Diamond Way Northeast Retreat Center

05/23/2024

09/13/2022

First weekend of September we gathered for the national Labor day course - about 70 friends from all over the US, Canada and even Europe came together and it was such an inspiring time! We meditated together, listened to the teachings of traveling teachers, joined in the streaming teachings with Lama Ole and had a lot of fun just being together again. So many treasured memories have been created! What a blessing it is to have such deep and meaningful connections...

05/10/2022

It's been over 2 years since we were able to invite and host traveling teachers from outside of the US due to the pandemic, so finally we had a great chance to have Mike Achladiotis from Athens come and share his stories and meditate with us. He started off his month long US tour at our blissful retreat center in New York. It's been a long time since so many friends from the region gathered together at the NRC for the whole weekend. As usual, the weekend was filled with joyful activity, meditation, and teachings with Mike. We were reminded once again, that Lama Ole's blessing and activity is being carried on by us, his students, and we are so very grateful for all the amazing connections we have created and honored to represent the lineage.

11/23/2021

Last weekend a few of us gathered for a nice weekend to fill some statues under the guidance of our wonderful Nada. Friends from Albany, Boston, New York City and Pennsylvania came together for this inspiring weekend. It's been 2 years since our last statue filling event at the NRC, so we were overdue and so happy to have the opportunity again. Also, we celebrated the 6th anniversary of our retreat center, it was inaugurated by Lama Ole on November 21st, 2015 - and about 150 friends from all over the world witnessed that moment with us! So we did what we do best - meditated, rolled some mantras, cleaned/filled statues, laughed, enjoyed delicious meals - just being happy and in the moment in our Lama's place of power. We are looking forward to more weekends like this, and all of you are invited.

10/27/2021

For the first time since January 2020 we gathered for the 8th Karmapa retreat last weekend! Long time overdue...the house was full of friends, we even had those that have traveled from San Francisco and Minneapolis to be a part of this inspiring weekend. We meditated, shared stories, laughed and really enjoyed being together again. And special thanks to our friend Luis for his generosity of providing the most creative and delicious meals, so we could concentrate on the practice! We plan to have these weekends quarterly, feel free to join us.

09/20/2021

When we got our retreat center in November of 2015, we asked Lama Ole what was his vision about the place, what should we work on first to make the place the most useful. His answer was to build a retreat hut, and then a stupa. Well... it took us 6 years, but finally after many wishes and efforts we have our retreat hut! And it's heated, so it can be used year round. We entertained many ideas of what it should be built from, where on our land it should be located, etc. And after considering many different options, we decided to convert our original tool shed into the hut. The transformation is fantastic - you would never guess that the hut used to be a shed where we kept our big lawnmower and other tools. It took a lot of effort, but now we can enjoy this place and use it for personal retreats. Big thanks to everyone who participated in the process of making it happen! Please come see it and meditate there - it's wonderful!
Now, on to the next project that Lama Ole envisioned for our blessed land - the Complete Victory Stupa - let's make strong wishes we build it soon!!!

09/12/2021

Last weekend we enjoyed Labor Day retreat at our beautiful land. Just 4 years ago we gathered here with about 400 friends from all over the world for a course with Lama Ole. Were you there with us? If so, you remember how we went through all 3 seasons in just 4 days, the only thing that didn't happen was snow. Well, this time we had more normal weather for this time of the year - warm and sunny. It was great to meditate together again, to listen to Lama Ole's streaming, to receive teachings by traveling teachers from NYC Sasha and Masha, work on our land and enjoy delicious meals - the weekend simply flew by. We are so blessed to have this wonderful and inspiring place, it truly is a powerfield of our lineage. Let's get together again soon, dear friends!

12/21/2020

2020 is almost over, let's hope next year will be full of joy, happiness, friends and many adventures. Due to the situation with this virus, we had to fully shut down our retreat center for a few months. But since summer we decided to open it with certain restrictions, following the recommendations from local and New York State officials. So we do not have our usual 30+ people meditation retreats or teaching weekends, but some friends come and meditate, alone or in very small groups, following all the rules and precautions.
This week, we had a huge snowstorm in the area, and overnight we went from 0 snow to 38 inches(96cm). And it got really cold, 3F(-17C). Our neighbors tractor broke down, so for almost 3 days this place turned into a true retreat place, the snow was up to my waist, and there was no way of coming or going. What an amazing gift from Buddhas it was!

01/22/2020

Another inspiring weekend at our beautiful place in upstate New York - last weekend we had our annual 8th Karmapa retreat, which is becoming a tradition for some international friends to join. It got really cold this time and we even had a little snowstorm, so it made it even more exciting. It was joyful to meditate together, cook and enjoy meals and sit by the fire at night. How fortunate and blessed we are!

11/24/2019

Had a great statue filling and mantra rolling weekend with a few friends and guided by our amazing Nada. Such a wonderful and joyful experince it is, and practicing a lot of patience when working with very small objects. 😁