Freiwilligenprogramm

If you are looking for long term, paid staff positions, please visit the Current Core Staff job opportunities page. For short term visits, please contact our main office.

The heart of the Shambhala tradition is to bring together meditation and our everyday activities. For the last fifteen years, Dechen Chöling has been offering internship opportunities. We have gradually developed a formal programme for the main intake of summer interns. As well as the often life-changing experience of living in a contemplative community, participants have dedicated time for meditation each day, receive teachings within the Shambhala tradition, and also have opportunities to learn valuable skills in such things as:

• leadership
• working in a team
• living in a multicultural environment
• public speaking
• learning languages
• hosting and administration
• maintenance and technical

We ask all interns to contribute 10 euros per day for their room and board. If you have limited resources please do not let that put you off applying: there may be the possibility of finding a patron to help you. We can offer some discount on programmes at Dechen Chöling for those who live in the community.

Three Wheels

The intern programme contains formal meditation as well as community offering and study. We regard all three of these as foundations of life in a contemplative community.

Meditation

Interns are asked to commit to the twice daily meditation practice followed by all Dechen Chöling staff. In this way, each day at Dechen Chöling begins and ends with formal meditation practice together. You will receive personal meditation instruction throughout your time here.

Community Offering

As an intern you will be invited to work in conjunction with the core staff, who perform 6 hours of activities for the community per day. Most of the time these activities take place between 10.30-12.30 and 14.00-17.30. You will gain experience in various departments, which can include:

• Office - learn customer service, administration and IT skills
• Facilities - gain valuable skills in maintenance, tool use and teamwork
• Household - learn about creating uplifted spaces in the capable hands of our Head of Household
• Garden - experience growing produce from seed to table in our organic garden
• Landscaping - spend time maintaining and developing our beautiful landscape

As a community member, you will also be asked to do a small amount of rota, which is household tasks. Please include all department preferences in your application, although most interns will be rotated through various departments.

Study

The Summer Intern Programme will contain weekly Dharma talks; many will be with our local senior teachers, Resident Acharya Mathias Pongracz, and Shastri Christina de Block. We will offer classes in the new curriculum: The Way of Shambhala, including Level I of Shambhala training. There will also be opportunities to attend talks at the programmes we are hosting, dependent on permission of the teachers.

Other aspects of life here

As an intern, you will have plenty of free time. We are in a very rural area, although the ancient city of Limoges is easily accessible by car or public transport. Activities in the area include swimming or canoeing in the river, hiking and wildlife spotting. Residents have jointly organised classes in French, singing, yoga, Chi Gung and crafts. We organise regular outings for staff and interns, to the local markets or other places of interest in the region. In the summer there are night markets, where we go to eat al fresco and encounter local life.

Most accommodation is in two person shared tents. We have a library of Dharma and other books. We provide a dedicated space for craft-work, watching movies or just hanging out.

Dates and Duration

We anticipate that we will have two main intakes of interns: the end of April (in May we will be hosting Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche) and the 25^th June. We will take in a few people earlier than that, especially those who are interested in taking on a leadership role. It is best for us if interns can commit to be here for an uninterrupted period of at least two months. The length of your stay can be right through the whole season or just for a limited period. (It will also depend on the length of your legal status in France.) The Summer Internship Programme will officially end around the 10^th September, although we will probably retain a few interns for longer. If you would like to stay longer, please talk with the Personnel Manager during the Summer.