Summer at Merigar East

Summer has a way of filling the Gonpa with voices from everywhere — and this year was no exception.

The Song of the Vajra, together in the Gonpa

From August 19–23, we had a beautiful retreat with Zoli Cser on the Semdzin of the Song of the Vajra. Practitioners came from Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine, Czechia, and of course locally from Romania.

We sang and danced the Song of the Vajra forty times together in only 4 days.

Online practice is always an option, and a good one — but practicing all together in the Gonpa is simply a different experience. If you ever have the occasion to join in person, don’t hesitate. It’s worth it.

Thank you, Zoli, and thank you to everyone who joined and made these days so rich.

Transforming suffering and happiness into the path

Just before that, we had a wonderful weekend of online teachings with Elias Capriles on transforming suffering and happiness into the path of awakening. It was a genuinely useful weekend — if you missed it, the recordings are still available. You’ll find the link in the Elias Capriles Activities channel on Sangha App.

Autumn is calling too

We’d love to remind everyone: Merigar East isn’t only for summer holidays and sunny days. The quiet, bright days of autumn are ideal too — especially for practicing alone. If you’re thinking of a personal retreat, we can support you. Just write to us at red.me@dzogchen.ro

There’s also plenty happening around the gar this autumn, if you’d like to combine practice with a bit of karma yoga:

Lavender project — we’re continuing to plant lavender, starting end of October/November. Join us if you’d like to get your hands in the soil.
Lungta printing and cutting/sewing — starting mid-October.

Gakyil is calling — Blue and Yellow sectors need you

We urgently need to bring new energy and inspiration into our Blue and Yellow sectors — as assistants, helping our small Gakyil team keep things running (and maybe, in time, joining it yourself).

You can get in touch by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/gvio8dNfimrH7jNA9

What we’re looking for:

At least 1 year as a member of the Dzogchen Community
Some karma yoga experience is a plus — but no experience is not a problem, we’ll show you the ropes
A serious intention and willingness to commit at least 1 year as an assistant, with an eye toward eventually stepping into a Gakyil role

For Blue sector, useful skills include:

Communication and organizational skills
Comfort with social media, Zoom, Google products (Drive, Forms, etc.), and Canva
WordPress experience is a nice bonus
Photo/video or other promotional skills

For Yellow sector, we’re looking for: