Crestone Open Retreat – In Person

This open retreat is appropriate for both beginners and advanced students alike, and has no prerequisites for attendance. The curriculum follows a progression through Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s Fully Being practices, including Dropping, Handshake, Essence Love, Gentle Vase Breathing, Shamatha, and Vipassana. It typically culminates with Rinpoche giving the pointing out instructions to nature of mind, and follow up teachings on Dzogchen-style meditation. While the subjects may be familiar to those who have received teachings from Tsoknyi Rinpoche before, Rinpoche is constantly updating his teaching methods and perspective, offering new practices and teachings with each successive retreat.

REGISTRATION

Registration for this retreat will open on Saturday, March 15, at 8am Mountain Daylight Time (see time converter here). Due to the popularity of this retreat, we expect that it will fill up quickly, and we encourage you to register as early as possible. Please visit this page at that time in order to register, and click the “Register Now” Button to the right. The ability to be added to the waitlist will remain open until August 1st, 2025.

Registration will be filled on a first come/first served basis. Once the capacity is reached, a waitlist will be started. Some spots will be held in reserve and allocated to people on the waitlist based upon the following criteria: monastics, those who are dying or very ill, those who have never received pointing out instructions before, and those who are new to Tsoknyi Rinpoche.

Those on the waitlist will be accepted as cancellations arise in a first come/first served manner, just like general registration. If you are offered a place in the retreat off of the waitlist, you will have one week to confirm your registration before your spot will be given to somebody else.

Couples will be allowed to register together and have their acceptance in the retreat linked. Membership discounts will apply, so have your code ready when you register.

In order to allow the most possible people to have a retreat with Tsoknyi Rinpoche, we ask that you limit yourself to only one in-person Crestone retreat. Only once the waitlist has completely emptied will we offer spots to those who express an interest in attending both retreats (we will ask about this on the registration form).

Please do not book lodging until your retreat registration is confirmed.
If you make travel reservations before you are officially registered, you are responsible for changes or cancellations that may need to be made.

PRICE AND REFUND POLICY

The tuition fee for the retreat is $400, payable in full at the time of registration. Scholarships are available for those unable to afford the full tuition (see below for details). Monastics will also have a registration option available.

The tuition fee includes all teachings and programs during the retreat. It does not include housing in Crestone, transportation to and from Crestone or the Yeshe Rangsal Retreat Land each day, or food and other expenses.

Refunds will be available for any reason, minus a $50 administrative fee, up until August 1st, 2025. To cancel your registration and request a refund, please send an email to registrar@pundarika.org.

SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION

In order to make the dharma as accessible as possible, the Pundarika Foundation will be offering scholarships for this retreat. In order to apply for a scholarship, please register as normal and select “scholarship” as the payment option. The fee charged at registration will be $50. After you have registered with the scholarship option, the registrar will contact you via email to gather the details of your scholarship application.

In general, scholarships are awarded based upon these criteria:

• Serious or life threatening medical conditions that create a financial hardship
• Currently enrolled higher education or professional education students without the resources to pay in full
• Other serious financial need

The funds available for scholarships are limited. After the scholarship applications have been received, a committee will award the scholarships based on need and availability of funds. Applying for a scholarship does not guarantee you will receive one, although of course we will do our best to help all those in need. If you do not receive a full scholarship, the registrar will contact you and ask you to pay the remainder of the registration fee. Scholarships are awarded to cover the tuition cost of the retreat, but do not cover lodging, transportation, or food costs for the retreat.

ON-SITE CHECK-IN AND SCHEDULE

Onsite check-in will be from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. MDT on August 19th at the Yeshe Rangsal tent site.

Orientation begins in the Yeshe Rangsal tent at 4:30 p.m. followed by the first teaching by Tsoknyi Rinpoche at 5:15 p.m. On subsequent days there will be one 2-hour teaching in the morning, a recap of the teachings in the afternoon, and four meditation sessions daily. Each retreatant will be able to attend one small group audience with Rinpoche to ask practice-related questions.

This retreat formally ends around 1pm on August 25th. A more detailed daily schedule will be sent to those who are registered.

For more information about Crestone retreats, please visit the Participant Information Page on our website.

The Membership Program library has many full retreats and guided meditations, and also comes with a discount toward programs such as this retreat.

Rinpoche also offers an in-depth and practical online course on how to develop a grounded body, open heart, and clear mind: Fully Being.

Should you have any questions about this retreat, please contact the Registrar, Andy, at: registrar@pundarika.org.