Vajrayana Festival: Unifying the Three Yanas of the Great Eastern Sun

Without tonglen practice, both hinayana and mahayana become like the lion’s corpse… It is the mahayana tradition and discipline that hold the hinayana and vajrayana together.
Chögyam Trungpa, Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness 

This weeklong vajrayana intensive will include a full spectrum of practices on the Shambhala Buddhist path. We will do our individual practices twice a day. At other times of the day, we will deepen our three-yana path by renewing our vows, practicing mahamudra shamatha-vipashyana, tonglen, and short daily practices of Vajrakilaya and White Tara.

By exploring the relationship of feminine and masculine, formless and form, peaceful and wrathful, we can go beyond these polarized reference points and tune into the self-existing radiance of our heart. Thus we begin to experience the three yanas as one yana, one heart essence. This is the profound view of our tradition.

Discussion topics will include looking at the root obstacles of passion, aggression, and ignorance, and their liberation into compassion, power, and prajna through our three-yana journey.

There will be qigong and movement exercise (lungtse), aimless wandering and sensory exploration outside, talks, study time, discussion groups, and small group meetings with the acharya.

Spring is a powerful time to reconnect to our roots so that our hearts can blossom more fully.

This retreat counts towards group practice requirements.

PREREQUISITE

Practical