Yuthok's Ati Yoga in Tuscany

Join us for 9 days dedicated to touching-in to the fundamental purity of our minds through the practice of Yuthok’s Ati Yoga.

Yuthok Yonten Gonpo was the highly realized 12th century master practitioner and doctor who developed the practice of Sowa Rigpa as well as the spiritual practices known as the Yuthok Nyingthik, or Heart Essence of Yuthok. Part of the Yuthok Nyingthik includes a cycle of Ati Yoga (Tibetan: Dzogchen) known as The Great Self-Liberation of Samsara and Nirvana. This retreat serves as a way of supporting practitioners of Ati Yoga found within the Yuthok Nyingthik as well as practitioners of other Ati Yoga practice cycles. It is an excellent supplement to the various year-long intensives based upon Dr. Nida Chenagtsang’s book, Mirror of Light: A Commentary on Yuthok’s Ati Yoga but is also open to new practitioners with a sincere motivation.

Participants will have the opportunity to engage in intensive practice of the classical Ati Yoga preliminaries such as rushen, the purification of body, speech and mind, the three gazes, various exercises training the three gates as well as the practice of trekchö. The practice of trekchö is essential to the practice of Ati Yoga. Trekchö aides us in ‘cutting through the hardness’ of our dualistic grasping so that we can experience and then repeatedly familiarize ourselves with our primordially pure nature. This practice is refreshingly – sometimes deceptively – simple and can lead us to directly experiencing the nature mind free from the play of afflictive emotions. Through the practice of trekchö meditation we can begin to familiarize ourselves with the view of the Great Perfection, or Ati Yoga, in a way that increases our understanding of mind and appearance while leading to the practical benefits of more embodied, less anxious, being.

In the morning of each day there will be an initial daily teaching session accompanied by a group practice session. The rest of the day will be divided into two practice sessions in which participants will engage in group practice sessions. There will be time for one 1:1 interview with Lama Justin for each in-person participant if desired.

For more details on pricing, lodging, and registration follow the link