This website represents 481 lay Diamond Way Buddhist centers and groups of the Karma Kagyu Tradition under the spiritual guidance of His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Trinley Thaye Dorje, and directed by Lama Ole Nydahl. They are not abstract institutions but friendly places where all can meet to learn from Buddha's timeless wisdom, meditate, share experience and development, and actively participate and do the work which makes all this possible.

In 1969 Ole Nydahl and his wife Hannah met the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, historically the first incarnate lama of Tibet. Since then the teachings of Diamond Way Buddhism have gradually found their way to the West. His Holiness asked them to teach, establish meditation centres and ensure that the teachings would remain alive and attractive to intelligent, critical, lay people in the Western world.

The Whitewater center offers broad access to the Buddha's highest methods for developing freedom and joy in every situation. These methods were practiced in Tibet and India for centuries in an unbroken transmission lineage. Our style is fresh and free from confusing cultural baggage, stiffness or sentimentality. Many of the people living in the Diamond Way centers are lay practitioners, working jobs, having families and incorporating the teachings and meditation into daily life. The center is supported by donations, and all of the work done in the center is voluntary and unpaid.