Group Retreats
For those with a connection to deity practice and a firm grounding in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy
Introduction to Tushita’s Buddhist Retreats
Tushita offers four or five group retreats for Buddhist practitioners every year.
These retreats are intended for dedicated practioners with a commitment to the Buddhist path who desire to deepen their experience with an extended period of practice focusing on a particular diety.
Here is some general information that applies to each retreat. You can read more about each specific retreat on the links in our main menu, above.
Upcoming Group Retreats
- March 07 – March 15: The Buddhist Path to Healing: The Medicine Buddha Retreat led by Ondy Willson
- May 26 – June 12: Series of 8 Nyung Nays led by Tushita
- June 30 – September 23: Vajrasattva Retreat led by Tushita
How Tushita’s Tantric Group Retreats are Conducted
Apart from our 3-month Vajrasattva retreat, most of these are practices belonging to Kriya Tantra, the first of the four classes of tantra.
During the retreat, we generally do four sessions each day, starting with taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts in the morning, followed by Combined Jorcho/Lama Chopa in the first session, and three sessions of the particular sadhana.
The sadhana (or method of accomplishment) consists of taking refuge, generating bodhicitta, and making requests to the appropriate lineage lamas to receive inspiration. Although accumulating mantras is not the main focus of most retreats, for those who are able, we will try to accumulate 10,000 mantras (100,000 mantras for the 3-month Vajrasattva retreat).
According to the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, we will also do prostrations to the Thirty-Five Buddhas before each session. To make the practice more experiential and meaningful, lam rim meditations will be incorporated, as a motivation for the practice and to leave strong imprints of both sutra and tantra in our mindstreams.