TO EVERYONE WHO IS CONSIDERING ATTENDING THE MEDICINE BUDDHA RETREAT
VEN. CHODRON
Part I: Friday, Nov. 2 Sunday, Dec. 2.
Part II: Sunday, Jan. 6 Sunday, March 9, 2008.
Dear Dharma friends,
I send you my best greetings and Dharma wishes for your successful practice. This letter will explain a little about the Medicine Buddha 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 Medicine Buddha 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 to give a talk for an hour or two. 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 winter 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 Medicine Buddha? What is the practice of Medicine Buddha?
Medicine Buddha is the manifestation of the healing quality of all the Buddhas. The practice of Medicine Buddha is especially effective for generating and enhancing compassion, love, and bodhicitta as well as for healing physical illness and injury. 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 five meditation sessions each day, each one about 1 hour and 15 minutes long (morning and evening sessions will be longer) and one session for personal study. Participants will take turns leading the Medicine Buddha practice for one or 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. It is not necessary to have received the initiation (jenang) of Medicine Buddha before the retreat, although it is helpful. 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 Medicine Buddha 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. The written sadhana and an audio recording of me leading the practice is at http://www.thubtenchodron.org. There you can also read transcriptions of the Q&A sessions from the 2005 and 2006 Vajrasattva retreats and the 2007 Chenrezig retreat to get an idea of what a long retreat is like. Tapes of teachings describing how to do the Medicine Buddha practice are on the website as well.
Before the retreat, please read and become familiar with the following books.
• Birnbaum, Raoul. The Healing Buddha. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1989.
• 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 Tegchok, 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. Introduction to Tantra. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1987.
• Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Lama. The Door to Satisfaction. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1994.
• Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Lama. Transforming Problems: Utilizing Happiness and Suffering in the Spiritual Path. Boston: Wisdom Publications, l987.
• Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Lama. Ultimate Healing. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001.
It is also helpful to read the following book because it contains explanations of some of the same recitations and meditation steps that are also found in the Medicine Buddha sadhana:
• Chodron, Thubten. Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: the Yoga Method of Chenrezig. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2006.
It is essential to make yourself familiar with how to do the Medicine Buddha 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. Various thought training teachings can also be found on this website. In addition, you can get Guided Meditations on the Stage of the Path, in which I lead all these meditations. This will be released by Snow Lion Publications in the Fall of 2007. Please become familiar with these checking meditations; they will help you greatly during retreat.
In each session, after doing the visualization of Medicine Buddha 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 Medicine Buddha 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 will be 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; 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 to 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 a lot 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 we’ll take the Eight Mahayana precepts and eat only lunch and drink 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 an environment conducive for the retreat? What is the retreat discipline?
We want to set up as conducive an 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.
You 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 you may not go for walks during which you talk with your friends. You may not call home, write letters to friends or relatives, or leave the abbey (unless there is an emergency). 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.
Those unable to keep this discipline, should attend another course or retreat at another time. Any who do not keep the discipline, will be asked to leave the retreat.
If you have any questions,
.
Have a wonderful retreat! Develop your wisdom and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings!
With love,
Ven. Chodron
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