New Member Orientation Program - Your Personal Guide

Dear New Vajra Brothers and Sisters,

In 2015 we are inaugerated a Personal Guide Program for New Members. Your Personal Guide to the Community  can help you get started with practices, answer your questions, introduce you around, and welcome you as a fellow Vajra Brother or Sister. If you would like to connect with a Guide, please send an email to Blue Gakyil, at bluegakyil@tsegyalgar.org

Here are some of the ways your Guide can help:

• Introduce you to others at Retreats as well as at other times
• Take you on a tour of our facilities and explain a little of the history
• Answer questions about Tsegyalgar East, the International Dzogchen Community and Dzamlingar
• Explain a bit about Rinpoche’s background
• Orient you to Santi Maha Sangha, Yantra Yoga, Vajra Dance and Khaita 
• Help you explore the bookstore as well as ASIA and SSI, including the Tibetan Medicine Program
• Help you get started with teachings and practices, and encourage you be part of a practice group
• Answer questions about the teachings or refer you to someone who can answer their questions
• Explain the Gakyil and how it operates
• Encourage you  to volunteer in the Community in order to become quickly integrated into the Community

All of our Vajra Brothers and Sisters who are Personal Guides are eager to connect up with you. They are all Bodhicattvas, wanting to help.

More About the Community:

The easiest way to be in touch with us about your specific questions is to write.  The Blue Gakyil is your point of contact and can be reached at bluegakyil@tsegyalgar.org.

• The international forum of Norbunet will also keep you informed about international events though out the Dzogchen Community and asking to join with your member number #: norbunet+subscribe@googlegroups.com 
  Alternatively, if you have a Google account, go to http://groups.google.com/group/norbunet and click on the Apply for membership link.
• The Tsegylagar website is also a great resource and is updated weekly.
• The Melong is an invaluable way to keep up to date with Ripoche's schedule, articles about retreats and Teaching points as well as learn about other Gars and Lings around the world.
• Dzamling Gar is the seat of the International Dzogchen Community.
• ASIA, founded by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) operating in support of the preservation of the identity and historical heritage of the peoples of Asia, with particular attention to Tibet and the Himalayan region, and promotes sustainable development processes centred on local communities with their own human, cultural and environmental resources. Asia is currently providing relief efforts in Nepal.
• The Shang Shung Institute of America was founded by Rinpoche in 1994, and it is located in Conway, Massachusetts. It’s achievements include: an extensive library of educational resources on Tibetan culture, an onsite and online bookstore full of materials on Tibetan culture and the Dzogchen Teachings of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, and many public programs and courses on Tibetan Culture & Art. The most extensive project of  the American branch to date is a Tibetan medical school that is the first in the West to offer a four-year curriculum equivalent to traditional Tibetan medical schools in Tibet and India.

With love and many good wishes,
Tsegyalgar East Gakyil