Practice Intensive Retreat and Dzöd Dün Transmissions – 2024
In July 2024, practitioners from around the world gathered at Mindrolling Lotus Garden for the annual Practice Intensive Retreat of 2024. To begin the retreat, the gathered assembly made mandala and body, speech, and mind offerings to Minling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche to request the turning of the Wheel of Dharma. The following day was the full moon day, and the gathered sangha performed the sadhana of Minling Dorsem and made vast ganachakra offerings. On July 22nd, a formal procession led by Rinpoche, the Mindrolling family and monastics took place, and to the sound of gyaling and the fragrance of incense, the sacred texts of Seven Treasuries by Longchen Rabjampa along with statues of the Omniscient One and of the Dharma King Chögyal Terdag Lingpa were brought and placed on the main shrine.
With this auspicious beginning of the third annual Practice Intensive retreat, Rinpoche bestowed teachings and pith instructions and students immediately took the teachings into practice in the chö gar, or Dharma encampment. The joyful atmosphere of the sangha being reunited was infused with a sense of continuity and all present made the strong aspiration to be suitable vessels and to fully accomplish these precious teachings and practices.
In the following 25 days, Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, with incomparable kindness, tirelessly and clearly elucidated detailed practice instructions to the fortunate disciples. The blessings of the Guru were palpable, permeating the sangha with settledness and harmony. The transmission of these teachings could not have happened in such a direct way, and with such beauty, depth, elegance, and precision without the continued blessings and compassionate dharma activity of Minling Jetsün Dechen Paldrön, whose translations, guidance, and tireless activities for the Lotus Garden sangha have been invaluable. With the blessings and explanations of these great teachers, the sangha joyfully exerted themselves in the wisdoms of hearing, contemplating, and meditating, all while engaging in service to the sangha within the daily activities.
The assembly was also blessed with the auspicious occasions of the birthdays of Minling Dungse Rinpoche and Minling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, which were celebrated with extensive aspirations, prayers, and vast mandala offerings. To mark these birthdays, with wholehearted prayers for the long lives of our teachers, hundreds of Mindrolling International sangha members joined in making vast offerings, and these donations totaling over $25,000 were sent to a dog shelter in Bhutan, which cares for over 700 dogs.
Throughout the retreat, there was a seamless transition between the teachings, intensive practice, celebrations, and service to the dharma community, and all present fully engaged in the joyful, virtuous, and disciplined life of genuine Dharma practitioners. The Practice Intensive Retreat concluded with the accomplishment of vast ghanachakra offerings.
On the fifteenth of August, Minling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, Jetsün Dechen Paldrön, Dungse Rinpoche, Jetsün Rinpoche, Britton la, monks and nuns of Mindrolling, all senior Lopöns and the Lotus Garden sangha welcomed His Eminence Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche to Minling Lotus Garden to begin the oral transmissions of the extraordinary Dzöd Dön – theSeven Treasuries of the Great Longchenpa. Over the course of 5 days, His Eminence bestowed the lung, or oral transmission, to the gathered assembly in this rare opportunity to connect to these profound Dzogchen teachings.
With the new temple being close to reaching its completion, this wonderful summer retreat was the last occasion in which the current main shrine room served as the container for the retreat. The major construction works in the new temple are close to completion and the focus is now on filling it with all the sacred objects, furnishings, and the traditional artwork and adornments of the mandala.
Monks from Mindrolling and a skilled artist from Bhutan have been gilding and painting the statues of Shakyamuni Buddha, Guru Rinpoche, and Chögyal Terdag Lingpa for the shrine in the new temple. Outside, work has begun in earnest on the Four Immeasurables gardens, which are envisioned to provide sangha members and visitors a peaceful and inspiring circumambulation path around the temple and a sacred space for meditation and contemplation.
At the beginning of August, rupas, stupas, shrines, moldings, adornments, thrones, furniture and seating also began arriving for the new temple. Much of this arrived in two large shipments that the sangha unloaded, and once it was unpacked, everything more than filled the main shrine room in the new temple. Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche and Jetsün Dechen Paldrön gathered the sangha to see everything that had arrived and to share the vast vision for Minling Lotus Garden as a place for holding transmissions of the pure and profound Dharma and to emphasize the importance of the sangha taking a sense of ownership for this sacred environment.
With the colorful appearances of rainbows and the gentle glow of practice tents at dusk, Minling Lotus Garden is blessed with genuine dharma activity. May this sacred seat of the Mindrolling Lineage in the West be a source of authentic Dharma for generations to come. May this pure land be continually blessed by the presence of enlightened masters. May it flourish with the practice of pure samaya holders and may every activity within it be the cause of liberation for all sentient beings!
