Dzogchen Kyudo Retreat: "First Shot Best Shot"

May 25th to June 2nd 2020

 "With every shot see your true nature"    Awa Kenzo

“All together, these three principles—heaven, earth, and man—deal with how we can integrate our state of mind into a work of art. A fourth principle, though not exactly the same kind of principle, is that of the universal monarch. It is what joins heaven and earth together. This principle is singlefold: that is, it says that body and mind are able to work together harmoniously. Therefore, the mind develops a sense of openness and peacefulness, and the body develops an absence of speed and aggression. In that way, a work of art becomes gentle rather than contrived or extraordinary. It becomes a good work of art, very genuine, and it becomes worthwhile, really good, to be an artist. You can take a lot of pride in being an artist, in the positive sense. You will be so happy and feel so good to be an artist. You can work according to the principles of heaven, earth, and man, and you can expose yourself by means of those principles. It could be extraordinary, quite fabulous.”

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, constitutes cutting through the tendency of following one thought after another.  For the Kyudo practitioner we use the  7 steps of shooting the bow to synchornize mind and body in the activity of shooting the bow.   Zanshin, "remaining mind", is the Kyudo term for vipashyana. This is resting awareness beyond the reference point of habitual mind. This expands into "Kyudo mind" which is the atmosphere of wakefulness.

 $495.00 Includes Room and Board