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“To bring practice into experience,
please, have perseverance in effort;
renouncing attachment,
stay put on a mountain; and also,
mentally renounce this life.”
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Help Lama Migmar Renovate and Improve
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Sakya Retreat Center
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Sakya Retreat Center Located
in Barre, MA
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Barre, a small colonial New England town settled in 1722, is located in the Nashoba Valley in central Massachusetts. In the past two decades, Barre has evolved as a well-known center for Buddhist study and retreat, housing the Sakya Retreat Center, the Insight Meditation Society and the Buddhist Study Center.
A tradition of emphasizing meditation retreats impelled the Sakyas toward founding the Sakya Retreat Center – the only Sakya retreat center on the east coast of the United States. The Retreat Center is nestled on 165 secluded acres of forest abutted by state conservation forestland. Located at the end of a mountainous private road, the Sakya Retreat Center offers a peaceful place to develop meditation and practice.
Once a rustic hunting camp, the property has been transformed to its present state, from a place of violent sport to an environment of spirituality, such as Santideva described when he said, “When shall I come to dwell in forests amongst the deer, the birds and the trees?”
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The Masters of the Sakya Retreat Center
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With the encouragement and blessing of the late Most Venerable Deshung Rinpoche, the Sakya Retreat Center was purchased in 1984. Subsequently, it has been blessed by other most prominent Sakya Masters.
In 1985, His Eminence Ludhing Khen Rinpoche, the head abbot of the Ngor lineage, performed the meditation retreat of Shri Hevajra and bestowed the Hevajra empowerment before teaching the Lam Dre (the Path and Result) for the first time in North America.
In 1988 His Eminence Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, head of the Tsar lineage, bestowed the Kalachakra Empowerment and its Six Branch Yoga, Vajrapani and Mahakala empowerments, and special teachings from the Sakyapa treasury of Lam Dre.
His Holiness Sakya Trizin, head of the Sakya lineage, visited in 1989, consecrated the site with a Fire Puja, and bestowed precious Hevajra teachings.
In 1989, Acharya Lama Migmar Tseten took charge of the Sakya Retreat Center.
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Retreat Programs
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Sakya students perform graduated retreats staring with the Common Foundations retreat (meditating on the faults of Samsara, the preciousness of human life, impermanence and death, and the karma of cause and effect); Vajrapani retreat; the Uncommon Foundations retreat (100,000 refuge, prostrations, Bodhicitta, Vajrasattva, mandala offerings, and Guru yogas); and Yidam retreats.
Lama Migmar Tseten has led various group retreats. Individually, students have performed various solitary retreats, ranging in time from two days to three years.
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Expansion Project Goals
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Due to the age of the deteriorating structure and the demand for more retreat space, improvement and new construction of lodging for teachers and retreatants is imperative. The main building, which houses the shrine room, a small kitchen and bath and Lama quarters, and two small bedrooms are in great need of improvement. Our goal is to modernize and expand the Retreat Center into an accommodating environment in which to conduct regular group retreat programs, special programs conducted by visiting Sakya masters, and private individual retreats.
Our immediate needs are the reconstruction of the existing roof which has been damaged over the years by harsh weather and aging. The inside of the retreat center has been damaged due to leaks and is causing severe complications that need immediate care. A contractor has been working diligently on emergency repairs; however, funds are desperately needed to continue over the coming months.
Our future needs are the construction of dormitory space for men and woman; construction of private retreat cabins; new and larger kitchen and bath facilities, requiring septic and water systems; updating the electricity; and plumbing improvements of existing out buildings.
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Nirvana Grove
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A project in its planning stage, is a dream we hope to fulfill, with your support. Secluded deep in the forest will be a unique place of solitude and peace called Nirvana Grove. Here among the woodland paths will be Stupas, and rocks carved with Mantras, constructed according to Buddhist tradition, standing as monuments for the cremated remains of Buddhist practitioners, and creating a place for the bereaved to dedicate merit.
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To Send Donations or For More Information, Contact:
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SAKYA RETREAT CENTER
Barre, Massachusetts
Mailing Address:
Sakya Retreat Center
P.O. Box 391042
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone/Fax: (617) 492-2614
Email: sakyacenter@earthlink.net
Web: http://www.sakya.net
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“Sometimes, in the space of the sky,
there is bliss –
In the state without extremes or center,
there is bliss –
Sometimes, in the depth of the ocean,
there is bliss –
In the state without movement
or agitation,
there is bliss.
Sometimes, at the sun and the moon,
there is bliss –
In the state of clarity without obscuration,
there is bliss.
Sometimes in the middle of a river,
there is bliss –
In the state without ceasing,
there is bliss.
Sometimes, residing in retreat,
there is bliss –
In practicing in solitude,
there is bliss.”
- Excerpted from Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen’s
“Doha, Song of Experience”
Translated by Acharya Migmar Tseten
and published by Manjushri Press.
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