Vajrayogini Dathun
| Event Date | 02-28-2025 |
| Event End Date | 03-28-2025 |
| Individual Price | $3,000.00 |
Knowing the Key Point for Resolving the Nature of Mind
March 15-17, 2024
In Shamatha/Vipashyana practice we resolve the ture nature of mind which is beyond habitual reference point by developing one pointedness in our meditation practice.
"One pointedness meansx recognizing the nature of mind;
divided into the lesser, medium, and greater stages:
One sees the alternation of bliss and luminosity,
One masters resting in samadhi,
And experience continuously appears as luminosity."
Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye
We will be working with the 9th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje's Mahamudra Manual "Elliminating the Darkness of Ignorance" along with Khenpo Tsultrim Gamptso's instructions on Path Mahamudra and Trungpa Rinpoche's pith instructions.
| Event Date | 03-14-2025 |
| Event End Date | 03-16-2025 |
| Individual Price | 195.00 |
Kagyu Ngondro and the Preliminary Transmission of Trungpa Rinpoche's Surmang Kagyu Lineage
There are no prerequisites for this retreat
We will be working with the 9th Karmapa's formulation of the ngondro or preliminary practices that we use in the Surmang Kagyu lineage of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
The preliminary practices are foundational in terms of creating the right conditions for us to recognize the nature of mind and to train from that key understanding. It is often said that the preliminaries are as profound as the main practice and we have found that to be true.
Cost: $195.00
Includes room and board.
| Event Date | 04-18-2025 |
| Event End Date | 04-20-2025 |
| Individual Price | $195.00 |
The Inner Yoga of Shamatha/Vipashyana Practice
This weekend we focus on the inner yoga of the 7 point posture of vairocana and why it is important to work on this yogic pose. We will look at the teachings on the avadhuti channel and centralizing the disparate energies through one pointed training.
"The teachings of the meditative posture of Vairocana are a method for developing single-minded concentration for the development and completing stages of annuttarayoga tantra, and effortless non-conceptual experience of bliss and clarity. Therefore beginners should rely on this essential point about the bodily posture....According to the tantra teachings, mind and the energy winds upon which it rides are inseparable. If the energy-winds "prana" are proplerly channelled, the mind will be focused; but when they run wild then thoughts do likewise."Wangchuk Dorje, 9th Karmapa
$195.00 includes room and board
| Event Date | 05-02-2025 |
| Event End Date | 05-04-2025 |
| Individual Price | $195.00 |
There are no prerequisites for this retreat.
"A common misunderstanding is that the meditative state of mind has to be captured and then nursed and cherished. That is definitely the wrong approach. If you try to domesticate your mind through meditation--try to possess it by holding on to the meditative state-- the clear result will be regression on the path, with a loss of freshness and spontaneity. If you try to hold on without lapse all the time, then maintaining your awareness will begin to become a domestic hassle It will become like painfully going through housework. There will be an underlying sense of resentment, and the practice of meditation will become confusing. You will begin to develop a love-hate relationship toward your practice, in which your concept of it seems good but, at the same time, the demand this rigid concept makes on you is too painful.
So the technique is based on touch and go You focus your attention on the object of awareness then, in the same moment, you disown that awareness and go on. What is needed here is some sense of confidence--confidence that you do not have to securely own your mind, but that you can tune into its process spontaneously."
The Quintessential Teachings of Trungpa Rinpoche series are a set of weekend retreats suitable for beginners and advanced students which engage the pith oral instructions of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In this retreat we will engage the fundamental instructions on Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice given by Trungpa Rinpoche to his direct students.
As beginners one often comes at practice with a mind conditioned by certain assumptions. Generally we attempt to sustain a fabricated concentratiion by focusing on a technique. But in this case one needs to develop a fundamental awareness which knows when you are present directly and then we let go of any attempt to hold on to a fabricated concentration. This is both the development and realization of "knowing the one" or "resolving the nature of mind." It is not about feeling "good" particularly or pushing away thoughts so that we can achieve a "thought-free state." It is realizing that this moment of knowing when we are present in a way which is not conditioned by our habitual reactions is the ultimate reference point -- the ultimate nature of our awareness.
The weekend will consist of talks by the resident teacher and the Practice of "mixing mind with space" the essential training of Dzogchen practice. There will be group discussion and individual meditation interviews.
Cost $195.00
Includes room and Board
Event Properties
| Event Date | 05-23-2025 |
| Event End Date | 05-25-2025 |
| Individual Price | $195.00 |
The Left-Handed Tantrika: Vajrayogini, Transgressive Discipline and Crazy Wisdom
"As in the esoteric Saiva systems, kapalika and sexual practices in the Buddhist tantras are grounded upon a metaphysics of nonduality. Its purpose is to counter the ordinary, conventional dualism of the mind that naturally perceives aspects of the world as either "pure" or "impure." By shattering these instinctive responses kapalika practices radically challenge the unenlightened dualistic tendencies of the mind, attacking the innate dichotomy of subject and object and forcing it to break through to the experience of a nondual reality. In both nondual systems the underlying method is that of "transgressive discipline" or "conduct of the left" (vamacara)."
"Considering Dogs, Brahmins and Untouchables to be of the same nature..."
| Event Date | 06-20-2025 |
| Event End Date | 06-29-2025 |
| Individual Price | $595.00 |