The new Treasury of Wisdom Interface

The new interface of the Treasury of Wisdom Database is now close to being finished. This new version is based on DSpace 1.5 and has been greatly enhanced by our programmer. In the above screen-shot, you can see the overlay that becomes visible when you put the cursor over the reference to another entry. (In this case you can see the information related to a session from the event which the session belongs to).

Treasury of Wisdom Taskforce 2008 Report

Creating a fully-functional research database is one of Rigpa's highest priorities. In order to reach this goal, from January to March 2008, a special task force has been created to transfer all data available on teachings of Sogyal Rinpoche from the years 1996-2005 into the Treasury of Wisdom Database, and to make this data easily available to researchers.

The task force was formed by 5 volunteers from France, Australia, Germany and the USA. Each one of them worked for around 2 months, around 30 hours per week.

They accomplished the following:
• all data of Rigpa events between 1994 and 2008 has been entered (close to 1800 events)
• all data of Rigpa teaching sessions between 2001 and 2008 have been entered (more than 2800 sessions)
• all Daily Session Reports have been converted into Open-Office documents and PDFs and entered (the writing of Daily Session Reports started in 2001, more than 1400 reports in total)

In order to make the database more easily adaptable to our needs, the Software base of the Treasury of Wisdom database has been moved from an outdated older version to the current version of DSpace. While this move has been very work-intensive, it provides us now with a much better platform that allows us to easily update our software as newer versions of this library system become available. Also, the new systems allows us change the visual appearance of the web-interface, and to make the database more user friendly. The new version is currently in a test phase.

What still needs to be done

Changing to the new version of the Treasury of Wisdom Database
Testing of the new system has started, we expect to change over by the end of May 2008.

Entering all transcripts from 2001-2008
Currently only 200 transcripts have been entered. More than 7000 do exist, but they need to be spell-checked to comply with the current Rigpa spelling, and then converted to Open-Office data format to ensure that we still can read these transcripts in 10 years time. We are currently trying to find a retreat volunteer in Lerab Ling to submit around 2400 transcripts for teachings from 2001-2008. This will take around 400 hours, around 20 weeks of volunteer work.

Design of a good search interface
The Treasury of Wisdom Strategy Team is currently interviewing all key Rigpa researchers to find out what their requirement for a search interface are. This gathering phase will be finished by end of May 2008. We can then propose how the new search interface will look, and start implementing it. A new search interface should then be functional by end of August 2008.

Enter the remaining session information
We plan to put together another task-force for the next practice period (Jan-April 2009) to enter the remaining session information of the years 1994-2000.

The Data-Entry Taskforce has started their work

During January 2008, a special taskforce which now comprises 5 students has started to enter the backlog of teaching information into the Treasury of Wisdom Database.

By now, they have successfully entered information on all Rigpa teaching events between 1994 and today, a total of 1776 events

Also, there are more than 1200 Daily Session Reports which document day-by-day what happened on these events (they cover teachings from 2000 up to now).

Now, the team has started to enter data on individual teachings of the years 2002-2004.

Losar Tashi Delek from the ZAM building in Lodeve

Happy New Year-Losar Tashi Delek from the ZAM building in Lodeve. The ZAM building now houses teams from ZAM, Treasury of Wisdom, the Home Retreat Multimedia Production team as well as Spiritual Care. Here's a group photo of all the teams together, and there are still 3 people misssing...

The Treasury of Wisdom Taskforce has started

On 15 January 2008, the Treasury of Wisdom taskforce has started to fill the Treasury of Wisdom database with information from various other databases and documents on teaching events from Rigpa's History.

The taskforce has completely entered all teaching events from 1994-2008. As a result, researchers in Rigpa now have a complete list of events available at their disposal.

The taskforce has now started to engage with Daily Session Reports which provide a more detailed look at what happened during any day of a Rigpa teaching event.

The Treasury of Dharma Project

"You receive and study all these instructions and teachings.
They are important, they give you the background, the understanding, some knowledge that is the basic. But then I worry a little bit: is it not too much?
Do we need to simplify? How do you put it into practice? How to practise Bodhicitta essentially, how do you really do it? How to invoke refuge in an instant?
How to have a way of invoking, of making it happen for you, each day?" (Sogyal Rinpoche)

In order to act on Rinpoche’s concern, the RIGPA Treasury of Dharma (formerly known as Teaching Pharmacy) has – and is being – developed. This electronic system is designed to help us to put the teachings into practice, to find a support on all aspects of our spiritual path, and to help us in difficult situations in our life.

The Treasury of Dharma presently consists of two elements:
- the ‘Inspirational-Library’ which contains inspiring and transformative teachings on motivation, bodhichitta, the View, the nature of mind, meditation, devotion, invocation, Guru Yoga, lojong and integration
- the ‘Advice for Life’- Library, that houses short teachings which help us to transform difficult situations in our life regarding relationships, depression, sickness, death and so on.

This structure reflects Rinpoche’s observation that we need ‘different methods for different situations’ that can help us to progress on our spiritual path.

The aim of this project is that we find inspiration, courage and support for our spiritual path, both in our formal practice and in our every day life activities.

The Treasury of Dharma will take on many different forms in which it will be made available for individuals and centers.
For individuals:
— the current ZAM Rigpa- and Dzogchenlinks will continue in their current form and will cover themes that are complimentary to the Teaching Pharmacy
—any other ZAM products produced in 2008 will also function as part of the Teaching Library
— the RIGPA Wiki web page, accessible to all Home Retreatants, already hosts a selection of teachings concerning ‘Advice for Life’, and will be further developed in the future, making teachings available free of charge

To have a look at the "Advice for Life" page on the wiki, you need a valid login for Rigpa's home retreat portal (this login consists of the email that you use to log into the homretreat website and the password that you use to log in). Please use this link to the online part of the Treasury of Dharma system:

The visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Lerab Ling in September 2000

For this year's all-mandala retreat in Lerab Ling, we revised, updated, and expanded the video on the History of Rigpa. As part of this work, we included a teaching excerpt of His Holiness the Dalai Lama from Lerab Ling, September 2000 into the history. We feel that this excerpt stands on its own, and we are very happy to share this with you.