CHENREZIG RETREAT ESSENTIALS
Thousand Armed Chenrezig
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Sravasti Abbey is pleased to announce that our next three-month retreat will be on Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara), the Buddha of Compassion. It will be at Sravasti Abbey will be Dec. 13, 2006 March 15, 2007. Participants must be here for the entire period, and they should have received the initiation (wong) of 1000-Armed Chenrezig which enables them to do the self-generation practice of the deity.
Six meditation sessions are done daily, and retreatants share in cleaning and other chores. The retreat is conducted in silence, although participants take turns leading a motivation and the Chenrezig practice each morning. Ven. Chodron will do a personal retreat in her cabin and will meet with the group each week for teachings and Q&A.
There is no charge, but each retreatant is responsible for helping to gather at least $2500 so that the retreat can happen. In this way, everyone works together as a group and contributes to creating the conditions for the retreat to occur. One donor has offered to help someone who has difficulty gathering the danahe would like them to do some social service in exchange. More info on this will be available shortly.
Doing a long retreat like this is extremely beneficial for really getting a taste of the Dharma and in this case, for becoming closer to Chenrezig. The Abbey is a wonderful place to do retreatthe environment is quiet, there are forests and meadows to walk in, and a teacher and retreat helpers support you so that you can focus on meditating and practicing. The environment is set up so that all activities can be done mindfully and with a Dharma perspective. Participants in the three month retreats in the past two years all said how much the retreat deepened their Dharma practice and transformed their lives. It’s a wonderful opportunity, and if you can use your precious human life to do a retreat like this, you and all sentient beings will benefit enormously.
Please read the other material on this website about the Chenrezig retreat. You may also wish to look at the material about the two previous Vajrasattva retreats on www.thubtenchodron.org.
To apply, please complete and submit the application form as soon as possible. Space is limited. Find application here and
To Everyone Considering Attending the Chenrezig Retreat Dec. 13, 2006 March 15, 2007
Dear Dharma friends,
I send you my best greetings and Dharma wishes for your successful practice. This letter will explain a little about the Chenrezig retreat, so that you can determine if you would like to participate and so that you can prepare for it.
What is the retreat?
The purpose of retreat is to integrate the teachings we have heard into our mindstream. A retreat is different from a course, even though sometimes we calls courses retreats simply because they are held at a place outside the city. In a course, the teacher teaches the Dharma and guides the meditation sessions. In a retreat, the students do the meditation themselves, and the teacher is generally not present. Thus, the retreat participants will do the Chenrezig retreat together, while I will do my own private retreat in a cabin in the garden.
I will get people started on the retreat the first day and will come once a week a give a talk for about an hour. If anyone runs into serious trouble in the retreat, he or she may come to talk with me. Otherwise, I will be in silence.
We found that this system worked well in previous Vajrasattva retreats. The group support and guided meditations each day kept everyone on track and inspired everyone. There is a wonderful type of friendship that develops when you retreat together. You give your loving support to each person in the group and each person returns that to you. By coming to sessions on time and keeping the discipline of the retreat, you help yourself and show your concern for everyone else.
Who is Chenrezig? What is the practice of Chenrezig?
Chenrezig is the manifestation of the compassion of all the Buddhas. The practice of Chenrezig is especially effective for generating and enhancing compassion, love, and bodhicitta. By helping us to overcome our self-centeredness, this practice enables us to open our hearts to others, not in a sentimental way, but with wisdom, joy, and strength. The practice entails doing a sadhana (practice text) that includes refuge, bodhicitta, the seven limb prayer, meditation on emptiness, visualization, mantra, Lamrim meditation, and dedication.
What is the daily schedule?
There will be six meditation sessions each day, each one about 1 hour and 15 minutes long (morning and evening sessions will be longer). Participants will take turns leading the Chenrezig practice for two sessions each day, and the other sessions will be in silence, with each person guiding him or herself through the practice.
Who can attend the retreat?
The retreat is for intermediate or advanced students. It is not for beginners. People should have a firm grounding in teachings on the gradual path to enlightenment. (Lamrim) and thought training (lojong) and be able to guide their own meditations. They should have received the initiation (wong) of 1000-Armed Chenrezig before the retreat. Participants must also be in good physical and mental health.
How do we prepare for the retreat?
First you must learn how to do the Chenrezig sadhana and practice it. Please practice the sadhana at home and together as a group, if possible, so that you are familiar with it before the retreat begins. We will send you the sadhana and there is an audio recording of me leading the practice at http://www.thubtenchodron.org. There you can also read transcriptions of the Q&A sessions done during the 2005 and 2006 Vajrasattva retreats to get an idea of what a three-month retreat is like. Listen to the tapes of the Chenrezig teachings that I have given (you can get them from
. Also read and study:
- Chodron, Thubten. Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: the Yoga Method of Chenrezig. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2006.
- Chodron, Thubten. Working with Anger. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2001.
- H. H. the Dalai Lama, Tsong-ka-pa, and Jeffrey Hopkins. Deity Yoga. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 1981.
- Jampa Tegchog, Geshe. Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An Explanation of the Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2005.
- Thubten Yeshe, Lama. Becoming the Compassion Buddha: Tantric Mahamudra for Everyday Life. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003.
- Thubten Yeshe, Lama. Introduction to Tantra. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1987.
- Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Lama. The Door to Satisfaction. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1994.
- Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Lama, and George Churinoff. Nyung Nä: The Means of Achievement of the Eleven-Faced Great Compassionate One, Avalokiteshvara. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995
- Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Lama. Transforming Problems: Utilizing Happiness and Suffering in the Spiritual Path. Boston: Wisdom Publications, l987.
Make yourself familiar with how to do the Chenrezig practice before the retreat begins.
Learning Lamrimthe gradual path to enlightenmentis another important preparation. Please read some Lamrim books and think about and meditate on their contents. A Lamrim outline used in my previous retreats is on www.thubtenchodron.org as are audio and transcripts of Lamrim teachings I’ve given. A Lamrim meditation outline may be found there as well. In addition, you can get Guided Meditations on the Lamrim, a set of 14 CDs in which I led all these meditation. Please become familiar with these checking meditations; they will help you greatly during retreat. Various thought training teachings can also be found on this website.
In each session, after doing the visualization of Chenrezig and recitation of mantra, you will do some Lamrim meditation. This is a powerful way to gain insight into the Buddha’s teachings, for purifying negative karma by doing Chenrezig practice removes obstacles to gaining insight into the Lamrim topics.
Another way of preparing for the retreat is to help create the physical circumstances by which the retreat can occur. As a monastery, the Abbey depends on volunteers to help build and maintain the buildings and to set up before retreat. Please consider coming to the Abbey in the months preceding the retreat to offer service so the facilities are ready.
The Abbey does not charge people to do retreat. Rather, each retreatant is responsible to gather a portion of the dana (donations given with generosity) that will be used for food, maintenance, electricity, heat, and other expenses incurred during the retreat. This process of everyone participating in making the retreat happen is important. Building group energy starts with this because everyone is helping to gather the dana so everyone can be sponsored. Community feeling is important during the retreat, so we start building it before the retreat begins. Everyone is involved, everyone helps for the benefit of the whole group.
Every action, however small, that a person does with the intention of attending the retreat for the benefit of all sentient beings becomes Dharma. You accumulate positive potential by helping to gather the dana, construct the buildings, do the organizational work, etc. so that the retreat can occur. That accumulation of positive potential enables your retreat to be successful. In other words, your having a successful retreat doesn’t depend on simply coming to the Abbey and meditating. It depends on creating lots of positive potential before the retreat begins. The positive potential is created by helping to arrange the physical and financial conditions for the retreat to happen. When we have to make effort, we value the opportunity more.
Is there a special diet?
Food will be vegetarian, with no meat, chicken, fish, eggs, onions, leeks, scallions, garlic, or radishes. People may have three meals a day, except on new and full moon when they’ll take the Eight Mahayana precepts and eat lunch only, with light beverages at other times. Some retreatants may wish to take the Eight Mahayana precepts for extended periods of time (four days or more), in which case they may eat breakfast and lunch each day.
How do we create a environment conducive for the retreat? What is the retreat discipline?
We want to set up as conducive environment as possible for meditation. The purpose of the discipline is to create a special environment so that people can make headway in their meditation. The discipline is to give everyone space to reflect and go inward without distraction.
People will be in silence, except for group discussions or the Q&A session with me once a week. There will be no talking in the bedrooms, and people may not go for walks during which they talk with their friends. People may not call home, write letters to friends or relatives, or leave the abbey. You must take care of all outside affairs before beginning the retreat. In this way, you will be able to focus on doing retreat without distraction. Living in silence together is not cold or unfriendly. Rather, we respect each other’s wish to focus on the Dharma by not cluttering our environment with chatter. Deep Dharma friendships are made in this way and much to your surprise, you’ll get to know everyone well even though you don’t chat with them.
The abbey is a monastery. It is not a retreat center with a paid staff, so life here is different than doing a retreat at a retreat center. There will be a rota for doing chores to keep the abbey functional. Bring everything you will need in enough quantity to last the entire retreatour retreat helpers are very busy and cannot go to town to shop for personal items. If you forget something or need something during retreat, it may take up to a week to receive non-emergency items. Dress and behavior should accord with a monastic environment. Bring loose fitting, single-colored clothing.
You may give the abbey’s phone number to your family in case there is an emergency. Otherwise, no incoming or outgoing phone calls are permitted. Why? Because if outside contact is permitted, you will spend many meditation sessions planning what to say during the call and many more worrying about what was said after it! It is very difficult to find the place and time in samsara to do silent, in-depth meditation practice. The discipline is to enable you to benefit from this time and to create conducive circumstances for your fellow retreatants as well. This is recommendation of the great masters whom we try to emulate.
If people are unable to keep this discipline, it’s better that they attend another course or retreat at another time. People who do not keep the discipline, especially the silence, will be asked to leave the retreat.
If you have any questions, please ask.
Have a wonderful retreat! Develop your wisdom and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings!
With love,
Ven. Chodron
One month retreat
If you wish to participate in the first month of the three month Chenresig winter retreat, during which Geshe Tegchog will also be teaching on Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland, read about the retreat on this page and contact
for more information and please specify your interest in the one month retreat.
Important Dates
The Abbey tries to be as accommodating as possible. Last year we made an exception for two people and extended the deadline for their giving dana for the retreat. However, these two people backed out of the retreat at the last moment and it was too late for others to take their place. Thus, this year to help people plan better, there are the following deadlines. Just as people plan in advance to save resources in order to go on a desired vacation, retreatants need to plan in advance to ensure they gather their share of the dana in time.
Applications will be accepted until Oct. 15 but people should apply as soon as possible.
July 1 -- Applicants who have been accepted into the retreat should have sent a $500 deposit to guarantee their place in the retreat. This deposit is refundable if someone withdraws from the retreat before October 20.
September 1 -- Of the remaining $2000 dana to be contributed, half of that ($1200) should have been received. This amount is refundable if someone must withdraw before November 1.
November 1 -- The remaining $1200 of the dana should have been received. This amount is refundable if someone must withdraw before November 15. Please note that since these amounts are dana, or donations given from the heart, a person who cancels his or her place may also choose to donate this so that others may attend the retreat.
December 13 -- All participants have arrived at the Abbey.
January 14 -- the one month retreat finishes
March 15, 2007 Retreat finishes
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