The London Retreat - by Jon Kwan

It was in October 2013 that Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche last gave a retreat in London. A year and a half later and Rinpoche returned last weekend to the Irish Centre in Camden to bestow upon the participants Ati Evolution teachings. It was a sell out!

It was a true joy to hear Rinpoche teaching again with such clarity in his characteristically powerful and unmistakable style. There were both new and old students and it was clear by the end of the retreat that everyone left with a palpable feeling of having learnt something new.

Rinpoche taught, as always, with reference to all the vehicles within Tibetan Buddhism.  He touched upon the various views according to the different paths of Sutrayana, Vajrayana and Dzogchen and the various subsections within them. He spoke about the passing of time and impermanence and spoke at length on the first statement of Garab Dorje and the importance of experiencing and then remaining in the the state of contemplation.

Rinpoche elucidated the importance of everyday presence and gave the example of life being very similar to driving a car. If we drive a car and become distracted we crash. 

On the final day Rinpoche generously gave the lung and some explanations for numerous secondary practices that are used in the Dzogchen community. Practices that can help to reduce negativities, increase long life, improve our capacity as practitioners and many more.

However as always he reminded us that the number one most important practice is the practice Guru Yoga and if we have time the Song of Vajra, and above all do our best.

There were wonderful demonstrations which many students old and new got involved with; Vajra Dance on the Saturday, Yantra Yoga on the Sunday and two sweaty sessions of Khaita Dance on both days. A truly joyful time!

Fundraising thrived at this year’s retreat. Due to the great kindness of donations the ASIA stall was a hive of activity with many people donating as much as they could in exchange for goods from Nepal in order to fundraise for Nepal. Donation buckets were literally overflowing with coins and finally Rinpoche, having donated his very own pendant with Özer Chenma and the Longsal symbol embossed on either side, all meant that £4,500 was raised for Asia. A truly outstanding amount that will be used directly to help the people of Nepal. This seemed to me to a mark the truly compassionate activity of all that attended the retreat.

There was a comprehensive presentation showing some footage and the architectural plans for the new London Centre. There was a lively and competitive auction that raised a whopping £4,903 to help fund the next stage of this vital and historic project.

  

With the London Centre emerging, it was wonderful to witness the depth of love that the community has for the Master, the collaboration of the team, the support and dedication of so many community members, from the UK and abroad, seen and unseen.

Thanks again to everyone involved for your efforts to enable us all to receive these precious teachings and most of all thank you Rinpoche.

Photo by Clive Arrowsmith

Photo by Raf Portas

Jim Valby's Santi Maha Sangha Retreats - Peter Robinson

When I booked myself into the Santi Maha Sangha retreats with Jim Valby, 5 days in London and another 5 in Kunselling this spring, I wasn't quite sure what to expect…

Having scanned the list of possible topics for the London retreat; Three Aspects of Dzogchen Transmission, Four Aspects for Understanding Primordial Knowledge, Five Marvelous Aspects of Primordial Knowledge, Five Principles of Primordial Knowledge, Five Necessary Capacities for Primordial Knowledge, Six Unlimited Principles of Primordial Knowledge, Ten Ways to Obstruct Primordial Knowledge, Sixteen Methods of Direct Introduction, I found myself faced with the difficult decision of whether to try to take notes in some vain attempt to keep up or instead to just sit and listen in the hope that that at least some small part of it would be absorbed.

I am sure that anyone who has considered taking the SMS base exam and read through the Precious Vase will be familiar with the feeling of vertigo that such a daunting and detailed list can generate, so abandoning all hope (and some fear) I opted for the latter.

Jim Valby has quite an animated style of presentation which put us at our ease from the start, and despite addressing a full room, it felt like he was chatting with a dear friend that he'd known for many years. His use of stories and humour while explaining hard to grasp ideas tended more towards demonstration than explanation, and his anecdotal style had a way of injecting life into some of the potentially drier philosophical ideas.

Jim's unique insight into the teachings and his extensive experience within the history of the community enabled him to share his broad perspective, and although we covered most of the points on the numbered list of topics in some detail, with his apparently endless energy throughout, Jim kept everything interesting, varied, and gave an incredible depth of explanation without ever losing the wider perspective.

The subsequent retreat in Kunselling was more practice oriented, focusing on purification through the various yanas while working with transmission, and it was here we got to spend even more quality time with Jim, who even outside of the talks was often sharing his fascinating stories and insights. It truly was a pleasure to spend that time with him for the whole 10 days.

In the end, what was in fact quite a structured and detailed course, dense in ideas and potentially difficult topics was transformed into something clear, straightforward, and dare I say, fun!

(Photos by Raf Portas)

(Photo by Mike Farmer)

Kumbhaka Course with John Renshaw in Kraków

Dancing through night and beyond - kumbhaka course with John Renshaw - by Dominika Nika

Some want to live long, some want to live wild. John Renshaw is a walking proof you can have both, and his classes will teach you how. We spent a wonderful weekend learning kumbhaka in Kraków -Tashiling, on the first sunny days of Spring. This was actually the most broad-minded course we have ever had. We learned that absolutely everything is useful - no limitations, no prejudice. John's knowledge of Chinese and Tibetan Medicine, Ayurveda, western science, neurology and anatomy, systems of Yantra Yoga, Bon, Ashtanga and Hatha Yoga, was combined in one purpose only - to teach us to work with our circumstances in more easy and effective way. He was using all possible means to help his students, and his attitude was contagious. In the end of the course, not following any tradition, all traditions were becoming useful to us, reaching beyond it's original potentiality. All of us had some experiences and developed our capacities. We also tried some moves and breathing on the dancefloor on Saturday night. After all, John Renshaw showed us you really can dance through the day/life cycle and beyond. 

The Bhutanese Cham: The Dance Goes On

Directly behind Tergar Monastery, where HH Karmapa resides in Bodhgaya, is Druk Ngawang Thubten Chokling, the monastery of the spiritual king or Shabdrung of Bhutan. Yangsi Shabdrung is eleven years old but he is still unable to travel freely outside the country. His parents, however, have travelled here with their second child, a boy of five.

A monastery without a rinpoche lacks magnetizing power and thus the place looks forlorn. But for three days of the year, during the annual Guru Rinpoche festival, it comes alive with the sound of traffic on the dusty pot-holed road that leads through a poor Indian village to the main gate. 

The Bhutanese arrive in traditional dress, crammed into cars, motor rickshaws and the new environmentally-friendly electric trolleys. The prayer flags fly, and the golden canopy comes out, transforming the temple entrance into a VIP seating area. To the right is a throne that awaits the arrival of the 17th Karmapa, who has been a regular guest here since he started the Monlam.

The Bhutanese cham is significantly different from the Tibetan, originating as it did with the visions of Jampal Dorje, the son of the founder of Bhutan, Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, in the 17th century. The dancers have more flexibility, their movements are lithe and somehow contemporary, even feminine in style.

Devotees line both sides of the long playing field leading to the monastery holding white offering scarves: Bhutanese, Europeans and a significant number of Malaysians and Taiwanese. A procession greets the Karmapa's black car at exactly 10 o'clock.  Masked dancers sway, while jesters cavort, and monks in dark orange robes blow horns and gyalins. It just happens that the first glimmer of sun melts the fog at precisely the same time as the Karmapa enters the temple. Once inside there are three enormous statues: the Buddha, Guru Rinpoche and the first Shabdrung of Bhutan. He lights a butter lamp, chants a Mahakala prayer and blesses a new mask of Yamantaka before he takes his customary seat on the throne outside. The Khenpo, Tshokey Dorje sits beneath him talking to His Holiness almost continuously. As they talk, three clowns make floppy prostrations to the Karmapa, in jest. Another poses for a photo with him. The idea is to distract the crowd while the dancers prepare.

It is the second day of the dance called Dungam, the dance of the wrathful deities of Lama Gongdu, a treasure cycle discovered by terton Sangye Lingpa (1314-1396).  Four dancers appear in the form of deer wearing stag masks with antlers to subdue all the evil spirits who try to destroy the dharma.  The next dance is performed by the charnal ground protectors called durda wearing skull masks.  They catch the spirits of the dharma obstructors and put them into a black triangular spirit catcher. In the final act they will take out their phurbas to liberate the spirits from evil karma.  In between there is a shift to a dakini dance, in which the movements of the dancers are flexible like swans, flowing from one graceful step to the next. It is in an elegant, well-rehearsed, confident performance.

On the balcony of the monastery, where another scene is being enacted, the Khenpo brings out a tray with some objects on it, among them a phurba used to destroy obstacles. The Karmapa blesses it. Soon afterwards at mid-day, the Karmapa stands up to depart while his devotees flock in singular pursuit. The Guru Rinpoche dancers barely miss a beat.

Sonam Dorje, the head monk confides: ''We rejoice that His Holiness comes here every year to bless our Tsechu. His time is very precious, yet he sacrifices it and sits here for two hours. We would like to thank His Holiness for guiding and taking care of us. No Rinpoche other than His Holiness Karmapa comes here to visit us.'' 

Naomi Levine: Author of The Miraculous 16th Karmapa - Incredible Encounters with the Black Crown Buddha.

Photos copyright of Kagyu Monlam. 

Bliss, Clarity and Emptiness – Kumbhaka Weekend

My only experience so far of Yantra Yoga has been a 2 day beginner’s course and since doing that weekend I have done very little practice. I am relatively new to Dzogchen and a lot of the practices are things that I am learning for the first time, so integrating what I am learning to daily life has posed challenges. I have to admit I went into the Kumbhaka weekend held last month in London with having done no practice, and very little knowledge/understanding of what it is and what it would involve - I didn’t leave the weekend the way I started it. I think it was Leo who said something along the lines of ‘this is like studying quantum physics without having studied physics 101’, and it definitely felt like I was learning very advanced practices.

The weekend was taught by John Renshaw at The Tara Yoga Centre near Old Street, 30 dzogchen community practitioners crammed into a very strange yoga space to learn Kumbhaka. John went through stages of explaining breathing, anatomy, chakras and lot of other things to get us ready for the actual practice. The first day was broken up with John talking, showing us slides and getting us to practice the elements that would come together for the main Kumbhaka. I will put my hands up, a lot of it went over my head but I don’t learn through intellectual understanding and I trusted that all that was being imparted would come together. It definitely did the next day, after a brief overview of what we covered yesterday the rest of the second day was dedicated to sessions of practice and discussion around our experiences and opportunities for clarifications.

I left Sunday evening having had an experience of bliss, clarity and emptiness. I slept Sunday night like a baby. The weekend was brilliant as a crash course in Kumbhaka; I have the foundations for personal practice and know my limitations and what I need to develop in order for me to be able to do kumbhaka more effectively. I went in with little or no expectations but left with a solid foundation for practice.

Wadud

Root Institute: An Elephant Meets a Spiritual Friend

The Karmapa's annual visit to Root Institute in Bodhgaya is a natural welcome to the beginning of a new year, like the first buds of spring. Orange and gold marigold flowers inside rings of offering bowls surround a dominant statue of Nagarjuna; and a chalk drawn mandala of auspicious symbols at the entrance to the temple awaits his footsteps.

Ragnini, an elephant, stands to the side of the mandala, richly caparisoned in the tradition of temple elephants, in a silver head-dress and a red embroidered tapestry on her back. Her trunk is adorned with painted symbols. The mahout on her back does not carry an iron pick as he used to do, and there are no chains on her ankles. She is waiting patiently, possibly in anticipation of the abundant fruit basket filled with bananas and apples which His Holiness bought specially for her and sent before his arrival.  Two years ago the elephants at Root were taken on an extended outer kora of the Bodhgaya temple and no doubt Ragnini's karma will ripen soon. Right now she is enjoying a respite from her work life as a captive animal. The hope is to buy enough land to let her and her elephant brother, Bodhicitta, live unchained.

The sound of sirens pierces the profound stillness, heralding the arrival of His Holiness.  As the door of the black Audi opens, Indian school children from the Maitreya School and Tara Children's Home established by Root, greet him with posies of flowers.  The head nun, Thubten Labdron,  beams a warm smile and presents a white offering scarf. ''Is this the fourth or fifth time I am at Root?'' asks the Karmapa as he settles comfortably on the throne.  ''Seven? I can't think how many; it doesn't matter. You all made lovely elaborate preparations for me. There is no need since I've been here so many times but thank you for that.''

This launches his talk on impermanence, inspired by a verse in the Diamond Cutter Sutra. We can see impermanence every day, but seeing and hearing about it isn't the same as incorporating it into our being. The first thought that changes the mind towards dharma is contemplating the precious human body, which we have right now.

Our body is a phenomenon that arises and perishes in a second. If we have a great task we need to fulfil, we have to embark on it immediately. It's not okay to procrastinate. If we're going to do something great, and we put it off for a few days there is no certainty we will do it.

Meditation on impermanence, he emphasizes, is not to cultivate a fear of death. The fear of death is natural, even to animals. It's to make us realise that with this bodily support we have a great task to accomplish and if we die before completing it, we will regret it.

If someone were to say, you have only one hour left in your life, what would you do? We spend most of our time doing all this busy work but we are relaxed about the things that are most important to do. We are not really aware what we need to accomplish. If we had only one hour left, we'd have to think about what we're going to do. If we think we have time, we will spend our lives being lazy and slothful.

The essence of meditating on impermanence is that it inspires us to use this opportunity by becoming aware of it and valuing it more highly. This will produce diligence. Such an opportunity to benefit ourselves and others will not happen again.

Rather than seeing impermanence as bad, we should see that it as positive. If things were permanent old situations would continue and nothing could change. Impermanence gives room for things to improve.

It's like music; sometimes the melody goes up, sometimes down.  If there were no change it would always stay on the same pitch. Change allows us to have beautiful melodies.

In every minute there is opportunity for change. This morning's misdeed we may regret and rectify by the evening. Everyone can follow the example of Milarepa who accumulated great misdeeds in the first part of his life and changed completely in the second part.

Take ownership of opportunity and strive hard to use it, he exhorted the audience. Habitual patterns lock us into believing we don't have the chance.  

We say the situation isn't right and we blame others. He or she blocked me. When there's a new government, we think we have a new leader who will effect change. We always look for someone outside to make changes.

What happens when things don't work out?

We think things always work for other people, rich people, but for myself, nothing works out. When difficulties come we give up.  Great beings have emerged from their difficulties. They used them as a source of learning, and then they became great beings. It's because of hindrances that we become great; we don't become a great being by living in comfort. If someone offers you a delicious meal, you don't need to be patient. If things are always good, we can't improve.

It is important for us to have difficulties in order to bring out who we truly are. Obstacles are our friends, not our enemies because they bring out our strengths.  If an expert karate or judo master has a mediocre opponent, he has no chance to bring out his powers. Only if they have opponents who are better do they have an opportunity to train. The biggest obstacle to change is pride. We think we're ok as we are. We need to win, to transcend, to be victorious and triumph over pride. If we are self satisfied, there's no opportunity to change.

In closing, the Karmapa praised the Maitreya school and the medical clinic for the benefit it brought to the local area. Thanking all the workers and supporters involved with these projects, he said,

This is the land of Magadha, the noble land of the Aryas, the source of wisdom, where all Buddhas awaken to enlightenment.  Twenty five hundred years ago the Buddha awoke to enlightenment in this place. In future, many great buddhas will come to guide sentient beings.  Many people from all over the world come here, so it is your responsibility to be an example and lead them to a good destination. Thank you all very much.

As the Karmapa leaves the shrine room he goes straight to Ragnini whose moment has come. He smiles as he feeds her the fruit from his hand and waves the last banana in the air before offering it, watching with delight as she curls her trunk playfully into her mouth. He then goes to the Nagarjuna statue and tosses petals in consecration. Behind him, the elephant is smiling. May this be the moment that liberates her from the chains of existence. 

Naomi Levine: Author of The Miraculous 16th Karmapa - Incredible Encounters with the Black Crown Buddha

Photos copyright of Kagyu Monlam. 

Shine and Lhagthong Retreat with Sasha Pubants - Johnnie Walker

Last month I was lucky enough to attend a fantastic weekend workshop by Sasha Pubants.  

The last time I saw Sasha I was roughly a year ago, sitting opposite him in Base Santi Maha Sangha exam. 

While that was a actually a lot of fun, it was nice this time to be able concentrate purely on trying to absorb as much as possible of what he was saying!

The topic this time was "Shine and Lhagthong with Emphasis on practices in the context of Semdzins of Santi Maha Sangha".

Sasha clearly has a huge wealth of knowledge and he didn't seem to be holding anything back.  The Friday evening set the scene and started big, covering a lot about how Dzogchen is structured.  He particularly noted how lucky we are the perspective that Rinpoche presents Dzogchen to us is not at all common, and how unique and valuable it is.

The Saturday started by delving into Shine and Lhagthong.  I particularly remember Sasha recounting a memory of when he was swimming with Rinpoche and how the movement of the water gave him a profound insight as to how the two principles relate to each other.  He put a lot of importance on to using terminology precisely to avoid confusion.

After that we moved on the various Semdzin practices.  Sasha would explain the basic principles, he would (patiently!) answer our questions, we would practice.

It really helped to make a lot things I had been a little fuzzy about come in to focus.

All the way through the weekend, a clear sense of the passion he feels about Dzogchen came across in every word. I left felt re-enthused about the practice and full of practice advise about how to proceed.

 

I look forward to having him back in the UK in the hopefully not too distant future!