The Dzogchen Autumn Retreat
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Dzogchen Retreat Center USA
Teachings and Trainings on The Buddha Path
Saturday, Nov 2 through Saturday, Nov 9, 2013
Last updated: September 9, 2013
The Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation is pleased to announce our annual Dzogchen Autumn Retreat under the guidance of His Eminence Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche. This week-long retreat will be held at the beautiful Dzogchen Retreat Center USA immediately after the 2013 Internship Program. This year presents an ideal opportunity to deepen your understanding and experience of the teachings of the Dzogchen Lineage.
The 2013 Autumn Retreat will commence on Saturday, November 2th and conclude on Saturday, November 9th. This year’s teaching and training will include in-depth and direct teachings on the sacred text The Buddha Path, the Buddhist fundamentals, and will include many practices including mantra recitation, reciting sacred text, visualizations, music making, light offerings, and food offerings.
Seating is limited, so please register early.
'Retreat' literally means your body, speech, and mind are away from busy, meaningless, and negative things, and free to focus on helping all beings. Away from worldly distractions, you can wholeheartedly train your mind in the way of True Happiness.
The nature of mind is pure, luminous, and blissful, yet until we rid ourselves of negative thinking we will generate suffering for ourselves and provide the conditions of others’ suffering.
The Dzogchen Autumn Retreat is a unique opportunity to introduce your thinking to its nature: Buddha! By attending this retreat you can begin the journey toward Enlightenment in the company of both beginners and seasoned Buddhist practitioners. Learn how to increase your happiness, causes of happiness, and the happiness of all beings, while decreasing the suffering and causes of suffering of all beings.
What to Expect at the Autumn Dzogchen Buddhist Retreat
The Autumn Retreat is one week of diligent learning, contemplation, meditation, prayer, and discussion surrounded by precious Sangha and experienced Dharma teachers.
Bells call you to morning meditation in our colorful Shrine, where all residents practice The Buddha Path together. Dharma exercises and classes follow this practice on indispensible Buddhist teachings, including how to put positive thinking into practice.
In retreat you will practice Dharma with more joy, depth, and intensity than you have likely experienced before and the results may surprise you. By training your mind using the skillful means of Vajrayana you will take huge steps toward your own awakening.
Dzogchen is translated as The Great Perfection or The Great Inclusion because it contains all of Buddha’s teachings, both Sutras and Tantras. Through the practice of Dzogchen you can become Buddha in a single lifetime and never again be a negative condition for any being. By committing to spend a week practicing to this end, your mind will be profoundly transformed and you will have a more positive effect on your loved ones and all beings.
About the Retreat Center
The Dzogchen Retreat Center is a small Buddhist village situated on 160 pristine acres in the beautiful Coastal mountains of Oregon with native forests, lush meadows, beautiful valleys, peaceful ponds, and the powerful Suislaw River connecting us to the Pacific Ocean.
All teachings at the Retreat Center are given free of charge. The retreat fees are used to pay for Dharma activities and the use of the facilities, including food and lodging. Lodging consists of retreat cabins, which sleep two (perfect for couples or friends coming together) and two heated dormitories with bunk beds. Housing and registration are limited, so please register early. Take this opportunity to reawaken your own natural wisdom. You will return to your home renewed, refreshed and revitalized.
We welcome practitioners with all levels of experience. Whether you are completely new to Buddhism or have been practicing for many years, you will be offered valuable instruction, guidance, and support.
If you are serious about walking the authentic Buddha path as transmitted from Master to Student in the unbroken Dzogchen lineage, there is no better way to start than with a Dzogchen Buddhist retreat.
About the Teacher
Upasaka Bodhisattva Zangshod (Marc Baldwin) is an authorized Dharma Teacher under the guidance of H.E. Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche.
Zangshod, a longtime Buddhist practitioner, has spent more than four years studying closely with Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche. He is a passionate and inspiring teacher in the Dzogchen Longchen Nyingthig Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.
About the Lineage
It is extremely precious to study under an authentic lineage Master whose teachings can be traced all the way back to Buddha Shakyamuni. Our precious Vajra Master is an authentic lineage holder of the Dzogchen Longchen Nyingthig and the Dzogchen Khadro Nyingthig lineages. Selected by previous Dzogchen lineage Masters in Tibet because of his profound knowledge and realization, H.E. Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche is extraordinary and precious jewel.
Like Atisha, a great Master of the past who was revered for always teaching refuge, Khenpo Choga Rinpoche is revered for always training teachers. His heartfelt effort to train knowledgeable, wise and compassionate teachers has reached a critical juncture. Rinpoche has requested that Marc lead this retreat.
A vibrant and dynamic teacher, Khenpo Choga is a 33rd-generation lineage holder of the Buddhist wisdom lineage of Dzogchen, a lama of Dzogchen Monastery, and professor of the Dzogchen Shri Singha University. Khen Rinpoche has more than seven years of solitary cave meditation experience in the high Tibetan holy mountains and embodies the qualities of a realized practitioner and yogi. He is a published author of numerous Tibetan and English books, including The Buddha Path, a practice book that encompasses all of Buddha's teachings, and which is now available in English, Chinese, Russian, and German. It is soon to be released in Nepali, Japanese, and Spanish.
Retreat Pricing
As always the teachings and ceremonies themselves are offered free of charge, but it is traditional in Buddhism for the student to make an individual offering to the teacher during the retreat. You may voluntarily make an offering to the teacher at anytime during the retreat. It is most auspicious to do this at the beginning of the retreat at the end of the opening ceremony.
The retreat fees listed below are used to pay for food, supplies, utilities and maintenance of the facilities.
- Adult (18–64) ~ $500
- Senior (65 and up) ~ $400
- Monastic ~ $350
- Teen (ages 13–17) ~ $300
- Youth (ages 8–12) ~ $250
- Child (ages 0–7) ~ contact Retreat Director
When making your travel plans, please plan your schedule so that you arrive at the retreat center after lunch, and depart the retreat center after lunch on the dates listed above. You are welcome to come earlier or stay later at the retreat center to volunteer to help us with preparations and clean-up of the retreat center. It is $20 per day to stay at the retreat center as a volunteer outside of the scheduled Autumn Retreat. The $20 per day includes your meals and accommodations. Accommodations do not include blankets, sheets or towels.
Please Read the Fine Print
We have a separate page with all of the details about the retreat that you should read prior to applying. Please carefully review the Retreat Details, Conditions and Policies before registering. Everyone is welcome to apply by clicking here.
If you have any questions about anything, don’t hesitate to Contact Us.
How to Register
Because space is limited, we may have to decline some applicants, so you are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. The application period will close on October 10, 2013. Once you apply, we will contact you to confirm your registration.
Please carefully review the Retreat Details, Conditions and Policies before registering. Everyone is welcome to apply by clicking here.
How to Make Payments
Payment is due in full at the time of acceptance of your application. There will be no refunds after the close of the application period. Learn more on the Retreat Payment Options Page.
The Great Merit of Supporting Retreats
Even if you will not be able to attend this retreat, you or anyone else you know may earn tremendous merit by providing facilities for those on retreat. If you would like to contribute financially or with labor, contact us immediately. There are a variety of different projects underway intended to support the retreat experience, including maintenance of the shrine tent and cabins, weatherproofing our facilities, and refinements of the kitchen and dining areas.
There are three ways you can help:
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Come to the retreat center prior to the Autumn Retreat and get the unique benefits of a work retreat.
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Offer donations for raw materials and supplies.
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Sponsor students and volunteers who want to perform work retreats.
Providing immediate assistance will help facilitate improvements in time for Autumn Retreat. If you would like to help or would like more information, please contact the retreat director.
Join the Circle of Compassion
Support the Dzogchen Retreat Center Project
For the peace and happiness of all beings, the Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation USA is asking for your support to ensure the future of the Dzogchen Retreat Center USA, under the spiritual guidance of Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche.
Your help is urgently needed to ensure the preservation, practice, and transmission of the unbroken Dzogchen Lineage tradition for increasing personal happiness and creating lasting world peace. Please visit our website where you can donate online and join our ongoing giving program, the Circle of Compassion, or make a one-time donation to the Dzogchen Retreat Center USA Project. "Generosity is the root of wealth and prosperity."
Learn more at: www.dzogchenlineage.org/giving
The Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation USA is an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
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