IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
“If you come to me and say ‘Rinpoche, I can’t meditate at all; my mind is going everywhere: here, there, past, present, future,’ I should give you a medal. Finally you are meditating. The whole purpose of this instruction is to make you realize you cannot concentrate.” – Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche (from The Transforming Power of Meditation)
Often when someone hears that I practice meditation, they will say, “Oh I wish I could do that. I just can’t concentrate.” The technique itself might even lead people to believe that the goal is to develop concentration and cultivate a particular state of mind. With these beliefs, we inevitably get frustrated because we can’t meet the standards we have set for ourselves. My impression of what Rinpoche is saying is that being a perfect meditator with perfect concentration is beside the point. We do not meditate to create a particular experience or cultivate a particular (impermanent) state of mind that is better or more desirable than the one we are experiencing. Instead, meditation is a tool to realize the inherent capacity for wakefulness and compassion that we already possess. This is very encouraging! We do not need to be anything special to meditate. We can show up as we are and simply apply whatever technique we have received.
We hope to see you at our online Wednesday night meditation some time to see if this observation is true. Wishing you all ease and joy at the beginning of the summer season.
In Dharma,
Jacqui from The Wisdom Seat
Tech notes from Bill: Hello all,
We have a new recording with Anam Thubten from his April teaching in Philadelphia on our podcast.
Last month's A Mindful Gathering recording is available to watch here, in our online forum.
This month, Corina Benner will be offering an all day mini retreat called "Summer SOULstice Celebration" in our Wallingford, PA, and Michael Carroll will begin traveling to Dharma Mountain Center to co-lead retreat. Details for both of these are below in this newsletter.
We are still working on setting up our June Mindful Gathering, and will send out a note when that is ready to register for.
A quick reminder: Wednesday Meditation continues, but we no longer send weekly reminders. The zoom link can be found both in our forum, and in your user profile when you login to this site.
Lastly, as our co-founder, Matt DiRodio, is preparing to enter the 3 Year Retreat, we have setup a site to support his retreat financially. Please consider donating to support Matt in this practice. https://donorbox.org/matt-dirodio-3-year-retreat
thank you,
Bill Moriarty from The Wisdom Seat
Wednesday Meditation
Ongoing offering: Online meditation every Wednesday evening 6:15 to 7:30 PM EST
Worldwide Wednesday evening online sitting meditation practice.
We, at The Wisdom Seat, invite you to meet on Wednesday evenings from 6:15 – 7:30 PM Eastern Time to practice the sitting meditation discipline as taught in the Buddhist & Shambhala tradition of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Nyinthun: Everyone is welcome!
Ongoing offering: Nyinthun (in-person and online) The first Sunday of every month. All day sitting interspersed with walking meditation. The word nyinthun*, is Tibetan for “day session.”
In understanding dharma, Trungpa Rinpoche placed a strong emphasis on mindfulness/awareness meditation practice. This community practice of Nyinthun - all day sitting interspersed with walking meditation - gives us the opportunity to experience the full spectrum of our mind, make friends with our immediate experience and rediscover our natural sanity.
Please take a look, and sign up to join us for some nyinthun retreat days. It is ok to join for as much of the day as you can.
Live an Awakened Life
June 20–23, 2024
Drala Mountain Center-Colorado
Description: What is mindfulness-awareness meditation and where did it come from?
How does this simple act of “sitting still” unleash wisdom & compassion?
How can we establish a sustainable meditation practice?
Why are the Three Supports and theThree Sacred Acts central to the practice?
This program will offer a thorough and gentle introduction to mindfulness-awareness meditation with time for discussion and optional personal conversation with one of the teachers. Short daily yoga sessions included.
TUITION:
Tuition $215 + 3 nights lodging
Summer SOULstice Celebration!
June 23rd 9:30am - 6pm
All-day mini-retreat with Corina Benner, including Yoga, Meditation, Food & Festivities at the Wisdom Seat in Wallingford, PA. Let this become your annual tradition!
Use Code "ActFast$25" to save $25 by June 9th. Learn more to register!
Authentic Presence and The Feminine Principle
June 26–July 6, 2024
Taught by Susan Piver and Michael Carroll
A 10-Day Heart Sutra Meditation Retreat
Offered in partnership with The Wisdom Seat and the OpenHeart Project
The Heart Sutra – the most pith of the Prajnaparamita Sutras – is a central text throughout all of Buddhism. It is widely revered, demonstrably powerful, and, one could say, thoroughly incomprehensible – at least by the conceptual mind. This is all great news.
On this 10-day retreat, we will bring these three elements together – study, meditation, and letting go – as we practice “The Sutra of the Heart of Transcendent Knowledge” in a supportive and spacious community. We will explore what is meant by authentic presence and the feminine principle, how each is invoked in our practice to reveal liberation, balance, and joy.
The Wisdom Seat Retreat
October 12 - 20, 2024
This 8-day practice intensive is designed to help us deepen our mindfulness-awareness meditation and integrate it into our daily life.
The retreat will include:
6 - 7 hours of daily shrine room meditation alternating sitting and walking during each session
Daily breath and body relaxation practices
Daily readings from Buddhist texts
Outdoor walking meditation
Individual meditation instruction upon request
Periodic group meditation instruction
75 - 90 minutes of daily chores
Participants will be asked to observe “functional silence” throughout most of the retreat, limiting verbal communication to a minimum.
Since the retreat will be limited to 30 participants, those attending will be expected to participate in all 8 days of the retreat. \
Location: Karma Triyana Dharmachakra
Woodstock, NY
Collaborative practice undertaking with The Wisdom Seat & The Profound Treasury Retreat
The Wisdom Seat encourages as many opportunities for practitioners to engage in the discipline of mindfulness/awareness(shamatha/vipashyana) as one can engage in. We are happy to invite the Profound Treasury Retreat (PTR) with their offering of Sunday sitting.
PTR community is hosting a 2-hour sitting session from 9:30am to 11:30 am EST
There will be meditation instruction every third Sunday of the month, given by a qualified meditation instructor.
Dates: June 23rd
Here is the Zoom link for this session: Sunday Sitting Zoom Link
All are welcome to attend.
KARMÊ CHÖLING
Sons & Daughters of Noble Family-Speaker Series
May 12th - October 20th
Sundays 1pm - 3pm EST
Online
Join more than twenty individuals who began their Buddhist path as students of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, or within the Vajradhatu / Shambhala community, and who have continued walking the path of dharma in an extraordinary variety of ways.Speakers and participants will together, explore the richness of our greater Vajradhatu/Shambhala extended dharma family, as well as have an opportunity to cross-pollinate our understanding of each other’s lineages and paths.
BONUS: Sept. 29 - Join Michael Carroll for a discussion on The Wisdom Seat and Meeting the Spiritual Challenge of Modern Materialism
WESTCHESTER MEDITATION CENTER
Ego, Super-Ego, and Non-Ego: Is the Buddhist View and Path a Psychology?
Sunday, June 9th
10 am – 12 pm ET
On Zoom
Taught by Derek Kolleeny
Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context. In the Western context that usually revolves around the construct called the ego to explain how an individual interacts with the external world as well as responds to internal forces. Adherents of ego psychology focus on the ego's normal and pathological development, its management of libidinal and aggressive impulses, and its adaptation to reality.
However, egolessness is a fundamental tenet in the Buddhist context. Is there a sense in which these two traditions meet? Please join us – on Zoom – for an engaging discussion of the Buddhist system of psychology and how that both intersects and diverges from Western systems of psychology.
KARMA TRIYANA DHARMACHAKRA
Guru Yoga of the 16th Karmapa
Rangjung Rikpé Dorje
JUNE 15TH - JUNE 16TH 2024
Taught by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche
Daily Sessions:
Morning: 9 AM - 12 AM EDT
Afternoon: 2 PM - 5 PM EDT
In Person Only
As the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa wrote, "This guru yoga of the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, is special and of particular significance because it was composed by the Sixteenth Karmapa himself, and to this day it remains as the daily guru yoga practice for many of his students". This practice allows students to receive the direct blessings of the lineage, purify obscurations and increase accumulations.
RIME SHEDRA
Introduction ot Unique Mahamudra
Shamatha Vipashyana in the Mahamudra Tradition Part II
Exploring Tashi Namgyal's Moonbeams of Mahamudra
7 Tuesdays from May 21 thru July 9, 2024, 7-9:15 pm EST
Online
This course will include the meaning and exceptional qualities of Mahamudra; the varieties of Mahamudra systems; the practices that are traditionally completed in preparation for Mahamudra, known as the uncommon preliminaries; and the aspects and stages of Mahamudra Shamatha. We will conclude with an exploration of the presentation of sutrayana vipashyana by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in comparison to that presented by Tashi Namgyal in Segment One of this series.
DORJE DENMA LING
A Month of Meditation: Shamatha-Vipashyana Dathün 2024
(weekthün opportunites available)
July 19th - August 18th
Dorje Denma Ling - Nova Scotia, Canada
Teacher: Val Loring
Dathün is a month-long, group meditation retreat of shamatha-vipashyana, or mindfulness-awareness practice. This is the basic sitting meditation that goes back to the Buddha, which also includes contemplative practices for cultivating insight and compassion. Practicing together as a group creates an atmosphere of courage and wakefulness.
The dathün follows the basic schedule developed by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The daily schedule begins at 7am and ends around 9pm most evenings. Sitting meditation sessions are alternated with walking meditation throughout the day. The three main meals are served and eaten in the meditation hall using the Zen contemplative eating practice of oryoki. After lunch, there is a mid-day work period, when participants have light cleaning and kitchen tasks, which are opportunities for meditation in action.
Program Contact:
Karen Porterfield
PROFOUND TREASURY RETREAT
The Colorado Retreat: Everything is Connected
October 4 – 13, 2024
Drala Mountain Center, Red Feather Lakes, Colorado
The topic of this year’s retreat is the mandala principle. Mandalas present Buddhist teachings in the form of a circular diagram, as a dynamic and interconnected system. Mandala teachings encourage us to think more holistically and to relate to experience in terms of energies, systems, relationships, and patterns of interconnection. Mandalas display the intersecting webs of connection between all experiences and all beings. They help us to place our personal experiences within a broader context, a context in which every experience is welcomed and included.
Throughout the retreat, our focus will be on cultivating a direct visceral connection with the five basic elements—earth, water, fire, wind, and space— as a way to go more deeply into Buddhist teachings on working with emotions.
KATOG CHOLING GON
Heart Sutra with Khentrul Lodrö T’haye Rinpoche
Two Weekends
July 27 - 28, 2024
August 24 - 25, 2024
Live Webcast Teaching
The Heart Sutra is the Buddha’s quintessential teaching on wisdom. It elucidates the true nature of phenomena, just as it is, free of all elaborations. Studying this text leads us to profound insight (vipashyana), which is the view; practicing it is meditation; completely integrating it is conduct; and realizing it is the fruition.
This will be the most in-depth teaching Khentrul Lodrö T’haye Rinpoche has given on the Heart Sutra. While Rinpoche has previously taught on this topic, he will delve more extensively into its meaning over the course of two weekends.
Nyingtik Yabzhi
Nov 8 – 12, 2024
Nyingtik Tsapod
Nov 14 – 17, 2024
Katog Choling Gön (Katog Rit’hröd)
Retreat Center
Parthenon, Arkansas
Cost and Accommodations
The cost for attending both events is a sliding scale $560-800. The amount is reduced if you are attending only one of the empowerments. Katog-provided accommodations are an extra charge. Full cost and accommodation details are provided during the registration process below.
On the occasion of the consecration of the new temple and representations, Khentrul Lodrö T’hayé Rinpoche offers this special event at the Katog Choling Gön retreat center in Parthenon, Arkansas.
You may attend just the Nyingtik Yabzhi or just the Nyingtik Tsapod or both, but full attendance of either section is mandatory. The Nyingtik Yabzhi will be from the morning of the 8th to the evening of 12th. The 13th serves as a rest and travel day. The Nyingtik Tsapod will be from the morning of the 14th to the evening of the 17th. You must arrive the day before and depart the day after these dates for either both or one of the teachings.
Link for Registration & Questionnaire: https://katog.org/event/2024-11-8-katogrithrodgon/
Pandita Jñānasūtra
"Homage to the primordial pure emptiness.
Wonderful!
If you train in these, joy will arise naturally."
Excerpt from the Four Means of Abiding
Jñānasūtra was one of the early masters of the Dzogchen lineage. He was a disciple of Śrī Simha and the main teacher of Vimalamitra. His last testament—that he conferred upon Vimalamitra before passing into the rainbow body—is called the Four Means of Abiding.
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