Vermont Retreats 2022
The morning was bright and growing warm. Big clouds floated slowly across a vast expanse of sky. Beneath them, situated at the top of a soft rise, stood a handsome, red barn-like building surrounded by dozens of colorful Gesar banners snapping in the breeze. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and the Sakyong Wangmo would soon arrive to greet hundreds of students who had traveled from across North America and beyond to be with their teacher. This auspicious gathering in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom would include two short retreats: the first for mahayana students, followed by one for vajrayana students.
For months, a dedicated group of volunteers had attended to all the necessary preparations. The volunteers not only secured the brand-new venue and transformed it into a vibrant Buddhist shrine hall adorned with thangkas, banners, magnificent shrines, and elegant thrones, but they also arranged and provided the communications, ritual support, registration, protection, ikebana, attendant service, audio/video, and many other tasks needed to host the retreats. The volunteers’ precise and gentle presence created a wakeful environment for all.
On the first morning, after the mahayana students arrived and began practicing shamatha meditation, the Sakyong and Sakyong Wangmo entered the shrine hall and quietly took their seats. To the students’ delight, after he settled in, Rinpoche looked up, smiling at the long rows of attentive students and offered a warm “good morning.” The joy-filled retreat had begun.
The Sakyong’s teachings that day and throughout both retreats were focused on themes of faith, compassion, and appreciation. With natural command and confidence, Rinpoche encouraged students to establish a strong foundation in refuge that would help stabilize, over time, the tenderness and clarity of bodhicitta, and the freshness of purity: tasting “the sweet water of life,” as the Sakyong put it. He reminded the assembly that because the world’s turmoil can be destabilizing, the practice of dharma should be students’ foremost priority.
In accordance with the Sakyong’s repeated instruction for his students to think of themselves as students first, there was no assigned seating. In fact, students were encouraged to take new seats at each session to allow as many people as possible the opportunity to be seated in the first rows. An exception to this was establishing a special section in the front for bodhisattvas-to-be and later, new tantrikas, during their respective ceremonies.
Not only had it been a long time since most students shared non-virtual time and space with the Sakyong, likewise they had not seen one another in person for many months. At each break and over the leisurely lunch periods, students exchanged warm hugs (or smiles, for the more Covid-cautious) and eager conversation, stretching themselves out across the property and enjoying impressive views of dense woodlands and bright green meadows flooded with sunlight
At both retreats, the Sakyong Wangmo addressed the students. She thanked everyone for coming and reminded the assembly that, for many Tibetans, seeing one’s teacher was possible only occasionally, even rarely, and how fortunate we were to be together. On the last day of the vajrayana retreat, the Sakyong and Sakyong Wangmo’s three daughters, known as the Jetsunmas (princesses) in Tibetan, briefly joined the assembly, to the great delight of everyone present.
During the vajrayana retreat, in addition to receiving the Vajrasattva abhisheka, students practiced the Dharmaraja Guru Yoga. At one point, the chant leader invited the Sakyong Wangmo to lead the mantra in the melodious way she and the Sakyong had previously introduced. When the time came for all two hundred and fifty students to join her powerful voice, the assembly’s enthusiastic response reverberated around the hall. On the final day, as cool morning breezes drifted across the rows of grateful students, the Sakyong offered pointing-out transmission – a great blessing for new tantrikas and the entire assembly, and a perfect victory banner crowning the retreat altogether.
As the summer sun began to set later that day, and with a blend of joy and sorrow, our time with our teacher and lineage holder and with the Mukpo family came to a close. Promises were made all around to gather again soon for the benefit of all beings.
KI KI SO SO!
Retreat recap offered by Melanie Klein and Sophie Leger.
