The Stages of Shamatha Meditation
Dear friends, come join us for another online retreat!
The Stages of Shamatha Meditation is a five-day online retreat that will take place beginning Wednesday, August 10 continuing through Sunday, August 14, 2022.
This is a great opportunity to learn and practice the foundational form of meditation found in all Buddhist traditions.
Shamatha means “calm abiding” and is the first step in learning to work with the mind. It is an effective way of training the mind with compassion for ourselves, developing inner strength and freedom from the mind’s restlessness, leading to clarity and understanding.
This path from calm to insight was followed and taught by the Buddha himself and is a central teaching of Buddhism. Lama Tenzin and Heidi Koppl will guide us through the different stages of meditation. In this form of shamatha meditation, we will focus on Tara’s enlightened form, next on the symbol of her enlightened speech, and finally on the symbol of her enlightened mind. We will train using the breath as support and go through the stages of meditation, ending with meditation free from focus or support. Join us for this five-day online retreat where together we will deepen our practice by following the gentle training of the mind.
The retreat will include recorded videos with instructions from Lama Tenzin Sangpo and Heidi Koppl. You can practice with the videos based on a suggested schedule below. The retreat also includes live Q&A sessions over Zoom with Lama Tenzin and Heidi. This format will allow you to adjust your practice to your own schedule.
This retreat will be offered in English and Chinese. To register in Chinese please click here.
REGISTRATION
Registration for the retreat will be open until Monday, August 9. You will get access to some materials before the retreat begins: from Saturday, August 6 onwards. Recordings and retreat materials will remain available until Sunday, August 28.
In order to access the teachings, all participants must already be registered at www.dharmasun.org. Registration to DharmaSun is free.
RETREAT CONTENTS
There is a new one-hour video teaching session for each day. You have the option of watching it on your own, or in an online group session that will be facilitated by a Tara’s Triple Excellence team member. These sessions will include watching the day’s video together, followed by questions and answers, discussion, and group practice. Attendance is totally optional but is recommended as a support to your retreat experience.
We will also offer a place to chat online with other participants using our TTE Slack workspace, which will have a channel dedicated to this retreat.
You will find the details for joining the group sessions as well as Slack in the General Information tab of the online retreat.
We will also provide you with additional resources to support your daily practice.
RETREAT SCHEDULE
Available starting Aug 6: Intro - Lama Tenzin Sangpo: Introductory points on how to practice. This introductory video will be available for you to watch on your own time. You’ll find it in the seminar’s “Introductory Video” tab.
Day #1 Wednesday, Aug 10: Meditation on Tara
Day #2 Thursday, Aug 11: Meditation on the syllable Tam.
And our first Q&A session at 1:00-2:00 pm CEST (Vienna) - Live Q&A with Lama Tenzin and Heidi Koppl. You can use this page to convert to your own timezone.
Day #3 Friday, Aug 12: Meditation on bindu
Day #4 Saturday, Aug 13: Meditation on the breath
Day #5 Sunday 14 August: Meditation without support
Also 1:00-2:00 pm CEST (Vienna) - Our second and last Live Q&A with Lama Tenzin and Heidi Koppl, and farewell. You can use this page to convert to your own timezone.
We hope to see you soon!
With heartfelt wishes,
Your Tara’s Triple Excellence Team