Diamond Mountain Great Retreat 2010-2014 ~ Newsletter #21– September, 2012

Dear Friends and Family of the Great Retreat,

Here’s an exciting sneak peak inside the retreat! Included are some actual photos from inside the retreat

taken only weeks ago. The retreatant shots, however, are from before retreat as we don’t want to distract them to

take pictures. I apologies to those of you who already received Geshe-hla’s letter and for whom this information is

a repeat… but its just too good not to share!

It is a new era of cordial cooperation as the Retreat Council (a governing group of 5 retreatants

elected by the other’s and under the guidance of Retreat Director John Brady (left)), along with

DMU Board of Directors administer the retreat. Since the retreatant caretaking program was

created, the retreatants have developed a new, greater respect for the tremendous effort that the

caretakers are putting forth. Interestingly, the cost of requests by retreatants for food and sup-

plies has dropped by over 25 percent since the program began. We would like to give you a

look into the lives of some typical retreatants.

Several individuals have requested and received ordination since the beginning of retreat!

Some want to tell you themselves, later, but “the one who comes to my mind most strongly” Geshe-

hla said, “is Kat Ehrhorn, who on top of her usual amazing energy now has this noticeable spiritual

glow about her.”

Kat and many other retreatants have planted flower and vegetable gardens, which help defray some

of the cost of supplying them with organic produce from Tucson. In addition, Ven. Gyelse (left) has

revived parts of the old orchard in which her cabin is located, making homemade teas, spices, jams,

and beautiful rose bouquets.

Michael Dunn and Melissa Buschey, who also have a beautiful garden, have

gone deeper into the traditional Buddhist painting studies which they started, before re-

treat, with an accomplished Tibetan teacher in New York.

In addition to her regular retreat practices, Dvora is working to translate the 18 advanced

courses of the ACI syllabus, and is planning to teach them after she comes out. Dvora's

Hebrew translation of The Garden, completed during retreat, was also released by the Is-

raeli publisher recently.

David Stumpf has been concentrating on the practice of White Tara; he has also been

working on a commentary, which will include a section of translation by David of an original text

on the version of this practice followed by Lord Atisha, who helped bring Buddhism to Tibet a

thousand years ago.

A number of retreatants are studying the scriptural languages: Tibetan, Chinese, and Sanskrit. Ben

Kramer (who with his wife Kendra is having a really beautiful retreat) is leading many of the Ti-

betan classes. (Ben & Kendra are pictured right, at their wedding prior to the retreat.)

Almost all the retreatants though continue to concentrate on the Vajra Yogini practice, for which they

received 7 years of training prior to retreat. This is one of the 1,000 texts of advanced Buddhism taught by the

Buddha himself, and preserved in the Tibetan canon. (The input of these thousands works has just been completed

by our Tibetan refugee computer project, after 25 years of work.)

Diamond Mountain Great Retreat 2010-2014 ~ Newsletter #21– September, 2012

This particular practice comes down to us through Geshe-hla’s own teacher,

Khen Rinpoche, who was trained in it by Trijang Rinpoche, the teacher of

His Holiness the present Dalai Lama. It emphasizes seeing that the lives of

everyone around us teach us the path to enlightenment. The people going

particularly deep on this, Geshe-hla said, include Ven Chunzom, James

Connor, and Earle Birney, who is also John Brady's main assistant on the

Retreat Council.

Christine Sperber is collaborating with a number of other retreatants on an illustrated

book of the inner body, which many retreatants are exploring through intense yoga prac-

tice. During breaks between their deep retreat periods (which now last two months), the re-

treatants rotate teaching each other yoga classes at the pavilion erected near the old Lama

House.

There are also a lot of practice collaborations going on, where

groups of retreatants who live in the same "neighborhood" of

the retreat valley get together to do their prayers, even in deep

retreat. A number of retreatants have gone into even deeper

retreat, foregoing the month-long breaks. One of these is

Karen Becker (right), our "bionic woman.”

Karen is the oldest retreatant (70 years). Earlier in the retreat, our medical staff -

inside the retreat there are one MD, two PA's (RN's with additional training to directly assist

an MD), and another RN, besides Orit on the outside - determined during regular checkups

that her pulse rate had dropped too low. Karen was taken to the local hospital, where staff

recommended a pacemaker, which was put in, and she returned to retreat the same

week. She is now 4 months into a solo retreat which I think might go for a year.

Lama Pelma has been in solo for the better part of a year already, sending out

the occasional piece of exquisite meditational painting, or a particularly large

zucchini from her garden. Will Duncan is doing another solo, exploring the

interface between Christian and Buddhist practices.

The retreatants are working extremely hard, and you can be proud of them. The

difficulties we've had earlier this year do not reflect the amazing spiritual progress that

almost every retreatant is making, the fruits of their intense efforts. Geshe-hla shared,

“On the last day of my most recent visit, I and the retreatants and senior caretakers did the

Tsechu Ceremony together in the Retreat Temple (the old Nataraj Building), and I could

feel a depth of concentration and practice that I have rarely felt outside of the DM 3-Year

Retreat. It made me deeply proud of each of them, and you should be too.”

Geshe-hla and the DMU community would like to thank you one more time, for all the help you have

each already given for this extraordinary spiritual undertaking.

With Love,

Diamond Mountain Great Retreat Caretakers