Dear Friends at CCN,

This letter is to let you know about important changes that are taking place for the CCN. As you know, Elizabeth founded the CCN in 2011 with the aim of bringing Lama Alan to teach in the UK. The first two retreats were on Holy Isle, off Arran, but this was soon too small and we moved to Lampeter University. A considerable number of you have been with us since the start and have attended these retreats, first in person and since Covid, online.

Many of you will be aware that David Oromith became our Operations Manager after Michael Lobsang Tenpa left to settle in Mexico, and Marie Dimond has been assisting with office administration. David already had his own organisation, Samadhi, following Lama Alan’s teaching. The aims of his organisation are very similar to those of CCN, and Samadhi has developed a thriving and active community both online and in person.

We have recognised that there is a substantial overlap and indeed an unnecessary duplication of activity in our charities. After careful deliberation, our Trustees have decided that the best way forward in terms of continuing the aims of the CCN and transmission of the teachings is to close the CCN as a charity and to redirect our resources to Samadhi, which shares the same objectives. Lama Alan has given his blessing for the board to make this move in whatever way we think is best. Lama Alan has also agreed to be the Spiritual Patron of Samadhi.

We believe we have a wonderful opportunity to promote and enhance the quality of the teachings, and to expand the outreach through David’s teaching, and to plan a visit by Lama Alan to the UK when he comes out of retreat. We think dissolving into Samadhi is the best thing we can do to promote the work of Lama Alan and the network of CCRs as well. One of the aims of Samadhi is to establish a Retreat Centre in Wales, which is something that we hoped the CCN could do, but for a variety of reasons did not materialise.

Going forward, Samadhi will maintain and host the resources and teaching materials generated by the CCN, including our extensive teaching archive. For now, all your links and access will remain exactly the same, and any updates will be communicated to you.

Importantly, Samadhi will continue hosting a number of our events, including the hybrid study/retreat days in London, certain online seminars with speakers like Dr Vesna Wallace, and our annual retreat which will continue in the safe hands of David and the team at Samadhi.

Please take a look Samadhi’s website: https://www.samadhi.org.uk or make contact here: [email protected]

For you to continue to receive news about these events and take part, no action is required if you’re already on our mailing list. Our plan is to pass our mailing list to Samadhi, which will mean you will receive all the information of events and developments through them, and you will be able to join any of their groups that you feel drawn to. We know some of you are already on that list.

On the other hand if you do not wish to join the Samadhi list, then please unsubscribe before the transfer. You will, of course, be able to unsubscribe at any time.

We hope most of us will continue to meet through Samadhi. I, Elizabeth, have been joining some sessions and have found them to be very helpful. Since meeting David we have become good friends and Chris and I are confident that all we hoped for the CCN will flourish under his guidance.

We wanted to thank you once again for your engagement and support over the years. May your lives continue to be blessed by the Dharma.

Elizabeth (Founder) and Christopher (Chair)
on behalf of the CCN board