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Southern
Dharma Retreat Center
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| Presents | |
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The Annual New Year's Retreat |
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| December 28, 2007 – January 4, 2008 | |
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We are happy to announce that we have procured the services of three teachers to help us conclude 2007 and bring in 2008. Local Asheville teachers Cindy Dollar and Susan Grant will help us get ready for the New Year with their Meditation, Mindfulness and Yoga Retreat. In addition we also have the opportunity to do the Vajrasattva purification practice with Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin from the Tibetan Meditation Center in Frederick, Maryland. |
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Class title - Just Begin… |
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| A New Year's Retreat with Cindy Dollar & Susan Grant | |
| Cindy's
and Susan's Retreat runs from
4 Nights - December 28th through lunch on January 1st:. |
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We will begin the New Year by nurturing our bodies, minds, and hearts with a balance of yoga postures (asana), breath awareness, seated and walking meditation and mindfulness exercises. By combining mindfulness practices, meditation, and yoga we acknowledge the unity of body and mind. The practice of each supports the practice of all. As we practice mindfulness and meditation we become increasingly aware of the well worn paths of our thoughts and corresponding beliefs about ourselves and our lives. Developing the ability to sit with these awarenesses allows us enormous freedom to choose whether to follow our old patterns or to take a new path. A yoga asana practice allows us to explore the contents of the mind through our conditioned responses to stimuli from the body. Many of our beliefs are held in the physical body and result in tightness or tension, either physically or mentally. As we develop physical strength and flexibility we use the body as a tangible focus to train the mind to stillness. We will practice poses to increase energy, decrease restlessness and agitation, and establish calm. This allows us to experience increasing stability and stillness in our seated meditation and in life. No previous yoga or meditation experience is necessary. |
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 SUSAN
GRANT is a psychologist in private practice and founder of The Mindfulness Center of
Asheville. She combines cognitive therapy and mindfulness training in
her work with individuals and with groups. She has facilitated
introspective skills groups for InnerVision since 1992. These ongoing
personal growth groups utilize concepts of Buddhism and mindfulness
training for expanding self understanding and for making concrete change
in participant's lives. Since 1990 Susan has studied and practiced Soto
Zen Buddhism with Nancy Spence, teacher and guide of Anattasati Magga.
She is currently completing a 3-year Lay Minister Certification program.
Susan brings to her work the awareness of her own journey and the rich
rewards of bringing mindfulness to each moment of life.
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| CINDY DOLLAR is the owner and senior teacher at One Center Yoga in Asheville, NC. She has been a certified Iyengar Yoga instructor since 1990 and teaches workshops throughout the southeast US. Cindy has traveled to Pune, India, several times to study with BKS and Geeta Iyengar. In 1997 she was honored by being selected one of 60 women worldwide to attend the International Women's Yoga Intensive in Pune. A student of Zen Buddhism for over 10 years, Cindy mindfully incorporates this compassionate awareness practice into her yoga teaching. Several of her articles have appeared in New Life Journal, and she is the co-author of Yoga Your Way, which was released by Lark Books in January 2005. | |
Khenpo's Class will begin the evening of |
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| January 1st and end on January 4th, 2008 | |
| Vajrasattva
Purification Retreat Description
For the last four days of the retreat |
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Khenpo will lead us in Vajrasattva
meditation, a purification practice from the Vajrayana path of Buddhism,
as practiced in Tibet. The main meditation tool in the Vajrayana path is
deity yoga. With this technique one first visualizes a being with a
perfect physical form – a deity. Then one creates a perfect
auditory note, for example "OM," then one imagines a perfectly
clear luminous mind. In the practice one is empowered to first imagine
all of these as a mentally "created" being - outside oneself,
then one merges with that being and imagines oneself to have those
physical qualities of perfection. Then one chants the appropriate mantra
and acquires "perfect speech." Finally one dissolves the
visualization into emptiness, thus realizing the "perfect mind."
In doing this practice one comes to see that one's very nature is now and always has been the same as the Buddha's - that is, pure, uncontaminated - uncreated emptiness and luminosity. It has just been tarnished by one's unskillful actions in the past. The Vajrasattva practice can help to remove the tarnish so that our true nature comes into focus. Khenpo will explain this further during the first session on the evening of the 1st. On the following morning he will give the Empowerment that allows you to do this practice on your own. For the rest of the retreat we will alternate between doing the Vajrasattva practice, doing silent meditation and receiving dharma talks about the Path to Enlightenment as embodied in the Six Perfections or Paramitas. Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin was born in southeastern Tibet 1970. At the age of 14 he took his monk's vows and soon after began his Buddhist studies at Samye Monastery, the first monastery ever built in Tibet. He was an outstanding student from the start and excelled in all of his subjects. In 1987, he traveled to India to enroll in the Drikung Kagyu Institute at Jangchub Ling in Dehra Dun. After finishing his course work he spent
three years teaching lower classes in the monastic college. He was
awarded the title "Khenpo" in 1998 and then spent another
three years teaching Buddhist philosophy at the Institute. He has
completed the Ngondro and Chakrasamvara practices in retreat. Khenpo
arrived at the Tibetan Meditation Center in April 2001 to become one
of the Spiritual Co-directors of the Center. He also began his study
of English at that time and is now quite fluent in it. He has been
teaching at the Tibetan Meditation Center, The Garchen Institute and
at other Drikung Kagyu Center since then.
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Southern Dharma Retreat Center · 1661 West Road · Hot Springs · NC · 28743 · 828-622-7112