Completely Wasting Your Time:  Dzogchen Meditation Retreat

One of the main obstacles we have in our practice is "ambition."  Ambition in practice is just another way to turn your meditation into a project for habitual mind.  Generally speaking, there is a vague notion of where we want to get to-- or what we want to get out of our weekend retreat or two hours of practice.  It is important to see that for what it is-- a projected habitual reference point.

Trungpa Rinpoche referred to students' habit of "perching" on their meditation cushion.  Meditation becomes a little "self improvement project" engaged in with habitual mind -- sems.

During this retreat nothing happens and you don't get anything out of it.

Cost $195.00

includes room and board

Quintessential Trungpa Rinpoche:  Shamatha-Vipashyana Meditation: "Touch and Go"

April 4 to April 6, 2025

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."  Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

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 always 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 

Kyudo Retreat

May 13- 22, 2025

prerequisite:  Touch and Go Introduction to Meditation.

"...the reality of the world is something more than the life-style the twentieth century world has embraced.  Pleasure has been cheapened, joy has been reduced, happiness has been computerized.  The goal of warriorship is to reconnect to the nowness of reality so that you can go forward without destroying simplicity, without destroying your connection to this earth...we are going to discuss how to discover the ground of nowness.  In order to rediscover nowness, you have to look back, back to where you came from, back to the original state. ...When you are in contact with this orginal ground, then you are never confused by the illusions of past and future.  You are able to rest continuously in nowness."  "Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior,"  Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche invited the 20th Generation Samurai, Kanjuro Shibata Sensei-- Bowmaker to the Emperor of Japan and Head of a Chikurin-ha branch of the Heki School of Japanese archery-- to come to the United States and instruct his direct students in the martial art of kyudo in 1982. 

Sensei taught what he called "mind kyudo" which he said was the same as "standing zen." He differentiated this approach to kyudo from what he called "sports kyudo." 

In Japan, Sensei would tell us, kyudo had become "sports kyudo," and that students there were more interested in hitting the target than in developing the awakened state mind.  Trungpa Rinpoche's students were receptive to Sensei's teachings on "mind kyudo" and they also purchased many of his bamboo yumis or bows.  Sensei moved permanantly to Boulder, CO from his home in Kyoto in the mid 1980's. 
   The claim that all kyudo in Japan is "sports kyudo" is not exactly true--though there is nothing quite like turning it into a competitive highschool sport to kill the spirit of it.  One only has to watch highly trained kyudoka in Japan to realize that these practitioners have reached a very high level of spiritual and physical refinement in their practice.  Hitting the target is also a part of this refinement and it has very little to do with what we would call "sports."

It is the close connection between Trungpa Rinpoche's Shambhala and Dzogchen teachings that makes our training in kyudo unique here at DMC-- and that is the purpose of training in kyudo here.  You will not be training with a kyudo master during this retreat-- you will be training with a kyudo instructor-- Tashi Armstrong.  We don't offer internationally recognized belt ranks.  Instead we will invoke Drala and extend our insight gained from shamatha/vipashyana meditation into our use of the Japanese contemplative art of kyudo-- the way of the bow.

Tashi was a direct student of Shibata Sensei starting in 1987.  Lived at Shibata Sensei's house in Boulder in 1993-4.  He was made an "instructor" by Shibata Sensei in 2000.  Tashi was also  a direct student of Vidyadhara Trungpa Rinpoche and was accepted as a tantric disciple in 1986.

Class equipment will be provided along with room and board

$795.00

Admiral John Perks' Memorial Purnachandra Regatta Penobscott Bay, Maine

 Name   PURNACHANDRA....

The Code.

Thusness is clear,

So this is our view,

We do not transgress this,

So this is our samaya,

We do not take it up or reject it,

So this is our practice.

Our self-evidence is indivisible.

This is our mandala.

We attain self-empowerment.

This is empowerment.

It is spontaneously realized,

So it is our good work.

We are not distracted,

So this is our samadhi.

July 9,2020

The pirate code was stolen by two pirates - Sri Singha and Vairochana - who broke into the palace by night where they broke the seals and stole the books. These particular books were put under lock and key by the King, because of some disturbance involving a prostitute and a nun. The translation of the books into English, by another pirate with the initials C.W., were on my desk and I was thinking about the pirates’ code for some time, and there it was written on the back of the book. So I stole it.

The Commodore.

Some time ago Rinpoche was invited to the Disney World in Anaheim California. We went with a small group. Rinpoche went on one or two rides -The Haunted House and the Jungle Boat ride. But he insisted on going on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride over and over again, drinking sake from a large coke-a-cola bottle, and singing:

Yo Ho,  Yo Ho,

A Pirates life for me,

We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot,

Drink up me 'earties,

Yo Ho.

We were all encouraged to sing along,

Some- time after, Rinpoche said, "Major, we should have a navy".  I said, “yes”, thinking more of Hornblower. "I will be the head. What is that called?" asked Rinpoche. "Admiral" I replied. "And you can be the second in command. What is that rank?" "Commodore" I said. 

And so it was."

"You are invited to join us for the 5th annual Regatta and Fleet Rendezvous for the New England Purnachandra.  The fleet will assemble in Rockland Harbor where we will engage in the usual pirate activity which will include both practices involving form and practices without form. 

From Rockland Harbor the mandala will set sail on adventures to Vinylhaven and North Haven Islands where we will come in contact with different civilizations and unexplored bays--looting and pillaging our personal experience in these strange lands." 

Commodore Armstrong 

 H.M.S. Veritas

Surmang Kagyu Retreat Center
Three month residency

prerequisite: "Touch and Go" Introduction to Meditation.

The three month residency is an invitation to engage the three yana teachings of Vidyadhara Trungpa Rinpoche's Surmang Kagyu and Shambhala Lineages.

 We follow the daily schedule of practice/ study and work Trungpa Rinpoche developed at his main practice center, Karme Choling and Vajradhatu Seminaries, during his lifetime.

 Participants engage a daily and bi-weekly schedule of practice and study with approximately 5 hours of communal practice each day; individual meditation instruction twice a week; and, two hours of class instruction studying the pith instructions of our lineage.  
This is a work/study position.  There is no charge and participants staff and participate in all group retreats held during there residency at no charge. 

There is also a 2 week solitary retreat included at the end of the three month residency for participants.

The Truth of Suffering-- Trungpa Rinpoche's Hinayana Teachings

prerequisite: Touch and Go Introduction to Meditation at DMC

"In order to cut through the ambition of ego, we must understand how we set up me and my territory, how we use our projections as credentials to prove our existence.  The source of the effort to confirm our solidity is an uncertainty as to whether or not we exist.  Driven by this uncertainty, we seek to prove our own existence by finding a reference point outside ourselves, something with which to have a relationship, something solid to feel separate from.  But the whole enterprise is questionable if we really look back and back.  Perhaps we have perpetrated a gigantic hoax."

Trungpa Rinpoche

When people first hear about Buddhism and the teachings of the Hinayana which focus on "the truth of suffering" they often wonder, " Why would I want to study a religion that is so depressing?"

When the Buddha attained "so-called enlightenment" (Trungpa's words) under the bodhi tree 2600  years ago he spent 7 days wondering how he could communicate what he realized to confused people like ourselves.  Essentially, what he realized was that we only glimpse the awakened state when our habitual mind-- the mind of hope and fear-- experiences a gap.  Because we are attached to the process of mental projection and fixation (dualistic fixation) a gap in its speed and smooth operation produces tremendous anxiety and panic.  So in the Hinayana we come into contact with this world beyond habitual mind--sems-- as a full blown panic attack.  This reality is "The Truth of Suffering."  Mind beyond habitual projection and fixation is reality.  Dualistic fixation is a fantasy or dream world.  In the Hinayana we have no idea about a reality beyond habitual reference point until our habitual reference point falls apart.  That is a great shock. 

 If we hold our seat in the midst of ego's panic attack we discover a reality beyond --or as a background too --habitual mind's fantasy world.  This reality is the enlightened state but to our samsaric way of being it doesn't feel that way. 

 Trungpa Rinpoche describes this as the "cosmic joke" in the talks transcribed in " The Myth of Freedom."  

  This is the Hinayana of the Backwards Ati-- it has the view of Dzogchen in it already.  When we understand this Hinayana through direct experience then we have in many ways understood the fundamental teaching of Dzogchen.  Dzogchen is said to be so simple that even an uneducated farmer can understand it and reach enlightenment.  I'm not so sure about college educated Americans... But certainly uneducated farmers-- or yak herders.

Cost $595.00 includes room and board

Fearless Compassion

Prerequisite:  The Truth of Suffering Retreat 

"Compassion is based on some sense of 'soft spot' in us.  It is as if we had a pimple on our body that was very sore--so sore that we do not want to rub it or scratch it.  During our shower, we do not want to rub too much soap over it because it hurts.  There is a sore point or soft spot that happens to be painful to rub, painful to put hot or cold water over.  That sore spot on our body is an analogy for compassion.  Why?  Because even in the midst of immense aggression, insensitivity in our life, or laziness, we always have a soft spot, some point we can cultivate-- or at least not bruise.  Every human being has that kind of basic sore spot, including animals.  Whether we are crazy, dull, aggressive, ego-tripping, whatever we might be, there is still that sore spot taking place in us.  An open wound, which might be a more vivid analogy, is always there.  That open wound is usually very inconvenient and problematic.  We don't like it.  We would like to be tough.  We would like to fight, to come out strong, so we do not have to defend any aspect of ourselves.  We would like to attack our enemy on the spot, single-handedly.  We would like to lay our trips on everybody completely and properly, so that  we have nothing to hide.  That way, if somebody decides to hit us back, we are not wounded.  And hopefully, nobody will hit us on that sore spot, that wound that exists in us.  Our basic makeup, the basic constituents of mind, are based on passion and compassion at the same time.  But however confused we might be, however much of a cosmic monster we might be, still there is an open wound or sore spot in us always.  There will always be a sore spot."

A funny thing happens on our way to enlightenment.  Whatever our initial interest in the teachings of Buddhadharma what we actually discover in the practice of Shamatha/Vipashyana is that there is a weakness in our suit of armor.  This all feels horribly embarrassing and naked.  Our initial foray into these teachings started as a way to not feel this kind of pain-- unfortunately, as we go deeper into our training we find that we are getting punctured more and more by what happens in our lives.  We are continually falling in love and having our hearts broken.  Something keeps getting through our defenses.  Slowly --and terribly from the point of view of habitual mind -- we discover that this is the point!  We will just be going there from now on.  "There" is called maitri.  It is a fundamental tenderness.  This tenderness is what we discover in the "no man's land" outside of our habitual dualistic preoccupations.  This tenderness is Absolute Bodhicitta.  It is the method of Tonglen and the 6 paramitas and it is the fruition-- sunyata suffused with tenderness.  Actually one and the same.
This vulnerable soft spot is the last thing habitual mind wants to be-- that is why 500 arhats had heart attacks when they first heard the Buddha's teachings on the Bodhisattva Path. 

This retreat will be about having such heart attacks ourselves!

Cost: $595.00 includes room and board

Devotion Mahamudra

Prerequisites:  the previous Hinayana and Mahayana Retreats offered at DMC

 "You cannot have complete devotion without surrendering your heart.  Otherwise the whole thing becomes a business deal.  As long as you have any understanding of wakefulness, any understanding of the sitting practice of meditation, you always carry your vajra master with you all along.  That is why we talk about the mahamudra level of all-pervasive awareness.  With such awareness, everything that goes on is the vajra master.  So if your vajra master is far away, there is really no reason for sadness-- although some sadness can be useful, because it brings you back from arrogance."

   Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

In the hinayana,  shamatha/vipashyana training leads us to a coemergent panic attack.  We realize that our habitual attempt to solidify our experience falls apart again and again.  What co-emerges with that falling apart is a sense of complete openness and space--"no man's land," "nonreference point experience," "absolute symbolism."  By resting in that momentarily again and again we develop a familiarity with that basic space.  Out of that familiarity a sense of tenderness and non-territoriality develops.  We realize that the habitual projections of sems have no legs to stand on-- that no battle needs to be waged.  "The point is there is no point and so we can just let be." 

From this "soft spot" in our suit of armour we then encounter the world of "other" which is the bodhisattva's path of exchanging ourselves for other.  We realize that this experience of "open-hearted surgery without an anesthetic" is where the path leads us.  At this point in our journey we begin to understand that there is an authentic lineage and an authentic guru who manifests this path for us and our experience becomes unceasing.  Its almost like we just woke up to the fact that they are the living embodiment of this open space which is actually terrifying and at the same time absolutely true. 

Entering the gate of the Vajrayana is said to be like a snake entering a bamboo tube-- we either go towards this naked-hearted awareness or we try to hide from it by constructing elaborate defences or pre-occupations.  We discover through the path of guru yoga the adamantine truth of vajra sanity and are "engalloped" in the blessings of the lineage.

Cost :

$595.00 includes room and board

Tba

Being Vajrayogini: Vajrayogini Dathun  

The usual prerequisites apply.

"The main point is not to conjure up this practice in an effort to banish your awful thoughts or your inconsiderate ideas.  That is not the vajrayana way.  When you sit down to practice the Vajrayogini, you are Vajrayogini.  The guru is Vajrayogini.  On the shrine is Vajrayogini.  You have the dharmakaya, the sambhogakaya, and the nirmanakaya all at once.  You should not be sloppy, because the Vajrayogini is your basic mind, and beyond that Vajrayogini is your body, your speech, and also your karma.  What exists as your karma is the Vajrayogini.  You have to take definite pride that this particular sadhana was passed down from our forefathers, beginning with Tilopa, who recieved it directly.  How did he recieve it?  He pierced the veil of ignorance by not thinking of it as a mechanical thing to do.  He said, "Let's see."  You should do that when you practice the Vajrayogini sadhana."

Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin

Vajrayogini dathun is a month long Vajrayogini retreat which affords us the luxury of completely soaking in the discipline and blessings of the Vajrayogini Sadhana.  We will engage the full sadhana including the feast practice each day of the retreat.  We will rely on the pith instructions of the Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and The Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin.

Daily schedule:

 5:30 Wake up

6-8 Self Visualization

8-9 Breakfast;

9-12 Self, Front and Vase;

12-1 Feast with Readings and Discussion;

1-2:30 Rest;

2:30-4 work;

4-6 Self and Front Visualization;

6-7 dinner;

7-9 Self Visualization, Sampanakrama;

10 Lights Out.