Cultivating Bodhichitta and Being Chenrezi Retreat

This retreat will be held at KCC’s Portland Center and also on Zoom.

In Mahayana Buddhism—which includes the Vajrayana—wisdom and compassion are both the ultimate fruition of our practice and the means to accomplish it. In this retreat we will explore their cultivation from the perspectives of both the sutras and tantras.

For the sutra approach we will practice developing relative and absolute bodhichitta. Absolute bodhichitta is discovering the inherent wisdom that is our nature, and relative bodhichitta is concerned with cultivating loving kindness, compassion, and the wish to attain buddhahood to be able to lead all beings to that same realization. These practices are skillfully and thoroughly presented in the Mind Training Tradition, and we will draw from these techniques for our meditations.

In the Vajrayana, Chenrezi (or Avalokiteshvara) is a bodhisattva who is the embodiment of the compassion of all the buddhas of the three times and ten directions. The practice of Chenrezi includes visualizing oneself in this form, reciting the well-known mantra, om mani padme hum, and imagining engaging in the enlightened activity of benefitting beings. By holding our body, speech, and mind to be awakened, we hasten the realization our true nature which is wisdom and compassion, inseparable.

Prior or subsequent to this retreat, participants may be interested in attending the Mind Training Study Group which meets on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month from 7:00-8:30pm. We are currently reading The Practice of Lojong by Traleg Kyabgon (lojong is Tibetan for mind training). All are welcome.

Suggested readings: Chenrezi: Lord of Love by Bokar Rinpoche and The Practice of Lojong by Traleg Kyabgon.

Daily schedule (subject to slight modification):

9:00-10:30 Session (all with breaks)
10:30-11:00 Break
11:00-12:00 Session
12:00-1:30 Lunch break (bring your own or go out or to home)
1:30-3:00 Session/Discussion
3:00-3:30 Break
3:30-4:30 Session and Aspirations

Cost

Sliding scale $0 to $290