Dorje Denma Ling Governing Council

The mandate of Dorje Denma Ling’s Governing Council is to guide the strategic direction for the centre in the coming years. Responsibilities of the Council include overseeing the annual budget and hiring and supervising the DDL Managing Director,
who is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations and programming.

Louis Allen Louis Allen has been a practitioner for 40 years. Having originally connected with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, he is currently student of Trungpa’s successor and lineage holder, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. He served as Centre Director in Toronto from 1994 to 1999. After retiring from his career as a teacher, Louis and his partner Madeline moved to the countryside in Ontario and ran a small dharma centre called Juniper Hill which hosted group as well as solitary retreats, and a regional kasung encampment. In 2015 he moved to the Tatamagouche area and worked as Operations Manager at Dorje Denma Ling two seasons. Currently Louis has been volunteering his cabinet maker/carpentry skills to upkeep and beautify DDL as well as the Scorpion Seal cabin at Kalapa Valley.

David Flint David became a student of the Vidyadhara in 1972. Over the years he has staffed at RMDC, Maitri, Karme Choling and DDL in between living in Boulder, Burlington VT, St. John’s NF and Halifax. He worked for many years as a house painter and renovator. He finished a PhD. at Dalhousie in 2003 and was a professor of sociology for the next eight years. After retiring he moved to Tatamagouche, coordinated the newly formed Tatamagouche Shambhala Mediation Group for 10 years, did volunteer work at DDL and a lot of renovating and gardening at home.

Nancy Huszagh Nancy became a student of the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1979. In 2010, she completed the three-year-retreat at Söpa Chöling under the direction of Thrangu Rinpoche and subsequently assumed the role of Druppon (retreat master) for the latest retreat which ended in 2017. She has studied with a number of teachers over the years, and attended Scorpion Seal retreats with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. Nancy attended the first dathun in 1981 when oryoki was introduced, and recently co-taught two mahamudra dathuns at Denma Ling, and served as meditation instructor at two CTR-style dathuns at Lerab Ling in France.

Alex Gillespie A graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School (Toronto, Ontario), Alex Gillespie eventually transitioned his career from law in 2016. His path then took him from Toronto to Vancouver, and eventually to Halifax, where he is now. Alex is no stranger to Shambhala, having been born to and grown up in a sangha household – which is perhaps why he was drawn to Nova Scotia. Having spent a month of meditation during the 2021 dathün at Dorje Denma Ling, Alex made a strong connection to the land and was inspired to join the newly formed Governing Council.

Eric Ruby Eric also became a student of the Vidyadhara in 1979. He attended Vajradhatu Seminary in 1986 with the Vidyadhara and Kalapa Assembly in 1994 with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. He was Rusung of the Washington DC center in the early 1990s, and a lead administrator of the Profound Treasury Retreats from 2014-2017. Eric is committed to both the Shambhala teachings and the Kagyu/Nyingma Buddhist path presented by the Vidyadhara. He did a retreat in November 2022 at DDL and became inspired by the potential of DDL as a place where we can deepen our practice and study and propagate the precious teachings with which we’ve been entrusted.