North American Academy 8
April 2027 – October 2029
The 8th North American 3 Doors Academy will begin in April 2027.
Applications are now being accepted.
Academy Description and Benefits
The 3 Doors Academy provides you with the opportunity to engage deeply in the process of self-discovery. It is rigorous in the sense that you are asked to make an active and on-going commitment to self-reflection and meditation. It is challenging at times, since facing yourself can be humbling and disorienting. And it is frequently joyful, since the freedom of going beyond perceived limitations and experiencing the abundant resources of your true nature is liberating.
A great strength of the program is that it draws upon the collective power of the group for support in transforming personal limitations. The trainee participates in six residential retreats, shares experiences in monthly small group conference calls with a mentor, and draws upon the mentor relationship for individual guidance and direction. The Academy environment is one of complete confidentiality, support, and the genuine warmth and joy that emerges when people openly share their journeys with one another. The Academy program concludes with a formal graduation ceremony.
Academy retreats take place at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.
Program Structure & Commitment
The 3 Doors Academy is a 2.5-year commitment of focus, practice, and community.
Academy Commitments:
- Attend all six in-person group retreats
- Maintain a daily practice of the 3 Doors meditations formally (on the cushion) and informally (in daily life)
- Engage and document transformation through self-reflection, journaling, and meditation in relationship with self, family, and participation in society
- Complete nine personal retreat days
- Participate in five private meetings with a mentor
- Participate in Zoom meetings of the Academy and small group
What’s Included:
- Six in-person group retreats of 5.5-days each, every six months
- Three monthly whole group Zoom practice sessions with your teachers
- One monthly Zoom small group session
- Study materials including written practice instructions and downloadable recordings of teachings and guided meditations
- One private one-hour mentor session between each group retreat
- Video presentations from The 3 Doors Founder, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
- Access to an online discussion board with fellow participants and Academy teachers
- The support of a community of practitioners
Time Investment: Approximately 6 hours per month of group Zoom sessions and 15-35 hours of personal meditation practice and self-study. In addition, approximately 12 days of group retreat and 3 days of personal retreat per year.
The Possibility of Transformation
Senior Teacher Marcy Vaughn discusses the power of reflection and practice within the support of community.
Six Group Retreats
Each retreat offers the opportunity to go deeper into your practice with the support of your teachers and peers. These retreats are followed by six months of online support including group practices and smaller group gatherings as well as self-directed coursework including videos, readings, and written reflections.
The first group retreat introduces the abiding practice of the inner refuge. Through focusing and resting your attention on the stillness of the body, silence of inner speech, and spaciousness of mind, you discover the unbounded spaciousness of your nature, the light of awareness, and spontaneous, genuine warmth. The inner refuge is the foundation of the Academy training and your capacity to abide within it is deepened and strengthened in all subsequent retreats.
You will explore the practices of the Nine Breathings of Purification and the Tsa Lung (exercises of breath and movement). These practices enable you to increase your awareness of the subtle energy channels and centers in the body in order to clear limiting patterns of reactivity, discover fresh and open awareness, and express yourself in a more authentic way. These practices are presented in Awakening the Sacred Body by Tenzin Wangyal.
The focus of the second group retreat is to rest more deeply in the inner refuge and experience the gifts of spaciousness, awareness, and warmth. In addition to continuing with the previous practices of the body, you will learn the practice of the Five Warrior Syllables, a practice which explores the power of sound and silence to release subtle obscurations and support the emergence of authentic presence and creative expression. This practice is presented in Tibetan Sound Healing by Tenzin Wangyal.
You will be introduced to the Fivefold Practice, a contemplative practice using five lines of pith meditation instruction through which no experience is rejected, and instead becomes the doorway to truly seeing, self-liberating, and discovering the generative power of awareness. The book used to clarify these teachings and practices is Tenzin Wangyal’s Awakening the Luminous Mind.
The theme of the fourth group retreat is deepening the recognition and experience of the collective healing power of the inner refuge. You will look at how familial, ancestral, cultural, and world pain lives within you and engage your practice within the support of the group to become aware of this collective pain, to host and embrace it, and to explore what becomes available in so doing. As communal pain releases, you are inspired to act from a greater sense of kindness and compassion for the welfare of others.
The theme of the fifth group retreat is discovering the spontaneous positive qualities that arise from open awareness. Meditation is not a passive process. As you abide in inner refuge, limiting patterns of ego release, enabling you to experience the emergence of inspiration and creativity. In this retreat you will practice allowing fresh insights and expressions to manifest from the clear and open space of your practice.
The focus of the sixth group retreat is to deepen the recognition and experience of the spontaneously arising fruit of one’s practice, to celebrate the benefits of your practice, and to dedicate the merit of your practice to the welfare of others. We examine what blocks and what supports the spontaneous expression of compassion in our lives. This retreat includes the formal graduation ceremony in which Senior Teachers confer the transmission of the inner refuge and welcome the graduates into the worldwide community of 3 Doors practitioners.
Application Timeline & Process
- Applications Accepted
- June – December 1, 2026: Applications open and must be complete to be considered.
- Application Deadline
- December 1, 2026: Final deadline. Applications submitted after this date will go to the waitlist and will be considered after the initial round of acceptances.
- Application Review and Response
- All applicants will be notified via email regarding their application status within six weeks of receipt.
- Scholarship Awards
- Early February 2027: Notification of scholarship awards will be sent by email.
- Registration & Deposit
- March 1 – 24, 2027: Registration and tuition deposit are due along with lodging/meals payment for the first retreat.
Program Details
Teachers: Senior Teacher Marcy Vaughn and Teacher Phil Tonne, additional teachers to be announced soon…
Location: Six in-person retreats at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center in Shipman, VA and multiple monthly online gatherings on Zoom
Dates: In-person retreats: **The first date listed is the arrival day.**
- Retreat 1: April 27 – May 3, 2027
- Retreat 2: October 26 – November 1, 2027
- Retreat 3: April 25 – May 1, 2028
- Retreat 4: October 3 – October 9, 2028
- Retreat 5: April 24 – April 30, 2029
- Retreat 6: October 23 – October 29, 2029
Arrival for each retreat is on a Tuesday after 4 pm and departure will be on the following Monday at 1pm, unless otherwise noted. Dinner will be served on arrival day and retreat sessions start early the following day.
Cost*: There is a non-refundable application fee of $100. Tuition costs $10,900 for the entire 2 ½ year Academy training program. This includes a $1,200 Registration Deposit due in March 2027. The remaining amount will be billed in equal monthly installments of $312.90 from April 2027 through October 2029. The cost of transportation to and from retreats, as well as accommodations/meals at retreats (ranging from $720 – $2,124 are separate from the cost of tuition.
*We strive for everyone who is drawn to experiencing The 3 Doors Academy to join regardless of their financial circumstances. A limited number of tuition scholarships will be available to help cover the cost of tuition. Scholarships only apply to the tuition and are not available for meals or lodging at retreats. We allot funds based on a confidential and self-reported honor system and will take your needs into consideration to the best of our ability.
