Who’s Who at Langri Tangpa Centre
Langri Tangpa Centre is run entirely by volunteers. All committee members, class hosts, centre roles, and course leaders offer their time freely on a volunteer basis. Thank you to the cast of thousands who contribute their time, energy, patience, and passion to keep Langri Tangpa Centre flourishing!
“The centre management and volunteers
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche
are like the hands and feet of the Guru.”
Meet the LTC Executive Committee
Stacey Gossip
Director
director@langritangpa.org.au
Angela Schaffer
Chairperson
info@langritangpa.org.au
Alison Lulham
Secretary
secretary@langritangpa.org.au
Ian Anderson
Treasurer
treasurer@langritangpa.org.au
Miffi Maxmillion
Spiritual Program Coordinator
spc@langritangpa.org.au
Regular Class Leaders
Miffi and Eddie have been leading classes at LTC since 1997 – that’s a combined half-century of courses, meditations, retreats, pujas and special events!
Eddie Peet
Registered FPMT Teacher, leads weekly in-depth classes, and is our library consultant.
Eddie has been teaching at Langri Tangpa Centre since 1996. His classes are the deep dive in, and a welcome immersion into the complexity and richness of the Buddha’s teachings. Not shy of life’s dirty reality, several tragic life experiences brought Eddie to Buddhism. He first met the Dharma when he attended meditation classes with Ven. Pende Hawter, the founder of Karuna Hospice Service. Eddie has attended advanced study programs in Buddhist Philosophy and practice. He has read almost every book in our library. Just ask him about the topic you are interested in, and he can point you the right direction!
Miffi Maxmillion
Registered FPMT Teacher, leads beginner’s classes and pujas, is centre manager and webmaster.
Miffi runs the spiritual program, leads many of the beginner’s classes, and is the centre ‘umze’ or chant leader at pujas. She left behind a thriving haute couture and costume business in Melbourne, when her mother Inta (who ran LTC) became sick with cancer in 1997. Packing her bags for two weeks, she is still here 19 years later! Miffi was brought up a Buddhist and had the great good fortune to play with Lama Yeshe as a child, and his hook of compassion sustained her through the many rebellious stages of growing up. She readily admits to watching far too much TV and is an avid New Yorker magazine reader.
Meet the LTC Sangha
Venerable Lozang Lhagsam
Ven Lhagsam has 20 years experience in palliative care, worked as a registered nurse for most of her career, and has been a Buddhist nun since 2000. She brings the insight and experience of both the wisdom of the Buddha and the modern medical field. She has helped many people (and her cat) through protracted illness and death, and conducts funerals for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.
Venerable Lozang Trin-la
Ven. Trin-lä met the Dharma in 2001 and was ordained in 2008. She has worked in the palliative care sector for the last 14 years and is a Buddhist spiritual visitor at several hospitals. She conducts funerals, and carries out wedding and baby blessings. Her great joy is offering lunch to the sangha on special occasions.
Buddhism is still relatively young in the west, with a fledgling infrastructure of centres and support. Although western Sangha must be able to financially support themselves, as Buddhists we can honour our refuge commitments by making offerings to the Sangha at whatever level is appropriate to our means.
A Langri Tangpa Centre monk or nun (ordained Sangha) is a member of Langri Tangpa Centre who offers service to the centre on an ongoing basis no matter where he or she resides.
Sangha from all traditions are always welcome to attend teachings, meditations, pujas and any other event held at Langri Tangpa Centre.
How We Support Our Sangha
- Offerings at pujas
- Offerings on holy days
- Honorarium for leading courses
- Reimbursement of petrol costs for events organised by LTC
- Generous membership discount
- Attend teachings free of charge
- Sponsorship for Nyung-Nes
- Financial support to attend Australian FPMT teaching events
- Overnight accommodation at the centre when required if available
- Annual contribution to the International Mahayana Institute (IMI)
- Sangha lunches with visiting teachers
- Sangha afternoon teas
- Any offerings the Sangha receive for outreach activities eg. workshops, weddings, funerals, baby blessings, memorials are solely for their own use and not shared with the centre
Sangha Care Co-ordinator
For all questions regarding care of our LTC sangha, ordination, Sangha etiquette, help at life and at death, or just to say hello, please contact Ven. Lhagsam at sangha@langritangpa.org.au
We Invite You to Contribute
The LTC Sangha Fund seeks to help our wonderful nuns to cover costs of retreats, purchase Dharma books, get their car serviced, or help meet unexpected medical bills.
Stories of the LTC Sangha
Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of a western monk or nun is like? You might imagine a life of quiet contemplation, or perhaps study and retreat, but it can often be the exact opposite – a whirlwind of visits to the sick, email questions, hours of travelling, battles with technology, and family duties.
Langri Tangpa Centre has a wonderful track record of students becoming ordained, and in 2019 we had four new monks and nuns! To celebrate International Sangha Day (held on First Wheel-Turning Day) we hosted an online forum on everything you ever wanted to know about our LTC Sangha but never got a chance to ask!
The LTC Spiritual Program Co-ordinator, Miffi Maxmillion, posed questions such as: What’s a surprising thing we may not know about ordination? What’s the most challenging aspect of being ordained in the west? What did you have to do to create the merit to be able to ordain? Do you still go to work – what kind of job do you have? And what’s the best bit about a life as a renunciate?
“Sangha are the real heroes by defeating the delusions. A hero is not what the government or outside world considers a hero (such as those depicted in statues who have killed many people). Sangha are the real heroes and heroines. You took this incredible opportunity to be a hero over all the delusions to defeat, control, and cease the oceans of suffering of each realm. If that isn’t a hero, then what is!?”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche
