January Dathun 2025

Prerequisites: "Touch and Go" weekend

"Disgust with samsara leads us to seek a discipline that will cut through habitual patterns.  We look for a path, a teaching that is not based on accumulating further neurosis and confusion.  The discipline that provides the framework for out entire path is the formal practice of sitting meditation.  Meditation practice allows us to look at things clearly, and we begin to develop mindfulness.  Mindfulness means paying atttention to the details of our experience.  Without mindfulness, we stumble, we get confused, we lose our way, and there is no possibility of proceeding.  When we do not miss the details of our experience, we are awake, alert , and precise."  The Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin

Dathun "Month Session" is a seminal retreat developed by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.  The retreat format is a combination of two practice traditions-- the dzogchen/mahamudra teachings of Trungpa Rinpoche's Surmang Kagyu tradition and the Soto Zen Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. 

Dathun Schedule

5:30  Wake up

6-8  Shamatha/ Vipashyana meditation

8  Oryoki Breakfast

9-12 Morning Chants and Shamatha/Vipashyana

12 Oryoki Lunch

1-2 Rest Period

2-4 Work Period

4-6 Shamatha/Vipashyana and Protector's Chants

6  Dinner

7-9 Shamatha/Vipashyana and Closing Chants 

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.

Knowing the Key Point for Resolving the Nature of Mind

March 15-17, 2024

In Shamatha/Vipashyana practice we resolve the true nature of mind which is beyond habitual reference point by developing one pointedness in our meditation practice.

"One pointedness means recognizing the nature of mind;

divided into the lesser, medium, and greater stages:

One sees the alternation of bliss and luminosity,

One masters resting in samadhi,

And experience continuously appears as luminosity."

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye

We will be working with the 9th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje's Mahamudra Manual "Elliminating the Darkness of Ignorance" along with Khenpo Tsultrim Gamptso's instructions on Path Mahamudra and Trungpa Rinpoche's pith instructions.

Practicing the Pith Instructions of the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin

Kyudo Retreat

Placing my head at the feet of the Dharma King, I offer homage: Bless me that I might see natural luminosity.

Hey, you of great fortune!

Sit without moving,
like a tent peg driven into hard earth!

Gaze with your eyes neither open nor closed,
like the eyes of a deity in a fresco!

And let your mind settle, loose and relaxed,
like a woollen blanket spread out on the ground…

At times like these, while resting in the utter brilliance that is the space beyond thought, which may be likened to a cloudless sky, you will experience unimpeded translucence like a faultless crystal.

This is none other than the view of the ultimate, the luminous Great Perfection. Resting in equipoise within the pure luminosity, vividly clear like the sky, dullness and agitation are naturally voided and do not arise anew – a faultless, brilliantly clear non-conceptual meditation. When thought arises, be it good or bad, it is recognized for what it is and will not disturb. Focus upon this method and view your genuine nature; effortless, it arises by relaxing into the expanse, and thoughts are pacified on their own ground.

When you are able to practice for longer periods, it can be like, for example, when muddy water is stirred up and then allowed to settle – the innate lucidity of the water becomes clearer. Similarly, when myriad appearances arise and are realized to be like reflections, they cause the natural clarity of mind itself to become ever clearer. This in turn leads to the effortless arising of various qualities, such as the various types of clairvoyance and so on.

Should even the Great Master of Oḍḍiyāna appear before you, he’d have nothing greater than this to say on the view of the Great Perfection.

Should even Longchen Rabjam appear before you, he’d have nothing greater to teach you on the practice of taking thought as the path.

Should even the twenty-five exalted disciples appear before you, they’d have nothing greater to say concerning this practice.

As for myself, a yogin, this is my practice, and I have no greater meditation instruction to offer you.

You may analyze meticulously, but when a wind blows it naturally disperses the clouds and the sky can be seen. Endeavour to see empty clarity, mind itself, in the same way – there is nothing greater than this understanding. If you don’t stir up the silt, the water will remain clear; as such, don’t analyze. Simply rest without contrivance and you will come to see the emptiness of mind itself. There is nothing greater to see than this!

There are many views, but that of the emptiness of mind itself, devoid of all grasping, is the unmistaken view of the Great Perfection. When death comes to yogis of this method they are able to seize the clear light of death.

Hearing about it is beneficial, but I pray the actual experience of clear light will become evident.

Written by the old ignoramus, Gangshar Wangpo. May it prove meaningful!

Translated by Sean Price, 2015