Six Bardos Retreat

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The term bardo refers to a transitional stage of consciousness, and in fact all our activities, or bardo experiences, are opportunities for realization. Daytime life, meditative states of awareness, the dream state, the moment of death, the transition between death and rebirth – all represent various bardos. This practice intensive introduces a variety of potent meditation techniques for deepening spiritual development in different bardo experiences. Lama Les Collins led this retreat every summer for many years. We will announce when the next retreat will be held.

Vajrakilaya

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Vajrakilaya is the primary meditational deity of the Nyingma tradition, and the practice undertaken and accomplished by the majority of its great realized masters. The wrathful form of Vajrasattva, Vajrakilaya is relied upon to cut through negative emotions and mindsets, to remove outer and inner obstacles and hindrances, to avert sickness and calamities, and to clear the way for happiness, well being, harmony, balance, and spiritual progress in ourselves, our dharma centers, our countries, and all beings. For this purpose, we gather each autumn in an annual 10-day retreat to invoke Vajrakilaya’s blessings and swift enlightened activity.

To attend the retreat, one must either have received a Vajrakilaya empowerment, or else one must have received a Vajrayana empowerment of any kind and be practicing a Vajrayana practice (such as the preliminaries) on a daily basis.

Image copyrighted. Artist, Brian Smith

Vajrasattva Retreat

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Image copyrighted by artist, Trish DeMers – please do not use without permission – trishdemers@gmail.com

Vajrasattva Retreat is a 10-day gathering performed during the holy Saga Dawa month in the spring to celebrate when the Buddha achieved the state of enlightenment. This retreat is open to all, with or without the empowerment. Vajrasattva is the main deity practice for purification in the Vajrayana tradition and has a special connection to Tashi Choling through the blessings of our founder, Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche. By connecting with this deity, we can easily purify negative emotions, actions, and habits that hold us back from expressing the innate good qualities of our Buddha nature.

Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche explains, “This retreat itself is a Vajrasattva lama offering, a lama accomplishment practice. We are essentially meditating on our own lama in the pure, enlightened form of Vajrasattva, Dorje Sem Pa, and we accomplish or realize the true nature of the lama in the form of Vajrasattva through this practice.”
Please check our calendar for this year’s dates.