Berkeley Shambhala Meditation Center

“Hold the sadness and pain of samsara in your heart and at the same time the power and vision of the Great Eastern Sun. Then the warrior can make a proper cup of tea.”

~ Chögyam Trungpa

“Hold the sadness and pain of samsara in your heart and at the same time the power and vision of the Great Eastern Sun. Then the warrior can make a proper cup of tea.”
~ Chögyam Trungpa

“The cheap, ordinary concept is that, whenever somebody feels a sense of strength and power, they automatically turn it into neurosis and aggression. However, our approach to power comes out of tremendous gentleness.”
~ Chögyam Trungpa, True Command

All are welcome to join us in our beautiful shrine room for an end-of-year retreat which will feature sitting and walking meditation practice, teachings, discussion and Q&A.

Saturday–Wednesday, December 27 to 31 2025 • 9:30 am to 5:00 pm

Only in-person at Shambhala Berkeley center. Both weekend and per day attendance permitted.

Please learn about our teachers and registration here: https://berkeley.shambhala.org/program-details/?id=745989

Haunting us every day, because we are lucky!🍀
“Born a monk,
Died a king-
Such thunderstorm does not stop.
We will be haunting you, along with the dralas.
Jolly good luck!” ~Chögyam Trungpa

Please join us for a weekend of teaching with Richard John in person at Shambhala Berkeley or hybrid on zoom.

Sat November 8th: 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Sun November 9th: 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM

The Buddha taught that the first key to the path of realization was the practice of meditation. Some 2500 years later, Chögyam Trungpa and all lineage holders have taught that meditation is utterly necessary if we aspire to wake up. A turning point in our path occurs when one-pointed shamatha and vast vipashyana are strengthened and brought together. This has been called “mixing mind and space.”

In this retreat, we will apply a sequence of techniques, and also learn some of the inner qualities that make meditation authentic and powerful: What is the role of effort? Of diligence and relaxation? Of magic and inspiration?

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Richard John has been a student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche since 1975. He served as acharya for Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and completed the first three-year group retreat at Gampo Abbey. Richard has led Buddhist and Shambhala retreats throughout North America for over 30 years.
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Register on Shambhala Berkeley website:

https://berkeley.shambhala.org/program-details/?id=816762

Lama Lakshey Zangpo • The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva
Sat & Sun, Oct 11-12 at Berkeley Shambhala
Hybrid weekend program
https://berkeley.shambhala.org/program-details/?id=807833

This renowned Tibetan Buddhist teaching offers practical steps for cultivating the mind of awakening and living a life dedicated to the benefit of all beings. During this retreat, you'll discover practical ways to transform difficult situations into opportunities for growth and transformation. By embracing adversity and using it as the path, we can overcome negative emotions and attachments, ultimately realizing the interconnected nature of reality.

Lama Lakshey will provide clear instructions on how to purify the mind and actions for the benefit of others. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to deepen your understanding and practice of the Bodhisattva path!

This retreat will consist of talks, guided meditation practices, and Q&A sessions with Lama Lakshey.

“The problem is that the analytical mind cannot be freed by another aspect of analytical mind.”

~ Chögyam Trungpa

“In the Buddhist tradition, supplication is not asking something of some divine principle that exists somewhere else–upstairs in the loft. Instead, supplication is the fundamental principle of the simultaneous existence of depression and excitement. Whenever there is too much excitement, depression may become very useful. Whenever there is too much depression, some excitement may be workable and uplifting.

In the Buddhist nontheistic tradition, we don’t have to jump back and forth between depression and excitement, like a flea. We could stay on our own meditation cushion; we could simply sit and be. We could wash our dishes in the kitchen sink; we could drive our car; we could go to nine-to-five jobs–we could do all the things that we are supposed to be doing. But at the same time, we don’t have to jump back and forth anymore. We can simply stay where we are.”

~ Chögyam Trungpa, “The Sadhana of Mahamudra: Teachings on Devotion and Crazy Wisdom”

“In mindfulness of effort, one of the two main analogies for right effort is that of a person in love. When you are in love with a person or care for a person, your whole attitude is open toward that person. You get a very sudden abstract flash of your lover as being that! You don’t have to figure out where it came from. It just happens to you. You are in the state of love, rather than being in love with somebody. Anybody in that kind of complete involvement has that same kind of openness, which brings about sudden flashes, an almost magical sensation of thatness—without name, without concept, without idea.”
~ Chögyam Trungpa

Join us in the Berkeley shrine room with our teacher Gaylon Ferguson, for a Memorial Day Weekend retreat based upon the classic teachings in The Path is the Goal by Chögyam Trungpa.

The heart of the retreat will be mindfulness-awareness meditation (sitting and walking), and then dialogues and conversations about our experience of awareness. There may also be small breakout groups to talk about awareness meditation and everyday life.

It’s highly recommended to read or re-read The Path is the Goal by Chögyam Trungpa as the retreat is based on the teachings in this book.

People are welcome to attend and participate in all or part of the retreat. Anyone who attends part of or the whole retreat is invited to schedule a follow up one-to-one conversation with Gaylon Ferguson on Zoom or phone.

The retreat is open to everyone so meditation instruction will be offered as needed. There will also be at least one Vajrayana session for advanced students which will focus on awareness and the view/outlook of ta***ic practice.

GAYLON FERGUSON, PhD, has led group meditation retreats since 1976. He taught at Stanford, the University of Washington, and Naropa University, where he was a Core Faculty Member for fifteen years.

Read more about Gaylon and the retreat on Shambhala Berkeley's website:

https://berkeley.shambhala.org/program-details/?id=791482