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1 year ago

Getting back to the very beginning of the thread and the original question - (I finally have a half hour free to read some old threads!!) So far, I have only read about retreats, and not tried one, weekend, week, or three yearly. I think it is something I would be interested in trying in the future, as a 'starter' to retirement, if not before. I am unsure whether I would be going into a solitary retreat or a monastery-based one - it would depend on what stage I was at, what level my funds stood at, what was happening to my son, and which of the two Buddhist pathways I end up on. I think it would be wonderful to devote each entire day to the practice and study, rather than fitting in bits and pieces of other stuff also.

Greetings, Sangha ...
2 years ago
Now that we are finally (!!?!) into September here in the Northern Hemisphere, I hope that all of you have had a good June, July & August, and that your preparations for the Fall Season are well under way and that your Spiritual Study & Practice is going very well. I have a question, regarding the RETREAT theme of this thread: WHAT DO YOU SUPPOSE A "SYCAMORE SAMSARA RETREAT" IS ALL ABOUT? Weigh in here with your suggestions and answers and I will be back to answer any questions and respond to your suggestions and fill you in about my concept regarding the SSR which I am involved with, rather irretrievably. Life, Light, Love, Luminosity & Liberation, Sapan Rinpoche
Some Commments about RETREAT Traditions ...
2 years ago
Thank you H.M.C. and Dagmar for your comments. RETREAT ... yes, it is very important, and we have to make an effort to connect with organized retreats, as it is. And they are often expensive, as if we are going into, for example, a FORMAL BUDDHIST RETREAT, we need to be completely taken care of with food and occasional (usually) meetings with our "Retreat Master," and so forth. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Kaygu Lineage, the PRACTICE LINEAGE, is very active today, here in the West, promoting THREE-YEAR Retreats. This was started, at the request of His Holiness the 14th Gyalwa Karmapa (from whom I received Refuge in 1980), by Kalu Rinpoche, who passed away in 1989. THREE-YEAR RETREATS, generally on a corpus of Diety Practices in Tantric Buddhism, are the tradition for most of the Lineages, but there are some exceptions. Here in the West, many retreatants have gone into retreat to rigorously to COMPLETE NGONGDRO, the Preliminary Practices of Vajrayana or Tibetan Buddhism (both the Ordinary & Extraordinary Preliminaries (see my new Vajrayana Pathways Institute Without Walls, Care2 group, for more information eventually), i.e., for the Extraordinary Preliminaries, the Prostrations, the Refuge Recitations, the Vajrasattva Practices (Dorje Sempa Vows, etc.), the Mandala Offerings and Guru Yoga. However, for more advanced practitioners, DEITY PRACTICE RETREATS are the call of the day. For example, if one has (finally) received a Hevajra or Kalachakra or Chakrasamvara SUPREME ANUTARA YOGA Tantric Empowerment, it would be good to do an appropriate RETREAT for that, and many do. This happens in ALL lineages, but the THREE-YEAR RETREAT, so much the favorite of the Kagyu's is not the only thing that is done or can be done. IN ANY CASE, it is important in taking a fully-Lineage-supported Retreat, to connect with the Retreat Master and helpers that can provide that. I have individual suggestions for people if they want to dialog and connect (PM, Email me) personally. Now, in GENERAL, my Lineage, the Sakya Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism has a traditon of doing shorter retreats. with perhaps LONG RETREATS indicated along the way. As and aside, I have some Gelugpa Lineage friends that are in a LIFE REATREAT, since the 1980's, and that is and will be their Life Experience, if they hold to that, which those that I have known from some of the Dalai Lama Empowerments are in fact still doing, mostly in France. In the Sakya Tradition, a practitioner is generally encouraged to do a VAJRAPANI RETREAT as a first retreat, and it would generally be about three months. One could then do a Retreat on a Kriya Yoga Tantra Diety like Manjushri (Bodhisattva of Wisdom) or Chenrezi (Bodhisattva of Compassion) or, say, a Green Tara Retreat (Female Bodhisattva of Compassion). In the Sakya Tradition, when through causes and conditions and great good fortune, takes the Hevajra Retreat (limited to 25-practioners at a time, a Vajra Brother & Sister group), it is very, very good to be able to do THE RETREAT -- the Hevajra Retreat. Very few if any do that in the Uniited States or generally in the West. In Tibet, because of the Mantra Recitrations involved, it could take as short as say Four Months. But that would be very, very good. One of my Vajra Sisters from Tibet, a Jetsunma of the Sakya Khon Lineage, in fact, undertook and completed the Hevajra Retreat before 1959 and leaving Tibet in the Diaspora of that time. Her younger Sisters were not able to do that. She did not indicate how long she was in retreat. I was told by my teachers that it could take me 6-8 months to do the Hevajra Retreat. However, the formal conditions for this never arose in my life. Thus, in a very private practice for myself, I have been doing what I call SAMSARA Retreats, but that is another matter, and not to be discussed further, here, at this time. In any case, it is very good if one can do SHORT RETREATS, with a teacher, one on one. Here in the United States there are a FEW places where one can do that formally. Again, contact me, and we could discuss. Since the late 1970's, there has been a Nyingma Tradition, quietly proceeding and building and evolving, mostly in California and Southern Oregon, started by His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, called, Yeshe Nyingpo, and that is perhaps most pristine. But there are other situations, Kagyu, Gelugpa, Sakya, and perhaps in the White Bon. If anybody reading this has INFORMATION or THOUGHTS about doing Refuge here in the West, please weigh into our discussion. I am happy to see us discussing RETREAT in this thread. Kindest loving regards, Sapan Rinpoche
dukkha dharma and retreat
2 years ago

my longest experience was a 5 weeks Ango (rainy season) retreat in zen tradition. i used to do one retreat -at least 10 days - a year and several week-end retreats for a period of some years .

now that i am training with a native american teacher i have not the financial and time means necessary to do formal retreats ...but i have to say that i miss them from time to time. Though i completely agree with Sapan , that the LifeThing itself is a constant retreat if we take it as that...i feel that formal retreats are a very very helpful skilfull means to train our capacity to be HERE RIGHT NOW and to go to the place of emptiness with our mind ....and so on ... when we are trained it is much easier to make our life a "useful" retreat in every minute.

in the dharma, dagmar

Anonymous
:-)
2 years ago

As a practitioner of Vajrayana Tantric Buddhism/Dzogchen, my retreat experience since 9/11 has been: one day retreats, weekend retreats, week retreats, two week retreats, most of which were conducted in noble silence. However, at this point in my life, due to being physiologically & financially challenged, I AM now unable to attend any further retreats. Thank you. Take care, be well, blessings & best wishes. Cyndi/Chokyi

RETREATS ... a very important topic!
2 years ago
We must revive this discussion, which really never got going, about RETREATS, and doing RETREATS! In Vajrayana Buddhism this is so important. Note that Jamyang Kontrul's "RETREAT MANUAL," a rather large tome, is available in better Dharma bookstores everywhere, and that there is other information at your finger tips. Google "Buddhist Meditation Retreats" and see what you come up with. Do not be overwhelmed! Begin planning your RETREAT now! Gosh ... "RETREAT sounds time-consuming," you may say. Um ... ???? For my part, I have never been able to do a customary Three Year Retreat, and, like my special friend, the translator at my 1988 Gelong Ordination, Khenpo Migmar Tsering, who passed away a few years ago, I would say as he said, "I have never had the time or the opportunity to do long retreats, like so many Westerners now, and I really regret that." However, seems to me, I have been in a SAMSARA RETREAT for 70 years now, ever since I entered my Mother's Womb. So this "Birth, Life, Death & Rebirth" stuff (SAMSARA) is very, very time-consuming ... yet just a drop in the bucket in terms of our SOUL TIME. What do YOU think? =sapan=
Anonymous
RETREAT: Questions and Answers!
3 years ago
| Blue Label

Hi everyone,

I'm interested in your views and your feelings about the idea of doing meditation retreats. 

What's this first thing that comes into your head when you think of "retreat", "contemplation", "meditation"?  You don't have to be an expert to answer.  I'm curious about your associations with these words. 

I wonder how solitary retreats can help a person and significant others in his/her life.  Can retreats help with social issues?  Indeed, what are the benefits of doing retreat? 

Has anyone had experience of doing a meditation retreat?

I'd appreciate your thoughts on these questions, and hopefully get a discussion going. 

Much warmth,

Merril   

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