At Natural Dharma Fellowship (NDF), opportunities to deepen one’s practice through service to the sangha abound. When we engage in seva—selfless service—through the lens of Sacred View, volunteering becomes more than simply helping out. It becomes a precious opportunity to embody our values, strengthen our community, and bring our Buddhist commitments into lived expression.

Practicing Sacred View through seva is not just a lofty aspiration—it is a living, breathing practice that infuses our community at every level. The Vajrayana Program exemplifies this spirit vividly. It’s no surprise that many volunteers who support this offering speak of joy when reflecting on their roles, and describe their responsibilities as essential aspects of their path.

Sacred View and the Spirit of Seva

As part of the Vajrayana path, we commit to viewing the world as sacred. From the moment we wake, through all the activities and interactions that fill our day, we are invited to see everything we encounter as an expression of primordial purity. Through this practice, we learn to recognize that our nature, the nature of others, and the nature of all phenomena is love and wisdom—inseparable.

This is not a perspective confined to the meditation cushion. Sacred View is a radical orientation we are asked to carry into every gesture of daily life. It transforms how we relate to the world—revealing even mundane tasks and ordinary relationships as opportunities to touch the sacred. Sacred View does not deny suffering or complexity; rather, it opens our hearts to meet all of it with clarity, compassion, and reverence. When we orient toward the sacred, every interaction becomes a fresh opportunity to meet the Buddha.

The Vajrayana tradition offers a wealth of effective and expedient yogic technologies to help us recognize and stabilize this view. Alongside these inner practices is the path of open-hearted seva—offering our time and abilities for the benefit of all beings. In this spirit, acts of service—whether greeting newcomers, managing Zoom logistics, or sending reminder emails—become profound expressions of Dharma. Through the lens of Sacred View, volunteering becomes a joyful participation in the unfolding of awakening, both within ourselves and in our shared sangha life.

Seva, the Sanskrit word for service, emphasizes offering ourselves for the benefit of others. As Lama Willa teaches, “Seva does not just mean offering help without compensation. It means selfless service, and it is one of the most important spiritual practices in the Buddhist tradition. By practicing seva, we loosen the bonds of egotism and strengthen the habit of altruism—the essence of compassion in action.”

Seva calls us to show up with an open heart. When aligned with Sacred View—even when we feel grumpy, tired, or unsure we have anything to offer—we begin to see that this, too, is a precious opportunity worthy of reverence. Service becomes a mirror for our practice. Perhaps we can begin to untangle perfectionism or loosen our attachments to efficiency and productivity. On the path of seva, everything is welcome: procrastination, performance anxiety, the need to prove our worth, impostor syndrome—all of it is infused with Buddha-nature. Every part of us is held sacred and invited into service.

Perhaps we aren’t confident in our own capacity for seva, believing that we can’t serve the sangha until we’ve reached a certain level of realization, or that we shouldn’t volunteer unless we’re already skilled at the needed task. But this misses the point—and forgets the heart of Sacred View. From the mundane perspective, none of us is perfect—and we don’t need to be. If perfection were a requirement for service, NDF wouldn’t exist, nor would any volunteer-based organization. From the sacred perspective, however, we are already perfect—and the very act of showing up helps us remember the truth of the “more that we are.”

This spirit of sacred, wholehearted service lives at the core of the Vajrayana Program. It is embodied not only in individual acts of volunteering, but also in the collaborative leadership that helps shape the container of our practice community. When service is rooted in Sacred View, meetings become mandalas of insight and connection, and shared responsibility becomes a joyful path of awakening.

Guiding the Path: The Vajrayana Steering Committee

Through conversations with members of the Vajrayana Program’s volunteer leadership, recurring themes of connection, community, nonjudgmental dialogue, integration with practice, and joy naturally arise. One member remarked, “We come as we are—and that’s sacred!” This spirit of authenticity and shared purpose is embodied by the Vajrayana Steering Committee—a devoted team that includes the program’s guiding teacher Lama Liz Monson and core volunteers: co-coordinators Alex Marie and Cindy Caros, practice coordinator Maureen McGee, study coordinator Ron Thomas, and Vajrayana teacher Kathe McKenna.

Together, they offer steady guidance, thoughtful stewardship, and a clear vision that supports the flourishing of the Vajrayana Program. Though the committee typically meets once a month for a little over an hour, one member joyfully reported, “The meetings could easily go on for five hours—they’re so energizing!” Far from being a chore, this shared leadership is viewed as a vital space of co-creation, insight, and support—one where the path is walked together, with warmth and intention.

Working Groups: Collaborative Evolution

Last year, the Steering Committee invited current students to share feedback about their experiences in the Vajrayana Program. In response, three key focus areas were identified as vital to the program’s continued growth: Welcome/Onboarding/Kulas, Rituals/Transmissions, and Reading/Study. A second invitation then went out to the community—this time requesting volunteers to join working groups tasked with examining the existing structure and offering recommendations for refinement.

Importantly, the only prerequisite to join a working group is current participation in the program. In this way, lovingly serving together becomes both an offering and a support for the practice of Sacred View. We do not become sacred because we have completed thousands of prostrations; rather, the prostrations—and all Vajrayana practices—help us remember that we are sacred already.

Rooted in this understanding, the working groups continue to strengthen the Vajrayana Program, drawing on the lived experience and collective wisdom of the sangha to help it flourish.

The Gift of Mentorship: Deepening in Sangha

Because relationship is a central element of the Buddhist path, NDF’s Vajrayana track includes the opportunity for one-to-one mentorship. Each student is encouraged to cultivate a connection with a mentor—someone further along the path—offering a space to reflect on what is arising in practice and in life.

Vajrayana mentors have completed Level I ngöndro (preliminary practices) and are deeply rooted in both the Vajrayana Program and the broader NDF sangha. This remarkable team of eleven mentors generously offers their time, presence, and experience to support each student individually. These relationships—grounded in trust, care, and shared commitment—foster spiritual growth and deepen our collective sense of connection.

This, too, is seva. Each mentoring conversation is an opportunity to practice Sacred View—an invitation for the mentor to lovingly hold the spacious ground of interbeing and meet the mentee as already whole, as the Buddha themself.

Practice Leaders: Holding the Container

When asked about their roles, Vajrayana volunteers consistently return to one central theme: sangha. Again and again, they affirm that community is essential to spiritual growth. As one volunteer shared, “We need each other on the path to share that energetic, loving connection.”

Because students progress through ngöndro (preliminary practices) at their own pace, much of the work is solitary. Yet an essential feature of NDF’s Vajrayana track is the monthly group practice sessions—precious opportunities to come together in shared intention. Five dedicated practice leaders—Maureen McGee, Gina Michaels, David Bayer, Roxy Broadbent, and Kathe McKenna—each guide one of the core ngöndro practices, holding space for students to explore these teachings within a supportive container of community.

While practice leading includes guiding meditation and leading the liturgies associated with each ngöndro practice, it also involves many less visible, yet equally important tasks: coordinating schedules so as many students as possible can attend, setting up and hosting Zoom sessions, sending reminder emails, and making sure participants have the necessary materials. These so-called “mundane” duties, too, become fertile ground for practicing Sacred View—inviting us to integrate everyday actions with presence, care, and devotion.

Behind the Scenes: The Invisible Web of Care

Beyond the steering committee, coordinators, and practice leaders, an entire network of NDF volunteers quietly supports the Vajrayana Program from behind the scenes. These individuals form an invisible web of care—one that holds the structure and makes the offerings possible.

Without Zoom hosts, AV pilots, onsite retreat managers, and yogis, NDF could not offer Vajrayana retreats or sustain the rich tapestry of online programming. And without our devoted audio/video editors and resource coordinators, access to the precious teachings shared in these spaces would be severely limited. Though their work is often unseen, its impact is immeasurable—ensuring that the Dharma reaches far and wide, and that every participant feels welcomed, supported, and held.

Sacred World, Sacred Mistakes

Just as the Vajrayana path teaches us to meet life’s challenges—our difficult thoughts, emotions, and embodied experiences—as fodder for awakening, the path of service invites us to approach our mistakes, discomfort, and interpersonal struggles as openings for deeper practice.

Vajrayana students don’t commit to Sacred View because we already see everything in our world as an expression of primordial purity. We vow to see it that way precisely because we often don’t. At first, the vow is aspirational. It helps orient us toward the deeper truth of how things really are—even if we’ve only glimpsed it for a moment. And when we’re looking for those glimpses, we’re more likely to notice them. Awakening through seva is the same.

The Joy of Serving Together

We may observe and admire volunteers who coordinate programs, serve on the board, spearhead committees, guide study groups, or facilitate practice sessions. It’s easy to assume that the grace, generosity, patience, or kindness they embody are simply personal traits. And in a way, that’s true—this is who they are. But it’s also who we all are. Our very nature is love and wisdom, inseparable.

Sacred View reminds us that the caring qualities we recognize in others are already the ground of our own being. At the same time, the joyful path of service offers fertile ground to cultivate and strengthen these qualities. And the fruits of practicing this way provide nourishment far beyond the bounds of NDF’s sangha.

When we engage in seva together, we help one another live into Sacred View—through shared actions, mutual support, and the steady encouragement to remember that the capacity for wise and compassionate action is not limited to a gifted few. It is available to all of us.

Often, what we discover through volunteering is immediately applicable to everyday life. We may not always know how taking refuge in a yidam (a meditational deity representing awakened qualities) relates to handling a difficult conversation at work. But when we practice honest, open-hearted dialogue in service of our beloved sangha, we begin to develop skillful means that we can bring into our team meetings, family dynamics, or community gatherings.

Those who serve within the Vajrayana Program recognize that every act—large or small—holds the potential to awaken Sacred View. These volunteers, many of whom selflessly serve across multiple roles within Natural Dharma Fellowship, embody a spirit of joyful service, generosity, loving commitment, and deep interconnection. In doing so, they help reveal the living heart of Vajrayana practice at NDF.

Step Into the Mandala of Service

If your heart is stirred by the spirit of seva and the deep joy of serving in sangha, we invite you to explore how you might participate. Whether you’re drawn to behind-the-scenes support, community organizing, or simply offering your presence in shared practice, there is a place for you.

• Learn more about volunteer opportunities with Natural Dharma Fellowship
• Registration for the 2025–2026 Vajrayana Program opens soon, with the program year beginning in July. To learn more, volunteer, or request a recording of the recent Vajrayana Info Session, visit the Vajrayana Program page or email us at .
• If you’re a NDF Vajrayana student who is interested in learning more about volunteering for a working group, please email Alex and Cindy at .

With immense gratitude, Natural Dharma Fellowship honors all who walk the path of seva—past, present, and future. May our collective offerings continue to nourish this precious lineage, and may the joy of service remind us, again and again, of the sacredness at the ground of our interbeing.

 [Thank you to staff member and volunteer Shemaleiah Geremia-Smylie for writing this article.]