Lovingkindness: Tibetan Buddhist Practices for Uncovering Essence-Love

Date: May 4 - 7, 2023

Time: Thursday 5pm - Sunday 1pm

Location: Great Vow Zen Monastery or Online

Address: 79640 Quincy Mayger Road, Clatskanie, OR 97016, USA

Price: $50 - $75
Email us about program

Lovingkindness: Tibetan Buddhist Practices for Uncovering Essence-Love

May 4 - 7, 2023

Thursday 5pm - Sunday 1pm

In Person attendance is now Full! You may join as an ONLINE participant. If an in-person space opens up – we will email everyone registered for online attendance first, to let them know.

 

Throughout our lives we long to connect with our truest self and to find a greater sense of intimacy with the people, places and experiences in our lives. Yet even the prospect of such intimacy may trigger deep habits of grasping, aversion, and fear of many kinds, including fear of failure and the predictable sense of withdrawal that often follows.

In the Tibetan tradition, we begin unwinding this conundrum at the end state—working from the starting assumption that we are a wellspring of power and love—but that in the beginning, we lack to skill and stability of presence to confidently abide in that energy. Face to face with our power and unlimited capacity for love, we flee from the potency of that experience into the more familiar narratives of brokenness and insufficiency.

In this retreat, we’ll engage in ancient ‘The Four Immeasurables’ (compassion, lovingkindness, joy and equanimity) practices. These exercises help us undermine confusion and release the solidity of our defenses. Little by little, we discover our completeness as it is right here and right now, without needing to fix anything at all. We redirect the energy of fear and resistance to stability and ease. Gradually, we learn to dwell in our truest self, awake and open to love, kindness, joy and compassion.

This lovingkindness retreat is a warm and uncomplicated starting place for beginners. More advanced practitioners are welcome, too, and know the importance of returning to these practices again and again. Join this weekend retreat and relax into the flow of the monastery schedule, enjoying long blocks of silence and ease as three beautiful spring days unfold. Join us by Zoom or face-to-face. Ample opportunity for question and answers with the teacher.

 

Leader:
Lama Lekshe