I met Lama Norlha Rinpoche in New York City in October 1980. He had come to New York at the request of his root Lama, Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche, in 1976, to direct Kalu Rinpoche’s Dharma center there, Kagyu Dzamling Kunchab. I had some theoretical interest in Tibetan Buddhism but was a Zen practitioner—I wasn’t attracted to all the bells and whistles of the Tibetan practice. My friend Carolyn invited me one evening to come and meet the Lama she had recently started studying with; I ended up taking refuge with him that very week (October 29, 1980).

In 1978, Rinpoche and a handful of mostly impoverished students had managed to acquire an old factory site overlooking the Hudson River in Wappingers Falls, New York, and they were in the early stages of gearing up to establish what would be the first traditional Kagyu three-year, three-month retreat program in North America. Though I lived in Brooklyn with my boyfriend (later to be husband), I took the train to KTC most weekends and helped with whatever work was happening—clearing land, building the retreat houses, cooking, pulling out underbrush and poison ivy, etc. Rinpoche often gave teachings and Tibetan spelling and reading lessons, but most of the time he was in the field working hardest of all of us. I was present when the first three-year retreat at KTC began in June 1982, and I aspired to enter the second retreat in 1986—though my life took a different path at that time, with the birth of my beautiful and talented daughter just two months before the retreat began.

In 1991, when my daughter was four, we had the chance to move to New Hamburg, New York, to live in a house two miles from KTC Monastery while its owners participated in the third three-year retreat cycle. When they came out of retreat, we bought a house down the street. We lived in New Hamburg for nine years, and I spent as much of my free time as possible participating in work, study and practice at KTC, until my husband’s company transferred him to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 2000.

When I told Rinpoche about the transfer, he said that if I wanted to start a Dharma center in New Hampshire, he would help me. I thought, yes, I will definitely do that…someday. A few days later I encountered him on the KTC grounds as he was returning to the main house from one of the retreat houses. He gave me a stern look and said, “You must start a Dharma center right away, because people are waiting.”

It turned out to be true. Kagyu Samten Chöling began meeting the last week of December, 2000, at a community center/zendo on a pond in a former hippie commune in rural Barringon, New Hampshire. We had a close-knit sangha from the first week, and continued to grow as a community and develop our practice together in Barrington and Portsmouth until I left New Hampshire in September 2007…to finally realize my dream of entering the three-year retreat.

With any luck…that’s where I am now. The seventh cycle of 3-year, 3-month retreat began at KTC on January 5, 2008, and our graduation is scheduled for spring 2011. I have five fellow retreatants ranging in age from 23 to 64 (I’m second oldest, at 53), a very capable and caring retreat caretaker (that’s a very modest word for what she does, which includes looking after our every need and teaching us everything we need to know in order to put Lama Norlha Rinpoche’s instructions into practice) and a very kind, gentle and knowledgeable young assistant caretaker who completed the retreat before ours, who leads us in chanting and cooks us nourishing lunches.

There’s very little time to write in retreat (there’s barely time to eat or take a shower), and I am not allowed to say much about the content of the retreat program. But Rinpoche has given me permission to send a letter once a month or so to post on the KSC website to keep in touch and continue to encourage the KSC sangha with “Dharma pep talks.” They are just my own thoughts, informally presented. To really learn about the Dharma, visit KTC monastery, read books by authentic teachers, and/or find a qualified teacher locally to study with.

Thanks to my husband for posting these, to my husband and daughter (now 21) for supporting my retreat dream despite the inconvenience to themselves, to Jeffrey and Anne for accepting the role of KSC-NH center leaders and being the best friends one could hope for in this whirlpool of confusion, and to the KSC sangha for being such an enthusiastic, committed and mutually supportive group of Dharma practitioners. I hope you will all use the next three years as meaningfully as possible, and find daily time to meditate no matter how busy you life may be.

And most of all, thanks to Lama Norlha Rinpoche. He has now spent more than 30 years in this strange land of America, trying to make a home for the traditional Kagyu Dharma where it can survive intact and flourish anew. May he enjoy a very long life and excellent health, and may his every wish be instantly fulfilled.

Best wishes in the Dharma,
Karma Yeshe Chödron (called Chödron)
February 2008