Kagyu Ngondro and Guru Yoga Intensive

This retreat is open to all practitioners who have received the lung to practice the Kagyu Ngondro from a qualified lama.

During this 10 day ngondro intensive we will be practicing the Kagyu ngondro and a short daily practice of the Sun of Wisdom Guru Yoga which Trungpa Rinpoche composed for his root guru Padme Trime.  We will conclude with the Sun of Wisdom Feast.

This retreat will be led by Tashi Armstrong 

This retreat costs $495.00  room and board included.

“The world of anuttarayoga is a large-scale world. Even in the Hinayana, and at least at the Mahayana level of shunyata, it has been taken for granted that the world is vast and that it has its functions, which are interdependent. This has been understood, and that is why the tantric teachings are possible. Tantra stirs up your smug way of sleeping within the gigantic cosmos. It upsets your sense of security and makes you more paranoid. Instead of security, there are a lot of holes all over the place. The oceans are not just oceans, but they have huge bubbles underneath them. The sky is not just a blue sky, but there are holes carved out that are not actually blue sky. It seems that the role of tantra is to see those things, rather than to rest in the eternity and efficiency of the phenomenal world, thinking that everything is going to be okay. That is not possible. Nothing is going to be okay.”
p.528 “The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness”
Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

The Heart of the Matter

Shamatha-Vipashyana Weekthun

September 17 to September 23, 2018

"Lord Gotsangpa said, 'To condense everything into one point, I will simply practice this unimpaired present ordinary mind until reaching the state of buddhahood.' besides following this statement of his, don't harbor ambitions about anything else whatsoever.

The supreme being and lord of the Dharma Choje Rinpoche said:

'Some accepte that when the steadiness of the meditation state 

has become continuous with

The unboroken luminosity of the post-meditation,

Is itself the realization of the buddha-mind.'

This is exactly what I too have understood:

That the nakedness of ordinary mind is the dharmakaya

In which both meditation and post-meditation, along with habitual tendencies,

Are forever vanquished, like iron filed totally away.

He continued:

While striving for qualities, you get stuck in the viscious disease of ambition.

While trying to acquire a fruition, it is destroyed by the frost of expectations.

While wising for signs of progress, you get caught in the trap of Mara.

It is just as he has taught."

Tsele Natsok Rangdrol, "The Heart of the Matter: The Unchanging Convergence of Vital Points That Shows Exactly How To Apply the View and Meditation of the Definitive Meaning."

"The Heart of the Matter" retreats return to the practice which reveals the "Definitive Meaning" -- i.e. the practice of seated meditation as taught by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin.  During these retreats students engage in four sessions of Shamatha-Vipashyana practice utilizing the forms of group practice followed by the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi but accompanied by instruction on the practice of "mixing mind with space" -- the union of shamatha-vipashyana.  

These retreats are silent.  Face to face meditation interviews and group instructions and readings are held periodically throughout the week.

Daily Schedule

5:30 Wake Up

6-8 Morning Practice (Session 1)

8-8:30 Oryoki Breakfast

9:30- 12:30 Meditation Practice (Session 2)

12:30- 1:15 Oryoki Lunch

2-3:30 Work Practice

4-6 Meditation Practice (Session 3)

6-7 Oryoki Dinner

7-9 Meditation Practice

10:00 Lights Out

$395.00 includes room and board

TBA

Dzogchen Kyudo Retreat: "First Shot Best Shot"

May 17th to the 26th 2019

 "With every shot see your true nature"    Awa Kenzo

"As far as dharma art or absolute experience is concerned, along with our experience we begin to see things as they are, touch on things as they are.  Then we begin just to be with object perceptions, without accepting or rejecting.  We simply try to be that way.  There is a kind of standing-still quality, or stalemate, in which comments and remarks become unimportant, and seeing things as they are becomes the real thing.  It's like a frog sitting in the middle of a big puddle, with rain constantly falling on it.  The frog simply winks its eyes at each raindrop that falls on it but it desn't change its postrue.  It doesn't try either to jump into the puddle or to get out of the puddle.  That quality is what is symbolized by a sitting bull, so the frog becomes a sitting bull.

Trungpa Rinpoche "Dharma Art"

 This retreat will explore kyudo training as the technique for realizing the nature of mind.  During this retreat we will explore the traditional  teachings of isshin and zanshin from the Japanese contemplative and martial arts and how they correlate with our training in Dzogchen and Mahamudra.  In particular we will be looking at Trungpa's pith instructions on Dharma Art and Shambhala Warriorship and applying these instructions in our Kyudo training.

Isshin means "one mind".  This is the training of shamatha meditation for Dzogchen Practitioners and, in particular constitute cutting through the tendency of following one thought after another.  For the Kyudo practitioner we use the hassetsu or 7 steps of shooting the bow to synchornize mind and body in the activity of shooting the bow.

 $595.00 Includes Room and Board

"Never Forget Hinayana" Practice Intensive

July 8-16, 2019 $395.00 includes room and board

“As far as basic dharma is concerned, at this point everything is connected with the sitting practice of meditation alone. There is no area in the practice of hinayana Buddhism, which is the foundation of Buddhism, in which people can actually attain any notion of freedom at all without understanding or realizing the great need for sitting meditation practice. The sitting practice of meditation is immensely important in all this. The logic or the reason for this is that if we are at all working with the sense of egolessness, of any sort or any direction, we have to have some training that involves letting go of our ground, letting go of our carpet.”

Vidyadhara Trungpa Rinpoche 1975 Hinayana-Mahayana Transcripts pp.101

The Hinayana practice intensive comes at the beginning of the Dzogchen Summer Seminary.  During this intensive we will engage shamatha - vipashyana training  which forms the foundation of our three yana journey.  The emphasis of the training will be on developing one-pointed awareness.  

Participants will take the pratimoksha vows every morning.  Meals will be taken in the oryoki style developed by Trungpa Rinpoche.  The retreat will be silent.  Individual meditation instruction will be available.

Daily Schedule

5:30 Wake up

6-8 Morning Chants and Shamatha Vipashyana meditation 

8-8:30 Oryoki Breakfast

9-12 Shamatha Vipashyana Meditation

12-12:45 Oryoki Lunch

1:30- 3:00 Work Period

4-6 Shamatha -Vipashyana Meditation and Protector Chants

6-7 Oryoki Dinner

7-9 Shamatha-Vipashyana Meditation Closing Chants

10:00 lights out