smcj wrote: ↑Mon Mar 19, 2018 3:59 pm
I have a close friend who has done 8 years and i know several others who have done 12 to 16 years of kagyu retreat.
That's some serious retreat time. Even Tibetans have to respect those numbers.
Are those people teaching? Still on retreat? Any public profile? Any chance of getting them to start posting here?
I know a half dozen that have done (2) 3 year retreats. And I know of one woman on her 3rd 3 year retreat. I thought that was pretty substantial. And I've heard of one woman on a lifetime retreat, but I don't know how far into it she has gone into it. I'd not heard of Western Kagyupas doing 12+ except for Tenzin Palmo.
Some of these people who have done several retreats have been scarred by their experiences and left and never came back.
Some have benefited tremendously but very few.
One of these very few is Donald Creedon who if am not mistaken has done 3 retreats and some dark retreat(please correct if i am wrong).
Another person who has done lots of retreat is the Mahakala Nun from Samye who has been doing a 3 month in 1 month out type of retreat for over 20 years.ON Holy Isle the nun who is retreat lopon for women's retreat has done at least 4 retreats or thereabouts...And so on.
I think Stewart who comes here sometimes knows more accurate details about these people than me.
So for the past 3 decades, quite a few people who were connected to samye ling have done lots and lots of retreat.