Our field trips, usually held toward the end of the residency, allow students and faculty to explore Vermont, hang out together, and get to know each other better in preparation for the semester.

On field trip day, Francis X. Charet took his advising group, which consisted of all Consciousness Studies students, to the nearby Karme Choling Center in Barnet, Vermont to celebrate Shambhala Day. Francis writes, “Shambhala Day marks the beginning of the New Year and is one of the most important celebrations in Shambhala Buddhism. Based on the traditional Tibetan New Year, Losar, the day is calculated astrologically according to the lunar calendar. The photo is in front of the Stupa that holds the ashes of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939 – 1987), a Tibetan Buddhist meditation master of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, the eleventh Trungpa and originator of a radical re-presentation of Shambhala vision.”

The photo, left to right, includes Francis X. Charet, plus some of his advising group: James Schofield, Ashley Hunt, Kirsten Edgar