Vajra Vega Wheel of Protection: Fierce Kalachakra Empowerment & Retreat with Khentrul Rinpoche and Robert A.F. Thurman

This event is available both In-person and Online.
This page is for Online registration only. If you wish to register for the In-person event, please click here.

Learn the Most Powerful Spiritual Protection Practice Done before the Kalachakra Empowerment

Vajra Vega, the wrathful form of Shri Kalachakra and the King of the Wrathful Deities, is the protector aspect in Kalachakra. There are many benefits to establishing a connection with Vajra Vega. The essence of Vajravega is that he represents the non-conceptual primordial wisdom that arises when the winds enter the central channel. This is the method by which the root ignorance of conceptuality is cut. It is also the basis or container where the precious six vajra yogas arise. When we establish a wheel of protection with Vajra Vega, we are symbolically stopping the arising of dualistic appearances and abiding within the non-conceptual wisdom. Vajra Vega is considered the King of Spiritual Protection, and his 60 retinues are incredibly powerful.

Khentrul Rinpoche has never before agreed to bestow this practice on students before keeping it to a very limited number. This powerful practice forms a vajra-protective sphere containing Vajra Vega and 60 protectors. It is performed at the start of a Kalachakra empowerment ceremony to secure the space. It is also done in some of the extensive Kalachakra Sadhanas. Robert Thurman requested the VajraVega Jenang and other special practices on the mind Mandala. For this reason, Yeshe Wangmo requested Rinpoche grant this wheel of protection practice that is so special and rare. Khentrul Rinpoche agreed to give this specific practice especially due to Robert Thurman’s initial request for Vajra Vega.

Who is Vajra Vega?

For those joining in person, there will be several in-person-only activities. Retreatants will be a part of creating the empowerment mandala and tormas of the retinues as well as a King of Kalachakra Fire Puja, among other exclusive offerings.

It is very important and special for us to connect with this aspect of Kalachakra in our lifetime to benefit from the connection in the Bardo state after death. While we must do our best to create karmic propensities to realize our own sacred truth during this life, if we do not then in the Bardo state after death, we may be able to recognise Vajra Vega in the sea of wrathful Deities and be liberated. For this reason, we also have several smaller practices that can help increase our connection and familiarity with Vajra Vega.

Mudra and ritual instruction classes will be led by Yeshe Wangmo.

Included in the Retreat both Online and In-Person
– Vajra Vega Jenang (wrathful Kalachakra) Blessing Empowerment
– Oral Transmission and practice text of Praises of Vajra Vega
– Oral Transmission and practice text of Short Practice of Vajra Vega
– Oral Transmission and practice text of Vajra Vega’s Wheel of Protection Sadhana
– Khentrul Rinpoche will give a short Commentary on the Wheel of Protection Sadhana
– Teaching by Bob Thurman
– Teaching on Dharma Protectors and the importance of their rituals
– Lesson in how to make the torma and tea offering to Dharma Protectors
– Specific Mudras related to Vajra Vega and the Wheel of Protection
  and the 12 Kalachakra Offerings according to Jonang
– Instruction on how to perform the ritual with the mudras are lead by Yeshe Wangmo

Included In-person Retreat Only
– The King of Kalachakra Jinsek Fire Puja
– Torma Making Class – Vajra Vega’s Retinue and Vajra Vega’s Torma
– Sand Mandala Construction

WHO CAN COME
In-Person students must have already taken the Kalachakra Empowerment (wang) or plan to take it in the future. The participant must already believe that the Kalachakra tantra is an important practice they wish to continue with in this life. Khentrul Rinpoche is being generous in offering the in-person attendees the opportunity to attend this retreat even just with the intention to take it in the future, rather than insisting on prior initiation as is customary

Online participants must have already taken the Kalachakra Wang before. 

OPTIONAL SUPPLIES TO BRING
-Damaru
-Bell and Dorje
-Serkyem (Golden Tea Offering Set)

HYBRID FORMAT
This workshop will be online and in person. Oral transmissions and empowerment must be received in real-time (i.e. not via video replay). Recordings will be added to learn.dzokden.org after the retreat. Everyone enrolled in person or online will be able to access the course. 

ABOUT KHENTRUL RINPOCHE
Shar Khentrul Jamphel Lodrö Rinpoché spent the first 20 years of his life herding yak and chanting mantras on the plateaus of Tibet. Inspired by the bodhisattvas, he left his family to study in various monasteries under the guidance of over twenty-five masters in all the Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Due to his non-sectarian approach, he earned himself the title of Rimé (unbiased) Master and was identified as the reincarnation of the famous Kalachakra Master Ngawang Chözin Gyatso. While at the core of his teachings is the recognition that there is great value in the diversity of all spiritual traditions found in this world, he focuses on the Jonang-Shambhala tradition. Thought to be extinct by many Western scholars, he found it held the most advanced teachings of Kalachakra (wheel of time), containing profound methods to harmonize our external environment with the inner world of body and mind.

Since 2014, he has traveled to more than thirty countries, guiding students to realize their own sacred truth of limitless potential through a clear, systematic step-by-step presentation of the Kalachakra Path to enlightenment. By teaching people how to cultivate a flexible mind and remove bias, Khentrul Rinpoché aspires to create compassion-based communities, transforming this world into a golden age of global peace and harmony.

ABOUT ROBERT A.F. THURMAN
Robert A.F. Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, President of the Tibet House U.S., a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization, and President of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies, a non-profit affiliated with the Center for Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and dedicated to the publication of translations of important artistic and scientific treatises from the Tibetan Tengyur.

Source: https://bobthurman.com/biography

Schedule by Timezone

CENTRAL EUROPE AND SOUTH AFRICA
*This schedule is for Online sessions only. For the complete list of In-person schedule, please refer to the In-person registration link above.
TUESDAY August 20, 2024
1:30 AM – Welcome Teaching on Kalachakra, the Path and how Vajra Vega and Protectors fit in (Thurman & Khentrul Rinpoche)

WEDNESDAY August 21, 2024
1:30 AM – Teaching on Vajra Vega, Protector Deity, and Forms of Protection on the Spiritual Path
3:30 PM – 6:00 PM – Vajra Vega Initiation (Rinpoche)
10:00 PM – 12:00 AM (THURSDAY August 22, 2024) –Introduction to the Mahāyāna Philosophical Support for Kalachakra and the role of Kalachakra as Vajravega (Bob Thurman)

THURSDAY August 22, 2024
1:30 AM – Practice session & Oral Transmission of Praises of Vajra Vega and on Short Sadhana (Khentrul Rinpoche & Yeshe Wangmo)
3:30 PM – 6:00 PM – Oral Transmission and Intro to the Vajra Vega Wheel of Protection Commentary (Khentrul Rinpoche)
10:00 PM – 12:00 AM (FRIDAY August 23, 2024) – Vajra Vega Sadhana Practice and Lesson on Making Torma and Tea Offerings (Bob Thurman and Yeshe Wangmo)

FRIDAY August 23, 2024
1:30 AM – Vajra Vega Sadhana Practice (Yeshe Wangmo)
3:30 PM – 6:00 PM – Continued Commentary on Vajra Vega Wheel of Protection (Khentrul Rinpoche)
10:00 PM – 12:00 AM (SATURDAY August 24, 2024) – Vajra Vega Sadhana Practice (Bob Thurman and Yeshe Wangmo)

SATURDAY August 24, 2024
1:30 AM – Vajra Vega Sadhana Practice (Yeshe Wangmo)
3:30 PM – 6:00 PM – King of Kalachakra Fire Puja Jinsek (Rinpoche)
10:00 PM – 12:00 AM (SUNDAY August 25, 2024) – Wheel of Protection Practice (Bob Thurman and Yeshe Wangmo)

SUNDAY August 25, 2024
1:30 AM – Kalachakra, Peace and the Golden Age (Rinpoche and Bob Thurman)
3:30 PM – 6:00 PM – Final Practice Session (Rinpoche/Bob Thurman/Yeshe Wangmo)

Financial aid for online attendance
Email [email protected] to request further financial aid. You must clearly state your financial reasons for needing the scholarship and your qualifications, as this is a supplementary practice as well as very unusual if not unheard of to be offered. 

QUESTIONS?
Please email [email protected]