Tsoknyi Rinpoche's Blog, page 12

2016 Tsoknyi Rinpoche Retreats and Updates!

 









Dear Friends and Students of Tsoknyi Rinpoche,

We’re very happy to share the major events and news for the coming year, including Rinpoche’s 2016 U.S. teaching schedule. This note also gives the Pundarika Staff a chance to express our best holiday wishes to all of you as well.

Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s 2016 Retreat Schedule: For a complete list of Rinpoche’s worldwide retreats, please visit http://www.tsoknyirinpoche.org/retreats/

1.  Pundarika Foundation Sponsored Retreats

Presentation Center, Los Gatos, California:  How To Be Happy and Free When the World is on Fire ( May 5 – 11, 2016)

At times, we can be consumed by the difficult problems in our individual lives and the larger world, and moments of finding genuine well-being are rare.  In this retreat, Rinpoche will teach practical ways to discover inner peace.  He will also teach how to fully open our minds and hearts in the great Tibetan Buddhist teachings on Dzogchen. This is an open retreat, and no prerequisites are necessary for registration.

Presentation Center is a new retreat location for Pundarika in California with spacious and lovely grounds and excellent facilities close to the San Jose airport (about 20 min. away).

*If you are enrolled in the Membership Program and need to know your tuition discount code when filling out the registration form, login to your Membership and you will be able to locate your code on the Dashboard page. If you have any difficulties with this, please e-mail deborah@pundarika.org and she will help you.

Registration is currently open at: http://www.tsoknyirinpoche.org/retreat/10008/how-to-be-happy-and-free-when-the-world-is-on-fire/

Yeshe Rangsal Retreat Land, Crestone, CO: Crestone Pre-Retreat Practice (August 9 – 11, 2016)

Three days (August 9 – 11, 2016) before the first Crestone retreat formally begins (see below), students can begin to practice and acclimatize to the high altitude in Crestone through a mix of Rinpoche’s guided meditations and dharma talks at the teaching tent each day on the Yeshe Rangsal retreat land. As time nears, we will send a daily schedule to all registrants for Rinpoche’s first Crestone retreat. These teachings will be Rinpoche’s through recorded video and audio each day and may be accompanied by gentle yoga and/or chi gong practices that Rinpoche feels are supportive of meditation practice. There are no prerequisites for this pre-retreat other than being registered for Grounded Body, Open Heart and Clear Mind: A Path to Dzogchen. This pre-retreat offering is open only to those registered for Rinpoche’s first Crestone retreat. There are no tuition costs for this pre-retreat program.

Yeshe Rangsal Retreat Land, Crestone, CO: Grounded Body, Open Heart and Clear Mind: A Path to Dzogchen (August 12 – 18, 2016)

Rinpoche will teach ways that we can ground in our bodies, open our hearts and bring clarity to our minds as a way to not only recognize the essence of awareness, but to stabilize that recognition. This is an “open” retreat; there are no prerequisites necessary to attend and attending this retreat will satisfy the prerequisite for registering for the second Crestone retreat on the bardo (see below). Here is the link to this program and we will e-mail you when registration opens: http://www.tsoknyirinpoche.org/retreat/10012/grounded-body-open-heart-and-clear-mind-a-path-to-dzogchen/

Yeshe Rangsal Retreat Land, Crestone, CO: Teachings on the Bardo Experience: A Bardo Retreat (August 19 – 25, 2016)

The description of the six bardos provides us with great opportunities for liberation while living and dying.  Particularly useful are the instructions on the bardo of death and the intermediate states because we can learn how to deal with these extreme situations and use them as profound teachings of the path.

Prerequisite: Having attended one open six-day retreat with Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche or Tulku Urgyen and having received pointing out instructions from one of them.

Here is the link to this program and we will e-mail you when registration opens: http://www.tsoknyirinpoche.org/retreat/10013/teachings-on-the-bardo-experience-a-bardo-retreat/

~ Wonderwell Mountain Refuge, New Hampshire:  Advanced Dzogchen Retreat (August 31 – September 6, 2016)

Actual retreat title and description to be announced.

Prerequisite: Having attended one open six-day retreat with Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche or Tulku Urgyen and having received pointing out instructions from one of them.

Here is the link to this program and we will e-mail you when registration opens: http://www.tsoknyirinpoche.org/retreat/10014/advanced-dzogchen-retreat/

Be sure to look at all of Rinpoche’s worldwide retreats online, including Germany, the U.K., and Ireland!

2.  Streaming and Future YouTube Plans

Given the unfortunate technical challenges to offer live streaming originating from Crestone, we will be offering delayed streaming of the second advanced retreat on the Bardo this August 2016, for qualified students (having already attended a full retreat with pointing out instructions from Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche or their father, Tulku Urgyen). These teachings will be available after each session with an approximate three-hour delay. Sign up and payment will be through the Tsoknyi Rinpoche web site on approximately February 1st. This event is not listed on the Programs/Retreats section of the web site at this time, but should be in early January 2016.

3.  Membership Program and Audio/Video Recordings

There are many benefits to joining the Membership Program that include discounts on retreats and store items, access to retreat recordings and the opportunity to support Rinpoche’s humanitarian work. We invite you to visit the tsoknyirinpoche.org home page and through the Membership box link, check out the offerings for both the Introductory and Advanced levels.

To make the Membership Program offerings more robust, we will be adding the following retreats to Membership Recordings:

Introductory Members : The first three days of the 2014 Crestone open retreat (Letting It Be: Resting in Radical Simplicity) and 2015 Crestone open retreat (Dissolving Outer, Inner and Innermost Obstacles: Coming Home), as well as the 2015 Mount Madonna Retreat (Gently to Hear, Kindly to Judge: Awakening Unconditional Love). These teachings are about what Rinpoche calls the “Healthy Human Being.” Additionally, the first three days of the 2015 Garrison open retreat (How to Be Happy and Free When the World is on Fire) will also be added to the Introductory category of the library.


Advanced Members : All four retreats referred to above in their entirety will be added to the Advanced Member category. In addition, we will also include last summer’s 2015 full Dzogchen Intensive advanced retreat in Crestone.


Note to Membership subscribers : If you are already a Member, all these recordings will be available in the Membership Program by February 1st. If you are not currently a Member and want to purchase the recordings from a retreat you attended, we will be sending an e-mail in the next week asking if you would like to purchase them. All of these recordings are on video.

Please contact deborah@pundarika.org if you are already an Introductory member and would like to change to the Advanced membership category, that is, provided you have attended one open six-day retreat with Tsoknyi Rinpoche and received pointing out (the fees are the same).

4.  Guided Meditations

Guided Meditations on Letting Go in mp3 format on CD is now available through the online store in the Books and DVDs section (http://www.tsoknyirinpoche.org/shop/). This mp3 CD contains three guided meditations, all by Tsoknyi Rinpoche, on the theme of letting go. Two recordings were made at Crestone, CO, retreats in 2014 and one from Martha’s Vineyard, MA in 2012. We have more plans to make additional Guided Meditations available to you in the future with Introductory membership levels available through the store. The Advanced membership levels will be available only online so they remain private. Please note that we will no longer be producing CDs or DVDs in the future and will be offering either USB flash drives and direct downloading/online viewing of mp3 and video content.

5.  Ngöndro Practice

You are invited to participate in a 2016 ngöndro retreat led by Tenzin Namsel:  Foundations of the Vajrayana—Ngöndro Teaching and Practice Intensive. This will be a six-day event from late afternoon June 7th to the morning of June 12th and held at the Vajrapani Institute, a retreat center located in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco. The retreat will focus on developing and deepening our connection to the profound vajrayana foundational practices of ngöndro.

Please e-mail 2016ngondroretreat@gmail.com for registration or more information. Early registration is appreciated, as initial deposits are needed to secure this venue. Please use the e-mail address above to register. A volunteer team on behalf of Tenzin Namsel is managing registration, and they will be happy to answer any questions you may have. The Lamey Tukdrub Barchey Künsel Ngöndro Manual is now back in print and can be purchased through the Pundarika online store at:

http://www.tsoknyirinpoche.org/shop/lamey-tukdrub-barchey-kunsel-ngondro-manual/

We warmly and with “mere” excitement look forward to sharing the dharma in this upcoming year. We hope to connect with all of you in a variety of different ways: live teachings, delayed broadcasts, membership recordings (which include lots of full retreats) and ngöndro teachings by Tenzin Namsel. May there be peace and well-being!

Warmest wishes,

Susan Skellenger

registrar@pundarika.org

A Message from Tsoknyi Rinpoche

 “We are all so happy to have Mingyur Rinpoche home, especially my mother who is quite joyous.” ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche

 

A Message from Tsoknyi Rinpoche about Mingyur Rinpoche

“I talked briefly with Mingyur Rinpoche who arrived at Tergar Temple in Bodhgaya yesterday. He is in good health and doing very well. My impression from talking to him is as if nothing happened at all, nothing exciting, very ordinary, like I just saw him yesterday.  Lama Tashi didn’t come with him and continues his retreat.” ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche
 

2016 Barchey Künsel Ngöndro Retreat

2016 Barchey Künsel Ngöndro Retreat led by Tenzin Namsel

We would like to invite you to participate in a 2016 Barchey Künsel Ngöndro Retreat led by Tenzin Namsel. This will be a five-day retreat focused on developing and deepening our connection to the profound foundational practices of ngöndro.  “Very effective study and practice retreat–Namsel brought vivid awareness of the essence, meaning and purpose of each ngöndro practice. I could taste a little bit how each works to clarify my mental and physical habit patterns.” A 2015 Ngöndro Retreat participant.

Please send your email information to 2016ngondroretreat@gmail.com if you would like to receive further notices regarding this retreat.

Sincerely,

2016 Ngöndro Retreat Planning Committee

Tenzin Namsel

 

Crestone 2016 Retreat Date Changes

In order to accommodate Rinpoche’s travel schedule, the 2016 Crestone retreat dates have been changed.  The first retreat begins August 12th and ends after breakfast on the morning of the 18th. The second retreat begins August 19th and ends after breakfast on the morning of the 25th. Pundarika Foundation apologizes for any inconvenience these changes may cause, however they are unavoidable. We also do not have information yet on retreat topics, but as soon as we do, we will post them on Facebook as well as this web site.

August 2015 Crestone: Dissolving Outer, Inner and Innermost Obstacles

Tsoknyi Rinpoche held the first summer Crestone August retreat of 2015 on 8/11-17/2015 on the Yeshe Rangsal retreat land. The retreat was called “Dissolving Outer, Inner and Innermost Obstacles: Coming Home” wherein he delivered six days of compact, critical and foundational teachings creating a solid platform of Buddhism for all retreatants.  Over 150 people attended, with approximately 13 people taking refuge that week and 4 people the next week.  Tsangsar Rinpoche was at his side, with Gerardo Abboud translating and Tenzin Namsel recapping the teachings daily. Managers Tim and Wendy Stokes once again provided stellar support for everyone, and we thank you again for your service. Carolyn Victoria donated fine artwork towards raising funds for the Tsoknyi Nepal Nuns, and the hardworking TNN staff presented the current status and future plans for the project along with a new Tsoknyi Nuns video featuring the 1000 Prayer Wheels donation proposal.

Please note:  For those who attended the retreat and are awaiting the audio/video link announcement, we ask for your patience for a few more weeks while the web site transitions to a new web development platform.

And thank you, Alan Rabold, for your photographs memorializing this unforgettable week of teachings with Rinpoche.

Living Wisely: Working with Emotions

In the “Living Wisely/Working with Emotions” section below on the web site, Tsoknyi Rinpoche describes the subtle body’s mistaken identification of believing that something is “real,” yet we are called to recognize that which is true in Buddhist practice. Please click here to view:   http://youtu.be/Wv8qBPByVPY

Latest Earthquake Relief News!

Please visit The Tsoknyi Nepal Nuns page on Facebook for the latest newsletter about earthquake relief in Nepal, including messages from Tsoknyi Rinpoche about the nuns and fundraising efforts!

http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=791ce30d81b49cec620b8fae3&id=403f20ad2e

Waking Up in Every Moment: a workshop with Tsoknyi Rinpoche sponsored by Shambhala Sun

Waking Up in Every Moment:  August 26 – 30, 2015 (Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY)

 

Each of us has the capacity to feel fully alive and to embrace our circumstances—whatever they may be. In this retreat, North America’s leading Buddhist magazine, Shambhala Sun, brings together three renowned Buddhist teachers (Sylvia Boorstein, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and Melissa Myozen Blacker Roshi) to guide us in meditation and mindfulness practices—essential tools for waking up and embracing life.

For more information and to register, please visit the “Waking Up in Every Moment” registration page at: http://www.eomega.org/…/shambhala-sun-ret…/description-price

Additional information can be found here: http://www.eomega.org/workshops/shambhala-sun-retreat and http://www.lionsroar.com/waking-up-in-every-moment/

Please visit co-instructor Melissa Myozen Blacker’s recorded an invitation to the event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxVDScodVTI

Here is an excerpt of Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s article from the current issue of Lions Roar magazine, which includes information about this event and speaks on how to gauge progress in your practice: http://www.lionsroar.com/tsokyni-rinpoche-on-how-to-gauge-…/

Additional information can be found here: http://www.eomega.org/workshops/shambhala-sun-retreat and http://www.lionsroar.com/waking-up-in-every-moment/

 

Tsoknyi Nepal Nuns Earthquake Update 6.11.15