Programs, Events & Retreats

2024 Programming Calendar Click Here

Upcoming Programs

Master Class Course V with Lama Surya Das "The Liberating Dharma Explained in Fives, Sixes and Sevens" Sessions #1 thru #8

Start
14 Sep 2024

End
05 Apr 2025

Location
Zoom

Register

The Liberating Dharma Explained in Fives, Sixes and Sevens

As Buddha Took Seven Steps after Being Born…

Join one of the most highly respected meditation masters in the West for his fifth 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. All sessions are recorded for on-demand viewing and download.

Session #1 - 9-14-24 - Six Kinds of Mindfulness

Session #2 - 10-19-24 - Five Hindrances to Meditation, and Progressing Through the Eight Jhanas

Session #3 - 11-16-24 - Atisha’s Seven Points of Attitude Transformation and Mahayana Mind Training

Session #4 - 12-7-23 - DogZen: Lama Surya with guest teacher and author Lewis Richmond, Sensai

Session #5 - 1-11-25 - Six Paramitas and the Bodhisattva Way

Session #6 - 2-8-25 - Five Kleshas Arising as Five Wisdoms

Session #7 - 3-8-25 - Five Kayas, the Five Buddha Families, and the Five Natural Elements

Session #8 - 4-5-25 - The Seven Factors of Enlightenment: Ingredients in Buddha’s Recipe for Awakening

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

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Master Class Course V with Lama Surya Das - Session #1 ~ Six Kinds of Mindfulness"

When
14 Sep 2024

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Location
Zoom

Register

Session #1
Six Kinds of Mindfulness

Saturday, September 14, 2024
11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

Cultivating mindfulness and moment to moment present awareness helps calm, center and ground the mind, relax and enlighten us, thus allowing the light of insightful wisdom to emerge. When I become clearer, everything becomes clearer. Often missing from the popular understanding of mindfulness today as nonjudgmental presence of mind are the positive qualities traditionally taught in the original Pali sutras including also openness, friendliness, recollectedness and remembering (“remindfulness”), as well as concentration, focus, and recollecting the ethical karmic implications of what is observed and arises. Much of this can be seen as implied in the Tibetan word Drenpa, the ancient translation of the Pali sati and Sanskrit smriti or mindfulness and recollection.

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 2024 through April 2025. 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.

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Day-Long Live Virtual Meditation Retreat

When
21 Sep 2024

9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Location
Zoom

Register

Awake and Aware

Twenty-six hundred years ago the Buddha himself said
anybody could become awake, liberated, enlightened.

Day-Long Live Virtual Meditation Retreat
with Lama Surya Das

Saturday, September 21, 2024
9 AM to 4 PM

(This is a reschedule of June 8th, those registered
for that date do not need to register again.)

Sangha Live, Living Community

Thich Nhat Hanh says the Buddha of the future, Maitreya (loving-kindness,
friendliness), is the Sangha Community. What could be more inclusive
and egalitarian than that? Sangha practice and community are like
the third jewel of the Buddhist Refuge we rely on.

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

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

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Master Class Course V with Lama Surya Das - Session #2 "Five Hindrances to Meditation, and Progressing Through the Eight Jhanas"

When
19 Oct 2024

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Location
Zoom

Register

Session #2
Five Hindrances to Meditation, and
Progressing Through the Eight Jhanas

Saturday, October 19, 2024
11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

In meditation, awareness of the Hindrances can help guide and deepen our practice while liberating us from the defilements obscuring our clear and luminous heart-mind (chitta). The jhanas are profound and powerful, subtle states of progressively developed meditation, like super-samadhis or supreme concentrated absorptions, where the mind is free from craving, aversion, sloth, agitation and doubt while abiding absorbed in interiority and rapture. They are sometimes taught to be the best way to develop heightened metta, lovingkindness and benevolent friendliness.

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 2024 through April 2025. 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.

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Dzogchen Center 2024 Fall Awakening Meditation Retreat- Litchfield, CT

Start
27 Oct 2024

3:00 PM

End
01 Nov 2024

1:00 PM

Location
Wisdom House, Litchfield, CT

Register

Fall Awakening with
LAMA SURYA DAS

We are so excited to welcome you to our annual
Silent Fall Meditation Retreat at our new retreat venue,
Wisdom House in beautiful Litchfield, Connecticut.

Join Lama Surya Das for 6 days
of spiritual exploration and awakening to the joy
of naturally-arising timeless awareness,

Our daily program includes Tibetan Energy Yoga, Guided Meditation
and Refuge sessions, DharmaTalks, Teachings, Spiritual Music
and Chanting, with lively Lama led Q & R sessions.

Registration fees (double room accommodation and meals) is
$1139 for members and $1247 for non-members for this six-day retreat.
Private room upgrade is available during the registration process.

Traditional dana (donation to the teacher) in honor of the teachings, can be offered.

Please note:
October 27th Check-in takes place from 3 PM to 6 PM.
November 1st Departure takes place after lunch (around 1 PM.)

COVID-19 and Cancellation Policies for Residential Retreats

* The Dzogchen Center & Foundation reserves the right to review
and approve all event/retreat registrations

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Master Class Course V with Lama Surya Das - Session #3 "Atisha’s Seven Points of Attitude Transformation and Mahayana Mind Training"

When
16 Nov 2024

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Location
Zoom

Register

Session #3
Atisha’s Seven Points of Attitude Transformation
and Mahayana Mind Training

Saturday, November 16, 2024
11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

The Seven Points of Mind Training (lo-jong, in Tibetan) begins with entering into meditation, and then riding the breath, and furthermore into sending and receiving, putting oneself in another’s place, exchanging self and others, and other ways and means to reduce dualistic clinging and overcome attachment and aversion, reverting the tendency to cling to the desirable and resist and push away the undesirable based on our own subjective interpretation and habits. Progressively contemplating the 59 wisdom slogans of the great Indian Pandit Atisha who brought it to Tibet in the 11^th Century, we learn how to work skillfully with adversity and trauma, carry our practice into daily life, and train and sustain our sterling aspirations, commitments and precepts for unselfish attitude transformation. These seven points offer us a way to pause, reflect and awaken along the path, training and taming the wild mustang that is our mind and energy into a powerful steed capable of carrying us far along our altruistic, compassionate, wise and skillful Bodhisattva Way.

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.

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Master Class Course V with Lama Surya Das - Session #4 "DogZen: Lama Surya with guest teacher and author Lewis Richmond, Sensai "

When
07 Dec 2024

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Location
Zoom

Register

Session #4
DogZen: Lama Surya with guest teacher
and author Lewis Richmond, Sensai

Saturday, December 7, 2024
11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

Dzogchen and Zen, Mahamudra and Dzogchen, Dzogchen and Vipassana – same, different, other… This fascinating area of Buddhist contemplative practice traditions significant in the Western World will be discussed by these two senior Elders, lineage holders and 55-year Buddhist meditation practitioners.

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 2024 through April 2025. 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.

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Master Class Course V with Lama Surya Das - Session #5 "Six Paramitas and the Bodhisattva Way"

When
11 Jan 2025

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Location
Zoom

Register

Session #5
Six Paramitas and the Bodhisattva Way

Saturday, January 11,2025
11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

Shantideva’s The Way of the Bodhisattva is one of the most meaningful classic texts in Tibetan Buddhism, often quoted by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. These panacean virtues are transformative practices that comprise the Bodhisattva Code and the Mahayana Path to Enlightenment. In his book, Buddha Is As Buddha Does, Lama Surya elucidates the six and ten paramitas and their outer, inner and secret subtlest levels, one by one—including the lesser known tenth virtue to be cultivated and realized, jnana paramita, or pristine primordial awareness-wisdom.

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 2024 through April 2025. 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.

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Master Class Course V with Lama Surya Das - Session #6 ~ "Five Kleshas Arising as Five Wisdoms"

When
08 Feb 2025

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Location
Zoom

Register

Session #6

Five Kleshas Arising as Five Wisdoms

Saturday, February 8, 2025
11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

As Gampopa and Longchenpa have taught and prayed: “Bless and empower us that our hearts and minds turn towards the Dharma; Bless and empower us that our Dharma practice becomes the path. Bless and empower us that the path dispels confusion; Bless and empower us that confusion itself dawns as primordial awareness.” Dzogchen is often taught and explained based upon that fourth, profound, nondualistic and mysterious line.

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 2024 through April 2025. 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 V with Lama Surya Das - Session #7 "Five Kayas, the Five Buddha Families, and the Five Natural Elements"

When
08 Mar 2025

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Location
Zoom

Register

Session #7
Five Kayas, the Five Buddha Families, and the Five Natural Elements

Saturday, March 8, 2025
11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

If as ‘tis said in the Tantras, “Our body is the temple, our heart-mind the deity in residence. Every tiny piece is singing with bliss.” Thus, the five dimensions of Buddha-body (kaya) manifesting as the five styles or Buddha Families externally corresponding to the five natural elements, the five skandhas of individuality, and the five directions of the pentagonal mandala of Vajrayogini, as splendidly expressed in her clarion cry: “The whole universe is my body, all beings my heart-mind.” This is the basis for yidam and Mahamudra practice as well as assuming your Buddha Seat, natural meditation, the Practice of Presencing, Dzogchen trekchod meditation (“seeing through”), nowness-awareness practice, and coming home to your true self and innate Buddha-nature.

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 2024 through April 2025. 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 V with Lama Surya Das - Session #8 ~ "The Seven Factors of Enlightenment: Ingredients in Buddha’s Recipe for Awakening"

When
05 Apr 2025

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Location
Zoom

Register

Session #8
Five Kayas, the Five Buddha Families,
and the Five Natural Elements

Saturday, April 5, 2025
11 AM to 1 PM ET (US East Coast Time)

If as ‘tis said in the Tantras, “Our body is the temple, our heart-mind the deity in residence.” Thus, the five dimensions of Buddha-body (kaya) manifesting as the five styles or Buddha Families externally corresponding to the five natural elements, the five skhandhas of individuality, and the five directions of the pentagonal mandala of Vajrayogini, as spledidly expressed in her clarion cry: “The whole universe is my body, all beings my heart-mind.” This is the basis for yidam practice as well as assuming your Buddha Seat, natural meditation, nowness-awareness practice, and coming home to your true self.

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 2024 through April 2025. 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

Lama Surya Das Website