Details
Date: Friday 6th – Saturday 14th June
Retreat Leader: Andy Wistreich
Requirements: Open to anyone who has received the Kalachakra initiation.
Cost: Generosity Model – Donation only (via the donation form at the bottom of the page; no suggested amount).
Format: Onsite only
Start and Finish times: Starting with supper at 18:00 on the first day and finishing after lunch on the last day. A more detailed schedule will be released closer to the time.
Accommodation: Land of Joy wishes for everyone who visits the centre to feel welcome, accepted, safe and secure. Our accommodation options are very limited, with mostly single-sex shared accommodation with two-four people sharing rooms and only one single room (which is sometimes needed by volunteers). This means single accommodation can only be offered to those who need it the most, but still won’t always be available. Camping can be an option at certain times of year if you have your own tent, but space is very limited. Please read the relevant sections of the booking form carefully.
About the Retreat
This teaching and meditation retreat will centre on an oral commentary on Nāropa’s commentary on the Sekoddeśa, which is itself a commentary on the initiations section of the Kālacakra root tantra. Teaching sessions will be supported by meditations.
According to the eminent Kālacakra scholar Giacomella Orofino, the Sekoddeśa “is one of the most important sources of the Kālacakra tradition and consists of 174 stanzas. According to its literature this is the first text of the Kālacakra to have come down to us and contains the essential nucleus of its doctrines. It is, in fact, considered to be a section of the Paramādibuddha, or the Mūlakālacakratantra, the root tantra in twelve thousand verses, that was lost in Sanskrit and was not translated into Tibetan.”
Through study of this commentary on the Sekoddeśa by Nāropa, we may gain access to the roots of this tantric system. Although the text is structured around the initiations, it presents a basis for understanding the entire Kālacakra basis, path and result. It refers in depth to the great Stainless Light (Vimalaprabhā) commentary by Puṇḍarīka, the Kalkī King of Śambhala. All subsequent commentaries on Kālacakra are based on the Stainless Light.
Nāropa’s position in the lineages of many Buddhist tantric systems such as Guhyasamāja, Cakrasaṃvara, Hevajra and Vajrayoginī, not to mention Kālacakra, places him at the very centre of the highest yoga tantra yogic tradition. The book, The Life and Teaching of Nāropa, translated with commentary by Herbert Guenther, has excited English-speaking readers for decades. Through Nāropa’s commentary on the Sekoddeśa, we may connect and be blessed by his enlightened wisdom.
About the Teacher
