Ngöndro Practice Intensive

About this program

Join us for a 7-day Ngöndro practice intensive and connect with the energy and power of our Vajrayana heritage. We welcome individuals practicing Ngöndro in any lineage of the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche – Kagyu, Nyingma, and/or Shambhala Ngöndros. Through our practice together, we will be connecting with the living wisdom and lineage energy of the Vidyadhara and the thousand years of the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions he represented. Ngöndro is a powerful conduit to over fifty generations of mahasiddhas and our connection to the greater Vajra sangha of living masters today. Drawing from the Vajrayana teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and other Tibetan Buddhist masters, this retreat will explore important topics and questions that arise throughout the Ngöndro process: How do I understand the guru and the guru principle? How do I connect to the energy of devotion? How do I connect with a teacher when they may be physically distant, deceased, or when devotion may not always naturally arise? What does it mean to discover the guru not only as a person, but to also recognize the world and the situations of our own lives as sacred and profound teachers? How do I work with the qualities of surrender, egolessness, and bodhicitta within my practice? What am I actually doing when I practice visualization and formless meditation? This retreat is an opportunity to deepen one’s Ngöndro practice, to engage in the traditional accumulations of wisdom and merit, and to connect with tantrikas from all branches of the Vidyadhara’s spiritual lineage. It is also a rare opportunity to practice with one of Trungpa Rinpoche’s closest students, the Dorje Loppon, Lodro Dorje, whose deep devotion to the Vidyadhara and the lineage continues to inspire and empower new generations of practitioners today. The schedule will include group practice sessions, discussion groups, and opportunities to connect with the power and blessings of the lineage here at Karmê Chöling. Sangha members who have completed Ngöndro and wish to revisit the practice are also warmly invited. An Invitation to the Khachab Rinpoche Program We are excited to welcome Khachab Rinpoche and have arranged for the ngondro participants to be able to attend his program. The ngondro program will officially end with a final feast on Friday afternoon, Oct. 16. This will be followed by Khachab Rinpoche's Friday evening talk after dinner, continue through Saturday, and conclude at 6:00pm on Sunday, Oct. 18. Khachab Rinpoche's visit is a rare opportunity for ngondro students to make a connection to our living Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions. If ngöndro participants are interested in continuing their ngondro practice in lieu of Khachab Rinpoche's program over the weekend, they can continue to have full use of our ngondro practice space in order to do so. Please bring all ngondro texts and materials necessary for your practice. An Online Option The ngöndro portion of this retreat is hybrid. The in-person participants will be at Karme Chöing, joined by online participants from around the world. If you miss an online session, it will be recorded. Register and view the online program here . Arrival & Departure Friday, please arrive 3:00 - 6:00pm for registration. Dinner will be served at 6:30pm. The program will officially begin at 7:30pm. The program will finish Sunday by 6:00pm with lunch afterwards. Cancellation Policy Approximately two weeks before the start date of a program we confirm that we have sufficient numbers to hold the event. On the rare occasion when enrollment is too low, we may need to cancel a program. If this happens, we will notify all registered participants as soon as possible and provide a full refund of the program and accommodation fees paid to us. The center is not responsible for airfare or other travel expenses incurred. For this reason we recommend purchasing refundable travel tickets or travel insurance whenever possible. Getting Here Visit our Directions and Transportation page to see different options for traveling to Karmê Chöling including our Rideshare board.