All Mandala Retreat Begins

This year's All Mandala Retreat got under way at Lerab Ling last weekend, with more than 1,200 people squeezing into the temple for Sogyal Rinpoche's first teaching on Sunday.

Students from all over the world have arrived for Rigpa's biggest event of the year, and a further 300 are expected to arrive over the next week.

The teaching focus for the first part of the retreat will be bodhichitta.

Tsoknyi Rinpoche at Lerab Ling

Lerab Ling received another important visitor last month, when Tsoknyi Rinpoche gave teachings to the students following the Three Year Retreat.

The main focus for the teachings was how the lung, or 'inner air' (prana in Sanskrit) aspect of our psycho-physical system can lead to 'speediness' in life and affect our meditation practice.

Rinpoche explained how lung is understood in the Tibetan tradition, and suggested some simple ways to keep the lung under control by using the breath. He also answered questions from retreatants about their practice and gave advice about how to be on retreat.