The United States

“You are the great completeness you have been searching for.”

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

Spontaneous Creativity, the title of Rinpoche’s newest book, “draws on the ancient teachings of the Tibetan Bon Buddhist tradition to guide us in developing the ability to show up fully for our lives and express our creative gifts for the greater good.”  Rinpoche will offer support for participants to engage their creative nature, release pain identities that create blockages, and awaken to greater inspiration, awareness, openness, and abilities to joyfully serve others.

Chamma Ling Colorado invites you to join in an engaging weekend of heart felt teachings and sharing.  This year’s annual event with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will be in Boulder, CO at the beautiful Shambhala Center, conveniently located downtown.

Schedule: A public talk (6:00-7:30) will be offered Thursday evening with a book signing to follow.  Friday morning teachings will begin at 9:00, concluding that evening at 5:00.  Saturday will also open at 9:00 and later that day we will have a fun and lively auction with beautiful items from around the world.  This annual fund raiser directly supports Chamma Ling Retreat Center in Crestone, CO; nestled in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, offering solitary and/or dark retreats for practitioners.  Following the auction, a traditional feast will be provided (cost included in registration), along with entertainment from retreat participants.  We conclude on Sunday at noon.

Lodging and Meals: A gala dinner will be provided Saturday evening, and tea and snacks will be provided at breaks. There are many nearby restaurant options for lunches during the retreat, and numerous lodging options throughout the Boulder area.

Child Care: We will not be providing child care during this retreat.

Registration: Tuition for this three day retreat is $300, or $285 if paid before August 20. Registration is now open.  

The soul is composed of of the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and space as these elements pervade all of life, and are the essential components of our entire worldly existence. The Shamanic rites of soul retrieval (la lu) and life force retrieval (tse lu) are methods of calling on the essence of the elements – elemental spirits – to balance and heal the individual.

It is believed that a traumatic event or other shock can cause an individual to loose connection with the elements and become dispirited.

Life force is the presence of energetic forces within one’s self. It is possible to retrieve the soul and life force through the use of mind and symbols in ritual. Through ritual and meditational practice, one can bring back the positive qualities that are missing or reinforce qualities that are weakened in oneself or others.

In this series of teaching retreats we will learn the ancient Bön methods of divination, meditation, and ritual of Soul Retrieval as Geshe Denma Gyaltsen teaches these methods in 3 separate retreats at Chamma Ling.

• Soul Retrieval (La Lu), October 3-6, 2019
• Life Ransom (Chi Lu), May, 2020

Each of these retreats is a whole and complete teaching unto itself, and will be open to all. However to gain a certificate of completion all three retreats must be attended, and all the practices and accumulations completed.

Geshe Denma Gyaltsen is the resident lama of Ligmincha Texas, resides in Houston, and has taught at centers throughout the United States and Europe. Born in northern Nepal, he began his studies at Menri Monastery in 1981, receiving all the teachings, initiations and transmissions in sutra, tantra and dzogchen, and was awarded the geshe degree in 1996. He taught at Menri, and then served two terms as the abbot of Zhu Rishing Yungdrung Kundak-Ling Monastery, a Bön Monastery in Sikkim, until 2003. Since that time Geshe Denma has traveled and taught throughout the West, as well as in India and Nepal. We are very pleased to welcome back Geshe-la to teach at Chamma Ling again!

Guidance for Living and Dying: Commentary on the Bardo Teachings

with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

The word “bardo” means “in between” in Tibetan, including the time between life and death, and the time between death and rebirth.The teachings on the bardo are one of the six great methods of the path of the Mother Tantra (Tib: Ma Gyü), one of the major tantric cycles of Bön.

During this retreat, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will offer guidance on living and dying. Rinpoche will lead participants in exploring the strong connection between the practice of impermanence and the bardo teachings at the transition between life and death. In the process of dying, one of the most challenging things, and what makes transition difficult, is attachment. What produces the fear of impermanence? Is there a way we can contemplate impermanence and not feel that way?

A key issue is that things always change, and we are always in transition. The conclusion of this contemplation on impermanence is to find the changeless self within all of our changing experiences, beyond actions and reactions in daily life. Exploring the experience of the self, Rinpoche will guide students in discovering the true self in the stillness, silence and spaciousness beyond the body, speech and mind.

Ample time for meditation, practice,and questions and answers will be included in the retreat.

The fall retreat will conclude the latest cycle of Rinpoche’s teaching of the six paths of meditation from the Bon Mother Tantra—Sleep, Dream, Elements, Chod, Powa and Bardo.

Heartdrops of Dharmakaya: Introduction to Dzogchen

With Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche
Abbot of Triten Norbutse Bon Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal
Chamma Ling, Crestone, Colorado, October 25-27th, 2019

The nature of our own mind remains hidden behind clouds of thoughts and emotions, until a master points out directly the source, the essence, the Heart Drop. This is the method of direct introduction to Dzogchen, the highest and most subtle path of meditation in Bön.

Heart Drops of Dharmakaya was composed by Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen, a Tibetan master who passed in 1935, achieving the rainbow body in which his physical body dissolved into light. Shardza Rinpoche was one of the most influential teachers of his time, and his works are used as textbooks in many Tibetan monasteries.

Unlike methods that watch the breath or calm thoughts, these practices use body postures and simple yet potent visualizations to draw us directly and quickly to experience our essence. There could be no better place to learn these ancient practices than the high mountains of Crestone.

Khenpo received these teachings from his root teacher Yongdzin Namdak Rinpoche, the greatest living Dzogchen master of the Bön lineage, and the author of the commentary on Heart Drops of Dharmakaya. Please join us for this rare and unique opportunity!

RETREAT COST $350.00 Teaching materials, lunches, and snacks are included.
No lodging is provided. Crestone has many nearby B&B facilities. This is a very personal, small retreat with limited space. Teachings will be given at the Community House located on the land at the Bon Chamma Ling Center in Crestone.

This retreat is now full. People who have paid a deposit may continue to pay their balance.
Your balance must be paid on Friday October 25th. No refunds on deposits after Oct 1st.

Questions: retreat@chammaling.org or andreaheckman333@gmail.com

Tibetan Yoga

A-TRI TRUL KHOR, PART 2 and Part 3

with Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, Ph.D. and Rob Patzig

Deepen your experience of the ancient practice of Tibetan yoga (trul khor) from the Bön A-tri dzogchen tradition. The contemplative physical movements of trul khor enable participants to clear obstacles and obscurations to openness and clarity in meditation practice. Both Part 2 and Part 3 will be taught concurrently.

Similar to last year, both trainings will be taught by Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, Ph.D, a senior student of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche who has been teaching these retreats for more than 20 years. He will be joined by Rob Patzig, president and board chair of Ligmincha International, an experienced yoga teacher and trul khor practitioner.

Part 2, November 8–10, 2019: Participants will deepen the practice of the 16 trul khor movements, the outer tsa lung and the 9 Breathings of Purification. All who participated in Part 1 last fall at Serenity Ridge, or who have previously received Part 1 of A-tri trul khor with Alejandro, are welcome to attend this retreat.

Part 3, November 8–11, 2019: Participants will focus on learning to guide the practice, as well as learning more about the tradition and the place of trul khor in the teachings. Students who take Part 2 will then have the opportunity to apprentice with Ale and Rob over the 12 months after the retreat to become instructors.

PLEASE NOTE: His Eminence Menri Lopon Trinley Nyima Rinpoche, head instructor at Menri Monastery in India, will be offered a retreat concurrently with this training. His Eminence will give the transmission for trul khor after lunch on November 10. Part 2 trul khor participants, along with Part 3 participants, are welcome to stay for this transmission.

In the Tibetan spiritual traditions, body, speech/breath and mind are known as the three doors to enlightenment or the natural state.The contemplative physical movements of Tibetan yoga (trul khor) of the A-tri tradition enable participants to enter all three doors through a single practic, offering a powerful, skillful means for clearing the obstacles and obscurations to openness and clarity in meditation practice.

The distinctive movements of trul khor arose as the result of deep meditation practice by Tibetan yogic adepts. Traditionally practiced in remote Himalayan caves and monasteries, the trul khor movements are now being made accessible to serioues Western students. They are a powerful tool for clearing, balancing and harmonizing the subtle aspects of one’s energetic dimension.

Schedule Part 2

Thursday, November 7: Participants staying at Serenity Ridge can arrive as early as 4 p.m. for registration (4–7 p.m.); dinner 6 p.m.
Friday, November 8: 8 a.m.–6 p.m. (8– 8:45 a.m. registration)
Saturday, November 9: 7 a.m.–6 p.m.
Sunday, November 10: 7 a.m.–2 p.m. Followed after lunch by optional trul khor transmission by H.E Trinley Nyima Rinpoche

Schedule Part 3

Thursday, November 7: Participants staying at Serenity Ridge can arrive as early as 4 p.m. for registration (4–7 p.m.); dinner 6 p.m.
Friday, November 8: 8 a.m.–6 p.m. (8–8:45 a.m. registration)
Saturday & Sunday, November 9–10: 7 a.m.–6 p.m. November 10 session followed after lunch by optional trul khor transmission by H.E Trinley Nyima Rinpoche
Monday, November 11: 7 a.m.–1 p.m.

Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, Ph.D., has been teaching these retreats for more than 20 years at the request of Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. A senior student of Rinpoche, he has studied trul khor with many masters of the Bön Buddhist tradition of Tibet. He is an assistant professor and director of education at the University of Texas (UT) MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and adjunct professor in UT’s Medical School. He teaches meditation to cancer patients and their supporters and is involved in research using tsa lung trul khor with cancer patients and their caregivers. Alejandro has recently started and directs the Mind Body Spirit Institute at the Jung Center of Houston. He received his Ph.D. in Tibetan religions from Rice University, is a senior teacher of The 3 Doors, and a contemplative Fellow of the Mind & Life Institute.

Rob Patzig, president of Ligmincha International, is an experienced yoga teacher and trul khor practitioner. Rob began the practice of yoga asana, pranayama and meditation in 2003 and has been teaching since 2005. He received his 200-hour yoga teacher certification from Sri Dharma Mitra in 2007. In 2010 he met Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and has been studying with and serving him and Ligmincha since. Rob began studying trul khor in 2010 with Alejandro Chaoul-Reich and regularly guides this practice at Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche’s retreats around the world. He served as treasurer of Ligmincha from 2012–2014. In 2014 he because chair of the Ligmincha International Board of Directors, and from July 2015 through February 2019 he also served as chief financial officer. He was appointed president of Ligmincha by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in 2015. Previously, Rob worked as the chief financial officer for Third Security, a private investment firm, and he also taught composition and literature at Virginia Tech. He holds degrees in phiosophy and literature.

Part 2 Retreat Cost (includes meals, accommodation extra): $335 received by September 8; $365 after September 8

Part 3 Retreat Cost (includes meals, accommodations extra): $420 received by September 8; $460 after September 8

Check-in for accommodations, including tenting, begins at 4 p.m. on November 7. Retreat regisration includes meals starting with the first evening of the retreat and ending with lunch on the final day of the retreat.

To begin the registration process, click on the “Register” button. Fill out the form. On the following page, click on your choice of accommodations (“commuter” if not staying onsite), fill out the form to include any discount code or donation, enter your credit card information, and then click on the REGISTER NOW button to complete your registration.

Please note: Room reservations are confirmed once payment has been received. If for some reason we do not receive your payment, your registration will be forfeited. If the room option you prefer is unavailable, you will automatically be returned to the Registration Form to select another option. Your registration will not be successful until you have completed the payment process. If you would like to be put on the wait list for a room, contact our registrar.