This article is a revised version of one posted on March 28 that highlights and updates the features of the Xiuxing Practice Program and Solitary Retreats that we are offering at the Holy Vajrasana Temple in Sanger. Anyone interested in taking one of these retreats should enroll in Course R97X at the Learning from Buddha College and Seminary so they can make sure they have the necessary prerequisites for taking such a retreat.
The R97X-Xiuxing Practice Program and Solitary Retreat requirements have now been included in the Learning from Buddha College and Seminary (LFBCS) curriculum. This program is included as part of the Xiuxing Seminary offering a more precise guide for those who want to focus on and start or develop a serious Dharma practice. It is based on a special Dharma that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III transmitted to me in 2010 after we erected a yurt and dedicated that yurt to the Dharma Protectors. It was also after the abandoned metal poles (the Holy Vajra Poles) that had been part of a chain link fence that once enclosed a pet kennel started mysteriously shaking a month earlier. I believe these events were related.
Holy Vajra Poles & the Dharma Protector Chapel
Many students have visited our temple to see these poles and many have been able to experience this miracle and receive the blessing of the Holy Vajra Poles including a recent group of pilgrims from New York City. I, in turn, transmitted this retreat Dharma to a few students who were brave enough to practice it in the yurt, which had been transformed into our Dharma Protector Chapel. Several have said that this experience “changed their life.” I believe that is so.
The Solitary Retreat Dharma & the Dharma Protectors
The Buddha Master told me was that even though this retreat dharma is considered a Protector Dharma, “This is a ‘helping’ dharma, not a “protecting” dharma. It augments or increases the effectiveness of any dharma that is practiced with it. This is an aspect of the Dharma Protectors. They make things work.” He also told me it was from the Supreme and Unsurpassable Mahamudra of Liberation and that He had not intended to give me that dharma at that time, but He did so because of the previously mentioned events. I must confess that I did not fully understand the importance of this gift or what I should do with it at the time or until quite recently.
CLICK for article on the major Dharma Protectors who protect our temple. Yamataka Vajra is shown in the photo below and Mahakala Vajra is shown above from our Dharma Protector Chapel.
Background on Lemonade Sangha & LFBCS
Time passed. I started to develop this site as the Holy Vajrasana Temple in Sanger. A widely distributed video was made about the Holy Vajra Poles and the fact that this was such a special site. The same day I finally got the necessary approvals from the Fresno County Planning Commission to develop the temple and retreat center, the Buddha Master summoned me to Pasadena to tell me about the plans to develop Buddhist Town at the Holy Heavenly Lake site in Hesperia, California. I was told to move my retreat center, the stupa that was planned for the Sanger site and all that was related, and become part of this grand plan to construct a Buddhist Holy site.
However, I already had contractors coming to remodel the Sanger temple, install a new septic system (we found that we did not have one that worked). It was then decided to go ahead and redesign the Temple and Retreat Center in Sanger to enable us to have a working facility, but to also focus on moving to Hesperia, which I did. COVID came and many things have changed. We went online creating the virtual Lemonade Sangha with this more-or-less weekly blog and established the online Learning from Buddha College & Seminary (LFBCS).
H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s Great Gifts
We should remember H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s parting words to us: “. . . At all times, we must think about bringing auspiciousness, serenity, happiness, and peace to living beings and to the world, to the extent of giving our all and even our lives. I have already brought true Buddha Dharma to this world. Everyone who practices in accordance with The Supreme and Unsurpassable Mahamudra of Liberation and Expounding the Absolute Truth Through the Heart Sutra will surely attain liberation. That’s all. I wish all living beings happiness.”
I believe that this program derived from the special retreat dharma I received almost thirteen years ago is something that can help others learn how to practice what the great gifts the Buddha Master gave us. I also believe that although the Dharma Protector Chapel and our Holy Vajrasana site in Sanger are special, this simple method can be useful to many, even those who are not ready or able to come here to do a Solitary Retreat.
There are many more discourses given by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, Suttas and Sutras, classic commentaries, biographies, and autobiographies that you should read and study available through the Learning from Buddha College and Seminary. This is just a brief program of the essentials to be able to follow the path to liberation given us by H.H. Dorje Buddha III that focuses on developing both your Bodhichitta and Wisdom or Prajna. The courses are offered in the priority in which they should be taken with a listing of the prerequisites required.
Unfortunately, we still do not have accessible and authorized English translations for many of the most important works. This program attempts to give us access to preliminary translations, which are subject to revision as better translations become available. Please understand and be patient, but it is believed that as imperfect as this program is, it is still the best program available in English for liberation in this lifetime.
Where Can You Practice the Solitary Retreat Dharma?
I think it would be ideal to take a thirty-day Solitary Retreat in the Dharma Protector Chapel. After all, the Buddha Master gave me the Solitary Retreat Dharma to practice there, but it is something that can be practiced elsewhere, either at the Holy Vajrasana Temple or on your own. The Dharma Protector Chapel is a Canvas Yurt and cannot have any electrical or electronic power or artificial light. It is located in a wooded rural part of Fresno County and in the midst of night animals sounds and dramas. Coyote and mountain lions have been sighted nearby, and the coyotes sing most evenings. We can have a small tent and porta-potty next to the yurt, but you still may want to use the bathrooms in the temple. You can have light in the tent to allow for journaling and study. Without any outside heat, air conditioning, or light, practicing in the yurt can be a challenge and only for the bravest during most of the year.
We Must Wholeheartedly Practice the Dharma!
Remember, Venerable Tsemang emphasized at our recent Glendale Dharma Assembly celebrating the Holy Birthday of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III that we must “diligently devote ourselves to studying and wholeheartedly practicing the teachings” of our great Buddha Master. I believe this program can help you enhance your practice in two ways:
1-It provides a methodology for doing your practice that can increase the effectiveness of what you are already doing and can enable you to integrate all the dharmas and home work you have learned from the Buddha Master. It may also identify Dharmas that you do not yet have so that you can seek them and others. Once you learn this secret technique you can do your own retreats in your own home or elsewhere.
2-It provides a special safe space where you can be free from outside distractions and responsibilities. WARNING! Too often we hide from ever knowing who we are by these very distractions and always being busy–even busy doing good things, Buddha work. Solitude can be a scary thing, if you are not ready for it. You are not allowed to talk or use any electronic devises while on retreat. Are you ready for that?
Experiences shared by those who have taken these retreats
Your success in this program and the Dharma depends on your readiness and your purity of intention and practice. It depends on your state of mind and openness to whatever happens. Your experience will be unique as is your karma. Several participants in this program have shared their experiences:
CLICK for report on retreat experience that included seeing and feeling amitra (nectar) fall from a tree near the Protector Chapel.
CLICK for article in both Chinese and English on a New Yorker’s experiences during a Solitary Retreat he took in the Protector Chapel.
CLICK for video of dance offering given at end of Solitary Retreat.
CLICK for article and photo of Buddha Light that appeared after on a recent Solitary Retreat taken at the Temple.
CLICK for what another disciple experienced on a thirty-day Solitary Retreat in October 2023.
How to Proceed
At present R97X-Solitary Retreat-Xiuxing Practice Program is only available to those enrolled in the Xiuxing Seminary program and in English. Please note that I use this blog to keep you informed as to what is happening at LFBCS and the various events related to the Dharma and H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha. CLICK for course description for the R97X-Solitary Retreat-Xiuxing Practice Program. The course syllabus lists the requirements for taking a Buddhist Solitary Retreat here at the temple. You may use it as a checklist for your own efforts at doing a solitary retreat at the temple or elsewhere.
This article is an expansion of the November 9, 2023 article posted on the Xiuxing Practice Program and Buddhist Solitary Retreat requirements at the Holy Vajrasana Temple and Retreat Center.
Revised March 28, 2024 & June 9, 2024.
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