29th Kagyu Monlam Akhshobhya retreat

16 February, 2012
 

The Retreat

 

This year’s retreat, under the guidance of His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa was held from 31 January 2012 to 21 February 2012 at Tergar Monastery, Bodhgaya. The retreat forms an essential part of the preparations for the Akshobhya Fire Ritual on the penultimate evening of the annual Karma Kagyu Monlam Chenmo. The retreat is held in the shrine room opposite His Holiness’ residence on the roof of the temple at Tergar. While people often express an interest in joining the retreat, they are allowed to join only at the personal invitation of the Gyalwang Karmapa himself.

This year, there were twenty participants, mostly drawn from Kagyu centers in Canada; these included three laywoman and a Tibetan layman. Originally, this special retreat was restricted to gelong (fully ordained monks) who had at the very least completed the traditional three-year retreat. His Holiness’ decided to extend it to laypeople in 2009.

Akshobhya is one of the five Dhyani Buddhas. In Tibetan, he is known as Mitrugpa, the one who never becomes disturbed by anger or aggression. According to the story, Mitrugpa was originally a devout practitioner, a gelong, who asked, “What is the most important thing to do in order to attain enlightenment?” and the answer given was, “Don’t get angry! Don’t let your mind be disturbed!, and so he vowed “From this moment on I will never get angry with anybody,” and hence he became known as Mitrugpa – the one who is never disturbed – until, eventually, he became the Buddha Mitrugpa. Gyalwang Karmapa had said during the teaching he gave on Atisha’s Lamp for the Path that the story of Mitrugpa had powerfully helped him deal with a tendency to be short-tempered.

According to the Buddhist teachings, the present age is one of degeneration when all beings in the cycle of existence (samsara) are suffering because of negative thoughts and actions. The Akshobhya ritual is a very powerful purification practice done for the benefit of all sentient beings. It can liberate not only the practitioners themselves from the fear of an unfortunate rebirth, but other beings as well. The Buddha Akshobhya promised that the merit generated by reciting one-hundred-thousand of his long dharani mantra and making an image of him could be dedicated to other people, both living and dead. This would assure their release from lower states of existence and rebirth in spiritually fortunate circumstances. Gyalwang Karmapa has commended this practice as very suitable at a time when negative forces are increasing in the world.

The participants were very pleased to be part of the retreat. “I have never received such teaching and transmission in my life and it was an amazing opportunity,” said Lama Pema from Vancouver, Canada.

“I am absolutely overwhelmed and I could see how I was improving everyday intellectually but also in terms of experience. Everything is absolutely amazing, and spectacular. It is beyond what I had expected,” said Lama Tenzin Dakpa, president of Karma Sonam Dargye Ling in Toronto.

The retreat concluded on the evening of the 21 February with a short fire puja. All the retreatants will also participate in the Akhshobhya Purification Fire Ritual during Monlam.

 

Report by Tsering Namgyal, photos taken by Karma Lekcho