Karmê Chöling : Meditation Retreat Center

Deepen Your Mindfulness/Awareness Meditation

A meditation retreat can be a turning-point for a practitioner. It is a profound and transformative experience of self-discovery.

During this program, the practice of mindfulness goes beyond sitting on a meditation cushion. Every aspect of daily life becomes part of the mindful discipline of rediscovering now and opening your heart and mind.

Join us at our Buddhist meditation retreat center in the Green Mountains of Vermont. During this beautiful time of the year our community of meditators will encourage and support you in your journey of profound personal growth.

Join us this summer for empowerment, teachings, and practice on Medicine Buddha. Anyen Rinpoche continues a tradition begun long ago by his Lama, Tsara Dharmakirti Rinpoche, who realized the Medicine Buddha practice and used it to heal not only himself from cancer but also countless others from mental and physical illnesses. We are happy to have the opportunity to share this special practice and tradition with all who attend!

This unique and extremely powerful empowerment has its origin in both the Kama tradition and the Terma’s pure vision tradition. The empowerment text itself was revealed by the renowned master Yutok Yonten Gonpo. The empowerment text states that “this empowerment pacifies the eight great fears and increases life-span and good qualities.” The short Medicine Buddha liturgy we will use is extracted from Mipham Rinpoche’s Condensed Medicine Buddha Sadhana.

By focusing ourselves completely on this practice, we not only increase our love, compassion, and ability to benefit others but also touch others directly through the power of this sadhana— which has healed countless beings since it was composed. Anyone with a sincere wish to heal or be healed is welcome to attend.

With deep understanding, dedication to Kado Ikebana and sitting meditation of practice, it is possible to become peace. By being peace itself, we can heal imbalances—mental and physical—within ourselves, towards others, and in our relationship with nature. Harmony follows restored balance bringing goodness to ourself, home, community and planet.

Kado practice can open us to universal wisdom that is inherent in all sentient beings. By touching into universal wisdom and letting it be the guide, it's possible to experience daily life with less confusion, stress, and anxiety. This can give our response to constant change and challenges in life to be more accurate moment to moment.

Kado developed in China approximately 2300 years ago as an example to understand “The Tao” or "The Way” …..meaning the way of all life.
The ancients recognized that every living being possesses innate wisdom. Natural branches or flowers are living beings, therefore are embodied wisdom. In Kado practice they serve as outer examples offering students the opportunity to recognize and experience their wisdom within directly while practicing form.

With time, practice, and patience, Kado has the potential to open the human mind-heart and bring it into balance. Students can realize that all sentient beings, not just nature, embodies innate wisdom.
It exposes the belief that we are "separate from nature" as a false view. Kado practice can show the practitioner that each branch or flower in an arrangement needs to communicate to all that is around it in order for the larger totality to come into balance, which means to be in communication with other, to commune with all. This can be understood as a metaphor or sane example for the self or for healthy human society.

But a Kado Ikebana is not a metaphor for nature.

A well done example is the truth of nature itself, simply participating in the moment without self consciousness. The practice can provide experience in realizing that trying to change, dominate, or control any situation inner or outer is ultimately hopeless usually concluding in disaster. It shows mindless action with no consideration for other, also results in disaster or confusion at the least.
But it does not condone patterns that cause harm or discord. A large part of the practice is learning to cut away the necessary or destructive.
Human beings are a very small part of the larger cosmos and subject to all natural law. Kado Ikebana teaches natural law as it’s an expression of natural law.

Two Schedules Available:

September 5 - 7:
This initial weekend portion of the program is an excellent place to start if you are new to the practice or curious about it. You can register just for the weekend on this page.

September 5 - 10:
For those people who would like to go into the practice in greater depth, click on the link to register for the full 5-day retreat. This retreat goes three additional days beyond the weekend.

Look up at the clear night sky and we will see a myriad of lights against the darkness of the mysterious Void. We see the order of the constellations and the chaos of galactic dust. We see the waxing and waning moon, a reminder that all things must come and go and that change is an inherent part of the universe. We see the yin of darkness, chaos, and concealment. We see the yang of light, order, and growth. Look at the night sky, and you will see the Tao.

Taoism is a star culture. The stars are the abodes of celestial spirits that guide, bless, and protect us. They also hold the secrets of our destiny. Understand the patterns of the night sky, and we will understand ourselves and our place in the world.