On the morning of Chokhor Duchen these were some of the butter lamps at Palyul Retreat Center in upstate New York. These inspire me!
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Sorry for the long delay in posts, working on some life stuff. Funny how life seems to always get in the way. Anyway a couple weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity of attending teachings by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche in Bozeman Montana. And it was one of the best experiences of my life.
First, I have never been to Montana and really didn’t know what to expect. I did wiki Bozeman and found out the town had less then 40K people. Small town compared to the Denver area but it didn’t seem small at all. In fact Bozeman reminded me of Boulder (minus the Republic). A friend and I flew in together Saturday morning and were greeted by Khonchog Norbu who was kind enough to show us some of the town before the afternoon teachings.
The teaching schedule was great, Saturday afternoon was the Bodhisattva vow as well as teachings on them, followed by refuge vows for the new Sangha members (congrats to them). Sunday was an outer and inner 21 Tara empowerment, and the following teachings were on Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche’s “Extracting the Essence of Accomplishment” (see Wisdom Nectar) Absolutely wonderful teachings and Khenchen Tsewang is so wonderful to hear teach. Now this would normally be enough for a great weekend retreat but Montana would surprise me even more.
When I first spoke to Konchog about coming for the teachings he recommended that I might want to stay in the retreat apartment at the center as I wouldn’t need to rent a car and all the other hassles that go with visiting places. And this was the first big Montana surprise, the retreat apartment is amazing. Fully furnished kitchen, bathroom, a room with a shrine and views of the mountains which were spectacular (that is a picture from my window). When I saw the apartment I was shocked that it did not have a year long waiting list! Everything you need for a nice week to many months long retreat is right there. It really felt like stepping into a comfortable, familiar home and at $60 per night, complete quiet, and a beautiful view, if heaven is a place then I was there. But wait it gets better, the Montana Sangha has to be one of the nicest groups of people I have ever met. Everything and everyone was calm and relaxed and they made me feel at home. No stress in the Big Sky country.
This was simply one of the best weekends I have had in a very long time. Words here don’t really do justice to describe the experiences that I had. I really feel like I have made some great new friends in Montana and I would suggest that if you want a great solitary retreat space, that is the place to go. But if there are teachings and I will be going then I call dibs on the apartment, okay just kidding (maybe). I want to say thanks to Konchog for the great recommendation, lunch, for showing me the mountains and thanks to Linda, Rebecca, Beth, and everyone else in the Montana sangha. Thanks for a great weekend!
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