THE BLISS OF SERENITY
How would your life look like if you could double your level of concentration? How would your days look like if you could be more peaceful?
How would it be if you could meditate for 5 minutes without being washed away by your thoughts? How would it be if you could stay with the breath for 4 minutes? One minute? Thirty seconds? Ten seconds? One breath? How to move from one breath to absorbing the mind in peace?
That’s what this retreat is about.
It makes no doubt that within the whole Tibetan Buddhist literature and certainly within the whole Buddhist world, there are very few presentation on calm abiding like the one exposed in the Lam Rim Chenmo. Lama Tsongkhapa, the great scholars and yogi who composed it, gave an incredible account of the method to bring the mind to peace, to learn how to focus, to integrate what we study into powerful states of minds, and to transform our habits.
Yet, because, in this method, there are a lot of information that need to be translated, so to say, from a two dimensional perspective of a text into a three dimensional organic experience, meditators often struggle to work with it. As if falling to translate music scores into a proper song. This method is a powerful device, pretty much like a jet plane for the mind, that requires a bit of learning, testing, accustoming oneself with the instructions, step by step. But it is definitely worth trying, considering the level of details that are found in this text, the many profound tips, and more importantly, what can one achieve with it.
That’s what François will facilitate: making this method accessible, presenting the traditional treasures in a non-traditional way, bridging this 14 th century text to the Western mind – this mind with its own unique aspects, habits, strength and cultural tendencies.
He will teach step by step. You will learn how to bring joy and conviction in the practice by unravelling your own skills. And you will get a good chance to learn how to better drive the mind and to take a step closer to the exceptional state of Shamatha – resting in serenity.
For more than 15 years, François has been meditating, dedicating his life to the Dharma and particularly to the method of Shamatha/Calm Abiding, having received a thorough education in the Gelug tradition and having done numerous solitary retreats, including six months in the Alps, under the personal guidance of Alan Wallace. He is currently teaching at Kalachakra Center France. For few years now, he is working on a book on Shamatha.
He is appreciated for his way of teaching, rigorous and modern, accessible and lively.
Who is this retreat for?
– For those who have a foundation in Buddhism and wish to take advantage of a weeklong retreat to review the Shamatha method in depth through a strong experiential dimension.
– For those who have a more secular background and wish to deepen their practice of concentration on the one hand and on the other, learn a little more about how Buddhism helps us to understand ourselves, the others and the world around us.
