Happy New Year!
May your heart open naturally.
May suffering be transformed on the path.
May Merit and wisdom arise inseparably
With folded hands, we dedicate the virtue from our
practice in 2025 to all sentient beings.
✨ May obstacles be cleared.
✨ May devotion deepen.
✨ May all find their way to awakening.
We close with the prayer Nang Dak Rig Sum,
recited by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche:
The Dudjom Ngondro Program
Wishing you an auspicious and Happy Guru Rinpoche Day!
“The preliminary practices are truly the foundation of all our Dharma practice. [In Dzogchen,] we have this very high view, but everything is based on the preliminary practices. If the Dzogchen view is like a fire, the preliminary practices are like the wood that feeds the fire. They are only going to help your realization of Dzogchen.
As you practice the preliminary practices, you’ll have greater faith in the Three Jewels. Your belief in and attention to karma, to cause and effect, will grow. You’ll develop greater compassion for sentient beings. All of these qualities will increase within your mind. You’ll cultivate the two accumulations [of merit and wisdom]. You’ll purify your mind, and the wisdom realization of your lama will shift to your mind, and you will discover your own indwelling, original enlightenment, that which has always existed. You will not attain an enlightenment coming from outside of you, but rather discover the original enlightenment already within you, through the process of these preliminary practices.
Why are there so few good practitioners these days? Why do they have so many obstacles? It’s through not having taken the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind—the precious human birth, impermanence, karma’s cause and effect, and the sufferings of samsara—to heart. So many obstacles are coming from that alone. Therefore, it is essential to take these Four Thoughts to heart. You can read about them in “The Words of my Perfect Teacher” and so many other texts on the preliminary practices. This point is really so essential.”
Due to the Vajrayana Foundation’s annual Summer Retreat, the monthly Dudjom Ngondro schedule will be temporarily adjusted. We warmly invite you to join us for this special retreat—either in person at Pema Osel Ling or via livestream. It’s a wonderful opportunity to deepen your connection to the Dudjom Tersar lineage and engage in transformative practice with our sangha.
As part of the June Ngondro Program offerings, participants will receive streaming links for the following events:
• Troma Ngondro Accumulation Sessions
Two sessions daily, June 9–11
9:00–10:45 AM and 2:30–4:15 PM (PDT)
• Collection of Seven Treasures: Guru Rinpoche Empowerment
June 27, 9:00 AM–12:00 PM (PDT)
Bestowed by His Holiness Kyabje Dungse Namgyal Dawa Rinpoche
• Collection of Seven Treasures: First Teaching of eight
June 28, beginning at 11:45 AM (PDT)
Please watch your email for access details.
The Vajrayana Foundation 36th Annual Summer Retreat offerings:
June 2 – 7: Tseyang Khatrod — Six days of practice focused on the profound liberation instructions of Tseyang Khatrod, emphasizing clarity and fearless awareness. Learn More
June 12 – 20: Troma Nagmo — A nine-day immersion in the fierce compassion of Troma Nagmo, revealing the clarity of mind through cutting attachment. Learn More
June 23 – July 2: Shitro — A complete cycle of practice for the peaceful and wrathful deities, supporting the living and the dead through the bardo. Learn More
July 5 – 13: Guru Rinpoche Drupchen — A powerful group ritual invoking Guru Rinpoche to generate vast merit and awaken compassion through mantra, mudra, and sacred sound. Learn More
Troma Chöd is the fearless path of severing attachment, dissolving self-grasping, and realizing the true nature of mind.
Dudjom Rinpoche teaches:
“The essence of Chöd is the wisdom of emptiness and compassion inseparable. When one truly cuts through grasping at the self and phenomena, all fear dissolves into the space of great liberation. This is the fearless path of the dakinis.”
Lama Tharchin Rinpoche reminds us:
“Troma is the direct path to realizing the nature of mind because it severs all attachment at the root. Through offering everything—our body, our emotions, our thoughts—we leave no place for ego to hide. What remains is pure, uncontrived awareness, free from hope and fear.”
On this Dakini Day, we turn our devotion to the union of wisdom and enlightened activity—Troma and her consort, Wrathful Black Hayagriva—whose dynamic compassion subjugates all obstacles. Through the blessing of Tulku Thadral Rinpoche, we have the rare opportunity to receive the Wrathful Black Hayagriva Empowerment on February 22nd.
Lama Sonam Tsering Rinpoche says:
“Extremely Wrathful Black Hayagriva has special power to affect beings’ minds and benefit those who are depressed, dysfunctional, or crazy, as well as to cure disease. This is the condensed essence of all the billions of Hayagriva practices. It is easy to practice and highly effective. Even hearing this practiced will subdue all classes of spirits. Remembering it will eradicate all wrong views and demonic forces. Touching the image of this Hayagriva will pacify all disease and the passions of the five poisons. For whoever has a connection to this practice the seed of samsara will be destroyed.”
As the Tibetan Wood Snake Year, draws near, we emphasize practices that address the accumlation of karma, purify negativity and avert obstacles. Join the Vajrayana Foundation, our Precious Lamas and Precious Sangha at The Pema Osel Retreat Center for this seven-day retreat centering on Black Hayagriva, a the wrathful manifestation of Avalokiteshvara. The retreat includes Black Hayagriva Empowerment, Oral Reading Transmission, Practice, including the Lower Activity culminating on Gutor Day with the Torma Burning Ritual.
Empowerment and Retreat Details and registration: https://www.vajrayana.org/events/282/
On February 15th and 16th, Tulku Thadral Rinpoche we received teachings on how to follow the sadhana as well as the meaning of the different sections of the practice that we will be doing at our 2025 Gutor-Losar Retreat.
You can replay the YouTube Livestream teachings here~~~>
Session One Introduction to the Sadhana through the Mantra Recitation and visualization Session Two Lower Activity
See DharmaTreasures, the Vajrayana Foundation bookstore at Pema Osel Ling, for Practice texts, photos and recording teachings on the Wrathful Black Hayagriva.
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