Oct 26-27, 2024

11:00 am – 6:30 pm EST

The self-existing energy that comes from letting go is called Windhorse in the Shambhala teachings. Wind is the energy of basic goodness, strong, exuberant, and brilliant. At the same time, basic goodness can be ridden, or employed in your life, which is the principle of the horse. When you contact the energy of Windhorse, you can naturally let go of worrying about your own state of mind and you begin to think of others. 

—Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

About the Training

Deepen your meditation practice, and continue along the path of the Shambhala teachings on warriorship, in this weekend retreat.

Windhorse builds on the teachings of basic goodness, “cocoon”, fearlessness,  inquisitiveness, and openness in Shambhala Training Levels 1-V and the teachings of the Great Eastern Sun—a societal vision and aspiration to help the world manifest a good human society in difficult times.

Participants will explore a text written by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche that gives the instruction for a practice called “raising windhorse.”  Windhorse or “lungta” in Tibetan, could be likened to “chi / qi”, or “life force energy.”  Participants will learn the practice of “raising windhorse” as an immediate way to open the heart, refresh confidence, and connect with the present moment. This practice is a powerful way to bring about skillful and heartfelt social engagement, enabling the warrior to go forward in the midst of the tremendous challenges we are facing in our world.

Included in the Retreat

• Guided meditation instruction
• Sitting and walking meditation
• Talks by an experienced teacher 
• Silent periods
• Question & answer periods
• Group discussions
• Individual meetings with a trained Meditation Instructor 
• Connecting with people interested in meditation and discovering the brilliance of the world around them!

Prerequisites

Great Eastern Sun. Windhorse is a retreat that is part of a progressive series of weekend retreats, meaning each weekend is a requirement for the following weekend. 

About the Teachers

Presenters to be announced soon.

About Shambhala Training

Shambhala Training is designed to help us develop fearlessness, confidence, openness and gentleness towards ourselves and our world. These qualities arise out of meditation practice and the study of Shambhala warriorship principles. 

Developed by Chögyam Trungpa in 1976, Shambhala Training offers teachings based on the vision that every human being has a natural source of innate wakefulness that we can discover, cultivate and express in our life.

This path is open to anyone seeking to develop gentleness and strength through meditation. Shambhala Training is a series of contemplative workshops suited for both beginning and experienced meditators. The simple and profound technique of mindfulness-awareness meditation can benefit people of any spiritual tradition and way of life.

Meditation practice helps us to examine our states of mind without trying to change them. This practice encourages openness to oneself and what’s around us, and transforms the way we habitually see our life and our world. Our old habits and patterns become more transparent, leaving room for a more direct appreciation of situations.

The “Heart of Warriorship” curriculum consists of five weekend retreats that include meditation training and practice, talks by senior teachers, personal interviews, and group discussions. These retreats provide a strong foundation in mindfulness-awareness meditation practice, emphasizing the development of genuineness, confidence, humor, and dignity within the complexity of daily life.

About the Sacred Path

The Sacred Path is a series of teachings for those who have completed Shambhala Training Levels I-V. It introduces further practices to develop warriorship and extend the student’s training in meditation. These practices are based on a societal vision and aspiration to help the world. This training cultivates one’s dignity and natural gifts in order to widen one’s sphere of compassion. 

During a series of visionary experiences that took place between 1976 and 1980, Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche wrote down what became known as the Shambhala terma, a series of texts. The Sacred Path series of retreats is based on these texts and on the extensive commentaries Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche gave on these teachings and on how to practice them in modern times.