Photo by Paolo Fassoli
The weather during Rinpoche’s April retreat at Merigar West (on the 25 Spaces of Samantabhadra) was mostly cold, windy, rainy and dismal. But our sour-faced mountain turned gloriously radiant in time for the retreat during which Rinpoche kindly transmitted to us Nyala Pema Dudul’s terma of Guru Amitayus, from 7 to 13 May.
This was the first time for many years that Rinpoche gave his fortunate students the Guru Amitayus transmission, and on the day of the actual transmission over 600 people filled the Gonpa to receive it. This number fell slightly towards the end of the retreat, but it was still a very good attendance for such a wonderful practice. In addition, Rinpoche kindly gave us the transmission of the Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya Chulen practices to accompany the Guru Amitayus practice.
Photo by Paolo Fassoli
The retreat was accompanied by many related activities. For those devoted to the Dance, there was Vajra Dance practice. For those devoted to Yantra, there was Yantra Yoga. There were presentations on the latest activities of ASIA and of the Shang Shung Institute. And for those many, many students who love modern Tibetan dance there was, every evening from 5.00 p.m. until approaching 8.00 p.m., a gonpa-full of dzogchenpas swaying, swinging, gyrating and leaping under the watchful eye of Rinpoche, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself.
Of course the highlight of the retreat were the teachings Rinpoche gave – the introductory teachings leading up to the Donwang on the third day, followed by three days of the practice (including the Chulen transmission) to complete the transmission of this joyful deity practice. Rinpoche stressed how pure the lineage of the practice is: from Guru Rinpoche to Nyala Pema Dudul to Ayu Khandro to Rinpoche to us. How extraordinary to ponder this, a humbling spur to practice.
Yet any even-handed account of the retreat cannot omit mention of The Parties…. First, early in the retreat there was the Momo Party, kindly organised and created by Migmar, Tsering and Tobgyal, full of appetising momos and good cheer. Then, on the final evening was the Big Jam session, with Adriano Clemente on sax, Dina Priymak on vocals, some superb violin and keyboard work by Masha from Belgrade and Tamara from Buenos Aires,and a rare guest appearance on keyboards by Costantino Albini. This was followed by a jam featuring this line-up plus the unbelievably energetic Jaka, with Kamil prowling around on bass, Francino and Mateusz on guitar and appearances by Frank and Josef. This was a fabulous display of talent, good heart and fun, with Jaka rounding off the evening long past midnight with his own very danceable material and some other reggae greats. Apologies to the Gekos seeking sleep in the rooms above….
Photo by Branislava Malic Cosic
Heartfelt thanks to all those who managed and helped in the organisation of a retreat that was notably smoothly run, and especially to the Gekos Nikol and Robin for their incredibly hard work. Nikol fractured her ankle in a particularly painful way just before the retreat began, yet she still managed to achieve a huge amount during and after the retreat, especially via remote control of Robin, who was constantly at work during the retreat but always around with a ready smile and a helping hand. So many thanks to each and everyone for a truly memorable retreat.
Julian Chase
