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Programs, Events & Retreats



Remaining 2023 Programs Click Here

2024 Programming Calendar Click Here


Upcoming Programs

  • Master Class Course IV with Lama Surya Das "Awakefulness: Basking in the Sunlight of Awareness" Sessions #1 thru #8

    • 04 Nov 2023
    • 13 Apr 2024
    • 6 sessions
    • Zoom
    Register


    "Awakefulness: Basking in the Sunlight of Awareness"

    Join one of the most highly respected meditation masters in the West for his fourth Master Class course and experience a deeper exploration of your contemplative practice. This 8 session journey is focused on strengthening your meditation practice and furthering self-knowledge and wise discernment.

    The master classes are open to new and seasoned practitioners in any spiritual tradition.

    Each class runs from 11 AM ET to 1 PM ET and includes an introduction, guided meditation, teaching, Q & R, and concluding remarks. The course may be purchased as a whole- all 8 sessions, or as individual sessions. 

    • Session #1 - 9-9-23 - Assume Your Buddha Seat: The Art and Practice of Presencing (completed- recording available)
    • Session #2 - 10-14-23 - How to Be a Bodhisattva: The Ten Paramitas from Generosity to Primordial Wisdom       
    • Session #3 - 11-4-23 - Green Buddha: caring, selfcare and beyond
    • Session #4 - 12-9-23 - Practicing with My Teachers: Nyoshul Khenpo, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche, 16th Karmapa           
    • Session #5 - 1-20-24 - Upeksha: Resting in the Great Equanimity
    • Session #6 - 2-10-24 - Mudita: Rejoicing in the Sacred Joy of Naturalness and Ordinariness
    • Session #7 - 3-9-24 - Tonglen: The Mutual Reciprocity of Sending and Receiving  
    • Session #8 - 4-13-24 - The Kayas: Intermingled Awakefulness of Our Buddha-Bodies

    Full descriptions for each class can be found on our Master Class webpage here

    Show details

  • Day-Long Live Virtual Meditation Retreat

    • 06 Jan 2024
    • 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register


    TRAVEL LIGHT, LIGHT BEARERS!
    Being Buddha 24/7 in 2024

    Day-Long Live Virtual Meditation Retreat
    with Lama Surya Das

    Saturday, January 6, 2024
    9 AM to 4 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

    Enter the New Year with a renewed sense of direction and more peace in your heart. This retreat will focus on discovering how to apply the Dharma in daily life. Being Buddha, light bearers, awakeners of wisdom and compassion-in-action, we follow in the Buddha’s footsteps.

    In these turbulent times, one wonders if the world is on fire - like a boiling ocean of suffering and confusion, as spiritual traditions have often told us. Haven’t we always been in a dire situation on one hand, as well as a miracle and blessing on the other? In the Diamond Sutra, Buddha taught on the eight similes of illusion: Thus shall you view this world: like a dream, a fantasy, a mirage, flashes of lightning in the summer sky, clouds passing, dewdrops evaporating on blades of grass, sitcom, and a hallucination…. Everything changes. It’s not what happens, but what we make of it that makes all the difference.

    Lama Surya will offer teachings, guided meditation, prayers, chanting and Q & R.

    Our live retreats are open to new and seasoned
    practitioners in any spiritual tradition.

    For more information, including schedule, please visit our website here.

    Show details

  • Master Class Course IV with Lama Surya Das - Session #5 "Upeksha: Resting in the Great Equanimity"

    • 20 Jan 2024
    • 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register
    Session #5
    Upeksha: Resting in the Great Equanimity


    Saturday, January 20, 2024
    11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

    Equanimity is one of the four faces of Buddha’s Love, the ‘Four Boundless’. Practicing equanimity is the practice of resting in the View, beyond attraction and aversion, at home and ease on our Buddha ‘seat’. Who do you think you’re not?!

    Equanimity is the place from which the other three arms, loving kindness, compassion, and empathic joy manifest. Equanimity inspires loving kindness and furthers patience. Empathic joy restores equanimity. As we look into the qualities of equanimity, we also discern what it is not – its near enemies - not complacence, indifference, sluggishness nor laziness. We will engage in guided meditation in the practice of equanimity and explore the cultivation of this profound aspect of Buddha’s Love. “Beyond action and inaction the sublime
    Dharma is accomplished.” ~Patrul Rinpoche

    Each session topic is unique; it is not necessary to have attended other sessions.

    The virtual Master Class course consists of 8 individual live virtual classes held one Saturday each month, September 2023 through April 2024. Each class has an introduction, guided meditation, teaching, Q & R, and concluding remarks. Participants may purchase the entire course (8 sessions), or choose the individual topics they prefer.

    All sessions will be recorded and available for download and on-demand viewing.

    Show details

  • Master Class Course IV with Lama Surya Das - Session #6 "Mudita: Rejoicing in the Sacred Joy of Naturalness and Ordinariness"

    • 10 Feb 2024
    • 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register
    Session #6

    Mudita: Rejoicing in the Sacred Joy of Naturalness and Ordinariness


    Saturday, February 10, 2024
    11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

    Mudita, or empathic joy, is one of the four arms of Buddha’s Love. Boundless, sympathetic joy in the benefits of others. Cultivating Mudita enhances our ability to see and appreciate the fullness of our interbeing with everyone and everything in everyday world. As Buddha taught, each facet of his all-embracing love is without boundaries and sacred joy is the birthright of each and all of us. Let’s explore empathic joy as it stirs us to equanimity and is nourished by compassion. We will engage in guided meditation on sacred joy, awe and related mysteries. “Since things are not what they seem to be, beyond good and bad, liking and disliking, adopting or rejecting, one might as well burst out laughing.” ~Longchenpa

    Each session topic is unique; it is not necessary to have attended other sessions.

    The virtual Master Class course consists of 8 individual live virtual classes held one Saturday each month, September 2023 through April 2024. Each class has an introduction, guided meditation, teaching, Q & R, and concluding remarks. Participants may purchase the entire course (8 sessions), or choose the individual topics they prefer.

    All sessions will be recorded and available for download and on-demand viewing.

    Show details

  • Master Class Course IV with Lama Surya Das - Session #7 "Tonglen: The Mutual Reciprocity of Sending and Receiving"

    • 09 Mar 2024
    • 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register
    Session #7

    Tonglen: The Mutual Reciprocity of Sending and Receiving


    Saturday, March 9, 2024
    11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

    Our very being is one of reciprocity – tonglen – the sending and receiving of breath, of energy, or prana. When I see myself in others and others in myself, who can I harm, who exploit? If we want peace, we become peaceful; if we value kindness, we offer kindness. Recognizing the wise, transcendental generosity of sending and receiving is the practice of Dzogchen. Whatever arises, that is it. Not two, but rather natural ebb and flow of the Natural Great Perfection. Tonglen is the ready responsiveness of our ever already complete Buddha Nature. Let’s look deeper into our illusion of separateness, into the nature of heart and mind, body and soul and practice simultaneously resting in the View with guided meditation in nondual awareness, the beingness of sending and receiving.

    Each session topic is unique; it is not necessary to have attended other sessions.

    The virtual Master Class course consists of 8 individual live virtual classes held one Saturday each month, September 2023 through April 2024. Each class has an introduction, guided meditation, teaching, Q & R, and concluding remarks. Participants may purchase the entire course (8 sessions), or choose the individual topics they prefer.

    All sessions will be recorded and available for download and on-demand viewing.

    Show details

  • Master Class Course IV with Lama Surya Das - Session #8 "The Kayas: Intermingled Awakefulness of Our Buddha-Bodies"

    • 13 Apr 2024
    • 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register
    Session #8

    The Kayas: Intermingled Awakefulness of Our Buddha-Bodies


    Saturday, April 13, 2024
    11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

    As with a crystal, our Buddha Nature can manifest and be illumined and diffract different colors of ‘light’ as the Three Kayas of Buddha: the Buddha Body (nirmanakaya), the Energy Body (sambhogakaya) and the Truth Dimension (Dharmakaya). Not separate things, the kayas are intermingled aspects of awakefulness of Buddha Mind, of the true nature of Being. We will explore each of these three kayas and practice a guided meditation including all facets, or ways of Seeing and Being. Emaho! Ah, the awesome wonder of this momentary, magical display.

    Each session topic is unique; it is not necessary to have attended other sessions.

    The virtual Master Class course consists of 8 individual live virtual classes held one Saturday each month, September 2023 through April 2024. Each class has an introduction, guided meditation, teaching, Q & R, and concluding remarks. Participants may purchase the entire course (8 sessions), or choose the individual topics they prefer.

    All sessions will be recorded and available for download and on-demand viewing.

    Show details


Private Teaching Sessions with Lama Surya Das


Lama Surya Das offers private teaching sessions throughout the week conducted via Zoom.
All sessions are offered at a professional hourly rate in one hour segments, allowing students
the opportunity to discuss personally how to progress on their spiritual path through mindfulness
instruction, self-inquiry, the development of altruism, and by bringing Liberating Dharma wisdom
into their daily lives. Students receive guidance with their meditation practice, spiritual direction,
advice on resources, and are free to discuss challenges they are facing.

If you are interested in booking a private session with Lama,
please email Kathleen Albanese for rates and availability at kathleen@surya.org




Meditation Town Hall

Our treasured Dzogchen wisdom tradition teaches that we are profoundly, inseparably
interconnected–with all the challenges and joys that entails. This is more apparent than
ever in the current global pandemic. During this time we are deeply aware of our need for
community, and for connecting to that which is larger and longer-lasting than our current crisis.

Please join Lama Surya Das and our community for this FREE weekly offering.

EVERY SUNDAY from 11:00am - 12:00pm (U.S. Eastern Time) 
Click Here for ZOOM REGISTRATION

Lama Surya will lead us in meditation and prayers and offer a short teaching.
This event is open to all and free of charge; donations to support Dzogchen Center
are gratefully accepted. We invite you to send any questions you would like
answered during the hour session to foundation@dzogchen.org.
Lama Surya will try to respond to as many as possible.


Payment Policies

The following terms apply to retreats and events:

Residential Retreat Payments

  • A deposit of $500 is required in order to register for a residential retreat.
  • Alternatively, the registration fee may be paid in full upon registration.
  • Payment of the required deposit must be made by credit card at the time of registration. Failure to make a deposit payment will result in the cancellation of registration.
  • Registrations not paid in full at least four weeks prior to retreat are subject to cancellation.

Cancellations for all Retreats and Events

  • All Virtual retreats and events are recorded and therefore, non-refundable, unless cancelled by the Dzogchen Center. Those registered are sent the recording after the event ends.
  • In the event of cancellation more than six weeks prior to the start of the relevant residential retreat, all deposits will be refunded in full, less an administrative and processing fee of $100. Any amount paid in excess of the deposit will be refunded. 
  • In the event of cancellation less than six weeks prior to the start of a residential retreat, the full deposit amount will be forfeited. Any amount paid in excess of the deposit will be refunded. 
  • If neither payment in full nor notice of cancellation is received by Dzogchen Center at least four weeks prior to the start of a residential retreat, any amount paid will be forfeited.
  • Credit balances cannot be applied toward future retreats but will be applied to the Dzogchen Center & Foundation Scholarship Fund for in-need students. This donation is tax-deductible

Thank you for acknowledging these terms. and assisting in keeping these precious Dzogchen Retreats financially sustainable.


Any Questions?

You can reach us at foundation@dzogchen.org


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