Sanctuary of Clear Light

The Tantric Perspective on Emptiness

During this year’s Labor Day Weekend Country Retreat Kadam Morten will guide us into the liberating wisdom of Emptiness.

Emptiness is how things actually are as opposed to how we currently perceive them to be. The reason we get so hung up on things is because we do not understand emptiness. At the moment, we develop strong attachment for what we perceive to be attractive, and strong aversion towards unattractive things, because we do not recognize that those attractive and unattractive characteristics depend on how we perceive the objects and not on the objects themselves. Recognizing that phenomena do not exist in the fixed way in which we perceive them allows us to let go of our negative grasping responses, and instead opens us to a whole new joyful and positive way of experiencing and living our life.

Buddha taught emptiness at many levels. The highest level, known as the union of appearance and emptiness, was revealed in Buddha’s Tantric teachings. Gaining experience of this profound insight helps us to integrate the spacious and joyful experience of emptiness into everything we do. This enables us to let go of old angers and hurts, to see our life afresh from a spiritual perspective, and opens us up to a completely pure way of viewing ourself and our world. Through the special and extraordinarily clear presentation of these teachings given to us by Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso we have the wonderful opportunity to immerse ourselves in this life transforming wisdom.

The retreat will combine guided meditations with talks, discussions and Q&As during the sessions. During the breaks there will be periods of silence in which to practice training in the teachings as well periods in which you can share experiences and connect with other practitioners. All of this in the powerful, blessed and beautiful environment of our Temple for World Peace.