February 17 – 26

3:00-4:00 p.m. ET

Donations are Welcome!

Shambhala Online offers end-of-year practices free of charge to support our community. We gratefully welcome your donations so we can continue to share the Dharma with our community and the world.

About the End of the Year Practice Sessions

These sessions are every day from February 17 – February 26 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. Use the time zone converter for your local start time. These special events take place duringthe end of year practice period before Shambhala Day, on February 28. 

This year, each session features short talks by Dorje Kasung in the Shambhala community, followed by group recitations of the protector, mamo, and closing chants.

These sessions will offer explorations of the various protector chants, deepening our understanding of this end of year practice tradition, and greatly enriching our ability to practice in a whole-hearted way.

Year of the Wood Dragon End of Year Practice Topics and Presenters

Each practice event will use the same Zoom link (provided after registering). Join as few or as many sessions as you like!

• Feb 17 – Mamos, Dons, and Protectors: Confidence To Embody Our Practice, led by Lennart Krogoll
• Feb 18 – The Karma of Pacifying, led by Julia McKaig
• Feb 19 – Meek: Arise! Arise! Tiger of the East, led by Richard Peisinger
• Feb 20 – Protection On The Spot: When (And When Not) To Act, led by Will Ryken
• Feb 21 – The Karma of Enriching, led by Amanda Hester
• Feb 22 – The Karma of Magnetizing, led by Paula Bickford
• Feb 23 – The Karma of Destroying, led by Emilia Volz
• Feb 24 – Manifesting Lion, Garuda, Dragon, led by Colin Stubbert
• Feb 25 – “KA” and the Four Karmas, led by Aaron Snyder
• Feb 26 – Offering and Celebrating: Onwards and Upwards, led by Lennart Krogoll

Format for each session

• A brief talk
• Group discussion, comments, Q & A
• Guided sitting meditation
• End of Year Practice Chants, including Mamos Chants

Email Reminders

To sign up for daily email reminders for End of Year Practices, click here.

More About Practicing During the Tibetan Calendar Year End Period

During the last 11 days of the year, we offer end-of-year practices to lay the ground for a positive transition into the New Year. The first 10 of these days are a time for intensive practice, focused on protector chants as a way to help overcome obstacles in our life, community and world. The end of the year is traditionally considered a positive time to do these practices. Other end of year activities could also include cleaning the household and shrine, resolving debts or disputes, and gathering energy for the new year.

The last day before Shambhala Day is a “neutral day” (Feb 27, 2024) on which we could do the final preparations for the New Year, having finished the practice from the 10 days before.

About the Presenters

Amanda Hester is a second-generation Shambhala Buddhist. She has decades of practice and service under her many different belts as a Dorje Kasung, having served as Garuda travel, a kusung and shabchi (titles for a personal attendant), regional commander, and sergeant. She currently puts her energy toward helping to organize and staff Shambhala Sun Summer Camp.

Lennart Krogoll, a student of the Buddha Dharma and Shambhala Dharma since 1980,
has been an active Dorje Kasung since 1983. He was involved in teaching and developing
kasungship in Europe in the eighties. Residing in Nova Scotia since 1991, he held
several leadership positions, before serving as Dorje Kasung Sergeant Major from 1999
to 2011, leading many Kasung programs throughout North America and Europe.
Lennart has a degree in Peacekeeping from the United Nations Institute of Training and
Research and was trained in a mindfulness program for the U.S. Marines. His central
bucket list passion is to keep the precious Dorje Kasung transmissions practiced, active
and alive to serve our challenged time now and into the future.

Julia McKaig. From a young age, Julia connected with Kasung practice through Shambhala Sun Camp, after which she continued her practice, attending and staffing several Encampments. Outside of camp season, Julia served as the NCO for Halifax for a couple of years. Julia also served as Kusung, Officer and NCO for several warrior assemblies and other dharma programs over the years. Having stepped away from formal Kasung activity in 2014, Julia is finding herself once again curious to return or “come back” to the reformed/ reforming mandala.

Richard Peisinger has served in the Dorje Kasung since 1977 in the Gesar and Kusung Arms holding various command posts within each. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche had appointed him as “Dapön Orange” in the Kusung Arm in 1985. He served Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in their Kalapa Court households in senior positions. His recent focus at the Halifax Shambhala Centre has been re-establishing a Protection Team. He is a founding member of the Shambhala Touching the Earth Collective.

Will Ryken has been a member of the Shambhala Buddhist Community since 1972 and has been a member of the Dorje Kasung, since 1975.  Will co-founded Shambhala Sun Summer Camp, a leadership training program for young people, in 1984. He teaches around the world and is well known for his wisdom, sense of humor, and his inspirational qualities. Will lives and plays in St. Petersburg, FL,with his wife Paula Bickford and their two Dogs Brindle and Tashi.

Aaron Snyder became a student of the Chögyum Trungpa Rinpoche in 1974 and a Dorje Kasung in 1976. Aaron was a member of the first Kusung squad outside of Boulder, in Berkeley, in the early 1980s. He was the commander of the Dorje Kasung Training Group from 2000-2010, during which time he led the development of the Essential Heart of Kasungship program. He was also a physician to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and his family and commander of the Dorje Kasung Lamen Corps.

Colin Stubbert grew up in Halifax Nova Scotia and attended Sun Camp and Cadet Corps Workshops annually. Upon graduation from Rites of Warriorship (ROW), he attended four Magyal Pomra Encampments, serving as Platoon Commander, Camp Security Officer, and Camp Engineer, and staffed three Sun Camps and four ROWs. He routinely assisted with Event Command for Shambhala Days and other large events in Nova Scotia, and served on the Great Nyen Platoon of Drala Mountain Center for almost two years. He currently occupies the once-and-future Dorje Kasung Office in the Boulder Shambhala Center.