September 2025 Retreat

Finding Our Center of Stillness
September 18-21, 2025
Retreat in Maine

 In the midst of a tornado there is a still, peaceful center.

In the midst of a tornado there is a still, peaceful center. Spend four days with Khenmo Drolma at Pilgrim Lodge discovering how to return home to your inherent peaceful heart/mind. Khenmo will offer classic meditation and mindfulness training in a beautiful lakeside setting. You will learn skills to navigate the chaos of life while dwelling in calmness, replete with resilience and authentic joy. This is the home that nourishes you and brings great benefit in all your relationships.                                                           

       You will learn:                                         

  • Calm abiding meditation for all levels of experience  
    • Begin, stabilize, deepen
  • Exercises to decrease reactivity
    • Guided meditation steps to see how we increase our emotional response to situations and how to deescalate
  • Techniques to increase gratitude and compassion 
    • The practice of offerings as an opening to abundance and reciprocity       
Click here to go to Registration

Designed for Modern Students: Khenmo presents meditation in clear, accessible steps with relatable examples of how to incorporate what you are learning into your daily life. You will understand why each step is effective and how you can practice it on your own.

Rooted in Tradition: The curriculum has its roots in the great philosophical understandings of all Buddhist traditions and the Drikung lineage of Tibetan Buddhism that reaches back from teacher to teacher to the Buddha.

Comprehensive: Khenmo offers classic retreat instruction appropriate for beginners and advanced students. In retreat, your practice expands in depth as you mature in understanding. 

About Contemplative Retreats

Traditionally, retreats begin at sunset and conclude in the early morning. We combine Dharma talks and sitting meditation. The last session will incorporate a time for questions. In this way, you can relax your discursive mind during the retreat. We conclude with a “Dana” offering to Vajra Dakini Nunnery to support the work of Khenmo and Vajra Dakini to bring the Dharma to us and as many as we can reach with our unique programs.

What to Expect 

Transportation Sangha members will heo participants getting to and from Pilgrim Lodge

Daily Practice

We combine Dharma talks, sitting meditation, and walking meditation. Chairs and cushions will be available. Over the course of the retreat, Khenmo will guide students in a progressive understanding of meditation. Although we are in silence, you can write meditation questions for Khenmo at any time.

The retreat will be conducted in silence or limited functional talking. You will want to gently inform your family, friends, and co-workers that for this short period of time, you are unavailable. (With the exception for those who are caring for elders or small children who need a daily call) During free time, you are encouraged to walk outside if you can. During retreat you are setting aside news and entertainment including social media; perhaps select one relevant book to enhance your understanding of the retreat’s topic between meditation sessions.

Accessibility: Chairs and/or cushions can be used.  The Lodge is suitable for elders and those with walking difficulties but is not is not wheelchair accessible. If you have movement difficulty please let us know so that you can be housed close to the meditation room and dining room. There is a short uphill walk to the dining room and we can arrange a car for the short distance if necessary.

Shared Rooms

The rooms are simple and rustic.  We will have shared rooms. (Only bottom bunkbeds!) There is a wood stove if the weather is cool.

Food

Pilgrim Lodge will serve healthy vegetarian meals. There will be sufficient varieties so that vegan dietary needs are accommodated within the meals as prepared.  If you are following an unusual diet, you can store limited supplemental food in the dining area in plastic containers that you bring with you. At times, the facilities may be shared, and in this case, meals will be staggered so that we can maintain silence while eating.

A view from the porch at Pilgrim Lodge

Costs and Dana

Cost: $625  

Please register now to reserve your spot. Early registration allows us to confirm our use of Pilgrim Lodge. A deposit of $250 is due before June 14.  Vajra Dakini can return your deposit, less administration fees, only if you notify us before June 14th. Your application is not complete until we receive your $250 deposit. For those using paypal please include the paypal deduction making your deposit as $258.  

Financial Transparency There are costs involved in presenting programs: room board and infrastructure. 

Program Fee (VDN Direct Expense): $275 per person

Pilgrim Lodge Cost (Room and Board): $350 per person

We want all who are interested to be able to attend. We have a limited number of scholarships, please inquire: admin@vajradakininunnery.org

In addition to the direst cost of the program, a dana offering is invited at every retreat. The Dana offering helps the Dharma continue; unbroken in every generation.

Dana: Rather than paying for teachings, one enters into a circle of generosity called “dana”. Dana offers us the privilege and opportunity to take part in an important tradition, making offerings with gratitude. Khenmo and all monastics commit by vow to freely offer their time, wisdom, and teachings without material compensation. Thus, we create a circle of gratitude by providing their necessities for sustaining life – food, shelter, and the funds needed  to meet their obligations as  Buddhist scholars and teachers. Further we sustain the Vajra Dakini residence/office to create and maintain Dharma programs.

Registration:  deposit of $250 is due by August 1, 2025.  The balance of $375 is due August 30, 2025.

We are open for registration until August 15th.

Payment can be made via PayPal. Please include the PayPal fees *$258)in your transaction so that Vajra Dakini Nunnery receives the full payment and add a note “September Retreat”.

Payment can also be made via check made payable to “Vajra Dakini Nunnery” and sent to P.O. Box 6135 Falmouth, ME 04105

Retreat September 18-21, 2025

Finding Our Center of Stillness

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We offer all our live-stream Dharma programs freely. We trust our generosity will be matched by yours. All donations are used to help support future offerings and activities for the benefit of all beings.

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