Weekend Participation: Radiating the Great Eastern Sun
with John Rockwell, Eve Rosenthal, Barbara Bash and Basia Solarz
August 19 - 21, 2022
We are so fortunate to have encountered the Shambhala teachings in this lifetime. Given the remarkable challenges facing the world, there is no better moment to embody and radiate the Great Eastern Sun in our heart.
For many of us, it has been a while since we have gathered in person and had the support of others in strengthening our resilience and contemplating how to manifest our warriorship for the benefit of this world.
Meet the Teachers
In this video, you will learn more about the teachers and their inspiration for hosting this gathering.
What to Expect
In our time together, we will take the practices of sitting meditation, arousing compassion and windhorse as our common ground. We will have the opportunity to engage the senses and explore the enriching arts of calligraphy, qigong, music and more. This retreat will offer a balance of structured practice, activities, conversation, and personal time that you can participate in according to your energy and interest.
Practices and activities will be done both inside and outside. With the support of the natural world at Dorje Denma Ling, we can embrace the freshness of the moment and exhale.
John will be offering space for the heart and senses through compassion practices and sitting and walking in the woods.
Eve will be offering exercises that free the energy flow in the body, cultivate the chi, and connect us with heaven, earth and the environment. These exercises come from the tai chi and qigong lineages of Cheng Man-Ch’ing and Dr. Wu.
Barbara will be offering a grounding brush practice in the making of a single line as well as a big brush process guided by the principles of heaven, earth and human in the making of a mark. Her illustrated journaling teaching — drawing and writing together in nature — utilizes the elements of sky, earth, and heart to reveal what is true in the moment. Through it all is the interweaving alive conversation with one’s self and the world.
Basia will be sharing practices from Pauline Oliveros’ body of work called Deep Listening to help us to learn how to direct our attention to the interplay of sounds and silences and discover greater creativity in life and art. Through activities like multidimensional listening, sound play, and rhythm circles, we’ll explore listening as a way to create new patterns, stretch beyond current patterns, and use old patterns in new ways.
Who Should Attend
This retreat is for anyone with a connection to the Shambhala teachings regardless of practice level or how active or inactive you have been recently. You are welcome here.
You are welcome to come for the full opening weekend or the entire week. After the weekend, we will deepen in the various activities and practices that have been introduced, and have the opportunity to engage with other practices such as stroke, lungta and Werma, depending on interest.
Weekend Attendance Costs
Tuition: $200
Meals: $30
Accommodations: Varies by type of accommodation. Visit the registration page for options.
Covid Considerations
As stated in our Covid Policy, we reserve the right to modify all Covid-19 guidelines if teachers request that we do so. The teachers for this retreat have requested the addition of the following Covid protocols in order to ensure participants can relax and feel safe during the retreat:
- Vaccination: All participants should be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and have received whatever booster shots they are eligible for. Proof of vaccination will be requested. (This is waived for those who are immunocompromised and cannot be vaccinated.)
- Covid Testing: All participants will be required to provide proof of a negative Covid test within 72 hours before their arrival, and will need to personally test upon arrival at the program. (Note: you will need to bring your own test.)
- Masking: Optional in the Pavilion (which is well ventilated) and outside. Required indoors whenever moving around.
- Dining: Meal servers will be masked, use gloves and plate food for participants.
- Maintaining a Safe Bubble: Participants who are staying on the land will be asked to remain on the land within the program “bubble.” Participants staying off-land are asked to maintain a personal “bubble,” limiting your exposure to your best ability.
These protocols are subject to continual review and will be updated as the situation evolves. Go here to review the detailed protocol document provided by the teaching staff.
Useful Links
Leaders
John Rockwell has been on the path of dharma for 45 years. He met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1975 and studied and practiced the Buddhist and Shambhala teachings for 12 years with him, and in particular worked with him on translating Tibetan texts into English. For ten years, he studied and taught at Naropa University in the Buddhist Studies department. For many years, he served as an acharya or senior teacher for Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, and also studied intensively with Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. John’s inspiration is to share the profound and practical teachings that he has received. Explore John’s…
Learn more about John Rockwell
Eve Rosenthal is a long-time practitioner and teacher, well versed in the Shambhala and Buddhist practices offered in our community. She has many years of retreat experience and is eager to support others in retreat practice. She is also a long-time practitioner and teacher of Tai Chi and will offer exercises from this tradition.
Learn more about Eve Rosenthal
Barbara Bash is a lover of the alphabet and a calligraphic practitioner of contemplative art with brush, pen, and pencil. A longtime Shambhala Buddhist, she has explored the mixing of Asian sensibility with Western art forms, collaborating with musicians, storytellers and dancers in fresh forms of visual learning. Barbara has written and illustrated a number of children’s books about the natural world and more recently True Nature : An Illustrated Journal of Four Seasons in Solitude. For more information about her work go to – barbarabash.com . Her visual blog is barbarabash.blogspot.com
Learn more about Barbara Bash
Basia Solarz is a transformative mediator, a facilitator of community dialogue, and conflict coach (braverpath.com). Her formal education includes voice and choral conducting, as well as adult education. Basia spent time learning Deep Listening in the woods with Pauline Oliveros during a choir retreat in Philadelphia. That experience, over three decades ago, forever changed her relationship to listening, sound, and silence and has been a profound influence in her professional work and spiritual path ever since.
Learn more about Basia Solarz
