Vinterretreat 2010

Årets vinterretreat på Dharmagiri, 27/12 – 6/1, leds av Vajradarshini på temat yogacara. Vajradarshini är en dynamisk kvinnlig ordensmedlem, som under flera arbetade på Tiratanaloka, där kvinnor i Triratna förbereder för ordination. Nuförtiden är hon en frilansande lärare och har specialiserat sig på två tema, varav yogacara är det ena. För att läsa mer se länkarna längre ned. (foto ovan av Viryabodhi)

Här är en text hon skickat med mer information om retreatens tema; det lovar att bli en givande upplevelse. För att delta ska man ha gått en introduktionskurs i Triratna och vara bekant med grunderna i buddhismen. Klicka här för att boka.

Lifting the Veil
yogacara teachings on the nature of mind
a meditation and dharma retreat with teachings, led reflections, poetry, film and periods of silence.

All the time we are being shown the true nature of things. Yet they are veiled from us and that veil is our own mind. We are given the truth, but from it we make an illusion, a dreamlike world. The Yogacara teachings are showing us how to lift this veil, how to finally wake up from the dream, or at least to wake up within the dream.

The teachings are practical and yet fantastical and mysterious. We are asked to suspend our disbelief, to leave behind our common sense notions of things and to try on the radical view of the Yogacara.

entering into experience
So what is that view? That all we have is our experience; all we can know is our own knowing; and that anything beyond this is pure speculation. Rather than alienating us from the so-called 'world out there' this view brings us into an immediate intimacy with our self and everything in our world. Suddenly what seemed to be 'out there' is very close. In fact it's as if it were a part of us, and yet at the same time mysterious and ungraspable.

We have our own experience and that is all we have. If we are to find reality, this is where we have to find it. If we are going to wake up, we have to wake up within our own experience.

insight through a path of action
When insight does arise it won't be an experience 'of' reality. It won't be our ordinary experience encountering something extraordinary. No, from the Yogacara point of view what happens is a complete transformation in the way we experience. 'What' we experience will presumably be no different from what we are experiencing right now. But the way we experience it will be completely transformed.

And though it sounds rather mystical, it comes about through a path of regular steps. All of the practices that we engage in: dharma study, meditation, friendship, ethics and so on, all directly contribute to this transformation and to the arising of insight.
Just how this works it what the Yogacara sets out to explain.

why i love the yogacara
The Yogacara view is one that I find myself inhabiting more and more. I love that it brings together teachings in which ‘reality’ is very close, in fact we are like, as Rumi says, thirsty fish, ‘reality’ is all around. Yet it teaches a path of action, of gradual steps, a steady transformation. I find both these approaches to practice very helpful and bringing them together in this way I feel like I have a complete path.

To find out more go to my website http://www.vajradarshini.com/
Among other things there is an article about yogacara:
http://www.vajradarshini.com/yogacara_article.html

“The final belief is to believe in a fiction, which you know to be a fiction, there being nothing else. The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe it willingly.”

poem by Wallace Stevens