Hollow Bamboo Dharma is a path of meditative inquiry designed to liberate the radiant human through reawakening the ex-static nature of body, mind, and consciousness. Its practices promote both physical and emotional healing as well as profound spiritual transformation.
During this intensive retreat we will explore sitting meditation as a mudra of radiant awakening, taking us down through layers of resistance, transforming thought into felt, radiant presence. As our primary guide for our practice we will pay particular attention to honoring the energies of the nagas that live inside each and every one of us, waiting so patiently to be liberated and freed.
The Nagas were pliant and fluid creatures whose bodies undulated as they moved through space. Often depicted as snakelike, their watery nature gave them great powers as they ventured forth from their natural habitat in oceans, rivers, and lakes to interact with humans on dry land.
Instead of sitting on your cushion like a stone garden statue of the Buddha, we let ourselves enter into a surrendered dance of balancing instead. When you truly let go, your body starts making subtle, spontaneous movements, undulating from breath to breath, releasing the rigidities that keep you locked inside your thinking mind.
The goal of this intensive retreat is nothing less than opening to a direct experience of The Great Wide Open, our radiant birthright state. To this end, we will explore sitting and lying down practices, working with kasinas and sound, and transforming the stone garden statue of the Buddha posture into the altogether natural practice of resilient, relaxed wakefulness.
In the Mucalinda Sutta, the great Naga king protected the Gautama Buddha from tropical rains after his enlightenment. This powerful icon is prevalent at Angkor Wat, where one finds the most sublime and happy Buddha statues. Nagas represent currents of force and power moving through channels in space. Our bodies are composed of numerous channels, including the digestive tract, the nervous system, respiratory, lymphatic, and circulatory systems. Life itself is sustained by these flows, interconnecting, sustaining, and unifying the body. Instead of striving for stillness and emptiness, awareness can merge with these flows, transforming stifling stasis and pain into a healing union with the dynamic energy of life itself. Thoughts and beliefs about any separative “I am” dissolve into the tangible experience of the Great Wide Open. We call this Nagadharma.
This retreat is cannabis optional. If you prefer not to use THC as an enhancer for the practices, that is fine. If you want to experiment with using small amounts of cannabis to enter into the practice, instruction, and guidance on how to do this will be provided. The teaching of Hollow Bamboo Dharma is exactly the same whether you use plant allies or not.
Tuition Cost: $1998
For questions, as well as information about traveling and lodging, contact Team@Sunyata.info
