Administration
Rigpa Australia aims at offering a new round of HR 2.0 every 2 – 3 years.
You are also welcome to join an already existing group depending on your previous studies and practices.
Please email Peter Brazier peter.brazier@rigpa.org.au to enquire about joining the Home Retreat.
Your Centre Manager can update your Admin & Care account for you, if you cannot access it yourself.
If you are moving countries and will be attending Rigpa courses and programs in your new country, the National Admin & Care Co-ordinator can transfer your Admin & Care record to your new country. Email us at contact-us@rigpa.org.au to make your request to transfer your record.
Yes. You will use a separate user id and password to access the Rigpa Online Courses (ROC) website.
Study
In Rigpa, a mandala refers to the classification of the curriculum appropriate for your level of study and practice. There are three Mandalas: Meditation, Ngondro and Dzogchen.
Your Mandala is recorded on your Admin + Care record by your local study co-ordinator. You Mandala is used to provide you appropriate study materials on our online platforms, such as Prajnaonline and Dharmakosha.
Yes. We have a video program on how to learn to meditate in 10 simple steps. You can view it at rigpa.org/what-meditation-really-is.
When you have time, you can also practice your meditation at our lightly guided 20 minutes a day online meditation class.
This program is for students who would like to follow the vast and unique body of teachings of Sogyal Rinpoche. It is embedded in the lineage of the Longchen Nyingtik and the teachings of the ‘Great Perfection’, as upheld by Sogyal Rinpoche; a dynamic, unbroken, living lineage of wisdom and compassion that leads us on a gradual journey from the foundational teachings through the three yanas (Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana), all the way to the path of Dzogpachenpo. For those who wish, this journey culminates with entry into the Dzogchen Mandala.
Three threads run throughout the program:
—the flavour of dzogpachenpo
—taming, working with and transforming this mind of ours
—integrating and applying the teachings to our lives and basic being so that we can become true embodiments of the teachings
Practical aspects
Home Retreat 2.0 takes seven years to complete. Each year consists of 32-36 course weeks with 30-45 minutes of daily study and practice (five days a week).
Students wishing to join the HR 2.0 need to be in a Rigpa mandala.
Students pay an annual fee of 175 Euros for the program.
The 'All Encompassing Path to Enlightenment' is the main study program for Rigpa Students. It includes monthly sessions with live teaching in person and online and weekly sessions of self paced learning. The program features presentations by some of Rigpa's leading teachers, including Patrick Gaffney and Ian Ives. The program is subtitled 'The Way of the Great Perfection', and follows the Buddhist path as taught in the Nagyur Ningma and Dzogchen Lineages, beginning with meditation and compassion and following on with instruction on practices for purification, guru yoga and other practices that are preliminary to instruction on Dzogchen Meditation. It draws on the work of great Buddhist teachers such as Ridgzin Jigme Lingpa and Patrul Rinpoche.
Rigpa's curriculum is infused with the Practice of Dzogchen Meditation, right from the start. However, the unique instructions on this practice are given only to students in the Dzogchen Mandala.
When you have completed a minimum amount of the Dzogchen preliminary practices, or Ngondro, you may be invited to join the Dzogchen Mandala. Then you may receive the special instructions unique to our lineage on the practice of Dzogchen. These rare instructions have been handed down from master to student over many generations.
The All Encompassing Path program leads you through the Dzogchen preliminary practices, or Ngondro. The Home Retreat Program supports you to complete the Ngondro and transition into the Dzogchen Mandala.
Yes. We offer courses on Death and Dying from time to time. There are two courses in particular that we offer: Compassionate Presence and It's Coming, You're Going, Ready or Not.
Our sister organisation, Authentic Presence, offers courses lead by senior educators in Death and Dying online from time to time.
If you are unable to afford the full fee for your accommodation for a residential retreat at one of Rigpa's retreat centres, you can apply for a grant of up to 50% to help support your retreat. The grant is provided by the Terton Sogyal Trust from it's Study and Practice Program.
You apply online directly to the Terton Sogyal Trust. First register for the event, but don't pay for your accommodation, simply note the total cost. Then apply to the Terton Sogyal Trust. You will need to provide details of your retreat, including the place where you will undertake the retreat, the cost of the retreat, including your accommodation, and a referee from Rigpa who can vouch for you. You will be notified of the outcome of your grant after the grant committee sits to review the latest applications.
Your grant will be paid directly to the retreat centre where you will do your retreat.
Yes. There is a copy of the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying available from Audible. It is narrated by Loraine Velez, an actress and experienced student of Sogyal Rinpoche.
Rigpa Senior Teacher, Alain Beauregard, himself a survivor of cancer, offers an online, self-paced course on healing, according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Practice
There is a guided practice of the Ngondro held every day and streamed via Zoom.
Please contact Rose Too rose.too@rigpa.org.au for details on how to join this practice.
Empowerment (Skt. abhiṣeka or abhisiddhi[1]; Tib. དབང་, Wyl. dbang, wang) or granting an empowerment (Skt. abhiṣiñca; Tib. དབང་བསྐུར་བ་, Wyl. dbang bskur ba) refers to the Vajrayana ritual which awakens the special capacity for primordial wisdom (Tib. yeshe) to arise in the mind of the disciple. It is called 'empowerment' because when we receive it, we are empowered to follow a particular spiritual practice, and so come to master its realization. It is said:
"In the Secret Mantra Vehicle, there can be no accomplishment without empowerment,
For that would be like a boatman without oars."
And also:
"Without empowerment there's no accomplishment;
You can't get oil from pressing sand."
It is important to receive a 'lung' or an oral transmission (sometimes called 'aural transmission' or 'reading transmission') from a teacher, in order to create an auspicious connection with a particular text or practice. In the case of tantric texts, such as sadhanas or commentaries, this transmission occurs once one has received the relevant empowerment.
The reading transmission is passed down from master to student when the student listens to the teacher reading a text for which he holds a transmission, ultimately going back to the author of the text. In this way, the student receives the blessing of the lineage without which he or she will not be able to understand the text fully in all its depth. Some teachers even consider it inappropriate to read a Dharma text for which one has not yet received a transmission.
When you have finished your Ngondro, you can move on to practice the three roots. In Rigpa, we study the following practices:
Lama practice - Rigdzin Dupa
Yidam practice - Vajrakilia
Dakini practice - Yumkai Deshin Gyalmo
There are many practices that you can do for the deceased. A simple practice you can do is called the Essential Phowa, or transference of consciousness, and you can read more about this practice in the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.
If you are studying the Ngondro, there is the Phowa at the end of the Longchen Nyingtik Ngondro.
Then there are practices of confession of misdeeds and purification that we can do for the dead. A very important such practice is Narak Konshak. This practice is done everyday by the Rigpa Sangha worldwide. You can sponsor this practice for your loved one and we will include them in our prayers.
And lastly, there is the practice of Dukngal Rangdrol, or Natural Liberation of Suffering, from the Heart Essence. This is a practice of Avalokiteshvara, or the Buddha of compassion. This practice is performed by our practice community in Lerab Ling and you can sponsor it on behalf of your loved one.