When: April 26 - May 2, 2019
What: Week long Chö retreat
For more information: https://www.dakiniswhisper.com/spring-2019-retreat
Entering the Stream of Lineage Blessings: Working Basis for Chö
Featuring
Ear-Whispered Chö
Five-Dakini Retreat
&
Guru Yoga
This first annual residential retreat held in conjunction with the Chö Mastery Training (Five-Year Program) is devoted to the gateway of the Ear-Whispered Chö lineage, a repository of blessings. The retreat is rich in contents and is a well-balanced program exploring our personal journey while fully immersing ourselves in the traditional lineage practice.
The Five Dakini Retreat entails taking this first step deep into the stunning river of blessings, the essential working basis for Vajrayana and Chö. It includes the Tantric practice of visualization and mantra recitation while embodying the awakening energies of Chö Deities – Prajnaparamita and the Five Dakinis. This retreat is called “the Preliminary to the Sacred Chö Practice,” a prerequisite to further Chö practices. Retreatants are required to complete a certain number of mantra recitation with visualization, which can be continued as a daily practice after the retreat. Then we will perform fire puja together upon the completion during the 2nd annual retreat in Spring, 2020. (The cost of the practice text is $35.)
Each annual residential retreat in the Chö Mastery Training is interwoven with the teaching on the Vajrayana techniques based on Vajrayana classics such as A Book of Three Inspirations (A Treatise on the Stages of Training In the Profound Path of Naro’s Six Dharmas), A Commentary to the Six Yogas of Naropa by Lama Tsongkhapa.
Our 1st residential retreat features the most misunderstood and most important practice in Vajrayana - “Guru Yoga: Entering the Stream of Blessing through Guru Yoga”. The guru yoga is the source of blessings and the entryway to the Vajrayana path. A strong foundation with a correct understanding and skill in this method is the key to the success in all the subsequent practices.
- Chö Empowerment
Common Opening the Door to the Sky
Lineage Transmissions and Practice
Chö Whispered from the Mount of Bliss (“Ganden Chö”)
Lineage Retreat (Transmission/Commentary/Practice)
Five Dakini Retreat
Guru Yoga (Vajrayana Techniques in Chö Part 1)
“Entering the Stream of Blessing through Guru Yoga”
Retreat Includes:
- Common Chö Empowerment – Opening the Door to the Sky (First Day)
Oral and Music Transmissions
Chö Whispered from the Mount of Bliss
The Preliminary Practices and Concluding Prayer
The Seven ‘PE’s
Supplication to Machik Five Dakinis
Five-Dakini Retreat manual
Retreat – Self-generation of Prajnaparamita and Front-generation of Machik Five Dakinis
Five Dakini Retreat: The Preliminary to Advanced Chö Practices
Five Elements and Five-Facets of Timeless Awareness Teaching
Tsok Offering
Chö Practice
Group practice
Hands-on, private practice
Chö in the Wilderness (outdoor practice)
Guru yoga
Commentary and practice based on A Book of Three Inspirations
Transmission, Commentary, and Practice - Ganden Lhagyama
Transmission, Commentary, and Practice - The Short Six-Session Yoga
Discussion and Inquiries
Meditation
Opening Meditation, Mahamudra Shamatha (morning)
Concluding Meditation (evening)
Movement
Subtle Body Training
Trulkor
Chö Dance (i.e. Supplication to Machik Five Dakinis)
Hands-on Workshops
How to play the damaru, bell & Kangling
Torma Making
Personal interview
Tsok Feast Offering
Chö as a Vajrayana Path employs a multitude of techniques aimed at seeing our true nature by revealing the pure reality and skillfully transforming our deluded experience into a direct experience of awakened being. The path of these techniques called “the Path of Methods (Tab Lam)” will be taught and practiced In conjunction with the annual residential retreat of the Five-Year Program. Since they entail the practices of the completion phase as well as creation phase, each technique will be introduced sequentially and sensitively based on the authentic text of Lama Tsongkhapa’s commentary to the Six Yogas of Naropa. These Vajrayana techniques become powerful tools to liberation from what’s in a way on the path of the direct approach of “the Path of Liberation (Dröl Lam)” such as Mahamudra. In this way, Chö Mastery Training consistently and equally emphasizes both approaches to integrate into the path of awakening.