"We are all the same in wanting to be happy, and we’re all the same in not wanting to suffer. In this way we are equal."

~ His Holiness The XVII Karmapa

Full details of Lama Surya's Southern California weekend in Orange County are now posted. Click on the links below for information regarding the events:

Friday Evening Presentation, January 31st

Saturday One-Day Retreat, February 1st

If you already know you would like to attend, you can go directly to secure online registration for the event on the Dzogchen Center national website.

We look forward to seeing many of you at this great gathering.

Registration is also open for the Day of Meditation Practice & Teachings with Daniela and Christopher in Irvine on Saturday, November 16th

Yes, it's that time of year again: when Dzogchen Center Orange County hosts its Spontaneous Pot Luck Social and Meditation evening. Bring yourself, bring friends, bring a dish (or bring emptiness, if you can find it!) - there will be lots to go round. Meet yourself, meet new friends, meet plentiful greets and diverse eats. Food and refreshments from 5.30 pm to 7 pm, meditation and awakening spirit from 7 pm to 9 pm.

Renowned for their openness and warmth - as well as their creative nourishments - the OC group welcomes newcomers of any or no religious, sexual or political inclination. There's room for everyone in the Natural Great Confection!

5.30 pm Tuesday September 24th at NCC: click here for further details and directions

and/or

See, download, print, post, ponder or paper the walls with the spontaneously unofficial flyer for this awestruck event.

Lama Surya Das will be in Orange County for:

an Evening Presentation at 7 p.m. on Friday, January 31st, 2014;

and a One-Day Retreat from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m on Saturday, February 1st, 2014.

Both events will be at the Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Avenue, Costa Mesa, CA 92627.

Further details to follow shortly.

We are delighted that Dr. Roger Walsh will be returning to present at Dzogchen Center's Orange County group on Tuesday, September 3rd at 7pm at the Neighborhood Community Center in Costa Mesa.

His topic for the evening will be: Life's Highest Goal: The Bodhisattva Aspiration

As well as being a renowned dharma teacher and a prolific author, he is a professor of psychiatry, philosophy and anthropology, as well as a professor in the religious studies program, at UCI (University of California at Irvine).

See him in dialogue on YouTube: What is Spirituality and What is a Spiritual Life? and TLCs: Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes.

Dr. Walsh also teaches regularly with Lama Surya Das at Dzogchen Center retreats nationally.

Our regular Sunday afternoon Meditation and Book Study meetings will resume on Sunday, August 4th. We are starting a new book, Lama Surya Das's bestseller Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World (also subtitled Eight Steps to Enlightenment).

The first session in this series, on August 4th, will look at the initial chapter in Part One: WE ARE ALL BUDDHAS.

Whether or not you have the book or have read the chapter, all are welcome and there is no charge.

Due to Dzogchen Center's annual Summer Meditation Retreat in Garrison, NY, there will be no Sunday afternoon meetings on July 21st or 28th. Regular Sunday afternoon meetings will resume on August 4th.

"Our life is vast. It does not stop at the limits of what we personally experience. It is not something concrete or bounded. I do not think it is valid to view our life as limited to just ourselves--as if our human life extended only as far as our own body. Rather, we can see that a life extends out in all directions, like a net. We throw a net, and it expands outward. Just like that, our life extends to touch many other lives. Our life can reach out and become a pervasive part of everyone’s life."

~ HH 17th Karmapa

There will be no Sunday afternoon meeting on June 30th.

Weekly Sunday afternoon meetings will resume for July 7th and 14th.

There will also be no Sunday afternoon meetings July 21st or 28th due to the Dzogchen Center Annual Summer Meditation Retreat in Garrison, NY.

Regular weekly Tuesday evening meetings will continue throughout the period.

To know more about our meeting format, see the FAQ.

There will be no meeting in Newport Beach on Sunday, May 12th since many of the group have Mothers' Day commitments. Regular Sunday afternoon meetings will resume on Sunday, May 19th.