On-Land Programs & Events

Volunteer at Dorje Denma Ling!

Flexible Dates
Thank you for volunteering at Dorje Denma Ling! We appreciate your dedication and welcome you into our community. Volunteers receive room and board and enjoy the benefits of living in our intentional community.

Personal Retreat

Flexible Dates
Dorje Denma Ling

Dorje Denma Ling offers space for individual and small group retreats during the program season, as accommodations allow. Our season typically runs from May to December.

Wake Up, DDL! April 15-26

Flexible Dates

Dorje Denma Ling
2280 Balmoral Road
The Falls, NS, Canada
Join us for a week, a weekend, or a day of volunteering and practice to get Dorje Denma Ling ready for the 2026 season! All willing workers are welcome! We host volunteers for FREE and offer program credit for their much needed help.

Vajrayogini Magnetizing Fire Offering

with Mark Nowakowski

April 30 - May 3, 2026

Dorje Denma Ling
2280 Balmoral Road
The Falls, NS, Canada
Join Vajrayogini around the hearth to magnetize all good things for yourself, Dorje Denma Ling, and the world. For this section of the Vajrayogini Fire Offering, we are especially magnetizing the awake relationship between dharma teachers and students.

Spring Renewal Retreat: Exploring Eco-Embodiment as Path to Belonging & Resilience

with Josée-Ann Cloutier

May 8 - 10, 2026

Dorje Denma Ling
2280 Balmoral Road
The Falls, NS, Canada
Register before Mar 23, 2026 and receive CAD $40.00 off.

Participants are invited to learn and experience a guided thermal cycle-- immersions of hot and cold for all levels of practice, along with community sauna, cleansing plant and tree rituals, and elemental connection, all supporting integration and community as practice. We will enjoy wholesome, healthy meals, explore a nearby waterfall, and honour the pure water of the land by taking it in.

Mandala of the Empowered Feminine

with Susan Lorraine and Friends

May 12 - 18, 2026

Dorje Denma Ling
2280 Balmoral Road
Tatamagouche, NS, Canada
Register before Mar 27, 2026 and receive CAD $60.00 off the program fee.
In this retreat, we will meet the dakinis—the dynamic, free, wise, compassionate, and sometimes fierce energies that dance within open awareness. Dakini literally means “sky dancer.”

Our main practice will be the Mandala of the Five Wisdom Dakinis. Lama Tsultrim will join our retreat remotely, to formally introduce the practice.

Limitless Gate Qigong Levels 1/2, 3 & 4

with Donna MacKenzie and Suzann Duquette

May 22 - 28, 2026
Dorje Denma Ling
Register before Mar 22, 2026 and receive a CAD $140.00 discount.

Xiantianwujimen is a Taoist lineage that specializes in using qigong to simultaneously cultivate and transform body and mind. Techniques favored by this lineage include self-massage, tendon-changing, calisthenics, marrow washing, and breath regulation. Donna Mackenzie will lead Levels 1-3, Suzann Duquette will lead Level 4. Register for each level or as a bundle.

Limitless Gate Qigong Level 1/2

with Donna MacKenzie

May 22 - 24, 2026
Register before Mar 22, 2026 and receive a CAD $50.00 discount.

Limitless Gate Qigong Level 1 & 2 Peaceful Body, Peaceful Mind When body is relaxed and peaceful, energy will flow. When mind is still, it will embrace qi and strengthen the body. In the Chinese arts of health and longevity, qigong simultaneously cultivates a peaceful body and a peaceful mind. Physical health and mental well-being […]

Limitless Gate Qigong Level 3

with Donna MacKenzie

May 24 - 26, 2026
Register before Mar 24, 2026 and receive a CAD $50.00 discount.

Limitless Gate Qigong Level 3: The Gourd and the Cauldron Chinese Medicine and Qigong enjoy a long history of relationship, mutually influencing each other in their approach to health and longevity. The Gourd is the symbol of Chinese medicine, and the cauldron is the symbol of the Taoist arts of health and longevity. Your introduction […]

Limitless Gate Qigong Level 4

with Suzann Duquette

May 26 - 28, 2026
Register before Mar 26, 2026 and receive a CAD $50.00 discount.

Limitless Gate Qigong Level 4: Iron and Silk Strengthening the Body, Cleansing the Internal Organs Iron has the quality of hardness, but tempered by fire, will become soft and flexible, ready to form limitless shapes. Silk has the quality of softness, but when the fibers are woven together, they form the strongest bonds. Qigong 4 […]

Mahamudra & Trekchö Retreat

with Richard John

June 5 - 14, 2026
Dorje Denma Ling
Register before Apr 5, 2026 and receive CAD $130.00 off the program fee.
This retreat is an opportunity to go beyond conceptual study to direct personal experience, and to recognize and become capable of resting in buddha nature--the essence of mind. In the famous words of Tulku Urgyen, "Short moments many times--there is no other way."

The full retreat is open to tantrikas, the first weekend includes Approaching Mahamudra, which is open to all practitioners.

Approaching Mahamudra: A Weekend Meditation Retreat

with Richard John

June 5 - 7, 2026
Dorje Denma Ling
Register before Apr 5, 2026 and receive CAD $40.00 off the program fee
This weekend will include in-depth instruction on shamatha and vipashyana. Shamatha, the training in calm abiding and non-distraction, becomes the ability to rest in and stabilize the natural state of mind. Vipashyana expands into the actual wisdom of emptiness, buddha nature itself. This weekend is open to all.

Vajrayogini Amending Fire Offering

with Mark Nowakowski

June 18 - 28, 2026
Register before Apr 18, 2026 and receive a $130 discount.
Join Vajrayogini around the hearth to amend any mistakes you may have made during sadhana practice, so you will be more open to receiving siddhi — especially the ultimate siddhi of wisdom.

Vajrayogini Amending Fire Offering Repeaters

with Mark Nowakowski

Flexible Dates
Join Vajrayogini around the hearth to amend any mistakes you may have made during sadhana practice, so you will be more open to receiving siddhi — especially the ultimate siddhi of wisdom.

The Doha of Dudjom Lingpa & the Practice of Chöd

with Anam Thubten Rinpoche

August 8 - 13, 2026

Save the Date The Doha of Dudjom Lingpa and the Practice of Chöd August 8 - 13 The teachings of the great spiritual masters of the past are like light for the mind and nectar for the heart. They help free us from the cage of ego and open the possibility of experiencing a transcendent […]

The Oxherding Retreat

with Sarah Bender, Roshi

September 16 - 20, 2026

Dorje Denma Ling
2280 Balmoral Road
The Falls, NS, Canada
Register before Jul 17, 2026 and receive CAD $50.00 off the program.
The Oxherding series: a 12th-century Zen Buddhist series of drawings and poems which tell an ancient and a modern tale of enlightenment and endarkenment. For four days we’ll immerse ourselves together in silence and conversation, stillness and motion and emerge with hearts and minds refreshed.

The Wisdom Weapon of Compassion: Vajrakilaya Save the Dates

with Loppon Lodro Dorje and Karen Porterfield

Flexible Dates

Dorje Denma Ling
2280 Balmoral Road
The Falls, NS, Canada
This fall, Dorje Denma Ling will offer the traditional 32-day Vajrakilaya group retreat, with a concurrent 2-week retreat opportunity for those who would like to begin--or complete--their Vajrakilaya commitment.  The retreat also welcomes those who would like to come for intensive practice but not accumulate time or numbers.