Longde Retreat
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
by Alonso Espinosa
The Longde retreat took place at Dzamlingar from Wednesday, April 8th until Sunday, April 12th , 2015. It was one of the big retreats of the season in Tenerife with more than three hundred and fifty people attending in person. It was based on the principle of generosity and karma yoga was requested at registration for those who wished to collaborate more.
As other Longde retreats that I have attended, this one was based on the Longsal teachings volume one, specifically, The Vajra Bridge of Longde, plus other commentaries that Rinpoche always gives. It was also connected to Pang Mipham Gonpo, who received the Longde instructions from Vairocana and was connected also to the Ngondzog Gyalpo transmission; we received Donwang for that on April 9.
What struck me the most at this retreat and at Dzamlingar in general was the nice and relaxed atmosphere that was pervading all along, starting sometimes at “Station number 1” where Rinpoche usually sat before and after the teaching. Here people would come and share in a very spontaneous way, a close and intimate moment with the Master and after. Soon after the scene would change to a more traditional type of retreat. Of course, another really important feature was the “Practice of Being Present with Singing and Dancing, Khaita”, because everyday at five pm we would start singing one of the many groups of song and then we would move to the dancing. For me, it has been amazing how the dances had developed in the last two years. We have grown from few dances to more than one hundred, and many of them already have a choreography to dance with. The Dzamlingar song has had some changes that most of the people have already incorporated. Some people commented to me that even the dancers are much more present during the dances, especially in the series of Kordros that many people really know by now, and that can last a while.
View from above of intimate moments with Rinpoche
On the more formal aspect of the retreat, each day was focused on one of the five most important points of Longsal Longde: such as; the four Zers, the Da of time, the four Da´s, experiences of the practice and so on.
On the Saturday, we had a session in the afternoon where Fabio Andrico showed the points of energy in the body, the way to use the meditation belt and the meditation stick in the four main positions.
All in all, it was a wonderful retreat, with many people from all over the world gathered together to receive this very special teaching and make concrete one of the verses of the Dzamlingar song, the one where it says that to Dzamlingar you have to go, you have to go Now, but in a relaxed way.
Photos courtesy of Daniyal Ibragimov.
