About
About ADK LAMP
ADK Loving Awareness Meditation Project grew from a simple aspiration: to help make deep contemplative practice and retreat more accessible while creating a community rooted in loving awareness, compassion, wisdom, service, and connection.
We are intentionally non-denominational.
People from all religious traditions and spiritual backgrounds, as well as those without a religious affiliation, are welcome.
At the same time, we believe openness does not require abandoning tradition. Authentic spiritual traditions can be practiced and preserved without being imposed on others.
Our Heart-Based Approach
The cultivation of loving awareness
At the center of ADK LAMP is the cultivation of loving awareness — learning to meet ourselves, other people, and the world with both attention and care.
Loving Awareness
Meeting experience with clarity and warmth.
Compassion
Allowing practice to become genuine care for others.
Wisdom
Valuing reflection, discernment, study, and the wisdom preserved within contemplative traditions.
Practice
Understanding that spiritual values become meaningful when they are lived.
Service
Bringing the fruits of practice into the wider community.
Connection
Cultivating meaningful relationships with ourselves, one another, our communities, and the natural world.
Universal Spiritual Dignity
Honoring the inherent worth of people regardless of religious identity or spiritual background.
Tradition Without Exclusivity
Rooted in a living lineage
Tibetan Buddhism has a particular place in the roots of ADK LAMP because of the training and practice background of its founder.
Traditional Tibetan Buddhist teachings, meditation, prayer, and ceremonies may be offered for those who wish to engage with them.
The Barway Dorje Terma tradition has particular importance within these roots, and ADK LAMP hopes to help preserve opportunities for sincere practitioners to encounter and practice this tradition authentically and under appropriate guidance.
Participation in Tibetan Buddhist practice is never a requirement for belonging to the wider ADK LAMP community.
Our long-term vision is to create a place where different contemplative and spiritual traditions can be practiced with integrity while meeting one another with genuine respect.
Founder
Davis Trachte
Founder & Spiritual Director
Davis Trachte was born in Goshen, New York, in July 1993 and grew up with a deep connection to the mountains and outdoor life of New York State. During middle school in New Paltz, he volunteered with his family to help maintain nature trails on the Mohonk Preserve, an early experience that helped establish a lifelong appreciation for wilderness, service, and the importance of caring for the natural world.
Davis has been a student and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism since 2013, primarily within the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions.
He received a Bachelor’s degree in Tibetan Language and Buddhist Studies from Naropa University in 2018.
From 2018 through 2024, Davis lived at Kunzang Palchen Ling, a Tibetan Buddhist center in Red Hook, New York. During those years he trained closely with teachers, participated in the daily practice and life of the community, led meditation, served as shrine master, and contributed to the practical work of sustaining the center.
He continues intensive meditation and Dharma training under the guidance of Retreat Master Lama Tashi Topgyal, with particular connection to the Barway Dorje tradition as well as Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice.
Davis founded ADK LAMP with the aspiration to help create a place where deep practice is possible, authentic traditions are respected, people of different backgrounds are welcomed, and contemplative practice finds expression in compassionate service.
Our Vision
A Home in the Adirondacks
We are working toward something simple: a place for practice. Our long-term goal is to establish a permanent home for ADK Loving Awareness Meditation Project in the Adirondacks — a place where nature, silence, spiritual practice, service, and community can meet. We expect this vision to unfold gradually over many years.
- 01
Phase 1
Land
Our first major goal is to acquire suitable land in the Adirondacks. We envision a quiet natural setting capable of supporting contemplative practice, community gatherings, youth nature programs, and eventually individual retreat.
- 02
Phase 2
A Non-Denominational Sanctuary
We hope to establish a simple sanctuary for meditation, prayer, spiritual teaching, community gatherings, visiting teachers, and ceremonies. The space will belong to the wider ADK LAMP community rather than to one particular religious tradition.
- 03
Phase 3
Simple Retreat Cabins
We hope to establish a small number of simple cabins for solitary meditation, prayer, contemplation, and traditional retreat. These will not be luxury accommodations. Their purpose will be practice.
Help Build the Vision
Over time, the property may support individual and group retreats, visiting teachers, traditional practice, scholarships, youth programs, interfaith gatherings, and community partnerships.
We intend to build patiently and responsibly.
Founding Members
Building ADK LAMP together
ADK LAMP is being built with the help of a small circle of founding members.
Nick Simon
Technical Support
Nick grew up in Westchester, New York and currently bases in Boulder, Colorado. He has been an avid traveler, entrepreneur, and meditation practitioner for the last 13 years. Currently, Nick works as a filmmaker and producer for his non-profit, Art of Mastery — an initiative to support artists, artisans, and masters around the world. He is also in school for counseling, with the hopes of bringing mindfulness and nature into therapeutic relationships. He is a student of Soto Zen Buddhism and aspires to bring this influence into his work.
Yasha S. Wagner, PhD
Founding Member
Dr. Yasha S. Wagner is a researcher, educator, and innovator in the field of psychology, community organizer, and Founder/President of the InterWorld Institute, a 501(c)3 nonprofit for Inner World Peace whose past ‘Worldchangers’ initiatives have included HeartFire Festival events, Sanctorum Ecovillage centers, and more. InterWorld is now focused on developing a hybrid holistic academy offering interdisciplinary programs at its 40-acre center in Colorado and other locations worldwide.
Yasha is also an initiate of world spiritual traditions and a Murshid with the Inayati-Maimuni Order, authorized to facilitate spiritual practices and retreats. As a multilingual polymath and emcee, he has traveled around the world since early childhood, studying and sharing diverse cultural traditions and arts.
Brooke McNamara
Director of Spiritual and Community Oversight
Nate Trachte
Youth Program Director
Alex Morton
Founding Member
Wynde Kate
Founding Member
Eleri
Founding Member
Board of Trustees
Guiding ADK LAMP’s future
Kent C. Trachte, Ph.D.
President
Kent C. Trachte, Ph.D., serves as President of the Adirondack Loving Awareness Meditation Project (ADK LAMP), bringing more than four decades of experience in higher education, institutional leadership, governance, and community service.
He served as the 15th President of Lycoming College from 2013 until his retirement in 2025. During his nearly twelve-year tenure, he guided significant institutional growth, including approximately $65 million in campus investments, expanded academic and experiential-learning opportunities, and initiatives advancing college access and social mobility.
Previously, Dr. Trachte spent 25 years at Franklin & Marshall College in leadership roles including Associate Provost and Dean for Educational Services and Dean of the College. Earlier, he taught political science at Gettysburg College, Long Island University, and Clark University.
Dr. Trachte earned degrees from Dartmouth College, the University of Kentucky, and Binghamton University, including a Ph.D. in Political Science. At ADK LAMP, he applies his leadership and organizational experience to advance a sustainable, mission-driven organization dedicated to loving awareness, contemplative practice, community, and compassionate service in the Adirondacks.
Ashish Kothari
Sudhama
Tharesa Lindsay
Alex Mcdonald
Dan Curtiss
Alan Mcoy
Gretchen Mills
Vice President
Carly Domic Sobol