A special retreat lead by Dolpo Tulku Rinpoche and Dr. Ian Baker

In this special event at Nøsen you have the chance to learn Tibetan Yoga from two exceptionally skilled scholars and practitioners, Dolpo Tulku Rinpoche and Dr. Ian Baker. For the first four days Rinpoche will teach the outer practice of Gek Sel (purification of obstacles) and Guru Yoga. You will then receive initiation into Tummo (the practice of inner fire, which we will practice for the remaining three days. Supported by the insightful expanations of dr Ian Baker, this retreat offers a unique glimpse into the mighty and powerful tradition of Tibetan Yoga.

What you will learn

23-27 July Nam Chõ Guru Yoga

Dolpo Tulku Rinpoche will give essential instructions on the practice of the Tsa Lung Guru Yoga from the Nam Chö (Sky Dharma) tradition. This practice begins with learning how we can appreciate and develop self-love and generate love and compassion. Then it will show us how we can develop our positive actions thereby generating positive merit for our future life by doing these good actions. Next the practice will instruct us how we can purify and reduce our negative emotions and how we can enter ultimate meditation by mingling our mind into the nature of reality.

27-30 July Tummo initiation and practice

After the first four days, students will be offered the option to take initiation into the inner Tummo practices of the channels and winds, which they will practice for the remaining three days. Dolpo Tulku Rinpoche will introduce us to the first Trulkhor of the three main exercises from Tsa Lung practice. This practice can help us open our channels and deepen our meditation and mind training. It is a complete cycle of practice and - if continuously performed and applied - can lead us to enlightenment.

*Students who want to opt out of taking initiation may leave on the 27th, learning only the outer yogic practices, that are powerful tools in themselves!

About Tibetan yoga

Hatha Yoga that was brought to Tibet from India around the 8th century developed its unique flavors and techniques in meeting with the Buddhist tradition. Imbued with the emphasis on compassion and communal liberation, that forms the core of Buddhist practice, these Yogic techniques gained enormous popularity and formed a parallel tradition to monastic Buddhism that has flourished until this day.

Tibetan yoga is founded on the view that all beings possess an unlimited enlightened potential, however obscured it may be by layers of afflictive emotions and conceptual ideas. The core of our obscuration is neurotic grasping to an imaginary “self,” something we impose upon our ever-changing stream of consciousness. This problematic and painful grasping is propelled even more today by an extremely individualistic oriented culture, in which external appearances and individual “success” has become the common pursuit.

Unlocking our human potential

Opposed to the competitiveness and hostility that we as humans often express, we are as a species, naturally compassionate and designed for co-operation and mutual caregiving. The Tibetan yogic exercises teach us to re-establish and embody our connection to all living -to our bodies, to nature and to other beings. This connection shifts our sense of identity from the individual to the communal good, something that is crucial for overcoming the global challenges we are facing today. These techniques, of which many were traditionally kept secret, are therefore now given freely to the public for the first time. This new openness surrounding the Tibetan Yoga tradition is, according to H.H. The Dalai Lama, for the mutual benefit of individuals and society at large. These practices do, however, require a degree of initial understanding, which is why a so-called empowerment or initiation is required.

Your teachers:

Dolpo Tulku Rinpoche also called Tulku Sherab Zangpo, was born into a Lama family in Dho Tarap, Dolpo, in 1982. He became a monk at Kanying Shedrub Ling Monastery, Nepal, at the age of 9 in 1991 and was recognized by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche to be the reincarnation of the third Dolpo Nyingchung Drubthob. He was then sent to Namdroling Monastery, India, to receive his monastic education under the guidance of Penor Rinpoche. In 1997, when he was just 15 years old, he entered the prestigious monastic college of Namdroling Monastery where he studied, debated and researched the sutra and tantra teachings of the Buddha for ten years. Finishing his advanced Buddhist studies in the year 2007, he was appointed as a full-fledged teacher at Ngagyur Nyingma Institute. Since then he has reached a status equivalent to a university professor.

His Holiness Penor Rinpoche himself instructed him in the practices of the Namchö Cycle, which combines the practices of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Dolpo Tulku now transmits these precious teachings to a growing international sangha in Germany Switzerland and the United States.

Dolpo Tulku also runs several humanitarian projects in his home province, Dolpo, one of the poorer regions of Nepal. The Dolpo Tulku Charitable Foundation has the main aims to promote improvement of health care, protection of the environment, and an effective combination of modern and traditional education for the Dolpo population.

Rinpoche has visited Nøsen on two previous occasions when he due to his vast knowledge, humanity and kindness towards all beings, quickly became a much loved and respected teacher!

Read more about Rinpoche here: https://www.dolpotulku.org/en/dolpo-tulku-2-2/dolpo-tulku-biography/

Dr. Ian Baker studied art history, literature, and comparative religion at Middlebury College, Oxford University, and Columbia University and Medical Anthropology at University College London. He is an international fellow of the Explorers Club and was honored by National Geographic Society as one of six ‘Explorers for the Millennium’ for his ethnographic and geographical field research in Tibet’s Tsangpo gorges and his team’s discovery of a waterfall that had been the source of myth and geographic speculation for more than a century.

Ian Baker is the author of seven critically acclaimed books on Himalayan and Tibetan cultural history, environment, art, and medicine including The Heart of the World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place, Celestial Gallery, The Tibetan of Art of Healing, and The Dalai Lama’s Secret Temple, a collaborative work with His Holiness The Dalai Lama that illuminates Tantric Buddhist meditation practices. Ian’s latest book, Tibetan Yoga: Secrets from the Source will be published in 2016. Ian has also written for National Geographic Magazine and has contributed to academic journals in the fields of Tibetan yoga and physical culture in Vajrayāna Buddhism.

This retreat is hosted by www.onyoga.no. (https://www.onyoga.no)

Questions regarding the content of the retreat: ellen@onyoga.no

Retreat Schedule (tentative)

July 23

15.00 - 18.00: Arrival and check in
18.00 - 19.00: Dinner

July 24 - July 30*

06.30 - 08.30: Wake up from slumber of ignorance, Nine fold purifications, Breathing, Breath and yoga with stretching
09.00 - 10.00: Breakfast
10.00 - 11.30: Teaching
12.00 - 13.00: Breathing exercises
13.00 - 14.00: Lunch
15.30 - 16.30: Review class
16.30 - 18.00: Lecture on Tibetan Yoga - historical and cultural perspectives
18.00 - 19.00: Dinner
19.00 - 20.00: Discussion
On July 27 there will be an empowerment after lunch. Students who do not wish to take the empowerment and the remaining three days, may leave after lunch on the 27th.

July 30th

06.30 - 08.30: Wake up from slumber of ignorance, Nine fold purifications, Breathing, Breath and yoga with stretching
09.00 - 10.00: Breakfast
10.00 - 11.30: Teaching
12.00 - 13.00: Breathing exercises
13.00: Lunch and departure.