Summer Update from Kunsangar North

A sunny hello to all from Kunsangar North!

Spring came very early this year, the snow melted quickly, and now the Gar is again covered in green trees. And more and more practitioners are coming to the Gar – some for retreats, some as volunteers or karmayogis, some just to take a break from noisy Moscow.

The central event was, of course, the long awaited retreat with Yeshi Namkhai. A lot of people from all over Russia connected to the teachings via Zoom. Students from different cities came to the Gar. We again experienced that joyful state of coming together and uniting with the state of the master in Guruyoga! There were a lot of new people who came to the Gar to receive the transmission together, and some of them joined the Community.

Webcast of the retreat with Yeshi Namkhai in the Gar.

During the retreat there were many activities at the Gar under the guidance of our instructors: we danced Vajra Dance with Tanya Pronicheva, Olya Nimachuk and Tanya Gerasimova, did Yantra Yoga with Ira Novikova, and in the evenings Sasha Gomonov explained the base of Santi Maha Sangha and some practices to beginners. Everyone was very joyful.

Left: Santi Maha Sangha with Alexander Gomonov. Right: Vajra Dance with Tanya Pronicheva.

It was as if the retreat with Yeshi had breathed new life into the Gar. And immediately a project arose: the restoration of the outer walls at Rinpoche’s house. How amicably and joyfully the karma yogis worked at it! At the same time, work on the restoration and painting of our Stupa of Perfect Victory is taking place. It will be covered in sacred syllables and symbols from inside. In addition, thanks to the generosity of some sponsors, we began the restoration of the sangkhang.

Works in the Gar: restoration of the Sangkhang and renovation of the walls of Rinpoche’s house.

There are many old trees in the forest near the Gar. It takes great skill to put down a dried-up tree. We often get help from locals, just because we are good neighbours.

Falling down a tree.

Very soon we will have a festival to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Gar. We are now actively preparing for it. We have also decided to refurbish old Vajra Dance mandalas and order new ones as more and more new people are showing interest in this practice. And we hope very much that with time new instructors will also appear. The practice of Vajra Dance is very popular at the Gar, and we regularly hold Dance retreats.

This spring Santi Maha Sangha instructor Sasha Gomonov came to the Gar several times. We practiced a lot, studied, discussed and danced with him. It was very interesting and useful.

Sang and Serkyem practices at the Gar.

With the onset of the warm weather we began to hold regular Sang and Serkyem practices at the stupa as well as practices of long thun. The stupa is becoming more and more famous among local people and more people are coming to it to circumambulate and make wishes and some believe they can improve their health.

From 16 to 18 June, an exciting non-stop marathon of the Dance of the Song of the Vajra took place at the Gar. The participants danced continuously for 50 hours on three mandalas, and at the end there was a festive ganapuja. Everyone was very happy. The Gar was all shining and permeated with the sounds of the Song of the Vajra.