Deer grazing outside the hermitage window at The Grail.
April 10-12, 2015—Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, New York: Practitioners of esoteric and exoteric Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and other spiritual paths met for a three-day silent retreat and to hear and discuss recorded discourses by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. Zhaxi Zhuoma, the abbot of the Holy Vajrasana Temple and Retreat Center located near Sanger, California, led the bilingual retreat. Individuals from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, California, Utah, and Canada participated in the retreat. They started every morning with pre-dawn walking meditation though the beautiful Spring woods of the Grail Retreat Center accompanied by critters and beings from different realms. This was followed by chanting and four-five sessions of meditation and dharma practice. The retreat was designed so that individuals could practice in their own tradition, although Zhaxi Zhuoma Rinpoche transmitted certain mantras to those qualified to receive them for the practice of Zen Meditation as taught by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and explained this form of meditation to those present. She also read from a discourse by His Holiness on certain erroneous and evil views that are currently held by Buddhist in the world today that pertain to meditation. Some of the participants listened to other dharma discourses given by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III on the importance of understanding impermanence and the reasons people practice Buddhism as given in China, while the others listened to the rinpoche read preliminary translations of the same discourses. The two groups reconvened and held a lively discussion in both English and Chinese on these discourses.
A group photo
Those attending mostly agreed that three days was not enough and understood what His Holiness has said that it takes at least seven days for it to be a real retreat. It takes that long to settle in to the silence and schedule and quieting yourself to be able to truly concentrate. The Rinpoche promised to come back again to the New York area to do another, longer retreat. She will also be leading a similar seven-day meditation retreat in Bangkok, Thailand in December and visiting her students in Hong Kong and mainland China. She is conducting these retreats and traveling this year while her own temple and retreat center in California is being remodeled. The retreats are open to Buddhist and non-Buddhists who are serious practitioners of a spiritual path.
The wonderful thing about The Grail is that the old mansion has many intimate rooms and nooks and crannies as well as acres of woods and paths where you can be alone for your own practice.
Preparing and cleaning up after the meals is part of the practice at these retreats
APR
2015