Naked Mind Retreat September 17-16, 2021

The Practice of Stillness, Occurrance and Noticing

"When the attention is quiet and still, there is a knowing that this is so. When one is involved in thinking about this and that, there is a knowing that this is so. In this context of stillness and thought occurrence, this knowing is called noticing. These are the three aspects known as stillness, occurrence and noticing.

Now, the training is this: each time you notice that you are thinking of something, you disengage from it and pull back—suspending your attention—into being quiet, into being still, and simply remain like that. When after a while you notice that you are thinking about something, again simply return to the stillness. That is the training. By repeating this over and over, you become more familiar, more experienced. That is how to progress."

Trulshik Rinpoche

"Keep your body straight, refrain from talking, open your mouthy slightly, and let the breath flow naturally.  Don't pursue the past and ddon't invite the future.  Simply rest naturally in the naked ordinary mind of the immediate present without trying to correcxt it or replace it.  If you rest like that, your mind-essence is clear and precise, awake and naked, without any concewrns about thought or recollection, joy or pain.  That is awareness (rigpa)."

Khenpo Gangshar

This retreat is for students who have received the pointing out instruction from a qualified master and completed their ngondro by number or by permission of the staff.

For more information contact the DMC office

795.00 Includes Room and Board

Dzogchen Meditation Center Seminary Winter 2021-22

Dzogchen View Three Yana Journey: The Vajradhatu Seminary Teachings of Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin.

The Dzogchen Summer Seminary is based on the seminaries held each year by the Vajradhatu Sangha and taught by the Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin from 1973 to 1988.  This year's seminary will be based on the 1978 transcripts.

  We are very proud to be continuing this remarkable retreat -- following in the footsteps of our lineage forefathers.

The purpose of the Seminary is to engage the full presentation of the practice lineage of Trungpa Rinpoche from the Hinayana teachings up through the Vajrayana.  Seminary is a balance of study and practice periods.  Each section of seminary begins with a week of intensive shamatha/vipashyana practice.  

“You can consider yourselves worthy of taking great pride in what you have learned and what you have experienced.  This kind of opportunity only occurs once in your life.  Even if you come back a second time to a seminary, the first experience will always be unique, absolutely unique.  This is important for you to understand.  Personally, I feel extremely good, without any reservations, none whatsoever.  We have worked so hard with each other, and you have fulfilled what I have envisioned.  I can see at this point that everybody is sitting up straight, which is a good sign.  The whole thing is good, extraordinarily good.  When you go back home and doubts come to you, come back to this vision.  Be cheerful, raise your head and your shoulders, and look straight ahead.  Be disciplined and compact at the hinayana level, the level of shamatha.  At the Mahayana level, be disciplined, gentle, and loving.  At the Vajrayana level, just be there.  It’s fantastic.  It is quite magical and miraculous that the people of this seminary can actually construct a complete Buddhist world.  It is unheard of.  If the figures of our lineage had been here, I think they would have been very impressed—all of them, including His Holiness.  They would see how much we know what we are and what we are doing.  We have actually tasted the dharma.  Peoples’ reservations and complaints and misconceptions—all the rumblings of their ego territoriality—could be thrown in, too, because they have actually done the whole thing properly.  Therefore, when people come up with their particular blockages and problems, they are able to relate with them properly and fully.  That is actually delightful and fantastic—and lovely.”

Trungpa Rinpoche 1978 Seminary  “Creating an Enlightened Society”

During the Dzogchen Meditation Center’s seminary program we study the talks given by the Vidyadhara during his seminaries and we apply these teachings to our practice.  This is what it means to study, contemplate and meditate which is the only way for the Buddhadharma to enter our systems fully.        

Seminary Schedule:

Hinayana Section

10/16/2020 -10/25/20 Hinayana Practice Period

10/25- 11/13/2020   Hinayana Study Period

Mahayana Section

11/16-11/22/2020 Mahayana Practice Period

11/24 -12/13/2020 Mahayana Study Period

Vajrayana Section (Only available to those who have completed Hinayana and Mahayana Sections and have made a commitment to enter the Surmang Kagyu Order.

12/16-12/23/2020 Vajrayana Practice Period

12/25-1/15/21 Vajrayana Study Section

The seminary program is taught primarily by Tashi Armstrong and other senior students of Trungpa Rinpoche and the Vajra Regent.  

$2895.00 includes room and board for the whole seminary.  A limited number of work/Study positions are available for the Seminary program.

pre-requisites for this retreat

Completion of a Dathun.

maintaining a regular shamatha/vipashyana practice

Refuge and Bodhisattva Vows

Students need to fill out an application and submit it to DMC by September 15th

Recognizing Ordinary Experience: The Mahamudra Teachings of the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin

“By working for the benefit of others we overcome hope and fear and make our meditation practice continuous.  In any transition there is a gap where the absence of the previous reference point has not yet become the next one.  In that space, there is no time.  That is the Buddha’s time.”

Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin

This will be an intensive meditation retreat which will focus on the profound teachings of the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin.  We will be making use of newly released recordings of the Vajra Regent.   Through study, contemplation and meditation we will deepen our understanding of these profound teachings and mix our minds with the Vajra Regent and our Kagyu Lineage.

Cost: $695.00 includes room and board

Introduction to Dzogchen: Mixing Mind with Space

November 5-7, 2021

$195

“In the Kagyu tradition a little special technique of breathing practice which is employed is the experiencing of “chung ne dro sum.”  “Chung” is where the thoughts arise; “ne” is dwell and “dro” is where they went; and those three are accompanied by “ying rig se wa.”  Ying means space; “rig” means conscious mind; “se wa” means mixing.  So mixing the mind consciousness.  Sometimes it’s called also “lung sem se wa”—the mind and breathing mixing together.   Whatever it is, the idea is that sense of space.  And one doesn’t have to deliberately try to mix the mind and the breathing with solemn effort particularly.  But like you feel the well-being of your body, in the same way you could feel you are breathing, a general sense of breathing.”

Trungpa Rinpoche

“The View Is the recognition of space as the true nature of mind.  According to the Kagyu gurus, mind is like space.  Space is unobstructed, all pervasive, empty and not produced by causes.  Space accommodates everything—life and death, confusion and liberation.  In that way it is the ground of everything.  At the same time, space is ungraspable by thought and cannot be experienced as a thing.  It is spotless because it has no allegiance and to describe it is impossible.  The best you can say is that space simply is, and in that sense it is primordially pure.

     “We should view our mind in the same way: mind is the ground of everything.”

Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin

The Introduction to Dzogchen practice weekends have two purposes-- to be an intro for people interested in entering the gate of genuine practice and also a monthy short retreat/refresher for people who have begun their practice.

These are closed, residential retreats meaning that we fully immerse ourselves in practice with no outer engagements for the duration of the retreat.  

Practice Schedule:

Friday

5-6 arrival and orientation

6-7 Dinner

7-9 First Meditation Session with instruction; closing chants

10 Lights out

Saturday

5:30 Wake up

6-8 Morning practice with Morning Chants

8-9 Oryoki Breakfast and Break

9-12 Second Session

12-1 Oryoki Lunch and Break

1:30-2:30 Work Period

2:30- 4 Rest

4-6 Third Session

6-7 Dinner in Community Room

7-9 Fourth Session with closing chants

10 Lights out

Sunday

6:30 Wake up

7-8 Morning Meditation with Morning Chants

8-9 Oryoki Breakfast

9-11 Meditation Practice

11-12 Closing remarks and Chants

1-3 Reception

January Dathun:

Mixing Mind and Space

December 31, 2021 to January 31, 2022

“In the Kagyu tradition a little special technique of breathing practice which is employed is the experiencing of “chung ne dro sum.”  “Chung” is where the thoughts arise; “ne” is dwell and “dro” is where they went; and those three are accompanied by “ying rig se wa.”  Ying means space; “rig” means conscious mind; “se wa” means mixing.  So mixing the mind consciousness.  Sometimes it’s called also “lung sem se wa”—the mind and breathing mixing together.   Whatever it is, the idea is that sense of space.  And one doesn’t have to deliberately try to mix the mind and the breathing with solemn effort particularly.  But like you feel the well-being of your body, in the same way you could feel you are breathing, a general sense of breathing.”

Trungpa Rinpoche

“The View Is the recognition of space as the true nature of mind.  According to the Kagyu gurus, mind is like space.  Space is unobstructed, all pervasive, empty and not produced by causes.  Space accommodates everything—life and death, confusion and liberation.  In that way it is the ground of everything.  At the same time, space is ungraspable by thought and cannot be experienced as a thing.  It is spotless because it has no allegiance and to describe it is impossible.  The best you can say is that space simply is, and in that sense it is primordially pure.

     “We should view our mind in the same way: mind is the ground of everything.”

Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin

Dathun is the foundational retreat of the Vajradhatu sangha of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.  It is a month long immersion in the practice of Shine Lhakthong or mindfulness/awareness which forms the core for our mahamudra and Dzogchen path.  In particular, it paves the way for entrance into the annutara yoga tantra.  Without some kind of accomplishment of shine/lhakthong it is impossible to engage ngondro and the sadhana of Vajrayogini – which are the core practices of Kagyu tantra.

Dathun consists of 8 to 10 hours of group shine/lhakthong practice with oryoki meals.  Group and private meditation instruction is offered regularly.  Dzogchen Meditation Center is closed to the public during this retreat. '

The pre-requisite for this retreat is that the applicant practices shamatha-vipashyana meditation following Trungpa Rinpoche's instructions at least two hours a day as a personal practice.

$1200.00

Includes dormroom  accommodation and meals

Private rooms are available on a first come first serve basis and cost an additional $250.00 per week.