Property:Letterofmotivation
From Tsadra Foundation Advanced Contemplative Scholarships
This is a property of type Text.
2
I would like to dedicate the rest of my life to practicing dharma to liberate myself and others from samsara. After receiving many precious instructions, I would like to dedicate a period of time for practice to build a strong practice habit. +
Tashi delek cher(e)s membres de la Fondation Tsadra ! Mon nom est Nicolas Novel, Lodrö Lungtok Tendzin, et je souhaiterais postuler à l’obtention d’une bourse de financement pour la prochaine retraite traditionnelle de 3 ans à Shangpa Karma Ling.
Après m’être exténué à chercher la satisfaction personnelle dans la quête des plaisirs des sens, et je peux dire que j’ai été plus que doué dans ce domaine, il a fallu qu’on me tape un bon coup sur la tête pour engendrer un retournement des plus radicaux. Le choc fut douloureux mais nécessaire, et je peux remercier maintenant ceux qui ont participé à cette prise de conscience et qui m’ont évité de gâcher cette précieuse vie humaine.
Aujourd’hui âgé de 35 ans, je ressens une très grande confiance en la pratique, les trois joyaux, les trois sources et fondamentalement en ce silence et en cette ouverture qui me permettent d’accueillir et de laisser partir ce à quoi je me suis tellement identifié et qui me fait autant souffrir. Je remercie infiniment Denys Rinpoche de m’avoir fait découvrir cette dimension et de m’aider à affiner la compréhension de ce que je suis réellement, au-delà de la peur, du doute et de toute incertitude.
L’obtention du doctorat en samasara que j’ai obtenu avec mention lors de mes trente premières années m’aura au moins permis une bonne compréhension du fonctionnement de la souffrance, et ceci dans les six niveaux d’existence. Étant passé du monde des dieux aux enfers plus d’une fois, tourner en rond m’a donné une sévère nausée et je ne souhaite plus refaire un tour de manège. Voilà pourquoi toute mon énergie et ma motivation ces dernières années ont été consacrées à l’étude et à la pratique du Dharma, avec en ligne de mire cette retraite de trois ans qui me procurera les conditions idéales pour bien progresser sur la voie et me rendre bénéfique au plus grand nombre.
La relation à cœur ouvert développée avec Rinpoche, l’inspiration des maîtres de la lignée, le soutien de mes amis dans le dharma, l’expérience de plusieurs retraites personnelles et de plusieurs années d’étude à l’institut, seront un soutien et une aide inestimable pour bien vivre cette expérience. Je suis cependant bien conscient que même avec ces prérequis, je vais être confronté à beaucoup de moments difficiles, d’émotions perturbatrices, de doutes, de peurs… mais je pense avoir acquis la maturité pour y faire face, m’abandonner dans la pratique et regarder ce qui émerge, ceci au mieux de mes capacités.
Je remercie grandement la fondation Tsadra de pouvoir aider celles et ceux qui ont besoin de soutien dans cette grande aventure d’éveil. Je me sentirais fortement privilégié de pouvoir participer au programme, cela renforcerait encore un peu plus mon engagement et ma motivation à rendre cette période de temps dédié à la pratique la plus efficace possible. Je rends hommage aux maîtres de toutes les lignées, qui par leur sagesse et leurs activités de grande bonté guident tous les vivants vers la libération
This very retreat - beside having met my beloved Gurus & being ordained by H.H. the Dalai Lama - is simply the greatest gift of my life & I am unspeakable grateful that H.H. Sakya Trizin has strongly advised me once more to continue on. Looking now back onto it & resuming with which kind of mind I started more than 5 1/2 years ago, I feel a bit like I was a parrot then - having melodious repeated teachings I had heard & read, but not yet having fathomed the entire depth & dimension of the song I am trying to sing. Of course I had already done a lot of practice, especially beside my sisters years' long retreat. And thanks to this sort of retreat group set-up & the fact having grown up in the same family, long time forgotten memories & suppressed traumatas got unburied much more easily as much as main defilements & habitual patterns got more obvious - which was the so important preparation step for my now solitary endeavor. But in comparison now was it far different for me repeating words respectively trying to access sentences like 'the source of suffering is clinging to a self' & 'everything is the creation of your mind' while still together with others & having contact, than to sit there all alone on the bare ground, naked & stripped off of all your fake protection, above you only the blue sky & nowhere to hide, surrounded by far often rough, sometimes very painful purifying karmic winds, hence can & must but only look honestly at your ego, your version of reality, your karma, trying then to see all in its utter purity & to go beyond - was & is a far more intensive, much stronger experience & unexpected new dimension, especially for the mind work, while all alone. It's outcome is priceless & I am grateful for every single day. It turned me & my perspective onto life completely upside-down, in a most positive way, brought so many deeper insights & each insight in turn intensified even more my love & compassion for all sentient beings - thus my faith in the Dharma has grown unshakeable. I do now far better understand why you first need to liberate your own mindstream, before you can help others with theirs. Of course, I do not know how far I could travel on my path in order to become of better assistance to all sentient beings, but I do know that I have started to understand the teachings from a much more experienced level & instead of repeating the words like a parrot, I have started to sing with a better knowing voice. And with the coming years of retreat practice I wish with the very core of my being to draw as much as possible close to the ability to sing the song of the Dharma with a fullest, unfolded voice, grounded in deepest understanding, accompanied with warmest love, most caring compassion & purest bodhicitta to help thus waking all suffering sentient beings up from their slumbering sleep in ignorance - & hence hoping being able to take a bit better part in accomplishing the visions & wishes of all our beloved Gurus.
From the very first time I heard about Buddhism, it became my greatest passion.
I consider every Buddhist teching and practice, from hinayana to vajrayana, very important and interesting but the thing I love the most on Earth is Buddhist meditation. I find that the practice of meditation is not only necessary for having a strong and healthy mind but it is also the greatest means to discover directly how our mind is functioning its deepest level, and this is something I was interested in since my childhood. I believe that it is only by practicing in retreat that I can fully discover the depth of Buddha's teachings.
But the main reason why I wish to entirely devote my self to dharma practice is the fact that I simply cannot find a moment of peace seeing so much suffering around me. I believe Dharma is the medicine that can heal all torments that beings are experiencing. And I'm sure that one day, with my precious teachers help and a diligent practice, I will be able to give some relief to others. I do not wish anything more than that. +
I have known since I started my studies in Buddhism that dharma is something that definitely want to be part of my life. Even though I do my practice everyday and try to be diligent with it, I have seen that during retreat time, the progress is so much faster, plus doing it in group its very powerful.
It is my guru´s wish that we practice as much as we can during this life and even though I have so much attachment for my family and friends, I simply know that this path is worth it.
My sangha in Mexico is very young and my teacher has a vision of making the dharma grow. I want to help my sangha to flourish as an example and inspiration. I want to prove to myself that even though we are not asians or tibetans we can be serious practitioners and that nothing gets in our way if we really want to practice.
I feel scared but excited at the same time. I made the wish to my guru few years ago that I wanted to do a 3 year retreat at some point of my life, he told me to keep it in my heart and a year later he announced that he was going to organize his first 3 year retreat for westerners and I want to be part of it.
I am in a point of my life where I have no commitments, no debts, no babies. I feel that situation can change very fast and once it changes the chances for me to do this retreat can be less. I feel this is the right moment for me to do it. Because if I wait longer I might not be able to do it in the future. I struggle inside of me with the wish of having a baby but I know this is not the right moment for it. I want my practice to be more stable first, because only that way I could really help others, I could really help my family, friends, sangha and my teacher.
I want to do this retreat so I can be more skilfull in helping others. I dont want to feel regrets of not practicing enough when I die, I want to feel that my life was meaningful and I didnt waste it.
I dont want money to be an obstacle for this, but unfotunately I lack of merit to have financial abundance in my life and without your help it will be almost impossible for me to get all the money that I need, because neither me or my family have that amount.
For the last several years I have had a deep wish to do another longterm retreat. At this time I had a growing feeling that I should deepen my practice and not just focus on studies themselves. Furthermore, as I mentioned in my Dharma curriculum vitae, when I spoke with Ven. Mingyur Rinpoche, surprisingly even though I did not mention anything about my longing to attend a retreat again, he advised that I already studied enough and should instead start practising again in longterm retreats. After that Ven. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and myself talked about my wish to do a longterm retreat and he told me that a three-year retreat in the Nyingma tradition is planned at the Gomde Pyrenees center.
He suggested this would be building up on my previous retreats done mainly in the Karma Kagyu tradition. The Gomde Pyrenees retreat is mainly in the Dzogchen and Nyingma tradition of Ven. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. Rinpoche also said that this retreat really would be a continuation and complementary to what I had previously learnt during the Karma Kagyu retreats. I felt very touched that Ven. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche encouraged and accepted me to attend this retreat, giving me his full personal support and prayers to do so. For me this is such a precious opportunity to do such a long retreat fully supervised and guided by Ven. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and Ven. Lama Tenzin Sangpo. I feel honored that I have the opportunity to attend a retreat under such an accomplished master, coming from a family of highly realized practitioners.
The retreat will give me a tremendous opportunity to further mature in my spiritual practice. Based on the qualifications and Dharma background I bring in, I do hope that I am worthy for you to consider my application. Having the experience of my studies and previous retreats, I strongly feel that at this point in my life this is a natural next step in my practice. +
I believe nothing is more meaningful than to give my life to the practice and training of the Dharma as deeply as I can. Because I have been given the opportunity to practice the dharma I feel the responsibility of practicing with full effort in order to make the most of my life. To practice in an environment where I am supported in training one pointedly in the dharma without distraction for over 3 years meets this place in my yearning.
There is joy in being able to do this in order to free myself, but to also have the potential of further benefitting others inspires me to do a 3 year retreat. I have tried benefiting in ways like working as a Therapist and came to see I can only benefit as much as I’ve worked with myself. To have seen all the suffering that has been beyond my ability to affect has been heartbreaking. This has helped me see the urgency of the circumstances we are in as well as led me deeper into aspiring to become a true Bodhisattva.
Through my deepening in the dharma I have connected to the Karma Kagyu Lineage and the Karmapa whom I feel drawn to serve in the Dharma however I can. Doing a 3 year retreat feels to me like a way that could nourish this connection as well as my devotion with the Lineage.
Another aspect that draws me to want to do a three year retreat is through my practice experience I can see that it takes a strong practice container, devoted retreat time and whole hearted effort to really cut through ingrained habits of suffering and transform in the way I aspire. In this life alone suffering personally for me has been a reason to not want to suffer any more and that there is nothing more to do than work towards ending suffering. I'm seeing doing a 3 year retreat could be one of the most loving things I can do to benefit myself, those around me and beyond and a very supportive way to grow along the path. I feel a sense of deep gratitude and joy with the possibility of being able to do a 3 year retreat.
I sometimes feel confident and sometimes feel fearlessness but also sometimes not, but even so I absolutely choose to go through however challenging it may be to truly transform along the path. I feel motivated to let go of comforts, attachments and everything needed in order to grow in a meaningful way with bodhichitta. I aspire to surrender up whatever ego clinging or negativity may appear along the way so that I can learn to deeply come from a place of what truly matters most and move towards becoming a Buddha.
These are the reasons why I aspire to do a 3 Year Retreat. Thank you very much for receiving this application, for the opportunity to apply for the scholarship and for taking the time to consider me.
In gratitude,
Chelsea Treiber
By consistently contemplating the third thought that turns the mind to the dharma, and using it as a support to analyze my life experience, I see that for results to emerge, a lot of causes and conditions have to come together. And each one of us, is responsible for sowing the seeds of those causes and conditions for that outcome to manifest.
I see that to be able to attain their desired outcome, people encounter a lot of shortcomings and bear a lot of suffering, and they are happy to do so, because those sacrifices make them get closer to the goal they are pursuing, believing firmly that this goal will make them happy and complete, whether that goal is having a loving wife and family, a great paying job, or excelling in a specific area of expertise.
Personally, I don't see as worthwhile the amount of dedication, sacrifice and effort people put towards attaining an external samsaric goal, as I myself have tried in the past, only to taste the bitter hollowness of the result.
On the other hand, I see that doing a three-year retreat is far more worthwhile, despite also requiring a lot of effort. In this case however I have the motivation to dedicate myself and my energy to walk the noble path that will get me closer to attaining genuine peace and liberation.
Moreover, I see that if I don’t train to look at my mind, it does not matter where I would be living, what job I would be doing, what type of life I would be having, I will carry with me all of my obscurations and shortcomings. Not only will I thus create suffering for myself, but will also do so for others.
I don´t want to hurt anyone else because of my own shortcomings. I wish to take full responsibility for my mind and my actions, but because of my ignorance, this is not something that I can currently do on my own. I need proper guidance from a qualified master who can point out to me all the traps set up by my own ego.
I have contemplated on the preciousness of this human life that I have acquired. Causes and conditions have come together for me in such a way that I have been able to get in touch with the Dharma and to be interested enough to practice it. It’s my intention to take full advantage of this opportunity and make my life truly meaningful.
I’m very grateful for the love I have received in the form of teachings from my Gurus and teachers. When I contemplate upon this, I’m filled with devotion towards the unconditional love that my Gurus and their Gurus till the beginning of the lineage have given, and still continue to give, to sentient beings like me.
I understand these precious teachings are imparted from them to us with the intention of improving ourselves for the sole purpose of being able to benefit mother sentient beings. I’m committed to honor their intention, to not sully this precious lineage and to get better for the purpose of trying to contribute to their sacred work of helping mother sentient beings.
Dear Tsadra Foundation
This next step in my life is like a dream and I hope it will come true. Our planet with all the sentient beings within are suffering more and more, there is no doubt about Kali Yuga. Seeing this, my biggest aspiration is to make a big step in Dharma with the three-year retreat, and now favorable circumstances can give me the opportunity to make it happen. Therefore, I pray everyday to have the strength and diligence to succeed and not fall back in the pitfalls of samsara.
I perceive the three-year retreat as the greatest and one-time opportunity in my lifetime, and through this the possibility to help other living beings more effectively and efficiently. Seeing others’ happy with good motivation is the best joy for me. Helping others was already early imprinted in me in this lifetime,serving others, even strangers was always my first priority. Meeting with Dharma, sealed my inner motivation and helped me to flourish this passion to help others within the Dharma community also.
As a layman it is not so easy to practice Dharma in all the situations that karma brings to me. Going into a three-year retreat will help me grow in discipline so that I may act and react anytime like a Bodhisattva through wisdom gained from the teachings and practices. Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings and blessings are still alive and the opportunity is here to make them of benefit for all sentient beings.
Numberless thanks to Lama Lekshe Dorje who made it possible for me to discover treasures of Dharma in my current lifetime as a human being. Applying to the retreat is also an aspiration to use this precious human body that I have gained, in a proper way, 100% of the time. To be able to do this in a fast and fruitful way I need the genuine guidance that is given by the opportunity of the long time retreat. Having an ideal environment to learn, meditate and practice Dharma with the guidance of the retreat master is an extraordinary opportunity. Entering the three-year retreat gives me the opportunity to deeply practice the teachings and work towards elevating them from the intellect level to the wisdom level.
Praying everyday as a human being with ego, tormented by the five degenerations and all the contamination within, through the blessing of Dharma, my wish is to be cleansed as much as possible of these obscurations during the three-year retreat for the benefit of all living beings.
Sincerely,
Lehel Lőrincz
I completed the 3-year retreat at the Garchen Institute and it was such a profound experience that I feel inspired to continue to practice in a retreat environment. I have the feeling that retreat practice has changed my life in an amazingly positive way and in turn the way I resonate out in to the world, yet I also feel that I am only scratching the surface of what is possible. I have so much more work to do and it seems to me that retreat is the necessary catalyst for that work.
3-year retreat at PTC will also have the structural schedule, holding space, and extensive experience with teaching Westerners that will allow for a more thorough retreat experience than may have been possible in my previous retreat. As much as I appreciate and am sincerely grateful for what I have been given, I recognize that a well-organized retreat with a committed teacher and group of practitioners will be very different from former retreats.
I sincerely want to transform my life in the direction of wisdom, compassion, and liberation and to be able to benefit all beings. In order to accomplish this wish for all beings, it seems to me that 3-year retreat is the best way to do this. +
From the very start my Dharma connection has been with both the Shangpa lineage and the Karma Kamstang lineage. Even while aspiring and preparing for the Shangpa three years retreat, there was the aspiration to be able, some time in the future, to do the Karma Kamtsang three years retreat. Aspiration which I guess it grew stronger when listening how at the beginning the lamas of Sonada practiced both the yogas of Naropa and Niguma, and also practiced Bernakchen and recited the Rain of Wisdom at their retreat. So, even though we did so much while in retreat, more than what I was able to integrate, there was still the wish to receive and be able to practice the lineage of the Lord Naropa and the Karmapas.
But after group retreat, I felt I needed some solitude, after solitude, I felt I needed a break. But during this “break” which although it has been quite wonderful, full with blessings, Dharma, new connections, etc.; I have also been feeling how the practice deteriorates, attachment for this life becomes recurrent, bodhichitta stops being spontaneous, concentration at times is non existent, dissatisfaction begins to grow due to looking or wanting for happiness in a place where is none and sometimes is like rather go into numbness (like watch a movie or something like that) than making the little effort to recognize the present instant of awareness. So this summer, after studying very hard, I took a break from Mallorca. I started with a Vipassana form Goenka, which already felt like coming back home, a resetting of priorities and nourishment for my awareness. Then, after a lovely family gathering, I came to Poland, with two purposes: to do a translation retreat and second to make a connection with the center in the hope of at some time in the future be able to the the Kamtsang three years retreat here. Getting here was again a bit like coming home, a spontaneous coming back to all that which has been cultivated due to being in a practice place.
I feel truly amazed of how this retreat aspiration has blossom so quickly. Here, I met a former retreatant of KTD, when telling him of my aspiration to do the Kamtsang retreat, he told me that their retreat was starting next year in Autumn and I could do it there. I immediately go little “fireworks” in my chest, telling me that it felt like the right thing, I sent them an email that very day, and in less than two weeks I got the recommendation letter from my lama, the interview with them and now I am filling your scholarship application, even two days before the deadline! I certainly lack the fonds for retreat, and I don’t see how I could come up with that money in a year, so if your budget allows, I ask you to hold me your compassion once more. I will certainly give it all in this retreat and I have the strong aspiration that my practice develops strong and firm enough so that I may come out ready to serve others in whichever way is appropriate.
Although I have studied Buddhist philosophy for more than three decades and have completed a lot of translation work over the years, I have always felt that scholarship was not precisely my calling. While all of my efforts, especially developing the Tara Triple Excellence program, have undoubtedly benefited myself and others, I do not feel completely satisfied.
Furthermore, I know that I do not want to die as an ordinary being. If I were to die today, I would die with regret in my heart and with the fear of not knowing what awaits me. Also, right now I cannot help my parents and others the way I would like to. Therefore, I am inspired to put all of my energy into retreat in order to translate my conceptual learning into direct embodied experience.
I have completed a three month retreat nearly every year since 2016 and have always felt that 90 days was too short to gain complete stability in practice. Now my teacher, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, has given me permission to enter a three-year retreat and I feel overjoyed by this opportunity to make my life truly meaningful. +
Hello, my name is Melizza, I am Venezuelan, from a small mountain town called Trujillo and at 28 I went out to look for opportunities for a quieter life and today I have been living in Madrid for eight years.
I am a girl with a lot of energy and desire to help the planet and every being that exists. So many have been my desire that I have discovered that the best thing I can do to help all beings is to be in the energy of love and within that path, I have also discovered that I must listen and look at the mind with great care and a lot of peace and that leads to an intense and concrete discipline that would be silence and meditation, I do not have spiritual studies, I only have one desire that my heart tells me and that is to live the path of Dharma. I have abandoned all my material possessions with the company of Barbara and with only one suitcase for each one, full of a lot of faith and love we went out to seek guidance for this path of introspection and without realizing it but with eternal happiness and gratitude, we have been living in Caneto-Huesca for a month sharing with incredible and beautiful people and with the guidance of Lama Tsultrim, I am looking forward to continuing to enrich my being with love and inner wisdom. I feel that this is the place for me, for that I am super grateful and opting for a scholarship with all the joy of knowing that there are people like you who believe in people like me and help them on their path of inner knowledge, I thank you very much. +
All my life, from a very young age, I have questioned the reason why we are here, our existence in this world, in this life. And collecting all my experiences in this life, they have led me to different answers and to question many other things. Little by little I was collecting information until I had almost completed the puzzle and I saw that the basis of everything is the most tender and pure love. I love unlearning and learning new knowledge and concepts, and applying them through practice.
One of the reasons why I want to do the retreat is because of the practice of silence and introspection, which together make a great symphony. And I am clear that I am in a perfect and beautiful place to carry out this practice. Lana Tsultrim, welcomed us from the beginning with all the love and we thank him very much, he is a great master.
You should consider my request because both my partner (Melizza) and I arrived here with the heart, jumping into the void and having great faith that everything would go well and that it is even better than we could ever imagine. We are very grateful for all this path that we have dared to undertake without fear, openly and that they have told us about your scholarship, it is incredible, because we did not know anything either, we feel very lucky, regardless of what your final decision about our case is . Thanks a lot. +
Dear Tsadra foundation team,
I take this chance to share with you my short story, full of blessings and devotion
Ever since I met Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, after a long inner search, I understood that I had finally met the teacher and the tradition I could entrust my path to. Suddenly, my path shifted sharply and I devoted all my time and resources to serve, study, and contemplate the Dharma wholeheartedly.
When I met Rinpoche, he pierced my heart with his gaze and words, and he made me understand that my path in this life was to serve the world directly with my activity. This memory inspires me in the path to be a lead for action and change through contemplative education, science, and arts.
Over the years, I am understanding that this fervent wish to benefit others, can only go together with genuine love, compassion, and insight that I must cultivate first for myself from within, and then learn to expand widely so it encompasses ever being and thing.
In this opportunity I want to dive very deep into the waters of my own being, and from there, grow the wisdom and skilful means that can truly bring about benefit to this world.
Through my personal experience in retreat, I have understood how mountain retreat works and how much I love it. I benefit greatly from this setting.
The time I have spent in retreat has been incredibly meaningful to me, and I simply want to continue this path, which I appreciate with all my heart. I am very aware of how fortunate I am, I am very greatful to my Guru and Sangha.
The right conditions are presenting in front of me, and I embrace this adventure full of joy and wander. (and a bit nervous, I must admit!)
Even though my path in solely Buddhist practice is short, I have been working on myself since a very young age, and I feel ready for this journey.
Rinpoche's words when I asked him if I was ready to finally be part of the three-year retreat were: “Yes, you can do retreat, and you have my blessings”. I trust in him with all my heart, as well as Lama Tenzing Sangpo, I sincerely admire what an amazing practitioner he is.
As the resident nun in the Pyrénées, Ani Sangye, said to me lately: "You have the only important thing for this retreat 100% in your favor. Rinpoche believes in you and sees that you will do great in 3 years, so that is enough to trust".
Devotion, renuntiation and a wish to be of genuine benefit are the strenghts I count on.
I reach to you because I need the support from the Tsadra Scholarship. I will be working hard for all this year, but right now, with the path I have chosen of volunteering and retreating, my means barely cover my basic needs. I will be taking a few jobs and volunteering to fundraise for the project itself (construction and so on), so you count on my word that I will do a joyful effort to make this retreat possible for me and for all the group.
I thank you in advance,
Sincerely,
Lorena Carazo
I was born in 1971 in communist Albania to Greek parents. Due to my family having a history of not being supporters of the communist regime, in 1986, military trucks came to our house and transported our entire family, at gunpoint, to a small village at the foot of a mountain, far from our home, and told us that we had been sentenced to stay in exile for five years. In 1989, this sentence was reduced and we were allowed to return home. One month after our return, at the age of 18, I escaped from Albania to Greece. Escaping from Albania was not an easy task. the Greek-Albanian boarder was closed off by fences with sensors, and many traps. Many people who tried and got caught were tied behind military trucks and dragged on roads through villages as an example of what happens to the enemies of communism.
The US Embassy in Greece gave me political asylum, and I went to new York. The people who I met in New York, and was able to communicate with, I only spoke Greek and Albanian at the time, were in illegal business. I saw no other choice but to do what they did. In 1996, at the age of 25, I was arrested, and in 2000 was sentenced to 42 1/2 years to life in prison. I knew then that I would spend the rest of my life in prison. I decided that I would give myself entirely to the Buddhist study and practice. For many years I studied and meditated for seven to eight hours a day. In 2008, I did over 150,000 prostrations in my cell over a period of several months. I facilitated Buddhist classes, and led meditation retreats.
My main aspiration during my twenty years in prison was to be able to participate in a three year retreat under the guidance of a qualified teacher. I remember calling upon all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas asking them to bless me that my karma may shift so that I may get out of prison to do such a retreat. Knowing how tricky the mind can be, I also asked that if they could foresee that if I get out I would not continue the practice, that they may create obstacles so that I may never get out but continue to practice in prison.
After many years, my karma shifted. A very serious violation by the District Attorney that had occurred during my trial was discovered. After several meetings between my attorney, the district attorney, and the judge, it was agreed that my sentence be reduced, and I be released from prison.
I believe, therefore, that I have no other reason for being out here other than participating in this three year retreat, and continuing thereafter practicing the dharma in order to realize my true potential to benefit living beings.
I greatly appreciate your time in reviewing and considering my application
Even though I'm a Spiritual Daughter of a Cocama Cocamillo Medicine Family Lineage, it took me a long time to figure out the meaning of being a Medicine Woman and how to cultivate the path. Last year I lived a particularly intense learning process because my limitations to integrate movement keep pushing me around mind loops of deciding a guru, a yana, a main cicle of teachings to practice, deciding between dharma and medicine... When I finally decide to let everything go, and live in the present, Mountain Dharma unfolds by itself.
I first raised the aspiration to do a 3YR at Lapchi, and commit to come back once I am ready. In 2019 I had a dream about helping someone in a 3YR, and when I found out about Gomde's 3YR after receiving Chöky Nyima Rinpoche blessing, I moved there in October with the motivation to help with the project.
My aspiration is to serve Ati yoga transmission. I don't have the clarity to know what will benefit beings the most. I had glimpses of the path, I've seen Rinpoche sphere of enlightened activity, an unshakable sun of effortless compassion, exhausting phenomena, holding the supreme light of Ati Dzogpa Chenpo on the planet. I have no doubt that there is no difference between his mind and the mind of my guru.
During 2021 every time I got involved inner obstacles started coming to surface. So this year at the mid of 3MR When I was asked to help the 3YR Fundraising Team again, I was not sure if I had the stability needed for such a commitment to work again with the blood of the sangha. I had previously proposed myself to be a 3YR helper, and since I was on the waiting list for several months I already let it go. In February, Gomde resident nun told me she thought that I should do the retreat instead of help, so I felt that I needed to ask Rinpoche.
I thought his answer was going to take several weeks. But it took less than a week. I can not conceive why he thought I'm ready to do retreat. I'm extremely grateful for all the blessing and the learning I receive from Gomde and from the lineage. And I do know that is an amazing opportunity to repay the endless compassion of all my teachers.
Even though I'm aware I don't fulfill all the scholarship requirements, to consider this application is a way of recognizing all the lineages that walk within me, and to help me serve Chögyal Namkhai Norbu vision for the future of Ati Yoga transmission.
Not only material support, to honor the endless effort of the Sangha, to manifest Rinpoche's vision for the future of Dharma or realization in the West, I want to do retreat with the resolution to accomplish the state of the mind of my guru.
Dear members of the Tsadra foundation,
My name is Guillaume, or ཀ་དག་ in the Dharma environment. I am 37 years old and I have had a pretty smooth and enjoyable life until now. I have lived the classic french life: studying, working and starting to build a family. After a major love relationship for almost ten years, twelve years working in different companies and living in a very nice area close to friends and relatives, I finally realized that happiness and suffering are little dependent on external situations. Rather, it is mainly due to my state of mind. Then I got interested in meditation and discovered the Buddha’s teachings.
I realized that whereas I have all the freedoms and qualifications of the precious human life I have been wasting it with mundane activities of little benefit for my fellow living beings. I started to shift my focus to look inside and began practicing meditation regularly.
I am very lucky to have met a great Dharma center, Karma Ling and the Shangpa lineage with a French fully-qualified lama: Denys Rinpoche. Aware of impermanence, I know those are rare conditions that might change quickly. Therefore, I need to practice intensely and to practice now.
Realizing interdependence I want to be more conscious of my mind and body actions in order to stop creating more suffering and to help liberating all being from samsara.
I have a very strong confidence in the three Jewels, the three Sources, and the clear light. I am deeply convinced that practicing Dharma and integrating it thoroughly to my life is the most important thing to do. I am very inspired by those great lamas who gave their whole life to benefit all living being, especially his holiness the Dalai-lama, Vajradhara Kalu Rinpoche, my root lama and all the masters of all traditions who helped preserve and spread the teachings. My deep gratitude goes to them all.
The three-year retreat will give me an ideal environment to practice, far from the immensity of distractions that our occidental environment presents. It will enable me to face myself completely and to really contemplate the workings of my mind. Also it will give me a good introduction to the advanced meditations of Vajrayana and especially the Shangpa lineage ones. Thus I will be able to understand what practice suits me best so that I can keep on practicing it all my life.
I got prepared in many ways for this three-year retreat, and also financially. Though I saved some money and found support among my family and friends, a part of my retreat budget is still lacking.
The Tsadra foundation is a blessing for western practitioners like me, helping people completing their long-term contemplative retreat in good conditions. I would be honored and very grateful to be selected for the Advanced Contemplative Scholarships.
From heart to heart,
Tashi delek
Guillaume Ducrue / ཀ་དག་ཀུན་ཁྱབ
My teacher, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, recommended that I enter a long-term retreat while I was on a two-month retreat last winter. I was surprised at this invitation, as it is rare that he extends this offer personally. He said one sentence has stayed with me and supports my motivation to go into long-term retreat. "If you wish to really study the Longchen Nyingtik lineage and commit yourself to be a practitioner, then this is the time for you to do it. If you want to do it, you should do it now." I believe it is a rare opportunity when motivation, aspiration, and conditions all align for retreat. Rinpoche, in his way of genuinely guiding his students, was correct. This is the perfect time for me to dedicated a period of my life to study and practice, as I do not have any personal, financial, health problems, and family issues that would take me from the retreat. I feel very grateful for this very rare and auspicious opportunity. I find that this time in retreat is dedicated to purification and realization, all held within the container that Rinpoche has created here at Samten Ling.
At the time of writing this letter, I have been on retreat for 3 months. My time has been fruitful and I have been progressing steadily in ngondro. I am currently in Vajrasatta, and I hope to complete all of my accumulation in the next 8 months. I would also be able to start the sadhana retreats once ngondro is complete. These retreats are 100 days in length, and Samten Ling is the recommended retreat center to complete them.
We also know that the path is not best suited to hard stiving, and I try to keep this in perspective when my practice revolves around accumulation. Outside of being able to fulfill my practice commitments, I find that the container that is Samten Ling is the best environment to see myself clearly, and with the support of the sangha and my teacher, to do the hard work of uprooting karmic patters and realizing the nature of my mind, and its brilliance which is always available. I find the practice here is to be one of purification and acclimation of merit. With the support of the Tsada Foundation, I would be able to stay in retreat for a much longer time to fulfill my heart's calling. To realize the precious Dharma teachings I have received and make the most of my short human life.
I have received countless Wang's, Lung's and Tri's as well participated in countless short retreats, teaching seminars, online seminars, online Tara Triple Excellence programs and so on over the past 15 years that I feel it is a total waste if I don't seriously dedicate more time now trying to put them all into practice and start peeling off more and more of my still so many layers of negative Karma & Klesha's. Since my worldly habits are still very strong and I feel the only way for the teachings to penetrate the core of my being is to now put my Dharma-Lazy-Self into a serious long retreat. I have faced so many terrible difficulties and unbelievable obstacles in the past 4 Years of my life and have the strong conviction that they all are pushing me towards a long term retreat and showing me the defects of samsaric activities. I hope that with this retreat I will be able to put all that I have learned so far into practice, and that it will make me a calmer, kinder and more compassionate person so that after the retreat I will be able to dedicate more time of this life and to better serve Rinpoche, the Dharma and our Sangha. +
