Karmê Chöling — Barnet, United States

A Shambhala Buddhist meditation retreat centre in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom

Up in the retreat area, the Purkhang, a stupa-like monument, stands among open meadows. Below it, in the woods, are cabins with names like Yeshe, Nagarjuna and Great Eastern Sun. One sits in a bowl-shaped glade where, the centre says, groups of deer often sleep close to the porch. This is Karmê Chöling, in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The land was originally home to the Abenaki people, and was later a dairy farm. Then it became the first land center established by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the Tibetan meditation master the centre calls its founder. By its own account, he fled his monastery and home during China's invasion of Tibet in 1959, went on to study at Oxford, and became one of the foremost scholars to translate Buddhism linguistically and culturally for Western students. Karmê Chöling has served the international Shambhala community for 50 years. After his passing, leadership went to his son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, and more recently to the Shambhala Board. Today the centre has six meditation halls: the Main Shrine Room, Community Room, Teacher's Room, Shambhala Shrineroom and Sadhana Shrineroom in the Main House, and a meditation hall in the Pavilion. There are also woodland trails, a one-acre organic garden and seven rustic cabins for solitary retreat. A video and audio archive reaches back 50 years and includes original talks given here by Trungpa and others that were later transcribed into books. The teaching draws on the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages alongside the Shambhala lineage, with many retreats grounded in Shamatha-Vipashyana. Programs also include qigong, tai chi, ikebana and kyudo archery. Visitors can come for a weekend, a personal or group retreat, or a long-term residency, and residents may telecommute. Lodging runs from dormitory beds and private rooms to a seasonal campground.

Traditions: Shambhala Buddhism, Shamatha-Vipashyana, Kagyu, Nyingma, Kyudo, Qigong

Programs: Solitary Cabin Retreats, Residency, Personal Retreats, Company Work Retreats, Ngöndro Practice Intensive, Kado - Ikebana, Tai Chi Seasons of Energy, Sadhana of Mahamudra Practice