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