After over 22 years launching and teaching at Sukhasiddhi Foundation, leading retreats, training teachers, while much of the time also working as a therapist and teaching the Diamond Heart work, it is time for me to step back and have a much quieter life. And, I continue to be the Senior Lama at Sukhasiddhi, and will guide and teach from a distance, as well as when I come to the San Francisco Bay Area. I am overjoyed that Lama Dondrup Drolma, my gifted successor, has taken over as Resident Lama of Sukhasiddhi. The yoginis, Lama Tashi (Annik Brunet) and Lama Pat Berube, as well as many of the Sukhasiddhi Community Dharma Leaders are teaching and guiding students as well.

All of the Sukahsiddhi lamas are highly qualified. Lama Dondrup completed her three year retreat in 2005, and has blossomed as a leader, an excellent teacher and mentor, in addition to leading the piano conservatory at San Domenico in San Anselmo. Lama Tashi and Lama Pat have been studying and practicing with me for 22 years. Lama Tashi is doing an outstanding job with our Bodhi Program, helping many people to transform themselves and their lives and to complete ngondro. She also has been preparing them to enter into the advanced Shangpa Program, which is based on the yidam practice of Gyu de Lha Nga, a Five Tantras Awakened Yab Yum meditation and the Sukhasiddhi Six Yogas. Lama Tashi and I will be teaching the new Shangpa group starting this June. Lama Pat has been leading our Clear Light Institute, which helps people work with Death and Dying by bringing in the profound understanding of the Dharma. Lama Pat also helps people prepare for their death in a practical way, as well as spiritually and emotionally.

Our Sukhasiddhi CDLs bring a wealth of training, experience, and talent to their sharing of the Dharma in a variety of contexts, from physical spiritual practices such as Lujong, to working with the aging, with children, in corporations, in therapy, schools, nursing and so forth.

I am profoundly grateful to be able to step back and see Sukhasiddhi continue to thrive in the capable hands of these fine Dharma practitioners.

Portugal is a very nourishing place, where I can lead a much quieter life, and continue on my Bodhisattva path of transformation and liberation. In addition to having much more time to devote to my personal Dharma practice, I am recovering and rejuvenating from many years of very intense work. I gave everything I had, from the depths of my heart and soul, to my work with Sukhasiddhi, with students, and clients.

The beauty, peace, spaciousness, and quiet here feeds me. I am in the secluded countryside, yet only ten minutes from town, 20 minutes from an airport, so it’s the best of all worlds. The countryside is unspoiled, and the pace of life is much slower than in the SF Bay Area. It feels somehow more old-fashioned, both in its traditional architecture and in its simplicity and values. There’s a freshness and purity in many of the people here that reminds me of Bhutan.

My property also has a retreat cottage for students of mine to deepen their meditation in a gorgeous garden. I am very much enjoying working with my first retreatant and working with students and clients one-on-one by Zoom and phone. I am deeply grateful to my gurus for helping me to land in this sacred place.