Practitioners from across the world will join voices at the 2016 North American Kagyu Monlam in July at Kagyu Thubten Chöling Monastery to pray for all beings everywhere to enjoy peace, harmony, and freedom from suffering. We’ve received registrations from residents of many countries, including India, China, Nepal, Brazil, Colombia, and Indonesia—as well as our neighbor to the north, Canada. We’re also very pleased to announce that, to date, at least a dozen Rinpoches, twenty lamas, forty monastics, and sixty graduates of three-year-retreat programs are taking time from their busy schedules to attend the Monlam.

The gathering of so many dedicated practitioners directs tremendous energy toward fulfilling these vast aspirations for the well-being of our planet and all its inhabitants. The collective power of our compassion, aspiration, and commitment truly reflects the final words of one of the English-language translations of the Dendrup Monlam (“The Prayer to Accomplish the Truth”), which is recited at the end of each day of the Kagyu Monlam:

May the world have the good fortune of happiness!
We ask that the world be made happy.