Jewel Heart Netherlands organises meditation and study retreats on a regular basis. They usually take place in the Jewel Heart centre in Nijmegen, Netherlands.
When our teacher Gelek Rimpoche was alive, he would try to visit the Netherlands twice a year. Now that he has passed, we hope to continue to organize our own retreats and invite teachers to share their knowledge of Tibetan Buddhist subjects.
Teachers who visited Jewel Heart Netherlands recently:
- April 2017: Chungtsang Rinpoche (from Drepung Loseling's Nyagre Khangtsen in India)
- October 2016: Dagyab Rinpoche (spiritual leader and founder of Tibet House, Germany)
- June 2016: Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams (founder of the Center for Transformative Change in Berkeley, California)
- June 2016: Glenn Mullin (tibetologist, author of Buddhist books and translator of classical Tibetan literature).
Our visiting Buddhist teachers come from various countries but often teach in English. If parts of the programme are in Dutch, we can try to arrange Dutch-English simultaneous translation. Our meditation and practice retreats are often led by English speakers. When retreats are led by Dutch senior sangha members, we may be able to make the retreat bilingual, depending on the number of non-Dutch speakers who want to take part.
Upcoming events are listed below. Please contact Jewel Heart Netherlands if you are interested in participating.
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Next retreat:
Thursday, August 10 until Sunday, August 27th
Yamantaka Mantra Retreat
Jewel Heart is delighted to offer a Yamantaka Solitary Hero close retreat. This retreat is rarely offered and will take place in the stunning Jewel Heart Center in Nijmegen (Netherlands) led by Ron Twisk, senior student of Gelek Rimpoche.
The retreat is open to anyone who has had a Solitary Hero Yamantaka initiation and attended classes of its accompanying commentary. Furthermore, this retreat requires a certain degree of an untroubled mind.
The base of the retreat is the recitation of the four mantras of Yamantaka. Participation counts as fulfilling one of the obligations of an official mantra retreat. The more one does the recitation while visualising, the more input one can get.
Program
We will start the day with the long sadhana of Yamantaka, up to the mantra recitation. This will be followed by reciting and visualizing, and we will close the session with the short sadhana. The next sessions will start and conclude with the short sadhana. There will be a minimum of four sessions per day. The last session of each day will be concluded by saying the long sadhana.
In the evening, there is a possibility to exchange experiences and ask questions. You can choose to do one extra session instead. It will also be possible to have an individual meeting with the supervisor of the retreat.
We want to offer participants a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere to give every opportunity for internalisation. To facilitate this, we will observe silence in the mornings until after lunch time. We will conclude the retreat with a fire puja.
After this retreat you qualify to conduct a Yamantaka self-initiation. Through a self-initiation, you can purify your vows and improve on your understanding of the meaning and quality of Yamantaka.
Five-day retreat
If you want to experience part of the retreat, you are welcome from August 10th to 15th. You will start together with the others but you will conclude your retreat after five days while the others continue. You will have done a small retreat of Yamantaka, but you will not yet qualify to conduct a self-initiation.
If you want to join the entire retreat, but it turns out impossible for you to participate from start to end, it is good to know that under certain conditions it is possible to begin the retreat at home. In this case: please contact Ron Twisk: ron.twisk@planet.nl.
Practical information
If you want accommodation in the center, we offer dorm beds and single or double rooms. However, their availability is limited. Furthermore, anyone can sign up for breakfast, hot afternoon meal and / or a small evening meal.
Suggested contribution:
Full retreat: € 150 members; 175 non-members; € 100 low income/students
Five-day retreat: € 60 members; € 75 non-members; 40 low income / students
Fire-puja: € 25 members; € 30 non-members; € 15 low income / students
Accommodation: € 10 per night (dorm bed); € 25 per night (single or double room)
Breakfast: € 7
Hot lunch: € 10
Evening meal: € 7
Jewel Heart has a solidarity fund. Those having trouble covering the cost, can rely on the solidarity fund.
You can register via the registration form on the website.
We appreciate receiving your application by July 15.