I am very happy to announce that our first formal 30-day retreat-intensive Dharma study retreat was quite successful and we will have another starting August 1 and ending August 30. For those who understand and can read Chinese, we will also include opportunities to read and study the Supreme and Unsurpassable Mahamudra of Liberation (SAUMOL). This time we will also have four “seminars” on the Dharma discourses by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III that have been designated as suitable for beginning students. Chinese students need to listen to this series of discourses at least two times prior to the retreat as per the Buddha Master’s instructions in the Dharma Discourse “It Will Be Fruitless If One Does Not Listen to Discourses in Accordance with the Dharma Expounded in This Discourse–Parts I and II” from the year 2000. See https://holyvajrasana.org/buddhist-practice/the-seven-dharma-system-of-listening-to-dharma-discourses for more information. Preliminary English translations of the discourses to be offered during this retreat are only available for “I-006: Supernormal Powers, Qi Gong, et al”, but others may be added for any English speakers wishing to join the retreat.
This is an unique opportunity, but we have few rooms for people to stay at the temple. However, I want this opportunity to be available to as many as possible. Therefore, we will allow for participation in any one of the four weeks for the seminars and for local students to respectfully come and study the SAUMOL with the others. We do need firm commitments and reservations so that we can make the necessary arrangements. To enable us to do this, we ask a deposit be made to hold a space to stay at the temple and/or a place at the table to listen to the SAUMOL. We never charge for listening or studying the dharma, but our physical resources are limited and we must do this to be fair to those who want to plan and travel great distances to attend this event.
I am also asking that all attending enroll in the Xuanfa Five VIdyas University (XFVU) classes and follow up with the homework assignments after the retreat. We need to build our student base if we are to seek certification as a Seminary and be able to offer student visas for longer study in the USA. Tuition is free to just take the classes, but required if you want either a certificate or degree. You can read more about this at www.xfvu.org.
I hope that we will be able to report to the BM on what we learn and ask questions that are not answered by the discourses themselves at the end of the retreat, so those attending the entire retreat need to allow extra time for that and be able to travel to the Los Angeles area. Students will need to make their own arrangements for accommodations in the Los Angeles area.
Please return registration form and your deposit asap. Confirmation will be on a first come, first served basis. Priority will be given to those staying the entire 30 days.