Gakyil and to participants in the events, the members of the Dzogchen Community.

So in a few months we will be ready with the daily communication tool so you can easily send emails and notifications, you can export news and information to your local website of your Ling or Gar, or you can offer people to subscribe to your google calendar, so you have the opportunity to put all the data of your events in one place and it will export to every place you need it to. You won’t need to update, you will be able to send one email and everything will be updated. We will try to create the place, if you are the Gakyil, where you can do ALL these updates from one place, from your Shedra account page,

This is the current situation of the project and we are happy to answer any questions you have.