Karmê Chöling Shambhala Meditation Center

Meditation | Culture | Community

Nestled in the beautiful green mountains of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, Karmê Chöling offers contemplative programs and year-round retreats to inspire wisdom and compassion in our everyday lives. As part of the global community of Shambhala we are dedicated to awakening our human hearts with kindness, bravery, and genuine dialogue.

With an array of accommodations, elegant meditation halls, an abundant organic garden, and a warm, inviting residential staff, you will find an ideal setting to explore what it means to be fully human while deepening your connection to the earth, yourself, and society.

About Shambhala

Shambhala is a global community with over 200 meditation and retreat centers around the world. As one of it’s four largest rural retreat centers, Karmê Chöling brings together people of all ages and from all walks of life who are interested in exploring our minds, transforming our experience, and awakening our potential for enlightened society.

We offer a path of meditation practice and contemplative arts oriented towards modern life. Our communities around the world cultivate kindness, bravery, and genuine dialogue. Our vision is to inspire compassionate, sustainable, and just human societies.

We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others to work on ourselves.

~ Pema Chödrön

Dathüns and Weekthuns

Dathüns and weekthüns are in-depth retreats and a powerful introduction to and deepening of mindfulness-awareness meditation. They are offered multiple times throughout the year as one-week, two-week or month-long group retreats.

During these programs, the practice of mindfulness goes beyond sitting on a meditation cushion; every aspect of daily life becomes part of the mindful discipline of rediscovering the present moment and our own hearts and minds.

February 21 - 23

Dön Season Retreat *

Gathering during the Dön Season, a time when obstacles are particularly prevalent, is especially potent for Dorje Kasung because of our connection to the protection principle.

February 24

Shambhala Day

with Trinley Busby and Karme Choling Executive Director Betsy Railla

This year Karme Choling will play host to the international Shambhala Day Broadcast. Join us and local sangha to celebrate.

April 3 - 5

Sadhana of Mahamudra Community Weekend

with Rupa Acharya Suzann Duquette

The Sadhana of Mahamudra, written by the Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, brings together the devotion mahamudra of the Kagyu and the crazy wisdom ati of the Nyingma. As such, it provides a powerful touchstone for understanding our vajrayana heritage.

April 4

Parinirvana Day

Please join us for this annual all-day celebration of Parinirvana Day, the anniversary of the passing of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the founder of Shambhala.

April 28 - May 3

Lineage as the Heart of Ritual - Invoking Drala through Harmony in Voice & Movement *

with Rupa Acharya Suzann Duquette, Walker Blaine, Andrea Doukas and Timothy Quigley

A five-day retreat offering advanced training in lhasangs and feast practices for Shambhala Ritual Academy Werma Sadhana practitioners. We will practice, deepen, study shrine room iconography, and share the power of ritual in community.

Mukpo Institute

Karmê Chöling is host to Mukpo Institute, a three-month path of practice, study, and community. The program focuses on putting your practice and study into action every day as you engage... Continue reading
Meditation

The following will guide you through the basic technique of meditation and how to prepare a place to practice at home. You will also find additional resources and a listing... Continue reading
Samadhi Cushions

Samadhi Cushions and Store was started by students of the late Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, founder of Shambhala. They have been making and selling quality cushions for practitioners of meditation since 1975. Their cushions... Continue reading