8th Annual Dzogchen Retreat at Wangapeka
February 7 @ 8:00 am – February 16 @ 5:00 pm UTC-8
With Lama Mark Webber (Lama Yongdu Chokyi Gyaltsen – via Zoom) and Jonathan Chambers (in person)
We are thrilled to announce this opportunity for Dharma practitioners to come together for a 9-day Dzogchen retreat at Wangapeka Study and Retreat Centre in February 2025. This year’s retreat will focus on entering the discerning and infinite loving space of Amitabha Buddha, including through Phowa practice: with teachings on the death process, consciousness transference, bardos and rebirth.
Though Lama Gyaltsen (Lama Mark Webber) will be in a one year retreat at Namgyal Gompa in Canada at this time, he has kindly offered to join us for at least five Zoom sessions, where he will give reading transmissions, guidance and inspiration on these profound meditations. In addition, Jonathan Chambers will lead classes and be available for personal guidance throughout the retreat.
The retreat is an ideal opportunity for established practitioners, as well as those with a genuine interest in Buddhist Dharma and mediation, to come together in a supportive practice community.
RETREAT FORMAT
The retreat will begin with Lama Mark Gyaltsen offering a reading transmission of Khunu Gyaltsen Rinpoche’s extraordinary text on bodhicitta, “The Jewel Ship” (published under the title, Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea: Verses in Praise of Bodhicitta).
This will be followed on day 2 by a reading transmission of Lama Gyaltsen’s root text called the “Eight Confidences and A Garland of 100 Mindfulnesses Recollections”. This text will serve throughout the retreat as a framework for enhancing our awareness, to bring forth the inherent awareness of unconstructed mind, inseparable with great love.
On day three, Lama Gyaltsen will lead participants in an ever deepening practice of Amitabha, from the Drikung Yangzab and Orgyen Nuden Dorje traditions. Amitabha Buddha is the wisdom Buddha of Boundless Light. Our primordial mind has always been Amitabha. With the support of this retreat, we have an extraordinary means to re-glimpse these extraordinary qualities and open them to awareness.
On day five, Lama Mark will introduce the Amitabha Phowa practice and give related teachings on the death process, consciousness transference, bardos and rebirth.
The remainder of the retreat will incorporate daily group practice sessions of Amitabha, which retreat participants will have the opportunity to lead.
Lama Gyaltsen’s offerings will be combined with guidance throughout the retreat from Jonathan Chambers in gentle body-awareness practices (yoga, qigong) and meditation. We will use these methods to bring a clear bright awareness of sensation within and around one’s body, thereby linking four types of mindfulness together; attentiveness, awareness of cause and effect (interdependence), interdependence of prana-mind and awareness of natural unfabricated mind.
The above format is provisional and may change as things evolve. Other teachings and guidance will be given by Lama Gyaltsen and Jonathan depending on the participants requests and requirements. The remainder of the days will be available for solo retreat time, self-practice and discovery.
For enquiries and further information, including retreat costs and registration details, please refer to Wangapeka’s website: