If you don’t know about a city like St. Petersburg, we’ll tell you a little bit. It’s big (it’s home to seven million people), it has many rivers and canals, which are framed by granite embankments and crossed by open-work bridges. The water is usually the color of liquid lead, because it’s windy here. The sky is covered with clouds, so we’re always happy when we see the open blue sky. St. Petersburg was founded in a cruel time so it’s often said that it “stands on bones” as there are many cemeteries here; for example, at the beginning of the 20th century, during the Great Patriotic War, almost an entire generation of St. Petersburg’s citizens died of hunger. But there are also many magnificent palaces, museums, and institutes that house masterpieces of art, ancient artifacts, and manuscripts.
Our city is beautiful and complex — in a word, a very good place to practice. At the moment Chögyal Namkhai Norbu got off the train at the station in the center of St. Petersburg in 1992, the mandala of the Teaching began to unfold in our city. Those who were lucky enough to enter it became the sangha, to which Rinpoche gave the name Sangyeling. In the best of times, Namkhai Yeshi and almost all the international teachers have come to us. We have produced our own instructors and have held hundreds of retreats. We have a large gönpa with a mandala of the Vajra Dance in the very center of the city, right next to that very train station.
We once had 220 official members, then Rinpoche passed away and there were 160 of us. Now, thanks to the power of the transmission and the fact that Namkhai Yeshi began to give teachings, there are already 180 of us. And the people who have received the transmission but have not become members of the Community in St. Petersburg number many hundreds, if not thousands.
It is believed that the residents of St. Petersburg are a little slow – perhaps this is true. We often save our energy, as we live in a rather harsh climate, transitional between maritime and continental, and, having the history of our city and country behind us, we are used to reading between the lines and not rushing as the future is opaque. Therefore, we try to live in the present.
In the gönpa, we gather for collective practices, Vajra Dances, Yantra Yoga, Khaita, Santi Maha Sangha retreats and watching webcasts of Namkhai Yeshi’s teachings and recordings of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. We have a self-organized group studying the melodies of practices, as well as an online group for studying Dzogchen texts. We broadcast regular Yantra Yoga classes in Zoom, practices and SMS retreats, ganapujas and Samantabhadra monlams on special days. We do not hold open classes and retreats very often, only two or three times a year, but now we hope to revive our project “Evolution – St. Pete”, a framework in which interesting and varied lectures, seminars and concerts were held.
In St. Petersburg there are now two Santi Maha Sangha teachers, three Yantra Yoga teachers plus a teacher of the 8 movements, a Kumar Kumari teacher and a Respira instructor, four Vajra Dance teachers (two of them come from time to time) and two teachers of Khaita Joyful Dances. We love all these wonderful people very much who help us to develop awareness and presence in practice and life and do everything possible so that the Teaching infuses the body, speech and mind of those who want to unite with it. We also love, appreciate and invite Community teachers from other cities and countries.
For many years now, the St. Petersburg gakyil and assistants (not all of them are from St. Petersburg) have almost always managed to implement the principle of the “mandala of joy” – people come and go, but friendship and warmth, responsibility and cooperation, mutual assistance and humor remain. Community members also try to help the gakyil, and their suggestions are often very useful and pleasant – for example, in 2025 we created “only good news on Fridays” and a wonderful calendar with photos of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and St. Petersburg instructors.
Many of us have known each other for a long time, some have just joined; some people often come to the gönpa or to Zoom, others appear from time to time – we try to treat each other as members of our big family, not only St. Petersburg, but also Russian and international. Since the time of Covid, we have been keeping and constantly updating lists of people who need help with practices (long life and Garuda practices, Shitro practice), helping needy members of the Community and supporting charity projects and projects of the Community gars and lings – both the gakyil and Community members are involved in organizing. Also, since Covid and the Zoom boom, the Sangyeling gakyil have been making weekly schedules of online events of the entire international Dzogchen Community in Russian and publishing them in several information channels for all Russian-speaking members of the Community – this also helps us remember each other and feel like one family, transcending the limitations of space, if not time.
Thanks to Rinpoche, we sat next to you at many retreats, and now we see each other more often online, in Zoom or in the Community chats. We met and became friends – perhaps our face or name will just seem familiar to you if we meet again. And we, of course, will meet, because our vajra connection began and will not end – and now, thanks to Namkhai Yeshi, it is renewed and becomes even more alive and strong!
Come and visit us in Sangyeling, connect online or just write! We are always happy to answer – albeit sometimes in a northern leisurely manner.
Contacts:
Email address: spb.dzogchen@gmail.com
Telegram: @Sangyeling
