UK Dzogchen Community Blog: August 2014

The now traditional annual week long Vajra Dance retreat was held in Kunselling from the 9-16 August. The weather changed with the remnants of a hurricane moving over Britain so this year we danced the full retreat inside our trusty Dome. I say trusty because it has now been over 10 years since we acquired the Dome, and it is perhaps time to replace it.

The retreat was very well attended with around 21-23 people attending plus 3 very well behaved children who managed to amuse themselves (and us) admirably.

The programme was quite intense, starting with early morning Yantra and following on with 2 Dance tuns in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. The full moon Ganapuja on the first Sunday saw a packed Gonpa and a full rainbow appeared over the top of the Dome at the end. (see picture).

We were all very glad to have this opportunity to deepen our practice away from the usual distractions of daily life, and also to provide and receive support from each other along the way.

Towards the end, we had an informal meeting around the fire discussing freely ideas how Vajra dance can develop next year in the UK.Here are some of those ideas which some of you might want to comment on or add to.

1. To have 2 Vajra dance practice retreats next year in Kunselling - a week long one and perhaps a long weekend.

2. To hold a deepening course of the Song of the Vajra, with a special request to have it in the school holidays.

3. Possibly also to have a course on pt 1 of the Song of the Vajra, but we need to assess interest for this to happen. Any of you out there interested to begin to learn the Dance of the Song of the Vajra?

4.To hold a group retreat combining Mandarava (or Gomadevi) practice with Vajra Dance.

5. Cindy to come down to the practice one afternoon at St Saviours to help with any queries etc.

People also expressed a wish to combine a Dance practice with the AGM, as we have done in the past.

6. An idea of having a Dance celebration - possibly in W.Wickham Village Hall where space is cheap and plentiful - devoting time to both Vajra Dance and Tibetan dancing.

7. To plan a further,separate 2 Vajra Dance days in the London Buddhist Arts centre.

8. An idea that was discussed in Tenerife among instructors and with Rinpoche was to make the possibility of individual,(or small group), Vajra Dance tutorials available by the hour, for people to work individually and specifically with an instructor, was also of interest to people. Two people actually had an individual 'tutorial' on the last day, and I think it was a positive experience.

The idea was put forward by Prima Mai to answer to the need of people who perhaps haven't got the time or find it too far travel to courses, or maybe the courses are not at the right time for them. Anyway, an idea to be developed.

There are now 2 Vajra Dance instructors in the UK!

Algis, based in Cardiff, and myself, based in Cambridge.

We then moved on to practical considerations. We agreed to start researching and costing a new dome, maybe with the possibility of blowing warm air into it, so our Dancing season can be extended a little, and also be made more comfortable so that we don't receive an icy blast of air as we move around the mandala.

We also discussed making new Mandalas which Jane has already communicated to us.

Thanks really must go to Jane who organised this week so well.

With best wishes